Week 33: back in action

It seems as if the craziness of being of working full time, being a mom, wife and grad school student might starting to feel a little more "normal" - if that is possible!

This week we also took another family road trip up to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Bruns in Iowa.  Luckily, you are pretty decent baby in the car, Charlie.  We also had some biting incidents while nursing this week - even shed blood.  But I'm hoping that you are past that now?  Only time will tell.

And then of course at the end of this week - March Madness began and your dad is starting you early!

Fun Story Friday: Photo Hunt (mom version)

In college, my friends and I played the "nudie" photo hunt like it was our job.  Literally.  We knew the bars that had it and we went there, parked ourselves in front of the screen and would try to beat the high score and we usually did.  We would assemble the perfect team of people (around 4) that would be able to catch all 5 differences in the pictures immediately.  While maybe inappropriate (and why when Jimmy and I try to find it at bars in KC - it's only at like 2), the "nudie" version of photo hunt seemed to be WAY easier than the normal photo hunt.  Weird, but man it was so fun to get the high score and then head to the next bar and repeat.  We were cool in college if you couldn't tell from this snippet.

This is not anything "nudie", as this is a somewhat appropriate and PG blog.  However, can you spot the main difference in the pictures below (sorry that I look creepy in them - didn't think I was going to post on my blog but just send to my mom and sister - but turned out it's too amusing not to share and just part of being a nursing mom I guess)...

 Just one difference really...

I'm guessing you spot it.  I have a tank top underneath my shirt in the one on the right and not on the left.  But really the one on the left, I have a tank top on, it was just pulled down. So you can literally see my bra (luckily it was nude colored!).

Oh mom friends - you will understand this all too well.  I went downstairs yesterday to the "mom's room" at work to pump at noon before a 12:30 meeting.  I was in a hurry, forgot to pull my tank top back up over my bra after I was done pumping.  I literally walked around like this and sat in a 2 hour meeting, talked to several people, etc. all with a pretty much see through shirt on.  Awkward?  Yes.  Did I care?  For like 5 seconds, and then realized I am lucky that in the last 5 months of pumping at work I've only done this 2 times (yes, I've done it before...but the over shirt was not while and pretty much see through...).  I am sure it could have been a lot worse, right?  I am also lucky because I had a cardigan over this shirt.  BLAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#workingmom #breastfeedingproblems #OMG

Those are the hashtags that fit so nice.  Oh the things we do for our children.

Any other breastfeeding mamas have embarrassing stories like that?  I KNOW YOU DO!  Please share.  Because everyone needs a good laugh on a Friday, right?

PS - I really want to play photo hunt.  Pi Phi friends, you in?

Spring "cleaning"

So one of the things that Jimmy and I have been tossing around the last month is should we move or not.  There are just things about the layout of our house that we are not fans of now that Charlie is here...things that we never thought about 4 years ago when we bought our house.  We called our realtor, looked at open houses, made a list of the to-dos to get our house "sale-ready" and talked numbers.  Lots of energy and thought was put into it.  But in the end, we've decided to stay put at least for another year.  We have done SO much to our house (literally redone every room, remodeled the kitchen and both full baths, etc.) that we know it will be nice to have some time in it to just enjoy all the hard work we've put in to make it our home.  Plus - I need one more summer in the cute little town of Prairie Village.  The big trees that line the sidewalks and the city pool just down the street - let alone the parks a block from our house and of course...our neighbors (my sister and our friends).  So that's it - we're staying - decision was made and all are happy.  The best choice for us right now.

With that said - now I'm getting a little inkling to do some fun decorating projects.  Nothing crazy or expensive, but just make it a little more fun and functional to live in for the next year or so while Charlie grows and starts getting to be on the move. 

Here are my spring/summer projects that I want to do! 

1. Transform the basement/man cave into a little more functional room.  Particularly, carve off a corner or side of the room for a legit home office.  I tried to make something of the sorts in our family room and it's fine for filing papers, etc.  However, with grad school in full force and after this semester just TWO classes left (which I'll be taking both in the fall - gross), I really am in need of a space to sit down at do studying/homework and not have distractions (these include my child, 3 dogs and the TV).  I'm loving this desk design and the corkboard on the walls.  Good colors too!

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 2. A little color makeover of our downstairs family room.  We just got a new sectional down there that we custom ordered for the size and it's perfect.  However, I'm not loving the red beam any more.  The walls would still stay the beige neutral, but I would like to make it a little more subdued with the curtains and the beam and then get some cute and cheap pillows for pops of color and fun wall accessories.  I like these curtains a lot. 

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 I really like these pillows and the ottomans - good fabric!

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3. This might be the MOST important one that I want to change.  Our laundry "room" or lack thereof a room.  Our laundry is in the basement in the unfinished part.  Which is fine.  We live in an old house and I'm just happy it's not in the garage and that we refinished part of our garage to make the basement entrance all inside.  But if you are a parent - you have an idea of how much laundry is done in a week.  I didn't think it was possible for this small child to go through so many clothes, PJs, burp cloths, sheets, etc.  But he does.  That means Jimmy and I are constantly changing and folding laundry.  I would just really like a little happier space where I spend so much time (is that too much to ask???).  I'm thinking of hanging some "curtains" on the walls so I don't have to look at the concrete and then getting some folding stations or something like that.   I LOVE this look below.  I feel like it wouldn't be too hard or expensive either.

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 4. I need to do something with flowers outside.  I'm horrible at planting and keeping anything alive (just ask Jimmy).  But I want to plant some and maybe even do a garden this spring/summer to get some fresh veggies too.  Just a few pots or something like this will do (Lord knows I need to start SMALL on this one...)

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Anyone else have any big plans?  I have NO idea when I will even have time to get all these things done or plan them out...but who knows, during the summer I'm not taking any classes, so I'm thinking maybe then?? 

4moms obsession

Just so you know, this is not something that anyone is paying me to do or say.  I just want to share with mom's out there a recommendation for a few AMAZING products.  

When you are a mom-to-be and go into a big box baby store to register is can be QUITE overwhelming to say the least.  I remember trying to prepare and get advice/lists from my friends that were already moms on what they really needed.  I scoured the internet for registry recommendation posts and bought the baby 411 book (which I would highly recommend as well - honestly that explained half of the products to me that I didn't know what we were used for).  One of the must-have items of course is a swing.  I had heard opinions from people on what to buy and what not to buy, but when my friend Vanessa posted about an awesome craigslist find swing she got for her baby-to-be way back when we were both pregnant, I figured we would go see just how awesome she said it was.  And that is when we were introduced to 4moms. 

I read all about this "spaceship type" swing called the mamaroo and so Jimmy and I decided to put it on our registry.  We were lucky enough to have some great friends at work that pooled some money together and bought it for us, as the price tag was a little steep.  But it was super cool looking at it sat in the nursery waiting for Charlie's arrival.

It turned out that Charlie loved it so much.  They made this swing to really mimic YOUR movements, as it slowly rocks your baby.  I know I have heard some babies that really don't like it and like the vibrating aspect that lots of other swings or bouncers have, but we stuck with just this one so Charlie never knew the difference.  It was great as a little baby when he was sleeping and we still even use it now every once and a while when he's restless and needs a little soothing but is a little too heavy for me to rock for 30 minutes.  Plus it's SUPER soft (we got the plush one), easy to adjust the incline and we've used it with our iPod a few times for some soothing music. 

Overall - so happy with this purchase and there are days when I seriously am so thankful for this because it does calm him down.

So onto the real product that I want to rave about.  This is a newer 4moms item and came out in October of 2012.  At that point, we had a 3 month old already and had our Graco Pack n Play that we had registered for and my mom was so sweet to buy us.  Charlie slept in that Pack n Play with the bassinet feature for the first month or so of his life (alternating with the Fisher Price rock n' play sleeper) and then we had the daunting task of figuring out how to fold it back up and get all the pack n play parts into the bag.  Literally - I feel like we are decently smart human beings, but assembling and un-assembling that pack n play was NOT easy at all.  When we were set to go on a trip to Omaha late October, we were dreading dragging it all with us and setting it up and taking it back down.  Dreading it.

That's when we saw that 4moms was coming out with a new playyard.  With a higher price tag ($300), I immediately wrote it off.  Just another way too expensive baby product that I refused to get sucked into buying.  Especially because we had a perfectly fine pack n play.  Jimmy however, watched all the videos and features on the Breeze playyard and was dead set that we NEEDED this thing.  I watched the videos, etc. and still told him I thought it was an absurd amount of money that we were forking over for an item we already had, but I let him pre-order it and he was so excited.  It didn't end up coming in time for our trip to Omaha, which was a bummer, but he was pretty excited when it finally came.

We have used it a few times when we have spent the night at my parents house (Christmas Eve and then when our power was out) and I knew it was easy, but I wasn't the one that was assembling it and un-assembling it.  This past weekend though?  We made another trip up to Iowa and took the trusty Breeze for Charlie to sleep in and holy moly - I fell in love and felt so good about this $300 purchase about 5 months after we made it.  Mainly because I was the one assembling and un-assembling this time.  We didn't get to Iowa until 11:30PM, so of course Charlie was a little restless after some decent car sleeping and all I wanted to do was get him to bed for real.  So simple.  Literally just take everything out of the bag, push the middle down, snap on the bassinet netting, stick in the hard bottom (after putting on the sheet) and that's it.  Ready for him to sleep.  He was fast asleep literally 10 minutes after we got into our room.  THEN - we had to move rooms between Friday and Saturday night because the hotel screwed up.  Taking it down, packing it up and moving rooms to set it back up again.  No problem at all.  I kept thinking to myself how annoyed I would have been if we had our old pack n play (and don't worry - it's still being used, my mom has it set up in her room at her house for when Charlie's over there and needs a nap).  It literally would have taken SO long to take it down and then put it all back up again.  I was so happy with the Breeze.  Time and convenience are everything when you are traveling and trying to keep a 7.5 month old occupied - and the Breeze delivered all of that to us.  Plus it was so easy to get into the bag and carry to the car.  I cannot say more wonderful things about this thing.

Here are some pictures of it from their website:

This is with the bassinet feature that we are still using with Charlie

Literally - this is ALL you do.

So I don't know if anyone cares, but I just had to post this because I couldn't be more satisfied with this thing.  The company is pretty cool and still small and began based off of a mom's focus group.  It's very obvious that mom's come up with these awesome products that they make because they are mom-friendly (if that is an adjective).  While the products are expensive, depending on what you are looking for, I really think it's worth the investment.  I have heard great things about their stroller (the Origami) - it even charges your cell phone (yes please), but with a super hefty price tag of $849, that one wasn't in the cards for us and our City Mini by Baby Jogger does the job just fine.  However, if you have extra cash to burn - it sounds great!!

They also came out with a bath collection which is pretty neat too that you can check out on their website - their tub is supposed to allow clean water to flow in and dirty water out (which if you have a kid that pees in the tub like mine does, that might be really helpful) and the water spout might be something I would invest in as well.

So there you have it.  My rave review on the Breeze play yard and really on 4moms in general.  If you are a mom-to-be looking for a play yard registry recommendation, I would highly recommend it.  Even though it doesn't have the newborn napper or changing area like some of the other ones do, I really think long-term, this one is perfect (I mean, I change my kid's diaper on the floor and I live).  It's such a "breeze" (pun intended) to assemble and un-assemble, I really think we will get way more use out of it by taking it wherever we need versus our other one.

Anyone else have the Breeze, Mamaroo or any of the other 4moms products and have a good (or bad) experience?  I would love to hear, as this is just my personal opinion!

Mommy and me: number 5

What a weekend! After our trip to Iowa, I think everyone is tired and excited to get back on our normal schedule this week. However, these teeth keep popping up everywhere. At first 2 on top, then one on bottom and now the second bottom one was making its way through last night. Evidence?! A sweet baby literally screaming his brains out last night a couple times. While we are trying to be good at not going in and picking him up when he cries at night...I cannot handle the incessant cries in pain. That's where Tylenol and my boobs are the perfect medicine. Since he doesn't take a pacifier like a normal child, literally the only way to get him to stop screaming is let him nurse...even if I pumped everything out right before bed. You would think I'd mind (especially after a few biting incidents last week), but as fast as this kid is growing up I know these nights are numbered and I'll happily function with no sleep to make him feel a little better. I tend to be the more sympathetic one of the parents when it comes to pieces of hard enamel popping through his guns. Sounds pretty painful.

But here we are back to the weekly grind!! We matched this morning, so I had to get a picture!  This is evidence that this kid no longer stays still.  He wants to be all over the place and wants to be into everything now.  But excited for this week to explore some more table food with Charlie and for some fun this weekend celebrating a good friend and watching some basketball games!!

Happy Monday!!!

 

Weeks 30, 31, 32 (catch up)

Week 30: the first snow storm!

Week 31: Snow storm #2...quite the week and baby's sick!

Week 32: Mom's sick and Charlie's first injury!!!

Ok - and I'm kind of caught up.  Just had done such a good job with my weekly updates I was going to be really sad that one month got me down.....

Charlie: 7 months old!

All of a sudden - we had a 7 month old.  It came and went just like that.  And it was weird because in February there is no 31st day, so it was confusing to me when he was "really" 7 months old.  So because of that, this has taken another 2 weeks to post.  Haha.  Really, that's not the excuse, but we have just been living life that it took me a few days to take the pictures and then a few days to write this post.  But worth the wait.

From 6 to 7 months old, I feel like you've become such a "big kid".  From the things you are doing to just the way you look.  Your personality is coming through and it's just so fun to see.  You are still pretty happy for the most part and continually do things that crack me and your dad up. It's making me happy and sad all at the same time.

Here's the list of what you are doing now...

• You started getting teeth.  Since I'm late writing this, you have teeth now...but as of 7 months you still didn't have actual teeth.  But teething was in FULL force.
• Your talking has transformed into lots of "da-da" and "ba-ba".  Yep, you are saying da-da, not necessarily directed at your dad...but he still loves it so much.
• You roll all over.  Front, back, side to side.  I feel like we put you down on your back in one spot and I turn around and you are across the room.
• You love your toys still a lot, but also seem to love everything that is NOT a toy.  Your favorite thing this month that has made its way into your toy box?   A kitchen spoon.  You bang it, you eat it and throw it around.  Easily entertained.

• Well, we made the move to a new school.  It was MUCH harder than I ever thought it would be. Literaly the first 2 days when we picked you up I sat in the back seat and cried my eyes out because I thought we made a bad choice moving you.  Little did I know, someone else has a plan for us and it was absolutely the best thing for all of us.  Miss Shirley and Miss Tamala are your favorite teachers and they seriously love you so much.  Your friends are great and we love it too. Best decision ever at such a good time because your eating has skyrocketed...
• Speaking of eating...when you started at your new school you started taking 4, 5 ounce bottles.  You used to take just 3, 4.5 ounce bottles.  That's crazy.
• On top of your bottles of breast milk at school, you started eating lots and lots of solids this month.  Your teachers have been great at guiding and reading you on this.  You now eat 3 meals a day of solids.  Breakfast is usually oatmeal or rice cereal and a fruit.  Then for lunch a veggie and fruit and then something of those sorts for dinner when we get home.  You also eat a snack at school.  That's usually puffs or yogurt melts.  There is a funny story about you stealing puffs.  I need to write that on here.  It makes me laugh.  
• Nursing is still my favorite.  Except you are still a little distracted still but we are working through it.  But the morning feeding and right before bed...it's just you and me time and I love it.  I take in your smell and your soft skin and just think about how much I love you.  Such a lucky mom.  On the weekends, we usually go every three hours or so but it's still on demand every once and a while.  As much of a schedule person as I am...I like that we eat whenever.
• We made 2 trips to the doctor during this month.  One for your 6 month check up and then once right after the huge snow storm.  You were literally throwing up all day long and I figured you had a stomach bug.  But then I started freaking out that you might get dehydrated because you were throwing everything up, so we took you in.  A really nice male pediatrician (that we might change you to) confirmed it was a bug and said breast milk was the best medicine.  Done and done.  
• This month your poops totally transformed.  You are now a solid pooper and it blew us away.  With the texture and the new smells.  No going back from here...
• You are a good sleeper.  You will go like a week sleeping 11 hours a night without waking up and then BOOM - you get sick or you get a tooth or your stomach hurts and then you wake up once a night.  But I'll take it.  We're still working on your wake up time.  Lately you have been waking up early and I'm not a fan because I like to be ready before you get up.
• You are a pro at sitting up and because of that the world has changed for us.  Going out to eat is a whole new experience because you sit in a high chair now.  And you have started maneuvering from sitting up to an all fours position.  Crazy.
• 9 month stuff mostly on your clothes (you can still squeeze into a few 6 month ones).  But towards the end of the month, we had to change all your PJs to 12 months (WHAT!?!?) because you are too long for the 9 month ones.  
• You are still moving all over the crib at night.  You like sleeping on your side a lot and when we lay you in your crib that's immediately how you position yourself.  During naps at school you are usually flipped on your tummy.
• For your naps during the weekend at home, you take 2 somedays and then 3 others.  I feel like I would be more upset that you weren't more consistent with these, but since our weekend schedules are sometimes not as consistent, it's nice that you kind of roll with us.
• Still rocking those size 3 diapers.  Looking good little man.
• Your new favorite toys are Scout and the Scout lap top.  And what you really love?  You like it when all your toys are in the toy basket.  Then you sit there and take all of them out one at a time.  Then you flip the basket over.  Mom puts the toys back in and then repeat.  It's pretty fun and makes you seem so independent because you are quite content doing it over and over again.

Here are some of the fun bear pictures for 7 months.  Yes Aunt Lyndsay, it was a great purchase!!

The top one on the left cracks me up.  He looks so angry.  And then of course he started moving along. And check out the picture I snapped at the end.  He was on the move to get Milly.  On all fours...oh jeez.  Who knows what this next months will bring...