Plus, I would prefer to leave her with a sitter sometimes while I am working… Anything to keep her indoors and cool as opposed to the 80 degree temps and 50% humidity that I am working in while teaching a colorguard. I am worried about her getting dehydrated, overheated, sunburned and bug bitten.

Anyway, we’ve been working at getting her to take pumped milk from a bottle now that breastfeeding is well established and risk for “nipple confusion” has passed. We’ve read books, stocked up on different nipple/ bottle types and I have pumped breast milk.

N tries to give her the bottle when I am still asleep in the mornings. He takes her in a different room or even outside so she’s away from me and my scent. Everyone says that she’ll be more likely to refuse the bottle or pacifier if she knows the real thing is near.

He would love to be a part of the feeding process and has been eager to begin bottle feeding her. Unfortunately she screams bloody murder like he is torturing her each time her tries to offer the bottle to her.

He’s tried the walking around with her in the facing out position like The Nursing Mother’s Companionsays to, she still wont take the bottle. We also read The Complete Book of Breastfeedingfor advice.

We have both tried our hand at the cradle hold and a few other positions, different nipples, feeding at different times etc. We have both tried everything we can think of to ease her in to bottle feeding. We are even offering her a pacifier to get her used to the artificial feel.

We have the Adiri Natural Nurser Bottle,a Gerber Nuk Bottleand the bottles that came in the Medela Breast Pump Accessory Set. We have a Nuk, a Soothie and an Aventpacifier that she’s also refusing.

She simply will not have any part of bottle feeding or pacifiers! She only wants the real thing, which is a nice compliment but at the same time I am worried I’ll never be able to leave her side till she’s weaned of breastfeeding.

I welcome any advice or tips you might have to help get her to take an occasional bottle of pumped milk every now and then.

The post She only wants boob! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

The crazy thing about childbearing is that after birth they really just hand the baby over to you to figure it all out on your own!

It’s crazy to think about how little guidance first time parents get before taking baby home and how scary that really is. I was in labor for about 18 hours and then voila I am responsible for another living, breathing being and on my way home 4 days later.

I still think it all hasn’t fully sunk in for me. Sure the love and attentiveness is there but the gravity of the fact that we are now parents to our daughter, not so much. It is hard to explain really. It’s overwhelming, exciting, lonely, scary and fun all at the same time.

I am overly emotional these days. Talked to my mom and brother on the phone yesterday and cried like very 5 minutes for no reason (other than that I am tired and at a loss). I am still kind of sore and healing still.

We’ve been trying to get out and to continue our regular routines with Everly in tow. Today we grocery shopped and visited my chiropractor.

Unfortunately, Everly is still fussy and it’s hard for us to not have a way to ease her discomfort. I chatted with my chiropractor/ nutritionist today about her troubles and he had some good solutions for us to try.

We are also still in touch with our midwife from The Farm and will be heading back for Everly’s 6 week check up in the beginning of August.

I’ve also been informed of a local breast feeding support group that has weekly meetings in our area, I plan to attend the next meeting.

Basically we have many good info resources and are just learning as we go, which is how everyone does it. It’s just a trying, exhausting and scary process along the way.

The post Reflections on parenthood, 16 days postpartum. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

So, we figured since Tater’s room is down stairs from our bedroom and since she’ll be so small… having an alternative sleeping area for her up in our room, for the first 6 months or so would be smart. Now, we’ve started thinking that a play yard (aka. a pack n’ play) is a good way to go.

Problem is I am having trouble making sense of all the subtle little differences in the models. Like, does a vibrating option really make a difference? How important is storage space on those things? Did you find the changing table part useful or a waste?

For us the changing area is important because we’ll want to use the play yard for both baby sleeping space, plus as a changing area until we are able to get a crib and a real changing table. The play yard will be our “all in one” sleeper, changer and play area until we can get the other stuff.

I found this one I like, the Graco Moderne Pack ‘n Play Playard with Bassinet & Changer in Zurich. I like it because of the added storage space on the side of the changing table, plus the changing area seems sturdy and it also pivots to allow easier access to the inside of the play yard.

The one thing the Graco Moderne model doesn’t have is one of those removable bassinets like the Graco Pack ‘n Play Playard with Newborn Napper in Broadstreet. The ones with the bassinet (aka. the newborn napper) seem to have less storage space and the changing area looks like it is not adjustable.

All of the play yards seem to have wheels on one side and are easily collapsible. Some have shade covers, mobiles, dangling toys, music players, vibrators and so on. So, which features really mattered to you?

Bring on the assvice, lol. I am sitting here in the new place scratching my head here wondering what is and isn’t really important…

See, here is my little work area in the corner of the new house:

Today my job is to unpack as much stuff as possible so that we have less boxes to manuver around come this weekend when all our furnature will be moved in. Yep, you read that right! We’ll be all move in to the new place this weekend. Can’t wait!

The post Assvice: Lets talk baby play yards for a second… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

So I grabbed my robe and ventured down to the damp, cold and moldy basement to fill food dishes when the most disgusting smell hit me. It was a cross between mildew, wetness and feces. When I fed the cats I spotted a piss covered litter box with poo filling it, figured that was the source of the smell. Oh and there was cat vomit, we are talking huge piles of just chewed food stuck to the tile everywhere! One of our cats has been purging it seems.

I am banned from cat box duty (since becoming knocked up) and have been avoiding the basement like the plague now that N is taking over scooping and feeding duty with the animals so needless to say I am grossed out by all the animal mess. I haven’t seen it in 4 months. I know he’s been real busy and the animals literally make a new gross mess for us like twice a day so I know he’s not slacking off that bad… The sight (and smell) of it all just pisses me of though.

Then I notice the dog was not closed in for the night, she is crate trained and is put in her “home” whenever we are leaving the house or asleep. Basically whenever we can’t directly supervise her and she can’t be outdoors she’s in her “home”. It keeps her behaved and keeps the floors accident free. You see, she will poo and pee inside if unsupervised and confined to her home.

So, since she was out I realize she’s squeezed poop out all over the floor. It was like she started in one area and when the poo started to come she just walked around trying to get it in as many places as possible. Poop pieces were everywhere and she peed too! Just a nice eff you from her to us in the form of feces and piss. I was super mad but just closed her in her home and headed back up to bed. It could be dealt with in the morning right?

Wrong! After about 30 minutes of laying in bed thinking my blood pressure was sky high, I was wide awake and was super pissed about all the piss, vomit and shit mess that was sitting undealt with downstairs. My mind immediately went to thinking about how the heck we’ll be able to raise a child in addition to all the other stuff we need to do each day. It was my first “there is no way we can do it, we can’t even take care of all we are already responsible for, we are so totally screwed, there is not enough time in the day or money in the bank” freak out time. Welcome to parenthood huh?

I mopped the soiled floors, dealt with the poo and was loosing my mind at 2 am. I had to clean the place and get everything back in order before I would be able to try going back to sleep. N woke up and came down to help me… At 4 am (3 hours before he had to be back awake and taking the car to have the breaks fixed) we were able to lay back down and try to sleep. Great start to the day huh?

Oh and our home is being invaded by critters! We’ve still got fruit flies everywhere in this house. I read somewhere that in humid climates they can live in the drains and pipes. We’ve tried everything to get rid of them. Produce is not left out, sirty dishes and food are dealt with immediately so they have nothing to feed from and yet the are still in our house swarming us.

Also, I am pretty sure some birds have found their way in to the attic of this house since I can hear all kinds of stuff happening up there. N thinks they are entering somewhere near the front door… So we have flies in the house, birds in the attic and fungi growing in the basement.

He said he would try to find the place where they birds are entering the house and screen it off this weekend. You know the 2 days we have every week to get our own shit done and try to relax? I told him hell no! Tell the landlords to fix their own shitty ass house, it is not our investment or problem!

See how great my disposition is? Happy, crappy Friday the 13th!

So now I have a question for all you parents. How the hell do you and your spouse keep all the duties straight, get it all done and keep your sanity?

I mean N normally does animal feeding, caging and cleaning duties now so I assume they are taken care of but when he is too tired, lazy or whatever and they don’t get done how they hell am I supposed to know to pick up the slack (especially when he doesn’t tell me to)?

Moms, do you just run around double checking your husbands work all the time or do you trust that when he’s supposed to do something it gets done? Do you use chore charts or what? How they hell do you keep it all straight and ensure nothing slips through the cracks? WTF?

The post Happy, crappy Friday the 13th! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.