Signs of Spring

We had a great weekend  weather-wise here in the Midwest!  Highs in the upper 50’s and 60’s, sunshine!  It was so great, we were outside as much as possible both days.

Sunday was rather windy so we tried to get some of the flower beds cleaned out and raked on Saturday. 

Before, although not too terrible:

Some new growth I found after raking off the leaves:

We also worked on trimming the berry bushes back and I planted some more strawberry plants to beef up my bed.  I washed the outsides of the windows with my handy squeegee. I love that thing, makes doing windows so quick, easy and FUN!  Yes, I am for hire, ha!

Friday the boys didn’t have school, uh-gain!  We took advantage of the cruddy weather that day and stayed in dying Easter eggs.  They had fun and it kept them busy and quiet for about 20 minutes, score!

Today I had my post-natal check up.  Everything’s good and I’m free to resume normal activity.  I guess that means no more excuses on the exercising front.  Well, none except trying to find time in between caring for a newborn.  (Can I still call him that? Please?)  I am going to have to either start getting up really early or waiting until Andy’s home to take care of Tate while I go to the basement and hit up the treadmill and JM DVD’s.  I’m having a hard time finding the energy to exercise but am guessing that once I get started that will help with the energy part.  My sister has asked me to run a 5k with her end of May, that’s only 2 months time to get my body (and mind) ready.  I CAN do it, but will I?  Only time will tell.  I have officially lost 40lbs since having Tate.  29 of that was pregnancy weight, the rest was ‘me’ weight.  I’ve dropped a pant size and can wear 2 pair of jeans that are a size smaller than that (but they are stretchier, which makes a difference).  So that feels pretty good, which should be helpful in the motivation front.

My little Tater Bug has started fussing when I hold him for too long but then calms down and relaxes once I lay him down on the floor to look around and stretch out.  OUCH!  This breaks my heart.  I just want to snuggle and cuddle with him all the time but I guess I am already smothering him.  Sad face.  Only 7 weeks old and no longer wants his mommy.  Boo hoo!!!!!

Have a great Monday!

Erin

Wacky Wednesday

Last week Andy and I were watching a clip from The Tonight Show on YouTube with Jon Hamm and Jimmy Fallon photo bombing people getting their pictures taken on top of the Empire State Building. The boys jumped in and watched it with us and we were all laughing so hard at their antics.  Well, the other night Andy was taking a picture of me and Tate snuzzling at the table and they decided they needed to reenact that skit.  Here are the pics of the boys and the clip from the show.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Wednesday!

Erin

A Whole 6 Weeks Old!

My Tater Bug is a whole 6 weeks old already!  Doesn’t he look like he’s the size of a 6 month old?  He’s busting out of his 3-6 months sleepers because he is so long.  If they have footies attached he can barley stretch out, if they don’t have footies they are hiked up like high-waters.  He is in a size 2 diaper, and he pees out of Huggies every time we use them so are definitely sticking with Pampers for the time being.  Luckily I only bought one package of Huggies when I was stocking up on diapers.

Tate gave me his first real smile last week!  He was 5 weeks and 4 days old.  I’ve been watching him smile in his sleep since day one and it was always the cutest little thing, but with his eyes open and giving me a smile because he wanted to?  So so precious!  And I love listening to him ‘talk’ to me. He’s starting to coo and gurgle and grunt when I talk to him, makes my day!

 

 

 

 

 

We are going to start working on giving him a bottle of breast milk every day so he can get used to a bottle nipple, just in case I ever need to leave him with someone and won’t be back in time for his feeding.  Speaking from past experience, it’s no fun when your baby won’t take a bottle and is screaming because they are so hungry.  #truestory  In this picture, he took 3 oz. and was begging for more!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Tate’s favorite place to snuggle.  He buries his sweet little nose in my neck, right where he can smell ‘Essence De Mommy’ (it’s his favorite perfume!).  We do a lot of sniffing each other throughout the day, ha ha!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He looks ‘slimmer’ when he’s sitting upright.  Had to share this pic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finally caught his smile with the camera!  Isn’t he sweet?  And adorable? And mine all mine!!!  And look at his sweet little mohawk! LOL!  I love it!  And no one can rival that double chin!  It’s where he stores his reserves, just in case the milk would ever run out!

I couldn’t possibly be more in love with this little bundle!  I am so happy he is part of our family.

Erin

Peanut Butter Goodness

I’m a day late and a dollar short but I wanted to link up with my awesome friend Brew Mama for her Yummy/Healthy food link up. 

 

I was given this recipe years ago, it’s a Weight Watchers one, and I’m sorry but I have no idea how many points it is (I was thinking maybe 2 points per slice?), but it is so dang yummy and definitely does NOT taste “good for you”.  Ok, so it’s not good for you but it is low cal, and a dessert, so that’s a win-win in my book!

Peanut Butter Pie

1 fat-free pre-made graham cracker crust

1/2 c. reduced fat peanut butter

2 tubs fat-free whipped cream

Blend together the peanut butter and whipped cream, pour into pie crust.  Throw into the freezer for at least 2 hours, until set. 

Holy peanut butter yumminess!  Sorry, no pics, but trust me when I say this is super delicious!  It’s been a hit with everyone I’ve served it to.

Go check out the other links on Brew Mama’s page (click on the box above) for other healthy ideas!

Have a great weekend!

Erin

I’ve Been Thrown A Bone

Blogging has been a bit difficult for me since Tate was born, mainly because a.) I don’t find time to blog, and b.) all I want to write about is Tate and I know that will get old to you fast so I try to come up with different content.  My fellow Iowan (although she lives in CA now) and good friend, Des, threw me a bone and nominated me for a Liebster Award!  Thanks, Des! 

Des blogs over at Macke Monologues, one of my top 3 favorite blogs!  She writes about her sweet little guy, Marcus, and all their adventures out there in California.  They just bought a new house and are in the process of moving a very short distance (as in, walking distance) into this new house.  She takes really awesome pictures, is a super fun mom and, like I said, is a fellow Iowan which scores her BIG points in my book (all except for that pesky detail that she’s an Iowa State fan!)! And maybe best of all, she’s a good, positive blogger – you won’t find her whining or complaining or talking trash.  Go check her out if you’re not already a loyal reader.

Here are the q’s she wanted her nominees to answer.

1. What is the one book you believe everyone must read?  Hands down, without a doubt, ‘Summer Sisters’ by Judy Blume.  I didn’t even pause when I read this question, just knew right away ‘Summer Sisters’ was my answer for this q.  So so good, a fast read because you can’t put it down plus it is written by Judy Blume – name a book of hers that isn’t easy to read, I dare you! 

2. If there were 25 hours in a day, what would you do with that extra 60 minutes? Spend it with Andy.  Again, didn’t have to think to answer this one.  I love every second I spend with him.

3. To date, what blog post of yours is your favorite, and why? I think it is my Valentine’s Day linkup I did last year.  Not because of what I wrote, necessarily, but because of reading all the links about everyone else’s love stories.  I love a good love story, and it was so awesome to read how everyone met and fell in love with their special someone’s. 

4. What is one thing you would love to tell your 16-year old self? Don’t be such a party pooper, go out there and have some FUN and stop worrying about what everyone else will think and if you’ll get in trouble.  Just go have some fun!

5. As moms it is sometimes difficult to carve out 'me' time. What is one thing you love to do just for you?  One thing I would like to do just for me is get a massage and pedicure with a good girlfriend, but it’s not something I ever do.  I honestly can’t think of anything I do just for me.  Man, that stinks!  I need to change that!

6. Where is your dream vacation destination?  Bora Bora.  I want to stay in one of those huts over the water.  Someday we will go there, promise.

7. What is the best mommy moment you've experienced thus far? Always the first time I hear “I love you” back.  Such a sweet, special moment.

8. A guilty pleasure: sitting around watching TV all day.  There are definitely days that I sit on the couch and just be lazy all.day.long.  I don’t let it happen very often but when I do it feels good … until I realize I just wasted an entire day doing nothing!

9. Favorite app:  I’m pretty lame, I don’t have many apps downloaded.  I’ll say Instagram. 

10. What is something your readers may not know about you?  When I was 7 or 8 I took the swings off our swing set so I could have one big monkey bar to go across, even though we were told a million times not to do that, and I fell off and broke my right arm.  My mom thought I was being a weenie and didn’t take me to the doctor until the next day.  Definitely broke.

11. Share a favorite picture of your little one(s) with YOU in the picture, too:  This is me and Aiden.  I love it because he’s sucking on my cheek and it made me laugh.  He was about 5 months old.  Just look at those chubby thighs!

Now for my nominees.  (There might be rules about nominating people with fewer than X amount of followers, but I don’t care, I am nominating who I like to read daily.)

Miss Shelli @ Beauties and the Baseball Coach

Mama Chrissy @ Mama Chrissy’s Chaos

Erin @ Shesabigstar

Erin @ Keep Calm and Sparkle

Keyona @ Skinny and Delicious

Nice Ang @ Mean Ang

 

Here are the q’s I’d like them to answer.

1. When you were a kid, what was your biggest fear?

2. If you could do something other than you do now (job-wise) what would it be and why?

3. If you were an animal, which one would you be and why?

4. What is your favorite song on the radio right now?

5. If a friend was buying you a birthday gift, what would be the perfect gift?

6. What is your favorite flower?

7. What do you think happened to the missing Malaysia plane?

8. What is your favorite go-to lunch?

9. If you were playing the lotto, what numbers would you play and why?

10. What is your favorite movie of all time?

11.  It’s a beautiful, warm spring day.  What do you want to be doing?

 

Anyone can answer these q’s, pick your favorite and leave your answer in the comments section! And please go visit these gals, they’re all awesome!  (P.S.  There are a number of other bloggers I’d like to nominate but they are taking blogging hiatuses or are super busy so didn’t want to bug them.  Hope they don’t feel slighted!)

Erin

‘Call The Midwife’

 

Anyone else out there watching ‘Call The Midwife’ on PBS?  I am in love with this series.  It’s based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, a midwife who writes about her experiences in midwifery in the 1950’s and 60’s in London.  Season 3 is starting March 30th, you HAVE to check it out!  And if you want to catch up on Seasons 1 and 2 they are on Netflix.  I’m currently making my way through them because I missed Season 1 completely and figured I might as well watch Season 2 while I’m at it.  So so good!  I highly recommend it!

Erin

Hot Topic Tuesday

The missing jet:

What do you think happened to it?  It’s just crazy to me how in this day and age a giant airplane can just vanish into thin air!  That there is a place that a jet goes off radar is unbelievable to me.  I have prayed many times a day for the passengers on that plane, whatever happened must have been so scary for all of them.  I wonder how long it will take (years?) until they figure out this mystery.

Dancing With The Stars:

My predictions are that Danica McKeller, Meryl Davis, Charlie White, Cody Simpson (who?) and Candace Cameron Bure will go far.  The guy from Star Wars is out in the first week or 2.  Drew Carey and Diana Nyad can’t compete with the ‘good ones’ so they’ll be out shortly, same with Nene Leakes.  That’s just my opinion.  I haven’t watched DWTS for a few seasons, not sure how far I’ll stick it out this season either.

Lindsay Lohan:

Why or why did they give that girl her own show?  She is still so fragile, she just needs to focus on living a normal life, not one in the public eye.  Poor girl.

The Blade Runner:

Oh this poor guy.  I don’t want to believe that he killed his girlfriend, Reeva.  Is it because he’s a good looking guy?  Maybe.  He just doesn’t look guilty to me. He’s stuck with his story the whole time, he is getting physically sick when they are showing pictures of Reeve dead in his bathroom, he looks very distraught like he didn’t do it.  I know, none of this means he’s innocent – I’d be terrible on a jury, I’m all about looks and how I feel more than what the prosecutor says.

What is your opinion on these Hot Topics?

Have a great Tuesday!

Erin

Have I Lost My Mind?

Sunday afternoon Andy and I were sitting in the living room, minding our own business when out of nowhere a crazy crazy thought popped into my mind.  I couldn’t help myself, I had to share it with Andy.

“Hey, what would you think about having another baby?” 

Surprisingly, Andy didn’t run screaming from the room.  He said he’d love to have 4 kids but wasn’t sure he could live through the newborn stage again.  I told him I could do the newborn stuff again, it was the 7 yr old’s attitude I wasn’t sure I could live through again. 

So, will we have another baby?  I doubt it.  I don’t think my body can handle another pregnancy.  But for now we won’t rule it out…

---

Saturday we went to the flooring store in town and picked out some samples of wood laminate flooring for our dining room, kitchen and front room.  I think we are settled on which one we are getting, now to have them come measure and get the stuff ordered. 

Part of getting the new flooring means we can take down this funky wood shelf thing that goes floor to ceiling in our living room.  We’ve hated the thing since the moment we saw the house, it’s very late 70’s.  So as soon as picked out the flooring Andy got the maul/hammer thing and we busted that darn thing down.  The reason we haven’t done it sooner is because the carpet is layed around it so once we took it down we were going to have a bare spot in the carpet.  Andy laid the base piece back down so for the next 2 months while we wait for the flooring to be laid we won’t be stepping over the sub floor. 

This is a weird picture but it’s the one I could find quickly that showed the shelf thing in the background.

I can NOT wait for this new flooring to get put in!  It’s going to make the house look so different.  I’m a bit worried that it’ll make those rooms darker because right now they have cream carpet and linoleum in them, so bright flooring, but it’ll look great regardless.  Can’t wait to show you the finished product. 

Have a great week!

Erin

It’s Wednesday

Hey!  This week’s truckin’ right along, thank goodness!  Our high school boy’s basketball team made it to the state playoffs, and because we have such a small school and so many students, teachers and families would go to the game in Des Moines they cancelled school for Monday, their first game. They won and play again tomorrow during the day, so school is cancelled again.  We aren’t going (and didn’t go Monday, I think we were the only people left in town) which means I have the older boys here with me all day.  This doesn’t seem like a big deal except that Aiden and I have been butting heads lately.  It makes being together for an entire day without Dad being here to jump in and take some of the pressure off very difficult on me.  So, that is why I’m happy this week is zipping on by, I can get through these no-school days quicker.

Today it is just me and Tate here.  Well, me, Tate, my mom, my aunt and 3 of my friends.  I am having visitors today!  This morning my mom and aunt came over to just hang out.  My dad went with a friend this morning to the sale barn so my mom was free and alone for the first time since January 4th when Dad had his accident. So she came over to hang out with me and Tate.  I called up  my aunt and invited her over to hang out, too. That was fun!  And my 3 friends from our old town are bringing down lunch and hanging out with me and Tate this afternoon.  I’m so super excited to see them!  I love these 3, they are so much fun and so good to me.  Plus I need some gossip-time! 

Tate is going backwards in his length of sleep.  The first week we were home he went 5 hour stretches at night. That slid back to 4 hour stretches, still pretty good.  And now, last night, it was every 3 hours, or just under 3 hours, between feedings.  That about killed me.  It’s so frustrating!  I just want to sleep through the night!  It’s been 4 months at least since I’ve had a full night of sleep.  I just don’t get why Tate’s going backwards, instead of lengthening the amount of time he sleeps at night.  I am so tempted to start giving him a bottle of formula before bed at night.  My  head tells me that would help him sleep longer at night but my heart says don’t do it, it’ll mess everything up.  What do you think? Any advice?  I know not to compare formula fed babies sleep patterns with a breastfed baby’s sleep pattern.  Could it be a growth spurt?  Is that why he’s eating more frequently?  Should I call his pediatrician for advice?  I know, this is my 3rd baby, I should know but I just don’t.  I will look back on this later and figure it out but for now, when I’m in the thick of it I’m just too frustrated and tired to know what the problem is. 

Erin

Brennan’s Birthday Party

Saturday, after Tate’s baptism, we celebrated Brennan’s 5th birthday with our family. 

Since last summer when I first made Pioneer Woman’s Alfredo Sauce, Brennan has been telling me he wanted pasta for his birthday party. Ok, easy enough.  And since Aiden’s birthday last June 30th when he had a Hawkeye birthday cake, Bren has been telling me he wanted a Chicago Bears cake.  Okee dokee, coming up.

Look at this happy face!  He didn’t care a tiny little bit that I wasn’t the one who made his birthday cake, he was perfectly fine with the grocery store bakery doing it.  They did a a great job!  And it tasted amazing!  The pasta was good, too, btw.

Brennan got a lot of nice gifts.  My favorite reaction was when he opened his suitcase from my parents.  He said “Oh! I really wanted this!”  And he did, he had picked it out at Christmas time from a catalog and told my mom that was what he wanted for his birthday. 

My grandma gave him a wallet that had money in it, he was super thrilled with that too!  He said “I’m rich!”  Ha ha!

And he hasn’t stopped playing with his remote control 4-wheeler my sister’s family gave him. The batteries are about run down already and it’s only day 3 of having it!

Brennan had a great 5th birthday!  #6, here we come _{(but not too fast, please!)}!

Erin

Tate, 1 Month Old

One month old!!!  Already???  Wow, that went fast.

Tate had a big day on Saturday – he got baptized!  It was a nice, special moment for us.  He didn’t cry when Father Troy poured the holy water on his head, he just slept through the whole thing.  My sister is his Godmother and Andy’s brother his Godfather with their spouses being honorary Godparents.  Here are a few pictures.

My sister holding Tate while Father pours the Holy Water over his head.

Our family with Father. (Don’t mind the flat hair – what happened to my teasing?!?)

Tate Andrew, newly baptized!

Tate wore the same baptismal gown that my dad wore when he was baptized.  Aiden and Brennan also wore it when they were baptized.  (Look at those chubby thighs peeking through the material!)

We came back to our house for a meal after the baptism, and to celebrate Brennan’s 5th birthday (more on that tomorrow).  Tate slept through most of it, silly boy!

At a month old Tate is still waking up 2 times a night to eat, although sometimes I don’t think he’s all that hungry, more that he just wants his wet diaper changed. But since I’m up, I feed him.  Am I creating an independence on eating at night?  Who knows.  It’ll straighten itself out eventually. 

• His sleep/awake patterns are the same as last week, nothing new to report there. 
• Tate has started sticking his pointy tongue out.  It’s the cutest little pointy tongue I’ve ever seen. 
• We’ve started taking baths in the bath tub.  He is pretty okay with it while laying in the warm water, a little jumpy but not usually crying, but as soon as his wet body comes out of the water and hits the cool air he is screaming. But it cracks me up because as soon as I wrap the towel around him he immediately stops crying. 
• He loves his mommy!  Be still my heart! 
• We FINALLY got the replacement rail for Tate’s crib on Thursday so Friday evening we put his crib together.  I think he loves it!  He sleeps so well in there, better than he did in his cradle, although he slept pretty good in there, too.  The mattress is cushier, I bet that’s why!  I love walking in his room to check on him sleeping, he lays in there all beached out with his arms above his head and his head turned to one side or the other (usually turned towards his right side).  The boy is so sweet!

Here he is, 1 month old!

Oh those cheeks!  They get about a million kisses every day!  Oh, and his thighs and arms are getting chubbier and starting to get creases in them!  Love!

For me, Tate being a month old means I am more comfortable knowing what he’ll need when, what his cry means, and how to soothe him.  I guess what I’m saying is, I have him figured out now.  I feel better knowing that he’ll sleep at night, which means I will too.  During the day I know he’ll go 3 to 4 hours between nursing so I can plan a trip to town for groceries, or a trip to see Andy for lunch.  I am more comfortable nursing in public if necessary, although I always find a spot to hide in.  Now I feel like we’re in a good ‘coasting’ place, which is so great. 

Tate got a new toy last week!  He loves laying under it looking around, and once in a while he gets lucky and accidentally bats one of the toys hanging down, which makes it wiggle and that totally catches his eye. 

I love the colors of this thing!  So fun!  It’s an Infantino brand from Target, in case you’re in the market for one of these.

Have a great week!

Erin

5!

Happy 5th Birthday, Brennan!

Wow, 5!  Where have these 5 years gone?  In the blink of an eye my little Brennie Bug has grown up!  When he was 2 months old and was colicky I thought “we’ll never grow out of this.”  When he was a toddler and I was changing his diapers I thought “when will he be potty trained?”  When he went through a phase and came into our room almost every night I thought “will he ever sleep through the night again?”  And now here we are, 5 years old, all of that has passed and I wish it all back again.  Brenner, you’ve grown up too fast!

Brennan is such a sweet, loving little guy.  He tells me 50 times a day that he loves me, that I’m pretty, that I’m his ‘bestest Mommy ever’!  He gives lots of hugs, lots of kisses.  He loves to help me, whether it’s cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, doing anything around here that I do on a daily basis.  I can ask Bren to do 3 things and he’ll come back having done every last one of them without being reminded.

The kid’s mind is a steel trap!  He remembers EVERYTHING!  He always asks “Remember when…”  It could be something so minute, but he remembers it!

Bren loves being with his big brother.  Anything Aiden is doing Brennan wants to do, too. 

And talk about being an awesome big brother! Brenner Joe LOVES being a big brother to Tate!  He is so good with him, loves to talk to him and ‘read’ stories to him. 

If you show Brennan an NFL team logo he can probably tell you which team it’s for.  He is learning all kinds of things about sports and really likes watching them on TV. 

When Brennan goes to college he wants to play golf for the Hawkeyes.  Every time we drive by a golf course he asks Andy if they can go there and play someday.

Brennan makes us laugh.  He has such a neat little personality and a funny sense of humor! 

Happy 5th Birthday, Brennan! 

Love,

Mommy

So What Wednesday

Today I’m saying So What if…

~ poor Brennan is taking crappy chocolate chip cookies today for his birthday treats.  I had every intention of making him cupcakes, then I made the mistake of asking him “what about chocolate chip cookie bars?”  So then he wanted those.  I made them last night and overcooked them, they were way too hard to take today. So this morning I hurried up and whipped out a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Well, those seemed to be a bit too hard, too.  But I sent them anyway.  Poor kid.  What kid wants to take hard cookies to school for their birthday treats?  We need a do-over.  I just feel terrible about it.  I hope he doesn’t feel slighted.  I did send a bag of M&M’s with them so at least the kids get something good.

~ I’m crabby at the weather lady because every 30 minutes she reminds me that this sleep-deprived mom to a newborn is going to lose an hour of sleep this weekend because of daylight savings time.  Bitch.

~ today is the start of Lent and yet again this year I am not giving up anything.  I really don’t think God gives a rats about me giving up pop or Facebook or really anything else.  Like giving that up is bringing me closer to God?  Sorry to those of you who do give up something, not trying to insult you, just how I feel about it.

~ I have decided that something has to give this weekend so I am calling a local grocery store bakery to make Brennan’s 5th birthday cake.  I just can’t fit it in.  It’s hard to admit that and give the cake making up but it has already helped reduce some of the stress about this weekend so I’m going with it.

 

Update on Aiden’s rash:  He has a bacterial infection, they are treating it with an antibiotic and ointment.  The redness was already gone from it this morning which made it look much better.  The dr. has no idea where or how he got it, could be a number of things.  10 days from now it should be gone. 

Have a great Wednesday!

Erin

I Want To Write A Post

I can’t believe I am saying this, but I have absolutely nothing to post about!  But I want to write a post just to stay in touch with everyone.  All I know right now is Baby Baby Baby.  And if that’s all I write about people are going to stop reading so I need to come up with something else to talk about, but what?  I guess I’ll just type whatever pops in my head and see where that takes me.

Aiden – he has a rash on his chin that is spreading.  At first I thought he was breaking out with acne but now that it’s spreading I’m not so sure.  I have made an appointment for him this afternoon but before I could call the school to let them know they called me and asked if I was aware of this rash on his face.  The secretary told me it looked like it was spreading and she wanted to know if I was okay with her putting on some Benadryl ointment.  How embarrassing for both Aiden and me.  For Aiden because people are noticing (it’s VERY noticeable, I hope his classmates aren’t teasing him), and for me because I look like a bad mom sending him to school like I hadn’t noticed it.  Now I’m worried that it’s something contagious and that poor Tate and Brennan will get it.  Andy’s taking Aiden to his appointment, anxious to hear what it is.

Brennan turns 5, that’s FIVE, this Thursday.  I just can’t believe that’s possible.  I hate and love seeing them get older.  Hate it because I hate change and have the “I don’t want to grow up” complex.  Love it because it’s so neat to see what little people they are becoming.  Warning: there WILL be tears on Thursday!  And probably a mushy post about my little pea pod buddy.  Sigh.

I went to my OB last Thursday to have my hoo-ha checked.  More specifically, to have my stitches checked from my episiotomy.  That’s beside the point. The point is, my weight.  I was down 6lbs less than my pre-pregnancy weight that day.  Funny thing is, my jeans aren’t super loose like I’d expect them to be, which means I haven’t really lost any fat, probably just water weight.  I’m afraid to hop on my scale here to see what that number says.  But at the time I was definitely doing a happy dance.  My jeans are super baggy in the butt and thighs, just not the waist.  It’s been 3 weeks since I had Tate, I should stop being so damn lazy and get my butt on the treadmill to start walking.  I know I’m not supposed to do any major exercising until the 6 week mark (and get the go ahead from my dr) but I can at least walk!  You’d think I’d be super motivated since my weight was down so much, kind of a ‘strike while the iron is hot’ thing.  But no, not me.  Duh.

I sit here with a 3 week old and think about how if I had a job that only allowed me a 6 week maternity leave I’d be halfway through it already.  How do you mom’s do that?  Physically my body is fine and would be ready to head back to work but mentally I would be a wreck thinking about leaving my baby in 3 short weeks.  I was lucky enough with the older boys to be home 13 and 12 weeks so I never had to leave a 6 week old.  I think we should adopt Canada’s policy and be able to take a full year of maternity leave.  No, it’s not for everyone, and I don’t fault those it’s not for at all because boy do I know how hard staying home can be, but it’d be awesome for those that do want to stay home to have that option!

I’ve started cooking again.  I didn’t realize just how lazy I had become while being pregnant until I started actually cooking real meals again the week we came home with Tate.  I apologized to Andy because I had just been slapping together crap.  So tonight we’re having meatballs, cheesy hash browns, corn and a lettuce salad.  I need to start really focusing on making healthy, low fat meals so I don’t gain back the weight I’ve already lost.  Who can steer me in the right direction?

I have to admit, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed the last few days.  We have some important stuff going on this week – Brennan’s birthday is Thursday, Saturday morning Tate gets baptized, then lunch here after then Brennan’s birthday party after that.  So I have a ton of cleaning and prep to get done and I just feel like I’m treading water and not getting anywhere.  Add on top of that caring for a newborn, trying to pay enough attention to the boys so they don’t feel neglected, trying to pay enough attention to my husband so our marriage doesn’t suffer, trying to keep this house picked up, making meals, getting myself a shower if nothing else… I have a list a mile long and so I feel overwhelmed.  I’ll be fine, none of it’s that hard to manage its just a lot at once.  Not getting a full night’s sleep plays into the overwhelmed feelings.  Andy offered to take a night and give Tate formula so I could just sleep but I can’t let him do that, he works and needs his sleep more than I do.  Plus my boobs would be near bursting in the morning if I didn’t nurse Tate during the night and I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing Andy was up with him and I wasn’t.  Really, I am fine and will muddle through and come out the other side just fine, promise!

Well, looks like I was able to come up with something to write about! Ha! Sorry if you stuck through the whole thing! Time to get some lunch for Brennie and me. 

Have a great afternoon!

Erin

Tate At 3 Weeks Old

I can hardly believe that Tate is 3 weeks old today!  His birth seems so long ago, like we should be talking months instead of weeks, and at the same time he’s already 3 weeks old! 

Here’s what Tate’s been up to this week:

• He eats every 3 to 4 hours
• Wakes up two times a night, usually about 3 1/2 – 4 hours between feedings/waking
• He is wide awake 3 to 4 times a day for about an hour each time and some of those he lays on the floor looking at a book propped up next to him, other times we do tummy time, other times we just hold him and gaze at each other
• After those awake periods he struggles to fall into a deep, comfortable sleep so we do a lot of rocking, snuggling and swaddling for about an hour after that, then he sleeps for a couple of hours until his next feeding
• He sleeps well in the car
• He recognizes me when I pick him up, settles right down when he gets his nose settled into the crook of my neck
• He has started opening his eyes when he’s sleeping, tricks you into thinking he’s awake
• At his check up last week when he was 17 days old he weighed 12lbs 10oz (that’s over 2 pounds more than his birth weight) and was 22 1/2” long (a 1/2” growth).  Basically he’s the size of a 2 month old and off the charts!
• He has outgrown some of his 0-3 month outfits already, at just 3 weeks old!
• Still wearing size 1 diapers, thank goodness.
• He has the sweetest little smile when he’s sleeping!

It’s amazing how quickly these little ones become a part of the family and part of your every day daily life.  He fits in with all of us so well!  I love having him here with me when everyone’s gone to work and school for the day.

Erin