Aspen Anniversary Trip

A few weekends ago we decided to take a long weekend trip up to Aspen and enjoy the fall colors. We had never been to Aspen before and wanted to check it out. We were a little late getting started on the drive, but once on the road did pretty well. Elias wasn't quite as good of a road-tripper as when he was 5 months old, but he still did really good. He just got bored and understandably so! We made a few stops a long the way: we stopped at the scenic area near Copper where ET loved watching the creek run; we made a pit stop in Leadville and enjoy some local cookies; stopped at the top of Independence pass to look out over the Continental Divide and then finally arrived in Aspen. The drive in was beautiful, although Independence Pass made me a little nervous. With drop offs like that, no wonder the pass is closed in winter.

Friday night we walked around town trying to find a place for dinner. The place we decided on ended up being closed and Elias was fading quickly so we opted for some tavern or something. The food wasn't that great. I ordered fish and chips and it looked like they had come out of a box - a perfect little rectangle. We finished up and headed back to the hotel and tried to put Elias down. He was not having it. He cried and cried and cried some more. He finally fell asleep only to wake up a few hours later. We fed him and put him back to bed as usual, but he again was not having it. Eventually we brought him into bed with us where he proceeded to crawl around for the next hour or so. Thank goodness we got a King!

The next morning we started off with coffee at a local shop and the most amazing ginger peach muffins- yum! We made it back for Elias' morning nap and when he woke up headed out for walk around town. We went through some neighborhoods with beautiful homes. Oh, the lives of the rich. We made it back to the hotel and tried to put Elias down. Another struggle which we decided to avoid and thought we would skip and then put him down early. An hour or so later, we were still having no luck. Gone were our plans for a nice dinner out - it took a couple hours to get Elias to go to sleep. Once we got him to bed, Tom went out to our planned restaurant, ordered to go and brought it back to the hotel. We dined in the dark on the edge of our jacuzzi tub. Everything was delicious, but I'm hoping that next time I'll be able to enjoy it at the restaurant.

Our last morning in Aspen we enjoyed a lovely breakfast and then tried to get sandwiches at the yummy sandwich shop we had tried the day before. Unfortunately they were closed, so we ended up at the only deli we could find that was open. We picked up lunch and some snacks and headed out of town. A friend had recommended the Grotto Day use area for a picnic, so we stopped there to enjoy our lunch. Soon, it was time to get on the road again, so off we went. The drive back was just as beautiful and Elias still didn't sleep like he should have. We really enjoyed getting away, the drive and Aspen, but we'll definitely think twice before we do that with an infant again.

Aspen

Pumping like crazy

I have a love/hate relationship with pumping. In the beginning, it's what established my milk supply when Elias wasn't able to bring in my milk on his own. It's helped to supplement what he takes in, since that isn't usually enough. But until recently I've only had to pump when I went to work and then an extra time after he went to bed to get that surplus for him.

But last week, Elias would only nurse for a few minutes on one side (not enough to keep up my supply). We think he had a sore throat since we both have one this week. Because of that, I've watched my pumping numbers get ridiculously low this week and seen him get frustrated wanting more. I met with a lactation consultant who said to pump and nurse as often as possible. I'm doing that, but man it's hard. I feed him, then get the pumping stuff washed and ready and then pump. When you take that into account, the whole feeding process takes a really long time.

Thankfully I have seen pumping numbers come up, but they still aren't what they should be. It was suggested that I consider taking domperidone to help boost my milk supply. Before the dr. would write a prescription, I did a blood test to measure what my prolactin (milk producing hormone) levels were. Turns out they were half what they needed to be. No wonder we've had the problems we've had! I get the prescription tomorrow and am hoping that it does the job to boost my milk supply so that Elias can get what he needs without supplementing and we can make it for a couple more months!

All done!

In the last month or so, we've been trying to use signs with Elias for things related to our routine: "more", "eat", "milk", "hungry" and "all done/finished" are the main ones. He typically does "more" in the right context - especially for more swinging! He will sometimes do "milk" and occasionally "all done". He's also working on "bye-bye" although hardly does it when saying good-bye. Sometimes he'll do it after the person is gone. Other times, I peek in on him in his crib and he's lying there watching his hand as he waves it back and forth. It's pretty cute.

Last night we were feeding him solids and it got to the point where he was scrunching up his face and turning his head away. I asked him if he was all done. In response he says, "ah duh". Not sure if was intentional or just babble, but that sounded really close to 'all done'! It probably wasn't intentional so we'll keep working on the signs.

Welcome to the new blog!

It's been forever since I've written a blog post, but maybe a change of scenery (site, background, etc.) will help. Here's a peek at what we've been up to lately:

• Elias is pulling himself up on anything he can, and sometimes on things he shouldn't
• Elias does the army crawl now and constantly makes a beeline for the most dangerous items around him: edge of the bed, wires, cords...
  
• Elias is eating solid foods now, 2-3 times a day
• Corrie got a new road bike and is slowly increasing speed & mileage
• Tom enjoys his weekend bike rides
• We rearranged the house: Elias' room is 100% baby room now, we got rid of the tv and set up the computer in the living room. It's all about hulu now.
• Fourmile Fire in Boulder Canyon: it was crazy for a few days, but thankfully it's about 90% contained now.
  

This weekend we're treating ourselves to a weekend in Aspen. We've always wanted to go during the fall colors time of year and thought we would treat ourselves this year for our anniversary. We're hoping to be able to post some beautiful Aspen pics next week.

Follow this link to some of the latest pictures of elias:
http://eliasworld.shutterfly.com