Baby Sullivan | Week Thirty Two

I find it hard to believe that I am preparing for Marin's 4th birthday party this weekend. The gifts need to be wrapped, the food needs to be ordered. She's been growing up so quickly right before our very eyes and time needs to slow down a bit. As of this coming Sunday, we will have a four year old. Four years ago at this time, I was super pregnant, quickly passing by my due date, and anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little girl. Now she's in preschool, lives life as a little sponge soaking up so many things. She also has been a great big sister to little Sullivan. Their relationship is continuing to really grow into something awesome lately. She likes to be near him. She likes to help me with him. It's pretty adorable. 

Arm rolls for days....

Sully is quickly moving away from the jarred baby food it seems. Over the past week, I have been trying some new baby led weaning recipes. It is weird to me that people use the term "weaning" for what we are embarking upon though. He's not weaning himself from breastfeeding, quite the opposite. Baby led weaning is pretty much the process of letting your baby feed themselves with solid foods that are prepared in a way that is safe and easy for them to handle. Sully loves to eat to begin with and he has embraced this new form of food with vigor. 

So far with BLW, he has had avocados, bananas, oranges, broccoli, green beans, roasted sweet potato, and his mum mums. I have been watching him closely when he eats and also watching for any reactions to any of the food. It is recommended to slowly start introducing foods so you can monitor any reactions to the food. 

We still have some jarred food that I will try to get through but he's getting to the point of not wanting to be spoon fed and just wants to dive right him himself. I'm a lot more daring this time around with what I have been giving him. Marin didn't try most of these foods until a bit later but I want Sully to have an expansive palette when it comes to food and not be so picky like his adorable sister. I think we are on a good path. He will eventually just eat what we eat. Granted, Marin doesn't even really do that but that's something I really want to work on. I would LOVE to not have to cook 3 different meals during one meal time. I also really want to share dinner together AS A FAMILY soon. Our schedules are so all over the place but someway, somehow...I want to make it happen. I think it's super important. 

Funny broccoli face. Derp. 

I am also currently shopping for new carseats for Sullivan. He is pretty much at the weight limit for his carseat. He actually might be above the weight limit...Little dude isn't so little any more. Lugging him around in that car seat has not been kind to my back either. I do like the convenience of carrying him around in the car seat but those days are going to be gone very soon. The crappy part about buying new car seats is that the new ones will not click in to a base like his current one does. What that means...every car he rides in needs to have a carseat. So, we are looking at purchasing two car seats for us and the grandparents need to get one too for Sundays. Budget wise, that's not ideal, but you aren't supposed to take those car seats in and out constantly. That's not how they are built. I'm researching like crazy for something budget friendly but safe and reliable. The one's we bought Marin are great but they are a little out of our price range at the moment. 

Week Thirty Two. 

Here's Marin at Week Thirty Two. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Seventeen

We are moving quickly into the world of having a 4 month old. Sullivan will be 4 months old on November 3rd. He has his 4 month well check appointment next week and I am anxious to see how much he actually weighs and to make sure that he's the healthy and growing boy that I believe he is. 

We were realizing how little he was actually napping over the last month or so. Night sleeping has been pretty decent and he wasn't fussy during the day without a lot of sleep, but I noticed how overtired he was starting to look. Poor little guy. We were always heading out to go get groceries or pick up big sis from school or...the list goes on and on. He was getting some naps but nothing substantial and was just kind of napping on the go. That's not good for a little guy his age. He needs a good schedule, one of consistency. Kiddos thrive in routine. I've seen that time and time again with Marin. 

So, we have set out the past few days to really focus on his napping and feeding schedule. I've been researching a lot of different schedules, asked a few friends, etc. We have landed on something that seems to be working fairly well. As long as we begin our day with naps in mind, it seems to go fairly well. His only issue lately is that he wakes up about half way through his nap time, stirs and maybe cries a bit, but then usually goes back down for a while longer. 

We've also moved his bedtime up earlier. I was feeding him around 9:00pm/9:30pm and then putting him down for bed. We now have moved it up to between 7pm and 8pm. Granted, we've had some 3:30am feedings, but I'm ok with it. I can go to bed earlier because I am old if he goes down earlier as well. I have no issues with getting up at 3am to feed him because I usually don't have any trouble falling back to sleep and most of the time, neither does he. 

Right now, he is napping 3 times a day. The third one is usually more of a catnap around dinner time. We have set aside a good nap time in the morning and in the afternoon. I pretty much feel like super woman when Marin is having her quiet time and Sullivan is in the next room over napping. Every nap is a process. We are learning his cues and he is learning how to self-soothe himself to sleep. 

Week Sixteen. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Twelve

I love this photo. He seems so hardcore. 

The weather has cooled down a bit in the past few days and it rained all of yesterday. We even turned on our heater the other night because it was freezing in our home. This is my happy place. The first day of fall has arrived and Sullivan is twelve weeks old. 

I'm back to work in full swing and pumping will probably be the death of me. I also keep forgetting to bring the little lids that go on top of the bottles for after I pump. I've resorted to pouring the milk into water bottles until I can get them home and put a lid on them. Seriously. How do I keep doing that? Those lids are important. I want to keep my supply up so I'm pumping on the same schedule that I feed him, give or take an hour or so. Sundays are the hardest because the second I step foot at church/work, my day flies by at breakneck speed. 

Sullivan is all smiles and coos. He is finding his voice. He's outgrowing all of his clothes and I need to get him some pants because cooler weather is coming soon. He is already in 3-6 month clothes and is growing like a weed. He loves playing on the activity mat that we had for Marin. I feel bad for the little guy though because it's very pink but he doesn't seem to mind at all. 

Sorry for all of the pink, buddy. 

Marin caught a cold in the last few days so we've been taking it super easy at home and just praying that she takes long naps and gets healthy. Now that she's in preschool, I'm sure she's around a lot more germs than before. I'm also consistently asking her to stay out of baby brother's face because a sick baby is never any fun for anyone. I'm praying that she is on the mend because she has preschool again tomorrow and I know she will be super bummed if she has to miss it because her nose is so runny. 

The weeks are moving so swiftly and we are almost in October already. I decorated the inside of our home for fall. I'm ready to drink lots of hot coffee. I want to take the kids to a pumpkin patch this year. We've never done that before and I think Marin would have a blast. I feel the need to try and slow down a bit in our lives but it becomes difficult when our weeks are so full. The days go very quickly. With every new week, I'm left wondering where the previous week went. It will be Christmas before we know it and we will have an almost 4 year old and a 6 month old! My goodness. 

Week Twelve. And just for fun....Marin at 12 Weeks

It's The Weekend | Number Seven

Prego Belly & Sidewalk Chalk 

This weekend I hope to finish our little gal's new pink room. We still need to build a bookcase and get her rug in her room. It's very pink and it's very fun. After that project is finished, I get to move on to the little boy's nursery. I am officially in my third trimester and I keep realizing how quickly time is flying. Holy cow, we have 12-ish weeks left!!! I feel like I was just starring at a positive pregnancy test at the end of October, while on vacation.

Here are the places I've been clicking this week. Lots of it has to do with food because I feel like I'm constantly hungry. Some links are about parenting because I've obviously had that on the brain. Some are about paint. Food, family, and home. Those are the things on my brain lately. You can look forward to a post on Marin's new big girl room and some more mom guilt rants in the near future. I'm sure of that.

Someday our kids will probably share a room. These bunk bed ideas are pretty awesome. I would sleep in them.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately | Why Kids Need Real Play

Lunch can get boring. Here are ten sandwich free lunch ideas.

15 tips on how to be a successful parent.

I'm all about white trim in my house. But, painting things black can also be awesome. 

This chocolate banana smoothie is right up my alley right now. This cobbler looks awesome as well. 

Speaking of food, Joy the Baker Over Easy: Sweet and Savory Recipes for Leisurely Days and Food, Health, and Happiness: 115 On-Point Recipes for Great Meals and a Better Life are my current reads.

I also just started reading Chasing Slow: Courage to Journey Off the Beaten Path and I am loving it.

Have a great weekend! 

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It's The Weekend | Number Six

Our very neglected garden beds. 

It's been raining the last few days around these parts and my heart has been so happy about it. It reminds me of my season of time in the northwest. I just want to go play music and drink tons of coffee. If only that were a distinct possibility right now. But, it is the weekend and I don't plan on even leaving my house today if I can help it. 

I do enjoy finding great things out on the internet. There are lots of people doing some extraordinary things and I like keeping track of those things. Sometimes though, the internet is a cesspool of disgusting and hurtful things. Last night I was perusing Facebook and stumbled onto a video of a man beating a small child to a pulp. Due to the automatic play feature of most videos on Facebook, I didn't even realize what I was watching until it was too late. Ryan knows how it affected me I'm sure my pregnancy hormones were no help.  I was disgusted, frustrated, almost in tears. I went into my child's room and kissed and hugged her for good measure. There are nasty things out in this world. It took everything I had within me to get that image out of my head and to fall asleep last night. We watched a lot of funny cat videos and I read my new book in an attempt to drift to sleep. 

Anyways, sometime the internet is sucky. But, the links below help me realize that not everything out there is frustrating and ugly. This week, we are talking pizza, making a house a home, some parenting stuff, and the idea of gardening. Enjoy. 

I am making this pizza this week. I've been craving those artichokes. 

To continue on the pizza craze, because we love pizza in this home, how about some pull apart pizza bread for good measure?

I am always thinking about how to make our house a home.  I love the idea of embracing your story for your home. So often I get caught up in trends and what everyone else is doing. Just do you. 

This is a bit of a read but I thought it was interesting: How Parenting Became A Full Time Job. 

I also found this interesting....Visualizing the data of parenting.  

I've been thinking about gardening this year again. It's been a few years and I think Marin would have a blast. Here is some great gardening 101, especially with kiddos. 

Bedtime hoops...Four questions you should be asking your child at bedtime. I love this. 

Have a great weekend! 

It's The Weekend | Number Four

I am ready to head into the weekend and finish cleaning my house. I've been trying to clean a little every day so hopefully this weekend will be pretty chill. This past week was a good, busy one, filled with doctors appointments, my lovely glucose test, working on Marin's new big girl room, and lots of work, work, work. 

Lately, I've have started to gather links of all of the places I have been perusing in the great, grand internet. There are plenty of people out there doing big things and small things. Some of these are practical, some are inspiring. Some just make me hungry. This week, I'm thinking about capsule wardrobes, bullet journaling, some great recipes, and some frugal tips for kid's clothing. 

I've toyed with the idea of a capsule wardrobe a lot, maybe after I'm out of maternity clothes land. Here's the Art of Simple's thoughts on the capsule wardrobe.  People are choosing to wear a "uniform" or the same thing everyday. 

I want to try this Vanilla Latte Coffee Scrub. My skin will thank me. 

I have used a Bullet Journal in many different forms over the past few years. Here is a great list of some supplies to help make the process even more awesome.   I would love to try some other pens like  Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens, Medium Point, Black, 12-Count or Masterclass Premium Dual Tip Brush Markers, Non-Toxic Water Based Double Tip Pens.

We sure do love pizza around here. I'd like to start making them at home more often instead of always doing delivery. Here's how to make a really good pizza at home. 

I am all about saving money and living more frugally. Kid's clothes can be super expensive and they outgrow them in the blink of an eye. I want to know how to save thousands of dollars on children's clothes per year. 

And finally, for all of you out there that know how to crochet....my daughter is obsessed with these pillows. I want one too. 

Have a great weekend! 

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A Pregnancy Update | 25 Weeks

When I was pregnant with Marin, I barely took any photos of my ever growing belly. It really wasn't until she was out in the world that I started documenting her life with weekly posts. This new pregnancy has been much of the same. I will be honest and open with you and say that being pregnant isn't one of my most favorite things in the world. I'm not one of those women that just love to be pregnant and I'm alright with that. I'm also not one of those women that have cute little basketball bellies and hardly look pregnant elsewhere. I show my pregnancy EVERYWHERE. Don't get me wrong, the miracle of life is a crazy journey and being able to experience it all for a second time is a huge blessing. But, my ever growing waistline and weird pregnancies dreams and pains are all part of the process. I also can't tie my own shoes very well and Ryan has to help me with my converse sneakers.

This pregnancy has been pretty different from my first. This time around I was way more sick in my first trimester. I puked a lot this time around and felt pretty horrible for a while. I feel like I'm finally out of that now and I'm thankful to want to eat something other than saltines and drink ginger tea. I also have had so much heartburn!

I have crazy dreams pretty much every night. They are super vivid and I normally remember most of them. Sometimes I wake up and wonder what in the heck I was thinking about before I fell asleep. Super weird stuff. I've been trying to write them down in my morning pages just because I like going back and laughing at myself and my craziness.

I feel like some of my cravings have been the same. I want to eat a lot of cereal, specifically Special K or Honey Bunches of Oats.  I've been dreaming about sushi for a few weeks now. I finally can eat chicken without totally being grossed out. I have wanted more healthier options this time around, which has been helpful. I crave big salads with lots of veggies. I love anything involving Mexican food and green chili and hot sauce.  I would gladly eat a salad from Cafe Rio every single day, with extra guac. Oddly enough, the turkey bacon breakfast sandwich from Starbucks is something I look forward to and I usually have one on Sundays for work. I'm making myself hungry just thinking about it. I've also wanted to drink lots of La Croix Seltzer and unsweetened iced tea.

We only have 15 weeks or so left and I cannot believe it. Time is flying. I want to get into full nesting mode. I have the sudden desire to paint every room in our house, replace all of our crappy closet doors, and organize cupboards. I'll embrace it all while it's here. Having a newborn and a toddler terrifies me but I'm also looking very forward to meeting the newest addition to our family.

I'm trying to soak it all in. Unless something majorly changes, I believe this will probably be our last child. This will be my last pregnancy. I do want to soak it all in even when I'm feeling crappy and huge. I'm super thankful to be able to experience all of it.

Hollen Photography | The Holt Family

I had the opportunity to photograph the Holt family last weekend. Kristin was one of our doulas and taught portions of our birthing classes for Marin. Her family was so wonderful to photograph. Their backyard is full of chickens, bunnies, ducks, trees, swings. It is a childhood dream.

Need family photos taken? We would love to hang out with you and your family for a photoshoot. 

For more information, please check out our website. 

Baby Marin: Week Eight

Week Eight. On Friday, our child will be 2 months old. This has probably been the most challenging two months of our entire lives but I don't doubt for a second that we were meant to live in this season of being new parents. Parenthood is changing me. I feel a reshaping of so many things, deep inside my tired bones. I will never be the same. This little girl has already taught us so much and this is only the beginning. 

I am a little nervous for our 2 month appointment with her on friday due to the vaccinations, but I am looking forward to finding out how much she weighs now and all of the other ways she is growing up far too quickly. 

Everyday brings new things. More fussy afternoons. More diaper blowouts. More smiles and giggles. More time spent awake then asleep. Marin is growing bit by bit by bit. 

Marin at 2 Months (Week 8) 

1. Smiles at us a lot with her big, gummy grin.
2. Calms herself by bringing her hands to her mouth and sucking on hands. 
3. Turns her head towards sounds
4. Pays attention to faces and can pick Ryan and I out of a group of people fairly quickly. 
5. Gets fussy if she is bored. Or hungry. Or wet. 
6. Holds head up and is beginning to push upward during tummy time. 
7. Smoother movement of legs and arms
8. Sleeps through the night every couple of nights or wakes up only once to nurse. (Hallelujah!) 

Mama at 2 Months

1. I've slowly started exercising again. It feels good to do something other than sitting and nursing a baby all of the time. (I'm still doing that though.) There is a long road ahead of me, destination: losing the baby weight and then some. It's a big process.
2. I've slept through the night a few times and always wake up surprised when Marin is waking up around 6 or 7 am, not 3 or 4 am. 
3.  I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that maternity leave is ending soon. But, there is hope on the horizon: I am proposing that I go to part time at my place of work. I think it is a great step for my little family.  
4.  I finally am wearing normal pants again. Not the size I would like, but there's no maternity band and I am fine with that. 

Dad at 2 Months 

1. He still is the best diaper changer and baby-burper on the block. He gets up with me for one of the feedings at night if Marin is up at that point. 
2. This man can swaddle our baby better than I can any day. 
3.  He will spend his first day flying solo with the baby next week when I go back to work for a few days.  
4. I am amazed by his calmness and clarity towards our child (especially when mom is frazzled) and how he loves her. He's swell. He's a great dad and I am so glad I get to do all of this with him. 

Bath Time. A little blurry, but I don't care. 

Baby Marin's Birth Story

3 weeks and a few days ago, our lives were forever changed. We waited ever so patiently for our little girl to make her way into this world. I was ten days past my due date. People were consistently asking me whether or not I had a baby yet. I started to not answer the text messages and phone calls because it felt like she was just going to stay in there forever. (Sorry if I ignored any of you.) I spent many times wondering if this was it. We even had two false starts that ended up at the hospital only to be sent home after blood was drawn, baby was monitored, and ultrasounds were completed. 

I knew she would come when she was ready, but I was impatient. But, at the same time, I didn't want to try any of the old wives tales to try and get her out quicker. I wanted her to come in due time.

And she did. I won't ever be the same.

Our birth plan going into all of this was to labor without medication or an epidural. I wanted to see what my body could handle, to discover a strength I didn't know I had.

Monday night (February 17th), I began to start tracking my contractions with more consistency. What I didn't realize at the time was that these were still pretty wimpy,  Braxton Hicks-like contractions. We went to bed far too late that night because I didn't want to fall asleep but knew I should. I watched too many episodes of the Gilmore Girls before finally drifting off.

Around 3:30am, I got up to go the bathroom only to realize that my water broke. I knew it was game time and went and woke up Ryan.

Our doula, Tamara, came to our house at around 4:15 that morning. I started to experience true contractions. Gut-wreching and painful. They were nothing like the contractions I had been experiencing in the weeks prior. With each new wave, I knew that it would be a long day. I just kept telling myself that this was it. She would be here at some point either today or the next. The process had begun and I just needed to buckle down and face it. These were the hours that would be life changing.

One of the things I will forever remember while laboring at home was the fact that Ryan, Tamara, and I just sat in our living room and watched episode after episode of the show Dirty Jobs. That show will now forever remind me of that day. Tamara made us some eggs early that morning and I promptly managed to throw them all up. That happened a few times.

A bath and shower later, I managed to get some pjs back on and we knew we were headed for the hospital. I never realized how bumpy Mulberry Street is on the way to the hospital. Every. Little. Bump. Prospect has road construction so we knew to avoid it. We arrived at the hospital around 11 am, got into our birthing room, and was promptly hooked up to the monitors to see how baby was doing.

At this point I was 8 cm.

I sat in the bath for a while after we arrived and just kind of took the waves of contractions again and again. The pain was pretty unreal, but I knew it would all be worth it. I sat on a birthing ball for a while after that.

I started pushing around 1pm. I'm not really sure of the time stamp by now. I pushed for 3 hours which was an experience like no other. We tried different positions and tactics. There were so many times where I wanted to give up, the pain was overwhelming. I didn't think I could possibly push anymore. I almost felt like I was experiencing all of this outside of myself.

During one of my checks, the doctor and nurses discovered that Marin was facing "sunny side up." This would explain why she was taking so long to make it through the birth canal. There was discussion of an epidural and even a C-Section. I knew I didn't want that. I hadn't worked this long and hard just to go in that direction. Since I had been pushing for what seemed like forever, we decided to have some pain meds pumped through my IV. I was exhausted. I didn't think I could push any more. I knew I needed to get her out into this world.

So, I had some meds. At first this bugged me, but within about ten minutes after it was administered, Marin made her entrance into this world. It was the final push (pun intended) that I needed to get her out.

She arrived at 4:28 pm on February 18th. 8 pounds 4 ounces, 21 inches long. I heard her cries for the first time. She was rushed off to the side because of her traumatic entrance. Her head was shaped like a cone when she arrived. They had to place her on oxygen. I was only able to see her for a split second, tears forming in my eyes, and then she was taken to NICU due to a running a temperature.

This is the part that I didn't like. I wasn't able to breastfeed my baby right away. Skin to skin. She was away from me for a good 3 hours. I believe that this is part of the reason why we had so much difficulty breastfeeding in the beginning. I didn't get that time.

But, overall, after 14 hours of pain like I had never experienced before, our little girl was here. That was all that mattered.

It was all totally worth it. I will never forget this day. It changed me in so many ways.