First Seven Hours Away From Oliver

Today, I finally allowed myself to take a break away from my 10.5 week old little Oliver to hang out with friends. I went downtown for Laughfest in Grand Rapids to watch Sinbad's comedy act. I was away for a total of SEVEN HOURS! Seven FULL hours! This was the first real separation we have ever experienced. I have been breastfeeding him 100% of the time with the exception of maybe five or six (breastmilk) bottles total. That means I am always with him, pretty much every two hours of the day to feed him. I was a little nervous being away for an extended period of time because I had to make time to pump and maintain a regular schedule for "milk-expression". I was really anxious about leaving him during his feedings. I did not know how it was going to work out. I ended up being super prepared and followed a strict schedule.

• I nursed him right before dropping him off to my moms. 
• I pumped on the way to the event. 
• We ended up eating and having a drink at a couple bars downtown first. 
• Before the show, I went to my car and pumped. 
• On my way home, after the show, I also pumped. 

When I returned home, my son had only drank 6 ounces.... I PUMPED 11 ounces! That is what I call SUCCESS! And my pumping schedule compared to his feeding schedule was exactly coordinated so I was prepared to feed him at his next feeding. Awesome! I have to practice this extended hours of separation a couple more times before I go back to work full time. One of my biggest fears is losing the ability to breastfeed my son before he reaches one year. I do not want work messing that up. As of now, my husband and I only plan to have two children. That means that this is supposed to be my last child. (I say supposed to be... because you never know what the future holds.) Regardless, I am keeping my goal! 

Not only was I nervous about creating problems with breastfeeding, but I was also nervous because I find it hard to trust anyone. My mom is about the only person I trust right now to watch my son. I don't want him to have any food except for breastmilk and I don't trust anybody else to follow that rule. That rule means he is not allowed to have just a taste of any food... whipped cream, mashed potatoes, regular milk, juice, pop... nothing. No formula. JUST breastmilk because he is only 10.5 weeks old and does not need anything else. I have a new goal with this second baby to only give him breastmilk for the first six months. No tastes of any food until he reaches six months of age. I asked his doctor and she said that was a perfectly normal and healthy thing to do. 

The trust issue is also because I am scared someone else will do something to hurt him accidentally. They may be perfectly capable to babysit but I am paranoid because he is so little. As soon as he reaches three months old on April 1, I will try my best to relax a bit more and allow him to be babysat. I need mental preparation in order to go back to work and not worrying 100% of the time. Sounds impossible but I did fine today while he was with my mom. Anyone else and I just might have a panic attack. 

Anyways-- our seven hour separation was wonderfully refreshing. It was also a really nice feeling to hold him when I got back home. His big sister was helping take care of him the entire time we were away. She helped feed him and keep the milk off his face and clothing. So far, it has been very relieving that she genuinely loves caring for him and playing the role of big sister. I hope she keeps up the compassion and love for him for a lonnngg time! *My fingers are crossed so that jealousy doesn't kick in anytime soon!!*

Even Coffee Can't Help Days Like These!

Here is the run down of how this oh-so-not-sunny day began for Miss Wonderful Me.

What's a mama supposed to do? 

• 12:00AM- Baby Fox decided he needed a midnight feeding to officially ease him into a deep sleep. I am in love with nursing him to sleep, I did not mind. 
• 1:00AM- Insomnia. Everybody has been sleeping for about an hour or two minimum but I am still lying awake. 
• 1:15AM- Miss A decides to stumble into our master bathroom and pee all over the floor because she is too tired to undo her jammies and make it to the potty. I am forced to clean it up and put her back to bed.
• 1:45AM- I finally fall asleep.
• 4:30AM- Baby Fox decides he doesn't want to give mommy a 6-8 hour sleep stretch tonight and wakes up to eat. 
• 5:00AM- I fall back asleep. 
• 6:30AM- Baby Fox wants to eat again. 
• 7:00AM- Miss A wakes up and tries to sneak in my bed. I say, "No. Go sleep in your bed or on the couch." The baby will most certainly keep her awake if she sleeps with me. 
• 7:30AM- Baby Fox wants to eat again... after one hour? Come on!
• 8:30AM- Baby Fox cries to have his diaper changed. I may have fed him AGAIN. 
• 9:30AM-Baby Fox cannot sleep. He does not want to be in his bed. I am positive I fed him again at this time. I lay in bed with two children in my lap, feeling exhausted for an hour.
• 10:30AM- I do not even want to attempt shower time, getting dressed, and breakfast... But I do it. 
• 11:30AM- I finally start coffee and pour bowls of cereal. 
• 12:30PM- Movie Time... but Miss A doesn't like the new movie, The Reef, and I can not watch Winnie the Pooh or Pocahontas for the 100th time each. I just cannot do it today. 
• 1:00PM- Miss A does not want to use the potty because apparently it was clogged. "Mommy, you broke it!" She peed all over the floor, second time today. You have got to be kidding me. She has been potty trained for 8 months! 

Thankfully, my husband did not get forced to work extra on his half day today. He is coming home in a half hour at 2:30pm!! Thank you Jesus. I will be done parenting upon his arrival. 

Ha, I wish.

My 10 week old son is definitely going through another growth spurt! He was up often the previous night too for extra feedings. I have to hope that tonight he will sleep for a good amount of time again. As for Miss A, she failed miserably going on the BIG GIRL POTTY today. Dear Lord. Help her get her act together before I lose all of my sanity. 

And some people scoff at and belittle stay at home mothers... PLEASE dearest male friends, I would LOVE to see you accomplish these draining tasks. When it gets rough, the coffee hardly helps. It's all will power baby! =)

Today **AND EVERYDAY** is a day to appreciate the hard work of all mothers around!! 

THANK YOU DEAR MOM FOR PUTTING UP WITH MY INFANT/TODDLER/CHILD/PRETEEN/TEEN/ADULT CRAZINESS! 

A Little Insight into Having a Baby

Every woman who gets pregnant goes through a huge body and mind transformation. The first battle occurs gradually as the baby grows larger and larger inside the womb. The body stretches and expands in ways never thought imaginable to make room for the new life. Emotions rise to a whole new level of craziness as extra hormones are being produced at intense rates. Never before felt aches and pains strike hard. A woman's body is made for this but the mind is not prepared!

Eventually, the baby decides he is ready to be born. The body turns into a human machine and cranks out the baby regardless if the mother's mind is ready to battle this excruciating pain. (And the mother's mind is never ready for this battle.) Without it ever feeling possible, the woman's body actually succeeds and a baby is born. 

But the woman's body is not done changing. Postpartum recovery is an unanticipated third battle. Cramping occurs with every feeding to shrink the uterus back into place. The skin decides to take its sweet time tightening back against the body. The hormonal surge seems to never end and it creates a monster within thanks to sleep deprivation caused by the new baby. Depression, anxiety, anger, crying spells, and traumatic what-if scenarios come and go as they please.

And when the new baby starts sleeping longer and the mind starts to feel sane again, the hair starts falling out.

That, my friends, is where I am at now! Hooray for having babies! Good thing they are so stinkin' cute and cuddly. 

Flower & Fox Cousins

Friendship: The Ox and The Fox!

My little Fox made his first friend, a one month old cutie pie named Ox!! As soon as I took out the camera, he decided he was too hungry for fun and games so their visit was cut short. But next time, we will have to do a real baby photo shoot!

My Moby Wrapped Babies

Moby Wraps are suitable for babies weighing 5-35 pounds. I have a 13lb baby boy and a 35lb baby girl. I will only be using my Moby Wrap for the little one though! My big girl's long legs would probably get in the way of things if I used it for her! Plus, she probably weighs a little over 35lbs now anyways.

Look at my Moby Wrapped babies!! 

It wasn't as hard to put the wrap on as people say... However, I will have to memorize and use the instructions a few more times to make sure I wrap the little one correctly. I don't think my big girl is wrapped comfortably against me as you can tell from the pictures!!

I have lots of plans for this wrap! As soon as winter is over, I want to carry Oliver throughout the zoo, fair, mall, park, etc! That way I can easily watch and stroll Miss A too and keep Oliver snug tight next to me. I'm excited to try other carrying positions too. =)

How Fast Do You Lose Weight Postpartum? [My Experience]

I gained a whopping forty pounds during my first and second pregnancies. The weight all came off very quickly and easily after my first pregnancy. The same thing is happening with my second pregnancy's postpartum period. This second time around, I have been recording the numbers to entertain my curiosity. Keep in mind that everyone's bodies are different but here are my results so far. My son was born January 1, 2014, so it has been two months since his birth.

Really pregnant! And 2 months after delivery-- excludes the sucking in tummy nonsense ;)

Pre-Pregnancy Weight: 135 pounds
39 Weeks Pregnant: 176 pounds
Total Weight Gain: 41 pounds

3 days after delivery: Lost 20lbs (156lbs)
6 days after delivery: Lost 6 more pounds (150lbs)
2 weeks after delivery: Lost 2 more pounds (148lbs)
1 month after delivery: Lost 2 more pounds (146lbs)
6 weeks after delivery: Lost 2 more pounds (144lbs)
2 months after delivery (Current Weight): Gained 2 pounds (146lbs)

Two months after delivery, I am still up 11 pounds. I have not been exercising so the only weight loss activity I do is breastfeeding. Since my weight has gone up, I feel I am at a standstill. That is essentially my cue to start exercising again! You should not stop exercising to begin with but as we all know... life happens and exercise takes an unfortunate step down our priority lists.

All this weight gain and body destruction is a small price to pay for creating such an adorable creature!

Mini Photoshoot: Miss A at 2.5 years & My Little Fox at 7 Weeks

Thanks again to the wonderful MeMe for letting me borrow her camera again to capture these little faces. I am so happy to be able to borrow this camera while Oliver is still teeny tiny! I can't believe how gorgeous Miss A's pictures turned out today. She is one pretty little girl. Oliver was quite the fuss bucket but I managed to capture a few grins along with a number of angry faces... and yawns! You can tell he was ready for his nap! They still make for good keepsakes though.

Who says boys can't use pink backdrops?

I don't want to do this anymore Ma.

Okay ma, I'm done.

Hurry up.

Maybe I do like this.

Yeah, HI I'M CUTE!

Nope, I'm tired.

Do you see this face?

Tiny little hand!

What a beauty!

These next three with the Hershey's Kisses are to show appreciation to the Hershey's chocolate company for sending me a free, large bag of kisses inside my Influenster J'adore VoxBox!

Now for cute little brother and sister time. As usual for boys, Oliver was just not with the program! :P

That's all for now! I have such great children. A lot more pictures to come. =)

Pretty in Blue

Mini Photoshoot!

[~10 weeks old~]

 

2 Months of gDiaper Experience

GDIAPERS ROCK! I am a big fan thus far. Miss A is 10 weeks old yesterday and while I can't say that I've been using gDiapers the whole time, I've definitely been using them over a month and a half.  She was born 7lbs3oz so at first they were too small. Then I was visiting my grandma in the hospital for a week. So for all the babysitters, we used disposables since we received some as gifts from the baby showers.

Here is my pros/cons list for using gDiapers. [Besides the normal sustainability reasons!]

PROS

• Very easy to use!! 
• Very easy to launder. I'm on a two/three day schedule with 6 gPants & 24 gCloths & 12 gLiners. I wash them with an eco-friendly detergent and hot water on a regular cycle and rinse. Then I dry all but the liners and wetbags.
• Very easy to travel with. I just use the gWetbag, however any wetbag will do to store soiled diapers. I've even used a plastic bag but that's not very sustainable to use every time!
• No complaints with leaks. The only time they have leaked is when I forgot to change her after feeding her and she pees "A LOT" and twice or more... [My Bad!]
• All the poop stays in the liner for the most part. If it doesn't it's because she created a "Diaper BOMB" and it all went up her back... this happens with disposables too. It's life!
• Product is made well with one exception below.
• I feel like my baby is trendy with her gDiapers... however I may be biased! 

CONS

• I pulled a string on one of the gLiners and it unraveled near the orange snap. [I should NOT have pulled the string. Ha..] No complaints with any other liners though.
• It takes my dryer two cycles to fully dry the gCloths.
• For some reason, other people complain about me using them... why? They are just jealous and wish they could wear gDiapers! 

I can say that I am happy we actually committed to these diapers. It is worth the money, especially since we plan to use these diapers for our next baby as well. Miss A will probably outgrow the small size soon and they are in awesome condition. I wish I could afford better gender neutral colors but for now green and orange are what we have.

Her diaper is on backwards!

To my embarrassment, I have shamefully been putting Miss A's gDiapers on backwards. Obviously she is not happy and crying because her diapers are on wrong! OOPS! The embarrassing part is that I JUST NOW REALIZED IT WHILE WRITING THIS BLOG POST... Hmm... Good news is that gDiapers can be worn two ways and successfully hold in all liquids! From now on all diaper photos will look like the first two above! :D

Fussy Baby = No Pictures

We have attempted to get professional pictures taken at JCPenney twice this week. Apparently Miss A does not want to get her pictures taken. She has been super fussy lately. We were all ready to leave 15 minutes ago and decided to cancel the appointment after too much stress built up. She has been crying and fussing all day it seems. I gave her a bath and surprisingly she was okay with it. Then I started dressing her and she started up again. I knew she was getting hungry so I tried feeding her... She was too upset to nurse efficiently so I ended up pumping her a bottle. Fed her. Burped her. Changed her diaper. And she screamed.. and screamed some more. I can't believe we actually attempted putting her in her car seat... At this point I just grabbed my phone and canceled the appointment. Now she is cuddling up with daddy in the rocking chair, fast asleep.

Man. I tell ya... babies! Ohhh just gotta remind myself. She's probably going through a growth spurt! My poor baby girl. I guess we'll just try to do pictures next week.

:/

Lots of Pretty Smiles

Well hello again! Life with a baby is definitely tiring and busying but it's so much more interesting than before! I just have to show off several pictures of her genuine smiles. She is such a smiley sweetheart now. She laughs and talks too...well coos. Her favorite word/noise is "GOO".  It's so precious! I love being a mommy!