Like a fish....

That LilyBug is trying to give me a heart attack.  We have recently upgraded to the big tub.  It's been 3wks now.  She absolutely loves it.  She's been splashing water in the tub for months now, so no big deal that she is splashing like crazy in the big tub giving me a mini bath, lol.  For some reason, she thinks she is a born swimmer...hmmm, mommy doesn't think so.  I'm thinking she needs lessons 1st.  She likes to lay down on her stomach in the tub & splash.  This is ok as far as the splashing goes, but now my child is trying to put her face in the water.  That I'm not ready for.  No!  I sit her up & say "No ma'am".  She looks at me like I've interrupted all her fun.  I just can't handle that yet, so yes I'm the party pooper momma.  True to her nature, she attempts this several times before bath time is over.  LOL.  I don't know how we are going to survive.  I thought her sucking her bath water from her hands or crying when it's time to get out the tub (bc her toys can't come) was a mess.  Nope, it's this whole LilyBug the fish idea that's going to do me in.........

You know you're tired when....

When you fall asleep pumping! I'm at work in the pump room & didn't even realize I had fallen asleep. Pump still going hooked to my boob! LOL...I fell into such a deep sleep that I almost fell out of the chair and dropped the pump. If I had spilled all that milk I would have been so upset!!! On the flip side, had anyone been watching me, I'm sure it would have been a hilarious sight! LOL. I think these past 8 mos of motherhood have taken its toll on me. I feel a spa day coming....

I'm addicted....

Before having LilyBug I had no idea if she would have hair or not.  I really prayed that she would have a head full of hair.  In preparation, my aunt bought her a ton of barrettes in every color imaginable.  Wait, let me back up.  While I was still pregnant, the lovely ladies on my April mommies board introduced me to handmade headbands.  I was hooked.  Etsy became like a drug to me, lol.  I never ordered any, but knew all the shops I would order from once LilyBug made her grand appearance.  Ok, so fast forward...LilyBug's hair wasn't long enough in the beginning to wear the barettes, soooooo that gave Mommy the greenlight to buy headbands.  I didn't go crazy because her hair grew quickly.  With the afro of tight curls she was developing, I knew we had to move on to little puffs.  I used the barettes to hold the puffs for as long as I could, but her hair was just to thick & growing too fast.  So I started putting little puffs in her hair.  The little bands to hold the puffs were boring, so I started looking for hair clips.  OMG!!!!!!!  The world of itty bitty snap clips & aligator clips is AWESOME!!!  I seriously have a problem.  I am on Etsy every week to see what's new.  I find myself ordering the same clips, but in different colors.  I'm buying clips to match clothes for NEXT SUMMER!!!  This is ridiculous, LOL.  I've got to get a handle on it.  I keep telling myself, starting in January I will only place one Etsy order a month....LOL, it will be a BIG one!!!

Mommy dropped the ball

I've noticed that over the past 4 days or so LilyBug hasn't pooped.  Maybe a pea sized amount but that is it.  I thought that maybe she was constipated, but I wasn't sure.  I didn't see her struggling to poop, so I just gave her time.  What I had noticed is she would cry really hard (I would be out of the room & she's sitting in her crib) for a minute  & I would come back in the room to see this strained look on her face.  I'd pick her up & she's stop crying.  I didn't think much of it.  I just thought she wanted to be picked up.  The strained look should have been enough for it to click in my head that YES SHE IS CONSTIPATED!!!  But nope, my light bulb didn't go off.  Well yesterday when I picked her up from daycare, the lady that watches her said, "Tenika, I think LilyBug is constipated.  She is straining/crying/getting on all fours."  I was like OMG, I feel so bad.  I thought she might have been, but hadn't seen any signs.  Then my light bulb went off..DUH MOM, SHE'S BEEN CRYING/STRAINING FOR A FEW DAYS!!!  So last night I stopped at CVS & got some Gerber Apple juice.  I mixed the apple juice w/water & tried giving it to her.  I should have known she wouldn't like it because she doesn't like applesauce.  She took a few sips, but that was about it.  I'm guessing those few sips worked though.  During the night she pooped once.  After I got her dressed for daycare this morning she pooped again.  AND on the way to daycare she pooped a 3rd time.  I feel totally terrible.  How could I not notice that she was constipated & in pain?  I'm trying not to be hard on myself, but the signs were there & it all went right over my head.  I need to slow down & pay more attention.  Poor thing, I know she must be thinking her mommy is not too bright....

Been away forever!!!

I've been away for so long.  And every time I'm away I say I'll do better.  I didn't realize how busy LilyBug would keep me.  It seems the last time I posted was back in June.  My my so much has happened since then.  I have to break this down....


In August, we went to the Children's Musuem here in Atlanta.  There was a large group of us (all with little ones) that spent the afternoon there & from there went to have lunch.  It was amazing to see all the little ones exploring/playing.  LilyBug didn't do anything but sleep the whole time, LOL.  But I had a very good time.  I was so excited watching my nephew paint, my little cousins ride the tracker & test out their cow milking skills.  I look forward to taking her back after she is a year old so she can experience a few things.

Adventures in eating...
When LilyBug was 5mos old, I started her on solids.  I've been making her food and enjoying it.  Watching her experience new tastes/textures is AWESOME.  She LOVES food just like her momma!  I had no doubt that she would, LOL.  So far she has had rice/oatmeal cereal, bananas, avacados, acorn squash, apples, sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, sweet peas, plums, peaches, blueberry/purple sweet potato puffs & carrots.  Hands down, her favorites are sweet potatoes & bananas.  In the beginning, it was more about her chewing on the spoon, than eating the food.  We weren't even using a high chair then.  I had to hold that little one.  LOL


She cleaned her bowl!  It was mostly breastmilk with a little rice cereal mixed in.


I can tell you what she doesn't like, LOL...my homemade applesauce.  The only way I can get her to eat it, is if I mix it w/plums & oatmeal.  This is her telling me how she feels about it, LOL.  Anytime I'm having a rough day, I look at this picture & crack up.


I'm happy that I started her on solids when I did.  It was only a month early, but I knew she was ready.  She showed so much interest in my food when I was eating & she didn't reject a spoon when I put it in her mouth, so we went for it.  She's a good eater.  I'm hoping that she will have few, if any allergies & that this will keep her from being a picky eater.  This week she's having corn as her new food.  She loves it, LOL. 

Halloween
For Halloween I had no plans to get a costume for LilyBug.  I just bought her a cute onesie & pumpkin slippers to wear.  But Grandma asked me to get her a costume, so I did.  She actually ended up w/two Halloween onesies & a costume.  She made the cutest little black cat.  I can't wait to dress her up next year.  I feel the costumes come across better when the little ones are able to stand. 
 (perrrrrfect cat stretch)
 (meoooowwww, lol)

All I have time for now.  I'm hoping to do better w/my blogging, but it's totally up to LilyBug, LOL.

pumping..my love/hate relationship

I would 1st like to say that I know I'm TOTALLY lucky to even be able to produce enough milk to breastfeed my LilyBug & pump enough to stash.  That being said I have a love/hate relationship w/pumping....

I love pumping because it allows me to feed LilyBug when I'm away from her w/o giving her formula.  I'm also amazed that my body has the ability to produce milk.  When I'm pumping, I actually have this goofy grin on my face because I'm so excited about all the milk that comes out.

Now I ate pumping because there is so much work involved, cleaning the pump, making sure I have all the pieces (I have been known to forget them), keeping batteries, massaging the milk out, waiting for my body to catch up & put out more milk, the pulling on my poor nipples, the awful loud sound my pump makes, storing the milk at work, the dirty pumping location at work...If I could just push a button (my nipple would work, lol) and all the milk fall out into the containers, I would be a happy camper.

Even though I have this love/hate relationship w/pumping, I will not stop until I absolutely have too.  I plan to breastfeed/pump until LilyBug is a year old.  I'm going to need to keep a lot of patience.

I'm back...I hope, LOL

I remember saying that since I was on maternity leave early, I would be able to spend more time on this wonderful blog of mine.  LOL.  That did NOT happen!  My last day of work was at 37wks pregnant, Ms LilyBug decided to show up at 38w 4d!  I was totally not expecting her.  I have a lot more to say now that I've been a mommy for 9w5d.  Hopefully it will end up in this blog. 
Stay tuned.

A belly journey II

It's back.  I'm 38wks today & figured I should go ahead and add the next round of pics.  My belly is out of control right now.  I wondered what it would look like closer to the end & now I know, LOL.  I can't believe I thought I had a belly at 10wks.  There was nothing there but a little bloat.  I now know what a real belly is.  The past two weeks I've been gaining 2lbs a week.  I hope this doesn't keep up.  I know that's only another potential 6lbs (if I go past my due date), but still...  Well here goes, my belly from 27w6d to 37w5d.  Enjoy.

I hope I get my belly back & that these new stretch marks that keep appearing will disappear!!

1st day off

It's been so long since I've given my blog any attention.  Between working crazy hours/trying to get everything ready for LO, I've been exhausted & just haven't had time.  But now I'm back!!!!  Today is my 1st day of leave & I have nothing but time on my hands.  It's actually pretty weird to be at home again.  I'm not sure what to do with myself.   There isn't much left to do for LO, so I'm just twiddling my thumbs today.  There is plenty of housework to do, but yeah who wants to do that?  NOT ME!  So I'm not going too!  Hmmmm, off to see what I can get into.

low iron

I went to the dr Monday & found out that my iron is low, 10.7 to be exact.  My 1st thought was that I'd have to start taking iron pills & I do NOT want to do that.  Instead the nurse gave me a list of foods to take to try to raise my iron levels.  This list is TORTURE!  I have no idea how I'm going to eat these things.  But I guess if I don't want the stupid pills I'll have too.

not so bad
enriched whole grain cereal..ie raisin bran, shredded wheat
raisins

just kill me now
organ meats..ie liver, kidney parts, liver sausage, etc
lean meat..ie pork, veal, lamb, beef
dark green leafy veggies..ie greens & spinach
oysters
clams
dried apricots
dried beans..ie nay & pinto
eggs

The "just kill me now" list totally outweighs my "not so bad" list.  I go back to the dr on Valentine's Day.  I'm so hoping there is some improvement by then.  Iron pills=constipation & who needs that?!  NOT ME!!!

1st naked belly pic!!!

It was not really in my plan to take a naked belly pic.  For some reason, when I go to the restroom I always raise my shirt to show my belly.  While I was washing my hands, I was looking @ my belly in the mirror & thought...hmmm, I should take a pic today, showing it all.  The shape isn't perfectly round, but I love my belly.  I think it's cute, even w/the few stretch marks I have on the sides.  I am wondering how different it will look in a few weeks.  I feel like now every week it's growing.  I think I might continue w/the naked belly pics.  We'll see what happens next week.

a few of my faves

These are a few of my fave things that were bought/picked out by daddy all by himself.  Very cute.

Having a girl = mommy will be broke, lol

I love all things girl!!  From the super girlie to the simple not so girlie things.  I'm so excited for all the hairbows, tutus, dresses, leggins, cute shoes, hangbags & so on that go along with being a girl. I've been online browsing & theses are some things that I love!!

cold mommy!!

For dinner, I decided to have fries.  That's really all I wanted.  Well I have the bag of frozen fries on the counter & I guess I wasn't thinking about how far my belly actually sticks out, lol.  The cold bag is resting on my stomach & I'm just talking to my sister not even thinking about the bag.  Then WHAM...Suri kicks me hard, lol.  When I looked down, I realized the bag is leaning on my stomach.  I recognized it was cold, but it wasn't bothering me, I was feeling hot @ the moment anyway.  But I guess Ms Suri didn't feel the same way.  She doesn't like anything resting on my belly, she always kicks when something is on it.  So, I don't know if she kicked because she could actually feel the cold or she kicked because there was something resting on her precious belly, lol.  Hmmmm, either way she is so territorial w/this belly that I thought was MINE!! 

Found it!!

My brother & I are really close.  I love him to pieces.  So I wanted to get something that Suri can wear that says something sweet about her uncle.  I searched Carter's, Target, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, JC Penny & the list goes on, but nothing from a little girl that says something cute about her uncle.  Buy Buy Baby/Cafepress have quite a few onesies w/different cute sayings, but spending $15+ on one onesie is not appealing to me.  I don't understand why there are onesies/bibs for boys for aunts/uncles but little girls only get their aunts.  Anywho, I went to BabiesRUs out bumming around (as my Grandma would say) and I found the cutest bib that says "I love my uncle".  I wish I could get some stitching done on it so it could say "I love my uncle B".  I'll be looking into that, it's just one letter to add & there is space.  I'm just excited that I found something cute.  I can't wait to take a pic of her wearing it!

I've become a stalker, lol

I know I'm not supposed to because it ruins the surprise, BUT I've become a registry stalker, lol.  The funny thing is, ppl keep calling/asking my preference on things & giving hints about what they have bought.  I'm finding a lot of them aren't having the registry scanned, so of course I will have quite a few surprises.  I've probably been checking my registry every week since I created it back in November (sad I know, lol).  But today I looked and someone bought something off my registry.  I was so excited I screamed, lol.  I'm like OMG, it's real!!!  My baby shower is Feb 19th & I don't think I can wait that long.  The gifts will be awesome, but I really can't wait to hang out w/all my favorite ladies!!  Well 1st item is...
Yay!!!!  Someone bought her swing, lol.  I've got to get a grip on this registry stalking, lol.  Otherwise I'll know what some of Suri's gifts are and the only surprise will be who purchased it.  I'll do better (I hope).  The other thing I've been stalking is my invite list.  So many ppl have not replied, but a lot of them are ppl that I know are coming.  I guess I just want to see a confirmation that they are coming.  This next month is going to be super long!!!  Come on Feb 19th!!!!!

A belly journey

I found out about LO at 5w5d, but of course there wasn't much there to take pics of.  Actually when I started @ 10wks it was just bloat, lol.  Today I started going through my weekly pictures and it seems like there should be so many more, but I guess not since I'm only 26w2d.  Oh & I'm missing wks 15/21.  Oh well, let the belly journey begin at 10w0d & the last pic is 26w2d.  I plan to do another belly journey post at the end to see how I continued to grow.  I'm afraid of what this belly will look like on delivery day.