Mothership Confessional

Liam is starting to show his little personality! He loves to sit and look at you and chat and smile and giggle! He giggles when you tickle his sides or kiss on his cheeks and neck! I've seen him smile and coo at his toys, and sometimes he just giggles for no reason! He is liking to chew on his fingers and he's starting to hold onto toys and bring them to his mouth. He spends a little time in the jumperoo and he likes his bumbo seat and always enjoys time in the swing. Ava was not a swing baby so this is a nice change! Liam is drooling  everywhere  and thankfully spitting up doesn't happen nearly as much anymore! The amount of laundry I'm doing has greatly decreased now that there are less blow outs and spit-up rivers! He likes baths and hates tummy time! He is still in 6 month clothes and size 2 diapers, but I'm sure 9 month clothes will be needed soon! He is already 15+ pounds! Strangers who ask how old he is are always shocked whe...

The learning curve to becoming a new parent is steep. It was like a shock to my system, if I had to describe it concisely! My first baby is now almost 2 years old, and our newest little bundle just turned 3 months. Yep...I have 2 kids under the age of 2. Fun stuff!! So if you're reading this for some advice, you've come to the right place! 1. Your Parenting "Standards" Will Lower Take the current bar of expectations and standards in your world of parenting with one child and drop it down.  Now drop it down much lower than what you just did in your mind.  There. Just right!! I quickly learned that survival mode  goes on a whole lot longer than just that initial 6 week recovery period after your second baby is born! My parenting style is full of structure and routine. But once you have 2 tiny humans who need you nearly constantly, something's gotta give!  Ava gets oh-so-much screen time, both the iPad and the tv. I've struggled with thi...

Guys, I'm just going to go ahead and say this. Life is kinda hard right now. And I'm going to have a pity party real quick. Being in the trenches with a newborn is hard enough, but this time I have a young toddler, too. The transition from 1 to 2 children has still overall been easier than the transition from 0 to 1 child, but there are different challenges this time. Ava behaves best when I sit on the floor and play with her and/or when I give her the iPad or the old iPod touch we weren't using. And Liam is happiest when I am holding him most of the time while he is awake. Especially now that he's got more head control - he wants to sit up and see the world! So the problem is, is that its hard for them to both be happy at the same time. I've completely taken away the iPad and iPod from Ava because she wasn't understanding that she couldn't have them all day long, and she was throwing some of the biggest fits I've ever seen from her. And she's ...

Liam has lost his scrawny newborn look! And he's getting pudgy - he's already in size 2 diapers!! He has his 2-month check up next week, so I don't have an official weight for him, but using the scale at home he's 12+ pounds! He fills out his 3 month clothes, too! He's using his arms and legs well and likes to suck on his fist when he can find it. He's a lot more vocally expressive than Ava was - he cries a lot more than she did! He likes to push with his legs and he can hold onto a small toy! He's getting pretty smiley and he's trying SO hard to talk to us! He's been cooing a bit; I can't wait for more!! He is getting pretty stable during tummy time and is starting to brace himself a little with his arms. He definitely loves to be held, which is great, except I have another child who begs for my attention, too! Ava is pretty much obsessed with Liam! She's a little nurturer for sure! She likes to take things to him when he is in his swing a...

My first postpartum experience was awful . But I didn't know it at the time. I couldn't see how extremely difficult things were in the midst of it all, but looking back after a second postpartum experience, I really wish I would have reached out for help. I had: -lots of pain, took Percocet for a week+ and then Ibuprofen for almost a month -nightly periods of sadness, like clockwork from 7-9 pm, every night  for about 2 weeks -lots of blood clots, one HUGE one that scared the crap out of me (I literally thought, this is it, I can't have children anymore; we went to the ER, I was fine) -breastfeeding pains, and a cracked nipple that made me dread  every single feeding for about 4 weeks (its seriously no fun to dread feedings, you're supposed to enjoy those!) -sadness and anxiety (I assumed this was how it was to be a first-time mom. Everytime she cried I immediately got anxious and nervous, even if her crying was easily and predictably fixed by a feeding...

I am so excited to be doing monthly baby updates again!!! And I can't believe it's already been a whole month with our Liam! Apparently Liam had big goals for his first few weeks of life. He outgrew size newborn diapers at one week old...because he kept peeing out of them! He loves to be held on our chests and is pretty good at holding his head up already! He loves to look around! At 2 weeks, 6 days old, Liam rolled from tummy to back multiple times! He's an overachiever! We had his 2-week appointment when he was 3 weeks old. He weighed in at 9 pounds, 10 ounces, meaning that he gained almost 2 pounds in 2 weeks !!! The doctor was pretty impressed! Just last night he found his thumb to suck and he's trying to socially smile! I'm already packing up newborn clothes! It's happening too fast! On one hand, I don't want him to change so quickly. Butttt, even though I'm not as hormonal this time and I feel like I can relax and...

I'm writing this up from the hospital on day 2 of recovery...can you believe it?! Things are totally different this time! We checked into the hospital at 9 am on Monday morning. Not going to lie...I was fighting the tears saying goodbye to Ava - it was crashing down on me that life was about to change and that things would never be the same. I was so nervous and excited and my heart was pounding as we walked in! I hardly slept the night before. I spent about an hour and a half in the recovery area hooked up to an IV for fluids and then they monitored Liam for about another half hour. It was kind of a long, boring 2 hours - it was hard to keep my mind occupied! Then they came back and told us it was time to go! We walked back to the OR and I got my spinal while Chris got dressed up. It's crazy how fast the spinal works - I felt the warmth race down my leg, into my buttocks, and then the other leg. It happened so fast I was pretty numb before I could even lay down on th...

This has been a fast week! It helps that I was out of the house for 3 mornings...even though it exhausts me! We always go to the commissary on Tuesday mornings - we would do Mondays but they are closed - because we like to start the week out with a full fridge and the weekends are too crowded/shelves are picked over. So because I'm so very pregnant now, with a toddler in tow, commissary runs now take up practically the whole morning! It wasn't until after Ava was well into eating table food that we got into the swing of meal planning. It has really made things sooo much easier! I plan about 3/4 meals for 7 days and that gets us through the week. There's always leftovers and sometimes we will eat out for a meal on the weekends. It makes budgeting super easy too, because we know about how much groceries will cost us per week. I highly recommend meal planning - I usually go to my Pinterest boards for new ideas if I'm tired of our old favorites! Wednesday is library sto...

I forgot to share this little tidbit! If you are expecting a child, you definitely need to do an Amazon registry! Here are my reasons why: 1. You can add ANYTHING from ANY website. 2. Your shipping information is on the registry and Amazon Prime members can ship to you for free! (Items must be Amazon Prime eligible) This works great for out-of-town friends and family! 3. You receive a completion discount of 15%   off  a month or two before the expected arrival date (I forget the exact timeline)! This is a one-time use coupon with exclusions, but it works on most items! I stuck some things for Ava on Liam's registry so we could get the discount on a couple things for her, too! 4. I had 3 registries with duplicates items across each one to see which store had better prices.  99% of the time, Amazon has been the same or the cheapest ! Our double stroller has been priced at $299 in store, and I found the price fluctuates a bit on Amazon. The green versio...

Phew! These last few days with Ava have been little more challenging. We have switched her, cold turkey, to a 1-nap-a-day schedule...and she's a little overtired! She used to nap at 9:30 and 2, and it was taking her an hour or more to fall asleep at her afternoon nap and sometimes she would even skip one of her naps entirely! I felt like 13 months was a little  early to make that switch, but she's always been an alert kid and napping hasn't always come easily for her, so it didn't surprise me too much that she was trying to tell me she's ready for just one nap! She's pretty tired in the mornings, so I've been needing to keep her busy to distract her from being sleepy. We took trips to the park, and I made sure to have new things for her to do. It's been going a little bit better each day, except last night she had a big meltdown for no other reason that we could figure out besides the fact that she was ready for bed. I think we are going to move up bed...