10 Things To Smile About; August

Another month is almost over!  I can’t believe summer is almost over.  There were many things to smile about this month!  So in no particular order:

10. The Little Girl

She is just so cute!  Even when I’m sleep deprived she makes me smile.  How you can not smile at these expressions?

9. The Man

He still isn’t working (we’re waiting on a start date for his job) so he’s been around a lot.  He’s been doing things around the house and it’s nice to be able to hand off munchkin.  He LOVES his daughter and it just melts my heart to watch him with her.  He’s also way better than I am at getting munchkin to sleep at night.  I mean, how cute is this picture?

8. Going to the county fair

We had a great time taking munchkin to the county fair.  It was our first time going and we had a great time.  We saw some animals and explored the vendors and ate some yummy pulled pork sandwiches.  This is going to be a yearly event for us.

7.  Going to a triple-A baseball game

A friend on Facebook was giving away tickets to the Tacoma Rainiers so I jumped on them.  I was given 4 tickets so we invited some friends to enjoy the game with us.  We got there right before the game started and the parking lot was fun.  None of us had been there before so we found a side street to park on.  We ended up having to walk all the way around the stadium but we managed to get there in the middle of the second inning.  Munchkin slept for most of the game.  She did eat too and it was the first time I nursed in public.  Even though I used a cover I was proud of myself as I’m still not really comfortable nursing in public.

6. Celebrating 3 years of marriage

The Man and I had our 3rd anniversary at the beginning of the month.  My mom was here and she watched Munchkin so we could go out for dinner.  It was nice to just be the two of us again, even if we did miss Munchkin.  We were also home by 9:30…does this make us old?

5.  My new faucet

My anniversary present from my amazing husband (who is currently trying to feed our crying baby) was a touch faucet that I’ve been wanting since we bought the house.  It’s awesome and I love it!

4. Having my mom here

With having the unexpected c-section, it was wonderful to have my mom here to help out.  She also enjoyed getting Munchkin snuggles!

3.  Munchkin turned 1 month

She’s getting so big! I know, I know, she’s going to get bigger but still.  She’s smiling at us and cooing and grunting.  We love all of her expressions!

2.  Trips to Ocean Shores & Port Townsend

While mom was here we took a day trip to Port Townsend and an overnight to Ocean Shores to show her the Washington coast.  We had a great time in both places.  A fire on the beach in Ocean Shores was fun, even if it was a bit cold for munchkin.

1.  Blackberries are in season!

We have blackberry bushes all around our house and one of our favorites things to do is to pick them.  We love to just eat them and I will also freeze them and make jam.  I’m not making jam this year and while we haven’t picked as many as we usually do we have picked a few.  We hope to take full advantage of them next summer!

 

You can link up at Emmy Mom!

One Month

It’s hard to believe that Munchkin is one month old!  Time has flown and already I can see how she’s changed.  She’s gotten bigger and it doing her best to hold up her head.  She’s also starting to fit into her cloth diapers so we’re slowly transitioning her over.  She’s a happy baby.  She has some fussy times at night, mostly from gas.  She’s a gassy girl and her daddy is great at getting rid of those gas bubbles and getting her to sleep.

She’s been sleeping a lot so we have lots of sleeping pictures.  She’s a sleeping beauty!

Furry Friday

I’m linking up with JC over at Me and My SoldierMan.  Be sure to go check out other cute furbabies!

I know that this is supposed to be about the furbabies and it will be.  It’s just going to include Munchkin as well!

This is Joey all curled up with the receiving blanket that The Man brought home so the pups could get used to Munchkin’s smell.  He slept with it for days!

Edgar still isn’t sure about Munchkin.  He keeps checking her out.  I’m glad he hasn’t written her off yet!

Allen hoped up to get some love and found that The Man was holding Munchkin.  He wasn’t quite sure what to do but he stayed and got some love.  He doesn’t seem to mind her but leaves her alone for the most part.

 

Don’t forget to go link up!

How We’re Doing

Munchkin has been with us for 4 weeks now and we’re doing well.  It’s been an adjustment to having a newborn but it’s a good adjustment.  She is such a joy and we are enjoying her so much!  We love just holding her and watching her.  She makes the best faces!  We’re just soaking it all in.  She’s changed so much in the past 4 weeks, I just want to enjoy her littleness (is that a word?)

Even though we’re doing well I’d be lying if I said there haven’t been some bumps along the way.  Most notably have been with breastfeeding and with lingering issues from giving birth.

The issues with breastfeeding started while we were still in the hospital.  I thought I was feeding her enough but she kept losing weight.  When she lost 14% of her birth weight they started her on supplemental formula.  I didn’t have any say, it just happened.  All I could do was sob (it still makes me cry to think about it.)  While there is nothing wrong with formula and if you choose to formula feed your child, that’s great. It just not what I wanted for my baby.  They had me pump and I sat there, with two bottles, pumping, feeling like a cow and I had tears running down my face.  I felt like I had failed my baby.  It was so hard.  I got a little milk and thankfully we were able to supplement with that instead of as much formula.  I kept pumping and trying to get enough to not need the formula.  I got there and she has been gaining weight ever since.  We’ve given her some formula since but it has been limited.  There have been a few times when she has drank me dry and she was still hungry so we supplemented.  I’ve gotten more ok with it, especially since she gets way  more breast milk than formula.  I’m so thankful for The Man and my mom, who have been so supportive and encouraging me in this breastfeeding journey.  It may be natural but it’s not always easy.

Part of what made it hard to breastfeed was the physical pain I was in.  I strained my neck while trying to push and my neck and shoulders were so tense for about 2 and half weeks.  There were times it hurt to look down.  It’s really hard to breastfeed when you can’t look down to help your baby latch.  It’s hard to not be able to look at your baby while she’s eating.  I was also experiencing really bad headaches, bordering on migraines.  There were times I was wincing in pain and turning my whole body to look at people.  I was trying to sleep whenever possible as sleep seemed to help. One day I just broke down because the pain got to be so bad.  I really thought the headaches were a result of the neck strain but we now think it a complication from the epidural.  I had a wet tap (while I was getting the epidural I ended up with a hole that allowed the cerebral fluid to leak out and that can result in having a pretty bad headache.  I ended up going in and getting a blood patch (where they take blood out of my arm and insert it into my spine.  It clots and keep the cerebral fluid from leaking out.)  They weren’t keen to do one since it was 2 and 1/2 weeks later but since I was showing the symptoms and had a documented wet tap they did one.  Thankfully it helped and I have been feeling so much better!

So that’s what we’ve been up too.  There have been a few other things and I’ll share those as I get a chance.  My goal is to have at least one post a week but I’m hoping to have more than that!  I’m just going to see how it goes.

Baby

I’m back!  I hope you enjoyed my guest bloggers.  I know I did!  Thank you again to all of them as it was nice to not worry about the blog while transitioning to being a mommy.

I’m loving mommyhood even though I’m missing sleep.  I know I’ll be able to sleep again.  Munchkin is doing well and is growing like a weed.  We both love her so much and are enjoying her.  She’s a very happy baby and we’re very thankful for that!

I had expected munchkin to look like her daddy but I’ve been told she looks like me.  Here she is on the top only a few hours old and the bottom is a picture of me in the hospital taken not long after I was born.  What do you think?

 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  I’m hoping I’ll be able to get a few (ok, at least one) blog posts done so I’ll see you on Monday!

Patience is the Most Important Virtue

I have my last guest post for you today!  I’ve been following Amanda’s blog for a few years now and I’ve enjoyed watching her son grow.  She shares some great thoughts with us today.

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Amanda is a full time working mom of a VERY active toddler, born in 2010. She has been the wife of an Army National Guardsman since 2008. Originally from Michigan, she traded Mid-West living for big city life in 2000 when she moved to NYC. Currently living in New Jersey, she is balancing her full time job, keeping her family in order, and preparing for their first deployment later this year. In her free time she enjoys spending time with family, cuddling with her kitties, cross stitch, photography, and blogging.  You can find her at The Calm Before the Storm.

Patience is the Most Important Virtue

When being a parent that is... We’ve all heard the comments about how you never knew you could love someone so much until you have children. Since the birth of our son, Marshall, in 2010 I am definitely not going to dispute that claim. But, what I have found is one of the most important things I’ve learned since The Marsh joined our little family is you need a whole lot of patience! And yes, I’ve found myself humming the song by Guns ‘n’ Roses many times over the past few months.

When Marshall was in the 0 – 12 month age range, I kept thinking “Well this is a piece of cake!” He was so easy to handle, did everything I wanted him to do, and was generally in a good mood all the time. Marshall turned 1 on October 30^th, 2011. The fact that the next day was Halloween seemed appropriate because that seemed to be the turning point when Zombie Baby started to appear!

Out of the blue, he started biting people. I bruise fairly easily so my arms literally looked like someone had beat me with a stick thanks to all the bite marks. And it only got worse from there. Marshall has a pretty strong personality so when he doesn’t get his way, Zombie Baby comes out! In addition to the biting there is now pinching, head butting, pushing, throwing, hitting, kicking, and screaming. I’ve been told that he might be going through his terrible twos a bit early. Of course he is! So now, all we can do is ignore him while he has his little meltdown and then, usually within a couple of minutes he is fine and forgot what he was screaming about in the first place.

So, that being said, a few things I’ve learned about patience and the Zombie Baby:

1. When you tell him “no”, he will look right at you and do it anyway. All you can do is just reiterate over… and over… and over… and over what he isn’t supposed to be doing.

2. Try to refrain from reacting to the tantrums. I’ve found that the more I react, the more crazy he gets because now he’s getting all of my attention. And, in reality, isn’t that what they really want in the end?

3. There is no use in getting upset when he takes his bowl full of pasta and marinara sauce and flips it over onto the floor. Apparently this is normal toddler behavior… who knew? We just try to keep an eye on him and sprint for the bowl when we see it lifted above his head. Sometimes we miss and sometimes our white cat ends up with marinara all over his head.

4. Don’t get too embarrassed when the tantrum is happening in the middle of your supermarket. If there are other parents around, they won’t judge because they’ve been there. And, for the people who do judge, someday they’ll be in the same spot watching their kid have a tantrum and realize there isn’t much you can do about it. I usually just let him sit in the middle of the floor and have his meltdown. After a few minutes he’s fine and we can move on.

5. You’ll learn to recognize the differences between a true meltdown and one that is happening because he is tired. If Marshall has missed his nap or has had a lot of activity during the day, when we put him in bed while he is having his screaming fit, he is usually asleep within a few minutes. Unfortunately, I, too, am usually asleep within a few minutes right along side of him J

People will always focus on the bad or challenging aspects of a situation. In my own opinion, watching Marshall grow up everyday definitely outweighs the trying times when Zombie Baby makes an appearance. Just to name a few:

1. The excitement he has when we pick him up from day care.

2. How fascinated he is with every little thing put in front of him.

3. He loves to give hugs and kisses.

4. Baths are awesome!

5. His favorite thing to do in the evenings is help feed the kitties and put the recyclables in their bins.

6. He loves to cuddle on the sofa with a good bottle of milk.

7. When he wants to bring us something he will hold out his hand and say “stay” so we don’t move before he’s ready for us.

8. He has to sit on Daddy’s lap and help back the car out of its parking spot before we can put him in his car seat.

9. One of his favorite games is to point at a group of objects, and say “no” to everything we point at.

10. The other day he was looking in a mirror and then turned around as it checking out his behind! Good thing he has a cute little behind!

While I don’t want my baby to grow up because it is happening way too fast, I’m excited to watch him learn and grow over these next few years. In the end, not only do you need to have the patience to handle the craziness of raising kids, but you also have to have the patience to recognize and enjoy all the good things that come with the bad.

The Hippie Stuff

I’m coming back soon, I promise!  Just a few more guest posts for you.  I think this is one that I’ll be able to write in a few months…we are wanting to try many of these things with Munchkin!

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Hi, I'm Chantal and I write at Scattered Seashells.  I've been married to Brandon for 4 years, as long as he's been in the Army, and we have a 6 month old, Penny. We're currently stationed at Fort Rucker while he goes to flight school. I love blogging and reading what others have to say! Thanks for letting me guest post!

I’m what you’d describe as a “crunchy mom.” I don’t like labels, though; I just say I’m into all kinds of hippie-stuff!

A few years ago, I wasn’t like this. I was a processed-food-eating, working-mom, send-my-kids-to-public-school kind of girl. Well, things change a lot when you have a baby.  Suddenly, I didn’t want an epidural and took classes to go for that natural birth (which
ended up as a c-section because of a breech baby… but that’s a whole other story). We  weren’t so sure about vaccinations, and so far our baby hasn’t had any shots. We are even doing baby-led weaning and skipping purees altogether! We do some baby-wearing, when she tolerates it!

Those are some of the more extreme “hippie” things we do. Basically, looking at us, we’re your normal family. We just buy all-natural and organic foods, a big switch we made a few years ago for health reasons, and we like to keep everything as natural as possible. We do what feels right for our family.

One of my favorite things to do with babies is diapers. Yep, I’m obsessed. I looooveee cloth diapers and I’m not afraid to tell you about them! If you haven’t messed with them before, they can seem a bit daunting. Who doesn’t want to just roll their diaper up and throw it in the trash?

Let me tell you, cloth diapers are far from difficult. They’re just like disposables but we’re saving so much money! We have spent maybe $350 on diapers and diaper equipment, and that’s it. And we aren’t hippie enough to worry about the environment tons, but just knowing that those chemical-filled poopy diapers won’t be sitting in a landfill is enough for me to feel pretty happy.

Oh, and they’re pretty cute, huh?

I could go on and on, but you could just check out my blog for all the scoop on what we do. This “hippie stuff” really works for our family and I love it. Having a baby can be so fun because of all the opportunities it opens you up to!

Love

About three years ago the Man and I stood in front of family and friends. 

He wore his dress blues and looked so handsome.

I wore a white dress and felt beautiful.

We said “I Do.”

Or some version of that.

It was on that day, three years ago, that our family began.

I love this man more today than I did the day I married him.

I wasn’t sure it was possible, but it’s happened.

Now that we’ve added a little one,

our hearts our bursting.

How does it get better than this?

I know it will and

I’m looking forward to it.

I’m so glad it’s you babe, by my side,

especially as we start this adventure

called parenthood.

I can’t imagine sharing this life with anyone else.

I love you.

Lots.

Happy Anniversary!

Three years down and eternity to go.

A Big Sister’s Take on Parenting

I promise I’ll be back soon for good!  I still have a few guests posts for you though.  I hope you enjoy this one from Mel, who’s going to share some thoughts as a big sister.

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My name is Mel and I blog at Head in the Game, Heart in the Sand. I am excited to be here today at Many Waters and share my insight with you. I hope I can provide a unique perspective to the parenting world and although it might not work for everyone, maybe I can help someone, somewhere. Thank you for reading!

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When I was five years old, my baby sister was born. I instantly assumed the role of big sister extraordinaire and let me tell you, that was one of the best days of my life. Many years later, my three half-siblings came along and I am blessed to be the oldest of 5! My sisters are 23, 14 and 11 and my baby brother is 5 years old – needless to say, our house is a total zoo come Christmastime! I do not yet have kids of my own, but I have learned quite a few lessons in my many years of big-sistering. I am going to share those tips with you today.

1. Every child is completely different from every other child. Every child needs different things and grows and learns in different ways. Parenting is not one-size fits all.

2. Nor is parenting stagnant. It is ever-changing and shifts as kids’ needs and wants change. Flexibility is the cornerstone of parenting.

3. Living by example is key. Children watch every single thing we do and they do not forget. Providing an example of morality, maturity, and mutual respect are the best ways to raise and mentor good kids.

4. Bad habits will be passed down. Because children watch everything we do, this goes for bad habits as well. Swearing, unhealthy eating, and bad TV habits will be adopted by children if they continuously witness that behavior.

5. Children need constant stimulation. Kids need a variety of activities in order to grow and learn throughout their lives. Providing an outlet for artistic expression, athleticism, musical ability and any array of interests allows kids to be well-rounded adults.

6. Parents will screw up at some point. Thankfully, kids are forgiving and understand that parents are people too. Recover by admitting the mistake and correcting the behavior, once again leading by example so the children do the same.

7. Love is not enough. Children also need rules, guidance, discipline and other structure in order to learn, grow and become happy, healthy adults.

8. But love does heal all. When times are rough and wounds are open: love. When times are good: love. Above all else, love each other and oneself.