Day 6

Day 6 - To-do list

Late last night I asked Matt to grab me a notebook to write down Madeleine's list.

I have tons of notebooks,

and he happened to grab one that I hadn't written in awhile.

I flipped to the last page,

and there was my to-do list from last year about this time.

I laughed.

I don't actually have much of a to-do list currently (there's like 4 things on it),

so I wasn't really sure what I was going to do for today.

It was a sweet moment to find this list and reflect on last year.

Our life was so busy.

Matt just finished applying to grad schools and we were just hearing back.

I had my last two finals at BYU before I graduated,

and our Tiny was supposed to show up at anytime.

On top of that, Mollie, my sister, was leaving to the MTC any day and my brother just 2 weeks after that.

We did family photos and I got two pregnancy photos.

Almost a year ago to the day.

It's pretty crazy how much our lives have changed.

Our baby is using her feet to walk instead of digging her heels into my ribs.

We have moved twice.

We graduated.

We have a two bedroom apartment that we actually need.

My to-do list in life has changed.

It's no longer schoolwork and hospital bags.

This year it's full of grocery shopping and emails to write,

and I'm guessing next year it will reflect the changes that happen in the next year.

Mom tips that I didn't find on Pinterest

Now that Tiny is 6 months old, looking back there was a few things that pinterest did not prepare me for. Pretty shocking after seeing how many good list there are for moms. So here are my notes for when we have a second offspring or for any of my friends that are having tiny humans of their own.


1. Buy newborn clothes in gender neutral colors. 
Everyone told me not to get any newborn size clothes. "Most babies are never in them." "They are only in them for a few weeks, so why waste your money?" My tiny was in her newborn clothes for 2 months! I only had 6 onesies that fit her, and I was hesitant to buy more since I figured she could grow out of them any day. (It's like hanging up after being on hold for 10 min. You don't really want to stay on the phone, but there is that small chance that it will be your turn next. Ugh.) So for the next baby, I'm getting gender neutral. That way if the next one is only in them for a week, it's fine. I can use it for the next one.

One of her few newborn clothes

2. Baby cloth sizing is confusing, but you can make it work in your favor.
I was shopping with my friend Kaitlan not long after Madeleine was born. I really wanted to get Madeleine a pair of jeans, but they were so expensive. Kaitlan told me just to get the 12 month size for my 2 month old baby. She said "After all, the waist band is the same size and you can just cuff them." Sure enough I held the 0-3 month up to the 12 month, same waist size different length. Dresses are similar. I found once Madeleine was 4 months old anything from 0-3 months to 12 months fit her just fine. The length was just different.

6 weeks old and wearing size 12 month pants

3. You don't need that many clothes.
Honestly 20 onesies and 10 pj are enough clothing for each size (these aren't quite as flexible with sizing) if you are doing laundry once a week. I have a few dresses and jeans in the 12 month size that she wears too. All in all though, that's not very many clothes and by the time you have tried all the different outfits, the baby will probably be ready for the next size.

4. If you are a diaper snob and like a partucular brand but want to save money...
I found that when I first switch up to a size, I can use cheap diapers. For example, my baby is in size 2 right now, which fits babies from 12lb-18lb. Up until 15 lbs the cheap diapers worked just as well as Pampers (I really love them), but from 15-18lbs pampers work better for us.

5. WIC lactation nurses are for everyone, not just poor people.
I couldn't find any lactation nurses, after I left the hospital. I was looking through the pamphlet the hospital gave me before I left, and WIC was listed under breastfeeding help. I called them up crying when I first got my milk in and those ladies were amazing. They gave me so many resources and encouragement. Anyone can go to them. WIC was made to promote breastfeeding, and the best part it is free!

6. Don't buy an expensive breast pump before you have a baby.
This is more for SAHM but the reason I say this is not all pumps are created equally. Some moms don't even need them. Some crazy people (like me) end up exclusively pumping and needing an expensive double pump. I ended up with 3 pumps. I started out with a hand pump since I thought pumping would only be an occasional thing. Then I had oversupply so I bought a single electric pump. Then after 3 months and still struggling with breastfeeding, I bought a double electric to save time. Luckily for me, I called up my insurance company and with a dr. note, they paid for my $300 pump.

7. Co-bathing is amazing.
Everyone told me that before I had my baby that I would not get to shower frequently. This bothered me a lot. I called my mom and told her about it, and she said "Just bring the baby with you in the bathtub." It was some of the best advice I got, and I don't see it mentioned frequently on the internet. My baby was 8 days old the first day I did it. I carefully picked my baby up and put her on my thighs in the bath tub. She started wiggling and seemed like she enjoyed it! I was thrilled. It was so cute seeing her little body float in my hands, and all that water movement made her tired, so she slept better. To this day we still do it, and it is our favorite part(s) of the day.

8. You can stick your baby next to the bath tub while you to take a bath.
While I love bathing with baby, it takes longer and washing my hair was really tricky. What I ended up doing was just sticking her on a towel right on our bath mat. I would dangle my hand over the side of the tub and touch her if she started to cry, but for the most part she just stared at the lights. Now that she is crawling, I either give her a few things to play with on the rug or put her in her bumbo.

9. Register for restaurant gift cards on your baby registry.
Food brought to me the first week was great, but when my baby was 1-2 months old, I was tired and didn't want to cook. The gift cards to Jamba Juice and In 'n' Out were lifesavers when I was hungry and didn't want to cook.



Those are the big ones that I want to remember. If you have any to add, please let me know and I'll add them. The next tiny isn't coming for a while, but with this kid crawling, I'm not remembering anything. 

Pregnancy :)

38 weeks people. Baby Offspring is still happily kicking away, which most days is fine with me. (I’m kind of hoping to go into labor tonight though so her birthday would be 12/12/12.)

Today was one of the more pathetic moments of being pregnant. I had just one final to take to graduate. I studied today, wrote out my note card, ate dinner, and was completely set to take my final. Matt had a final that would take just about the same amount of time, so we decided to take our finals at the same time. I got my test and found a spot right by Matt, and sat down.

I didn’t fit in the dumb testing center desk!! So I got back up and took off my coat, and then I could barely squeeze in. During the whole test, I had some issues breathing normally, but I managed to finish just fine. 

So since this whole pregnancy thing is almost done, here are my notes/advice for next time we decide we want a baby.

0. Don’t. (--courtesy of Matt)

1. Every pregnancy is different. Don’t judge the pregnant girl in your class who never stops eating or glare at the lady who loves being pregnant.

2. Babies come at 40 weeks (Not 24, 32, or 36.5 weeks) I’m really not good at this whole waiting thing.

3. Babies make your body hurt in really weird ways. Baby toes in the ribs hurt and feel really weird. Hips popping out of location hurts too.

4. You have to be a lot more comfortable with your body. Weird sounds coming from you? Totally normal. I didn’t even know pelvic bones could make sounds like that.

5. Baby kicks are cute. I think this is the best part about being pregnant. (unless it gets you in the ribs, see #3 – also Matt)

6. Drink lots of water.  Apparently camels can drink 80% of their body weight. I’m just aiming for 3%, like 4-5 lbs.  

7. Nurses can be stupid or really helpful. “Sorry sweetheart, I wish I could do something about your pain, but the only other option other than Tylenol is narcotics.”

8. Say “no” if you don’t want to do anything. I seem to forget this a lot, and then I would feel overwhelmed and Matt would find me in a puddle of overwhelmed-ness. It was sad.

9. If you can eat something, eat it. Don’t worry about how healthy it is. I remember going shopping with a friend in my first trimester. I grabbed for the oreos and she pointed out all the healthier options that I could be eating. I gave her a look and told her that while eating healthy was a good theory, I was just looking for stuff I wouldn’t throw up. I feel the same way now when people pin workout routines on pinterest. Nice in theory, totally a different story when there is a baby in your ribs.

10. It’s okay to cry on the bed and eat lots of mint Milano’s while reading mommy blogs. I love mommy blogs. They are the best.

11. Leave the house once a day.

12. Baths are divine. Though your husband might get mad that there is never hot water and threaten to get his own water heater. (Which is a good idea: “His” and “Hers” -- Matt.)

13. Prenatal vitamins are worth taking even if you throw them up. I’m really bad at remembering the health benefits of these.

14. The last few months I should probably not talk to anyone outside of my family (or in – Matt) in case people think I’m crazier than normal. Matt should have kept track of all the crazy things I’ve said. They are pretty awesome.

15. People feel entitled to give their opinion about your baby, your body, your parenting styles, etc. Figure out what you want beforehand and then tell them to go to a fiery afterlife.

16. Google can answer almost any question and is easier to use at 1:00 A.M. than a 300+ page baby advice book.  (Imagine making money off convincing pregnant ladies they need to do even more. – Matt)

17. 8:00 P.M. is a totally acceptable time to go to bed. And several naps are nice too.

I’m excited for Baby Offspring to come. We are ready as we know how to be with her, and the roads are clear.

Thanksgiving

Things we are grateful for...

1. Having an apartment that can be heated up with our oven alone.
2. Leftovers (Thanks mom)
3. Teddy bears to model baby clothes in

4. Kit-Kat bars and chocolate cake (Both of us love eating those)
5. That NSF GRFP is finished
6. That Creature (baby Madeleine) is healthy and is fun to poke. She has random limbs that poke out and if we poke them, she starts wiggling. We are kind of addicted to it.

Baby getting bigger.
(My face is all swollen from an allergic reaction.)

7. Big fluffy comforters

8. For places like DI and Goodwill that we can drop off stuff that we don't need anymore. 

9. That 2 years ago Matt fell in love with me! We went on a date this week and read through our old journals to celebrate. It's been a wonderful two years, especially the last year and three months that we have been married.  

2 weeks after Thanksgiving 2010

Sour Cream and PJs

Isn't it beautiful?

I bought this a few days ago at Macey's. Totally made my week.

This sour cream will still be good when offspring is born!!! Excited absolutely. I'm so ready for school to be done, and Christmas to be here. Oh and baby to come too. :)

My siblings got their mission calls too, so they'll be leaving around the same time.

Mollie is leaving Dec. 19 to Concepcion South Chile mission, and Riley is going to LA on Jan 9, speaking Mandarin.

  

On another note, Matt bought me my Victoria Secret pajamas for this winter. 

(By the way, I love the bag too.)

I'm not the only one to have them...

I must admit, I'm falling out of love with this show, BUT we still have matching pjs. Just for the record though, I wanted them way before she got them. (And I totally have them in cotton and satin.)

Fall!

On Sunday, Matt and I went on a hike. Although Utah is not my favorite place to live, Fall makes up for the rest of the year. Everything around here looks beautiful, and I absolutely love the weather. 

Matt had to position me in front of the porta-potty that was ruining our view.
Also a great time for a quick pregnancy shot, 29 weeks. (I was totally didn't know he was taking a picture.)

At this point, it's a small miracle that I made it up that far. But the view was beautiful.

A random guy that was trying to impress his date, asked us to take a picture of them.
Thankfully they returned the favor.

Other random things:
1) I had to do a commercial for my media class. The idea my group picked was why having a baby was cool. So for my part, I had to push a stroller around campus. I was so bad at it! I hit so many things, and people kept thinking I was abusing my kid. (At one point I almost tipped over the stroller.) They gave me even stranger looks when they realized there was no kid. Finally I met up with Matt, and he pointed out the front wheel was broken. Hopefully that will fix the problem, but if not, I need to practice my stroller driving skills.

2) Matt is almost done with his grad school applications!!

3) Baby is terrified of flashlights. Back when I was taking Infancy for my major, my teacher mentioned a fetus would move with a flashlight that was put on the mother's stomach. Matt and I were so excited to try this out. At 28ish weeks, baby's eyes apparently open back up, so we tried it. She usually moves like crazy, but as soon as that flashlight was turned on, she freezes. We have tried a few more times since then and she still stops moving. I have found that it is an excellent way to get her to stop kicking my ribs.

4) Matt and I need a new book to read out loud together. Any suggestions? So far we have read, Stargirl, Howl's Moving Castle,  Have a Little Faith, Winnie the Pooh, and The Princess Bride. Basically, we need a book that I won't finish behind Matt's back while he is doing homework but is still fun to read. 

This week

This week has been pretty busy around here. Matt took his first test and graduate school applications opened up. I had my first assignment to turn in, and since Matt has been so busy, a lot of time to do crafts. :). 

Ward Activity

Saturday, we went to our ward 5 k. My hip has been popping out of joint, so I wasn't allowed to run it. Matt did though.

Matt before the run. He wasn't super thrilled about it.

Both of us, after the run (and walk for me). By then happy endorphins were kicking in and Matt was more awake. 

 Books

Matt and I had been reading this together for the last month or so. We both really enjoyed the whole book  minus the ending.  It kept us laughing and it wasn't a super long read. 

These are the two books I read this week. A Change of Heart was an interesting read. It was about cell memory in transplant organs. It was a bit strange, but I enjoyed it. 

This book has been Matt's mistress all week. ::shakes fist::

Crafts/Baby

 Baby is now in 3rd trimester! Woot! Less than 100 days until Christmas and baby!!!! (93 to be exact). She moves a lot, which is a lot of fun for us. Matt likes to watch my stomach move and we both like poking it. It's neat when you poke your stomach and it pokes back at you.

I have been working on baby's quilt for the last month or two and this week I finished it! We also made her mobile and stuff. So her corner of the room is done.

Her corner of room 

Close up of baby mobile

Matt is really proud of the origami pteranodons. 

I know you can't really see it, but the clouds are totally covered in glitter.

We also have stars on the ceiling in different constellations.
So when we turn off the lights, our ceiling still looks cool.
(Also great for me when Matt explains what he is learning in Astronomy.)

Closer up picture of the quilt. I'm really happy with quilts when I finish them .
Since they take 40+ hrs to make. 

 Matt says that's all that we have done that is interesting this week. So that's all folks. Til next time.

What will Offspring look like?

Matt and I were pretty cute kids.

Matt at 5ish

Me at 5ish

I don't think we look to similar, so we keep trying to guess what in the world offspring is going to look like.

I used a two online generators to get a guess.

This one totally freaked me out! Matt and I just laughed over it. She looks like a man!!!
(We had about the same reaction as Lily did when Mitch and Cam from Modern Family  got bored and decided to do this. (I couldn't find the clip. :( ))

This one is a lot better...she at least looks like a kid.

So according to the internet, offspring with have brown hair and hazel or green eyes. The nice thing about the first one has thick hair. So anyone else have any guesses what she really will look like?

Random Things

Nothing super exciting has been going on lately. Matt does homework and I try to entertain myself without distracting him. (I’m really good at being distracting.) But here are few things going on...

Photos

Matt figured out how to get photos off our phones and onto the computer. It was tricky since neither of us have picture text, but here are some of my favorites.

This one and the next one are from when we were dating. We didn't take a ton of pictures (not like we take a lot now),  so getting these made us happy.

Those are rice and beans. If you were wondering.

Earlier this summer, we were walking to where we parked my parents car. Matt goes,  "Michele, there is something on the window. Do you think we got a ticket?" He was starting to stress out, since it wasn't our car, and Matt has never had a ticket. Turns out it was just a bag of cheetos, and being that flamin' hot cheetos are his favorite, I told him that was a sign from God that he needs to cut back on the chips. 

I was in Tenessee for mother's day, and only finished one of  the mother's day gifts. Matt was sweet enough to make the 2nd apron, and then took this picture to let me see it before he sent it. (I think he looks pretty cute too in an apron.)

This is my absolute favorite picture of Matt that I have. One day I was reading and Matt felt neglected. So he led a trail of m&m's to his lips in hopes of a kiss. 

Recipes

Also, we’ve been trying out new recipes, since not everything is making me sick again! Here are two that we did this week.

Tom Kha Ghi

This recipe was pretty good. We ended up combining it with another recipe, and now we love it. Twice just this week alone. (We are so excited to have the weather down to the 80's so we can make soups again.)

Beef Empandas

I actually don't use this recipe. Since my grandfather is from Argentina, I've been making these since I was small, but I tried out her dough recipe today. It wasn't too bad.

Offspring

Whenever people ask me what it is like being pregnant, I tell them it’s like having the loch ness monster in my stomach. I like feeling her move all the time, and Matt is happy because my freak-outs that the baby is dead are happening less. (And when I do freak out, all I have to do is poke my stomach a few times and she’ll kick back.)

Baby at 24.5 weeks. She's over a pound now and still looks human. 

Me on the same day.  See? Physical evidence that she is pretty big. People are actually starting to notice I'm pregnant.

Baby!

How We Procrastinated Writing Essays

Yesterday was Pioneer Day here in Utah, which meant Matt got the day off.

We had planned for it be a very productive day (writing essays all day long), but after playing bingo with the old people, the last thing we felt like doing was writing.

I decided my form of procrastinating my essays would be sewing receiving blankets for offspring. I got out my sewing machine and started sewing. But after an hour frustration, I looked at Matt in defeat. Sewing a quilt without a cutting mat is really hard!

We tried to think of a solution...but we couldn't find any. Matt glanced at the coffee table...and I did too, where the innocent looking Joann's coupons were sitting. 

This week there were some awesome coupons...and we didn't have to walk all the way up there, because we have Lance! 

Matt -- "We can just drive up to Joann's if you want. I mean you do have to practice driving."

Me -- "Yeah...but we aren't supposed to spend money."

5 minutes later we were in the car to buy a cutting board.

When we got home, Matt worked on finishing the receiving blanket and I worked on my new project.

He was better than me and actually worked on his essay for an hour. I spent the whole night sewing.

So here are a few pictures of our projects...

Back of Receiving Blanket 1

Front of Receiving Blanket 1

Back of Receiving Blanket 2

Sorry I can't get this darker! It's a dinosaur on the back of Receiving  Blanket 2.
(If you click it, you can see it a lot easier. This is also the one Matt did. I love it!)

I have so many scraps...it drives Matt crazy. But I saw this online! I was so excited to make them. 

Other sides

All the naked blocks that we still need to sew. It's our super effective front door alarm right now. 

It's a good thing Matt's mom dropped off some baby clothes, because so far all we had are lots blankets to wrap our naked, diaper-less baby in. She at least made sure regardless of the gender, our baby will have 2 outfits. That's enough, right? Right? (We don't like sewing clothes...)

I still have 4 more essays to write this week, and Matt still has several more drafts of his personal statement -- which translates we have a lot more papers to procrastinate. I'll probably post a few more times this week too...after all blogging is another great way to procrastinate. 

Dear Untitled Offspring

To our Untitled Offspring,

           There are 160 days until the day you are supposed to come to this world. That is slightly longer than the time your father and I were engaged (142 days). I planned a wedding in that amount of time, but looking at pinterest…I am not sure how mothers prepare for a baby’s arrive in a mere 280 days.

So to make sure you know what kind of family you are coming to, I figured I would dedicate this blog post to what you should expect when you are living in our family.

First, of all...you aren't coming home to your own room. 

Sorry. 

For at least the first 4 months of your life, you'll be within 2 feet from our bed.  I know some of your little buddies in heaven are coming to Earth with bedrooms like this...

or even this...

But you will have a good second-hand crib that we bought on craig's list, with mismatched bedding that I have made over the years. It's bright and happy, and according to my Infancy text book you will like that much better, since your eye sight will stink, but you'll still be able to pick out the contrasting blobs. (Cheap>Mental simulation>aesthetic appeal). 

Also, some of the blankets have pink, all of them have blue. I am totally into dressing babyies in "gender appropriate colors", but when it comes to your room, it will be all colors of the rainbow. 

As for your wall art...there is no way you'll have this in your room.

No offence, but I want more kids. I feel like I'm telling other baby spirits to skip over our family and go to another one, by putting this quote up.

But as soon the crib was up, I squealed at your father that I knew the exactly what we should put above your crib! Our Evil Lair sign!!!! So no matter what your gender is you will have this above your bed...

And when your eyesight gets a little better, you might even be able to see the glow in the dark stars that are on the ceiling, that your dad so carefully mapped out. (They aren't above your bed though, just ours. :D)

And this will probably be your stuffed animal, because I'm totally in love with it. And as your dad said, who would not like dinosaurs??

(If you are a girl, I'll sew a bow on it's head, okay?)

Also, growing up...you'll never be forced to sit on something like this...

If you do ever end up sitting on one of those, I'll make you a deal. If you can read it, you don't have to sit in time out anymore.

Also, you'll starve before, I ever make a lunch like this. But don't worry, of all things in this home, we eat well, and I'm sure loving food is part of your DNA. You'll learn hopefully early on, that there are better things to eat for lunch than a sandwich everyday. 

We'll sing dorky songs such as this...

And read you tons of books like this...

and this..

oh and this...

Your dad is thrilled to buy lego sets, for him you to play with -- with him, of course.

We'll encourage you to play in mud, cook, and learn to clean up your messes. Know that shoes are always optional, but we'll find something is definitively not.

We have no clue what we are doing yet as future parents, but just know, pinterest is not our guide. We'll figure it as we go...probably with google, wanted-advice, books, and then finially trial-and-error.

With love,

your future mother