No boob before bed

It's been 2 weeks now that (most of the time), I am able to put Natallie to sleep at night without nursing her! And she is still sleeping through the night! Yippee *insert happy dance* I only nurse her in the morning now, just once a day! Wow, what a difference compared to a year ago! The picture above was taken at the hospital when she was less than 12 hours old. It's so crazy the way God designed mothers to do this. I mean I can't believe Natallie grew inside me for 9 months, and then after a lot of pain, she came out of me all purple-faced and squishy and covered in yucky white slime. Then my boobs are her exclusive source of nourishment for the next 6 months. I remember for the first several weeks it was such a struggle to get my milk to come in. Natallie had to take some formula and she drank it in a teeny, tiny little cup. I didn't know newborns had cup-drinking skills but apparently they do! The nurses told us to do it this way so it doesn't cause "nipple-confusion". Then I took the magic milk pills that my doctor prescribed and voila, instant dairy bar and milk squirting abundantly across the room!



Simon feeding Natallie with a cup!

 Now that I'm only nursing in the mornings, it makes me think of the early days when she was nursing every 2 hours around the clock. The days where I felt like I did absoluetly nothing but feed her and stare at the puke-stains on my carpet and coutning the bumps in our popcorn ceiling. It was like time stood still. I rememer wishing that I could just get Natallie to the stage where she was not nursing during the day so I could didn't have to plan my outfits around how easily I could get my boob out. And then after that happened, I wished I could get to the point where my boob didn't have to be part of the bedtime routine so I could dare I say, go out in the evening. But now that it's happened, I kinda miss all that exclusive time I had with her. Natallie is so active that I can never get her to stay still and cuddle anymore. I miss the days where she would fall asleep in my arms after I nursed her and I could see the milk puddle in her multiple neck folds. Now when I'm nursing her in the mornings, I am taking the time to savour the moment, I play with her pudgy hands and breathe in her baby hair. Because I know that pretty soon, she won't want to nurse in the mornings either.

Now just a few more months and no more dairly bar at all....and hoping Natallie's first word will be 'mom' and not 'moooo'!

25 reasons why I am thankful

Being a new parents changes your perspective of things and for that reason I decided to make a list of things I am thankful for now that I am a parent.

wobbly head at 2 months

1. I have been able to see Natallie progress through each milestone. Cheering for her when she held up her wobbly head for 2 seconds, the first time she rolled over intentionally, the months she did the worm crawl, the months I chased after her crawling for real and now chasing a little girl wobbling walking all around the house

2. Natallie is past the newborn stage with its prolonged crying and most thankful for being past the stage of cleaning poo from armpits

 

3. Natallie is now sleeping thru the night and I don't have to sleep in one hour increments and rock her to sleep until my arms seized up

yea sleeping 11 hours a night!

                                
4. I have a new perspective that waking up a minute past 7:30am is sleeping in

5.God bless Tylonel for teething, cranky babies

6.Our laundry machine hasn't broken down eventhough for 6 months we were running it every day

7. My arms are so much stronger and defined now than before

8. I can do almost any household chore w one hand and natallie on my hip (although washing a pot w one hand leaves the pot still dirty and Natallie all wet)

9. Natallie will let me and even likes brushing her teeth now! I just need to line up her Teddy bears and brush thier mouth reigions too (bc teddys do not have teeth, that would be freaky)

no more screaming when I put the toothbrush in her mouth

10. I am only nursing morning and night now so I can wear any outfit in my closet again. I don't have to choose my shirt based in how easily I can pop my boob out

I get to wear a T-shirt again, totally impractical for nursing but don't need to worry about that anymore

11. I dont have to pack the nursing cape and attempt to feed in public anymore. Natallie hated it and would cry and scream under the cape and bat it away

12. Natallie is past the age of crib bumpers being a SIDS concern and I can put them on her crib bc they are so cute

farm-themed crib bumper and matching quilt, so cute!

13. Natallie has got tons of cute hand me downs and clothes from grandma it's so fun to dress up my baby doll everyday

                               
14. Natallie will sit on the bathroom counter and let me brush her hair and out pretty bows in it every morning (oh and thankful she has lots of beautiful brown curly hair!)
                                            
15. Simon does bath time w Natallie everynight and I can hear the giggles from downstairs

16. Despite few accidents (eg.) no permanent damage was done (at least nothing that we know of at this point)


bruised and scraped after falling headfirst out of the stroller but OK

17. Craigslist & baby swap meets (super cheap baby stuff, yes please!)

18. Natallie lets me cuddle her and now knows how to kiss (which at this stage is a wide open mouth )

19. Never took bottle so don't have to figure out how to get her off the bottle

 

20. My best friends all had babies in the same year so our babies can grow up together


Natallie at the pumpkin patch with her baby besties

Natallie with her best friends on her 1st birthday

21. Despite all the food crumbs, puke and poop that our carpet has endured, our carpet isn't molding yet

22. Natallie has learned baby sign and it is decreasing the amount of crying & whining

 

23. My mom's willingness to babysit so I can still work a little bit

24.We have adapted to life w a walking 3 foot tornado and accepted that our house will never look quite as neat as it used to

Little Ms. Trouble reorganizing our tupperware drawer

                                 

25. That we have a beautiful, active and inquisitive baby girl with a smile that makes random strangers smile and melts my heart every time! I am so thankful I get to be a parent and to have a wonderful, supportive husband to figure it all out with.

 

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Natallie's room

 When we first found out we were pregnant, Simon was probably dreaming of the day Natallie would be old enough to go snowboarding with him and land backflips with him but I was thinking about the cute outfits Natallie would wear and also what the nursery would look like. I briefly looked at pictures on Pintrest and it was a bit overwhelming to see how spectacular some baby rooms were. Then later, reading in celebrity magazines the ridiculous amount of money that people spend on their nursery room is insane. I started lusting over the matching bedsheets and crib bumpers (although crib bumpers are apparently totally evil and definitively cause SIDS). I wanted just the perfect crib and it just needed to match the changing table. I am so happy with Natallie's room now and pretty proud that we kept the cost pretty low. The cute white crib was bought with the mattress off Craigslist, the white changing table was a clearance floor model from Zellars and Simon sprayed the originally black night table to match the rest of the furniture. And the wall decals are my favourite part, at first I really wanted the big huge stickers but they cost almost $100 and I knew I couldn't justify telling Simon that I spent that much on a sticker! I managed to find all the wall decals on the internet or at Winners for under $20 each. My favourite is the artwork on the wall. I really wanted to find some prints to match the owl sitting on the branch and the bird canvas print I got from Winners but I couldn't find anything that matched so I decided to make them myself. To my surprise, they actually turned out really nice!  What do you think?

I made the porcupine, the squirrel, the owl and the turtle!

And I also like the verse I have up on the wall "Every good and perfect gift is sent from above" (James 1:17) Every time I'm in there nursing Natallie or changing yet another diaper, it helps me remember to be thankful for every moment I have with my baby girl. I feel so blessed and thankful to have a beautiful girl and be able to watch her reach so many new milestones in the last year.

And I am thankful for you for sharing in the adventure of parenting with me.

                                                    Happy Thanksgiving!