Month: February 2016

What a month of sickness over here! We’ve been so healthy all winter, but the month of February has hit Turner hard between strep, an ear infection, asthma, and now allergies! I finally have a minute to breathe and play catch up.

In my attempt to give Gracie as much screen time as Turner has gotten in his three years, I wanted to write a post of her milestones now that she’s 5 months! I always go back and look at how diligently I kept records of Turner. Now, even as I sit to write this, I struggle to remember when Gracie did what! So here we go…

Age: 5 months
Weight: 12+ lbs at her 4 month visit (6th percentile)
Favorite Food: We haven’t started any cereal or solids. Just Momma’s Milk and the occasional formula mixed with breast milk when I need to bottle feed. THIS is the kind I use. In her bottle I mix 2 oz breastmilk with 2 oz water and a scoop of formula.
Movement: Rolling both ways.
Favorite Toy: Her bouncer, and play gym
Favorite Music: Mommy and Turner singing
Milestones (give or take a week): At 5 weeks she was smiling and sleeping through the night. Around 10 weeks she started batting at toys and drooling. Between 16-20 weeks she rolled from back to tummy and then tummy to back. She also started laughing and “talking”. Here’s a glimpse of her chatting it up before bath time.

Untitled from Emily on Vimeo.

 

Gracie at 5 Weeks

Gracie at 9 Weeks

Gracie at 14 Weeks

Gracie at 20 Weeks

Gracie at 23 Weeks

Now at least I have something to look back on since she’s growing like a weed! Time is truly flying. Have a fantastic week!

Mondays are always hard. The weekend is over, and it’s back to the grindstone. It’s me, the kids, work, and lots of coffee. Well, I guess lots of coffee is a part of my weekends too.

Our Mondays start the same way. I pack up the kids and start our day at the gym. It just gets us up and out and sets my mind in “go-mode” for the rest of the day! If Stew’s not too busy at work, he’ll come with us. Today, he was too busy. He went ahead of us so he could get out to Dewees earlier.

So, we started our day much in the same. Stew took Turner downstairs to get breakfast ready while I finished up feeding Gracie, pumping, and getting her down for her morning nap (HERE is our schedule if you’re interested).

I get downstairs as Stew is heading out. He says, “Turner ate and peed”. Excellent! Ok, so all I need to do is get Turner dressed, grab Gracie, and head out! It’s 8:40 at this point. That’s 5 minutes before we need to leave in order to get to my class in time. We’ll make it!

As I’m brushing my teeth, Turner starts yelling, “OH NOOOO I PEED MY PANTS”.  He does not like making a mess, so this is very upsetting. He starts crying and I run up to grab a new pair of undies and get him dressed all over again. Ok, DONE. Time to go get Gracie. I walk into her room and it stinks! Ugh… she pooped. I pick her up to change her diaper, seriously considering telling the girls in the nursery at the gym that she must have pooped in the car! Then I reeled it in and changed her diaper. She just smiled at me as if to say, “it’s ok, Momma. You can handle this”. Indeed I can, Gracie.

We finally get in the car, running late, but my kids are dry and happy. So I can’t complain.

And although I had the blues when I woke up, thinking of the never-ending to-do list awaiting me, I’m halfway through the day! And there’s nothing nap time and a giant iced coffee can’t fix ;o)

Happy Monday!

No matter what the reason, we’ve all experienced Mom Guilt at some point in our lives. The most recent for me has been….NURSING! I really contemplated whether or not to write a post about this for fear of being judged. But I figured, if I was feeling this, I’m sure a million other moms are going through the same thing!

With Turner I had no problems. He ate just fine, and I nursed him for a year. Gracie is a bit different! She isn’t as big of an eater. She takes in about 2 oz per feeding and I nurse her 6 times a day. She’s now 5 months old and has gone from the 15th percentile for weight, to the 6th! My ped wasn’t worried because she’s super happy and sleeps like a champ. He just told me to keep an eye on her weight.

When she was born, I was pumping, in addition to nursing her, and produced at least 5 or 6 oz each time. So I was able to stock up the freezer! Last week, I noticed my freezer stash had dwindled down quite a bit! I nearly had a panic attack! It never occurred to me that I would run out of breast-milk! What’s happened is, because she doesn’t eat that much while I nurse her, I only pump about 2 ounces. When I give her a pumped bottle, I use 4 ounces. So, I’m not producing enough to replenish my freezer supply. And, over the months, it finally added up!

I started asking my mom friends what sort of formula they use. I had all different options to read up on. Last week, Gracie and I took a stroll through Target to read the ingredients and compare every formula created. Enter the dreaded Mom Guilt. I literally almost burst into tears in the middle of the store. So many thoughts…Gracie is so tiny, how can I put anything so unnatural into her body? I have failed as a mother! How could I do this to her and not Turner? I mean, look at this face!

So, before going down the formula road, I tried (and still do) these options (ask your Dr before doing anything because clearly I’m not one!):

1. Drink a crap ton of water
2. Eat more!
3. Mother’s Milk Herbal Tea
4. Fenugreek Seed Capsules
5. Lactation Cookies. Honestly, I will probably eat these for the rest of my life because they’re delicious. Eat 5 cookies a day? SURE! The key ingredient in these is Brewer’s Yeast

So, after trying natural remedies (and I’m still not giving up by the way), talking with friends who know how granola I am, and lots of praying, I decided to give myself a break. I’m in a different place than I was three years ago when Turner was a baby. I didn’t have a toddler and I didn’t own a business. So, what I will do is nurse her like normal and pump like normal. On the days I give her a bottle, I mix 2 oz of breast-milk with 2 oz of Honest Formula because to me, some breast-milk is better than none!

So, for those of you who really put pressure on yourselves to be perfect, give yourselves a break! We have a million and one things to accomplish in a day. Being hard on ourselves shouldn’t be one of them! And at the end of the day, loving our babies is the most important part!

I’m back! The blog was down for about a month! Luckily my web guru was able to get it up and running again (thanks Reggie!!). Sorry for those of you looking for specific posts! Gladly, we’re back in action!

This past Friday was my 30th birthday! I can’t believe I’m 30! I don’t feel a day over 21, although I’m a tad more tired and my joints crack and ache pretty much all the time. Ok, so maybe I do feel 30!

This weekend was the most amazing celebration! Turner stayed at my mom’s house for the weekend while Stewart, Gracie, and I stayed at a beach house on Folly Beach.

I’m sure you’re wondering why we brought Gracie and not Turner. Well, we would have sent them both to Gigi’s house, but the thought of packing enough breast milk and needing to pump all weekend was enough to put me over the edge. So it was much easier to bring her along. She’s so easy going that we still had a nice quiet staycation!

Friday was spent unpacking, grocery shopping, and getting settled. Stewart planned a little party for me at the house Saturday night. I came up with a really easy menu so that I could enjoy myself and not spend the day cooking. I put a huge brisket in the crock pot Saturday morning (recipe HERE) for pulled brisket tacos. While that cooked, we bundled up and walked around Charleston to hit my favorite coffee shop, Kudu.

When we got home, we got everything ready for the party! The kitchen in this house was perfect for a gathering. It had an open layout with a long kitchen island which was great for the food. I put all the “fixins” out so people could create their own tacos. I also made a big thing of baked beans and Spanish rice. For dessert, we had key lime cupcakes. And, of course, the dirty martini was the pièce de résistance!

I had SUCH a fun night. We laughed hard, drank too much (and by too much I mean I had two and a half drinks, which was too much), and ate a lot. Thanks to all who celebrated with me! And thanks to Stewart for planning it!