Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Oh, How Pinteresting Wednesday!

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Yeah. I'm still just as obsessed with Pinterest. When I get some time (oh, and money!) I really want to re-do my living room. Currently, the accent colors are rust orange and dark red. I'm wanting something lighter and fresher. I just need to swap out the accessories and mantel decor mostly.

Here are some pins that are inspiring me!




Source: bhg.com via Lindsay on Pinterest




I love the beachy feel and the pale aqua, green and white. Can't wait to get working on it! I love Pinterest for projects like this. In the past I would make word documents with inspiration photos or have bookmarks everywhere. This is so much better and so much more fun!

What are you pinning? Are you obsessed like me?!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Five months old!

I've been saying that Lila is 5 months old for a couple weeks now, but she is just now turning 5 months old today. She's such a big girl now and has changed so much! She is so much fun and watching her develop is a joy! I can see so much of my husband and I in her but she is definitely developing a fun little personality all her own.


We don't go in for a well baby checkup until 6 months but since she's been a bit sniffly and stuffy the last few days we took her to the pediatrician this morning. She just has a little cold. No fever, nothing icky in her chest or ears, so she should be okay in a few days. She's just very snotty and snorty and isn't sleeping as well. Anyway they did weigh her today and she's almost 16 lbs, my big girl.

Weight 15 lb, 15 oz, Last month: 14 lb, 14 oz
Length 26.5 inches, Last month: 25.5 inches
Head circumference 16.5 inches,Last month: 16 in

Lila's biggest milestone this month was starting daycare. I'm happy to report that other than short crappy naps, Lila is adjusting beautifully! The girls at the daycare seem to really love her and a couple of them have said she's their "favorite" even though they are not supposed to have favorites! I loved to hear that. She is a happy little girl and I'm so thankful she is enjoying daycare. It's still pretty tough on me to be away from her. I miss her a lot during the day and I hate that I don't get to spend as much time with her anymore. But it is what it is.

Diapers: Just bought size 3s. Her size 2s still fit but she keeps pooping up the back of them. I'm tired of stain-treating and sometimes throwing out cute onesies because of blowouts.

Clothes: 3-6 month onesies and tops/dresses, 6-9 month sleepers and some 9-12 month pants

Eating: Lila nurses in the morning, after I pick her up from daycare and about a half hour before bed. She still wakes up occasionally in the middle of the night and I often feed her in bed. Pumping is going okay, although I kind of hate it. It's uncomfortable and awkward and I hate washing pump parts and bottles. I can pump anywhere from 3-5 oz a session and I try to pump 3 times a day. I'm scared that I'm not able to keep up with Lila's eating though. If she is away from me for 3 feedings she usually eats 5 oz each time. We occasionally supplement with formula at daycare if I didn't pump enough the day before. Also, work is slow now, but as the semester picks up I don't know if 3 sessions a day is doable or not.

Still no solid food/baby food for Miss Lila. She doesn't seem that interested yet and I feel like I want to wait a bit. I did let her lick on a piece of melon the other day and she kept grabbing for it! I've let her play with a sippy cup and "practiced" a bit with a spoon. I'm getting more and more intrigued by Baby Led Weaning (BLW) or more accurately Baby Led Solids or Feeding.

Fellow blogger Tracy from Sharp Moments has shed some more light on this for me and has definitely piqued my interest! The basic idea is you forgo spoon feeding and purees (which kinda gross me out) for baby directed feedings. You give them large chunks of food to try and they explore the new tastes and textures on their own. I plan on doing another post about this sometime soon. But for now, we are delaying solids but may start this month. If we do I will definitely post about it!

Sleep: Lila is still sleeping swaddled (sometimes with one or both arms out), in a bassinet next to our bed. We are all ready for her to move to her crib, but her nursery is upstairs and our bedroom is downstairs. The upstairs level of our house gets pretty warm, so I don't want her to be upstairs swaddled.

So, yeah. At some point we need to just bite the bullet and try an unswaddled night in the crib upstairs and see what happens. Her bedtime is around 8:30 or 9 and she sleeps until 7 or 7:30 usually waking up once to eat around 4. Sometimes she'll sleep the whole night maybe a couple times a week.

She is napping unswaddled during the day and tends to take 2 or 3 half hour to 45 minute naps. I really want her to get better naps at daycare but I don't really know what the solution is to that. It's loud and bright there and they like the little babies to sleep in the baby room instead of upstairs in the pack in plays as a SIDS precaution. I'm hoping she just gets used to the daycare atmosphere soon and starts napping better. On the weekends with me she usually will take a 1-2 hour nap in the morning and two 1-hour naps in the afternoon.

Developmental milestones:


- Lila just started sitting on her own yesterday! She can sit for about a minute on her own before she starts leaning and tips over. Sometimes she can catch herself, sometimes not so much. If she has a toy in front of her she can kind of lean forward and will sit for a while. She's still wobbly, but definitely a sitter!

- Rolls from front to back and back to front with no problems at all!

- Is trying so hard to crawl!! She has got the motion down but is not quite coordinated enough to actually move much. But she reaches for toys out of her reach and kind of scoots to get them

- Still loves standing and can hold on to furniture and stand for a few seconds

- Loves playing with toys so much more this month! She especially loves her play piano and music toys, baby games on the iPad, stacking toys, mirrors and anything with lights


- She reaches out for toys and other objects now, hasn't reached out to me when I pick her up yet

- She's so rough with her toys. She bangs the keys on her piano, whips around any rattle or doll and kicks any hanging toy. It makes me laugh.

- No teeth yet, but definitely teething. Sometimes the drool just pours out!

Lila loves:

- The jumperoo! It's by far her favorite thing.

- Grabbing my hair! Might be considering a shorter haircut...

- Laughing and smiling. She's the happiest baby! She even smiles when she's crying sometimes! Crazy girl.

- Her teether that vibrates. She says "mmm" when she bites down on it!

Lila doesn't like:

- There is not much this girl doesn't like... I'm sure she'll have more opinions when we start feeding her real food.

Firsts, Funnies and Memories:

- Biggest first was not being with me all day and going to daycare! She's done remarkably well.

- Lila somehow picked up "growling" this month. She's kind of stopped doing it now, but it was quite funny while it lasted. We think grandma did it. ;)

- First bedtime away from mommy and/or daddy. Neil's parents successfully put her to bed when we went to Louisville for a concert one evening. We were back around midnight.

- Lila went to two outdoor concerts

- Hung out with her buddy Emmett again this month. They were only awake and happy at the same time for like 15 minutes!


Next month should be a fun one for little Lila. My mom and dad are visiting next weekend and then on the first weekend in August we are going to Cedar Point. It will be her first time on the beach! It's a lake beach, but still, there is sand! Neil and I are excited to ride some rides at Cedar Point. I was pregnant last summer and even though we had season passes to Kings Island I couldn't ride anything except the lazy river!

Anyway, hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

What I'm Loving Wednesday


Things I'm digging right now:

- Iced Nonfat Lattes in my all time favorite holiday Venti Starbucks cup! I usually just drink water out of it, but lately I've been treating myself to the occasional latte. YUM!

- Having a bit more time to read. I'm listening to Twilight in the car on the way to work (so far, EH), but loving Tina Fey's new book Bossypants. Also "reading" Happiest Toddler on the Block, Parenting Beyond Belief and What to Expect in the First Year.

- Pinterest. OBSESSED.

- Saying "Oh My Word" instead of "Oh My God/Gosh". OMW is the new OMG. And it's not a religious thing, I just think it sounds cute. ;)

- Air conditioning. It's dang hot here in Ohio, so I'm sticking indoors in the A/C as much as possible!

- Weight Watchers! I think it's working since I weighed myself this morning and I've lost 2 lbs!! Love the WW iPad and Android apps too.

- Family time! My mom is coming to visit on Friday and Neil is not working Saturday morning! YAY!

- And of course, this little chick:

Monday, July 18, 2011

Lila's 4.5 month photos!

Our friend Joe Danzer did an awesome job on Lila's photos! I love them! He came over yesterday with the disc of pictures and 2 giant printouts! Love that guy!

Here are some of my favorites:





And some outtakes because they are sometimes more priceless than the best photos!


See.. she doesn't ALWAYS smile!!

Daddy and Lila - what a star! I brought the glasses as a prop for her to hold, but they did look pretty cute, on!

Love the unedited drool and the scratch on her forehead! She loves to stick out her tongue!

Can you tell we have our hands full?! Love her!!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Thinking Ahead and Loving Pinterest

Okay, so I know I'm a planner but this might be a little much even for me. I'm already thinking about Lila's first birthday party and she's not even 5 months old! I don't even know if she's going to have much more than just a family birthday either. But regardless, it's fun to gather ideas and think about it.

Pinterest is great for gathering ideas for tons of stuff, but I especially see its utility in planning kids parties, baby showers and weddings. I also love it for ideas for future photo sessions for Lila. Follow me on Pinterest! Maybe I'll keep up with it more that way!

If I were truly planning Lila's 1st birthday today I think I'd do kind of a vintage-y theme. Her room is so bright and most of her clothes are vibrant too, so I think a party with softer colors would be a fun change.

Here are some of my recent pins for ideas for her 1st birthday:

Source: etsy.com via Ally on Pinterest








I love collecting pretties and planning ahead! It's so much fun (and addicting)!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Quick update / Random Thoughts

All I have time for is to throw out some random things in my head - I wish I could do a nice tidy cohesive post, but maybe later this week.

- We had a great weekend! I enjoyed being with Lila and we had a lot of fun playing, running around shopping and spending time together as a family of 3! I really do savor every moment of the weekend now that I'm back to work.

- Speaking of being back to work, I took yesterday off and had another taste of being a stay at home mom again. At noon, I was like, "This is so easy compared to working! Stay at home moms are such whiners!" But by 5 I was ready to go back to work the next day! Haha. It's such a joy to be around Lila but not so much when she's teething/whining/fighting naps!

- Sunday our friend Joe took some photos of Lila. He's an awesome photographer (he did our maternity photos) and it was so fun to get some new shots of Lila. Here's a preview:


We also finally ordered Lila's newborn prints and they came in the mail yesterday! We got a great deal at Shutterfly and got a ton of prints, including a couple huge 16 x 20 ones!

- Sunday night Neil and I had an awesome date night! His parents came in to watch Lila while we went to Louisville (2 hours away) to see Brian McKnight. We've been fans forever (Neil has every one of his albums) and it was an awesome concert! It was basically just him and the piano or guitar. He is an incredible musician and singer and we just had a great time!! We went to Hillbilly Tea in Louisville for dinner and it was so yummy and different! Glad we tried it. Lila did great with her grandparents! She ate well and went to bed about when she normally does. It was the first time being away from her at bedtime, but she did GREAT!!

- I'm feeling better about having Lila at daycare. I wish I could be at home a day or two with her during the week, but I think we will slowly get into a routine that works for us. Thanks for all the sweet comments and advice, ladies!

- I started Weight Watchers online yesterday! I needed to do something but don't want my milk supply to be affected. They adjust your points if you're nursing, so I thought this would work for me! We'll see how it goes!! I get A LOT of points, but somehow still went over yesterday. It was a wake up call to see just how careless my eating has become. I'm pretty sure I'll lose weight just because I'm going to be more careful about my food choices.

- I'm also doing the 30 Day Shred. I've done it before I was pregnant and thought it was pretty easy, at least Level 1. Well, so far Level 1 is kicking my tush!! I love it though. It feels good to be sore and I love getting cardio and strength in in one 25 minute workout. I'm not doing it every day, but will try to do it at least 3 times a week.

Alright, hope everyone has a fantastic day and week! Neil's class is cancelled tonight so we get to be home together this evening! Yay!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Does it get worse before it gets better?

I've told friends struggling with the sleeplessness, fussiness and the newness of the newborn stage to "Wait. It gets better. Then it gets worse. Then it gets better again!"... (Then repeat for child's entire life).

Does the same apply to being a working mom?

I was doing so well, but today was rough. The tears showed up about 5 minutes into my drive to work. A little Top 40 radio cleared that up, but it is truly hitting me this morning.

Am I really going to be away from my precious girl for 8 or 9 hours a DAY?! I'm leaving her to be fed, changed, played with and loved on by someone else! I'm missing her and missing out and IT SUCKS!

Last night/this morning Lila woke up at 3 and 5:30am, I'm not sure if it was hunger or the storms or what, but we all had interrupted sleep last night. When she stirred at 6:30 I plucked her from the bassinet nearby and put her into our bed to feed her and snuggle. Soon she fell back asleep. She looked so peaceful and beautiful I could've just sat there with Neil and looked at her all day.

I suddenly had a horrible feeling in my gut: I have to leave her today! I have to wake her up, get her dressed and send her to daycare and go to work! Honestly, if I had any vacation days left I probably would've taken one to just cuddle and hang out on the couch.

I can tell the days at childcare are wearing on her a bit. Even though she is happy there, she's not napping well and I think she's a bit overtired and overstimulated from her new life away from home.

It's wearing on me too. Four consecutive work days away from Lila is taking its toll on my heart and I don't even want to know what five in a row feels like. Thank goodness its Friday and I have two whole days with her this weekend.

Here's hoping it gets better. It will get better, right?

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Happy at daycare and mama's adjusting

Today is Lila's second day at daycare and she seems to be doing very well! It's a large in-home daycare that is certified as a daycare and is also a pre-school. They could have as many as 18 kids at one time (but hardly ever do) and there are 6 staff members including the director (it's her home).

So far, it's really great. The girls that take care of the babies are so sweet and they couldn't get over Lila's happy disposition! Apparently she just smiles all day at them and laughs and smiles at the other babies. I'm sure she fusses too but they didn't tell me about that! She's eating well (three 4 oz bottles of pumped milk yesterday) and napping. Naps are short (30 minutes to an hour) and yesterday she napped 4 different times. I think her naps will get longer and less frequent when she adjusts to not being swaddled at naptime. They are willing to swaddle her, but we are trying to wean her off of it! I'll let them deal with the short naps. :)

The other thing I love about this daycare is that they text me during the day!! It's wonderful. They let me know how she is doing, if she's eating well, her mood and they send me the occasional photo as well!

The daycare texted these to me this morning:



The second one is blurry because she was bouncing so much!! She loves to jump! I'm so happy she's having fun and transitioning well.

I'm adjusting to the life of a working mom. It's hard but is definitely the right choice for me. I say that like it was a choice... this was always the plan! We need two salaries and health insurance, thank you!

Pumping is going well, I'm feeling productive and happy at work and feeling more and more like my old self but still like Lila's mommy. I love my time with Lila in the mornings and we have plenty of time at night. I am exhausted by the end of the day though!! How do people do this with more than one child?!! How do single moms do it? I can't imagine. Other than feeding her a few times, I did not sit down until 9:30pm which is right when Neil got home from MBA class! Luckily these Tues/Thurs night classes are over in 4 more weeks!

My evening went like this:

5:30 - Home with Lila and my 5 bags of stuff (cooler with empty bottles, laptop, diaper bag, work tote bag, cooler of milk pumped from the day)

5:30-6 - Feed Lila (I love nursing her after being away from her all day!), change diaper, "talk" about our day!

6-6:30 - Quick trip to Target, Lila loves shopping!

6:30-8 - Try to hold, entertain, talk to and play with Lila while I attempt to do the following:

- Wash bottles
- Prep bottles for the next day
- Make and eat my own dinner (frozen cheesy rice/broccoli mixed with leftover chicken - hey it worked)
- Prep tomorrow's lunch
- Thaw chicken for next night's dinner
- Clean out fridge
- Gather up trash for Neil to take out when he gets home
- Wash/dry/fold clothes, make sure I have something to wear for next day
- and a bunch of other mundane things I forget now!

8 - Feeding

8:15-9 - Play, cuddle, love on Lila, gear her down for bed, diaper change, PJ's

9 - Bedtime for Lila (we are working on getting it earlier..)

9:20 - She's actually asleep for good. (I had to go in and soothe her back to sleep a few times)

9:30 - Sit down. Neil walks in the door!

It could be much worse. I'm happy the day went so well, actually. This morning went much more smoothly and I got to work at a decent time. I'm still getting used to this working mom thing, but I'm confident I can do it!!

Any other working moms out there? Any tips for me? How do you fit it all in?

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

A Hello to some new visitors!

I'm participating in the 2nd Annual Commenting Challenge over at Jenna's Journey. I LOVE reading blogs but rarely comment. And I so love getting comments, so this is a good challenge for me to make sure I'm leaving comments for others! I also love finding new blogs to follow, especially mommy and baby blogs!

I wanted to tell my new visitors a little about myself since many of you are stopping over for the first time.

The basics: I'm Lindsay, I'll be 28 years old in September and I have a wonderful husband Neil and a 4.5 month old daughter Lila. We live in Ohio and I work at my alma mater Miami University as a librarian.


That's us when Lila was about 2 weeks old. I would've had a shower and gotten highlights had I known I was going to be in these photos, but looking back I'm so glad I had the photographer take them. Yeah, I look like a frazzled new mom, so what!? I cherish these early family pictures and I already can't remember when she was that small!

Random things about me:

- Neil and I just celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary on July 1st. That means 5 years ago today we were sitting blissfully on a beach in St Thomas enjoying our wonderful 2 week long honeymoon!


Neil and I at our outdoor wedding ceremony on July 1, 2006.

- I love fashion and shopping. I actually started this blog as a fashion blog but I was pretty sure it would evolve into a pregnancy and baby blog. And it did!


Yep I took great photos of myself, haha.

- I am a musical theatre nut. I love Broadway musicals and I've performed in a lot of community theatre productions and was always on stage in high school. My favorite role I've played is Laurey in Oklahoma because I grew up watching that musical and loved singing all of the songs on stage.


Neil and I in a high school musical production of "Me and My Girl"... Did I mention Neil and I have dated since high school?! We are 17 and 16 in this photo!

- Today is my daughter's first day in daycare and I'm so nervous! I hope she is doing okay and I honestly can't wait to go and pick her up! I'm writing this during my pumping break at work and it's only 10am... still a long day to go. I'm hoping she has a great day and I'm the only one that's a wreck. ** I just got a text from the daycare! She's doing great. Eating well and napping and very happy! I LOVE that they text me during the day! **


One of my favorite pics of my daughter Lila!

- I loved being pregnant (and wrote weekly updates on this blog!) and want another child someday but I'm still a little scared to go into labor and give birth again. I had an emergency c-section after Lila's heart rate kept dipping lower and lower at one point it was 50! Turns out she was completely wrapped up in the cord. She's completely okay but I'm totally traumatized! You can read her birth story (in two parts) here and here.


I think I was around 40 weeks pregnant here. I had Lila at 41 weeks and 2 days!

- I am obsessed with baby names and naming trends. It's a weird little hobby. I post on baby name forums (yes there are others like me) and have thought about what I would name my kids since I was maybe 13? And by "thought about" I mean I've made lists and lists of first and middle name combinations and sibling names that go together and thought of nicknames, etc... Lila was actually pretty easy to name because Neil only really liked the name Lila out of my top choices. And yes, I've already started "naming" our future second child.

- I LOVE my smart phone. Neil and I both got HTC Evos right before Lila was born and it has been the best thing ever. I felt so connected after she was born and I was able to upload pics, post to facebook and the blog. It was great for those loooong feeding sessions in the beginning and really kept me sane in those first few weeks!

That's a bit about me. I look forward to reading everyone's blogs. I'd love to read your comments and have you follow along with me!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Frozen Lemonade Pie

We had this yummy treat at a Memorial Day party and just had to make it for the 4th of July! It's so simple and refreshing on a hot day. It's perfect for cookouts and for people like me who hate to cook or bake when it's hot!



Ingredients:

- graham cracker crust, homemade or store bought
- quart of vanilla ice cream, softened
- 1 container Cool Whip (we used Sugar Free), thawed
- 1 can frozen lemonade concentrate
- a little bit of fresh lemon juice (optional, but makes the pie more tart and lemon-y)

All you do is combine the ingredients in a large bowl and pour into the crust and freeze for at least an hour. Be careful not to overflow the crust. We had extra, so my resourceful husband used the Cool Whip container to save the excess and froze that too.

We've only tried plain lemonade, but I really want to try this with pink lemonade and limeade. Enjoy!

Happy 4th!

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend! I had to get Lila in this outfit and take a pic before the 4th is over!

We've been lazy today: slept until 9, watched a full movie (first time in 4 months), had naps, grillin' leftovers and haven't even left the house!

Lila's first day at daycare is tomorrow... I'll post about it I'm sure!


Sunday, July 3, 2011

Then and now



Lila at 3 days old and today at 4 months, 1 week! She was so tiny - about 7 lb 4 oz. Now she's probably close to 16 lbs! Gotta love that little grin.