June 17, 2012

Making of a Father's Day

I found Joe's Father's Day present a long time ago on Pinterest. I had pinned it and knew it would be perfect for Father's Day.

Pinned Image

I involved a late evening at Walmart getting 2 wooden letters, craft paint, and a picture frame


And of course I needed to have a little photo shoot with sweet Amelia. This was actually a little harder than I thought it would be because Amelia kept eating the letters and flipping them over! I got some interesting pictures! But I think I ended with with three cute ones in each setting. I put them together in photoshop to make sure these would be cute together.
Just a few clicks to Target and a quick pick up for a card and Amelia's Father's Day present to Daddy was complete! I think it turned out very cute!!


I think Joe liked it too!




What do you think?
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June 14, 2012

Baby Pool


A Warm Day, a cute swim suit, a rubby ducky, and a whale shaped pool make for a fun afternoon


Oh the little things in life!




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June 13, 2012

Happy Birthday, Joe

Hubby turns 31 today! I know (he's getting up there!)

When I told Amelia it was Daddy's birthday, this is what she did. I think she's saying Happy Bithday!


Amelia loves her Daddy a whole bunch. It is very sweet to see their special relationship. Especially in public, you can tell that Daddy loves to show her off!


I'm off today and Joe is working (it's Wednesday so a busy youth/church day). Hopefully we'll get to celebrate it soon!



We love you Joe!

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June 12, 2012

A Day in the Life (with a 7 Month Old)

I did this post before about a day in the life with a 2 month old. Why not do it again?


Amelia woke up at 11:00 pm and finally starting this day finally getting her settled back in her crib around midnight.




She wakes up at 4:30. I take her back to our room and nurse her and get her back to crib. Around 8:45 I hear her on the monitor and she is up for the day. We snuggle in the bed, play, nurse, and change her diaper. She gets a little restless so we come downstairs and jump in the jumperoo and with our $10 garage sale block. She starts getting fussy so I set her in her crib for her first nap at 10:45



Around noon, I went upstairs to snap a picture of my sweet angel and she woke up! Oops! We come downstairs and play a little more and we nurse on the couch.



Joe brings home some lunch and then feeds her a Mango Smoothie (looks like pureed mangos!) She loved them.



We did a quick 7 month photo shoot in the living room. And then we were off. We taking Amelia swimming for the first time. We have a pool in our neighborhood but very crowded. A couple from church offered us their pool so we accepted! First we had to run to Target to quick swim diapers and a baby pool float.




The pool was freezing at first! But Amelia seemed to really have fun. She was kicking her legs and slapping the water. She did really well in her pool float too. Even Sophie the giraffe made it into the pool.

I even nursed her under a towel on a pool chair around 3 because she started getting fussy but I think she was really tired. We decided that it was time to get after an hour but she did really well, except under water. We'll get better at that!

She fell asleep in her carseat on the way home so I took her straight from her carseat and put her in her crib. She fussed for a minute and went right to sleep. She slept until 5. I think she needed to sleep longer but there was no longer in her room.





I decided since she was still fussy that we should take a walk in the neighborhood. Amelia Cooper and I took a nice walk (in the humidity) to the neighboorhood park. There was even a baby swing and Amelia had fun (even if she's not smiling). We had to leave early because some neighborhood kids were being a little obnoxious.



Joe decided that he wanted Cracker Barrel and afterwards even though it was closer to bedtime but at 6:30 off we went. She ate her Vegetable and Beef baby food and ate these banana rice husks. Daddy gave her a bath and I nursed her one more time and she was in bed by 8:15. Whew! We had a fun busy day.


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June 11, 2012

I have a 7 Month Old!


It's true. I can't believe it either! My little baby is 7 months old. Eek! She is the sweetest little baby and a joy to our lives. She is getting more and more fun and has quite a little personality.



She likes to make loud sounds but doesn't sound like anything yet. She is a pro at sitting up now. Now I will have her sit on the floor and play with her toys for a long time. She loves her Sophie the giraffe (obviously), our iPhones/iPads, her jumperoo/exersaucer, and her wooden activity cube. Her hand eye cordination is getting really good. She loves to grab whatever she can get her little hands on. She is getting better at standing when she is holding on to something. We had one little army crawl episode to get to my iPhone but other than that no crawling yet. She isn't able to pull herself up yet either. And no teeth! But lots of teething!


She is still a great nurser like I talked about in this post. Our pediatrician said that she should get baby food two times a day. She usually says MMM! when she is eating and always is shaking her hands in excitement. We loved green beans at first but last time acted like she didn't. We will have to try again, silly girl! She weighed 17 pounds a week ago and 27" at her 6 month visit

She is sleeping a little better and the last few nights has slept in until 8 or 9 (amazing!). When she is with me she will take a morning nap (for about an hour) and a afternoon nap (usually 2 hours). She nurses every four hours (and still four hours at night).


We celebrated my first Mother's Day. Daddy and Amelia made this sweet plate with Amelia's footprints! Love it!!





Amelia was also dedicated at church on Mother's Day. We don't do infant baptisms but baby dedication is similar in idea that we are dedicating her back to God who gave her to us. We are vowing to raise in her a Christian home. We then went into the aisles and the congregation came and prayed for us and Amelia. Made me cry a little! Amelia did so good! The Church gave us a certificate, The Jesus Storybook Bible, and a letter that Amelia is supposed to open on her 8th Birthday.



In this post, I talked about our Memorial Day Weekend trip to NYC with the youth. Her first time to the Big Apple!


Then Amelia left me for three days and went to Indiana. Joe was officiating his good friend's wedding. He was going to leave on Wednesday night and return on Saturday night. When Joe first asked if Amelia could come I said "NO!" But I realized that I worked Thursday, Friday, and on cal 12 hours on Saturday so I realized that I wouldn't really being spending time with her and would be a big hassle to figure out how to get her to and from her babysitter. So she left me! I cried when she left (ugly cry and everything). I then had to pump those three days (not so fun). I even had to set my alarm to wake up to pump because I knew that Amelia still nursed at night. But she had so much fun with her Grandparents that I knew it was the best thing. She then came back and it was the BEST! They also brought back this Jeep Walker that Joe had bought for his (9 year old) niece when she was a baby. Too Fun!

We love Amelia Grace and she is a huge blessing to us everyday!

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June 10, 2012

My Thoughts on Breastfeeding

Yes this will be a post on breastfeeding. So if that is something that grosses you out or you aren't interested, please don't read ahead.

I knew when I got pregnant that I wanted to breastfeed my baby. I just knew it was the best for my baby so I was going to give it my best try. While working at the Pediatric office and Labor and Delivery, I had the chance to learn about techniques, positions, etc. I was supposed to educate when I had never done it myself!

When Amelia was born, it took the doctor awhile to finish and I was pretty uncomfortable so I received some pain medicine that made me sleepy. There they do the bath and assessment in the nursery so I let them take her, really with me holding her like a minute. I was sleeping off and on during the afternoon and finally about three hours later I felt like myself again, but Amelia was still in the nursery! I think finally about four hours after she was born I got to really hold her!

One of the things we stress in our hospital is to nurse as soon as possible. I was worried how Amelia would do considering she did not get the chance. The first feeding was a little come and go, like a lot of first feelings. My nurse came in for a minute to see the progress. I can't remember if she gave me any pointers, kind of felt like I was on my own. But with each feeding Amelia was such a good little feeder. She lost a little weight in the hospital (down from 8 lb 2 oz to 7 lb 11 oz) but nothing too worrying. I came home and kept nursing her. She would nurse like every 3 hours. I remember always stressing that she would nurse at least fifteen minutes. After her first weight check and no weight gain, I was grateful for a doctor who said lets just recheck her weight in a few days and encouraged me to nurse. And she gained weight like a champ and has fattened up ever since!!

Let me just say that breastfeeding is a lot of work. And it takes a lot of commitment, especially at 3 in the morning when your husband is asleep and you're up nursing the baby. And it's painful at first, pretty painful at first. But I stuck with it and now it doesn't hurt. I do love the bonding between Amelia and I. Now she look up at me and give me a little smile. Melts me heart! Of course she also reaches up and pulls my lip, pinches me, acts mischevious!

The other side about being a working mom is pumping and Amelia taking bottles of pumped milk whe I am gone. When I first started back at work, I was pumping a lot! Now I don't pump nearly as much. It's difficult with my job to pump. My job is different than other nursing positions because I have to watch my fetal strips all the time. So when I pump I have to find someone who wants to watch my strip for me for 15ish minutes. Which isn't a big deal but I have to pump 3+ times a shift, it's difficult. I could be pushing for 2 hours, in a c/s and recovery and so on. It's hard. I try to pump before and after work and my days at home. But I really dislike pumping. It can be frustrating when you aren't pumping the amount you think you should be.

Also breastfeed babies take less in the bottle than formula fed babies. Many times, I have had to correct people who say she is not getting enough at the bottle. I'm sure they mean well but seriously I know my baby. I also know that she nurses at bunch even when I work. She still nurses at night, she's growing. She gets plenty! Okay rant over! ;)

Amelia went to Indiana for three days with Joe and did get some formula because I didn't have enough saved up. But she did fine and came right back to me to nurse!! My little sweetie! I get asked a lot about how often I will nurse. My goal was 6 months so everything else is bonus! I think we will let her tell me when she's done. I don't think I will be on the cover of the times breastfeeding her at 4 but I think we will still have awhile! So that was my long post on breastfeeding after 7 months so far! Did you breastfeed?

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