Oh hey, it's FRIDAY!!!!

I know, I say this every week, but YES THANK YOU GOD IT'S FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A quick congratulations to my neighbor's on the birth of their baby boy early this morning! It's funny to think that Luke and my neighbor's baby will be in the same grade in school if we all are still living by each other then. Luke is almost 7 months old but the way the school's work he, our neighbor's baby and the other neighbor on the other side of us who had their baby in January will all be in the same grade. So fun! I will say though, them having a baby makes me have a tiny little bit of baby fever......and then I think about how hard it would be with Luke and then a second on with Luke's age and I let that baby fever go away. HAHA! Not for a couple years.....

ONE

Oh my gosh, this pizza is AMAZING and I have been craving it ever since we had it last Friday, soooooo guess what's for dinner tonight! :) Haha! It's called Fox's Pizza Den and is AMAZING!!!!

TWO

Has anyone else tried using a Bento box for their lunches? If not, I highly suggest so! I am a tupperware hoarder, just ask my husband. There are days when I bring home 3 things of tupperware PLUS a bowl that I used to eat my oatmeal in....this Bentgo box eliminates the usage of many tupperware boxes and keeps it all separate and tidy. 

THREE

Since Luke is starting to sit up more (mostly assisted by leaning up against me or Andy) he has taken an interest in the VTech Walker. Anything that lights up and sings is a plus in Luke's book!

FOUR

How do you hold yourself accountable in drinking water during the day? I decided last week that I was going to mark on my work water bottle times of the day and where I should be at with drinking water. I am HORRIBLE at drinking water just because I forget, especially at work. On Wednesday I drank 5 water bottles full of water at work! I felt awesome and need to keep reminding myself to keep drinking the agua!

FIVE

Like you thought I wouldn't think I would post a photo of Luke on the blog......HA! Yesterday it was very warm and humid, a perfect weather pattern to set up for tornadoes...... Luke and I enjoyed hanging outside while Andy barbecued us some dinner. We tried some Apple Chicken Sausages from Trader Joes. They were ok, not my favorite but I'd probably eat them again. I am not a fan of bratwursts so the chicken sausages just didn't excite me. 

I hope you all enjoy your weekend. We were going to try to get to the zoo on Saturday, but I set up an appointment for an estimate to getting a patio poured on our house. So not exactly sure what's in store for our weekend. It doesn't really matter to me though, as long as I get to spend it with Andy and Luke, I am happy! :) 

Doing what I have to do to Survive!

I've learned in the 31 years of life I have lived, that EVERYONE LOVES TO GIVE ADVICE and it only get's worse once you are in a relationship, and then you get married, and then comes the baby. While I appreciate all of the advice that I receive from everyone, there are that tiny few that I actually listen to. So bad to admit, but I'd rather be honest than not. 

Having a Baby, it's NO WHERE THE SAME for every single person. I really did listen to all the advice on having a baby and I read every book possible. Then you give birth to this tiny human and all advice and things you've read have gone out the window. Your mind goes blank and you begin to panic once the baby starts to cry and won't stop. The best advice I ever received was from my mom and she said, "The first 3 months of your life with a newborn are called 'survival mode'. You do what works for you." I thought I was the worst mother to let my son sleep in the bouncer at night and then once you go just one night with very little sleep. You begin to stop caring about what others think and what others say and you do what works best for you. You hear about how awful co-sleeping it, but there were some nights where Luke just wouldn't sleep without sleeping on me. So yeah, some nights I would snuggle him in-between my arm and my body and he would sleep and I would sleep. I wake up to every sound possible and was use to sleeping on my back, so this was nothing. While I didn't like to co-sleep, I did what I had to do to survive.

This morning Luke decided that 3:30 AM was "time to wake up". I am pretty sure the thunder woke up him and he thought it was time to get up. So I go in and give him his "bink" and lightly pat his back. He begins to fall asleep. I lie down and he's crying again. I go back in and do the same thing over. He falls asleep. "Sweet!" I lie back down and 15 minutes later he is back up. So I give in and start our weekend morning ritual; reason for the weekend ritual, because I had NO desire to start getting ready for work at 4 AM...... I change him and then feed him a 6 ounce bottle. He gladly takes it and falls asleep. I lie him in the crib, creep back into bed and begin to relax. 4:30 AM Luke is back up. I bring him into bed with me, NOPE. He think's it's play time. Give him some tylenol thinking teething is bugging him and lie him back down in the crib. He finally falls asleep at 5 AM, juuuuusssstttttt in time for my alarm to go off.....dang! But you know what, I wouldn't trade this life for anything! And this ladies and gents is why I go to bed at 8:30 PM every night..... :) 

Everyday is different and most days will not be the same, but you do what you have to do to survive!

Luke Andrew - 6 Months Old

Month - 6 Months Old, March 12th, 2015

Height - 29 inches

Weight - 19 pounds, 13 ounces

Diaper Size - size 3 

Clothing Size - 9 and 12 month clothing. 

Sleep - On Monday, February 16th, 2015, Mr. Luke has decided to sleep through the night (6:30 PM to 5am) and I am OK with it! :) 

Eating - avocado, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, and oatmeal. We try for one "solid" food a day. By solids I mean, pureed food that we have homemade. 

Oh Mr. Luke, this month has flown by and it seems like time is flying by faster and faster the older you get! You tried out your airplane swing for the first time just before your 6 month birthday and are still a little too wobbly for it. You have been practicing big time how to sit up on your own and you roll all over the place if we leave you on the floor. You are still the king of the jumperoo and prefer that toy of our anything we own. In fact, Mommy went out and purchased a second jumperoo secondhand for $15 so that we can use it indoors and outdoors! You still smile 24/7 and are such a happy little boy. You are a drooling fool and we keep thinking you are about to get a tooth, but still nothing have popped through just yet. 

Easter 2015

Well I had hoped to get this post up yesterday. In fact on Sunday night, I loaded all the photos up and just needed to type it all up. However time got the best of me and it looks like the post is going up for Tuesday! :) 

*Rewind* On Thursday at work, I got the "brilliant" idea that we just NEEDED to take Luke to sit on the Easter bunny's lap. You know, the weekend of Easter is a PERFECT time to do so.....or NOT! I began to do my research on Easter bunny's and of course the mall offers this BUT you HAVE to pay to get a photo. for 2 - 4x6 photos you pay $27......NOT!!!!! I do not think so. Then the thought of having to wait in a line to get a photo was not a fun thought....so I began to research my alternatives. Bass Pro had a free Easter bunny but I was too tired to go on Friday afternoon. While searching on facebook I saw that our local grocery store, Schnuck's, was offering the Easter Bunny for FREE on Saturday. SOLD!! So we packed us up and headed to Schnuck's at 11am. When we first pulled into the parking lot, it looked like it was going to be a nightmare. We walked into the store and there was no line at all for the Easter Bunny!!!!!!! We took a photo with my nice Canon and was out of the store in 5 minutes! SCORE! 

I think this photo came out looking great too! :)

Sunday morning was spent at my mom's for an Easter breakfast, an egg hunt and some kite flying. I really wanted some family photo's and these are how they turned out. I think they turned out cute, but I really need to get some more practice in with the camera. *Note to self, bring camera at all times to take good quality photos. :) 

Sunday afternoon we had dinner over at Andy's parents house and Luke was once again spoiled by another bag of Easter goodies. 

MIA

Wow, I didn't think for the month of March that I would have taken so much time off of blogging, but I did. I don't feel guilty at all for it either. March was a really tough month emotionally for me. Nothing majorly happened, it's just everything decided to hit me at once and I had no desire to talk about it at all. 

So here are some things lately to catch up with you all....

This cutie turned 6 months old on March 12th!

We celebrated my 31st birthday early on Saturday, March 14th with a delicious breakfast from The Pancake House! Oh my gosh, it was soooooooo good! I had the lemon blueberry pancakes, hashbrowns and fresh squeezed orange juice!

We are a teething fool lately! Note to all Mommy's, DONT put teethers like this one in a sterilizer and microwave it....they explode....DUH! 

Here we are practicing with our sippy cup. We are using these and these with Luke right now. Caution though, these are NOT spill proof! We are just trying to get Luke use to sippy cups right now.

First time swinging in the airplane swing on March 11th! His Uncle Jack, Uncle Joe and Aunt Jena used this swing when they were babies along with his cousins Jackson and Claire. It has now been passed down to us for Luke to use! :) 

Daddy and Luke making funny faces in the bathroom mirror.

6 month pediatrician check up on March 16th! 

The paper on the exam table is just so fun! :) 

Sick little dude on March 18th. 

We had conjunctivitis in the right eye, a cough, runny/stuffed up nose and eventually a double ear infection. Poor little dude!

Spending the day with Mommy on her birthday because little dude was still sick. 

At least he was still smiling! :) 

Luke is a jumperoo fool!!

Luke trying out his big boy car seat! 

I discovered at his 6 month check up that he is 29 inches long and his infant car seat fits up to 30 inches.....dang it! That means we are moving to the big boy car seat soon. Here he is trying it out in the guest room. He looks thrilled, doesn't he? We have this one and the grey one. The blue one is going in Mommy's car because I like that color the best. HAHA!

Smokey has the entire bed to himself and he chooses to lie on the smallest spot possible and is almost falling off....what a goof!

Luke making messes in the living room. He looks quite proud of himself too.

Mommy and Luke on Sunday, March 22nd. He looks so cute here!!

P.S. he needs a haircut again, already!

Luke playing in his other jumperoo at home. 

He has also gotten his blood drawn that day, 

that's why he has a bandage on his left arm.

Smokey loving on his Momma!

Fingers were meant to help with teething, right Ma?

"Oh, hey guys. I got bored in the car and decided to play with my car seat cover...."

We have discovered our voice and love to sing loudly for all to hear!

Guest Posting over at The Girl in the Red Shoes!

I thought I would start April off the right way to not only blog, but also to guest post over at The Girl in the Red Shoes about my breastfeeding experience! Ever since I became pregnant, I was obsessed with reading all the breastfeeding stories on Julie's blog and today I am happy to get to share my own experience! :) 

Breastfeeding Diaries

Good Morning Everyone!! My name is Jessica and I blog over at Better Together and Forever! I am so thankful for Julie allowing me share my story of breastfeeding. I found hers and other's stories on The Breastfeeding Diaries so helpful while I was pregnant and wanted to share my own story.

Mommy and Luke - 3 Months Old

If you would have asked me 2 years ago if I would breastfeed, I would have laughed and said no. It wasn't until my husband and I began to try for a baby that I became more informed in breastfeeding and I then decided that I was going to breastfeed. Everyone told me how hard it would be, but that made me even more determined that I was going to breastfeed. Once I became pregnant, I began to be even more interested in breastfeeding and how the whole process worked. I read blogs, I read books, I took a breastfeeding class and brought along my husband with me, and I even joined my "Birth Club" on Babycenter.com to learn more about breastfeeding.

On Friday, September 12th, 2014, my son Luke Andrew was born in this world at 2:10 AM after 18 hours of labor. I told my nurses that I wanted to do skin to skin immediately after birth and then try to breastfeed him before we allowed visitors in the room. Thankfully Luke was born with no medical complications and I was able to accomplish skin to skin and breastfeeding.

Mommy and Luke doing skin to skin immediately after birth

My family

My first try at breastfeeding went way better than I expected. The nurse helped me latch Luke on and he did great! After a feeding and his first bath, I decided to send Luke to the nursery so that I could get a couple hours of sleep. He was brought back in to me at 7 AM and I felt like a new woman.

At 25 hours of age, your baby goes through the newborn testing. The nurse and I spoke about when to take Luke for his testing. We agreed that after his feeding at 1 AM that I would call her and she would take him to the nursery for the testing. He came back to me about an hour later and the nurse told me how it went, but to honest, I don't remember what she said because I was just so tired! I awoke around 7 AM and asked the nurse again what she said. She told me that his bili-rubin level was elevated and the pediatrician would be checking on Luke to find out if he needed to lie under the lights to get rid of the bili-rubin. Around 8 AM I fed Luke and he was then taken to the nursery to "sun tan". He could only be in my room to nurse and then was taken back to the nursery to drink some formula and go back under the lights. At that moment, I knew that nursing Luke would start to become difficult. I tried to feed Luke a bottle of formula but he just wasn't having it. The nurse told me that sometimes babies don't want to take a bottle from a mother who is breastfeeding. 

You can see Luke's "raccoon eyes" here from suntanning.

Breastfeeding with Mommy

Two ounce bottle after breastfeeding. 

This was the first bottle that Luke took from me.

We were suppose to be allowed to go home on Sunday but because Luke's bili-rubins levels were too high and they wanted him on the lights overnight once again. Because I was breastfeeding, the nurses were able to find an open room for me to stay. I was officially discharged at midnight and no longer a patient, but I had a room to stay and be with my son. The nurses would bring him into my room to feed and I would take him back to the nursery. I cried to my husband that night that I felt like he wasn't mine and I had to give him back. 

Monday afternoon we were given the green light to take our baby boy home, but with our very own portable bili-bed. The bili-bed became a constant pain to have to drag around the house with us. He was to be on the light unless he was eating or needed a diaper change. So needless to say, breast feeding on top of the stupid bili-bed/blil-blanket became a challenge, but I was determined to make it work. 

Bili-bed at home with Luke

Day Two of being home and we were sent the bilk-blanket instead of the bili-bed.

This allowed us to be able to hold Luke more than we could than with the bili-bed.

My routine looked like the following: change Luke's diaper, nurse Luke on both sides, give him a bottle (around 2 ounces of formula), lie baby back on lights, pumped both sides for 20 minutes at a time. Start routine over every 2 hours. We also were to take Luke every 2 days to the hospital to get his blood drawn to check his hemoglobin levels. 

Another blood draw

My pump stash after a couple weeks.

I wasn't producing a lot of milk but at least I was producing some!

16 days after Luke was born we did yet another blood test. The results came back that afternoon and a phone call from our pediatrician scared us. We were to take Luke to the ER for additional testing. You can read about that experience here. Luke eventually received 2 blood transfusions (one in his left hand and another in his scalp) and we still were breastfeeding and formula feeding at the time. 

Nursing Luke in ER #1 that night.

Nursing baby during our overnight stay at the Children's hospital.

Baby napping in the crib at the Children's Hospital

Blood Transfusion #1 in his left hand

Blood Transfusion #2 in his scalp

On our way home after Blood Transfusion #2 and fell asleep holding onto Mommy's finger.

Eventually the stress of Luke's anemia and blood disorder became too much to handle and I decided to throw in the towel with breastfeeding. He started to realize that he could get his food faster from the bottle than breastfeeding and that I wasn't a substantial source of food for him. November 12, 2014, was the last time I breastfed Luke. I was sad but knew it was time to end our breastfeeding journey. I even had my husband take a photo of the last feeding. Strange I'm sure, but it was a way for me to document this journey for me. 

Last time breastfeeding

In the end, I am SO proud of myself for sticking with breastfeeding, even if it was for 2 months. Do I wish that I stuck with breastfeeding for my original goal of 1 year? Yes, of course, but I made the best decision for me and my son. I tried to up my water intake, I tried taking a ton of fenugreek, I ate oatmeal and I drank Mother's Milk tea. None of it made the difference and stress took over. Formula is fine for my little guy and he is thriving. Today at 6 months of age he is 19 pounds and 29 inches long. He is the happiest little guy and smiles on cue when I say "cheese" with my camera. All I ever wanted was the best for Luke and even without breastfeeding, Luke is still getting all the nutrition that he needs and that is all I ask for.

We love stroller walks!

Luke - 6 Months Old