Honest Thankfulness

With Thanksgiving behind us and entering into this season of gratitude, I’m so thankful for my now four children. I’m thankful every day for them. They are my greatest blessings in life and they give me such joy. With the baby now being 14 months (who needs to be the last baby mind you), I’ve definitely felt myself clinging to her last little baby-ness, which is one of the reasons I haven’t stopped breastfeeding even though I’ve been saying I was going to stop early with her for months.

Being able to nourish my children has been a gift for me. I’ve exclusively breastfed, I’ve formula fed, or done a combination of both at various points in my life. I’ve also breastfed well into toddler hood. I love breastfeeding….It’s a beautiful and natural thing and it gives me great pride to have nourished my babies. Women should be able to breastfeed anywhere and they shouldn’t need to hide, or be made to feel ashamed for feeding their babies. They also shouldn’t be made to feel bad if they’ve formula fed. A mother has to do what’s best for her and her baby. If the baby is being fed, that’s what matters.

Learn more about your feeding options from The Honest Company.

Ava 11 months!

Super behind on these seeing how she turns one tomorrow, but here is a recap of 11 months.

Weight

I haven't weighed her in a while so I'm not sure, but she's probably around 20 pounds by now. She'll be having her one year checkup soon.

Health

Over the summer nobody got colds, but with Serena and Layla back in school, the back to school germs are back. Layla started to get a cold which Mariam then got, and then Ava. She never got a fever with this one, but it was over a week of a runny nose. She sleeps even worse when she's sick, which is expected, but super hard when she already wakes up 2-3 hours a night on the regular.

Sleep

Still the same. Two short naps a day and then waking up every 2-3 hours at night. Only once a month will we get like a 4 hour stretch thrown in there. Several friends tell me to let her cry through the night, or feed her something heavy right before bed, or stop nursing her etc. The list goes on, but H and I don't feel comfortable letting our kids cry it out. I've debated not nursing her anymore since everytime she wakes up she expects it, but I'm not ready to end this bond yet. I really want to make it till two years old like I did with Mariam. I know I need to make some changes as the pediatrician suggested, like cutting down on nursing at night. Start trying to wean her off the night time feedings. Believe me my muscles are tired and I don't want to nurse her almost every time she wakes up, but I'm so tired and I know it makes her go back to sleep pretty fast instead of thrashing around for an hour. I have some great news though! She slept through the night last night! After rolling around in her crib for what seemed like forever she fell asleep around 10:30 am and didn't wake up till 5:38 am! I nursed her and then she slept for another hour. I can't stop smiling. I want to shout it from the rooftops! Tomorrow is her one year birthday so she picked an interesting time to do it. I hope she does it again. 

Clothes

She currently wears 12-24 month clothing. Depends. If we are at home I usually put pants and knee pads on her since we have all hard wood floors. 

Diet

Still exclusively breastfeeding and eating solids. She loves beef and she's not a fan of anything green unless it's mixed in with other foods and she can't see it. We still don't give her eggs and dairy since she starts getting a rash when we do, but we'll try again at a later time. She's never taken to a bottle, but she has started to take a sip or two from a sippy cup. 

Milestones

She's done so much these last few months. I haven't updated since she turned 8 months, but she's started to take a step here and a step there. She also points to things and says "da" when she wants something. She enjoys blocks, getting into the spice cabinets and knocking her sisters books off the shelves in their closet. She tries to repeat words, she loves to give hugs and she's just so sweet and getting more social. I know I'm missing a lot of things here, but it's not all coming to mind right now. 

Ava 3 months!

Weight

I'm not sure at this point but probably around 14 pounds or so. I'll know at her 4 month appointment next month.

Health

Really good. Despite colds cycling around my 3 other girls thankfully Ava has not gotten a cold yet. Once in a while her nose will run if there's a cold in the house, but it stops there. Totally crediting breastmilk.

Sleep

This past month hasn't been the greatest as she's been back to waking up twice a night. She was only waking up once a night for a while there, but lately it's two times. She still goes back to sleep easily after a quick feed so thankful for that.

Clothes

I was sad to have to put up the newborn clothes a few weeks ago. She's already outgrowing some of her 3 month clothes as well. I have yet to put 6 month clothes on her but I'm sure they fit by now.

Diet

Still breastmilk and she nurses great. The only thing is she can be a messy eater at times. I've been having to stick a burp cloth over the part of my nursing bra that's under her chin because she'll de latch mid stream and the milk wets the fabric or her top. If the let down is too forceful she'll also make these spraying spitting sounds and get milk on both of us.

Crying

She likes to be held a lot so if she's not being held then yes she cries sometimes. This past week was good though. She really took it easy on me which was good because let me tell you, the week before that was rough. Really rough. I was really stressed out from not being able to eat right and the girls were fighting a lot, and Ava was needing to be constantly held. I was definitely feeling some postpartum issues and unwanted thoughts. I cried a lot and felt very isolated. I hope this is behind me. Like I said this past week was soooo much better and my oldest is home from school for the next two weeks, so that's an extra pair of hands to help hold Ava. 

Milestones

Ava is still little miss sociable. She loves when you talk to her and smiles so much. She really is a happy baby. She's getting better about grabbing things and taking them to her mouth. She's still pretty uncoordinated with it, but she's getting there. 

Have a great week!

Why your exposed breast selfies aren’t helping to normalize breastfeeding

{Breastfeeding Ava in a Target parking lot last month}

Hello! Wow it's been about two weeks since I've blogged but we had family visiting in November and it's been so busy. My in-laws just left on Monday, I'm finally starting to make a dent in the laundry and things are slowly getting back to normal...kinda. I've got a lot to write about concerning the last two weeks, but dealing with a newborn I'm still in babyville, which actually leads me to what I'm about to rant about. Brace yourselves, I’m about to step on a soapbox here. Alright. Let’s get the credentials out of the way first because I like to think I’ve got a little bit of experience in this department. I have 4 children. Aged 2 months, 3 years, 4 years and 13 years old. I’ve exclusively breastfed, I’ve formula fed, or done a combination of both at various points in my life. I’ve also breastfed well into toddler hood. I’m breastfeeding now. I’ve done these feedings anywhere from a bathroom (When I was a first timer and didn’t know any better) to restaurants, malls, cars, parks, schools, under an umbrella in the rain, to busy touristy places while walking at that.

I love breastfeeding……It’s a beautiful and natural thing and it gives me great pride to have nourished my babies. Women should be able to breastfeed in any public or private place without being shunned. They shouldn’t need to hide or be made to feel ashamed for feeding their babies. If you don’t like to use a cover, or if the baby doesn’t like it (because let’s face it, some of them don’t), then no problem. A baby has to eat and I’m not looking at anybody twice because of it. When I see another mother breastfeeding whether in person or on the Internet, I want to high-five them and say “right on!” It makes me feel less alone out there breastfeeding in public. However…..When I see a staged or purposely taken picture of a mom with her breast completely exposed on social media with a caption of something along the lines of “normalize breastfeeding”, I think several of us die-hard breast feeders collectively groan. You aren’t helping the cause by posting pictures of your fully exposed breasts on the Internet. A breast is a breast whether a baby is attached to it or not. You can sit there and try to make breasts seen as just a primary way to feed a baby, and not be looked at as something private or sexual and until you’re blue in the face, but it’s never gonna happen.

Repeat after me: “It’s never gonna happen.”

First of all, boobs all out there while feeding a baby isn’t the norm. Personally I’ve only seen it once in my life in a Janie & Jack store in Florida while I was shopping for my girls. All the other times, it’s just a shirt pulled up and a baby is nursing or under a cover, or something loosely draped over the baby. These viral breastfeeding selfies aren’t furthering the cause and I feel go against the original intent of the movement. Ashley Kaidel, 24 year old blogger mom whose breastfeeding picture went viral is a prime example of what I’m talking about. 

{Huffington Post}

I get her picture wasn’t a selfie and rather taken by her companion, but the message is the same. To me I see it as more about gaining attention instead of acceptance. Also, it reminded me of the time I was a newbie public breastfeeder and I used to scan the room looking around to see who would dare look at me while I was breastfeeding my child. Guess what? If you look hard enough, you’re probably going to find someone who isn’t all gung-ho about your exposed breast. Breastfeeding in public should be tolerated by all whether you use a cover or not, but here’s the thing. This is the 21^st century where everyone is offended by everything. I’m not saying cover-up if you’re breastfeeding, everyone’s level of modesty is different, but I am saying don’t be all up in arms if someone isn’t comfortable with your level of exposure out in public when it comes to boobs. 

 { Left: Nursing Mariam at home in 2014. Right: Walking along a busy Ft. Lauderdale street while nursing Ava this past weekend.}

Have a great Thursday and happy breastfeeding!

Ava month two!

Weight

I'm not sure what her weight is since she hasn't had her two month appointment yet, but she's definitely putting on the pounds. This baby loves to nurse! She's heavier and has outgrown a lot of her newborn clothes so I'm really happy she's thriving.

 Health

So far so good! She had a bit of baby acne around month one but it's pretty much cleared up. I'm also thankful that she didn't get the nasty cold that cycled through everyone in the house. She did have some congestion for a few days while I was trying to get over my cold, but it never progressed more than that.

 

Sleep

I've said it before and I'll say it again, this baby rocks at the night time sleeping! She's the easiest baby so far in terms of sleeping. She used to go to sleep no earlier than 11pm, but now I can put her down for the night around 8:30 pm. Sometimes she'll take up until 9:30 or 10 pm, but once she's down, she normally only wakes up once. Sometimes twice, but when she does wake up, she'll nurse for about 10 minutes and then go right back to sleep. None of this needing to be rocked for like 30-40 minutes like the other girls.

Clothes

Some newborn, but mainly 0-3 months and a few 3 months outfits.

 

Diet

Milk, milk, and more milk. I'm really thankful I get to stay home and can exclusively breastfeed her whenever she wants. I hate dealing with bottles. Nursing out in public has also been going really well. My clothes are obviously limited since I have to be in nursing friendly clothes, but that's part of it.  

 

Crying

Mastered! She has been wanting to be held a lot more these past few weeks and doesn't tolerate her car seat as well anymore. She used to go right to sleep when I'd put her in the car, but she's not liking car rides that much these days.

  

Milestones

Ava is little miss sociable. She smiles a ton and is gaining more and more neck strength. She's such a joy and even on the hard days when I'm so tired and the kids are driving me crazy, I just look at her and thank God for this little tiny angel.

The many faces of Ava

Oh hello blog. It's been about a week since I've last updated, but I just can't get enough of this little squish! This poor blog always gets put on the back burner when things get hectic. I feel like I've been a one trick pony on subjects lately and just talking about the kids, but I take a lot of pictures of them and they are the fastest and easiest subjects to write about. They are my whole life so yes obviously they would take up the majority of my blog. I'd love to share more DIY projects, recipes and tutorials but there just isn't much time these days with a newborn. I'll just have to wait a little bit longer to get back to that. These girls are just growing so fast. Mariam turned 3 last week (future post), Serena is turning 13 this week and Ava will be 2 months as well!

On Fridays we sparkle

Sparkle onesie c/o Kateandsophia

Well my babies sparkle anyways.....as for me, sparkling I am not. This sweet babe was up almost every hour last night! At least one of us woke up looking fabulous. Even how tired I am or frustrated I might get, I sure am thankful for this little lady. So blessed to have her and it's been a blast dressing up a newborn again. Speaking of dressing up, I'm loving all the sparkle onesies and accessories Kate and sophia co on Etsy has to offer. So many different options for a little one!

Have a great weekend!

Ava is a month and life lately.

What in the world?! A month? How did that happen? It feels like we just brought Ava home from the hospital. I think it's gone by even faster because we have enjoyed every minute with her. She is amazing and though she has her fussy hours, she's still by far easier than the others were. This morning was a bit of an epic disaster. She refused to be put down today without crying all morning. i barely had any breakfast this morning and when it hit 10:30 am and I was getting ready to get everyone ready to pick up Layla from school, I realized that we had washed Ava's carseat cover last night and didn't put it back. I just could not figure it out and the time was creeping closer and closer to have to leave to pick up Layla. Ava was screaming her head off becuase I had put her down and I just didn't know what to do at that point. I called my husband at work crying. Thankfully it was no big deal for him to leave to pick up Layla from school. He brought her home, had lunch with us, put the carseat cover on and then left. Right now the girls are finally napping (though I fully expect Ava to wake up any second) and things are quiet. I can normally keep things together, but that's if I'm running a tight ship and have everything planned out. It has to be this way or everything goes to hell in a hand basket. Not being prepared in having the carseat all ready to go threw everything off as you can see.

Anyways, every day brings something new and even on days like this, I'm so thankful for another baby girl that was put into our lives. There's never a dull moment, though I could do without the many temper tantrums that Mariam has. Phew! This girl tries my patience for sure! She's very unreasonable and when she wants something she will pester you until she gets it, or at least gets sent to her room because she won't stop. 

With this new addition, it has given me less time to work on things but business is still trucking along as usual and going fine. I'm excited about some new products in the shop and a few different flash sale sites I'm scheduled with this year. Currently we are on Brickyardbuffalo.com and the deal runs for 3 days. You can check out what we have on sale here.

FHJ Baby

FHJ Baby

Postpartum update

With every pregnancy I do worry a little about the body changes and how I will come out afterwards. The first week I was starting to get a little worried because my stomach was taking a little longer to go down than the others, but each day it got smaller and smaller. I highly recommend binding your belly after baby. I use control top underwear that goes up to my navel and it always helps. You can read more details on it by clicking here which is my postpartum post when I had Mariam.

I weighed myself after the first week mark but I don't remember what it was. At the two week mark I was 110, so I had lost 16 lbs. I gained 26 lbs this pregnancy. I'm completely fine with keeping the extra 10 pounds. I was a tad underweight to begin with. I'm now 3 weeks postpartum and I gained a pound so I'm at 111 right now. I'm exclusively breastfeeding and I tend to get really skinny by 3-4 months postpartum so I'm hoping things are different this time. I'm trying to remember to snack consistently though it's been a tad more challenging since I've had to cut out dairy because of Ava.

Here is my last bump picture at 38 weeks (I had Ava at 38.5 weeks)

2 weeks postpartum

Next week I plan on starting to exercise slowly as in working on my core first. I also need to work on building strength in my upper body again. Carrying the baby for long periods of time and nursing around the clock is killing my muscles and my knots have been hurting like nobody's business again. 

Baby! Party of 6

Oh hi. Just realized it's been 2 weeks since I've updated. As you can imagine, we've been busy adjusting to life with a new baby again. H was home for two weeks and then my mom came. She just left back to Texas yesterday, so today is actually the second day I'm home by myself with the three during the day. Last week on Monday H went back to work which made it my first day with no help and it went by so smoothly. I was able to pick up Layla from school with no problems and we even went to Target afterwards. Two toddlers and a baby at Target! And we survived! My husband said I was brave. That day I was also able to pick up the house and make dinner. Come Tuesday the day that my mom came Ava flipped a switch. 

She has been having these colic spells every night between the hours of 9 or 10 pm to about midnight or 1 am. She also gets some fussy periods during the day, but still she's much easier than my last two were as newborns. She has her good days and her bad days. Some days she spends most of her time happy and sleeping and some days she has stomach issues and needs a lot of holding. She's exclusively breastfed and it looks like some foods could be the culprit so I've modified my diet to cut out diary and eggs. I'm also trying to avoid gassy foods but I think I messed up yesterday. I had pancakes for breakfast which included some eggs and milk and for dinner I had tacos with a side of beans. We all suffered last night and this morning she was still fussy. She had a doctors appointment last Friday and currently weighs 7 lbs 8 oz. She also turned 3 weeks this past Saturday. I'm in denial that she will be a month once this week ends. It's already going by too fast!

XO

Ava's Birth Story

So I believe the last time I posted while I was pregnant, I mentioned that at 38 weeks and 3 days I was barely dilated at all. I thought for sure that I would go to my due date like I did with baby #3 or that I would go past due. The next day (Friday) after my OB appointment I decided to take the girls to the library last minute. I knew the weekend was upon us so I wanted to check out some books and a movie for them. The library nearby has a nature trail and since the day was so nice, afterwards I thought it would be nice to take a little walk. I hardly exercised at all this pregnancy but I had been on my feet most of the day with the girls and I really don't think I've worked harder in my life in regards to my family and business. So we took our little stroll and then headed home. The rest of the night was uneventful, but I did have trouble sleeping. From 5 am on, I kept having to use the restroom. In retrospect I see it was because the baby must have dropped further and was putting more pressure on my bladder.

I got up for the day around 8 am and noticed that I was having a lot of braxton hicks contractions. Around 8:30 am H left to go bike riding and I started timing them. I was getting them every 2-5 minutes but they were painless. Something was definitely up. I texted my mom around 9:30 to tell her what I was feeling and joked that I hoped this wasn't false labor. By 10:30 they started to calm down but I was still getting them here and there. Some I had to breathe through but that was nothing new for me. I've had that feeling for weeks with some of them.

We went about our business and went to go see a house with a friend of ours and his toddler, and then went to the park. There weren't happening too much at the park so I was definitely thinking the baby was not going to come on that day. After the park we all went to go have pizza and I noticed the contractions were getting stronger. We ate, stopped at the grocery store while I waited in the car and by then it was 3:00 pm. I told DH that we should get home already. By the time we got home contractions were coming closer and stronger. I was still able to finish packing my bag, take a shower and blow dry my hair, but I would stop and breathe through my contractions. Once I finished everything they were still coming but not yet 5 minutes apart. I waited it out on the couch and called my OB. She told me to wait till they are about 5 minutes apart or I could come in and do a labor check but if I was only 1 or 2 cm dilated they would just send me home. I waited 15 more minutes and by then they were less than 5 minutes apart and very painful. We headed to the hospital around 5:00 pm. By the time I got up to labor and delivery and checked I was 5 cm dilated! Yep I was going to be admitted and it was baby time. I requested the epidural. I was in so much pain by the time we got to the hospital that I was literally shaking. My teeth were chattering and I was in agony. I couldn't get the epidural right away though. They needed to get a bag of IV fluid in me first. Around 6:30 pm I had the worst contraction of all and I felt my water break. Around 7pm I got the epidural and sweet relief finally kicked in 30 minutes later. Usually it happens fast but not this time. Once I went numb I was able to rest, talk and post on Facebook. Relief never felt so good.

Around 10:00 pm the nurse and doctor came in and it was go time. I was at a 10. The doctor suited up but everybody in the room pretty much had to postition me and hold my legs. I was completely numb that I couldn't feel my legs. Still I pushed and I was able to get her out in 3 big pushes. Right away they put her on my chest and I was able to hold her for about 12 minutes before they weighed and cleaned her. After they got her clean H and I noticed she looked so much like our second daughter--only she had a lot more hair! Ava is gorgeous with the most beautiful golden brown hair. Her sisters got to see her the next day and naturally fell in love with her as well. We had a great hospital stay and were discharged 2 days later. H and I are definitely feeling very blessed.

Have a great weekend!