Friendly Reminder

“A dog has no use for fancy cars, big homes, or designer clothes. A water logged stick will do just fine. A dog doesn't care if you're rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he'll give you his." - John Grogan, Marley & Me: Life and love with the World's Worst Dog

I watched Marley & Me over the course of the past day, basically as Cree would allow. She's been really fussy over the past day and a half- I think she's going through a growth spurt and from what I hear weeks 6-8 are the fussiest for most babies and we're slap in the middle of that.

I realized as I was watching how similar (so far) our story is to the movie and currently we're living the part of adjusting to being a family of four instead of three, I think my relationship with Buddy has had the most adjustment since Cree was born. We've actually been a family of three since we got Buddy in November 2010. He and I have always been attached since the day I went to Jake and Stacey's apartment to meet him and see if we wanted him, I called J and said this is our dog. He was a fat little thing but so darn cute. He lived with me in my apartment before J and I got married. We've been through a lot, from wen he had stomach surgery because he ate his bandages from being neutered and almost died, I cried a ton as I watched him throw up all over the kitchen floor and there was nothing we could do. He used to go with us everywhere when he younger, he was so small in fact that he got to ride shot gun in my lap. It's hard to remember him ever being that small. When he cut his paw wide open two years ago and needed stitches I took him to the vet, J said if he were an actual kid we would pay for the stitches and all the medicine so to go ahead with the stitches so it'll heal properly because after all he's our kid since we had no human kids at the time. Now when J goes out of town he's the 'man of the house' and gets to sleep in the bed. Most people know that I adore Buddy, I mean check out my Instagrams I showed his picture to people like he was a human kid.

The first night we brought Cree home I had a freak out because he was so forceful in trying to figure out what she was, in watching the movie I felt like Jennifer Aniston when she told Owen Wilson to take Marley to 'the farm.' I think I literally said (while crying, because those postpartum hormones make you crazy for a few days or maybe that was the hydrocodone talking? Anyways...) to Jeremy, I now understand why people get rid of their dogs when they have kids. I couldn't believe I was saying that out loud mind you.  He laughed at me and said we're not getting rid of Buddy and just remember this is an adjustment for him too. While still crying I told him I knew we weren't getting rid of him (This is something we had talked about a ton before Cree was born and I knew that and kept thinking about it but my very new protective mom mentality was severely kicking in) but that now I understood why, because when you bring home a newborn and your dog hits her very hard with his nose while smelling her you have a tendency to have a meltdown.

It's been a learning experience over the past 7 weeks for us. We've had to teach him to be gentle with her and to not lick her directly in the face, although he sneaks a few of those in every now and then on her head and lately on her hands. These days I find it way more endearing than I did in that first week. I've had to learn that he's not going to hurt her, he's just intrigued by her and that his job is to protect her now too. The other night he actually fell asleep with his head on her legs while Jeremy was putting her to sleep. He comes to check on Cree and I while I'm feeding her in the mornings and he sniffs her face while she's in her swing every time he comes downstairs just to make sure she's OK. He is WAY more protective than ever before, I feel bad for the people that have to deliver packages or mail to our house because he's pretty scary to see and hear when he goes into protection mode. I can tell that he misses when he was the center of our world when we were at home, especially when uses his nose and moves my hand to pet him when I'm feeding her or if I'm in the floor with her doing tummy time, it's almost like he's trying to remind me that he was here before she was and I can't say I blame him because I don't give him nearly the attention I used to.

I wouldn't change our little family for anything and our family includes Buddy, watching the movie really reminded me of that. I know that we are his whole world and now his world includes this little human that takes up a ton of J and I's time. He and Cree will be best friends as soon as she get mobile but for now Buddy will have to settle for licking her on occasion. Check out the transformation: 

Cree and Buddy when Cree was 2 weeks old

 Cree and Buddy when Cree was 7 weeks old (they both appear a lot happier :))

First 6 Week Essentials

Sorry I've been an absentee blogger, my life for the past 6 weeks has been all about Cree and C-Section recovery. Here are a few of my favorite things that have gotten us thru so far.

1.) AngelCare Sound and Movement Monitor  We moved Cree into her room this week, it was super hard for me but this definitely has put my mind at ease since it monitors movement including breathing movement. We opted for this instead of a video monitor since it will sound an alarm if no movement is sensed for 20 seconds, plus I knew I'd stare at the video monitor instead of sleep.  This monitor is available at Wal-Mart for under $100, the cheapest I've seen it.

2.) Circo Receiving Blankets from Target Cree is a super hot baby as well as a Houdini when it came to swaddling, so by week 2 we were no longer swaddling her and these came in handy. They are a great size and kept her warm while sleeping at night, during naps, in her car seat as a cover when it was still cold out, etc. LOVE THEM! These are available at Target for $7.99.

3.) Lansinoh Lanolin This was an absolute lifesaver when I was first breastfeeding, it's like chap stick for your nips and heals them when they're sore. We found out the hard way that Cree was only used to this lanolin when I randomly decided to change to the Medela brand lanolin one day (I was being lazy and didn't want to walk upstairs to grab the Lansinoh) and she wouldn't nurse all afternoon which had me in tears. You can get Lansinoh brand at Target for under $10. 

4.) Belly Bandt- I knew I wasn't going to be back to my prepregnancy size immediately but I didn't expect to be so bloated or to still not be able to see my downstairs region. Some friends of mine stopped in and one of them had had a C-Section and said that I needed to get a Belly Bandt as it would make me feel so much better about life, boy was she right. I felt a lot better about how I looked in addition to feeling better because I wasn't having extra weight on my incision. The binding from the Belly Bandt has actually helped decrease the size of my stomach since I haven't been able to work out. I actually got an off brand Belly Bandt from Amazon since the name brand Belly Bandt was out of my price range, again with the thriftyness but the off brand one was $18-20 vs. the brand name for $45-$50. I ordered a medium and by 4 weeks postpartum I was too small (yay!) for it so I ordered a small. High Recommend having/getting one of these if you're pregnant or just gave birth! 

5.) Boppy Nursing Pillow I tried the Breastfriend Nursing Pillow while we were still in the hospital and once we got home but unfortunately Cree and I decided that the Boppy worked so much better for us. I'm very thankful that one of my Mother in Law's friends gave us the Boppy (who doesn't love free stuff?). Right now buy a Boppy Pillow at Target and get a FREE Slip Cover.

6.) Palmer's Stretch Mark Cream- I used this my entire pregnancy twice a day and I'm still using it now to help smooth out the little marks I did get (sighhhhh, she's worth the marks but I do miss my mark free body). I think the marks would be worse if I hadn't been using throughout my pregnancy. I get the Palmer's All Over Stretch Mark Lotion from Wal-Mart for $5.50. 

7.) Philips Avent Soothie Pacifiers Although, our hospital discouraged paci use for breastfeed babies, we found that these really help to sooth her during very fussy times and hasn't affected her feeding whatsoever. Praise the Lord for Paci's I say! She just got a Wubbanub today with one of these attached and I'd venture to say this will be on my next essential list, standby though. These are also currently on sale at Target for $3.86 for a two pack. 

8.) Skip Hop Duo Diaper Bag Literally one of my favorite things we got that was on our registry and J picked it out as it was a diaper bag he would carry! It's a bit pricy (my friends call me cheap, hence the 'thrifty' in my blog title) but it's totally worth the extra $$ in my opinion. The bag straps onto your stroller handle so it doesn't take up vital space needed to store other things- super clutch when I'm shopping and don't have Cree in a buggy (yes, I call shopping carts buggy's- it's a southern thing). There are pockets for everything and it had magnets that keep it closed in all the right places. I'm so pleased that this is the one we chose and got! Skip Hop as a brand is great too, we've also purchased their Wet/Dry bag that matches the Duo Bag and the Wipe case. Right now, Diapers.com has it on sale for $52. 

9.) Vitamin E Oil- I've been using this during my postpartum recovery once my doctor gave me the green light last week to help with my incision scar twice a day and I'm already seeing a difference. Wal-Mart carries it for under $4. 

10.) Jammies with zippers- I do not know how we would have gotten through the last few weeks without these for Cree to sleep in. During my pregnancy the doctors convinced us that she was a 'big' baby, close to 9 pounds is what they told us. My goodness were they wrong as she was only 6 pounds AND almost a week late! What does this mean you ask? Well, we only had three or four newborn size outfits. The Sunday after we came home from the hospital my mother in law went and bought 6 Jammies with zippers from Wal-Mart in newborn size and those got us through the next three(ish) weeks. I love the zipper, it's crucial during those middle of the night diaper changes. J and I swear those outfits with buttons are from hell. Right now the Wal-Mart brand Faded Glory has a two pack for $9.98, I found these really fit true to size as well.