Fall Wardrobe Inspiration: Toddler Girl


During my pregnancy when I learned I was going to have a baby girl, I was so excited. Mostly to have a little girl to become best friends with someday. But also just excited about all the girly things! Picking out adorable outfits, bows, shoes for her to wear, doing fun things like getting our nails done together...
Now that she's a toddler she has a little bit more of an opinion about what she wears--she does NOT tolerate bows or headbands anymore. I'm hoping she will come back around when she gets a little older, though!
Anyways, even though she has a little more of an opinion, I still find it extremely fun to pick out her outfits and dress her up. It seems like baby and toddler clothes are evolving from very baby-ish to more mini-mama styles lately. I love that I can pick clothes for Skyler to wear that then mimic my outfits. Is there anything more fun than matching with your baby girl?! #LifeGoals
I will admit because of my excitement, that up until now, baby girl's closet has been way TOO full! I am vowing this year to simplify her clothing. She does not need a huge selection of items. Just a few classic and basic pieces that will carry her through the season.

Here are some items that I'm going to be filling Skyler's closet with for this fall.


Add to this a few basic onesies/t-shirts and socks and there you have it!
These items are almost exclusively from Old Navy. There are a few items from Carter's too. I love how the clothes from both of those stores hold up and they seem to fit my kids the best. 
I also love that they don't break the bank. Especially since, at this age, I know Skyler will only get about 1 or maybe 2 seasons out of these clothes.

What kinds of outfits do you have your eye on for your little girl this fall? I'd love to see!

Part 2: My Breastfeeding Journey

In honor of National Breastfeeding Month, I want to get a little personal, and share my breastfeeding experience. I want to focus on my experience with Skyler, my daughter and 2nd child. Mostly because I'm still breastfeeding her.
I'm so excited to share my breastfeeding experience here. I have so many thoughts and things that I would like to share, so I apologize if this gets a little long winded!

This is the second part of my Breastfeeding Journey. Read the first part here.

I really hope this series of posts will be helpful to even just one person struggling with breastfeeding. It's not meant in any way whatsoever to shame anyone who chose not to breastfeed. This is just simply my story and my thoughts on why I am glad I stuck with it even when it was really tough!


bottle refusal

At 16 weeks postpartum the time came to go back to work. To be honest I was ready. I knew I would miss my baby girl, but I was ready to have some normalcy back, along with having more responsibility than changing diapers and breastfeeding all day. (I truly have no idea how SAHM's do it--that's another post for another day, though!)
In the couple of weeks before returning to work, I started trying to pump and feed Skyler bottles. Of course she wasn't taking bottles from me, why would she?! Up until this point, she was exclusively breastfeeding. I even remember during one of my mastitis stints, my husband tried to feed Skyler a bottle so I could sleep and she wouldn't do it. I remember him waking me up feeling so terrible! 
So, in order to prepare for being away from Skyler for about 6 hours every day, I asked my mom, my MIL, my husband, random strangers on the street ha! Anyone to try to get her to take breast milk from a bottle. I didn't matter if I was in the house or out of the house. Or if she was at our house or not. I was also trying any different kind of bottle that I could. I think at my highest freak out point I was buying a new bottle every other day. Yikes! None were working. 

going back to work

Prior to giving birth, I was pretty sure that I would take 16 weeks for unpaid maternity leave. I have to say I am HUGELY blessed with a very flexible work situation and I couldn't be more grateful for that.
I went back to work with the mindset of "out of site out of mind" and hoping that Skyler would just simply give in and take a bottle at daycare while I was away. Well, about 3 hours in to my first day back at work, I got a call from daycare that Skyler was inconsolable and needed to be breastfed. So, off I went. This began a habit of me taking my lunch break to feed her each and every day. Luckily everyone was so kind and generally understanding. Daycare always had a chair for me to feed her in, and they always tried to keep her awake and ready for me to arrive. They would also give her a bottle periodically throughout the day. Every single day. I was preparing bottles with breast milk to send with her, knowing that she wouldn't drink it and they would just end up getting dumped down the drain. My boss never asked any questions about me getting up to go nurse Skyler and coming right back. Again, it is not lost on me how blessed I was through this situation. I even stopped bothering to pump during the day because I would just breastfeed her at drop off, lunch and pick up (essentially every 3-4 hours). I remember driving to and from daycare so many times during the day and crying as soon as I left her. I kept thinking about how silly it was that I was working, but still had to go to her every 2-3 hours. I felt like I should just give up and quit my job so that Skyler could be home with me all the time. I ended up taking the months of December and January and working from home. I pulled Skyler from daycare and just stayed home with her and tried to work while she napped. It was so unbelievably hard to get any work done! In February I went back to working at the office and Skyler at daycare for about 6 hours a day, and just nursing her at lunch time. This continued until she turned 11 months old. At that point, I decided that I needed to lessen the nursing so she could begin transitioning to the next level classroom at daycare. All in all, it really went pretty well. It was hard on me because I missed having the quiet cuddle time in the middle of the day, but it was also kind of freeing to have the entire work day to myself!

support

Like I mentioned before, it's not lost on me how much support we have had through our 14 months of breastfeeding. My husband has never asked me a single time to consider stopping breastfeeding. He has always gotten up in the middle of the night to bring Skyler to me, or change her diaper, or even try to get her back to sleep on his own. He's been my rock when my mind is racing with ideas that she isn't getting enough milk, or gaining enough weight. He constantly reassures me that I'm doing the best that I can. For me, that has made the world of difference. If I didn't have his continual support, I wouldn't have stuck to it. My best friend has also been a huge source of support. She's a fellow breastfeeding mom, and she's always there to just listen to me and offer simple words of encouragement, or even just an "us too!" She's the one who I can call and vent to after a frustrating nursing in public session, or just about all of the things that only breastfeeding moms truly understand.
If anyone would have told me at 1 or 2 months postpartum that we would still be breastfeeding at 14 months, I would have told them they were crazy! I had so much pain when she would latch in the early days. I remember dreading nursing because I didn't want to deal with the toe-curling pain. Then we experienced things like mastitis, Skyler refusing to take a bottle and even some slow weight gain. 
Even though this whole experience may read as dreadful, I just couldn't deny the fact that breastfeeding was working for us. Yes, I was uncomfortable, but my baby was growing. Yes, I was tired, but she was happiest while we were nursing. I couldn't bring myself to take away the one thing that was truly comforting for her. For me, it was worth it to push through the struggles in order to continue breastfeeding.

All in all, our breastfeeding journey has been beautiful. I have such a special bond with Skyler that I will always treasure. I don't know how long our journey will continue, but at this point, I'm letting her take the lead. I try as much as I can to appreciate the quiet moments that we have together because every day she is getting a bit more independent.

My Breastfeeding Journey as a Second Time Mom

In honor of National Breastfeeding Month, I want to get a little personal, and share my breastfeeding experience. I want to focus on my experience with Skyler, my daughter and 2nd child. Mostly because I'm still breastfeeding her.
I'm so excited to share my breastfeeding experience here. I have so many thoughts and things that I would like to share, so I apologize if this gets a little long winded!
I've broken up my journey into 3 posts, and some topics I plan to cover are: breastfeeding in the hospital, getting mastitis, tongue tie, bottle refusal, going back to work and finally some of my tips and thoughts in general about breastfeeding.
Keep in mind, my daughter is 14 months old. I wish I would have started blogging back when she was first born so that I could document this all in real-time. I'm finding that as I think back some of the details are a little fuzzy. I blame lack of sleep! Ha!
I really hope this series of posts will be helpful to even just one person struggling with breastfeeding. It's not meant in any way whatsoever to shame anyone who chose not to breastfeed. This is just simply my story and my thoughts on why I am glad I stuck with it even when it was really tough!
Photo Credit: Jen Camacho Photography

hospital

I hope to write about Skyler's birth story some day. But until then, I will briefly say that our hospital experience was really pretty normal. She took right to nursing after she was born and latched beautifully! I had high hopes at that point of a beautiful nursing relationship.
Our pediatrician mentioned tongue tie while examining her, and a lactation consultant also mentioned the same. However, no one really talked to me about what that meant or what to look out for. I wish I had been better prepared, so that I could have tried to "fix" the problem sooner rather than later...that may have spared me 3 rounds of mastitis, a trip to the ER with a newborn, and a (totally unnecessary) breast ultrasound.

mastitis

I had mastitis 3 different times in the first two full months of Skyler's life. Not once, or twice, three times! UGH! I had never had mastitis before, so the first time it started I honestly had no idea what was happening. I took her in for her 1 week check up with the pediatrician on a Friday morning. We came home and nursed/napped together then I woke up with a fever and just feeling extremely run down. I had no idea what was wrong. Naturally, I started googling my symptoms and it appeared that I had mastitis. 
(In case you are not familiar with mastitis, it is an infection of breast  tissue. So basically, if the baby is not properly draining your milk, you can get a clogged duct and that can become infected. My doctor prescribed antibiotics, but it can be controversial whether or not antibiotics are always required for mastitis. ) 
I called my doctor's office, which was of course already closed! The nurse-on-call told me that she could not call in any pain medication, and that I could leave a message and have the doctor call me back Monday (what?! I had a fever, was in pain and was only 1 week postpartum!!!) cue the mom freak out! So, I called my hospital's lactation consultant. And to be honest, she kind of freaked me out even more! She suggested that I go to the ER. Hesitantly, I packed up  the baby and went to the ER. It was determined that yes, in fact I had mastitis, and the doctor recommended an IV of antibiotic and then an oral antibiotic as well. I hate needles so the IV is always traumatic. Plus, I had mom-guilt for having my 1 week old baby in the ER and for not being home with my 2 year old son. So many feelings....
Anyways, we finally got sent home from the ER and went home. I rested and took my medicine and continued nursing Skyler....I finished the round of antibiotics only to have the exact same symptoms only a few days later. I was so embarrassed and frustrated! I felt like I was working so hard to feed Skyler on demand and to really try to get her to finish nursing before falling asleep. She was always ate  very quickly and hardly ever fell asleep in the middle of a feeding. Because of all that I just couldn't figure out why my body kept "messing up" and getting mastitis.
 This all continued a THIRD time and upon calling to ask for a prescription refill my doctor asked that I come in for an appointment. When I came in he noted that he had never heard of anyone having mastitis 3 times in such a short amount of time, and recommended that I have a breast ultrasound. I was totally freaked out at this point.
I ended up going in for the ultrasound and nothing was detected there. Thank goodness!!!
I also visited the lactation consultant at the hospital and she suggested trying to stay on top of taking my vitamins and drinking plenty of water, and really trying hard to take it easy. As a new mom of 2 kids, I will admit that I was having a hard time letting myself truly relax. Yes, I would sit and nurse the baby often, but I was almost always worked up in my mind about whether the baby was eating enough, and properly, or whether my toddler was getting enough from me. Finally, she showed me some other breastfeeding "holds" that we could use in order for Skyler to more effectively drain my milk.


tongue tie

In the hospital, our pediatrician checked Skyler and briefly mentioned that she might have a tongue tie. I honestly had no idea what that even meant at that point! And like I said before, she seemed to be latching great and eating very well. I had no real concerns about her nursing at first, so I basically dismissed his suggestion.
After our second pediatrician office visit, I mentioned that I had mastitis and was having some pretty intense pain when she latched, as well as cracking and bleeding. He again mentioned the thought of tongue tie, and suggested we look into a pediatric dentist that could determine whether it should be clipped.  Of course after this appointment I went straight to google to figure out exactly what tongue tie even was. Tongue tie is a condition where the baby's tongue is "tied" to the floor of the mouth by a flap of skin. This skin can restrict the tongue's movement and then potentially cause difficulty with breastfeeding and possibly speaking or eating later in life. It can be corrected with a simple in-patient procedure that takes about five minutes.
After I developed mastitis for the 2nd time, I called and scheduled a visit with a local pediatric dentist. At that appointment, the dentist took one look and recommended a clip. It was really a simple procedure. Skyler screamed, and it broke my heart, but I knew it was the right thing to do. 
Honestly, I can't say that I immediately noticed a difference. In fact, it almost seemed to trigger some colic-y symptoms in Skyler. Following the tongue tie reversal, we had some of the hardest days and weeks with Skyler. I remember walking in circles around the house for what felt like hours while she just screamed. I felt like such a failure as a mom and spent so much time doubting myself. I was so worried that she would never be happy and never grow out of this "phase". During this time, we were continuing nursing and that was going great. I wasn't having any more pain or mastitis! I remember during those times feeling that I was the only one who could truly calm her and that was because of breastfeeding.
Once we reached the end of month 3, it seemed like a switch just flipped and she became happy and consolable again. I truly don't know if it was all related to the tongue tie reversal, or just a personality thing, or a bout of colic. Maybe just a combination of all 3!?

to be continued....

Make sure to hit the subscribe button so you can come back next week! I'll be talking about Skyler refusing to take a bottle and how we dealt with that, along with me going back to work. I also plan to highlight some of my favorite things I use/used while nursing. 

"Donut Grow Up" Birthday Party


Somehow, without my permission, my babies turned 1 and 3 in May!!



A little back-story, Brayden and Skyler were born 1 day shy of 2 years apart. So, in other words, Skyler was born the day before Brayden's 2nd birthday. (Maybe someday I will blog about each of their birth stories......)

So of course we had to throw an awesome joint birthday party to celebrate them!

After lots of searching on Pinterest, I landed on a "Donut Grow Up" theme. 

I had the most adorable invitation made by Paper Peach Shop


This party was so simple to put together! I ordered donuts from our local grocery store which happens to have amazing donuts! In retrospect, I ordered WAY too many donuts, I was not too upset about that, though! ;)

Skyler wore the most adorable donut romper that I found on Etsy! And Brayden wore a donut shirt that he loved (another Etsy find!)!


My friend from AdorningOaks made the amazing birthday signs, highlighting the kids' stats and interests!

Since I'm obsessed with iced coffee (mostly cream with a bit of coffee :)), we also had an iced coffee bar! It was super fun and much needed to keep up with all the toddlers on their donut induced sugar-highs!

Finally, we DIY'ed a Donut Board...it was probably the most simple DIY project ever! We just used a sheet of pegboard, some dowel rods and spray paint! It turned out to be such a cute way to display the donuts! 

I had so much fun putting this party together! And the kids loved it, too!

I would love to hear about your favorite kids' themed birthday party!

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Wish List Wednesday

I always have a running "wish list" whether it's a page in my planner, a Pinterest board, or open tabs on my phone! I just love to browse! It's like a calming activity for me, (or something to do while I'm bored I have free time while nursing Skyler!) Yes, I can see my husband's eyes rolling from here!! 

Right now on my wishlist:

Fawny Pack
How cute is this fanny pack?! Am I just blinded by the blush color?? I really think it's an adorable way to have your hands free while out with the kids, but still have your necessities close by.


Sleek Sneakers
Ok, ok, maybe I do just have a thing for blush....BUT aren't these adorable?! I just love them! I think they would be perfect with a cute dress, or leggings, or even jeans and a tee.

A Good Book

I have heard so many great things about this book. It's definitely on my list to read next!

Well, there you have it. Those are the three things on my wish list right now. I'd love to hear what's on your wish list! And what do you think about the Fawny Pack??!




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