Our Weekend

I haven't done a weekend post in awhile, for lots of reasons, but I want to keep note of this one, because it was particularly fun.  At least for me.

This weekend was the weekend of stopping pumping all together.  It has gone pretty well so far.  I pumped for a total of 8 minutes on Saturday and haven't pumped at all since Saturday night.  I'm almost to 36 hours and I'm in some pain, but I'm surviving.  I'm sure hoping to be feeling better in the next couple of days.

Friday night, my mom watched the kiddos so that Tim and I could go out to dinner.  We weren't planning on doing this, so we left home almost as soon as we got home to drop the kids off so that we could actually get in somewhere.  Friday nights and dining don't go together so well without planning to wait for hours or a reservation.  Anyway, it was super nice to get out for just an hour without the kids.  A short but much appreciated date.  A wonderful start to the weekend.

Saturday was busy, but nice.  The kids and I got up early (as they usually do) and we let daddy sleep.  I fed Katy then made Cooper waffles and we played together.  I got laundry started and it was a fun morning.  Cooper and I watched The Pioneer Woman when Katy went down for her morning nap.  Tim woke up and came downstairs and I fell asleep on the couch for almost an hour!  Then we all got ready, ran some errands, went to lunch and then visited a new baseball park that is open for the first season this year.  It was a good afternoon.  When we got home, since the weather was so nice, I took the kids outside, Cooper played with all of the neighborhood kiddos and Kate "played" with the other 3 babies around her age.  All of us Moms had a "Working Wives of the Court" meeting, haha.  Every one of us moms was out and chit chatting about things going on around our court, our lives, the kids, etc.  Even though it is not my ideal living situation (living in a neighborhood), I am blessed to live on a court where both of my kids have other kids around their age to play with.  Cooper has Alexis (4 months older), Julia (10 months older), Evan (14 months younger), and Mia (1 year older) to play with and Kate has Sarah (3 months older), Luca (1 month younger) and Joshua (3 months younger).  Such a blessing!

 

Of course there was much basketball playing in the house as well.  Cooper just cannot get enough basketball.  

On Sunday morning, we missed church because I wasn't feeling quite up to it, and the kids were playing and having a lot of fun together.  Tim let me sleep in and he took care of feeding and playing with the kiddos.  Once I did get up, Tim and I paid the bills together (a rare occasion), did some more laundry, cleaned up some and played with the kids of course.  Cooper decided he needed to dress up like a superhero.

When we finally looked up at the clock, we realized it was time to get moving, we had a birthday party to go to!  It was my friend Jill's son Wyatt's first birthday celebration.  Wyatt's brother Max, is one of Cooper's best and oldest friends.  Wyatt is just a couple of months older that Kate and they go to the same babysitter at least for now, so I think they will probably be buddies too.  

Kate really likes Wyatt's toys and Max...

We went grocery shopping and I had my first ever shamrock shake on the way home.

The kiddos played some more, then it was dinner time and bed time.  That was about the extend of our weekend.  Fun and BUSY!  I'm looking forward to another weekend already.  We'll be visiting my family next weekend for my Grandma's 80th birthday celebration! :)  

Hope you're all wearing your GREEN today, Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Three Things Thursday

I just made that up, but today, I want to blog, but don't have a ton of time for it, so here are my 3 things.

1)  The weather was wonderful on both Monday and Tuesday of this week, so we made the most of it and we spent a lot of time outside in the evenings.  Cooper got to play tennis in the middle of our cul-de-sac and he loved it.  Kampbell and Katy got to go for a ride in the wagon.  They are all so cute!  Wednesday we had snow, and now it's cold, so I'm looking forward to some consistent warm weather, so we can play outside more!

2)  We had a trip to the ER yesterday, Tim felt funny, said his heart felt like it was racing.  So, we took his blood pressure, it seemed fine, but his pulse was pretty fast.  After a few minutes, he still didn't feel right, so we decided to play it safe and get him checked out.  They did a couple of EKG's and gave him some medicine for A-Fib.  We see a cardiologist this afternoon.  We are hoping that A-Fib is all that is going on - the doctors and nurses said that if a person has to have a heart problem, that is the one to have, as it can be treated and controlled.  So, if you're a praying type of person, please say a quick prayer for my husband this afternoon.

3)  And last, I am in the mood to bake, and to try something new.  I just got a new cookbook, so I think I'll be picking something to bake this weekend!  If you have any suggestions in this cookbook or elsewhere, let me know! 

Well, that's it for me today, have a fantastic day!

The Great Milk Debate

At least it is at my house, at least internally with me, it is The Great Milk Debate.

The debatable questions being: when can I stop pumping?  When will there be enough milk in that freezer to get Katy through 1 year of breast-milk?  Well ladies and Tim, that time has come.

If this is already too much information for you, then please - stop reading now.

So we've done a count, I have a handy dandy spreadsheet with a count of breast-milk bags by week that are in our deep freezer and I believe that time is NOW!

I started "weaning" this past Sunday.  I was pumping 5 times per day, my "normal" schedule would be

1-2am
6-6:30am
10:30 - 11am
3 - 3:30pm
8-9pm

As of Sunday night I was pumping 4x per day.  The easiest pumping for me to cut out was the middle of the night one, since I am less likely to want to do that one anyway.  Usually the pain would wake me up at night, but at this point, it hasn't.  I pumped at these times:

6am
1030- 11am
3-3:30pm
9-10pm

Since I made it Sunday night, Monday, Tuesday and Tuesday night on this schedule, I thought maybe I'd go ahead and drop another pumping just to see if I can get down to 3x per day without super pains.  Today is the first day of this.  I am pumping now:

6am
2pm
9:30-10 pm

I made it through to 2pm, it was a bit painful, but nothing terrible.  I hope to follow up by dropping the 2pm pumping on Friday.  Then this weekend, I hope to only pump a few minutes only when I feel like I cannot take it anymore.

When I did this process with Cooper, I went cold turkey and stopped pumping and it was very painful and very difficult.  I didn't want that again this time, so I have been trying to think of a way to gently ease up and this seemed like a good starting place.  I will try to follow up once I'm completely done with any changes that I made to this process just in case anyone out there in www land could ever use any advice - as it was difficult for me to find any!

Pretty is as pretty does.

Recently, I've been thinking about raising my daughter to love herself in this crazy messed up world, where kids are looking up to models and seeing pictures like this:

This is Kate Moss.  I post this picture because she looks crazy skinny and not at all like the average person in our world.  I know nothing about Kate Moss other than that she is a fashion model and that she is a very thin person.  To give her the benefit of the doubt, I will not make any guesses of why she is so thin, there could be something wrong and it's not my place to judge.  HOWEVER, I do not want my daughter to think that this is NORMAL.  

When I was growing up, my mom always said to me "Pretty is as pretty does."   I didn't really get it as a child, but now that I do, I totally agree.  It seems our society focuses on what people look like entirely too much.  This is not to say that being fit, eating healthy and being active is not something that I want for my family.  It is.  I just do not believe that looks should be our focus.  Audrey Hepburn said this about women and I like it.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years. - Audrey Hepburn

This morning, while looking at my local new's website, I came across a story of a guy, who decided to take the average US 19  year old female body measurements from the CDC and create a more realistic looking Barbie doll.  When I watched the video below, I LOVED it.  Now this, is what I want my daughter to play with.  I am thinking I need to go out and buy them as soon as they hit the market in case they don't sell well and they aren't available before my Kate is old enough to want to play with Barbies.  Make sure to watch the video below to see more.  




I like the "average" looking 19 year old.  I was her when I was 19.  
I feel like my job as a girl mom is to teach her to love herself the way that she is, to not look at pictures of models and think that is what body image we should strive to accomplish.  I want her to look at strong people, fit people, average people, and know that this is what normal looks like.  I hope that she realizes that "pretty is as pretty does" and that as long as she is HAPPY and HEALTHY, that is all that matters.  

www.daveswordsofwisdom.com

Katy is NINE months!

Katybug, you are NINE months old now.  How in the world is that possible???  I just cannot believe in a few short months, you'll be a whole year old!  We are already starting to get first birthday invitations to those babies whose mama's I was pregnant with, and it's exciting and crazy all that the same time.  If I could slow time down a little bit, I would, just to soak up your baby-ness a little bit more.  Time is flying by and while I love seeing you grow, it's just going too fast!

During your pictures this month, you just didn't want to sit still for any period of time.  I am thinking these monthly pictures aren't going to get any easier in the next few months either.

Let's get down to business and talk about your progress and stats for this month, shall we?  First - sleep. You continue to excel in this department.  You like your sleep and that's great!  You go down for sleep sometime between 7 and 8 at night, depending on when your last nap was and how tired you are.  Most nights its between 7:30 and 8, but there have been a few nights where you cannot wait that long and you're in bed before 7:15.  Those nights are so short.  I feel like I hardly see you - we definitely make the most of our time together though!  You haven't had any more of the screaming episodes in the middle of the night this month, which has been great.  Those were awful, even though they didn't last long, I just don't like it when you scream!

 You've been doing a great job with naps also.  Usually you take an hour or two in the mornings and then another hour/maybe hour and a half in the afternoons.  You still sleep best when you have a sleep sack, and don't forget the pacifier, you MUST have it to sleep!

Weight - you weighed 18 lbs 2.5 ounces at your 9 month doctor appointment.  You were 27.25" inches long.  I think you're going to be a short girl, and you've seemed to slow your weight gain already.  You are still a chunky monkey though, I am still loving all of the rolls you've got!

Eating habits are nearly the same as last month -your morning bottle is usually 6 ounces, and you drink it with lots of breaks.  You like to take your time and do lots of rasberries during bottle time.  You are so funny.  You have another bottle between 9-10 in the morning, most mornings only 4-5 ounces.  Then you have two tubs of second foods for lunch (one fruit and one veggie).  Your afternoon bottle is between 5-7 ounces and you snack on Puffs! while we eat dinner.  You then have your night bottle drinking 3-4 ounces and then you have 2-3 tablespoons of cereal and some yogurt.

Let's talk your reflux.  I haven't mentioned it in awhile - because nothing had really changed.  But over the past month and a half, I have stopped giving you your medicine.  You still spit up after you eat, but it's NOTHING like what you used to.  You aren't having pains at night either - even without the medicine, so we think we're done with it for good at this point.  That makes us happy because we would prefer you to not have to be on medicine if you don't need it.  You don't have to endure the minty taste of that stuff anymore either, yay!

Clothes & Diapers.  You're in a size 3 diaper still, and they aren't getting too small yet, so you'll probably be there for a little while longer.  As far as clothes, we've put all of the 6 month clothes items away at this point and you're in mostly 9 months things, but you are wearing some 12 month items as well.  Not many, but a few here and there.  

You're now crawling!  LIKE A CHAMP crawling!  All over the place crawling!  Crawling over to anything and everything you can find on the floor and putting it into your mouth crawling!  Good thing Nana cleans our floors so well!  You are also pulling up on anything that you can!  It's crazy how fast you've progressed since last month.  You weren't crawling then, and now you're doing that and pulling up.

Kate, your eyes are slowly turning colors.  The middles of your eyes are a hazel color and you still have a dark blue ring around the outside, but the doctor believes they'll be hazel.  I tend to agree.  You don't seem to be chewing on everything lately, but you do like to have everything go into your mouth.  More and more hair keeps coming in and the hair that you have is growing longer - it's a pretty color too.  I love the brown color of it.

Just like last month - you're still a mama's girl.  You do like your Daddy and your Nana though, you don't seem to get too upset when they take you away from me. =)  You will still leap out of anyone's arms when I get close to you though.  I am glad that you are beginning to love on your Daddy though, cause he's going to spoil you absolutely rotten!

I still cannot get enough of your laugh.  It brings me such joy.  I love to hear you being happy.  I love you so much little lady.  You're such a booger, and that makes you even more precious to me.  I wouldn't have it any other way!  I love you baby girl.   Happy NINE months Katy girl!