3 Month 2nd Week: Feeling Trapped :(

Me

I am not sure what is going on, but lately, I feel like I am trapped.  I hurry to get out of work and pick my baby up and go home but there are limited things I can do with her....I can play with her or take her in a stroller and walk around the neighborhood.  That is becoming every day routine, but I wish I could go take a yoga class, go riding a bike or meeting friend's for a happy hour.  A lot of things are so limited and I know why, but I am having a hard time adjusting from care-free life to this.  I feel awful to feel this way because having a baby was my dream.   

I cannot go far away too long because I need to pump.  It's a lovely night and will be nice to hang out on a deck, but I cannot enjoy my favorite drink wine because it goes through breast milk.  I need to go to bed early because I have to get up at 4:00 am to pump.  Pumping....pumping....pumping...  It crosses my mind what if I stop pumping now?  I've done this for 3 months and she is darn healthy, so she will do ok with formula only.  Will I regret if I go ahead and stop it now for my own selfish reason?! 

I think I am still going through a baby blue this week :( :( :(

Baby

She cracks me up with her latest laughing / talking voice!!  I don't know where she learned, but she laughs with high voice and she sounds like a Gremlin!!  Is she trying to speak to us?  Is this a normal milestone?? It's just fascinating what she is doing because we didn't teach her that!   

My Baby is a Monster!

3 Months & 1 Week: Bye Bye Swaddle

Swaddle

I read that it's recommended to wean out of swaddle around 3-4 months.  I am glad babycenter.com sent me a weekly reminder because I did not know!  They said a baby should be moving their legs and arms freely around this time even at night.  I was nervous about this because swaddling was part of our nightly routine!!  I was worried that she might not fall a sleep in the crib anymore, but we gotta do it, so we waited until the weekend to execute this mission!

The result was.....SUCCESS!!!  It wasn't bad at all.  We did one arm out on Friday, both arms out on Saturday and no swaddle on Sunday and BAMMM, she was a swaddle free girl!!!  She wiggled a lot and her eyes opened when we did no swaddle, but I was determined to make it work, so I simply left her in the crib and closed her room door.  I watched her little bit on the baby monitor, but she finally gave in and fell asleep :)  I learned that we have to stick to the plan sometimes in order to make something work.  I would usually pick her up and rock her, but not this time and it worked like a magic!      

It's been a couple of days and she does well without being swaddled, but she now wakes up @ 3-3:30 am (It used to be 5:00is).  My guess is that she moves more at night, so she gets hungry???  or moving wakes her up??  It cracks me up and make me a bit nervous when I no longer see her on the baby monitor because she moved to somewhere in the crib!     

Meeting Other Mama

I have been trying to find ways to get connected to other mamas in my area.  I am dying to get to know other moms whom I can share our story of having a baby(s) and raising kids, parenting, etc.  Since I moved to a new area a couple of months ago, I suddenly realized that I don't know people around me much.  I have my own office for work and it has been great, but lately I am craving to talk to other people who have kids.  It was so easy when I was working for a corporate type company because I was always surrounded by people and there were tons of parents in the company, but with my current job, I actually have to get my butt up and find people.  There are a lot of things on my mind after I had a baby and she changes so fast, so I want to talk about it!!!!!  I feel like I am getting a little baby blue.... :(  Go away~ go away Blue~~~

Anyway, I found a couple of mama groups through meetup.com.  I signed up 3 groups so far and am checking their events.  Most of them are during week, so it's a bit tough as I work full time.  Oh, speaking of working, I recently reduced my working days from 5 days to 4 days.  It was really bothering me for a while that I didn't get to spend enough time with my baby.  5 days at daycare and there are only a couple of hours until she goes to bed after I pick up her from her daycare every day.  I am so happy that I will have one full day with her and I can use this day to maybe meet up with other mamas.