my day...in pictures

In random order because I can't rearrange on my phone. ..

1) I excavated all of these boogers (plus some not pictured) from Benjamin's nose. He sounds a lot better now! He also loves when I dig boogers out...he smiles so big!

2)  We were playing with the blocks in the third picture.  Max was apparently done and decided to throw the blocks at Ben... and then pound one into his forehead. Really,  Max? 

3) We were having a lot of fun before Max suddenly decided to be done. P.S. Max is actually wearing a diaper in this picture. 

4) I made pancakes for breakfast!  We didn't even have any syrup in the house.  I used honey...Max loved it

5) Awww, sleeping so peacefully ♥

6) Benjamin said good morning to me with this all over my shoulder.  Thankfully it's very rare that he spits up (unlike Max, who was a major spitter-upper)

7) He later peed all over my leg (this picture is actually from yesterday,  but he peed on me again today)

It's nap time right now... here's to a better afternoon! 

Breastfeeding, sleeping and the pumpkin patch

It's been over a whole month since I last posted?  Oops! I'm going to try to get this posted before Max wakes up from his nap. We'll see how I do...

Max turned 4 months old on Monday! He had his 4 month check up today and weighed around 12.5 lbs (they weighed him in kilograms, so I don't know how much he weighed today, but yesterday he weighed 12.5 lbs) and he's 26 1/4 inches! He got his immunizations and he did much better than he did last time. Thankfully. I cried right along with him when he got his shots last time, but this time, he just did a little cry for a few seconds and then was a big boy about it. They did make him very sleep though and he's taken a few naps, which is very rare for him. 

The doctor said he's growing great and made the comment on how mature he looks for a baby his age. He said he looks like he could have a real conversation with Max. haha I've had a few other people tell me he looks mature or very much like a boy, whereas some babies apparently don't. Ha. IL've got a manly man of a baby boy, I suppose. 

So, onto breastfeeding. For whatever reason, my milk supply dropped significantly at the beginning of October. Like, I felt like I was drying up completely. Max was starving and I had to go through the 10 or so bags of frozen milk I had in the freezer to keep him happy, and even then, he was still hungry. I spent many evenings crying, right along with him because I was mad at my body for not making the milk that he so badly wanted and needed. I tried fenugreetk, two different kinds of mothers milk tea, lactation cookies, and Dairy Queen pills on Etsy. Nothing increased my milk enough to make my baby happy.

I still go to the breastfeeding class on post each week, and he pretty much stayed the same weight for the whole month of October, between 12.2 and 12.5 lbs. Last week, the doctor suggested I talk to a lactation consultant about why he wasn't gaining weight. So I did. My body just slowed down the milk making process for whatever reason and the LC gave me a prescription to Reglan which helps my body make more milk. There are side effects, as with any medicine, but I have yet to see them, thankfully. Severe facial twitches, depression and exhaustion are the main side effects. The facial twitches are permanent too, even after you stop taking the medication. But I really really really really want to only breastfeed him, so I'm taking the pills. Luckily, it's only a 13 day course of taking the medicine and after I'm done with the course, my milk supply should keep up. I started it last Wednesday and by Sunday, I saw an increase in my  milk. My boobs are getting full in about 2-3 hours, whereas before, it was a good 6-7 hours before they'd feel full. I'm so thankful for the lactation consultants and all of their knowledge and help that they've given me. Max was a great nurser from the beginning, and nursing was very easy for both of us. So it was a big surprise, and not a good one, when I started having these problems. Yesterday I went to the class to get him weighed and he weighed 12.5 lbs when we got to class, and then I fed him on both sides and the weighed him again. In 12 minutes of eating, he gained 5 oz! This was A LOT considering the last few times I weighed, fed and re-weighed him, it was 2 to 2.5 oz. He's eating so much better and getting a full little belly. And this means he's sleeping better too.

Since the day we brought him home from the hospital, he'd been sleeping in the basinette attached to the pack-n-play in our room. He outgrew that in early October (well, if we're being honest here, probably at the end of September, but he was just so cozy in it and slept well that I didn't want to transition him to a different bed! But when his little toes were poking over the edge, I knew I needed to change it up for his safety). So we removed the basinette and he slept in the pack-n-play in our room. He slept absolutely horribly. He'd wake up every hour to hour and a half and be wide awake. I know it takes a few weeks to adjust to a new sleeping environment so I was trying to be patient, but it was difficult because I was exhausted. On Halloween, I spent a good portion of the day thinking about if it'd be a good idea to just take the plunge and put him in his crib for the night. I didn't want him down the hall from me (he's so little!!) but I did think he'd sleep better. I talked to Seth about it that night and he, of course, was like, Lets do it!! It's easier for the guys, I think, to say lets do it to major changes like that. Anyways, we did it and Max slept WONDERFULLY!! He slept for about 4-5 hours, then I fed him and he slept for another 4-5 hours. Tonight will be one week since he's been sleeping in his crib! He's growing up! I do still bring him into our room and nurse him in bed though, then back to his crib he goes. This morning, he was in his crib babbling/talking for a good 30 minutes! It was sooo cute. I had time to shower, do my hair, get dinner in the crockpot and a few minutes at the computer. 

Now, for a few pictures. We went to the pumpkin patch a few weekends ago and did the corn maze, pumpkin slinging and picked out our pumpkins. Max slept through the whole corn maze (this was the first time he was in his big boy stroller and he seemed to enjoy it based on how much he slept in it).

testing it out at home...patrick approves of the stroller too

rainbow when we got to the pumpkin patch!

sleeeeepy! 

unhappy i woke him up

very unhappy

hey ladies

hard life of a baby

I feel like this post was all over the place, and I'm not going to re-read it and re-write it before I publish it! Max is waking up now...good timing...and we're going to take a little walk to the mail box and then we'll play and wait patiently for daddy to get home from work :)

Updates

Max is already a month old! Well, over a month old now. I realized I never put his birth stats on my last post. Whoops! He was 7 lbs and 4 oz and 19.25 inches long. :)

He's gaining weight like a champ; last Thursday, he weighed in at 9.47 lbs and was about 22 inches. I go to a breast feeding class on post each week and he gets weighed. I go mostly to hang out with other moms (we all whip out our boobs and breast feed our kids and chat). There's a lactation consultant and pediatrician there to talk to if we need/want to also. It's at the hospital where he was born and then we go buy a coffee and visit Seth at work for a little bit. It's something for me to look forward to each week (him getting weighed and see how much he's growing) and it gets us out of the house.

Feeding and sleeping has been going well for the most part. Here's a look at our typical day:

Wake up between 7-9, eat off and on until about noon with about a 30 minute nap once or twice in the morning.
Lunch between 12-1 and then he takes about a 4 hour nap. Sometimes I nap with him if I'm tired.
He wakes up around 5-6, eats again and then dozes off and on.
Around 8 or so, we start the "bed time" routine, because he eats off and on from about 8-10. I'm not going to lie: It's sort of frustrating that he eats off and on for so long because feeding him takes forever. I feel bad for saying that, but it's the honest truth. When he's not eating, we just cuddle, so I can't complain too much. Thankfully, the middle of the night feedings aren't nearly as long!

Max is a really good sleeper the majority of the time. He usually sleeps for 3-4 hours at a time (he has since we brought him home). Last night was awesome. He went to bed at 10:30 and slept till 2:56. I fed him and changed him (a routine we have down to 30-45 minutes in the middle of the night) and then he slept till about 6:45. He ate again (another 30 minutes) and we fell back to sleep until 9:26! I got up and showered and by the time I got out, he was waking up. He ate off and on until about 11:30 and he's been asleep since about noon.

Breast feeding has been easy for the most part. I got chapped nipples a few days after we got home from the hospital, but I went to the breast feeding class and got some good advice from the lactation consultant and it's been smooth sailing ever since. She also gave us a manual breast pump and I just recently got up the nerve to use it. OMG. I'm in love with it. It is so easy to use, and it takes less than 10 minutes to produce a 4 oz bottle. Since Max is a cluster feeder, a bottle will be very handy to have on hand when we have to get out the door in a hurry. I still nurse him 95% of the time; it's just the last few days, he's had one bottle per day. And it's usually Seth who feeds him the bottle; I'm glad that they're getting that experience too. The first bottle Seth gave Max, Max kept starting at him, giving him a look like, "who are you? You're not the normal face I see when I eat!" But he didn't care too much because he chugged that bottle. It was really cute.

Over the weekend, we went to test drive a new/used car (that's a whole different post). Max was getting hungry but I had my breast pump, so as we were driving around this quaint little town, I started pumping milk (while silently saying a prayer we didn't get stopped at a light next to some young guy in a huge lifted truck who could look into our windows). We pulled into a Bank of America parking lot and Seth proceeded to 'milk' me, as we call it. A few minutes later, we were in a little cafe, sharing a banana split and feeding Max. (That cute little cafe also didn't have a baby friendly changing table, so I changed him in the booth we were sitting in. A mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do!) 

Seth's parents and grandma came to visit us last week and we had a few day trips. We went to the ocean and went to Pikes Place. While we were at the ocean, we stopped for lunch at a sit down restaurant and Max was hungry so I fed him. I got my cover out, attempted to feed him and he was thrashing his head all around, screaming his head off and it was not going well. (Might I add that he always latches on fairly quickly and never throws his head around or wails while he nurses!) So I decided to take him out to the car and feed him there, thinking he didn't like the cover. Honest to God, he gave me a smirk as we were sitting down in the car (like a 'ha ha mom, I rule you now' kind of smirk) and latched on in no time, didn't cry and ate till his little heart was content. The following day at Pikes Place, I fed him at another restaurant and he was good to go under the little cover. Go figure. But at times like the first restaurant, it would have been so handy to be able to pump a bottle real quick and feed it to him.

Overall things are going very well. I have my post partum appointment next week and will get cleared to go back to work. My employer won't allow me to start working until I get a doctor's note. (Because we all know it's so strenuous to walk down the stairs and sit at a computer and answer emails and I clearly need a doctor's note for this). I am nervous how it's going to go with Max and how I'll get work done, but we'll figure it out. We got a baby carrier (courtesy of Seth's grandma!) and I think I'll be using that a lot. Max is a snuggler and I think I'll be able to put him in that after he eats and he can nap and I can work and we both get our cuddle time.

We had professional newborn pictures taken a few weeks ago and here are a few of my favorites:

 

Pre-natal massage

I redeemed my pre-natal massage and facial last Saturday. Oh it was heavenly! The massage was great and felt sooo good. I woke up with both of my hips hurting that morning so it was perfect timing. I was on my stomach and she had a special pregnancy pad for with a hole for my belly. It was very relaxing. I’d never had a facial before and was a little apprehensive about it. I actually dozed off and on for the facial and was sad when it was over. The only thing I didn’t like during the facial was that I was supposed to lay on my back for the duration of it (90 minutes) and obviously that wasn’t possible. I kept having to turn over but I did enjoy laying there on my back for a few minutes. I cannot wait to sleep on my back again.

The nursery is done! Now we just have to do a little decorating. Pictures to come very very soon!

I have a question for you other soon to be moms out there: I’m sure you’ve heard the controversy on the whole bumper issue or not in a crib. Are you using a bumper in your crib? Just curious who is and who isn’t. I registered for one then learned of the controversy and the day I went to remove it from the registry, it had already been purchased! The family gave me a gift receipt for it and I feel bad for returning it, but I am. I’m going to take pictures of the crib with it and send it to the family and then return it. (Is that wrong?!) Plus, I actually like how the crib looks more without the bumper, and a lot of the animal cuteness on the bumper are hidden because we have a few solid crib slats in the middle of the front, so it hides a good portion of it.

I’m going to clean out my car and vacuum the dog hair out of it this weekend and then we’re installing the car seat. The baby’s bag is packed and I’ve made a list of things I want to take for myself, but a lot of what I need to take will be last minute items that can’t be packed ahead of time. I’ve started washing the cloth diapers (you have to wash them multiple times to get them to be full absorbency) so I’ve been doing a load a day.


We have friends coming next week to visit for a few days. We're going to the zoo and just hanging out. We haven't seen them since last April in Germany when the guys got back from Afghanistan. And it's our god-daughter, so we're very excited to see her. Hopefully I don't ruin things and go into labor while they're here!


Last night, I had a dream that I had the baby. Except it wasn't a newborn: it was a 5 year old, fully clothed (jeans and a striped t-shirt), talking, adopted Russian boy! He spoke English and while I birthed him, he was also adopted from Russia. It makes no sense. I think I'm anxious for my 38 week appointment this afternoon to see if I'm dilated at all. I have a fear that I'll go in there, they'll say I'm 5 cm dilated and they'll ask if I'm ready to have the baby today. I've seen it happen on TV and in the movies, so that means it can really happen!

Here’s a picture of me at 38 weeks and 1 day. One day soon, I'll post non-self bathroom pictures. I'm lame. 

(Also, I would like to proudly say, not that it's even noticeable, but the pants I'm wearing here are pre-pregnancy work pants! They are even buttoned in the picture! I don't know how they buttoned, but they did. They weren't that comfortable while I was sitting, but I wasn't wearing them for long).

The Best...

This is usually my daily lunch. It's my new favorite thing of all time. It tastes best on toasted sourdough bread with some mayo. Add fresh avocado and tomato and voila...a heavenly lunch just like that! 

31.5 weeks, Updates and Pictures

It’s been a crazy busy few weeks.

Let's see...

I went home to Michigan for a few days and saw friends and family for the surprise baby shower Seth had planned!  Two families that I used to babysit for when I was a teenager were invited, but unfortunately, they weren’t able to make it to the shower. I still saw one family though and we hung out till almost 1 AM! It was awesome. We all cried when we said bye. I hate seeing their little broken hearts when I leave. It kills me. Each of the girls (13 and 8) picked out a gift for our new baby that would remind us of them whenever we used it. The older girl has had a little blue elephant since the day she was born that has a blanket attached to it (it looks more like a cape with an elephant head. That might sound weird and creepy, but it’s actually a really cute toy). Anyway, she has taken that thing with her everywhere since she was born and still sleeps with it now, even as a teenager. After not being able to find a replica for our baby, she settled on a little blue elephant teether toy! If our baby doesn’t automatically like it, I’m going to force it upon him until he loves it! I’m kidding. Sort of.  The younger girl LOVES soccer and picked out an orange soccer outfit. Seth also loves soccer so this was a perfect gift. Also, I learned while I was in MI that when Seth was younger, he would only wear orange colored clothes, so it was even more appropriate :) We got a lot of gift cards and I only had to mail back a few boxes of stuff. I went shopping and got the baby a lot of Detroit Tigers baseball clothes per Seth’s request. He’ll be decked out for the end of the season and hopefully the Tigers make it to the play offs this year!!!

I think the baby liked the plane rides; he was very active on the flights! He’s only 7 months old (in my uterus) and he’s already been on a plane to Michigan twice! He’s a little traveler already! Seth splurged on the seats with extended leg room, and they just so happened to be right in front of the bathroom, which was an added bonus. They were really good flights (minus the first flight where I was seated next to an off duty flight attendant who was on stand by. He was a jerk…I was texting Seth as we started pushing back from the terminal that we were getting ready to take off and the guy asked me if I knew I was committing a federal crime by continuing to text after they said phones needed to be turned off. I told him yes, and he shook his head no at me, and then continued to read my text over my shoulder. Then I silently cried because I was mad at him. Ironically the on duty flight attendant who was seated directly across from me didn’t seem to care at all and didn’t ask me to turn off my phone).

We started painting the nursery last weekend. We’re going with two colors – a dark bluish/turquoise color on the bottom and a light blue almost gray color on the top. The colors match the bedding and it’s going to be sooo cute once we get it done. We’re going to put chair railing in the middle to separate the colors (that's why it's all uneven right now). Hopefully we can finish up the painting this weekend. We just settled on which crib we’re getting, so we’ll be getting that this week or next weekend. I’m excited to get furniture in there and start washing his little clothes and making it look like a REAL nursery!

Since I have yet to post a picture of myself, here you go. This picture is from last week when I was 31 weeks and 2 days. I can’t believe in about 9ish weeks, he’ll be here. It’s CRAZY to think about.  

These two are crazy together. Patrick stands underneath Woody and pretends he's one of those little Russian stacking dolls, and Woody tries to move every which way to get him. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. We're working on training Woody right now; he's developed some not so great habits that need to stop immediately. They love each other though.

Seth planted gardens in our backyard the other weekend and they're doing really well! The dogs were getting into them and digging stuff up so we had to get the little fences to keep them out. We have a bunch of stuff: lettuce (a few varieties), spinach, carrots, red onions, celery, garlic, brussel sprouts, lots of different tomatoes, bell peppers, a few types of squash, carrots and jalapeno peppers (I think that's all of them!) We also have two blueberry plants and one thornless blackberry bush. They're in planters behind the gardens. We also have tons of blackberry bushes coming up along the bottom of our fence. Hopefully they produce lots of fruit this year and we'll be able to can some.
     

(ever since he was a puppy, he's loved "working" in the garden. and by "working," I mean "digging")

And because I'm obsessed with Mt. Rainier and take pictures of it ALL the time, here's a pretty picture from today. Ahhh, I love it so much. The last several weekends we've had great weather. I LOVE it. It makes me look forward to the summer, big time. I can't wait- it's definitely going to be the best summer yet  :)

Saving Money

I attempted to cut Seth’s hair last night. You know, just give it a little trim so he didn’t have to pay $15 to get a haircut. He figured we could save $30/month if I learn to cut his hair. Apparently once upon a time, I made a comment about how it can’t be that hard to cut his hair and he asked if I wanted to go to the PX to get some clippers with him. We stood in the aisle and debated over different clippers and then settled on a set.

Do you KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO DO A FADE TO ARMY STANDARDS?! It’s stupid hard. Seth started this venture out with hair. Now he’s bald. Honestly. That’s how hard it is. I’m not even kidding. He was getting annoyed with me (because helllllo, I’ve never actually GIVEN a haircut according to Army regulations, but it looked easy enough when I’d go to the barber shop with him), and I was getting annoyed with him because he was getting annoyed with me. Then he gave me the Army regulation number that is for the haircut. I practiced fades on his hair for what seemed like eternity (in one evening, mind you) so I can eventually learn it. After practicing (and messing up) fade after fade after fade, he told me to just shave it all off.

But lucky for me, he said we can give it another try this weekend! YAY!!!! Please note my sarcasm. And lucky for him, the evening ended in me in tears because I failed him and his hair cutting needs when he started citing the Army regulations for haircuts. All in an attempt to save a little money.

For the record, he looks much better with hair. This hair. The hair that was all over the bathroom floor. And now in the trash can. Mixed with tears and pride. I'm not a barber. Nor a hair stylist.

House Hunters

We’ve recently decided to start searching for a house to buy in the area. Lots of things are impacting this idea of ours and we’ve been looking online at all sorts of houses in our price range. We applied to see what we could pre-approved for earlier this week and we’re still waiting to hear back. Last night, we drove by a house we saw online and realized the neighborhood was ghetto, run-down, dirty and just gross. There was trash on people’s lawns, lawns weren’t taken care of, the houses just looked dirty and old and we decided hell no.

We were close by another really nice house we had seen online and really liked but saw that there was a back up offer on it, but we decided to drive by anyways. It was in a gated community and we couldn’t remember the address, but we decided to drive around anyways and see if we could find it. Sure enough, we did find the community it was in! And the gate was open! We walked into the office right around 5 pm and it looked like the lady was closing up. Another guy who worked in the development was walking in at the same time and said we could come on in and we started looking at the community map and the plots of land. Seth pointed out the biggest lot and said it’d be an awesome one. We started talking to the lady and she said that they did have a few available houses that we had been looking at that we could tour. And one of them was even on the lot that Seth liked on the map! We hopped in our cars and followed her up the street to the house. It’s safe to say we fell in love with it pretty quickly (it’s a 4 bedroom + a den/home office, 2.5 bathroom, 2 car garage, large back yard, master bath with a walk in closet). It was pretty much everything we were looking for. We have an exceptionally large kitchen right now, with an island, that we love. The kitchen in the new house is a bit smaller, I think, but it might just be the layout. There isn’t an island, but I think we could easily make it work. We also currently have a pantry, and there’s a pantry (albeit not as big) in the new house.  We back to the office and the lady asked if we wanted to make an offer/write up a contract. We made an offer on it (which includes all of the closing costs include, a new refrigerator, a landscaped backyard (right now it’s just dirt) and a wooden fence to finish off the backyard.  I got an email last night at 10:30 from the lady (I’m not sure if she’s considered a realtor, she just works for the property development) that said our offer had been accepted!! We applied for the loan online to see if we could get pre-approved for the amount that we need. Even though she asked us if we wanted to write up a contract, to take it off the market to other lookers, I didn’t want to do that if we can’t get approved for the amount needed. I really don’t think we’ll have a problem, but I don’t want to tease myself. Ok, honestly I’m already in love with the house and it’s already a tease and I’m going to be very very sad if we don't get approved.

Right now, we’re anxiously awaiting a call back from the lender. We have an appointment tomorrow to go back and look at the house in the daylight and write up a contract, assuming we get approved. The lady also put early March as our possible closing date, assuming we get approved. The backyard would be perfect for Patrick too!! There is a little hill in it that he would love to tear up and down and roam free. There is a big flat spot by the back door that would allow for a hot tub too! It’s a house we can definitely grow into and we really want it.

Here’s to hoping it’s ours soon!

Oh, and P.S. Patrick was with us last night when we went on this adventure. The lady invited him into the office after we toured the house and she fell in love with him  (he’s a charmer, what can I say?!) When she emailed me, she addressed it to Seth, Stacy and Raymond!!! She called PATRICK Raymond!!! So today I’ve been calling him Raymond and he doesn’t seem to mind.

Here’s a picture of RAYMOND!!!! He also goes by Ray, for short. 

Married life

Quick update because my life is about to change like whoa:

Last Saturday, Seth and I got married. More pictures and details to come later. He wore his dress blues as a total surprise. I've never seen him in his dress uniform...EVER. I've seen a picture of him in them like 2 years ago, but that was the old dress uniform, and we bought this when I was in Germany in April, but they had to order some of it, so I've never seen him in it. Apparently everyone knew about this surprise except me, and it was the sexiest surprise ever.

We had a quick honeymoon in Northern Michigan the last few days and got back late last night. Yesterday we watched the sun rise over Lake Michigan in Traverse City and watched it set in South Haven. It was beautiful, but pictures haven't been uploaded yet. (Sorry!!!)

And now, we just found out a few hours ago that I can move to Washington with him when he heads out next week. I was not mentally prepared for this at all, and I'm a crazy ball of nerves right now. I'm excited, happy, scared, nervous, anxious and every other emotion simultaneously. I was thinking I'd be able to move out there in September or even October, so moving in July is a huge difference.

So if I don't blog for a while, it's because we're frantically packing up the apartment, saying all of our goodbyes, and driving out west...all in the next week.