Sleeping Thru the Night? What's that?

This is literally how I feel every single night but I am so tired that I fall asleep and forget my lists, a lot. I also wake up at least once a night and tip toe out of our room to check on Cree just in case our Angel Care monitor decides not to tell me if she's not breathing. Oh the struggle is real. I love being a mom, it is truly an amazing thing but there are things that I miss about the days before I became a mom like sleeping thru the night. Man, I used to sleep like a champ BC (you know, Before Cree). 

The List

I Don't Know How She Does It at MOVIECLIPS.com

What I'm loving Thursday

What I'm loving Thursday by aprilreynolds featuring Eos beauty products

Essentials for Traveling with a Baby

This past weekend I journeyed to FL for one of my best college girlfriends wedding. I didn't realize how much different traveling is when you have a baby in tow and a husband who can't go because of work. I'm exhausted but I'm so glad we went! It was a gorgeous wedding on the white sand beaches of Destin, FL.

While my husband was unable to come with us, my best friend/roomate from college (Ashley) was able to come with us which was super fun! I don't know how in the world I would have been able to get through the traveling without her. Two words: Life Saver. So if you're going to be traveling with a little person between the ages of 3-6 months, here are some essentials you'll need before you begin the trip in addition to having a traveling companion to help!

1.) Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes  - Cree has started to absolute anything to do with music and lights and this was crucial to keep her entertained during the 8-10 hour trip to and from FL. She's still learning how to reach out and grab things right now as well and this also gives her that incentive as well. Right now you can get this for a steal on Amazon with free shipping for $8.

2.) Infantino Go GaGa Mirror Toy  - My child loves to look at that pretty baby in the mirror any chance she gets so a few weeks ago I got this Infantino attachment for her car seat. She will just stare at the mirror and talk to the baby in the mirror to her hearts content. This is available at Target online or in store for $8.99.

3.) Go GaGa Squeeze and Teethe Elephant KiKi - We think that Cree is beginning to start teething as pretty much everything she touches goes into her mouth and one of the things she absolutely loves is this Elephant anywhere near her mouth. It also squeaks and she loves when it makes that sound. This is also available at Target online or in store for $11.99.

4.) Medela 9Volt Vehicle Lighter Adapter - As a breastfeeding mother, traveling is tough when it comes to feedings and I realized I would be lost without the car charger for my Medela Pump N Style. My system for feeding Cree while on the way home (I learned a lot on the way there) was I pumped before we left at 5:30am and then when she was ready for another feeding around 9am, we stopped and I changed her diaper and then we headed back on the road and I gave her the bottle I had pumped so we didn't loose much time. Once she finished the bottle I was able to pump while Ashley drove and then what I pumped out I was able to give her for the next feeding, and so on, you get the picture. By being able to pump in the car using the adapter I'm pretty sure we saved about 1.5 hours. You can get an adapter for your Medela pump at Target or WalMart for $19.99. I was able to score a Medela Pump N Style with a car charger off of Craigslist for a mere $40, I call that thrifting at it's finest!

The wedding was lovely, it's so fun to be able to be there for friends during their big life moments! These ladies are the kinds of friends that I can go months without seeing and it's like no time has passed at all, you only get a couple of those friends in a lifetime and I'm so glad these ladies are some of mine. 

DIY Headband & Bow Holder

Since before we even decided to have kids I have always said that if we did have a little girl, she wouldn't go anywhere without a bow on her head. If you've seen my Instagram (Check it out using the button on the right!) I've lived up to my word as my sweet girl has a headband in pretty much every single color of the rainbow.

The problem with this is that I had a hard time figuring out how to store them, most of the time they literally sat on her nightstand in a huge ugly pile. So I searched on Etsy, they were more than I wanted to pay ($40 for a picture frame and ribbon? Come on.) so I decided I would attempt to make my own and I've been pretty pleased with the result. 

You too can make your own, here's what I did: 

• Went to Good Will and browsed through the pictures section, found a frame that matched Cree's room--- $3
• Got some hooks from Target--- $3.99 
• I had to splurge on ribbon by going to Hobby Lobby since the Dollar Store didn't have any cute colors that matched the nursery--- $8
• Threw away the ugly picture and glass.
• Used my husbands drill and drilled holes into the bottom for the hooks. 
• Lovingly asked my husband to screw in the hooks as I was having a hard time getting them.
• Hot glued ribbon the ribbon in place and Voila! 

Total for Cree's Headband and Bow Holder: $14.99 (Wayyyyyy cheaper than most of the things I saw on Etsy)

Throwback Thursday

Throwing it back to January at 34 weeks pregnant with our little lady, my husband is smoking hot.

Bachlorette Party on a Budget

I was so excited this past weekend to help throw a Bachlorette party for one of my college girl friends who's getting married at the end of the month. Here's how I was able to keep my portion of the party on a budget.

Bachlorette Party Favors & Utensils

Cups: two birds, one stone. These worked as a portion of the party favors for the ladies to take with them if they choose to AND they were great for drinks. I picked these up in 3packs from the Dollar Tree. I used a Sharpie to write the hashtag for the evening so that everyone could post pics, #polkslaststand.I was also able to score the pink and purple beads from Dollar Tree as well, these were available in packs of 8. A Bachlorette Party cannot be complete with penis straws so I got a pack of 10 from the local Pandora's Box for $6.99. Our color scheme was black, pink and white and again the Dollar Tree came through in the clutch with a 20 pack of black plates as well as Zebra and Polka Dot drink napkins.

Party Favors & Utensils for 10 Total: $16.99
-15 Cups, $5
-16 Beads, $2
-10 Straws, $6.99
-20 plates, $1
-40 napkins, $2
-Silverware, Free (left overs from our wedding)

Beverages

As any good party planner would do, I browsed Pinterest for ideas and originally I wanted to do this that I found on Pinterest:

Then I realized how much mini bottles are, depending on the brand they're over $1.50 each for any decent ones. I decided to do buy two fifths instead of Svedka that had something pink on them and ended up with Strawberry Colada and Strawberry Lemonade and some cute mini solo shot cups from Hefty.

Shots with the Bachlorette: $13.00

We had a great time and I can't wait to see her walk down the isle in a few weeks!

Bacon & Milk

I've now been back to work for a little over a full week and slowly but surely I'm adjusting. It's not easy what-so-ever but it's not unbearable like I thought it might be. I miss being home with my baby, I feel like I'm going to miss a lot of firsts since I'll be at work but so far all of her firsts have been with me and J. She laughed for the first time this weekend and praise the Lord we were able to get it on video, I've watched it about 20 times since it happened #dontjudgeme.

I've had to develop a pumping and feeding schedule now that I'm back to work. My goal has been to be able to breastfeed her more times than she's getting a bottle each day and so far that has happened. Let me tell you, I feel like the bag lady when I go to and from work as I have my purse, my computer bag, my lunch bag, plastic baggy full of pump parts (I actually popped this into my computer bag or purse depending on the day) and my handy dandy milk cooler.

Pump & Feeding Schedule

• I get up at 5am and pump which ever side Cree isn't going to feed on that morning, I've been getting about 4.5 oz. I was freezing this but now I'm keeping it for one of her bottles during the day that I send with her to her Grandma's each day, this prevents me from having to thaw much from my stock pile.
• Feed Cree either after I pump if she's waking up or get ready and feed her at 6am.
• I pump at 8am, 11am and 2pm both sides and get about 5 oz each pump session. 
• Feed Cree as soon as I get home from work which is around 5pm, then again around 7pm and then once more at 9pm. The 9pm feeding is shorter than all of her other feedings as she's just topping herself off before she goes to sleep. This I think has been a huge help in her sleeping through the night but I have a hunch she'll soon be cutting out this feeding.
• If I go to bed right after she goes down at 9:30, I don't need to pump before bed. If I go to bed later, I will pump before I go to bed and freeze whatever I get out, usually about 2-3 oz.

 As you can tell, my child doesn't miss any meals, have you seen her cheeks? 

 She makes the best faces, hands down. 

Keeping Up My Supply

I started  back to work on a Thursday and by Friday afternoon my supply had dipped down which was absolutely terrifying since I need to get at least 15oz. out at work each day during my sessions and I only got 10 oz. that day. After much research, I decided that on Monday I would start literally chugging as much water as I could and that I would start taking Fenugreek as this was recommended literally everywhere I looked on Pinterest. I drank over 100 oz. of water on Monday and got 15 oz. out like I needed to on Monday. We went grocery shopping on Monday night and I bought the Fenugreek (it was $6 at WalMart) and took two capsules and on Tuesday I got almost 17 oz. during my sessions. I kept up the water drinking and Fenugreek the rest of the week and I was at or slightly above 15 oz. for all three sessions combined--- coincidence? I really don't think so. Other things I'm doing to help increase/maintain my current supply: 

• I eat oatmeal and yogurt every morning for breakfast. 
• Drink tons of beverages, whether it's water or something else I down it with a quickness to stay hydrated. When I'm at work my goal is 100 oz. or more, this makes me have to pee like I'm pregnant still but I don't care. I got a 50 oz. container to keep water in at my desk from the $1 store, so I need to drink at least two of these a day if not more.
• I eat snacks in between meals, specifically granola bars or wheat thins with Laughing Cow Cheese. 
• Prenatal vitamins are a must to make sure she and I are getting enough DHA, etc. (Bonus: We also add Tri-Vi-Sol or Poly-Vi-Sol to one bottle a day per our pediatricians recommendation.)
• I eat a lot of protein and veggies for lunch and dinners- I've started making Chef salads for lunch each day. (More on meal planning in upcoming posts).

Bringing home the bacon and the milk takes a lot of work and dedication, but it's worth it. 

Week 7-12 Baby Essentials

 

It's been crazy the past few weeks, so apologies for the month long delay in a post! But it has given me some time to come up with another list of my essentials. So without further ado... 

1.) Mederma Stretch Mark Cream- Love it! It helps heal and repair the places you get stretch marks, it's a little pricey at $39 per bottle at WalMart (This is the cheapest I've seen it) but I think it's worth it since I'm already seeing results.

2.) Medela Bottles- We started using bottles more and more especially since we can't stay home all the time due to Cree's feedings or we'd go stir crazy. These are super helpful with pumping and feeding Cree. I was lucky and got a ton of these at my shower so I have enough for her to have 4 bottles in during the day while I'm at work and I can take 4 to pump and still have extras for my late night or early morning pump sessions.

3.) Graco Pack N Play- We use this as our downstairs changing station and I love it! You don't realize how you need two of everything if you have a two story home until you have a baby. Once she gets too big to use the changing portion of the pack n play I'm not sure what we're going to do! We got ours from Target for $79, my in-laws purchased it for us over Christmas though for $79. 

4.) Bath Tub- We started giving Cree bath's more often after the first 6 weeks and she LOVES bath time and I love using her little tub! It came with a sling/hammock that I used when she was really little but now that she can sit up a little bit better we no longer use it. It's easy to rinse out in our big tub and I just leave it in there to dry off once we're done. You can get one of these at Target for $20, great baby shower present if you're looking!

5.) Munchkin Waterproof Changing Pad Liner- Talk about a life saver on several occasions, otherwise I'd be doing laundry way more often! I use one on her changing pad upstairs and one downstairs, and have a few spares for any mishaps we might have. If she pees on them NOTHING soaks through so you don't have to change out your changing pad cover (this happened a lot before I got these). Highly recommended, you can get them at Target in a 3pack for $8.

6.) Nursing Tank- As a breastfeeding mom your options on bra's are limited so these tanks come in handy for weekends at the house and night time feedings. I have several of them and they work great stand alone or under shirts as an undershirt. I've only been able to find these in Target at a reasonable price around $16-$20 for a 2pack.

7.) Sassy Hanging Bugs- Cree adores anything from the Sassy brand, they offer a wide variety of colors and lots of patterns in their product line. We have the 'bugs' as I call them on her car seat for her to look at while we ride in the car. I got a 2pack at WalMart for $4.

8.) Sassy Mirror- Again, we love the Sassy brand! We use this as Cree's tummy time mirror and as of yesterday according to her Grandma she was grabbing on it and trying to eat it. She likes to look at that pretty baby in the mirror, I can't blame her I love looking at her too :) My friend Sarah got this for us at a consignment store as her son loved the one they had when he was little. There is a similar Sassy mirror on sale at WalMart right now for $8. You can see her bug on her car seat in this picture (not the best picture I know), she was being pretty sassy when we went on vacation as you can tell from this picture.

9.) Wubbanub- If you decide to use a paci for your child, look no further than the Wubbanub. We decided to get her the Tiger Wub, because well, if you've been to our house you know what huge Clemson fans we are.  She loves to grab onto it and hold it herself and this helps when she spits it out, it doesn't go flying and rolling places you can't find. Since the Tiger is a newer one he was a little bit more expensive at $17 but the original line of Wubbanub's are in the $12-$13 range. We got ours off of Amazon and I actually just ordered a back so that we can wash the other one. Here's Cree and her Wubbanub in action.

10.) Infantino Bug Lovie- I started giving this to her a few weeks ago to entertain her while I was in the shower and while she was in her carseat. She likes to chew on it's face and on the silk portion of the blanket. She loves to look at all of the patterns on the shell and sometimes it makes her go cross eyed which makes me think it's helping her work on her focus. Infantino also has a boy version of this in blue and green and can be found at Target for $13.