Five on Friday

Let's talk about the 5 things I am loving this Friday!


1. Sibling Love

Personally, I have never seen anything so precious as the way these 2 are looking at each other.  Its like Aubrey just knows Liam is going to take her on some great adventures.  I know it will not always be like this, I do have a big brother myself, so I am going to cherish these moments when I can.

2. Fall

We have had some unseasonable weather here in the Carolinas this summer.  It rained frequently.  We even had a few cooler days... which I actually LOVED.  It gave me an excuse to put Aubrey in her first pair of Liam Legs

3. Pumpkin Flavor Food

I saw pumpkin waffles one day I had to pick up for Liam's breakfast.  It prompted me to go home and start pinning pumpkin recipes...and all things fall.

4. Walks with my babies

Don't worry Aubrey was just placed in the stroller with Liam for a picture, I walk with her in the carrier and Liam in the stroller.

As much as I want to run, sometimes its just not possible by the time Brian gets home from work, people need to eat, kids need bedtime... We are hoping to get me a treadmill soon, then I can run when Aubrey naps and Liam is in preschool.  But for now I get my exercise when I can, today that was a 3.5 mile walk. 


5. Increased traffic to my LCF Threadz  Facebook page

Finally I think I am most excited about this this week.  I began sewing when Liam was diagnosed, it was therapeutic for me and helped earn some extra money for Liam's medical bills.  With Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in September, it means a lot to me to have this increased traffic. 
When I went back to work full time, I no longer had time to sew, mostly just things for friends.  I have really enjoyed getting back to work on LCF Threadz.  Be on the look out for a special project I am planning for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month (I'll show you next week)!

An Ode to Liam's Hair

No, I won't be writing a poem today.  I will be showing you something beautiful!  I was going through pictures on my phone this week, so many pictures of Liam.  I really miss his hair!
I always said I wouldn't cut his hair until he asked, but an unfortunate event necessitated the cut last fall.  Now he does ask for his hair to be cut, I guess we wont be going back.

I will never

Things I said I would never do as a parent

Well lets just start this list off right.  I was never going to have children.  Was this ever truly in my heart? I doubt it, but being selfish was.  I loved coming home and napping. I loved not worrying about anyone else after a long day at work.  And lets face it, teaching 20+ children each day tests your patience, and I couldn't imagine having any patience left for my own child.

I will never co-sleep with my child.  I do not apologize for this at all.  The first time I co-slept with my child was Liam's first night in the hospital.  He was sick. He was scared. He was hurt.  The nurse came in every hour to check his blood pressure and temperature, waking him if he was ever asleep.  He just wanted to be held and I would have done anything to comfort him, I needed to be comforted too.

We are co-sleeping a little earlier this time.  Last night I was just so happy when Aubrey feel asleep I was not about to try moving her!

yup watching TV on the iPad

 



I will never let my child watch too much television
I already commented on this earlier this summer.  The most important part of this desire was not to allow the television to babysit my child, not necessarily never to allow television.  Well I can say today that Liam watches entirely too much television.  I hate it, I really do!  I just can't play with him and feed Aubrey at the same time.  And right now I am feeding Aubrey 22 hours out of the day.

I am sure if I asked my mom she would give me a list of 30 more things I said I would never do.  I don't care.  My children are safe and healthy.

 

Terrible Twos have got Nothing on the Threes

 

I still remember posting a picture from Liam's first time-out.  My mom called me to find out what I had done, no way had her grandchild done anything wrong!

Somedays I feel like all Liam does is go in and out of time-out. Riding his car into his sisters head, jumping on the dog, pulling the cats tail, hitting, biting... The sweet angels list of offenses could go on and on.   On those days I really have to question the effectiveness of time-out.

One thing I do not question is how we follow up time-out.  We always always call Liam over and ask him if he knows why he had to go to time-out.  Usually he knows.  Then I explain to him why his behavior was unacceptable, but the most important part of this process is we end with a hug.  I let him know how much I love him, even when I don't like how he behaves.

I really need more pictures of him and I

 

As rough and tough as Liam is, and Lord knows the anxiety that gives me, he is a sensitive child.  I can tell 100% when he is down right mean to me I have not shown him enough love.

Liam's First 12 months

Last week I posted the first monthly picture of Aubrey. I took those same pictures with Liam. We had a lot of computer troubles in his first year so I am still working on locating all the pictures, but here is the start if Liam's first year!

 

 

Getting Back to Being Me

Check out the shirt!  It used to belong to an uncle of mine.  I got it out of my grandma's yard sale years ago.  I cannot tell you how many times my mom tried to get rid of this gem!

I know I always talked about getting motivated to run before I got pregnant, but now that I think about it, I was just trying to talk myself into wanting to run because I thought I should. Running just wasn't important to me after I had Liam; my priorities changed.
While, yes I do still agree my priorities changed, I also feel now that I just never got back to being me after having Liam. Before Liam I didn't have to talk myself into being a runner, or into working out in general, I was a marathon runner
This week I laced up my mizunos, charged up my Garmin and started back at "running". I am still recovering for my c-section, major abdominal surgery, so I knew I needed to take it slow. I decided this week I would only run 1 mile each day. But let's me honest, I say run, it was more of a crawling jog. I'm okay with that, I actually used my Garmin to make sure I wasn't trying to push myself too hard, I wanted to jog a snail's pace. Like I said; I'm still recovering.

Me on our honeymoon

 

And yes, I'd be lying if I said there wasn't also egotistical motives at play here.  I wasn't happy with my body before getting pregnant, I just want to get to a place a feel comfortable in my clothes.  Don't get me wrong, I was never where I would have considered myself overweight but I had gained enough weight for people to question if I was pregnant before I was, on a few different occasions.

True story. Here's an example of a conversation:
EL: "Are you pregnant?"
Me: "no"
EL: looks me up and down
"You've never had a belly like that before"
Me: "nope, I've just gained some weight. Thanks"

Do I think I am going to look like I did on our honeymoon?  Not likely, I'd have to loose about 30 pounds still and I just don't think that's possible while breastfeeding and my children (Aubrey in this case) have to stay my priority.

me at the beginning of my pregnancy.  I am happy to say these pants official button on me again, and maybe in a few weeks I will feel comfortable wearing them

So where am I now?  Within 10 pounds of my weight when I got pregnant, but I did find out about the pregnancy on a cruise, so maybe more like within 15 pounds :)
I also have about 2 inches to loose from my waist (this I know from my P90x measurements- I started right before the cruise but could not continue with it due to the pregnancy)

So my realistic goals:  Be healthy and feel comfortable
 

1 Month

 

We had Aubrey's 1 month appointment on Tuesday. I assumed going into the appointment A's weight was in the 7 pound range, but the little porker played catch up and weighed in at 8 pounds 3 ounces. I really should have seen that coming with her eating sometimes every hour.

She did gain more than the pediatrician had expected to see, but he was very pleased. Her birth weight ( 6 pounds 2 ounces) put her in the 15th percentile for weight, but she dropped off the growth chart in the first 2 weeks. She is now back on her growth curve at 15th percentile. So it'll be interesting to see what the next month will bring.

She still appears a bit jaundice, but the pediatrician says it just breastmilk jaundice this time.  Liam has it too.  Breastmilk jaundice is harmless and will go away with her improvement in eating, the yellow effect just lingers.

Aubrey's sleep habits leave something to be desired.  She is inconsistent, sometimes waking every hour to eat, sometimes giving us a nice 3 hour stretch.  We have a pack and play set up in our room for her to sleep in, which she has yet to do.  I try to lay her in the pack and play, but she doesn't last there longer than 10 minutes.  She prefers to sleep on my chest or we put her on the boppy pillow next to our heads. 

Her preference would be to sleep on her tummy, which I let her do during the day when I can watch, but we are trying not to let her do that at night.  The pediatrician says her sleep troubles most likely relate to the gas pain she is feeling.  But we have some medicine so hopefully that will relieve some of the pain.

1 month

8 pounds 3 ounces
21 inches
Wearing newborn clothes
We are cloth diapering, but she would be in newborn sizes still

Birthday Season {take 2}

So we are in the middle of Birthday Season 2 this year.  Many of our friends' children have  birthdays in the summer months, and we  only added to this problem.

Can I just say I think next year I am going to be Grandma.  I am going to just hand out cards and money at parties.

I have the hardest time choosing gifts for other children.  I don't know what toys they already have.  My usual go to gift is a book, but at some point these children are not going to appreciate that gift as much as they should.

As a parent, I would welcome Liam just getting a card with a few bucks in it for his birthday.  This year we used birthday money for his soccer and swim lessons. 

He already has too many toys anyway!

So what is your go to gift to get through birthday season?

Adjusting to Sister

I know I have neglected this little corner of the Internet again. But everyday I have thought "what should I write about". I can't say anything too interesting has been going on, we are just making it though each day.

The answer I did always came back to was the same. Liam is what I want to write about. He has been weighing on my heart lately. I know he hasn't been getting the attention he deserves.

The adjustment of a needy baby in the house hasn't been easy on him. Although he has been acting out, and yes we are frustrated with him, I do think he doing better than some children would.

Too often am I telling him "as soon as I am done feeding Aubrey".    He has learned when I say I have to feed Aubrey that he will have to wait, so now I hear "can you feed me first?"  ABSOLUTLY!! 

Here is what I have been trying to do with Liam so he feels important too.

Play dates.  Unfortunately this doesn't always result in attention from me, but he has fun and gets energy out.

 



Snuggling on the couch in the morning

 

 

Evening walks, just the 2 of us



 

Hanging out outside, watching him drive his jeep or mow the lawn



You can tell he loves his sister.

But also is impatiently waiting for each time to have attention of his own

                                                      

 

 

Boobs!

Now that I have your attention...

It's World Breastfeeding Week!

When I was pregnant with Liam, it was never a question I was going to breastfeed.  The thought of noting being able to for any reason never occurred to me. Luckily it was easy for us (Liam and I).

It was my plan to nurse Liam for a year, but had to stop when he got sick.

Anytime a friend who was considering breastfeeding would ask me about it, my standard answer was "just get through the first 2 weeks". With Liam the pain went away after about 2 weeks. Some people recommend taking a class but that never made sense to me; why take the class before I have the baby to work with.

Here I am 4 weeks into breastfeeding with Aubrey, and it's still a struggle; mentally and physically. one thing I did do this time was visit the lactation consultant after leaving the hospital. We knew Aubrey wasn't gaining enough weight and wanted to make sure we were doing everything possible for her.
I will get through this.  I will feed Aubrey as long as I am physically able to.

not my picture, but yes, milk has already taken over our freezer

As it was with Liam, I am my own dairy farm again.  Already have over 100 oz of milk in our freezer- as a friend of mine put it; taking over ice cream space.  Since I am not going back to work, the milk storage hasn't been out of necessity, but a result of Aubrey's eating struggles.  She has been a very sleepy baby, and she frequently falls asleep while nursing.  After she is finished nursing I have been pumping and offering her a bottle.

Aubrey is more alert now, and I am not pumping as often (so hopefully my boobs won't be 3 times the size of her head for much longer) THANK GOODNESS!  It hasn't been easy trying to keep Aubrey fed and give Liam the attention he needs, but it'll be nice to have the backup milk when I want a glass (or bottle :)) of wine.