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.

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.