Happy Birthday to Aunt Blanca!

Happy birthday Aunt Blanca!

Abuelita and Aunt Cathy Visit

My mom and my sister Cathy stopped by to visit. Mila had so much fun with her Abuelita and her Aunt!

Mila's Growing Feet

This week at our Mommy & Me class, our teacher, Miss Laurie stamped Mila's foot on a pretty paper. Now we get to compare how much her feet have grown since she was born! Here's her foot on the day it was born and one from today. How it's grown!

"You Are My I Love You"

I was reading another mommy blog, and she quoted this from the book: "You Are My I Love You" by Maryann Cusimano I couldn't help but tear up! This is the closest I can imagine to describe what motherhood is like... I love my Mila so much!

I am your parent you are my child

I am your quiet place, you are my wild

I am your calm face, you are my giggle

I am your wait, you are my wiggle

I am your audience, you are my clown

I am your London Bridge, you are my falling down

I am your carrot sticks, you are my licorice

I am your dandelion, you are my first wish

I am your water wings, you are my deep

I am your open arms, you are my running leap

I am your way home, you are my new path

I am your dry towel, you are my wet bath

I am your dinner you are my chocolate cake

I am your bedtime, you are my wide awake

I am your finish line, you are my race

I am your praying hands, you are my saving grace

I am your favorite book, you are my new lines

I am your nightlight, you are my sunshine

I am your lullaby, you are my peek-a-boo

I am your kiss goodnight, you are my I love you

 

Baby This Week: 22 Weeks Old

Your baby will soon master the art of sitting unsupported. Give your baby the opportunity to sit up in different places around the house -- sitting helps develop and maintain balance, a key part of physical development. What's more, the new perspective helps your baby's cognitive development.
Your baby can't express her emotions in the same complex way you can. Although she can clearly let you know when she's happy or unhappy, her ability to demonstrate her love and sense of humor is just developing.

As your baby gets older, she may start to cry when you leave the room and get excited when you come back in. She may also raise her arms when she wants to be picked up and give you pats on the back.

Your baby now realizes where sounds come from, and she'll turn quickly toward a new one. One of the easiest ways to engage her is to jingle a set of keys. Wind chimes are great attention-getters, too.

Your baby may now be able to recognize her own name and understand that you're speaking to her when you say it. You may notice that your little one turns her head when you call her or talk about her with others.

If you want to engage and entertain your baby, all you need to do is talk to her. At this age, babies don't learn language from the television or radio, so turn them off and use real dialogue instead.

Your baby can't express her emotions in the same complex way that you can. Although he can let you know in clear ways when she's angry, bored, or happy, her ability to show love and humor are just developing.

And she's beginning to get the joke — she'll laugh at funny expressions and try to make you laugh, too. Keep the laughter flowing with your silly faces!

-BabyCenter.com

High School Graduation

My goddaughter Cristina graduated from high school today and Jorge and I took Mila to the ceremony. We had a great time! Mila was so good too. She was so curious as to what was going on. I thought she might get fussy, but she was wonderful. She sat on my lap and played with her toys and glanced out at the stage every once in a while.

As I heard the speeches talking about what these graduates have accomplished and the lives they have ahead of them, I was amazed how where before I would have found myself relating to the graduating person and remembering how it was for me, now I couldn't help but look at it from a mom perspective and think of Mila and how one day she'll be up there getting her diploma! Maybe it was the moving speeches or maybe it's my crazy hormones, but I teared up more than once! I know she's just five months, but I feel like I got a glimpse of what I'll be seeing 18 years from now! Sniff!

Congratulations to Cristina! We are so proud of you!

Visiting Daddy at Work

A couple of days ago we went to visit Jorge at work. We'd been to his office a couple of times before, but he hadn't shown her around the office. Today he went around introducing her. He was so sweet how he paraded her around the office. What a proud papa!

Look at how cute she looks in her little outfit! So adorable!!

Mila is 5 Months!

Dear Mila,

This month has been such a blur. I can't believe you're on the cusp of being half a year old already!

This month has brought so many new and amazing developments. You talk a lot more now -- you "ahhhh" and "oohhhhh" all the time. Especially when you're falling asleep. It's so funny to watch, and even funnier to listen to you. Sometimes you get really loud too! You want to make yourself heard! You smile so much more now and have even giggled a couple of times. Your laugh is the sweetest laugh we've ever heard! Your daddy and I melt whenever we hear it and we do all sorts of crazy antics to try to get you to do it again.

This month is also one filled with mixed emotions. You're so smart and aware; I love seeing how much you've grown, but you're almost 6 months old and that just blows my mind! How can it be that you've gotten so big? This month is also the last month you'll be exclusively breastfed. Next month, we start introducing solids, which I'm so excited about! I can't wait to see your expressions as you discover new foods. But I'm also kinda sad that I won't be your sole provider of food anymore. I remember when you were born and you started breastfeeding and how hard it was... I couldn't wait until it was over!! Now I look back and I know this is the beginning of the end of our nursing and our special bonding time. I hope to breastfeed until you're at least a year old, but I know every month it will be less and less as you eat more solids. I'll miss it. I know it'll be fun for you though... you already stare ate Mommy and Daddy when we eat and you seem fascinated with what we're doing. You look at the food we're eating and you watch us put it in our mouth and you really focus on us while we chew. You're so inquisitive!

For now though, you have so much fun while you nurse. You've taken to grabbing your foot and kicking whenever you're eating. It's so funny! Well, except when you kick mommy on the nose! You love your feet and especially your toes. I'll never understand how it is that you can't find your thumb, yet you can find your big toe to suck on. It cracks me up!

Another new and exciting, and somewhat challenging, milestone is that you're teething! You drool alllll the time - you easily go through three bibs a day. We can see that your gums are really swollen and I just know a tooth is going to pop through there any day now. We've given you a few teething toys for you to chew on, although these days, everything is a chew toy because you want to put everything in your mouth!

You're also sitting up so well! Now it's only with a bit of support from one hand while you play with something in the other. But if you let go, you topple off to the side. Oopsy daisy! So funny. You've also mastered the art of holding a toy in one hand, and then transfering it to the other -- while you're sitting in your Bumbo, of course. You're so smart!!

When you were three months old you rolled over from your tummy to your back, but you didn't do it too many more times after that. I think it might have startled you and you didn't want to do it anymore. But you've become a pro at turning from your back to your tummy! However, you seem to get stuck in that position and when your arms get tired and you want to change positions, you seem to get stuck and cry for help. We help you turn over when you get really frustrated, but hopefully you learn to turn over both ways on your own soon. I can't imagine we'll be there to turn you over when you're in college, young lady! :)

Your favorite place to be is by far in Mommy and Daddy's arms. You love being held. And we love holding you too! Your so sweet to cuddle with. Your second favorite place to be is your ExerSaucer. Oh boy, do you love that thing. You put everything in your mouth -- we've even had to add a few more toys that you can reach so you can gnaw on them!

Your least favorite place to be is in the car. You hate it! Mommy has to make sure you've taken a good nap and you've eaten right before taking you out. If not, all hell breaks loose! Especially when you're back there all by yourself. You cry and scream and it really breaks my heart! I try to console you and sing to you, talk to you, play music... nothing seemed to work. The other day I was sitting back there with you while Daddy was driving, and you started "ahhhhhh"-ing and I could tell you were about to cry. So I started copying everything you did... and it stopped the crying before it really started. You even fell asleep in the car - which is rare! I started copying the noise you were making and I turned it into this: "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..ehhhhhhhhhhh..eeeeeeeeeeee..ohhhhhhhhhhh... uuuuuuuuuuuuuu." It almost sounded like I was chanting the vowel sounds, haha! But it worked! And I've tried it a couple more times and it seems to work pretty well! I hope you start taking to the car... it's not something we can avoid, you know. We have places to go, people to see!

Your nighttime sleeping had gotten a bit crazy this month, but now it's starting to get better. Definitely seems like it was a case of the "four month wakeful." But now it's the end of the month and so much better. You're sleeping well in your crib and Mommy and Daddy have just moved out of your room. You're such a big girl! Even your daytime naps, which have always been a struggle, are getting better and better. I used to have to put you in the Ergo Baby Carrier for every nap, and now I've even  been able to put you down into the crib for a nap or two during the day! It's great, Mommy can finally get a few things done around the house -- maybe even catch up on my blog! You usually only nap for 30 minutes to an hour in there, but at least it's progress!

You are definitely becoming more aware of what's going on around you as well. If I walk away from you and you don't see me, you start to cry. Could it be that you miss me? Awww.... I miss you too munchkin'! I think that might also be the issue in the car and that might be a contributing reason that you cry. I'm thinking of sticking a picture of your Daddy and me back there so you can see us, haha. I wonder if that would work?

You also seem to recognize your name. You turn your head when I call you, but it could just be that your turning your head because you hear a sound. I'm not sure. We'll have to keep practicing.

During playtime, Daddy loves to dance with you. I know he really treasures that time with you. He'll put on the radio and you two will just dance the night away! It's so sweet.

He also plays with you and your toys, like your spinning wheel that I like to call "The Wheel of Fortune," all though it looks nothing like the popular gameshow. It spins and sings the alphabet. You not too interested in the educational aspect of it, you much more prefer it's flavor, haha!

Mommy likes to read you fairy tales in Spanish from the book your Aunt Cindy got for you. I'm really making a concious effort to read and speak to you in Spanish so you'll learn, but it's so hard because I always talk to Daddy in English. It's hard to make the transition. Mommy and Daddy are going to try harder. I know you'll be talking before we know it!!

Your Abuelito now comes over once a week to visit. We go for a walk around the neighborhood to get a bit of exercise, but you'll have none of it! You hate those walks... you insist on being picked up and as soon as I do, you're fine. It's summer and I think it's just too hot out. We would love to get out earlier to beat the heat, but you always take your nap by the time we want to get out. We're going to have to figure out how we're going to get some exercise. It's hard to walk outside with you in my arms all sweaty and trying to juggle an umbrella at the same time so you're not in the sun! Although Mommy does get quite a workout, I'll tell you that!!

You love getting out of the house and last weekend, your daddy and I took you to the beach for the first time. You loved it! You looked so stylish too, with your new sunglasses! It was the best weekend with you so far... we love taking you to new places and watch you experience new things. It's almost as if we're rediscovering them with you. You make everything so interesting... from just feeling the wind in your hair, to seeing your shadow, to feeling something cold to the touch. What will we discover next? I can't wait.

I love you my chunky little monkey!

Your Mommy


5 Month Status Update:

16 lbs. 3 oz.
25 inches

We've Moved Out... :(

As I mentioned in my previous post from May 10th, "Mila Moved Out" Mila has moved from her bassinet in our room, into her crib in her room next door. Her room used to be our guest room/office so we had a queen sized bed in there, so Jorge and I decided to move to her room with her. It's been a little over 3 weeks since the move, and ever since we've been talking about when we should move out. I really don't want to move out and neither does Jorge, but we know we should. And soon. She's already 5 months old and I've read that by 6 months old, babies are much more aware of their surroundings, and I would hate for her to start realizing that we're right next to her ever night, and then when we move out, she'll cry because she realizes we're not there anymore. Ugh. And as hard as it is for us to move out and leave her alone, (she's been sleeping within eye distance since she was born!!) we keep telling ourselves, "Better us than her." We'd rather just deal with the move now rather than her deal with the move later.

Anyway, we'd been talking about it, but hadn't decided when we were going to do it, and last night Jorge threw me for a loop when he suggested that we should just sleep in the other room. I immediately burst into tears -- I was so not ready to move out!! But he was right... if we gave it too much thought and set a date to move out, I know I'd be so anxious about it and it would just keep being postponed. It's better we just do it cold turkey. So I reluctantly agreed.

"So who gets the monitor tonight?" he asked.

That was the other issue we kept debating. Should we get another monitor so we can both check on her during the night? If I woke up and it was on his nightstand, I'd have to get up to go check, and vice versa. We have a video monitor that we can just click on to see if she's ok, and when the video is off, the audio stays on. It's so easy just to take a quick look when we hear her stir. Neither one of us wanted to sleep without the monitor... so we compromised... we slept with the monitor in our bed, right between our pillows. I cuddled up next to it and to her little toy, Frenchie that she had left on our bed when we'd played with her before bedtime. His hair was all wet from her drool. I could still smell her on it.

I still cried about her being so far away, but it helped me feel better to know I could still see her, hear her and even smell her... I miss my little girl.

Mila is Famous!

Our wonderful doula, Lorie, from Amazing Births is redesigning her company's website and she's requested to use some of Mila's pictures for the site. How exciting!!! She even used one of my baby bump! How cool is that??!

Check it out: we're featured on 3 webpages: the Appointments Page, the Hypnobirthing Page, and the Chiropractic Page.








Just had to throw out there that these beautiful pictures were taken by Karyn Carbone of In Bloom Photography. She did a fantastic job!

Infant Massage

I'd heard about infant massage a while ago and it's been in my head to look into it, but I hadn't gotten around to it. Then at our Mommy Group one of the girls brought in a bunch of her baby items she no longer needed and was giving away. One of them was this book, called "Infant Massage: A Handbook for Loving Parents" by Vimala Schneider McClure. So over the next few days that followed, I read the book while I nursed Mila. So interesting! It's an older book and the pictures are a bit dated, but the content was really very good. It talks about how important massage is for baby and how it's a great way to bond with them. It's stimulating and provides time to spend with baby where you can have lots of eye contact. Imagine how good it feels to get a massage as an adult, how great must it feel for a baby? I started doing it from the first day I read about it! It gives you a step by step, illustrated guide on how to massage baby. A great read.

Mila's Birth Announcement

I finally sent out Mila's birth announcements this week. Talk about being late! She's almost 5 months already! Here's how they came out:

Update on Aspirator Part II

So when I last wrote about the Graco Aspirator I told you how Mila stopped liking it. Well, just like my wise friend Karina said, she's taken to it again! Since she had started complaining whenever I used it on her, I started letting her watch a couple of minutes of television to distract her while I sucked the boogies out. Totally worked and she didn't even seem to notice. Then I realized that she wouldn't complain if I sucked them out even when the tv wasn't on, so it's working great! So happy!!

Mila's First Time at the Beach!

Today we took Mila to the beach for the first time! We stopped by for a little bit in the late afternoon and it was perfect! The clouds settled in and the sun wasn't so hot. We dipped her feet in it and let the waves come in. She loved it!! We had so much fun!

She was styling the new sunglasses we got her last weekend... doesn't she look awesome?

Breastmilk and Breastfeeding

o after my post about donating breast milk, and telling you about that amazing article on Oprah.com about the woman who donated 7,260 ounces of milk -- (which if you still haven't read it, stop right now and go read it!) -- I thought I'd quote some breastfeeding statistics that were mentioned in the article that I thought were interesting.

• Though about 74 percent of American mothers start off breastfeeding, only about 12 percent are still nursing exclusively by the time their child is six months old, despite position statements from every major pediatric, family health, and public health organization that babies do best if they're fed only breast milk for six months and continue to nurse until at least their first birthday. The World Health Organization and the America Association of Pediatrics even recommend a woman to breastfeed until the age of two.

• Human milk for human babies—that's how lactation experts sum it up. Although babies can and do thrive on formula, most formula is derived from cow's milk, and then—to make it resemble the composition of human milk—augmented with corn syrup, sugar, vitamins, minerals, and vegetable oils. But no amount of laboratory tinkering has yielded a way to infuse formula with the unique and potent cocktail of hormones, human growth factors, digestive enzymes, and antibodies that human milk conveys.

• Because breast milk is composed of white blood cells that fight infection and stimulate the immune system, babies who receive human milk gain extra protection against illnesses such as pneumonia and staph infections. Premature babies in particular, prone as they are to infection, benefit from breast milk's immunological properties. Breastfed babies have fewer ear and respiratory tract infections, and less diarrhea. Studies indicate that they're less likely to get certain childhood cancers. They have a lower risk of developing diabetes, allergies, and possibly heart disease later in life. Some research even suggests that they can wind up with higher IQs.

• When it works, human lactation is as automatic and easy as breathing, yet it's a finely calibrated physiological feat. The milk that a new mother produces in the first days after giving birth—a thick, protein-packed substance called colostrum—is typically present from about the fourth month of pregnancy. About three days after delivery, colostrum transitions to mature milk, which is higher in water, lactose, and fat content. And over the course of every subsequent feeding, that milk will transform itself again and again: At the start of each meal, it will be thin and watery; by the end, it will be rich and creamy. One more neat trick: As soon as the milk glands empty, the body gets to work refilling them. Demand creates supply. When you nurse, the warmth of the baby tucked against you, skin to skin, stimulates the release of the feel-good hormone oxytocin, which helps trigger milk flow.

The human body is one amazing thing. :)  (And no, that's not a picture of Mila! I wish I could get her in a pose like that, LOL!!)

Donating Breast Milk

So a couple of months ago, my friend Karina mentioned in passing that she had donated breast milk to Haiti. I had never heard of donating breast milk, but apparently you can. Such a beautiful thing to do! Ever since then, it's been in my head that I would like to donate some breast milk as well, especially since I have 77 ounces stored in my freezer from when I was pumping like crazy when I thought I was going to go back to work. Now that I won't be using all that milk, I had been wondering what to do with it and throwing it away was not an option -- it took hard work to make and pump all that milk!!!

The other day, I was googling to find out how I can donate, and I came across this article on Oprah.com about a woman and her story about how she came to donate a whopping 7,260 ounces of milk. This was the most inspiring story of courage, strength and love I had ever read... you MUST read it... tearjerker! Incredibly amazing. I guarantee you'll be moved.

After reading her story I was more inspired than ever to donate milk. There are so many families that can benefit from it! Premature or sick babies and children, whose mothers are not able to produce their own milk, many times due to illness, medication, adoption or foster care need donated breast milk. Such a beautiful thing it is to nurse your baby and know that you're giving your baby the best! Even though Mila and I had a rough time starting to breastfeed, I was determined. It was so important to me to give her breast milk. I can't imagine how hard it is for families that want to breastfeed and for some reason can't or aren't able to. Especially for those babies that are born premature or sick, breast milk is what they need the most!!!

We are so blessed that Mila was born healthy and that I had no complications during my pregnancy. My heart goes out to other families that have had to struggle and if I can help by donating some milk, then that's what I'll do. I encourage you lactating moms to consider it! :)

Here's the link to the Human Milk Banking Association of North America. All you have to do is contact the closest location to you. Even if there isn't a milk bank in your city or state, many of the milk banks will still screen and accept you as a donor. The milk bank will cover the cost of the blood screening test and the cost of shipping the milk. There is a minimum of donating at least 100 ounces of milk (although each milk bank has different minimums), so I'll have to pump at least an extra 23 ounces. And although I hate pumping, I figure I'll do a little here and a little there and I'll reach the 100 ounces in no time. Totally worth it.

How does a Milk Bank work? According to their website: 

Donor milk banks receive milk from lactating mothers who have been carefully screened for health behaviors and communicable diseases, similarly to the way blood banks screen donors. Additionally, milk bank donors must: be non-smokers, not regularly consume any medication (including mega-vitamins), and not consume excluded medications or alcohol within the specified exclusion period.


Milk is transported to the milk bank frozen. The milk from several donors is pooled after thawing, and then heat-treated to kill any bacteria or viruses. The milk is processed and then refrozen. It is only dispensed after a sample is cultured and shows no bacteria growth. Milk is shipped frozen by overnight express to hospitals and to individual recipients at home.


The milk is dispensed by physician prescription or by hospital purchase order only. There is a processing fee charged to cover the expense of collecting, pasteurizing and dispensing the milk.

It is a beautiful thing. Truly is.

Mila Recommends: SoundSpa Lullaby Sound Machine

I almost forgot to tell you about Mila's new sound machine that helped during that 8-hour stretch the other day! She has yet to do it again, but ever since we put in the blanket under her crib sheet and started using the sound machine, she's gotten so much better!

So I'd been reading that sound machines are great for babies. That it helps lull them to sleep and helps them stay asleep. You can get one that has different sounds, things like rain, ocean, stream or rainforest. Mila was originally sleeping in her Pack N' Play since she was born and that had a little sound machine on it.  Since she's moved to her crib now we moved the detachable sound machine with it, but the timer would only keep it on for 15 minutes or so. We were always running to reset it so it would play longer. Such a pain! And then, we'd fall asleep and it would eventually turn off so if she woke up in the middle of the night, there would be nothing for her to help her fall back asleep and she'd wake up. So we finally looked into getting a sound machine and found this little gem. It's the Homedics SoundSpa Lullaby Sound Machine with Picture Projection. It's fantastic. You can turn it on and it will stay on all night (has AC adaptor) or you can set it to have a timer for 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes. We just keep it on all night though. It has different sounds: Rain, Ocean, Heartbeat, Twinkle Twinkle, Rock-A-Bye-Baby and Cradle Song. We use the rain sound the most. Not only does it help Mila sleep, but it helps mom and dad sleep too!

The other great thing about it is that it also has a picture projector. It projects pictures onto the wall or ceiling (the projector is adjustable so you can aim it anywhere) and comes with 3 little disks with different characters. It's really great! Here are a few pictures of one of the disks. It's the one we use the most:

Mila seems to really like it and sleeping so much better now that it stays on all night. I'm totally kicking myself for not getting it sooner!!