Rolling along

I can't believe it's been almost 7 months that we've had Dillon in our lives, minus the time she made my uterus her residence. It's amazing that in 7 short months our lives would be changed in so many ways. How do you love something so much in such a short amount of time? I guess it's just one of those mysteries of motherhood.

Dillon is doing great. Eating, babbling (favorite word being da da), and almost crawling, oh my. Currently she has her own way of getting places which is army rolling all over the place. It's really cute and she gets really far. She always looks so proud of herself when she gets somewhere out of sight and then we find her, her face lights up. She can get on her hands and knees and lift her belly off the floor then rock (hump) back and forth. Sometimes she gets up on her tippy toes and hands, then falls back to the ground. I'm nervous that full-on crawling is right around the corner because mommies have some serious baby-proofing to do. Another one of her current obsessions is her jumperoo. She sees it and starts making jumping motions, she loves it. A bonus is that it can usually hold her attention for about 15-20 minutes, just long enough for me to pump.

As far as our breastfeeding goes, not so good lately. Dillon is just not that interested (patient) in the boob anymore. We nurse once a day in the morning but that's usually it. Other times of the day, she is just too distracted and prefers the mobility of the bottle. I'm not that sad about it, as we've had our problems from the beginning. I pump as much as I can so she can still get some breast milk, but we also have been supplementing with formula. We found a formula that Dillon loves, Baby's Only. I feel good about supplementing with it as I did a lot of research beforehand and think it's the best we can give her besides my milk. I have to say I can see why people throw in the towel early on the breastfeeding, formula is WAY easier. But I still believe that breast milk is best.

Dillon is doing great on her solids. She loves oatmeal, apples, bananas, pears, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and prunes. She is not a fan of meat (but if you saw what I made you'd probably not be a fan either) or avocados. I can't wait til she starts putting pieces in her mouth. It will be too cute.




Sitting pretty during her 6 month photo shoot. It's proving to be very difficult to get a good shot now that she is so mobile.


I just like this one. Looking like a cave baby in the morning.
-Nickie

Kids make you fat.

It's true. I'm blaming the baby for me getting fat. Even though I'm a non-bio mom, I gained about 15lb since she was born. And Nickie hadn't lost anything since walking out of the hospital in July. Is it the lack of sleep? Stress? Lack of energy? The fact the we eat anything that can go in a microwave or pick up in a drive though? Probably a combo. Regardless, Nickie and I put an end to it on New Years.

Nickie and I decided we didn't want to be fat moms. We don't want to be on the sidelines when we could be playing too. Deep down I worry that Dillon will be stigmatized for having 2 moms already. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if we were fit, attractive moms instead of lumpy, dumpy moms. We were definitely going down the lumpy, dumpy path; I wore the same fat jeans for most of the holidays and we had both transitioned to sweats by Dec 30.

We went carb-free. I've always been a Weight Watchers girl, but my mom has had great results with South Beach, so we're giving it a shot. So far, it hasn't been too bad. All the protein is filling. Meat and cheese is still allowed. There's no counting points or calories. There's a lot of sugar-free alternatives to things we like, like popsicles, fudgicles and even chocolate milk. Instead of having a carb with meals, we're just doubling up on veggies.

Don't get me wrong; Bread, pasta, rice, sweets, cereal, potatoes and fruit have been sorely missed. The cravings were bad for a few days and seeing McD's commercials are plain painful. There have been some moments that have required restraint, for sure.

I'm down 5lbs since last Saturday, so it's definitely working. Nickie's down too, but she's more patient than me and hasn't weighed herself to get a number. The first 2 weeks, South Beachers are expected to lose 8-13lbs, then a few unrefined carbs can be introduced (yay!).

Dillon has been fighting our diet. She's had some wretched nights. 2 of the 3 mornings I planned to go to the gym were squashed from Dill only letting us sleep 3-5 hours a night. We're going to read the Ferber book and we'll hopefully "Ferberize" her in the next few weeks to get her to sleep through the night. Nickie and I were warned that we'll be up for a few nights until Dillon gets in the groove, so we're working on scheduling a few marathon nights where we won't have to function during the day.

Here are a few photos from the last week. Dillon and I are doing a swimming class together. She LOVES water. She did a great job!

Nickie tried out our new (used) backpack after it snowed. Dillon seemed to like it (much more than her face portrays). We found another enjoyable activity! And, I just like the last photo. =)

-Ros

Happy New Year!

We just wanted to say Happy Holiday and Happy New Year! From, Ros, Nickie and Dillon