OUT

 

That is MY heaven anyway!  I got to enjoy a little piece of it last night too.  Ok.  Not the endless cash part, but the Target run with a Starbucks in my hand came true.

Since it is cold and flu season and we have a newborn who hasn't gotten his first round of vaccinations yet, we have been laying low at home.  We are getting a little stir crazy.  On top of that, now that he is here and I don't have an enormous bump in my way while simultaneously sucking the life out of me... we are ready to start decorating and getting settled.  We spend so much time at home, but yet it doesn't really feel like "home" yet.  So we made plans to hit a few stores after dinner.

Michael had a doctor's appointment earlier in the day and when he got home he said he thought it was too cold to take the kids out.  He suggested I go alone.  I'm sure the fact that one of my stops was Hobby Lobby might have had something to do with it. :)  But I am never going to pass up an opportunity to shop alone.  I prefer to shop alone and get lost in the aisles of the store and my thoughts.

My first stop was to Hobby Lobby.  I needed some spray paint and craft supplies.  Decorating our house is going to be done a little at a time and on a budget.  I'm trying to repurpose old things too, so a can of spray paint was on my list of things to get.  I wandered the aisles for nearly two hours.  I probably could have stayed longer, but they decided it was time to close.  I found a few items on sale though, so I was pleased.

I had a Starbucks gift card, so I made my way through the drive through.  Then I wandered the aisles of Target for another hour and a half.  I actually had a plan.  We needed another lamp for our family room.  One corner is so dark.  I was also looking for a thing or two for our mantle.  Usually I am a power shop until everything is purchased and transform a room in an hour kind of girl.  I'm going to have to put some work into this project and spread my purchases out, but I am so excited to finally be able to put some things up on the walls.  Especially after living in a bare apartment for a year.  It is time to settle in and enjoy life instead of looking ahead and what is coming next.  The baby is out and my motivation is back!

Logan's First Bath

It took about 11 days for Logan's umbilical stump to fall off.  He was still having a little drainage, and at his 2 week appointment the doctor told us to wait a few more days to do a full submersion bath.  So he had a sponge bath and a few hair washes in the last few weeks, but he didn't have his first "official" bath until last night.

Our kitchen is one of the coldest rooms in our house, so I was a little worried about doing it there.  It's the best place though, so we gave it a try.  Luckily, he did just fine!

Michael was glad to have use of the sprayer. :)

Meanwhile, Olivia ran around in circles (our kitchen has two entrances, so she ran around the wall) singing a made up song about being the big sister and swinging baby brother's clothes around and he cries when he's hungry... and on and on she went.  She pretty much puts everything to "song" these days.  It can get pretty funny.

All done!  And happy to be warmed up in the towel.

The best "after" picture I could get.  Those are some pajamas that his big sister wore.  And just like big sister, he has some crazy hair with some crazy cowlicks.

Oh, and we didn't give him a black eye either. :)  He has a stork bite on his left eye lid.  For whatever reason it looks pretty pronounced in this picture.  (You can read about it here if you don't know what that is.)

Sibling Love

To say that Olivia is in love with her little brother is probably a mild understatement.

Since her first visit to the hospital, she will tell anyone who will listen that she is Olivia.  She is two and a half.  She is the big sister and Logan is her little brother.  She is so proud!

 She wants to hold him any chance she can get.  She gives him about a hundred hugs and kisses a day.

She loves to be a helper too.

 She talks to him and plays with him.  She wants to sit in my lap and play just so she can be close to him.

Thankfully, we haven't seen any sort of resentment or jealousy yet.  She does want a little more of my attention than normal, but not anything terrible.

 We tell her often how good of a big sister she is. She really is loving every minute of it. 

Sweet girl!

 I hope and pray that they grow up to be best friends.

2 Week Check Up and Update

We made it through the first two weeks! :) Woo hoo!

Unfortunately, we have had FOUR doctor appointments in the last two weeks and that was after spending the first three days of life in the hospital.  That's a lot of trips to the doctor.  Thankfully, I think we are in the clear now until his one month visit.

So to catch you all up...

We went last Friday for another weight check and to also follow up on the powder formula.  He was up to 9 pounds, 3 ounces, which was good.

He ended up having a dirty diaper while we were there, so they went ahead and checked it.  As I suspected, there were traces of blood in it.  That left me with the decision to switch to ready to feed OR go on the strict diet.  I don't know if it was hormones or what, but every time I thought about going dairy free I literally would tear up.  It was just so overwhelming to me.  Breastfeeding is already hard, and then to add a crazy diet to it (that would mean not being able to eat 90% of the food in my kitchen) was STRESSING me out.  Needless to say, we are going with the ready to feed.

Oh, and in case you are thinking, "How hard is it to not drink milk or eat cheese for a year?"... it's not that easy.  Here is a preliminary list of dairy foods or derivatives that must be avoided.

MILK FREE DIET
Avoid foods that contain any of the following ingredients:

*artificial butter flavor
*butter, butter fat, buttermilk
*casein
*caseinates (ammonia caseinate, calcium caseinate, magnesium caseinate, potassium caseinate, sodium caseinate)
*cheese
*cottage cheese
*curds
*custard
*half and half
*hydrolysates (casein, milk protein, protein, whey, whey protein)
*lactalbumin, lactalbumin phosphate
*lactoglobulin
*lactose
*milk (derivative, protein, solids, malted, condensed, evaporated, dry, whole, low fat, non fat, skim)
*nougat
*pudding
*rennet casein
*sour cream, sour cream solids
*sour milk solids
*whey (delactosed, demineralized, protein concentrate)
*yogurt
*brown sugar flavoring
*caramel flavoring
*chocolate, milk chocolate (cocoa butter is ok)
*high protein flour
*margarine
*natural flavoring
*Simplesse A "D" on a product label next to a "K" or circled "U" may indicate the presence of milk protein

The soy list is almost as long.  OH, and since he wasn't handling the powder, that would mean a corn free diet as well.  That doesn't mean just "don't eat corn", it means not eating anything with a corn product in it.  Instead, I will just sell my left kidney to afford the formula. ;)

He was up to 9 pounds, 9 ounces as of yesterday.  That is not quite back up to his birth weight, but he was still gaining at the appropriate rate (half ounce to ounce a day) so everyone was happy.  They tested another dirty diaper.  There was a very small trace of blood still in it, but since it had only been five days it could still be working it's way through his system.  They usually like to give it a full month when it comes to elimination.  Since he isn't fussy, spitting up, gassy, or having strange colored diapers, they are pretty confident that the ready to feed is going to work out just fine.

{Almost} Wordless Wednesday--The Many Faces of Logan

Little Cutie

Snuggled up in mommy's arms

Deep in thought

Classic confused face

Giving the side eye

Throwing gang symbols? ;)

Hidden smile

Peaceful

Easy going and content

Future Marine Biologist?!

Our Valentine's Day

We started our day out just like last year.  We had "heart attacked" Olivia's door.

Michael barely had it open and she blurted out, "Look!  It's Valentine's Day! Right there on my door!"

How she noticed it so fast or knew what it was is beyond us!

She hopped right out of bed and immediately asked us to read each one to her.

Just like last year, she started taking them off and rearranging them.

Eventually they were all taken off the door so she could "play" with them.

It's such a simple little thing to do, but this is the second year in a row where she has just loved it!

We headed down to the breakfast table.

This was our set up.

It was a compilation of things I already had, items from the dollar spot at Target, and a balloon and shirt.

The "tablecloth" is actually a $5 IKEA curtain that I used for Olivia's first birthday.  The stickers came from my teaching stash.  I think almost everything else came from Target's dollar spot.  I wanted to get Olivia a Valentine's Day shirt, but I wasn't finding anything that I liked that was cheap.  I didn't figure too many people would be seeing her, so it would have ended up being a waste of money.  Instead, I threw this $5 Minnie Mouse shirt into an online order.  She loved it!

Eating her special breakfast.  I cheated and used eggo pancakes and then cut them into hearts and added ready whip and sprinkles.  I had planned to make the pancakes like last year, but... hello, I just had a baby 9 days ago AND we had a doctor's appointment to get to.  She didn't know the difference. ;)  I made her milk purple too.

She happily played with her balloon and the little foam hearts 

while I got ready.

Logan's door got "heart attacked" too. :)

We headed across town to Logan's doctor's appointment.  It always lasts longer than I think it will.  We were all hungry, so we hit the Burger King drive thru for lunch.

Once we got home, it was "rest time" for Olivia.  Today, I actually decided to rest myself.  I didn't actually sleep, but I did get to snuggle this guy for a little bit.

Ha ha! He wasn't much of a fan of the flash.

 We did a round of feeding, changing and pumping, and then it was time for Olivia to have some fun.

Olivia got to eat a treat... which ended up being too hard for her to eat and got trashed..  She then snacked on a mini pack of M&M's instead.

Next up, we used the foam hearts, stickers, and $1 paint kit to have some craft time.  She chose to make a card for Boppa.

This guy snoozed through the festivities.

I busted out the Valentine's sensory box from last year.  I didn't add anything to it.  Good thing, since she paid attention to it for all of two minutes before moving on.

Since lunch plans got changed, I ended up making her lunch for dinner.  She had a heart shaped pb&j, pink applesauce, and some jello.  She was thrilled!  Michael and I ate a romantic dinner that came out of our freezer. ;)

After dinner, Olivia and I made a Valentine's Day cake.  We made the mistake of telling her too far in advance that we were going to make one.  She couldn't stop talking about it.

Our night was filled with hugs, snuggles, and kisses.

There was no fancy dinner date here, but love was still in the air.