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We have all experienced sudden, unexpected news. Maybe it's the death of a loved-one. Maybe it's being laid off from a job. Maybe, like in our recent situation , it's having a scary medical diagnosis. During such times it literally feels like the world is crashing down around you. It's hard to focus on anything but the situation at hand. You feel like a zombie, going through the motions of life but unable to really live. But life DOES keep going and kids don't stop needing their parents just because tough stuff is happening. How do you keep on keeping on when it feels hard to even just breathe? Here are some of my tips for how I managed to put my big mama pants on and keep parenting even when I couldn't focus on anything but my husbands health: 1. Count on Your Village: It's easy to be hard on yourself and feel like you have to be everything for everyone all of the time. But it's OK to ask for help. You aren't facing this hardship alone and p...
As parents we never want our children to feel pain. We want them to live in a happy bubble and to not have to know the struggles and darkness of the world. While we may try our best to shield our children from hurt, it is a reality they will all face at some point in their lives. Rather than trying to avoid hurt and pain I believe it's important to help prepare our children for it the best we can so that when it happens they have an action plan in place to help them cope. While there are many times that we are able to prepare our children for upsetting circumstances, often the hardest hurts in life catch us by surprise. Our family has faced a few such difficult situations and I tried very hard to handle them in a way that would best be appropriate for my children. Here are some ways that we can help our kids cope with emotional "tough stuff" regardless of if they are prepared for it, or not: 1. Be Honest But Brief: My husbands cousin went missing a few summe...
For me, the holiday season really kicks off at Halloween/My Birthday. My birthday is the day after Halloween and then a couple weeks later is Thanksgiving. Then Britt's birthday. Then Christmas. On my birthday this year I received a card in the mail from my mom . It was the first communication between us in over a year. I knew it was from her as soon as I saw her beautiful handwriting on the envelop. I waited until nap time and went outside to be alone to read it. Of course, it caused me to break down into some pretty ugly sobs. In-between sobs I had a moment of realization. I realized that no matter how my birthday had gone down that I'd still be crying. Crying if my mom didn't send a card. Crying if she'd written more. Crying if she'd written less. For the past couple of years I've been attending a Wednesday night Bible Study with the women of my church (I've always gone to Bible Study on Wednesday nights but have only been going to the cla...
Everyone knows that breastfeeding started off super tough for me. I had pain. I had bleeding. I had engorgement, mastitis, and yeast. Basically everything that could go wrong did! It took me about 8 weeks to finally get every issue solved and to finally feel like I had the hang of it. As Kye is getting older I realize that I am closer and closer to the goal I had planned for myself: 6 months of breastfeeding. I have a lot of mixed feelings about stopping breastfeeding. Here is my "pro" list for stopping at 6 months: my breasts will go back to a normal size instead of being one size right after he eats and being super huge right before he eats again no more pumping for missed feedings! no more leaking milk through the night it'll probably make it easier to lose the last little bit of weight that I'm clinging onto he's already gotten all the benefits from it and doesn't "need" it the way he did in the beginning no more scheduling everything ar...
We're in the double digits now! So crazy! Here's what's been up with Kye this past week: Rice Cereal: As I mentioned in an earlier post Zach really wanted to try giving Kye rice cereal at night during his "dream feed" (the 11:30 feeding) to help him sleep better through the night. He's already sleeping through the night but will wake up once or twice around 5:00, usually just pooping, and go back to sleep. Zach thought the cereal would help him STAY asleep the whole night. We tried it and it kinda back fired because then he wouldn't take the bottle very well!!! At church Zach had to leave services to go feed him because he would not take the bottle! Luckily we quickly figured out that it was the rice cereal and we quit giving it to him! Thankfully he's back taking the bottle with no issues :) Sleep Naps still aren't great! He'll sleep for the first 40 min but then not the second half at all. I'm so excited to move to the 4 hour s...
Everyone knows by now that breastfeeding has been a rocky road for me. Before going to Paris I took more antibiotic for yeast and Kye also took medicine that ended while we were gone. Since he'd still be on medication when we left Zach and I decided to not make a decision as to what to do next until we got home. While in Paris Kye did great with the bottle and drank around 5 oz per feeding, rarely spitting up. While he was eating in the US I was pumping in France and got around 8-10 oz per pump session. A little more than he was eating each time don't you think? I had no pain while on the trip and felt hopeful that my days of nursing weren't yet over. When we got home I was eager to breastfeed and see how it went. Well Kye spit up a TON and I started hurting again! I was very annoyed and started putting two and two together...he spits up more when getting food from the breast AND I pumped waaaay more than he ate each time. Maybe my problem is too much milk! I started...
As mentioned before, I don't take a lot of stock in the "what your baby should be able to do" things, but I like to review them each month and see how Kye is progressing. Also, since I am at home with him, these things give me ideas of stuff we can work on during his awake time! Using What to Expect The First Year Kye has pretty much done everyting in all the areas...he can: smile in responce to my smile respond to sounds in some way vocalize in ways other than crying lift head while on stomach and raise chest supported by arms hold head steady when upright roll over (one way) reach for an object say vowel-consonant combinations smile spontaneously lift head 90 degrees when on stomach laugh out loud squeal with delight Some things we need to work on this month include: grasp a rattle held to backs or tips of fingers pay attention to an object as small as a raisin bring both hands together follow an object held about 6 inches above face and moved from o...
Before leaving for Paris I researched all I could about pumping milk and being able to bring it home with me. While I still felt guilty leaving Kye , I felt okay about it at the same time because I knew I'd still be giving him nourishment while I was away by being able to bring home all the milk I pumped for him to drink sometime in the future. TSA allows you to carry on more than 3 oz of breast milk so I planned on pumping all I could, storing it in our fridge in our room, then bringing it home in a cooler. I had three coolers ready to go with several freezer packs for each of them. The rule with breast milk is that it is good for 5-7 days in the fridge and 24 hours in a cooler with ice packs. I figured I'd keep it all in the fridge during the trip, then the trip home it'd be in the coolers, then freeze it asap when we got back (it's good for up to 6 months in a deep freezer). Before the trip I mapped out our flight schedule and worked out how often I'd need to ...
I know I mentioned back in January that Zach had an awesome first year with Aflac! We were so excited to learn that all his hard work came with a wonderful reward. Each year Aflac has a President's Club trip where they send the Top 85 agents in the nation and their guests on an all-expense paid vacation to somewhere! Well guess what? Zach was in the Top 85!!! His trip? A 5 night trip to Paris, France. We were pumped!!! The bad news? The trip fell 6 weeks after my due date! Once we found that out we debated about what to do? We prayed that Aflac would let us take the baby and we made a back up plan if they wouldn't. That's why I was sooo worried that Clover would be late because I KNEW I had to store up enough milk to feed the baby while we were away if Aflac wouldn't allow us to bring him! Thankfully, Kye came a week early so instead of being 6 weeks old he's 7 and I had that much extra time to pump and save milk. Aflac won't let us bring him on the trip or ...
