Hoo Are You?

1. What are some of your pet peeves?
Oh gosh, I think of a lot of these throughout the day. My number one pet peeve is clicking, as in clicking pens or popping the back of your phone on and off repeatedly, or taking your watch on and off... drives me NUTS! A few others - when someone asks 'How are you?' and the person says 'Good.' and doesn't return the question. Orrrr...... not waving when someone lets you out in traffic.

2. Do you have a favorite or lucky number?
I really like the number 27. It is the date of my birthday along with my husband's, brother's, nephew's, niece's and uncle's.

3. What is one of your family traditions?
Going to church on Christmas Eve is the only one I can think of right now, but I hope there are a lot of new ones this year and to come since we have the baby! Kids make traditions so much fun!

4. Is there anything you are OC about?
This is a funny answer - as I was thinking about it, the strangeness of my answer came to me. I am OCD about my closet (a little) as in, I want the tank tops to be together, the short sleeve, then long sleeve, etc. Then they are mostly color coded and by the rainbow... yep, seriously. But the funniest part is how much I HATE to put clothes away. I put it off for WEEKS if I can. When I do actually put clothes away, its such an accomplishment I usually call Ben to tell him! Maybe its because of how orderly my closet is?! HA! Its just so hard to find anything if its not in order! And it already takes me long enough to decide what to wear we don't need to add any time to that ordeal.

5. What is your favorite kind of food?
Cereal :) I love all kinds of cereal (but I especially love the horrible, no-good-for-you kids cereal... I won't buy it, but I sure do LOVE it!)

I did it!

Remember how hard it was to get baby hand prints?!

Well, today I got it! And it turned out better than the first one. (The top left corner was done today.)


I also added my hand print to this canvas because I really had been racking my brain about what else to do with these canvases. At first I was just going to have the baby's hands and feet, but they were too tiny to fill up each canvas. Then I decided that it would be a fun memory to have our whole family on there! :)


Dogs included! (For the record, I don't like Ben's hand and my hand that close together so I'll have to figure out a way to display these that add some distance between the two.)

I think I want to write cute info on these with a paint pen, maybe names, or dates or nicknames (like baby, momma, etc.). But I'm not sure yet. Any suggestions? I just know I want something else on them to liven them up. But, I'm pleased that I have two hands and feet from an infant and two paws of each our dogs! None of which were happy about the project.

Things NOT to do while on maternity leave

forget how to walk....

This happened Wednesday attempting to walk from my car to my doctors appointment. It was the first time I had worn shoes with a heal bigger than an inch in months. Two steps out of my car and I went down... Thankfully I had not gotten the baby out of the car yet and only me and my iPhone landed on the pavement. I was up pretty quick to avoid any on-lookers coming to help. The worst part - I was on my way to the doctor for a yearly dermatology check where they look at your whole body... yeah, I had to tell several nurses and the doctor that no, I wasn't in a car accident or something dramatic that quite possibly wasn't my fault.
I just fell... outside... in your parking lot....

7 weeks

Noah,
Today you are 7 whole weeks old! You are precious and we think you are pretty much the best thing in the world. I pray for you every day, sometimes many many times a day and a lot of times the same prayers. I pray that God will protect you (A LOT), keep you healthy and help me to teach you his ways. I pray you will know and love the Lord and your life will be of service to him. He blessed us with you 7 weeks ago and we are so very thankful!



The past 7 weeks
- have flown by!
- you learned to smile. (you laughed a few times in your sleep, but it doesn't count yet.)
- I think you can now see me across the room.
- you can follow me with your eyes as I move away from you.
- you are eating 4 - 6 ounces of breastmilk every 3 to 4 hours! I think you are a piglet :)
- you are typically sleeping 5 - 6 hours in a row at night and surprised us with 8.5 last night!
- you LOVE your baths. Unfortunately the whole process only takes about 5 minutes and I try to stretch it to 10, but there just isn't that much to do in there yet.
- you hate being swaddled and want to be FREEE! :)
- you don't mind tummy time because you think that I'm actually letting you go to sleep on your tummy...
- you are sleeping in a swing because you don't like being swaddled and you can't stop wiggling around when we put you in your crib.
- you love your paci, and I mean LOVE!
- you have no idea that Logan and Sierra try to sneak licks to your feet every hour or so.
- you can hold on to things like your paci or a toy and wave it around, but I don't think you know you are doing it yet, lol.

We are definitely still figuring things out, but hopefully we'll all get better and better about that as you start to fall into a routine (which I think we are in the slow process of!).

I am going to miss you terribly when I go back to work next week, but I know that you have gotten bigger and stronger than you were a few weeks ago. I have loved every second of being home with you and learning who you are.

Favorite Baby Items & Great Tips

I've been thinking of helpful things to tell some of my friends who are expecting lately and I decided to post them in a blog in case it helps anyone else out there. I was VERY thankful when my friend Johnna would send me emails about what she had learned along the way with her almost two-year-old (and many of these things may be from her, my friend Jessica or other friends who thankfully lent us lots of baby items or advice!).

Some of my most favorite must-have baby items & advice:

Baby Jogger City Mini - My #1 favorite item! I stressed about the stroller for a long time. This was my original choice after reading tons of reviews and websites. I wanted something light weight and easy to fold (you HAVE to watch the thing fold!) that turned and could be pushed with one hand easily. City mini does all those things. I went back to Buy Buy Baby at least 10 times and played with all their strollers just to be sure. The one aspect I didn't love about the City Mini was the storage basket underneath, its not huge. I was worried about it. After stressing over getting a larger stroller or one that doesn't fold as easy, I ended up going with the City Mini and am so glad I did. We of course got the infant car seat adapter, which works perfectly with our Peg Perego and a few other add-ons like a drink holder, a mommy-hook and the cooler (you know for all those picnics I go on).

- Dr. Brown's (or probably any kind) Microwave Sterilizer - this is so easy to throw everything in and stick it in the microwave. I don't know about you, but I don't run my dishwasher everyday and the thought of hand-washing pump, bottle, pacifiers, etc everyday makes me want to step on a nail. I just rinse things as we use them and when I have enough to fill up the basket throw them in. Its done in 6 minutes! (Which is just enough time for me to not forget that I need to get them out and pack things up for the next day, will come in handy when getting ready for work in the morning... if I had to get them out of the dishwasher I'd never remember all my items!)

Two tiered drying racks - definitely cleared up some counter space!

Aden & Anais Burpy Bibs (and pretty much everything they make)- these things are so fabulous, they actually snap so you can use them as a bib, but are big and super absorbent for burp cloths too!

- Mabel's Labels - LOVE these. My friend Jessica had these on the Dr. Brown's bottles she gave us and I ordered my own set for Noah. They are dishwasher AND microwave safe! We just received ours today and I'm very happy with them and the peace of mind that Noah won't be given any other baby's bottles at the sitters :). (Shipping takes a little while, so don't expect them to be in quickly.) I would love other items they have to see how they hold up too - like their clothing labels!

- Cooshee Diaper Changer - Again, thank you Jessica! No more changing sheets! And if you have changed a boy's diaper once or twice, you know their tendency to hose you down. I can't imagine changing a sheet at 3 am... no fun. When we have an accident I just wipe it down with a clorox wipe. Easy peasy. :)

- Baby Elephant Ears - these are great for all those things that baby doesn't quite fit in yet.

- Get a no-touch thermometer BEFORE the baby arrives. Lots of people may want to know his temp those first few days/weeks and its hard to get a wiggly baby's temp in his armpit and I'm not tough enough to stick it anywhere else. (That is the one we have and our doctor uses.)

- Breastfeeding - if pumping hurts, get a different size flange! I am still struggling with this a bit, but just ordered Pumpin' Pals Comfort Pack, so we'll see if these help. I've tried to research a good bit of how things are supposed to fit, but amazingly there aren't many pictures of what things are supposed to look like while pumping (don't worry I won't be doing that sort of review!)

- I have the Medela Pump & Style Advanced that my sister-in-law lent me, it works great. I don't have anything to compare it to, but it does the job and is very easy to cart around. It comes in the little black bag with plenty of room to toss in all your items, including a little cooler it comes with.

- Medela Hands-Free Pumping Bustier - I knew I wanted this straight from the hospital, one time of holding those things while trying to turn the machine on, off or to a different setting and I was done, I don't know how people pump without it!

- How to label breast milk in the fridge? Painter's tape and a sharpie! The tape doesn't leave behind any residue and stays on very well in the fridge. For the freezer I love the Lanisoh storage bags. Easy to label and zip up.

- Johnna told me a very helpful tip - if you are buying a convertible crib, go ahead and buy the converter kit. She found out that her crib was discontinued and couldn't find the kit when it was time to actually convert it.

- Something I wish I had gotten earlier - The Woombie - Noah hates to be swaddled, but didn't mind it when he was tiny. I think had we had this several weeks ago we could have transitioned to this from being swaddled, but still given him some room to wiggle. Currently he doesn't sleep well in his crib because he wakes himself up by smacking himself in the head or knocking his paci out, but he gets VERY angry if he's swaddled. We are using a swing that has a tilt to it because it keeps him snug but he can still move his hands/arms freely. (I think he really wants to be a stomach sleeper because anytime we do 'tummy time' he tucks his arms in and falls asleep! ha!) Another option - Peke Moe. (The Woombie didn't work for us because he still was very mad he couldn't flail his arms around :)

- Join Shutterfly if you haven't already. They have GREAT promotions. I just received a free photobook in the mail from them and got our birth announcements for a very good price and the quality was great! (Also, most of the baby marketing I've received in the mail has had promotion codes on them to use at Shutterfly, $20 off here, 15 free cards here... they all add up! That reminds me, sign up for all the free baby stuff you are offered including all the formula wesbites, they will send LOTS of coupons!)

Another good one - Pampers Gifts to Grow codes - you are using all those diapers and wipes, why not make them worth something?

Okay... is that enough information for one post? What is your can't-live-without baby item or advice? We'd all love to hear!

Baby Handprints... seriously?!

Everyone has seen those precious baby hand prints stamped on canvases, mugs, t-shirts... right? They look like that above.

Well, my question is, who is able to capture this and more importantly HOW?!

Ben so lovingly bought me a baby book for our anniversary (4 year was fabric and the book has a fabric cover, pretty creative!). In this book are two pages that have been haunting me for over 6 weeks now: Handprints and Footprints.

I definitely want to capture these precious hands and feet and remember how tiny they are, but I haven't exactly known how. I also knew I wanted them on the wall in some way too.



So, this week I made a trip to Michael's and bought my supplies: 4 canvases, blue, green, brown, orange and non-toxic white crayola paint for his hands and feet.

I carefully painted each canvas and gave them ample time to dry...

Then I waited and waited until Noah fell asleep and was moveable, which I thought would be the best time. You agree right?

Wrong...

This was the best of one of our attempts... Seriously, most of them looked like a smashed blob of paint. And then poor Noah looked like this:



Look carefully and yes, there is paint (non-toxic!) on his face, clothes, arms, hands, bouncer....ugh!

Well, two days, three tries, several repainted canvases, a few tears and one freakout at Ben when he tried to leave me alone with a painted baby later:

We have one, albeit, sloppy hand print.

The thing that worked out pretty well though, was the footprint:

This also took a few attempts, which is why one is lighter than the other and I had to repaint this canvas several times, BUT... we have two feet! And a left and a right one at that!

We still have another attempt to capture that right hand... let's hope its soon enough that its not significantly larger than the left one already on the canvas. I may be a professional when this is all said and done.


And a few pictures from this week:

I love him :)

Milkin' Cookies Review

This is a breastfeeding post so if you don't want to know anything else about breastfeeding, you may want to stop here. If you would like to know more about breastfeeding and cookies, keep reading!

A friend recommended Milkin' Cookies to me after I was telling her that I had started to pump in preparation for going back to work, but because Noah was the slowest eater alive, I wasn't producing as much as I thought I needed to get ready to leave him at day care. I was even pumping after we finished nursing in hopes to get more, but it was very little. So I started to panic (keep in mind, I'm sure he would have gotten plenty and I was probably panicking too soon), and wanted to see what I could do to pump more milk and get ready for leaving him all day.

When looking up what to eat to increase milk production there is a lot of talk of herbs and even prescriptions, but I didn't want to go to that extent, I just wanted to eat things that I may already be eating or should be, but didn't know. That's where Milkin' Cookies comes in. I thought it was worth a try since a 14 day supply (14 cookies) was only $20. I tried to search for reviews of them, but couldn't really find a lot of people who were talking about if they were successful or not so I gave it a shot.

I ordered the cookies and they were at my door 3 days later. Very fast!

I ordered the chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. They came individually wrapped which was good, I have been able to throw them in my lunch bag on days I am trying to pack everything I need to take a 6-week-old out of the house (a surprisingly large amount of stuff!).

After buying Voortman Oatmeal Flax Seed Omega-3 cookies (why would anyone ever buy those?! I actually do like these cookies, but an Oatmeal Flax Seed Omega-3 cookie just sounds terrible!), I wasn't expecting these Milkin' Cookies to be much different. BUT, they are delicious! They taste homemade (which the website says they are made upon order) and taste amazing considering the healthier ingredients.

One downfall is that there are almost 200 calories per cookie... that is A LOT! The Voortman cookies only have around 100, which still is high, but has similar ingredients and is A LOT cheaper. $3 for 20 or so. They just don't taste quite as good.

So the real question is, do they help boost milk production? I think this is sort of a what came first the chicken or the egg question. Am I producing more milk today than I was before I started eating these cookies? Yes! About 5 or 6 ounces more per day. But, I've also been working at that by pumping an extra feeding per day and pumping longer than normal. So its very hard to tell if the reason is the cookies or the other factors.

I will most likely not order more of these cookies due to the high cost and calories and will instead stick to the Voortman brand along with other diet choices like oatmeal and higher protein meals. If once I run out of cookies my milk suddenly drops, I will be shocked, but will update the review and give all the credit to Milkin' Cookies... I have about 5 cookies left so we will see! :)

Hoo are you?

http://nightowlcrafting.blogspot.com/

I cant get the picture to paste here, so the web address will have to do. Link up and follow a long!

Here are this week's questions!

1. If you could choose one of your personality traits to pass on to your chil­dren, what would it be? Patience - I think with patience, a lot of other things are easier to do: love, forgiveness, laugh at yourself, etc. All of those require patience.

2. What's your favorite candy bar? The one with chocolate :)....seriously though it's probably a Caramelo, but I'll take anything chocolate. 

3. If you could vacation any where in the world, where would it be? I would love to go to Australia! Or Italy! Carribbean! Lol, way too many choices.

4. What 3 adjectives would you use to describe your self? Tired, hungry and happy :) 

5. In one word, how would your best friend describe you? Determined.

1 month old!

Happy 1 month birthday Noah! :)

This is mostly for documentation purposes because I don't want to forget everything as the days FLY by.

Weight: 8lbs 7oz

Noah is doing great. He is sleeping in 4 hour stretches typically and even has 5 hour stretches the past few nights! Last night I actually woke him up after it had been 5 hours because I had pumped and I thought if I don't feed him now, then he'll wake up as soon as I fall back asleep. He is wearing mostly 0-3 month clothes, the newborn sizes are getting a little tight on him.

He is still strictly breastfeeding or being fed breast milk. Here is our situation - he eats SO slow.

Like 45-60 minutes to eat 2 ounces!! When we introduced a bottle last week in preparation for working and I had to go to school for a day, he ate 3 ounces in 15 minutes! I had a hard time letting him have a bottle the first few days, but as it freed me up to sleep or get some things done instead of feeding for a whole hour, I was more in favor of the idea. It also was very frustrating when we'd feed for an hour and sometimes he'd only eat a little over an ounce! (And this was me trying to keep him awake the whole time.) Then one night I fed him and he was still fussing and acting hungry after only getting an ounce from me. I was so tired I went and got a bottle of breast milk and fed it to him, gone in a few minutes and he was satisfied. Since then we have been

alternating feedings between me and a bottle of pumped milk, but I have to say, I can pump and feed him in WAY less time than him eating alone AND he's getting more ounces during the day, which will make him sleep better at night.

I don't know if him being slow is because I had a reduction a few years ago or just because he is SLOW, but I do know he is getting enough food and growing very well, so however we have to do this, I'm happy that he is still getting breast milk.

He held his pacifier last week! I thought that was a huge accomplishment, lol! He grabbed it and waved it around. Now only if he could put it back in his mouth when it falls out. :)

He started smiling AT us two days ago! LOVE this! It isn't very often, just a few times a day and I have to really work for it, but when he does, it melts my heart. He has smiled in his sleep when he is falling asleep since he was born and even laughs in his sleep, but this is the first time he has smiled at us while making eye contact awake. So fun! (I caught him in a huge smile!)

We have traveled out into the world a few times just he and I, he even went with me to the dentist on Monday. We don't go out a ton because it is still easier to stay at home (and sleep), but we've gone to publix and walmart a few times and out to lunch once! (I also think pumping will be easier when we go places because when we went to walmart, I had to sit in the car and feed him for an hour before we could go in... he also only eats when in the football position - very uncomfortable - so its difficult in the car. I can pump in the car in 15 minutes and feed him at the same time!)

He loves his baths! I wish we had more to do in there so he could stay longer, but bathing a 1 month old only really takes a few minutes :) He hates getting out because its so cold.

The dogs also are doing great with him. They really weren't even phased by it, but lately Logan has been sitting by him and when he is squirming and fussing she'll go get close to him like she's trying to fix it. Its cute. Sierra just wants to be anywhere he and I are.

Logan

Sierra

Hoo are you?

http://nightowlcrafting.blogspot.com/

Here are this week's questions!

1. Do you exercise regularly and what do you do?

Currently, nope, but hopefully one day I will get enough sleep in a 24 hour period that I'll want to exercise again. When I do exercise, I'm a walker and I love being outside. My favorite exercise though is group fitness classes, but I am not currently a member anywhere to go and zumba is expensive! I did buy a wii fit the last month of pregnancy. I can't wait together on there and it think I lost a ton of weight, just for the fact that I'm not pregnant anymore :) my mii was very pudgy the last time i got on there.

2. Do you have any weird sleeping habits?

Waking up every 2-4 hours to a baby :) but no, I dont think anything other than that. 

3. How often do you vacuum?

Realistically right now, every 2 weeks, but my goal is at least once a week, that dog hair is terrible and I can't stand dust. (I hate dusting, the only way I've found to get rid of dust is to vacuum it away!)

4.Do you accessorize and if so what is your favorite thing to accessorize with?

On a good day, but I'm a minimalist. Usually just a fun necklace or bracelet is all I do.

5. What is your favorite drink during the summertime?

Mimosas! Or a mexican beer on a beach with the sunset.  But it's been a long time since I've had either of those, a good sonic slushy would be a great summer drink right now!

Ok, go to night owl crafting's site above and play along!

Rip Mac

I think I have an issue with computers in the fact that I cannot keep them alive!

Three years ago my not-so-old dell crashed because it was built wrong and continuously overheated. It crashed 2 weeks after the warranty expired.

We then bought a used computer from some friends of ours for $50 I think and it got the blue screen of death after a few weeks.

We moved on to a Mac since I was having terrible luck with pcs at that point and i thought i needed to branch out.

Enter my MacBook.

I loved (yes, past tense) it! I bought the extra AppleCare knowing my luck and on we went having a wonderful relationship.

Fast forward 3 years and 4 months.... I go to turn my Mac on this week and it beeps at me as though there is a bomb in it. Literally, BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEP!...... And it doesn't stop. Who knew a little computer could make that awful noise?!

I managed to turn it on one more time and save all my pictures (Praise God) because I would have been devastated if I had lost the past 4 weeks of Noah's pictures.... And I took it to the genius bar at the apple store... The diagnosis: a failed motherboard.

Gag... What?!

4 months after my AppleCare ran out! What on earth?!

Here is the dilemma (and I'm too indecisive to pick an option) I can send it off and hope to get it fixed for $300, or buy a new one for $900-ish. Now it sort of sounds like an easy decision, the cheaper one, but again, do I want to spend $300 to fix an already 3.5 year old computer? Or do I want to save up and get a new one???

Hmmm... What do you think? And I am not willing to go to a pc, I definitely want to stick with my Mac. I just love them!

Newborn pictures?

Does this work?? If not, give up on email blogging, why doesn't blogger have an app?!

Newborn Portraits

My friend Haley took noah's pictures, she is AMAZING! 

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Catchup - glow worm

I tried to write a long blog by email, but half my text went missing and my pictures got out of order, so I'm going to try it in segments...

When we first came home, Noah was very jaundice, so they made him have photo-light therapy (at home) until his levels came down. We ate and ate and ate to help those levels, so much so that he was gaining 2 ounces a day! (when we went for his 2-week check up, he had gained 12 ounces! Doctor said it was awesome and he would have been happy with anything over 6 ounces!)

Poor little glow worm:


He was cleared of jaundice in just 48 LONG hours and things went well for a whole week! 

Then, we had one night that he cried ALL night long, from 9 pm - 9 am... Only stopping to eat. We called the doctor that morning and went in since he was due for his check up the next day anyway, I was convinced his belly button was infected and was to blame for our awful night. But he was very healthy (praise God) and the doctor mentioned it may just be colic.... To which I cried (and thought about never sleeping again) and prayed and prayed it wasn't, and truly believe the lord has answered our prayer so far because we have had much better nights since then (it's not hard to beat 12 hours of crying!). 

2 week appointment: 7lbs 2 oz and 21.5 inches! 75th percentile in length, 25th for weight