Showing posts with label Baby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baby. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Announcement for Baby #2

Soon I'll be posting all the details on Baby #2.
Well, not all the details.
I'll spare ya on that front. 

We found out we were pregnant at the end of April and I was thinking of fun ways to announce once I was past the first trimester.
Timing wise it lined up perfectly with the 4th if July so I searched on Etsy and Pinterest to get some ideas and see what was out there. 
There wasn't much, but I found a sign that was just what I was looking for from MMasonDesigns
I had it printed at Walgreens on their 11x14 Poster Board. {With a coupon of course!}
I was a little nervous because I've never printed on a board before, but it was was just thick enough and perfect for something like this! 
Meghan from MMasonDesigns was quick and great to work with! 
She has so many cute printables to choose from!
Check them out if your looking for fun announcements, pregnancy boards, birthday boards, invites etc!

**I was given this file in exchange for pictures and a post, but I found it and loved it and the opinions are my own :)**


Saturday, July 5, 2014

Celebrating the 4th….


We are so happy to announce that, in His time, the Lord has chosen the perfect addition to our family!
{finally! :) } 

More details to come! 


Monday, January 13, 2014

{in}Fertile Friends

I am extremely behind on blogging.
It's ridiculous. 
Pre-Adalyn time seemed to go by fairly quickly.
Post-Adalyn time literally {literally} flies bye. 
Bzzzzz. Gone. 
Just like that.
Having a blog {and not keeping up with it} basically multiplies how fast time goes by by approximately 100.
I'm not kidding.

I'm thinking my best bet is to focus on a few big things that happened that I missed and then from here on out get back in to the swing of things with day to day life. 

But until I do that and can even figure out where to start with that,  I wanted a post to be specifically for a little group I created on Facebook. 
I've mentioned it before recently, but this is a specific post/invite to join.
I actually created this group when I was trying to get pregnant with Adalyn and praise the Lord all of the girls who were a part of that group ended up getting pregnant at some point!!

So here we are again with baby #2. 
In the same boat.
Actually, this boat is worse because it's going on an even longer journey (almost a year), but it comes with a sweet awesome little distraction- thank you, Lord.
I was just saying today that she has no idea how much she helps me get through this. 
I am so so thankful for her. 

Roxie was my distraction when trying for Adalyn and I think it's pretty obvious that Adalyn takes the cake on this one!

So anyways this is a private group on Facebook- so no one can see anything unless they are a part of it. 
And it's just a place to vent, whine, get advice, request prayer, encourage etc. 
Infertility sucks.
Big time.
And it's something that most people truly don't understand until they've been there. 
Connecting with others who are going through the same thing is really valuable!
It's certainly not a group I wish I were a part of or a group I want anyone to be a part of, but this is the journey the Lord has us on and I try my hardest {some days are worse than others} to look at it as an opportunity to connect, to strengthen our walk and our faith, to know it's a part of our story and a testament to His faithfulness. 

He is faithful and we are believing. 

And in the meantime, I'm venting about how everyone around me is pregnant or having babies and how evil digital pregnancy tests are.
If you're not familiar, you wait for an eternity while you stare at a little flashing timer, you stare so long that you begin to wonder if the little hand is starting to move and then you're given the result:
 "Not pregnant." 
Yeah. I'm good.
I'll stick with one solid dark line, pleaseandthankyou.

I love the {awesomely overplayed} song Oceans by Hillsong- one part in particular has been standing out to me lately:
He's never failed me.
And He won't start now.
He knows who the perfect addition to our family and when the time is right. 
And until that time comes, I will limit my waaaaahhhs, ughhhhhhhhhs and 9u389uitwygjfbhjabf!!!!s and work on my praise for what he has blessed me with. 


Sooo if you'd like to join and connect with some sweet ladies with the same desires and frustrations as you- just comment with your email or send me an email: thesmellylife@gmail.com and I can send you an invite to the group and get you on my prayer list! 

And of course, for anyone not in this season of life, if you could keep me and the other ladies of the group in your prayers as well that would be wonderful!

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Thursday, June 27, 2013

2WW.

Well, I'm officially back on the 2ww roller coaster.
Nearing the end actually.
Eeek.
If you don't know what "2ww" means... consider yourself very blessed! 
Not that I'm not blessed, because I so am.
But when it comes to fertility and the waiting game...2ww stinks.
Big time. 

It's filled with suspense.
Made up symptoms.
Hope.
Fear.
Moodiness. 
Over-analyzing. 
And wasted money.

I am a former POAS addict.
If you don't know what that means...see above. 

This month I'm trying not to be. 
And it's hard.
But I'm just not ready.
There's a fine line between being confident/hopeful and being doubtful.
Being optimistic and being real. 

I'm not expecting to get pregnant on the first try.
But I'm also not ready to see the negatives over and over again.

When trying for Adalyn I bought a big value pack of tests. 
You better believe I tested 6 days before I was due for my period every.time. every.day. for days.
You really better believe that I continued to test after getting my first positive
  a. for continued confirmation and 
b. it was so exciting to see two lines day after day.

I'm not ready to see the one line.
I'm okay with not getting pregnant in the first month- really, I am.
But a negative is a reminder that we are officially back on the roller coaster.

It's been a nice break. 

I wish I could turn my mind off.
I wish I could stop overanalyzing every.little.thing.

But I can't.

In the meantime,  I remind myself that my hope is in the Lord.
He knows my heart.
He knows the perfect time.
He will knit this baby in His time. 
He will.

For now, I'm buckled in and riding the ride. 
And thanking God for my first miracle that was in His time! 

Thursday, November 8, 2012

I admit it.

I am no longer in denial.
I have a toddler. 

Not only was this picture confirmation for me,
a few hours at later at the grocery store there was a little boy, who was about 2.5-3, 
talking to Adalyn and saying "Hi, baby!"
And the mom laughed and said
 "He's calling her a baby..."

Sigh.
Okay, I get it. 
I have a toddler. 

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

By the Calendar.

Can we pause time so I can at least fill out my calendar for July?!?
This has been like this for almost 5 months now.
A reminder of how fast time has gone by.
If only time would go by as slow as my procrastination calendar.
It would be so wonderful.

How is it that my baby is now less than a month away from turning one?!
Sunday she turned 11 months.


I went to my friend's wedding on Saturday and she looked so big compared to my old roomie's baby.
When did she get so big?!
She is the youngest in our group of friends we have here in NH- seeing her next to a 6 week old put it into a new perspective of how she's really not a baby anymore.

So as time continues to fly by, I continue to keep busy.

I'm getting things together for the big first birthday.


My little photography business has been much busier than I ever expected!

And I recently started selling Scentsy too!

And of course, I'm always busy capturing pictures of my sweet girl too!

And precious moments with her friends


So as badly as I want time to stand still.
As badly as I wish time really did line up with my calendar.
It doesn't. 

Booo.

So I continue to find the balance of being busy and enjoying each moment because it goes way too fast. 

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Adalyn's Pantry

Adalyn doesn't really have her own pantry, 
but her food does take up a good amount of space. 

I always like to see what other babies eat so I thought it would be fun to do a post on Adalyn's staples. 

So fun, right?

Okay, so maybe that wasn't the right word to use...

Yesterday I went grocery shopping so it was the perfect time since the last couple days I've been too lazy to go shopping and she's been eating corn pops, ritz bits and peanut butter and crackers because everything she loves was "in stock".

Breakfast
She starts off with some dry cereal and then usually has a yogurt and a fruit. I buy a mix of Yobaby and Gerber yogurt. I like how the the Gerber yogurt doesn't have to be refrigerated {which is a little weird too}, but it's great for on-the-go too.

Easy on-the-go snacks that she loves:
These are all clean and mess free so they're perfect!
 Sometimes the little strawberries can get stuck on her clothes, but other than that these are our go-to snacks. 

Lunch
 is usually a variety of some sorts. 
She's not a huge veggie fan so I like to get the fruit and veggie mixes and she loves those. 
I also love the GoGo Squeez apple sauce. I prefer to buy the jumbo pack at Target though. 
Some nuggets with a little ranch and ketchup.
Or
Peanut butter and crackers. 
Sometimes a hot dog, rotisserie chicken or grilled cheese.

Side "dishes" with lunch
She loves any kind of cheese, raisins, pirates booty {she really loves Jax (cheese doodles) but these are yummy, cleaner and a healthier option,} and mini rice quakes. 
I tried to be healthier and reduce the consumption of cheese puffs, but surprisingly she wasn't a fan of Veggie Sticks.
Can't say I blame her...

Dinner
 is usually whatever we are having
or
I prefer the Gerber graduates pasta dinners, but our grocery store doesn't have those so if I go there I usually get these Steamies and they are good enough. 
She loves the pasta stars and chicken and also the mac and cheese. {She also loved the Annie's mac and cheese, but I've only made that a few times}. 
The ravioli's are great and easy too- she loves those!

And dinner is usually finished off with a few animal crackers. 
Of course, all this food is mismatched throughout the day, but for the most part it's pretty consistent. 
This girl loves to eat just like her mama.


We haven't started juice yet, because she is still loving her water. 
And of course it never fails that she chokes on it because she drinks it too fast....


What do you're kids eat?
Anything they love we should know about??

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Captured. Photography Page

I love taking pictures of Adalyn.

I love my camera {canon rebel xsi}.

It allows me to very easily take really good pictures. 

I honestly still have tons to learn. 

I am always in auto. 

I don't know half the settings.

ISO.

F-stop.

IDK. 

Get it? 

I Don't Know.

I thought it was a little clever. 

Anyways I'm so not ready to start a real business. 

I've had sweet people give me kind and encouraging words- prompting me to do so-but I'm really not at that level yet. 

Recently, I've had some friends ask me to take pictures of their child and nervously I said I would. 

Out of my comfort zone, but great practice! 

Through this I decided to to start a separate photography facebook page to upload the photos. 

It's a tiny step, but it's a step and we will see where it will go! 

Like my page, Captured. photography, if you want to follow along! 

I try my best to capture every sweet moment of my baby girl- moments that pass WAY to quickly and I am blessed and honored to be able to capture moments for others! 

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Amber Necklace Discount

I posted about Adalyn's miracle necklace a couple days ago
 and today Baby Steals is selling them!

You're welcome.

Just kidding.

 I had absolutely nothing to do with it. 

But I thought it was cool.





Friday, September 14, 2012

Mouse in the house...

There appears to be evidence of a mouse in our bathroom.

Oh...
I take that back.

False alarm.

There appears to be evidence of a baby that is in to every.thing.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Amber Necklace

When I was pregnant I saw a few babies in blogland wearing necklaces, I read a little bit about them and decided I would have Adalyn wear one when her teeth starting coming in. 

The necklaces are made with Baltic Amber, they come in a variety of shades of yellow- real dark to real light.  
Baltic Amber has been known to be a natural healing remedy- helping with pain, inflammation, comfort, relaxation etc. 
These necklaces are not meant to be chewed on.  
Sometimes when I tell people it's a teething necklace they think it's for her to suck on- it's not. 
The length of the necklace is not supposed to be able to even reach the child's mouth. 

When Adalyn first wore her necklace it was hard for me to tell if it was too tight. You could hardly even see it with all her "necks" or lack thereof! 
It's been funny to see the it "grow" as she's thinned out- it really looks like it's doubled in size!
The beads are all individually knotted so if she or another child was to pull it, only one bead would fall off and the rest would stay in tack. 
Reducing the risk of multiple beads being swallowed!
The beads are small enough that if one did happen to be swallowed it would not be a choking hazard. 
The necklace is also made with a screw type clasp that would come undone with enough pressure. 

My Aunt actually bought one for her for my baby shower, she bought it from Inspired by Finn and I picked out the Raw Amber Light Mixture {except at the time I feel like it had another name?}. Adalyn started getting her bottom teeth when she was a little over 4 months. 
All of a sudden I could see them at her gumline and within a few days they had popped through.
It happened so fast! 
They never seemed to bother her so I was in no rush for her to wear the necklace.

I was told it was better to start wearing it now before any "symptoms" occurred so it gets into her system.

So I decided to give it a try. 
There's really nothing to lose.
If it works great, 
if it doesn't bummer and it's on to tylenol and bibs.

So she wore it.

And teethed fine. 
We took it off at night before her tubby and put it back on in the mornings. 
I read that some people put it around their kids ankles at night so we started doing that too.

I wasn't sure if it was working, I didn't really know how Adalyn was as a teether, but she continued to get teeth with no problem so she kept on wearing it. 

We had no bad diapers.
Maybe one bad night and I don't even remember if she was wearing it or not. 
No crankiness. 
Nothing out of the norm for our sweet girl. 
{See how much bigger it looks when her neck sprouted??}

One night I misplaced the necklace and she didn't wear it for a couple days and that's when I became a true believer. 
Niagra Falls moved into Adalyn's mouth. 
I could not believe the amount of drool that would constantly pour out. 
This did not happen when she wore the necklace. 


I was amazed.
I'm still amazed. 
I don't completely understand it, but it was night and day difference for her so I don't really care how it works! 
It works!

After seeing the difference it made, I now make sure she wears it as often as she can. 


One thing I don't like about it is all the comments I get when we are out and about. 
Before I had her I know I would have been judging in my head if I saw a baby wearing a necklace. 
The comments I get are not usually negative, they're more friendly comments with hopes that I can explain to them why my baby is wearing a small necklace with beads around her neck.

 "She's so cute. Ooo she's even wearing a necklace"

"Look at her in her little necklace"

"So fancy in her necklace"

"What a little fashionista"

Typically I explain {and sound like a complete loony} because I want people to know I'm not some vain teen {not really, but look like one} mom who is playing dress up with her baby. 



I mean don't get me wrong, I totally love to play dress up with my baby, 
but having her wear a little beaded necklace to go with her outfits everyday would be crossing the line. 

So I give my mini speech that it's for teething and the warmth of her body allow the healing oils from the amber to go into her body. That it really helps her with her drooling, etc, etc. 

"Oook lady" is typically the face I receive. 

And this is also when I am usually glad the necklace works, but secretly wish that it didn't.

I especially don't like it when I have her in a yellow outfit because then it really looks it's for style!
{Unfortunately it doesn't help with new trick of teeth grinding!}

A few weeks ago I accidentally put the necklace in the wash. 
It was in my pocket and I forgot to take it out. 
{So bummed!!}
The beads are very delicate-you're not really supposed to clean them with anything. 
I think a really soft cloth and a little water if needed.
So going through the wash, in my jeans and with detergent was not exactly ideal. 
So she went without it for a few days and I was reminded of how awesome the necklace really is!


I let it dry and had her wear it for a couple days and unfortunately she continued to drool like crazy. 
It didn't seem to be working anymore. 
Wah.

I read some tips online that said to let it dry, recharge it in the sun and put some olive oil on it.  
I crossed my fingers and tried that and it didn't seem to help. 
When she was wearing it she was still  drooling so badly that I would either have to change outfits or dry her shirt while she napped.
It was getting ridiculous. 

{Couldn't she just wear a bib?
 Well yeah, but back to the whole fashionista/baby dress up thing...it just doesn't fly.
She can totally pull off a bib
they just aren't my favorite.}.

So I bit the bullet and bought a new necklace at a local natural store down the road. 
Literally within hours her drool was so much better.
And of course again, I was amazed. 
It really does work. 


Does she still drool with the necklace on?
Yes.
But clearly, it does not even compare to when she's not wearing it. 
And I've recently learned, with her being sick, that it doesn't help much when her nose is stuffy. 
But of course if she can only breathe out of her mouth- that's expected. 
I drool a lot when my nose is stuffy too. 

Now she wears it most days and sleeps with it on most nights. 
I usually take it off when we go to church {I don't want anything to happen to it while Adalyn is in the nursery} and when she has doctor appointments. 

And also for most special pictures or photo shoots. 
And if I'm not in the mood to explain or justify, I sometimes take it off before going out to a store.

Apparently it doesn't work on all babies {I have a friend whose daughter still drools a lot with it}, but for most babies I know they do. 
I'm a big fan 
and I say give it a try if your baby is teething and/or really drooly! 

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Top Baby Items: 3-6 Months

I am so behind on these.
Shocking, I know.
It's now to the point where these make me sad because she looks so young. 
How am I forgetting that she was so cute and chubby already?!

So in no particular order here are our top baby items for 3-6 months:

Pack 'n' Play
 Originally we didn't register for one of these. But as she got older and no longer slept well in my arms {tear} it was time to get something she could sleep in at The Farm. This has been a life saver both there and our travels/hotel stays. I really liked having the bassinet part when she was younger, too! I used some coupons and got a great deal on this one at Babies R Us.

Mum-Mums
 One of the first finger foods she ate. They are clean, easy and safe! 

Playtex sippy cup with the straw
We started out with the Nuby sippy cup, which worked fine for her but I felt like she was ready for a straw. I hated the Nuby sippies with the straw- she couldn't get anything out and I tried and even had a hard time with it too! 

With that one you need to kind of bite the straw and suck it at the same time. So I bought these ones and they were so much better! The only problem with this is she usually sucks too much and ends up coughing so we have to remind her to slow down. She's been using it since 5 months and we love it! 

Amber Necklace
 I have a post on this soon. This has been a must for us! I can't believe it works, but it really does! The necklace has worked wonders with all her teethies coming in. 

Exersaucer
 Adalyn was never a huge fan of the jumperoo, but she loved her exersaucers! We have two at our house {one upstairs and one downstairs} and one at The Farm. She loves standing, twisting and playing and I love knowing she's safe and happy and the freedom it gives me to get ready, clean or make dinner. 

Lovie
 This is a giraffe that is filled with lavender beads and she loves to cuddle with it. She also has her Elephant "Ellie" that she likes to cuddle up with. Having "lovies" to sleep with is a security and comfort that helps her fall asleep wherever we are. And it's pretty much the cutest thing ever. 


Inflatable Duck Tub
I loved our big Primo Bathtub, but when she learned how to rollover it didn't take long for her to start trying to rollover in that tub. So we pulled out the duck tub and she loved it! She loved being able to sit up and move around a little bit and I loved that it was padded and protected her little noggin as she slipped from time to time. It also has a suction cup on the back so we just hung it up in the shower when we were done with it. 

Shopping Cart/High Chair Cover
Absolute must!!! This stays in the car and we use it everywhere. In every store and every restaurant. I love the style/colors, the easiness, the comfiness for her and protection against the germs. 

Take and Toss Bowls and Nuk Soft bite spoons 
We also use the take and toss spoons, but I prefer the rubber ones. We use these all the time.

Aroma Rice Cooker and Steamer
This makes the best rice and it also steams her food fast and easily!

Black and Decker MiniPro Food Processor

Easy and fast to make some food for Adalyn. 

Space Saver Highchair
Love this! Love that it's just part of our kitchen table and I love that she could sit up and play in it while I got things done and then when she was ready for food she can sit at the table and eat with us. 

Push and Ride Toy
A special farm toy that she loves. She is the most content thing when she is riding this! 

Still loving from 0-3:
Sound Machine
AngelCare Monitor
Nail Scissors
K'tan

Gripe Water- I've become a fan of the travel ones {found at Buy Buy Baby}, they come with the syringe attached! I think they should all come like that! She still gets hiccups all the time and this is our miracle worker.