DIY Buffalo Plaid Pants

I found some cute buffalo plaid pants for G online. They wanted $20 for a pair. I started searching online during one of my middle of the night nursing sessions and found 2 yards of fabric for $8 at Joann Fabrics! B-I-N-G-O

I used a pair of his Gap pants as a pattern. 

I had leftover black knit fabric I've been holding onto since I cut off a dress. Perfect! It took me about an hour & fourty-five minutes to make 1 simple pair of pants. Life with a baby triples every project =)

here is his little outfit all completed! How cute is he going to look in this outfit?!?!?! He is taking a MUCH needed nap, so pictures of him later wearing his new outfit!! 

Happy 3 Months George!

The little man turned 3 months old last Saturday!!!  He wanted to pull the tie sticker off his shirt the entire time. 

Here are some of the things he is doing now:

Giggles

Follows people with his eyes

Watches tv

Laughs & talks to the dog 

Sleeps in his crib

Slept 6 hours straight 

Blows bubbles

Sits and looks at pictures of himself 

Loves when I read to him 

Loves to sit in his bumbo

- sits in it at dinner laughing & talking to us

- sits while Nonna does her hair & make up. The Bumbo is on the toilet lol

He won't watch all tv shows. He likes Ellen and Dude You're Screwed. He will be 3 years old & know how to survive if he is lost in the woods lol When he watches tv he is glued to it. I try not to let him watch it for more than a few minutes. Then I try to play with him or talk to him. We do not want a tv addicted at 3 months! 

We started putting him in his crib 2 days before he turned 3 months. He slept 5 hours straight, ate and then 3 hours. The next 2 nights he slept 6 hours, ate and 2 hours. Sunday night he slept 7 hours, ate and 2 hours. Last night he was up every 2 hours. Ugh. I thought we had a great thing going. He sleeps much better in his crib than anywhere else. I was worried it would take up months to get him to sleep in there. 

I returned to work last week part time for the month of December. I'm sooooo glad I asked about part time to ease back in. I hate leaving him, but it wasn't as hard as I thought. It also helps I know he is in great hands. 

He knows who momma is!  Once I get home he screams if Art or my mom want to hold him. On the weekends when we are all here all day he lets everyone hold him. In the evenings he pretty much just wants me. I'm not complaining at all =)

We are just loving life with this little guy!!!! 

Sammy

One night when I feeding the baby Sammt got out of his bed, laid on my spot, looked at me & went to sleep lol. Crazy dog!  

Waiting for someone to throw his toy! 

Sammy learned early on when we take pictures there could be a flash, so he started closing his eyes when he saw a camera. The first time I put George in him he jumped away. This time he sat there for awhile with George on his back. He is getting use to George. 

He comes up to George daily and smells him. Sammy doesn't like it when George cries. If we aren't by the baby he will come get one of us. If we have George Sammy stands by us until he stops crying. 

Baby OOTD

The majority of George clothes have been bought for him by others or hand me downs. I have maybe bought him 10 outfits for newborn through 18 months. He is one lucky well dressed baby. 

Shirt: Carters

Jacket: Target

Pants: Carters

Shoes: Zulily

Shirt: Carters

Overalls: Gymboree

Blue Button Up: Babies R Us

Sweatshirt & Pants: Carters

Shoes: Old Navy

Outfit: Carters
Bib: Gymboree

Shoes: Jane.Com

Outfit: Babies R Us

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! 

Creamy Potato Soup

I found this recipe here, but I made changes for it to work for me and the ingredients we had in the house. This has become our new favorite potato soup recipe! 

Creamy Potato Soup
Roux ingredients: 4 T flour, 2 T buter, 2 T olive oil (made separately then added to soup)
Soup ingredients:2 T butter
2 T olive oil
3 stalks celery (chopped)
3 carrots (chopped) or 1 cup of baby carrots
1 small yellow onion (diced)
4 C chicken stock
2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups half & half
2 T chicken bouillon
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp pepper
1 T parsley flakes
3 bay leaves
1/4 t turmeric
1/4 t garlic
5-6 medium size potatoes

Directions:

1. Make the Roux first in a separate pan. Melt olive oil and butter in a saucepan. Sprinkle flour over top and whisk together until smooth and bubbly. It should only take a few minutes. Set aside. If you wanted to make gluten free you can use a corn starch or gluten free type of flour. 

2. In a dutch oven, or large soup pot, heat olive oil and butter over medium heat.

3. Add vegetables and sauté until softened. 

4. Add the rest of the ingredients, including the roux, and bring to a boil. I don't add the potatoes until this point otherwise they get mushy. Make sure to stir every few minutes to keep the milk from scalding.

5. Once boiling, turn down to low and simmer for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

6. Taste test and add more salt or seasonings. Remember flavors develop over time, so don’t over do it!

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

Menu Monday - Eating Clean

Last week we started having eating more clean foods. No processed foods. In one week Art lost 6 pounds. It wasn't even a diet. I do get jealous how easy it is for men to lose weight. Art didn't even restrict as much stuff as me and he lost twice as much weight as me. I counted calories and restricted more foods. The nice thing about eating clean is that if you are hungry you just eat something. I tried to limit my calories between 1500-1800. I wasn't super strict on the calories since I am nursing. Some days I ate 1500 and others 1750.  I really noticed a difference in how I felt as far as feeling less bloated, more energy, cravings went away some and less fatigue. I still want some type of sugar each day. I am going to work on cutting that out completely this week. No M&M's or cookies etc. 

Last week I cooked ahead to put food in the fridge for us to heat up. I cooked up some chicken, ground beef, couscous, farro, roasted veggies, cup up fresh veggies. This really helped me make better choices during the day. I have to grab food when I can with a little baby. 

For breakfast I made an egg and a piece of toast. I would have a smoothie as a mid morning snack. Lunch I would have a carb, veggies and protein. Usually I made a bowl of some sort - farro, chicken, and roasted veggies. I would mix it all together, heat it in the microwave and eat it while I fed the baby. It worked out really well. 

I pack breakfast & lunch for Art to take with him each morning. Neither of us eat breakfast at home. We eat once we are at work. It is just much easier for us. We rush around in the morning to get to work and then eat while we check email. Art likes to eat cottage cheese with fruit for breakfast. His lunch I would make him a burrito bowl - couscous, ground beef, lettuce, tomato, sour cream and avocado. I sent cut up fresh veggies and ranch for him to snack on. He came home eat night feeling full instead of starving. One day I made him eggs for breakfast, changed up the lunches with a salad or farro with a protein. 

This week we are going to keep going with the clean eating. I will continue to make the same breakfast for us. Lunches I am planning to make tuna to put on a salad, taco salad (meatless) using beans, brown rice, farro, chicken, roasted - zucchini, onion, brussel sprouts, turnips, yams. I really love farro! 

Dinner:
Burrito Bowls
Chicken & roasted veggies
Steak & sweet potatoes
Cuban Pork Chops, brown rice and a veggie
A lot of places are offering a free meal for Veterans Day, so we will go out for dinner. I told Art we could go to 3 places for each meal on Tuesday to take advantage of all the free stuff. lol 
Breakfast - Starbucks is giving away a free coffee, Krispy Kreme a free donut and small coffee, iHop red, white and blue pancakes. 
Lunch & Dinner - Texas Road House, Hooters, Applebees, Red Robin are all offering free meals or a discount. 

I am going to keep trying to plan ahead with our meals, so we continue to eat healthy and lose weight. Most importantly I want us to eat healthy. I want little George to eat healthy from a young age. My goal is to keep as much processed food away from him as possible. Right now he is getting what I eat, so I need to avoid processed foods. 

OOTD

Today I copied J's Everyday Fashion OOTD. Most of the time it's hard for me to copy inspirational outfit photos because my wardrobe right now is very small. I actually had everything & it fit! 

Cardigan: Loft

Tank & skinnies: Old Navy

Shoes: Gap

Necklace: Forever 21

Happy Monday!

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. 

Birth Story

Pregnancy was nothing like I expected and neither was my delivery. I am slowly learning I need to stop setting expectations. 

The doctor had decided it was best for me to be induced at 38 weeks. My placenta wasn't delivering nutrients like it should to the baby. The baby was head down and we were scheduled for an induction on September 3. The doctor warned me it could take 3 days. I laughed because I thought he was kidding. He was NOT kidding as I was about to learn. 

We had to call labor & delivery at 4pm on the 3rd. I couldn't wait until 4pm, so I called at 3:15pm. One nurse said she couldn't find me on the list. I about lost it! She transferred me to the head nurse at that time. She found me on the list and asked us to come in at 7:30pm. We dropped Sammy off at the inlaws. We told him we would see him in a couple days. We had dinner, put our stuff in the car and headed to the hospital. For the first time in over a week I was no longer nervous. 

We arrived at the hospital where we were put in a triage room. There weren't any rooms clean at the moment. The doctor came in to talk to us on the plan for the evening. As long as the baby heart rate stayed up they would keep the pitocin on until the baby came, but if his heart rate dropped we needed to talk about a c section. The doctor checked me and I was a finger tip dilated. At 10pm they set us up in a room and started pitocin. Around 11pm the contractions mildly started. I could feel them sporadic. Art went to sleep and I watched the clock. I was way too excited to get to sleep. I think I slept 2-3 hours all night. It didn't help the nurses kept coming into the room too. 

The next morning (Sept 4) it was crazy town in L&D. So many babies being born. We were put on the back burner since the active labor took priority. The nerve. lol  I was able to shower, walk around and then hooked back up on pitocin. They decided to try a balloon catheter to try to get me to dilate more. I was only a 1 at this point. Oh the pressure I felt when it was put in. Holy bazooka! I kept breathing because I knew giving birth was going to be a lot worse. My doctor was on call, so we were REALLY hoping the baby would come when he was on call. He told the other doctor on call if I went into labor to call him, so he could come deliver the baby. 

The next morning (Sept 5) around 5am the doctor came to check me after they removed the balloon catheter and I was a whooping 2. The doctor stripped my membranes at this point to help get things moving. That was ROUGH! Contractions starting coming a little closer together. I finally lost my mucus plug after the membranes were stripped. Early afternoon the doctor on call came in & broke my water. She said I should start to feel contractions in about an hour. HA! I started to feel them right away. It got painful REALLY fast. I asked the nurse what type of pain meds I could have. I could have one that was put in my IV that would make me feel like I was drunk or an epidural. I asked for the drunk drug after 41 hours of labor. I needed something to take the edge off the pain. 

I got one taste of pain free and knew I wasn't going to make it without an epidural. Art had been pushing for me to get an epidural because he couldn't handle seeing me in pain. I asked the nurse when I could get an epidural? She said right now if you want it. I said get there here before these drugs wear off. 

I had been throwing up throughout the day. I had to asked the anesthesiologist to wait while I threw up. It took about 15-20 minutes to get the epidural put in. I felt relief almost immediately when it was started. I could see on the monitor the contractions were coming harder and faster. I couldn't feel a thing. Why I had this crazy idea not to get an epidural I have NO idea! Bring on the drugs!!! No reason to be a hero when it comes to pain. 

At 10pm I was at a 3. We decided it was time to get some sleep because it could be awhile still. I had decided at that point the baby would come on Sunday. I was so hungry and thirsty. I asked my nurse if I could have a popsicle. She brought me a grape one. I HATE grape, but I wasn't going to complain at this point. It was the best grape popsicle I have ever tasted in my life. One of my internal monitors fell off around midnight, so the doctor checked me I was a 4. Finally moving along. At 1:45am the doctor came to check me because I was starting to get a fever and I was a 5. A fever never developed! My temp had started to go up, but went right back to normal. 

At around 2am I woke up to a lot of pressure. I really felt I had to go to the bathroom. Part of me was embarrassed because how was I going to do that? Finally I called the nurse at 3am. I told her I am having A LOT of pressure. The nurse said that is a good thing because your body is progressing. She went to get the doctor to check me. The doctor said not much will probably have changed in the past hour. I remember looking at the clock and it was 3:15am. The doctor checked me and I was a NINE!!!!! WHAT!!!! She said I probably had another hour before I was a 10 and a couple hours of pushing. My body was telling me this was going to be a lot faster than an hour to get to a 10. I called my BFF to come to the hospital. She arrived at 3:45am right when I started to push. 

At first the nurse was counting. She was annoying to me how she would get to 9 and hold it for way tooooo long. Finally Art took over counting. It was calming to me to hear him count. I had been pushing for about 40 minutes when I thought this is never ending the doctor said push one more time he is almost out. Then I hear he is here. I thought I would push the head out and have to push the rest of his body out. Once the babies head came out the rest of his body just came out. They laid him on a blanket on my chest while they cleaned him off. I started rubbing his little feet then he started crying. I started crying because he was finally here. My little miracle!!!! At that moment the 51 hours of labor was worth it! I would have done it all over again. 

Arthur George was born at 4:28am 5 pounds 8 ounces 20 inches long.