Miracle!

Last week I announced on social media that we are expecting a baby in July! We are so very excited! 

This baby is a true miracle and our rainbow baby. I haven't shared on my blog about wanting another child or our struggle. We had been told by numerous doctors G was a miracle and we probably never would be able to have another one. I went through a period of where I was grieving. It was a very difficult time for me. I feel I haven't been able to make very many choices when it comes to my health. They have all been made for me over the past 5 years. 

I am so very thankful for little G. He is seriously the brightest miracle in my life! 

I found out I was pregnant right before Thanksgiving. I honestly didn't have much hope this pregnancy would continue.  A lot was going on right then. I had my sister coming to visit. I was going with my mom to Mayo Clinic for some health issues. I just tried to continue with life and I would go to the doctor after to see what was going on with the pregnancy. I didn't tell anyone I was pregnant. I just didn't want people worrying or giving me their opinion on things. This one wasn't planned at all and was a surprise. Yes, Yes, I know where babies come from and how they can happen. lol  I am not going into the details of the 6+ months before, but there wasn't much hope. 

We waited awhile to tell family and even longer to tell our friends. 

G felt he had to tell everyone! He was with us at a doctor appointments when the doctor was talking about the baby and we could hear the heartbeat. G says momma open your mouf let me see that baby? He thinks the baby is the hangy thing in the back of your throat. lol

He then went to school and told everyone he was having a baby sister. He told the people at Sonic when we got our soda water he is having a baby sister. I had my friends little girl with me the day I picked up G from school, so his teachers thought that is who he was talking about. 

He has been so excited. He keeps asking hasn't the baby been in your belly long enough?

At night he will pat my belly. He said I need to pat the baby, so it won't cry and go to sleep. 

What will little Post be? Boy or Girl? We will find out later today!

Bowling

A couple weeks ago I took G and Chris bowling. This was G first time bowling. I wasn't sure what he would think of it. We had 3 longer days of Chris in the afternoon, so I tried to do something fun with them. I like to take them places on long days, so we can get rid of energy. 

The little bowling shoes were ADORABLE for G. I wanted to steal them. 

I put bumpers up and got a ramp. G grabbed a ball all on his own. He had a blast for about 5 rounds, then he was done. Chris got to bowl the rest of the time for both of them. I think we will wait a year or so before we take G again. It was a little slow for him. lol

He actually got a strike! I am sure I would bowl much better with bumpers and a ramp too. It was just adorable to watch him! 

Chris did good! He had a lot of fun. Watching him fling the ball down the alley was hilarious! I gave him pointers once and then I just let him do his thing. I wanted him to have fun and not worry about getting every pin down. 

Happy Halloween from the Mini Garbage Man!

George is obsessed with garbage trucks right now. He loves to watch them on YouTube. On Thursday he helps gets all the garbage ready for the curb. He takes bags of garbage and our little garbage cans dumps them into the bigger cans. Thursday garbage night is a BIG night in our house. Lots of cheering. Well when Friday arrives it's up early to catch every garbage truck that comes by. He waves and yells HI to each garbage man. The garbage are very nice waving back and sometimes honking their horns. 

When I was thinking of what George should be for Halloween I wanted something that he was him. Right now a garbage man is totally him. So off I went to figure out a costume. 

Our garbage men wear jeans, tshirt, boots and a bright vest. I found the vest on Amazon because doesn't everything come from Amazon these days? 

The next part I struggled with was the garbage can. What could we do. Well Pinterest for the win here! I saw that someone made a kid size garbage can with wheels. WINNER! Off we went to Walmart to get a garbage can. George had to hold that garbage can the entire ride home while he was in his carseat. I am sure people were wondering what in the world was going on in our car. I think once you have a toddler you stop asking those questions so much when you see strange things. lol

Art bought the wheels at Lowe's. I let him be in charge of getting them on the can. He did a really nice job. He also had a handle laying around the garage, so he added that. I printed Waste Management signs off the internet and we taped them to the can. George LOVES this garbage can. One morning he woke up at 7am, jumped out of bed and was wheeling the can around the house. 

Happy Halloween!

BOOTD

I am late to the flat lay posts. I recently bought a white board to do some baby OOTD. George wears such cute clothes. It is hard to get a picture of him cooperating in his outfits each day. I am hoping I can teach him to stand still for me soon, so I can get a picture of the outfits. Here is my first try at a BOOTD. Stay tuned for some future posts!

Shirt: Target

Pants: Thrift

Shoes: Kaleb's hand me downs

Happy Mother's Day

Motherhood is better than I ever dreamed it would be. It is a struggle at times.....some days you find yourself wresting an 18 pound baby alligator with poop all over his butt flipping over all while trying not to get poop on anything to cause more laundry. Or the day you turn around to grab meat in the grocery store to see him chewing on the sales ad and you have to pull pieces out of his mouth h...oping your not giving him bacteria....the struggle is real...Where he got the sales ad I have no idea. 

Then there are times he sneezes while eating avocado and there is green stuff everywhere....everyone cracks up laughing. How about his first bite of yogurt with the most sour expression lol 

Hearing him laughing hysterically chasing the dog around the house or not letting the dog off the couch. The mornings you walk in his room greeted by the biggest smile, grabs your neck and plants a big kiss on your cheek. These are the moment you wait a lifetime for and remember for a lifetime. 

Happy Mother's Day!

Saturday of First

On Saturday we took little George to the farmers market for the first time. He was so impressed he slept through the entire trip. He then proceeded to sleep for 2 hours while we went to Lowes and Target. We were able to go quickly and get lots done. I couldn't believe he slept getting moved in and out of the car numerous times. 

I love going to the farmers market to buy lots of yummy veggies. We bought some salmon too. We had it on Sunday. Boy was it yummy!!!  I put a mixture of mayo and oyster sauce along with mushrooms over the top of the salmon. Super delish! 

Adventures in Nursing

My goal was to breast feed for the first year. When I was pregnant I told my mom if it didn't work out I wouldn't be horribly upset. Well fast forward to a hormonal woman who just had a baby and struggling to breast feed.....it became a big deal. The first 5 weeks of breast feeding was horribly hard. First there was the jaundice struggle for about 3 weeks. In & out of the hospital, trying to feed him as much & often as we could to get that jaundice out of his system, latch issues, porn size boobs, a baby who refused to nurse, sore nipples and the list continues. 

In the hospital I breast fed as much as I could the first couple days. We had to supplement at first because his sugar was too low. Then we had to supplement because he had jaundice really bad. I tried to keep him under the lights as much as possible when he was in the NICU, so we could go home. I would pump and feed him under the lights. My goal was to get my little man better as soon as possible. 

When my milk came in the poor little guy couldn't latch on at all. My boobs were just enormous. We had a doctors appointment a day after my milk came in. I showed the lactation consultant what I was dealing with. Immediately she said there is no way you can breast feed without a nipple shield. Well that was a game changer right there. It really helped us for a few days.  Then I got a lazy baby. He had been bottle fed so much he only wanted a bottle. The milk came much faster and he didn't have to work to eat. He had been through so much already at this point I just gave him a bottle. When it came time to nursing he would scream bloody murder. My mom thought I was being dramatic when I told her how he would act. Well she saw it first hand and couldn't believe it. 

The first 5 weeks of his life I tried to nurse. I would fight him as much as I could to get him to latch. Some days I just didn't feel like fighting. I was going through a lot with my health, numerous tests and a lot of stress for me. Nursing was just one battle I didn't want to keep fighting, so I pumped. He received pumped breast milk for his feedings. 

Pumping takes A LOT of time. I would pump 20 minutes, feed the baby, change diapers and an entire hour would pass. I was spending 3-4 hours a night just feeding. I was EXHAUSTED. 

At 5 weeks a light bulb went off and the little guy started nursing. He latched right now and nursed for an entire day until 6pm. At 6pm he screamed his head off for a bottle. I fought him a little bit then gave him a bottle. I figured if I only had to give one bottle that was a big improvement. I noticed if he had more than one bottle a day he really fought me on nursing. 

We are now going on week 9 and I have been nursing exclusively for 4 weeks. I pump 1-2 times a day just to keep my supply up. I save 1 bottle for outings just in case I can't find a place to nurse. It really is a shame how there is no where to nurse your child. If you nurse in public you get looks. I also give him a bottle when we go to church. I find it much easier to just bottle feed him a bottle once on Sunday. Sometimes I can feed him during the service and I don't have to miss anything. Other times I go to the cry room to finish feeding him. 

Public places need to have mothers rooms with a changing table and a place to nurse. A lot of places don't even have a changing table. The things you find out when you become a mother. 

I made a list the other day of places I have now nursed. I just whip it out if the little guy needs to eat. I try to stay covered the best I can, but if something peeks out oh well. This is nature people!

Movies
Chiropractor office
Old Navy fitting room
Babies R Us mothers room
Target parking lot
Nordstrom mothers room

My goal is still the same to nurse until he is a year old. I was ready to give up during the first 5 weeks and give him formula. I have tried about 5 different types of formula. Each one he gets sick from it. Either he gets really gassy, pukes, or fussy. Luckily I have enough breast milk in the freezer to help when I go back to work. 

Halloween

Little George was a policeman for Halloween. The poor little guy had a terrible first Halloween. He had a really bad tummy ache and cried all day long. Finally around 7pm it went away and he was able to go trick or treating. I wanted to get some pictures of him with the pumpkin, but that didn't happen. I barely got the couple pictures of him in his costume. 

Handing out candy with daddy

Wordless Wednesday

Sleepy Boy!

This little man likes to sleep except between 2am-4am. Then he likes to party it up watching tv, snacking, talking, anything except sleeping. We have been trying to wake him up at night. It is almost impossible to wake him up at night. He gets fussy, cries and screams in our faces when we try to wake him up. Most of the time he just sleeps. I will sit him up, rub his feet, take his clothes off, change his diaper....nothing works. 

He LOVES to sleep beside me. I swore I would not let him sleep with me. Well when you are barely getting any sleep there comes a time you just want to sleep and will let your baby sleep wherever they want too. I know he is sound asleep when his little tongue is sticking out of his mouth like the picture above. He loves to have a blanket next to his face. Sometimes he moves the blanket over his face.

We were trying to wake him up above. He was yawning away. Cutest little baby yawn ever!

Laying in Nonna's bed trying to take a cat nap. He was asleep until I pulled out the camera then his eyes popped open. He likes his paci in his mouth until he falls asleep. Once he fall asleep he wants his paci touching his lips, but not in his mouth. 

Wordless Wednesday

OOTD

Some days I get dressed up and other days I am in a tshirt, jeans and pony tail. It all depends how much sleep I get the night before. Thank goodness for my mom! She usually takes over around 5am. I don't know how I would have made it without her. Seriously she has saved my sanity. I feel much better about myself and the day if I get myself ready. I need to leave the house once a day too. 

Blazer: Target

Tee: Old Navy

Jeans: Old Navy

Shoes: Bass

Everything: Old Navy

Baby: 

Skinny jeans: Gap

Shirt: Babies R Us

Shoes: Vans
Bow Tie: Childrens Place

My outfit: Old Navy

Outfit: Old Navy

Thank goodness for Old Navy! I buy way too much stuff from that store!

Favorite 1 Month Items

I can't believe little George is a month old already! There are a few things that became my favorite baby items. I couldn't have made it the past month without these items. 

1. Colic Calm - go buy this stuff before your baby is born! Around 2 weeks George started getting colicky. I would give him drops in the evening and it saved our sanity. From 4-6 weeks the colic got REALLY bad. The drops didn't help much. We took him to the chiropractor where he put his back in place. What a HUGE difference the adjustment made. I was really worried about getting him adjusted, but seeing the change made all the difference. 

 2. I tried to use "natural" products to get poop out of clothes. Folks! It doesn't work at all. Our clothes were stained. Oxi Clean Max is the way to go! It gets puke, poop and formula out of clothes. 

3. Bath Turtle Temperature - I love this little thing. I put it in the water to test out of the temperature of the water. If it is green it is safe. When the water is too hot it turns red on the top. Water I think is cool enough is not for a baby. 

4. Bamboobies - best nursing pads! I used disposable ones a couple times, but I didn't like the feel of them. Bamboobies don't leak at all, they are soft and washable! 

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

OOTD

Entire outfit is from Old Navy

I recently bought the jacket and shoes. I love the shoes. They are super comfy and easy to slip on. The earrings I found online for $3. They are knock offs, but for $3 they are fabulous!

Leopard Skirt is from 2 Sunday's ago. Our first time back at church. 

You can tell how much Bing Bong has grown from 2 weeks to 3 weeks.

Luckily my weight has bounced right back to below I started. I am down 8 pounds from when I first got pregnant. I am able to wear my pants and some of my skirts. My body changed being pregnant. I knew it was going to change, so I wasn't surprised. I can't wear my tops. I guess with nursing my top is just going to be larger. Eventually it will go back to normal. I hope so, because I have a ton of tops.