Developments

Well, it's been quite awhile since I last posted and that's mainly because taking care of Elijah takes all of my time, attention and energy (or at least takes 95% of it).  Right now he's napping so I'm trying to find a moment to update this blog.  He's been asleep for over an hour, though, so he could wake up at any minute.

Since my last entry, however, some different developments have occurred.  For one thing, Elijah is now making eye contact with me and smiling a lot more.  I'm not sure what he's smiling at, but it's really super cute when he does it.  I've also heard him laugh a few times.  Usually he laughs when he's falling asleep.  I'm not sure why that is, but it's the cutest sound in the world.  He also is trying SO hard to hold his own head up.  He does it pretty well when I'm holding him on my shoulder, but he can't do it anywhere else yet.  Again, I'm not sure why it's easier to hold his head up when he's on my shoulder, but apparently it is.  He's so good at it that usually I can hold him with one arm under his bottom and just have the other hand around in case he lurches one way or the other and then I have to catch him.

The biggest thing, though, is that he is starting to nurse without the breast shields.  I can't really get him to do it if he's frantic or upset or super tired, but when he's calm or only slightly fussy I can sometimes get him to latch on without the shields and eat.  The only thing is, since it's much easier to get the shields in his mouth, we are kind of having to relearn how to latch properly.  The other day he bit the end of my nipple and I yelped so loud Mike came in to see what was wrong.  I'm just glad Elijah didn't think it was funny and turn it into a game, but maybe he's not old enough yet to think like that.  Hopefully we can get the feeding without the shields down before that becomes a possibility.

So those are his developments, now onto mine.  I have bitten the bullet and gone back on Weight Watchers.  After I had Elijah I lost a bunch of weight but then the last few weeks, my weight loss just kind of stalled at a number which I will not repeat because it's just atrocious for someone as short as I am to weigh that much.

I was trying to simply lose weight on my own by counting calories but that wasn't really working for two reasons.  One, I just couldn't do much exercise.  Yesterday I had my six week postpartum appointment so now I'm finally allowed to do strenuous exercise (and *other* stuff) again.  Today was the first day in almost a year that I got on my elliptical machine (there were cobwebs growing on it--I'm not kidding).  So that should help kick up the weight loss

The other reason it wasn't working is because counting calories is confusing and takes a lot of time and I didn't really have a good system.  So even though Weight Watchers is really similar to counting calories, it gives me a system to use and I can look most foods up through them so I don't have to go searching the internet for how many calories are in something I just ate.  I can just use their system.  I signed up for four months, so surely I will have lost the weight I need to lose by then--or at least be close enough to be able to finish it off myself without their help anymore.

In other "me" news, I haven't really been successful at putting Elijah on a napping schedule.  For a couple weeks there he was doing good at taking naps at 10 and 3 but then last week it just went haywire and he refused to nap when I tried to put him down.  He would just cry and cry and would only nap in my lap again--or in this bouncy chair that Mike's mom gave us.  I was pretty much at my wits end last week.  But I read a couple of parenting books that have given me some good tips and I think the reason it wasn't working is because I was letting him get overtired and then he was so upset he couldn't fall asleep.

Instead this week so far I have been trying to take my cues from him and see when he seems tired and swaddle him and put him in his crib when it seems to be the case.  It worked fairly well yesterday, although it kind of got messed up because I had my doctor's appointment in the afternoon and I had to take him with me.  Today he napped this morning from about 9:15 to 10:00 (that's when I got to run on my elliptical machine).  Then he ate and we went for a walk with the stroller and he went back to sleep about 11:40 and is still asleep now... it's 1:22.

I'm sure he'll wake up soon and be hungry, but I got time to eat lunch and take a shower so it's not been a bad day.  I just hope he goes back down around 3:00 and sleeps until about 5:30 because Mike and I are supposed to have a date night tonight, which means we have to take him to Mike's parents' house and I want to have time to feed him really well before we go over there so he can be there for awhile.  But if there's anything being Elijah's mommy has taught me it's that I can't count on any of my plans to work out.  If they do, it's just a nice surprise.