Urgh

I know that I've been a terrible blogger lately (among other things) so here's a quick update on the last week. Let's see... I'll start with last Tuesday when Allie and I went to the Botannical Gardens with Aunt Re for the first time. I forgot the camera, so unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the blooming irises or roses. I guess that's an excuse to go back! It's actually pretty affordable, too. Only $4 per ticket, but I've batted around the idea of getting a membership for $65. It includes two adult admissions per visit, so it would pay for itself in 9 visits. We'll see... Afterwards, we did a little shopping and ended up in Brentwood. Since we were right there, I decided to pop into my old place of employment, Archetypes. I hadn't been to their new location and was quite surprised to see the owner working! At first he didn't recognize me after 4 years, but after jogging his memory a bit, we chatted for a few minutes. It was a little awkward, but I guess that was to be expected. I had a lot of good times while working there with Sarah, but that was a lifetime ago!

I have to say I honestly cannot remember what we did on Wednesday, but on Thursday Matt had the day off so we finished the veggie garden. We bought seedlings at the Sappington Farmer's Market and were able to pick up a larger variety of plants than last year. If everything turns out, we'll have two varieties of tomatoes, red and green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, yellow and zucchini squash, bush beans, and cantelope (I think our lettuce is already scorched from the heat).

Then on Friday, my mom came over and we took Allison to our favorite Greek restaurant for lunch. Afterwards, she came back to the house and we played with the baby and discussed plans for my cousin's baby shower in a couple weeks. I'm very excited to have my family over to see our home (many for the first time) and also for everyone to meet Allison! I have ambitious ideas of projects I want to complete before then, but am having a very difficult time getting motivated. So if anyone wants to get together and go fabric shopping or have a sewing play date, I'm all for it!!

Saturday we had plans to go to the Greek festival in Des Peres with Anne Marie, Morgan, and Julie, but it turned into a not so good day. I've been having more and more problems with the Crohn's lately and Saturday I had to make the difficult decision to give up breastfeeding and switch to stronger meds. I know that I'm no good to her sick, but it was still really hard to finally throw in the towel. I know that I did the best I could and the breast milk she received for the first 9 weeks was certainly beneficial even if it did come in the form of a bottle. So, I've been weaning my pumping for the last few days and my milk seems to be stopping pretty quickly. (Granted my production wasn't great to start with...) But I do have to say that I'm much more content feeding her without the stress of trying to get her to latch or the constant thought of needing to pump again.

This blog turned into a longer entry than I anticipated, so I'll end with Memorial Day! Lynn and Mike had invited a few people over for a BBQ, so Allison and I headed over to see everyone while Matt was still at work. He did join us after he got off and we ended up staying til 10pm! I was exhausted by the long day, (I had attempted to go the Gypsy Caravan that morning but cancelled due to the rain and ended up damaging two tires on my way home... whoops.) but was very excited to see everyone. Alright, I'm stopping now.

2 months!

I really can't believe it's only been 2 months, but our little baby is growing big! We went to the doctor on Monday for a check up and shots (yuk), but Allison was a champ despite already having a rough day throwing up a couple bottles. I figured she had put on at least 1 1/2lbs in the previous 3 weeks, but I was a little off. She is up to 7lbs 14oz, which is the 3rd percentile for her cronilogical age and the 30th for her adjusted gestational age. The doctor is very pleased with her development and said that she is following the growth curve very well. She has developed a flat spot on the right side of her head, so I'm trying to position her more on the left, but it's more something that she'll just grow out of.

Developmentally, she has started giving me what I think are "real" smiles although they are still hard to distinguish from gas smiles. Her visual skills are also improving as she tries to find us when she hears our voices and is also able to focus a little better. Her head control is getting really good as she can hold it up 45 degrees during tummy time and support it briefly when we are holding her on our shoulder. And I know this is a little silly, but I think it's neat that she's trying to roll over... I know that's months away, but she tries so hard to kick that little leg over! I know this is all normal for most babies, but it's really reassuring that her prematurity isn't holding her back at this point. Yeah, Allie!!


We are also still trying to breastfeed despite my frequent discouragement. On Mother's Day, Allison latched on really well, however, it was incredibly uncomfortable for me. We attended a La Leche League meeting on Wednesday and the lactation consultant was very helpful. Since then, Allison has successfully nursed about 1/3 of her feedings. It's still rather tough on me, but I don't think I'm ready to quit yet.

Monkeying Around

Wow, am I behind in blogging... So, I'll start on a last Friday with our first trip to the Zoo! I met Joe and Jenn with the kids and we had a great time seeing all the animals, riding the train, and spinning around on the carousel! Of course, Allie slept through most of it, but she definitely gets a lot of benefit from being out and about. She sleeps much better at night after a busy day and it helps her keep her days and nights straight. The exercise is good for me too. Just in the last week I went from not being able to pull up my pre-preggers khakis past my thighs, to fitting them up to my waist. (not buttoned, mind you, but still progress!)















Then on Saturday, we put on our best dresses and attended the wedding of Matt's old LSI boss, Justin to his lady, Cynthia. It was a beautiful ceremony at the Japanese Garden at the Botannical Gardens and the reception was out at the Links at Dardienne in St. Charles. We had a great time showing Allie off at the wedding and then we dropped her off at Grandma and Grandpa's for an adult's night out. It was a great reception and it was wonderful to catch up with people that Matt hadn't seen since last July.
Since some of the people in attendance were in town from KC, we made plans with one of Matt's old co-workers to head to the zoo (again). We got a lot of pleasure out of our family outing, eventhough Allison slept through the entire excursion again! We made a point to visit the giraffes and take our picture since Allison was in the giraffe pod at the NICU. I enjoyed being able to see the habitats that I missed on Friday since the boys began to melt halfway through. Afterwards, we met up with AnneMarie and Morgan for dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant, Pueblo Solis. It was a very busy weekend, but we had a great time!