Wishes Come True

Thought I would share this little story with you that happened last night...have a wonderful Sunday, friends!

Josie went to be really early last night so Andrew and I were able to spend some quality time together (okay so really we watched 2 episodes of American Pickers and went to bed at 8:30). But anyway, it kind of threw Josie off her regular schedule so instead of getting up once a night, she got up twice. No big deal. Her last time getting up was at 3:30AM. I fixed her bottle and went in her room to feed her. Everything was going normal until I went to burp her after her bottle. I seriously sat and burped her for 10 minutes and nothing. So I sat her on my leg and tried for another 5 minutes. It normally is just a few pats and she gives me a good burp. I started rocking her and found myself suddenly exhausted and nodding off in rocking her to attempt to get something out. I told her "please just give Mama a burp or a toot so we can get you back down for a few more hours." Boy did I ever get what I asked for, without any sound effects or warning. Next thing I knew I patted my hand onto a back full of (we will call it MUSH). As I picked her up off me I felt it seeping into my clothes. I looked at Josie and all I got was a huge smile and a giggle ("Boy do I feel better Mom!") So I got up, cleaned her and everything she touched, of course saving myself for last. I got her to bed and headed into our room only to find it down my arm (I have no idea how it got there) and several other places, having no idea how it could have gotten there. Moral of the story, be careful what you wish for in the middle of the night :)

I am not a #hashtagger, but this story opens up so many possibilities, so I will go a little crazy... feel free to add more.

#somethingiswet #diaperblowout #becarefulwhatyouwishfor #dreamsreallydocometrue #officiallyoutofwipesnow #midnightwardrobechange #cantseeanythinginthedark #exhaustedandstinky

3 Months

How can it be possible that my tiny precious peanut is 3 MONTHS old already!? 

At (around) three months Josie:

• Rolled Over (front to back)
• Belly Laughs/Giggles
• Can hold her head up
• Finds amusement in the human tongue.
• Starting to become ticklish
• Smiles 95% of the day, sometimes even in her sleep.
• Eating between 6-7oz of milk each feeding
• Sleeping 2-blocks in the night. First block 5-6 hours, second block 4-5 hours. 
• Can't sleep without her Moo Lovie
• Enjoys playing daily in her floor gym.
• LOVES the Dr. Seuss movie, Horton Hears a Who.
• Wearing mostly 6 month clothing!
• Decided no more Paci, and instead chews on her fists.
• Can't start her day without listening to: (It has also resorted to being her lullabies)
•  her Classic Country/Bluegrass music station.

Family Getaway

This past weekend we took Josie on her first weekend getaway. Our first FAMILY weekend getaway. We went to a cute little town called Helen, GA in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We stayed in a cabin about 10 minutes outside of town. We left Saturday morning and arrived around 1:30pm (we took the scenic route through the mountains--it was gorgeous!). We couldn't check into our cabin until 4:00, so we decided to walk around downtown (which was adorable). Our little cabin was perfectly tucked away in the woods and gave us the privacy and peace that we needed to be able to relax and recharge our batteries. Josie did awesome and even slept 8 hours one night! The weather was amazing and we couldn't have asked for a better weekend. We came home yesterday, refreshed... Here are a few pics from this weekend.

One of the restaurants we ate at on the river.

Downtown

Town Square with live music and cornhole.

Josie fell asleep while walking downtown.

Josie LOVED the hot-tub with Mom!

My hubby grilled us some amazing dinners!

Peace and quiet time spent on the back screened in porch after
Josie went to bed. <3

Our Family!

Milk Bank

 Since many of you know, skin-to-skin breastfeeding didn't work out so well with Josie and I. However, I made the decision to continue with breast milk, but instead by pumping and giving it to her in bottles (which is still the best decision we have made.) Anyway, by pumping, my milk supply skyrocketed (in volume). In the beginning, I had no clue that this wasn't normal until I spoke to another breastfeeding mom that was getting in total each day extra, what I was getting in one pump. (I felt like a milk-supplying freak) Then I told her how I had so much extra, I had been just dumping the extra down the drain (my freezer was already stocked for the Apocalypse in just a matter of weeks). I'm sure she was sickened by finding that I was disposing of it, even I got a knot in my stomach each time I watched all that hard work, literally go down the drain.
Then someone made me open my eyes and see that this extra milk was not me being a freak of nature milk producer, but instead this was a gift! I knew Josie could never go through all that milk, so I started researching breast milk donation. I spent several days visiting website and calling milk banks (which I never even knew existed). I found out that the larger milk banks are actually (secretly) run by large formula corporations who add additives and take your milk and condense it into powder form, and make a LARGE profit off the mother's donation by selling it. I am not knocking the milk or the mother's donating it to these corporations, but that just didn't sit right with me. I wanted my milk to stay as local as possible to benefit a family in my area. There are donation centers around Chattanooga, however, they encouraged building relationships with your receiving family and was basically a black market parking lot swap meet each week (without receiving $$ for your milk of course). That didn't work for me either. I wanted to remain anonymous, but know that my milk was going to be put to good use and benefit a child or children to the highest potential it could.
I kind of gave up on the Milk Bank for a while until I stumbled on an article on Oprah.com ( Page 5 talks about my Milk Bank choice...http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/Milk-Banks-Donating-Breast-Milk-to-Save-Babies/1) I found my match.... WakeMed Mother's Milk Bank in Raleigh, NC. The Mothers' Milk Bank at WakeMed is a non-profit organization that has been screening donors, and collecting, processing and distributing human donor milk since 1992. I applied and within a month, shipped out my first milk donation. Of course I do not receive any $$ for my milk, but it also costs me nothing more that a few seconds of my time to fill out my bags each day. The milk bank does replenish my freezer milk bags and pays for overnight express shipping from my doorstep. The minimum donation is 200oz. From January 23-March 3, I was able to donate almost double that! I shipped out my donation this past Monday and received a call from the Milk Bank thanking me and acknowledging they had received my donation of 398oz! My milk will be used in hospitals to feed NICU infants, Preemies, and end up in the hands of the mothers of these children, so they can take their babies home to feed. <3 To put the volume into perspective, a newborn infant eats 2-3 oz every 3-4 hours (give or take). So we will say 3 oz every 3 hours on the high end...making 8 feeding a day--24 oz a day. My milk donation will feed one infant for 16 1/2 days.
For those concerned about Josie...she is thriving and this donation didn't put a ding in her (separate) frozen milk supply. Plus, it's teaching her to share at a young age.... :)
Here is the link to my Milk Bank http://www.wakemed.org/landing.cfm?id=135.

My donation.

My donation and cooler sent in.

Almost to the top!

Ready to Ship!

Have a blessed weekend All! xo

Diaper Duty

I have gotten many requests to do a post on my cloth diapering experience...now that I have a groove, I am happy to share this with you....
I have been SO happy with switching to cloth diapers. I honestly can not tell a difference in using cloth vs plastic diapers other than an extra load of laundry and the $100+ we save monthly by switching! We have the occasional leak, but that happens with plastic diapers, too.
Andrew was not such a fan in the beginning, but has been a trooper--changing his fair share of diapers... He can't complain about saving $$.
Here are some pictures to explain our groove.

I have two types of inserts.
The one on the left is a basic microfiber multi-layer.
The one on the right is a multi-layer charcoal insert with a fleece outside.
I cannot really tell the difference between the two, other than the charcoal
one is much thicker (bulky) and charcoal inserts are more absorbent
and supposed to hide odor better??

I also have two types of covers.
The top one is called a minky diaper. It has a soft fuzzy outside and fleece lining.
The bottom one is a basic waterproof  PUL outer with a suede cloth inner lining.
Both of these diapers have a lining inside the pocket with a waterproof liner.
I also mainly use the one-size snap pocket diapers, however I do have one velcro one.
I don't mind the snaps, however, Andrew prefers the velcro.

Seen here is the liner pad being inserted in the pocket of the diaper.
This gets removed after each dirty diaper change.

I have to "stuff" the diapers with the liner after washing and drying.
This is probably the most time consuming part, but I am getting
to be more efficient.

Properly Stuffed Diaper (pocket opening seen here, also)

Stuffed Diaper (pocket opening at top)
This is how the diaper would lay for me to put it on Josie.

Here is the front of a stuffed diaper, all snaps exposed.

The benefit to a one-size pocket diaper is the middle snaps, which
allow you to appropriately size the diaper according to your childs weight.
Josie has very chubby legs so she bumped up a snap before she hit the weight.
Seen here (middle crease/fold) is where you have three options to size your diaper.

Completed, ready to use diaper!

As I mentioned before, changing the diaper takes me very little time
when comparing to using a plastic diaper. Once a dirty cloth diaper is removed, I
slide out the liner and put both the liner and cover in this diaper pail to wash.
The diaper pail is lined with a similar waterproof PUL liner, which is washed with the diapers.
I also have a diaper sprayer, but thought I would let you leave that to your imagination...

Here is my changing station...soon to be moved into Josie's room.

One of the baskets I purchased for Josie's room
perfectly holds the folded, ready-to-go diapers!
I think it will comfortably hold about 18 stuffed diapers
at one time. I have about 25 diapers total.

They come in cute patterns, too!

Who needs bloomers, when the diapers are this cute!?

They are a little bit bulkier than a plastic diaper, but we haven't
found anything negative about that, yet.

Josie loves her cloth diapers!

So at the end of each day, I run one load of cloth diapers and liners through a cold/cold rinse cycle only. Then, before I go to bed, I start a warm/cold cycle and add unscented soap. After my last late night pumping, I throw them in the dryer on low so they are ready to stuff for the next day's use.

My next adventure is making my own laundry soap, as well as my own liquid concoction of wipe solution so I can start using cloth wipes, which I will just wash with the diapers instead of continuing to purchase wipes, which cost us about $40 ever 45 days or so...
Here are my cloth wipes. They measure 5"x5" and are made of organic bamboo.

Please feel free to ask any questions, I know I have asked a fellow cloth diaper mom-friend plenty!

Special thanks to Josie for being the perfect and cutest baby model...<3

A Day in the Shoes...

Something I was constantly curious about, especially, in the last few months of my pregnancy...What will my daily routine be like? I will walk you through a typical day for Josie and I while Daddy is at work.

A few things to keep in mind:

• If we have any appointments or errands we try to schedule them to be done between the first and second feedings of the day so we have more time to be productive with the rest of our day and so I don't have to pump in the van while we are out and about (yes, I have had to do this...thankfully my new van has shades you can pull down and my pump has a 9V adapter)
• Play dates, yes, we have had two so far (Mostly for Mommy)...have been at 10AM and 3PM, both worked well for us.
• I have a list of "goals" for the day. I have them categorized into levels of Importance (High-Low Priority) and then have some MUST-DO goals each day...here are some samples for each;
• Must-Do Everyday goals: Shower for Mom, Bath for Josie (every-other day), Laundry, Dishwasher, Sterilizing Pumping Supplies/Bottles, Homework, etc.
• High Priority goals: Errands, Make/Return Phone Calls, Plan Dinner, Vacuum (every-other day) etc.
• Low goals: Sort through mail, Blog, Emails, etc.
• I am now in school so I am making every effort to use my free-time while Josie is napping to get some homework done. Andrew has also been helping out when he gets home, watching her after dinner so I can take quizzes and read, uninterrupted (for the most part).
• I change so many diapers in the day, I wouldn't be able to put them into a schedule (so just assume I'm changing one before, during, and after any activity--sometimes multiple times) Because we are using cloth, that also means I MUST do a load of laundry of diapers daily.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A NEW MOMMY:

Josie has only been waking up once a night (between 1-2AM) and once around 5-6AM. I usually put her back down after her 5-6AM feeding and I get up and around for the day (pump, shower, eat breakfast, and do housework until she gets up).

Wake Up for the day between 5-9AM depending on night feedings (and how our night went)

7-9AM First feeding of the Day, Josie gets a bath every-other day. Dress Josie. Run errands if any.

9-10AM  Josie takes first nap. Sadie pumps and sterilizes bottles and pumping supplies from the night. Assemble cloth diapers from previous night laundry.

11AM- Josie second feeding, tummy time or swing. Sadie pumps, does laundry (clothes). 

12PM- Sadie eats lunch, load dishwasher, vacuums (every other day...okay every other-other day)

1-2PM- Play/Quality time. With the weather getting warmer, we have been able to walk through the state park and play with the dogs outdoors. But on the cold days we have gotten pretty content cuddling on the couch.

2PM- Josie third feeding, Sadie pumps. Sadie sterilizes bottles and pumping supplies. Works on High Priority goals.

3PM- Sadie plans dinner while Josie plays or naps.

4-6PM- Sadie cooks dinner and works on any remaining, unfinished goals.

5-7PM- Andrew gets home. Dinner Served. Josie eats (conveniently, the same time dinner is served so either Andrew feeds me or I have a cold dinner). Sadie pumps. Sadie sterilizes bottles and pumping supplies. Start Josie's bedtime routine (around 6:30PM) Change Josie into PJs and Josie eats, again.

7-9PM- Finish up laundry (clothes) and dishwasher. Josie eats again,  Josie is in bed by 7:30. Sadie pumps.  Sadie (or Andrew) sterilizes bottles and pumping supplies. Watch TV, work on homework, and cuddle with Andrew on the couch. Start cloth diaper load of laundry to run through the night and finish in the morning.

9-10PM- Bed time. 

1-2AM- Josie eats. Sadie pumps. Switches diaper laundry from washer to dryer.

_________________________________________________________________________

Each day is a little different, but gets a little easier. I am starting to know her cries and be proactive at having a bottle ready to eat just before she wakes up or needs it. So I know its pretty random, but basically, Josie eats every 3 hours during the day and 4-6 hours at night. I pump and bottle feed during the day and at night. Majority of my time during the day is spent pumping, sterilizing, changing diapers, homework, housework, and never enough cuddles with my sweet baby girl. Did I also mention I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, and that those parts of my day couldn't bring me more happiness. 

Favorite parts of the day: Josie's bath, Quality time with my girl, and Andrew joining us at home.