Category Archives: New Baby

Babies GALORE

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To say that I’m surrounded by babies would be an understatement. If we’re just talking “Facebook Friends” I could literally say that I know someone who births a baby every single day. Maybe not really, but it’s close.

I am 100% surrounded by people with babies under 6 months old or who are pregnant. And, it’s amazing! I absolutely love it.

Just this week… yes, it’s only Tuesday, two of my good friends just had babies. One yesterday morning and one this morning. Can you believe it?

Even better, both of these girls delivered vaginally! GO MOMMA POWER!

And actually, another girl from my high school just had a successful VBAC. I think it was yesterday? I emailed her and asked her to chat when things settle down and already heard back.

Besides all those babies, three of my other besties have babes 6 months or under (and another friend with a babe who’s 8 months). Then I have two friends due next month and my Seattle bestie and another friend who was pregnant with me last time due within weeks of my due date.

That makes it seem like I have tons of friends.

I don’t.

I have literally just accounted for all of my friends. SO. MANY. BABIES.

I absolutely love it. Seeing all of these tiny babies is getting me pretty excited for our little bundle. Such happy times.

A Couple Presents for Bumpkins

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Aside from making some nursery purchases yesterday (we are switching over the nursery from Charlotte’s zen little princess space to bumpkins’ rustic lodge), I’ve made a couple other budget purchases.

Since finding out baby bump is a boy, I just couldn’t resist. Thankfully, I am SO fortunate (yet again) to have excessive hand-me-downs coming my way from my sister (and nephew), so we really don’t need much. But, who can resist a good (and adorable) deal?

Here’s the loot…

One 6-12 month romper by Baby Boden purchased on a Facebook Buy, Sell, Trade Group (my new obsession) for only $3!

  
So cute, right? Thanks to my Milly for doing the dirty work and picking this one up for me!

And #2, some brand I can’t remember, but literally the softest and coziest jammy (that I wish came in my size but is instead 6-9 months) for only $4 from Marshalls.

  
I love good deals and can’t wait to meet the little mister who’s going to bring these cute little outfits to life! 

We’re Having A…

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Charlotte is very excited to announce that come May of THIS YEAR (Happy New Year, All!), she’ll welcome a little brother into our family! 

    
    

C’s “I Love My Brother” onesie: $4 from Kohl’s 

 We had our anatomy scan ultrasound this past Tuesday (12/29) and it went perfectly! Baby is healthy and adorable. 

He was a little wiggle worm and smooshed his hands in his face and laid with his legs over his head like a goon. It was so fun to see him play around in there and just such a relief to hear that he’s seemingly healthy!

The doc said that a positive anatomy scan reduces chances of any genetic disorders by 50%! 

And gender… Let’s just say the hubs is pretty darn pleased! Me too! I envision a cuddly little buddy and I just can’t wait to snuggle this sweet little guy.

My heart is bursting.

Check out this little stud…

   
    
    
   

Baby Kicks!!

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12/3/16

  For the past few days, I’ve been feeling like I could feel the baby move when I sneezed or did something abruptly… Just a quick movement and then things felt still.

But tonight, as I ignored the Packers getting their butts kicked by the Lions, I felt continuous baby kicks!

My absolute favorite part of pregnancy has begun!!! I feel really excited. My little baby boo is happily splashing around. 

Could be the excessive amount of 7up I just drank, but either way, my heart is warm.

💛💛💛

The 3am News

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9/12/15

On Wednesday, September 9th at 3 am, we got news that will forever change our lives, hearts, and future. Our little Charlie is gaining a sibling 🙂

Now, it might seem weird that the news came at 3am… and that’s because it is weird. I had been feeling sick for a week, so I decided to buy some pregnancy tests. I planned to wait until Thursday, which was the day I was expecting my period… BUT, for those of you who remember the last time (when I took 10 pregnancy tests before testing positive), I have an issue with patience.

Anyway, I woke up at 3 am to pee (I will discuss this and other pre-pregnancy symptoms in another post), and decided… why not test now? I mean… it’s the good morning pee. I didn’t want to waste it.

So, I quietly unwrapped the test, did my thing and waited. I walked back and forth from one side of the bathroom to the other. Finally, I let my eyes reach the test: Pregnant. I can’t explain the feeling in one word. At first it was like, “duh”… I knew I was. And then came the “holy crap!” factor… not scared, but kind of “here we go again!” And of course excitement! So much excitement that I was awake for the next 2.5 hours googling, downloading baby apps, and trying to distract myself.

I duplicated my message to hubs from last time, but instead of putting the announcement sign near the toilet (which didn’t work as planned last time), I put it near the toothbrushes. After reaching over the sign and pregnancy test three times, he finally saw the message and ran out of the bathroom with a full face of toothpaste and half screamed, “REALLY?!” with a big sudsy smile!

The sign when I told Hubs we were pregnant with Charlie:

amazing dad

The sign to announce our newest miracle:

  
We’re really happy and really lucky. We literally just started trying this month. Mark said I must have hungry eggs. haha Nice, huh?

We let Charlie break the news to the parents:

  

The End to Nursing

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I realized that I never posted about “weaning” Charlie. As I’ve mentioned a million times, I absolutely loved nursing my little lady. It was SUCH precious time together and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to do so. Not to mention, as a side, that at 17 months, Charlotte has yet to need any form of antibiotic. Healthy little chickadee.

Anyway, I digress.

Up until 11 months, I nursed her 4-a million times per day (clearly a million was as an infant and 4 was at a year) and pumped once… BUT, once I hit 11ish months, I stopped pumping. I had enough milk to last until she was a year and at one year, we gave her cow’s milk anytime I wasn’t there to nurse her. (I hated pumping with a deep burning passion. Cheers to all you mommas who do it way more than that. I don’t know how you do it.)

So, how long were we able to breastfeed? Charlie and I made it 14.5 months! I think we both would have gone longer if it weren’t for the fact that my supply literally disappeared almost instantly upon me getting pregnant.

It was actually quite sad. We went from nursing 3-4 times per day to pretty much having to stop cold turkey.

Charlotte would go to nurse and would pull off because she wasn’t getting any milk. It was actually really sad.

She would point to my chest, and through sobs say, “dat” and sign “milk.”

Thankfully, this gut-wrenching experience only lasted for a few days until she got used to the bottle.

The only time it ever really came up after those first few days to a week was when we would bring her in our bed for Saturday/Sunday morning snuggles. Again, we started bringing a bottle into bed with her and that seemed to eliminate the tears.

And just like that, we were done.

It’s funny because it’s been a non-issue for over a month now, when all of a sudden the other day, it came up again. I was changing and C happened to be in the room. She pointed at my chest. I knelt down to start my explanation of the female anatomy when she came towards me, mouth open.

I laughed and explained that she used to drink from mommy’s breasts, but not anymore. Soon, mommy would feed her new little brother or sister, just as I had fed her.

She laughed, shook her head “yup” and we moved on.

 

Bunny Sniffer

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Charlotte has two “lovies” as others call them… These are her two “must haves” for bedtime/nap time/still half asleep time. 

1) her lamb wubbanub – aka her paci with a little lamb stuck on the end of it…   

2) her bunny. This cutie little thing from Pottery Barn Kids (called a thumbie)…   

For many months now, Charlotte’s predominant self-soothing technique has been sniffing her bunny. 

It’s super goofy. 

She does it when she nurses, when she’s sucking on her paci or just whenever. She takes bunny’s ear and sometimes holds it directly under her nostril and other times just balances it there and then proceeds with what she’s doing. 

I’m not complaining because she’s a mega self soother, but I find it so interesting. We have a few of these bunnies floating around… And I don’t feel like they have any specific scent, but it’s her thing! She’s a bunny sniffer…   

 Anyone else’s kids have unique self soothing techniques?

That Second Nap…

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Charlotte has been having some big issues with her second nap the past two days. Both morning naps ended up at about 3+ hours, which is great! BUT, when it comes time for the afternoon nap, she fights sleep like a ninja. I know she’s tired… she’s yawning, rubbing her eyes like crazy, and acting… well, a little less than pleasant.

But for some reason, when I put her in bed, she’s just not going to sleep. She should have been sleeping 40 minutes ago, but instead, I’m hearing peeps.

Charlotte, PLEASE GO TO SLEEP! Please… pretty please… please.

Yesterday, after playing in her crib for nearly 2 hours, I finally gave up and took her out of her crib so we could go home.

It’s crazy because her morning schedule was perfectly on point.

Hmph.

The Constantly Thrown Off Schedule

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On a typical day, we follow a decently set schedule (or at least Charlotte does)…

  
6:30/7:30    Wake Up

9:20    First Nap

11:30/12    Wake up

12/12:30    Lunch time!

2:20    Second Nap

4:30/5    Wake up

5:30/6    Dinner time!

6:30    Bath time (every other day)

7    Bed time

Obviously there is playing and other sorts of activities in between all of that, but that’s been our general schedule for quite some time now. Well… kind of.

The past few weeks (or maybe it’s been longer?) have been such a whirlwind of activity. From visiting with family, seeing friends, doing fun summer activities, etc, I feel like we are constantly throwing off Charlotte’s schedule or skipping a nap or keeping her up way too late.

I’ve got some serious guilt going because some mornings, this baby just wakes up tired.

I’m hoping that we’re on our way to quieter days and nights for the babes to really get back on track, but until then, the poor baby continues to get thrown off. And her poor parents continue to pay the price.

Let’s just say, Charlotte isn’t her sweetest self when she’s tired. She’s not terrible… just way more mini outbursts, whining, etc. All the good stuff.

Of course, tonight after work we are headed to Chicago (1.5 hours away) for dinner with our family. We’ll bring the pack and play, but even if she sleeps on the way home, it’ll be interupted sleep.

I guess we’ll start back up with the schedule tomorrow…