Meet Cason!

My sweet little nephew, Cason Reed, made his grand entrance yesterday! He is SO sweet! And SO tiny! He is the smallest out of all of our babies, so far!(heehee, yes I did) We love him SO much!

A Little Gem

I will be the first one to tell you that I let my babies sleep in our room for way too long. The older three seriously were in there for a while, Griffin and Peyton are only 15 months apart so they were piled up in the bed with me at the same time. Because of the shift the hubby works, this is really not a big deal for our family. But, since Brooks’ room is SO close to our room(there’s even a door from our room to his), I decided while I was still pregnant that I was going to put him in his room earlier.

And then he was born.

And all the mommy paranoia that I have with small babies kicked in. Is he going to choke on his spit up? Is he going to stop breathing? SIDS? And so on and on and on. I’m terrified of something happening to one of my children.

Little B is still only 4 months old. That’s really not too bad to still be in our room. But he LOVES to lay flat on his back. Always has. I thought maybe he would sleep better at night if he was in his crib. Hubby had bought me an awesome monitor already, with a handheld color monitor and another monitor that’s more like a little tv for the bedroom. But I still wanted to know if he quit breathing. So I decided to look into getting an Angel Care Monitor. I was about to buy it when one of my friends introduced me to this little gem…

It clips onto the diaper and monitors movement. If the baby doesn’t move or breathe for 15 seconds it will vibrate. If that doesn’t do the trick it will sound an alarm. YES! This is perfect because I’m sure he’s about to start rolling over in his sleep and then the Angel Care would be going off! This way, it stays ON HIM. Cha-ching! It’s about $100, but worth it to me!

I started putting Brooks in his crib last Saturday. And….he is not sleeping any better. In fact, he’s getting up MORE! So, for now, he’s back in our room. I need sleep to take care of FOUR kids so I don’t really care if he’s in our room til he’s 30!

SLEEP.IS.IMPORTANT!

And I don’t do cry it out so don’t even suggest that to me. K, thanks! Hearing my babies cry stresses me out TO . THE . MAX .  Ask Josh.

Breastfeeding Ramblings

To the four men who read my blog, you might want to sit this one out!

I’m no expert on breastfeeding by any means. Just because I have four children does not mean I’m a pro. But, I wanted to do this post so that when my sisters and friends need help I will remember what and how I did it! And maybe it will help some of you also!

First things first, let’s get a few words out of the way so they won’t shock you as you read along; boob, boobies, breast, nipple, uterus. Haha! Ok, moving on.

The very best thing you can do for yourself is educate yourself as much as possible BEFORE the baby arrives. If you wait until the baby is here to start figuring all this out it’s going to frustrate you. You don’t have time to be researching, you’ll be too busy kissing on that sweet baby!

I think a big thing to remember is that you need to go into breastfeeding reminding yourself that if it doesn’t work out, IT’S OK! Your baby WILL NOT starve if you have to formula feed! Yes, breast is best BUT formula is just fine! People put so much pressure on new moms to breastfeed and I think that just makes it SO HARD. If you’re stressed out about it, it’s not going to work.

Soon after your baby is born, within an hour, it’s important to have that first feed. I let the baby nurse 15-20 minutes on each side. And then I supplement with some formula. GASP! Yes, I do. I do this until my milk comes in. It makes it easier to me…the baby is not starving, and is not so rough on your nipples! OUCH! Newborns need to nurse every two hours, around the clock. Yes, you have to wake them when they are first born! Usually mine are ok to start going as long as they want between feedings at about 2 weeks old…consult your pediatrician! You will have some cramping for the first few weeks when you nurse. Nursing helps your uterus to shrink back down! OH and a side note, some women don’t have a period while nursing..ME included!

Ask for help from a nurse or lactation lady while you are in the hospital. You need to make sure the baby is latched correctly every time or your nipples are going to crack and bleed and hurt like HELL. Breastfeeding itself DOES NOT HURT. The only time you will have pain is when you have let the baby latch incorrectly and nurse or when you go too long without nursing or pumping and let yourself get engorged. DOUBLE OUCH. If you do end up with cracked nipples, you should be able to get some gel pads from the hospital…stick them in the refrigerator and put them on in between feedings. Not only do they feel good, they help to heal you up! You still need to nurse or pump when you have sore nipples, I find it easier to try to pump whichever side is cracked until it heals. Your milk supply runs off of supply and demand, meaning the more you pump/nurse, the more milk you will have and vise/versa. After a few weeks your body will regulate your supply and you will have pretty much the exact amount of milk you’ll need! If you get engorged, pump pump pump…it’s likely your boobs will be too full for baby to latch.

It’s important to maintain a healthy diet while you are breastfeeding. I am still taking prenatal vitamins also. Drinking LOTS of water is important. I can always tell when I haven’t drank enough because my milk supply will dip. I am also taking a herbal supplement called Fenugreek…2 capsules, three times a day with meals. This helps to keep a good supply of milk also….I started that when Brooks was about 6 weeks old. As far as what you can eat, I try to limit my dairy intake as it can cause a gassy baby…Brooks is already SUPER gassy without me adding to it! Some people have to watch the caffeine…I don’t drink a lot of it anyway so I don’t notice a difference with that. Oatmeal also helps my milk supply. I eat Oat Revolution almost every morning. Luckily, breastfeeding burns A TON of calories…helping you shed those pregnancy pounds! I’m only 6 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight! And, trust me, it’s not from eating super healthly..I am eating to keep myself alive most days, no matter what it is! HA!

I am just getting over having a clogged milk duct. Lordy Jesus, that was no fun! I think I’ve mentioned before that I mainly feed Brooks pumped milk at night and I pump during the night. This is because he gets real comfy while nursing(so do I) and falls back to sleep really easily…not finishing up his feeding. Leaving my boob not empty and his tummy not full. This leads to him waking up frequently at night to nurse. I had a lapse in judgment over the weekend and decided to just let him nurse one night. I think this led to the clogged duct. Y’all I had a knot the size of a golf ball. Hurt SO bad. My skin was even painful. Luckily, I caught it in time before it got infected and turned into Mastitis. If that happens you will have flu-like symptoms and need antibiotics. To clear up the clogged duct I massaged before feeding and pumping, I always stated his nursing sessions on that breast, I used warm compresses before pumping and I pointed his chin towards the knot when he latched..supposedly this gets the best suction directly to the spot. I have no clue if that helped but I was doing anything I could! 

I don’t have a whole lot of advice on nursing in public. I’m a pretty private person so I’m just not comfortable. We have had TONS of nursing time in the back of my Yukon! It’s really nice to not have hardly any bottles to wash!

Here are a few things that I could not go without while breastfeeding.

1. Pump-Do NOT sell yourself short with a cheap pump. Period. I have this Medela and I love it! And go ahead and get a double pump.

2. Boppy Nursing Pillow- I have THREE of these bad boys right now. Well one is my sister’s and she’ll need it back soon! ;) But I have one that I leave at the office and one at home.

3. Breast pads and a good bra – You need to wear a bra 24/7 while breastfeeding. If not you’ll end up with droopy boobies! And WHO wants that? NOT ME! Splurge and get yourself fitted for a few really good nursing bras. I have one that I use only for night wear that’s more comfortable. Nothing is worse than an ill fitting bra! I use Lansinoh Breast Pads, I like that they are thin and very absorbent.

4. Lanolin cream is good for sore nipples too, I have been told that using this while you are pregnant will help you to keep from getting cracked nipples once the baby is here.

 

These are the gel pads I mentioned earlier. If you don’t get them at the hospital I think Target and Babies R Us sells them.

5. SUPPORT! You NEED people around  you that are supportive of you breastfeeding. People don’t need to be saying to you, “just give them formula, it’s too much trouble, the milk is not satisfying the baby.” BREASTMILK WAS MADE TO NURTURE YOUR BABY, I ASSURE YOU IT SATISFIES THEM!!!. Biggest pet peeve EVER!

6. The Everything Breastfeeding Book! I STILL reference this book when I have questions! It’s GREAT!!!!

Breastfeeding is very rewarding. It can sometimes be hard. But the good by FAR outweighs the hard times.

New Year’s Baby!

My step-sister, Katie, had her sweet baby girl yesterday! She wasn’t due until January 14th but went into labor New Year’s Eve! After a long day and night Paisley Katherine was born at 4:37am New Year’s Day! She was the first baby born at that hospital in 2013 and the second baby born in our county! Fun times! She got all sorts of fun goodies from the hospital!

Reece and I went to visit for a few minutes yesterday. It’s very safe to say that she can NOT wait for April to get here! She will be the best big sister EVER!

I know I may be a little partial but she’s such a doll! And she has the longest eyelashes I have EVER seen on a baby! They are so long that they curl!

I hope your New Year’s Eve/Day was great! Ours was fantabulous!

Another Baby Girl!

There seems to be a lot of pregnant people in our life right now! :) And several of them are due on my sister’s birthday! Not sure what was going on around here that day but people were apparently using their time wisely! ;)

My step-sister, Katie, is one of the ones due on Allison’s birthday! She had a gender reveal party on Saturday! I decided a few weeks ago that it was a girl because she called to ask me if she could have fried crab claws! I KNEW because I craved them so bad with Reece! (And I don’t like seafood!) All the food at the party was what she is craving. And also what I craved with Reece.

I was trying to get a picture of the three of us, Reece was trying to annoy her Pop! ;)

Yea, he’s gonna be a fun Dad!

We can’t wait to meet sweet Paisley Katherine!

Baby Emery

Yesterday my friend, Rissie, had a sweet sweet baby GIRL!! I’m so excited for her. You really have no idea how sweet it is to have a little girl until you have your very own mini-me! :)

She didn’t find out the sex of the baby until SHE(heehee) was born! It was SO MUCH FUN! And it clarified for me that that is for sure what we will be doing next time around! We actually decided that way a long time ago when Reece was a baby. Don’t go thinking we’re doing it because everyone else is. Um no. April and Josh do what they want to do if you haven’t figured that out by now! HA!

She got everyone to wear pink or blue, whatever your choice was to the hospital.

I wanted it to be a girl so bad that I convinced myself it was a boy! :) Reece was right!

Here she is!

And, yes, I know you wish you looked that good after giving birth! Seriously?! Hospital gown made by our fabulous friend, Donna, who is the bomb.com!

Seeing her(already three times, oops!) has put me into full blown baby-making mode! Hubs is not complaining! :)

Looky What I Found!

I was just going through some old pictures working on a weight loss post and I came across these!
Look at those sweet little squeezable thighs!!!!!  And the boys were so little! They are almost as tall as me now!


Gosh dang they grow up too fast!

Jamie’s Baby Shower

This weekend I hosted a baby shower for my best friend, Jamie! She already has a sweet little boy but this time around she’s having a girl! She’ll be here around Reece’s birthday in December. Another Christmas baby :) The boys spent the day with Josh’s Dad and Reece stayed home to “help”! Isn’t his little pink polo the cutest??

I love how Reece is giggling in the background…

Little boys are ALWAYS contemplating their next move!

And then he tried to corner Reece behind the chair! This is Jamie saying,”you know her Daddy is a COP! Get back around here!” And I clearly was about to pee in my pants from laughing!

And so he decided to let her go…

But we can still have an arranged marriage, right??? PS-Reece’s scrap skirt was made by her Gigi. Y’all know she had to wear her houndstooth and crimson, it was game day baby! :)

Reece Said…

I feel like I’ve been blogging a lot about Reece lately..I guess she’s just doing more silly things at her age right now.

She’s been on us like white on rice for a baby sister. We put her off using the excuse that we couldn’t get one until we moved. Now that we’ve moved she’s like “Helllllurrrrrrrrrrrrr, baby sister PULLLLLEASE.”

Until last week.

At which point we were driving down the road-just me and her-and she ever so politely told me that she wants a baby sister AND a baby brother AT. THE. SAME. TIME.

What the what??????????????

And so I said to her that God usually only gives us one at a time and so that was pretty much not gonna happen.

And without ANY hesitation she said to me…

“Oh Mommy! You just gotta eat A LOT so you have two babies in your tummy at one time!”

For reals. Now what?

Wordless Wednesday-I Gots the Fever!

G

P

R

Sweet Baby!

I came across this picture of Reece today! Look how little she was!

Totally gives me the fever.

xoxo,

Wacky Dreams!

How about I have only blogged THREE times this month so far! That's horrible. I'll do better. Just busy.

Do you ever have crazy whacked out dreams? I do. The other night I had this dream that I was pregnant, like 15 months pregnant(if you have kids, you know what I mean!) I was somewhere alone and felt like the baby was coming. I drove myself to the hospital. When I arrived there where hundreds and hundreds of people outside waiting to get in. I decided to go to the front of the line because I really felt like the baby was coming. I got in this triage area where there were a lot of people and told the nurse what was happening. I lifted up my dress and the baby's head was partially out. So the nurse told me to sit right there on the floor and push! (told you this was crazy!) So I did all by myself and the baby came right on out, we didn't know what we were having, so I looked and it was a girl, with a head full of blonde hair! LOL! She had fluid still in her lungs and I was telling the nurse and trying to help the baby. The nurses kept telling me that they couldn't help me help the baby!!!! I was freaking out! Finally I hit her on the back enough and she was fine! Josh arrived and was upset that he missed the delivery. My friend Jamie was there working and she was trying to find a room to put us in and then I woke up!

You know I really love even numbers! 4 kids, 2 boys, 2 girls=perfect!

My heart is ready for another baby, but my head isn't. I'll let you know when they finally agree! :)

xoxo

I'm Confused!

Every. Single. Time. that I post something on my facebook status that says anything about a surprise or anything remotely leaning towards anything baby, everyone automatically assumes we're pregnant. Like in November when we got a new tv and computer my status said that "Santa visited Josh and April early this year." EVERYBODY AND their brother thought we were pregnant! ha! Then yesterday when Allison had to visit the hospital my status said "does not like false alarms." Then once again it's mentioned. I don't get it.....I really don't get it! We've had three children in 7 years. That's nothing. I guess this day and age people are just not having many kids and three sounds like alot?!? That's weird too because I can name several of my close friends who want 4 just like we do! hmmmm..

I don't know. We do have a plan though! It'll be a while if all goes according to our plan. But we all know it's not really OUR plan anyway, right?!

xoxo

Oh Baby!

Keltie made her grand entrance! She was born yesterday at 2:24 weighing in at 7 pounds and was 19.5 inches long! Oh and she has a head FULL of red hair! I don't think they've figured out where that came from yet! ha! Allison and I went to visit a little while ago and they had the baby in the nursery for the doctor to check her out so we didn't get to hold her! We're going back tonight and hopefully we'll get to see her close up! I have a few pics that her Mimi emailed me!

I LOVE this one! Big Sister Addison giving Baby Sister love!

xoxo

Time is Flying!

Is it just me or has this year flown by? I mean, it's the end of August! I need to start planning Griffin's 7th birthday party! Wow, that was hard to type!

It seems like yesterday that Donna came to our office and told us that she had another grandbaby on the way......baby Keltie will be here tomorrow!!!!! That was the fastest pregnancy ever! I can't wait to meet and hold that sweet little one! I will post some pics hopefully tomorrow! If she is anything like her big sister she'll be here fast! :)

My sister's pregnancy is flying by too! We find out on September 25th what the baby will be! I'm so excited! Josh and I are convinced it's a girl! And we can't wait to tell Brad and Allison, "We told you so!" hee hee! 'Cause that's what brothers and sisters do ya know!

I wish I could make things slow down a bit! I try to absorb every little moment but that's very hard to do these days!

xoxo

Family Planning

At Bunco last week we were talking about babies, being pregnant and some girls were talking about when they planned to start having babies. One of the girls mentioned that sometimes things just don't go as planned and I smiled....because we all know we've had two surprises, so far :) I have the most children out of everyone in the group and one of the girls asked how old we were when we started having kids. 20!!! We were 20!!! Man, that's young! I then proceeded to tell her that Peyton was actually our biggest surprise.(at least it was for me, maybe the hubby will weigh in on that one...can't get him to blog for nothin'!) I told the story and thought, "That's going on the blog!"

Griffin was 6 months old or so and had gone to bed for the night. My neck was hurting(old cheerleading injury that has stuck) and so I took a Lortab and planned to sleep really well! Not. So. Much. I puked all night long. Every hour, on the hour, I was throwing up. It was terrible. I stayed home the next day from work and Josh took Griff to daycare. All throughout the day I felt terrible. Finally that afternoon I told Josh to take me to the emergency room because I was pretty sure that I was dehydrated. My entire body was throbbing with pain and I couldn't be still...I had to be moving around constantly. When I walked through the emergency room doors I guess you could tell I needed immediate attention and I was rushed to the back. The nurse put my IV in and started giving me fluids...right after she took some blood! I was then pumped full of pain medicine and off to sleep I went. After a nice long nap and a full bag of fluids I was feeling much better. Josh left the room for some reason or another and meanwhile the doctor came in....with TWO nurses.(I guess they thought I might pass out from what they were about to tell me!)

Doctor: "Mrs. C, the other Dr. decided that since you have been throwing up so much he would go ahead and do a pregnancy test. You said that you had a period about 3.5 weeks ago, right?"

Me:"Yes."

Doctor: "Well the test came back positive!"

Me:"Ummm...WHAT?!?! But I have a 6 month old!!!"

One of the nurses looked at me and said, "It will be fine, the same thing happened to me and look at my two girls!!" And she showed me a picture of them.

Me:"Ummm...my husband is out in the hall somewhere....please go find him and send him in here NOW!"

A few minutes later Joshy Poo walked in the room. I had an enormous smile on my face and he looked at me puzzled.

Me: "I'm pregnant!!"

Josh:"AGAIN??!!"

hahahahaha! It's so funny now, but at the time, we were really not sure what the heck was going on! And for the record, I was on birth control pills....they ARE only 99% effective!

And 9 months later we were holding this sweet little man.....

xoxo

Oh Yay Oh Yay Oh Yay!!!!!

I'm so glad my sister finally has some direction!!!!!!!!!! I will be an aunt again before I know it! I'm so glad I can finally keep a baby/child for as long as I want and then "take them back"! This time in the delivery room I won't have to do all the work! Well, except for being chief photographer! Woot!

Happy Birthday to.....

ME!!!! Let me tell ya, on this my 27th birthday, I'm feeling a little bit O.L.D. Not that 27 is old, it's not. But I feel 30 coming and I feel it coming fast! 30? What? Can I put the brakes on and stay right where I am? I don't know about all this getting older nonsense! Allison and I are eating lunch at La Gran. The hubby and I have a date tonight and I have no idea what we are doing! Friday night Allison is taking me and Reece to PF Changs! Yummo! (no, we are not leaving out the hubby and the boys, they have baseball practice!) BB(aka Beverly, our fabulous leasing agent!) had a Snickers cake on my desk when I got to work this morning! YUMMO again! And I heard that Allison got me a strawberry cake from Celebrations.....YUMMO x 10! Who counts calories on their birthday anyway? 27 also reminds me that I want to be finished having children by the time I am 30....And speaking of babies, my friend and hair stylist, Rissie, had her little one while we were at the beach! (he was due April 2nd and she was supposed to wait until today...but I guess I will forgive her! haha!) I went to visit and meet the little guy last night, he is the most precious little thing! Ahhh...babies! I wanted to sitck him in my pocket and keep him for myself! Isn't he so cute???

I could just eat him! Yes, it gives me baby fever, but I will just wait on my sister! The other night Reece was jumping on my stomach and I said without hesitation, "Reece, you are squishing your baby sister!" The look on Josh's face was priceless! funny stuff.

xoxo

Oldies...

Man o man...this is depressing! I just found a few pics of the boys when they were little...I mean TINY! It makes me sad because it seems like yesterday that they were born! And here G-man is about to start Kindergarten. Try not to cry all you grandmommies...I am shedding enough tears for us all!


This is G-man at about 7 months old giving himself a breathing treatment....remember he had to take these at least twice per day for the first two years of his little life! See how much Baby Girl looks like him in this one!

This was when Master P was about 3 months old and G-man was 18 months.


G-man was two in this one and yes, still sucking that darn pappy!

Master P at Christmas, he turned two the next month!

Master P was almost two in this one as well.


Hope you enjoyed the look back! I will post more oldies when I get a chance!

xoxo