THE GREEN(wald) HOUSE … (growing rosemary & raising a little wolf)

Every morning I wake up in pain - my shoulders, my hips - and my lower back - I LOVE snuggling up next to a warm baby in bed - and we both get pretty good uninterrupted sleep and don’t have to get up to nurse in the middle of the night - but I seriously don’t know how much longer I can sleep with my body all contorted so as to not disturb little Rosie’s sleep when it means I wake up in the morning and feel like I got run over by a truck! ugh! If I try to put her in the co-sleeper attached to the bed - she wakes up in 1/2 hour at the most - but when she is next to me - she sleeps great - I guess this is just one of the many sacrifices of being a mom…Thank god for chiropractors - I am asking for a massage for x-mas!

Rosie was fussy all morning and wouldn’t really nurse or nap (I had to take her to work with me and she didn’t like it at all) - then as soon as we got in the car to go home she fell asleep and I couldn’t bear to wake her up when we got home so she has been sleeping in her car seat in the living room next to me for the last 2 hours!

I still haven’t decided what I want to do as far as vaccinatioins are concerned - It is all so confusing, and I’m not saying we will or won’t vax. It seems like there’s info that supports doing it and also info that supports not doing it, and I’m terrified of making a bad decision (either way), and it makes my head hurt to think about it, so I’m just burying my head in the sand. At this moment, I just can’t do it. I know that it doesn’t guarantee immunity from those diseases and pretty much the only guarantee is if she does get the vax - it will hurt and make her cry (not to mention the several other more serious side effects that are possible)… I am kind of thinking we will eventually agree to do a couple shots on a very delayed schedule - but for right now - no decisions have been made…

We planted a tree in the front yard and buried rosie’s placenta at the base of the tree to celebrate her 4 month birthday (my sister said the neighbor was gonna call the cops on us for burying some bloody body parts in our yard)…lol

I think rosie is reverse cycling - it seems like she is too interested in everything during the day - she barely nurses for 5-10 min at the most and then is straining her neck trying to sit up and won’t nurse again for another 3 hours or so - but at night she is defintely waking more to nurse and is nursing for longer 20-30 min or so with each feeding…thank god for co-sleeping…

Rosie has still been really fussy and now she needs to be CONSTANTLY entertained! She can be in the middle of a screaming & crying fit and if I start to sing to her and move her arms & legs (baby yoga) she suddenly stops and smiles and laughs - when I stop - the crying starts again… I have been cheating and putting her in the exersaucer or jumparoo to get some free time - I hate relying on plastic to keep my child happy -but she really loves it and can entertain herself for almost an hour before she gets tired of it - so I figure it is ok…

We had a huge meltdown in the car the other day - we got stuck in 5pm/construction traffic and when I couldn’t pull off the road to nurse my girl - it ended up with 30 min of torturous screams and we were both in tears! By the time we got home, we were both still crying and exhausted and I had to have a glass of wine and a nice long bath to feel better! I think it was the absolute worst I have ever felt in my life… All is better now and I will just remember to not go anywhere I might get stuck in rush hour traffic…

Lately she has been waking at around 6am and will nurse and then flail her arms and legs for an hour while staring at the ceiling fan and talking to it - we co-sleep - but we recently attached our mini co-sleeper to the side of the bed - she doesn’t sleep in it well at night (wakes up after about 1/2 hour to an hour after I put her in it)-but it has worked for me to transfer her to the co-sleeper for her to kick and flail all she wants and then when she starts to fuss - I bring her back into the big bed with me and we can sleep comfortably and I avoid getting beat up!

I want to get rosie some wooden teethers - we got some plastic teethers as gifts -but they smell funny and I don’t want them in her mouth - the one thing that makes me think she is teething is mostly that she bites on my finger HARD and chews on her hands a lot - I had been giving her Hylands’ teething tablets - but now I am not sure because my Dr. said the belladonna in them is not good - and all it really does is stop the drooling - not the pain. So I am thinking of getting the camilla or some baby oragel instead…

I am going to try to make it to baby yoga tomorrow - depending on how we are doing in the morning…

I have been trying to get Rosie into a nighttime routine a little earlier - but if she goes to bed at 8:30p- she is up and wide awake at 5:30a (plus one or 2 short night nursings) and wants to play and won’t go back to sleep for at least an hour - so it seems to make more sense for her to be more on my schedule and stay up a little later so she will sleep later - I have to read more of the NCSS to figure out what to do - I just havent had any reading time lately.

Rosie was doing the cutest thing earlier - she was lying next to me on the couch (feet towards me) looking up and cooing at the ceiling fan while I was on my laptop and she started to kick me with a little more purpose than how she usually moves her legs - when I looked at her and said “hi” she totally stopped kicking and laughed and when I looked away from her - she kicked me again and then stopped and laughed when I looked at her - we repeated this little game about 10 times before she got tired of it - but it was the first time we really interacted and played with purpose and intention. It was so cool! She is getting so big!

I thought Rosie was getting past her gassiness and fussiness - but it has been really bad for the last few days - so I am cutting dairy and chocolate out of my diet (I have been seriously OD’ing on halloween candy and ice cream lately) - I hope this helps and I don’t have to eliminate lots more from my diet! It will also help to get my weight back on track - I still haven’t lost anything since about 2 weeks post partum!

Rosie totally LOVES tummy time, but we usually prop her up on the boppy a little bit - instead of lying flat on the floor - this way she can see things better and I put a toy in front of her and she can amuse herself for up to an hour before she gets fussy.

Joe and I had our first date night last night - we left Rosie with him mom and sister for 2 hours to go see a movie - it was really hard to leave her at first - and I kept my cell on vibrate and gave instructions to call if she was crying and unconsolable - I only checked my phone twice during the movie and all went well. But still, I don’t feel right being without my girl.

We saw the Dr. yesterday too and Rosie is growing and developing perfectly - not that we thought otherwise - but it is always nice to get validation!
She is 15 lbs, 2 oz - 24 3/4 in - 75% for weight and 50% for height. We are still avoiding the vax issue - which is fine with me - when the Dr asked whether we were doing shots or not - we kind of looked at each other and said we still hadn’t really decided yet - Dr. was cool with it - and said pertussis is the only disease he is concerned with and would recommend vaxing for - but chances are still really minute that she will get it. I am so glad we found a Dr. that is mellow on the vax issue!

Rosie has now rolled over from tummy to back - but not the other way - and she loves to sit up in the tripod position too! She is also laughing full long laughs now - instead of the single chuckles she was doing before.

She is just now really figuring out her hands - she stares at them and grabs one hand with the other and wildly swings her arms and tries to put her fingers in her mouth and ends up hitting herself in the face several times before she gets it… It is so cute to see her learning new skills - she hasn’t really mastered grabbing toys yet - but I can tell she wants to! I think that this is where a lot of her fussiness is coming from now - along with the teething I think she gets frustrated when she cant get her hands and arms to work the way she wants them to!

She is very interested in everything - which leads to distractions during bf - she sometimes pulls my nipple with her when she tries to look - ouch!

We are taking Rosie to see the Dr. tomorrow - Joe has to go anyway cuz he has this weird rash on his neck (sorry - TMI) - so we figured might as well get our girl weighed and just make sure she is doing ok - Joe thinks something might be wrong because she has been really fussy - but I think it’s just normal fussiness and I don’t want to be one of those moms who runs to the Dr. everytime the baby sneezes! Plus - I know we will have to have another vax discussion (I was trying to avoid and ignore the issue) and I still don’t feel comfortable giving her any shots - at least not till 6 months! Dr. is cool with delaying - but Joe thinks we should get the DTaP now….I hope I can talk him into postponing longer…

oh - does it bother anyone else when people refer to nursing as “feeding” - as in “is the baby feeding?” - I always say “she is not feeding - she is nursing” or “she is eating”- feeding just makes it sound like dd is an animal at the zoo - “feeding time” - sorry - just a pet peeve of mine…
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The new Nov/Dec issue - page 55 - that’s a photo of us just minutes after rosie was born!

We hired a great photographer to do belly photos and come to the birth and she submitted a few photos to Mothering and - voila - there we are!

Rosie was a very cute Blinky (three eyed fish from the Simpsons) last night and we had fun trick-or-treating with Joe’s family. (we were Itchy & Scratchy)

We also had a great trip to Florida last week to visit my family - flights went Ok - she was a little fussy - but nothing major…She finally got to meet her Great Grandparents!

She is really starting to get her teeth now and she is constantly drooling and chewing on her hands and fussing and I can tell she is really in pain - can you OD on hylands?