fall booties

ok guys,

i found some super cute

CHEAP

shoes for the fall.

at kohl's.

we're rarely there but

ronald wanted to look for a royals shirt

so i meandered over to the shoe section.

i loved these and when i saw that they

were on sale and only $25, i jumped on them.

and yes, i'm going back and getting them in black too.

dresses, leggings, jeans...

they're perfect.

 

 

 

so if you see me over the next few months,

i'm probably going to be in a pair of these.

i'm so excited for the new season,

fall is my favorite.

but first we have to bid farewell to summer

over a long labor day weekend.

which ps - wish me luck:

we were invited to the lake and

we've decided to take the girls.

it's a first for us (and them) and i'm trying

to decide how we're going to manage.

 

and what to pack.

f i n g e r s  c r o s s e d

getting little by little

ok, so i've been on my "diet" one week.

i'm going to start off confessing there was a cheat meal involved.

saturday night ronnie and i rented a movie and

ate cheeseburgers and fries.

whoops.

but for the rest of time i was good.

i really wanted to see some results so

i was very conscience of my food choices.

we even ate lunch at the zoo on sunday and

i had a grilled chicken asian chop salad. 

that was hard when everyone around me had

pizza, ice cream and french fries.

so far i've lost 2 freaking pounds.
that's it.
when i did this after brette,
week one i lost 7 lbs. so this is a bit of a let down.

i'm going to keep on going in hopes to get off all 10-15 lbs.

 it just might take me awhile.

here's what i'm doing:

keep in mind i'm nursing and hungry all the time,

so i eat  s e v e r a l  times a day.

 

8:00am - protein shake or 2 eggs with bacon/sausage

(this depends on my time and who's awake,

but 5 out of the 7 days, i had a protein shake.

but if you do have the time,

 you can add ANY meat, cheese and veggies and make an omelet

or just make scrambled eggs with sausage or bacon.)

 

 

10:30 - 2 turkey sticks and a cheese stick

(i love that these are so easy to grab and go.

most days we're out of the house by this time,

so it's easy for me to eat these while driving or throw

them in the diaper bag for later.)

 

 

1:00 - salad

(i am LOVING the ready made salad bags.

have you ever tried them?

so easy and so good.

i bought 5 last week and had one everyday for lunch.

i always get caesar, but there are other options.

all you have to do is add some sort of protein.)

 

 

3:30 - celery and peanut butter

and if i'm still starving, 1/4 cup of almonds or peanuts

(you can't go wrong with peanut butter in my book,

i'd eat it off of anything.)

 

6:30 - meat and veggies

(i grilled up several hamburger patties, pork cutlets

and made a chicken dish.  i took turns either adding it to

my salad at lunch or eating them for dinner.  then i just

added a veggie... green beans or zucchini are my favorites.)

 

nothing after dinner AND i drink three of my 32oz mugs of water.

if my sweet tooth kicks in,

then i add a grape packet to my water and chug

or go grab a piece of gum.

 

 

here's to another week
and hopefully, a few more pounds gone!
 

sleep thief

my baby is giving me a run for my money.

every night she tries something new.

i love schedules.

or at least routines.

it helps me plan my day and

get through my nights.

if i know that i will only get up once

and still get 7 hours of sleep a night,

then i'm all good.

but we seem to be going back and forth

on whether or not she is sleeping through the night

and it makes getting up hard because

I KNOW she can do this.

let's go back...

magically, last tuesday, reid started sleeping through the night.

halleluiah.

i would put her down at 10:00 and she

would sleep until 5:00.

then she'd go back down until 7:30.

she did it three nights in a row.

i thought we had this thing licked.

i got lucky with easy sleepers TWICE.

it was the exact same schedule we originally had when brette

was a newborn and i felt good about how this was going to work out. 

then friday night she decided to go back to her

old stomping ground and get up at 3:00.

dang it.

once brette slept through the night she

never went back, so i was just assuming reid would too.

saturday night was all sorts of weird.

she fell asleep at 8:30 instead of 10:00.

what?!

she was so exhausted so i went with it.

but i woke her back up at 10:30 to nurse

in hopes of getting her to sleep until 5:00 or 6:00.

she woke up at 4:20.

not too bad, but i was hoping for more.

after i nursed her she slept until 8:00.

later than normal.

cut to sunday.

once again she fell asleep by 8:30

only this time i didn't wake her back up.

i wanted to see how long she'd go.

she woke up at 4:20.
EIGHT HOURS.
what. the. heck.
amazing!
i'm have no clue what she'll do tonight,
but i like where she is heading.

also, let me add that i put her in crib on saturday and sunday

because 8:30 was too early to have her in our room sleeping.
i think the extra room might be helping.

if she keeps this up, then we might be done with the bassinet altogether.

it's little sad she's ready for her crib,

 but it's also a moment i look forward to.

babies are loud sleepers and

this mamma hears every noise.

so who knows.

its throwing me off that every night is different

because that's just not the way i roll.

give me my routine!

i know she'll figure this out.

i just need to be patient and

count my blessings.

here's a bunch of pics of reid sleeping last week...

on her lounger

on papa

in a pack-n-play for her first sleepover

and in my arms

sleepy little thing, isn't she?

baby body

reid is five weeks old

which means my body has

had five weeks to go from this:

 

to this:

unfortunately that has not happened.

apparently carrie eats tofu and works out,

two things that have not been part of my post-partum routine.

the first three weeks were great.

i lost 18 lbs without doing a darn thing

except eating a lot and nursing.

with 10 lbs to go, i kept waiting for them to magically fall off too.

i mean, hello, i'm chasing around a 2 year old

and nursing.

but two weeks later... and not another pound gone.

i figured it's time to take action.

do i have the free time to work out?

nope.

if the weather is good, we go

on an occasional stroll through the neighborhood,

but depending on if brette has chosen to ride or walk,

we're probably moving at a snails pace and only making it to the mailbox.

not exactly great for burning calories.

so that leaves me with my diet.

it's the key to getting that last pesky 10 lbs off.

and if any of you were/are nursing moms,

then you know that you are always hungry.

always.

it makes it hard to eat only one lunch,

instead of three.

or maybe 9:30 at night is not the right time

for a bowl of ice cream.

stupid diets. i hate them.

but technically,

i'm just trying to make better food choices,

get my portion size under control,
cut back on bad carbs

and not eat anything after dinner.

i started on wednesday and

here's brette already hogging my salad.

 

 

hopefully i'll be back in a week with good news.

 



hot mess

last night was not good.

i had a lot going on and i knew

it was going to be a test of my planning skills.

i had to get all three of us ready so we could

go to the store for balloons,

grab dinner,

meet a neighbor lady,

and then head to westport

for eden's 3rd birthday by 6:30.

ronnie was m.i.a. because he

was working two hours out of town.

we were ready by 5:00 and

it was going fine until

reid threw up all over herself and her

car seat as we were walking out the door.

not cool.

literally the puke was pooled around her as it drained

out of the bottom of the car seat.

oh. my. god.

so i had to change her clothes and clean her seat,

which made me late from the get go.

not to mention i had broken out in a crazy sweat.

i blame the hormones.

i had to scratch going to the store and drove

through McDonald's to grab B some chicken nuggets.

they forgot to give me a straw so i

couldn't give her milk because

there was no way i was cleaning up another

car seat after she inevitably split it.

this means i get to hear "i need a drink" 

at least 100 times while i rush to meet our neighbor.

i was 5 minutes late meeting her and

she turned out to be a talker so at 6:15 i finally

excused myself so i could rush down the highway to

miss eden's ice cream party.

we are now 20 minutes late.

MF.

no worries,

i get the girls out and my brother and dana are

there to help me out.

i leave reid with dana while brian and i go get B some

ice cream so she can join the other kids.

as soon as we sit down to eat,

i realize that it is now after 7:00 and its time for reid to nurse.

i grab her and go sit in my car (fun times) while

brian and dana take care of brette for me.

she falls or bumps her head or something and is crying

so brian brings her over to the car.

not much i can do but she stops crying and goes on her way.

that's when the nice gentleman in the car next door wants to start

up conversation about the birthday song (i have no idea why)

and i'm just trying to make sure he doesn't get a good look at my boob.

meanwhile, i miss singing to eden and watching her open up her gifts.

son of a bitch.

i cut nursing short so i can get back to the party and

away from "birthday song" guy.

things get better for awhile.

i am able to sit and talk,

help B make her way through a party

and enjoy myself.

brian helps me load up my crew.

(brothers are super great stand-ins when husbands are gone.)

its now around 7:45 and on a normal night B would be

heading to bed in 15 minutes.

instead we're 30 minutes away and reid decides

that the quickie dinner i gave her earlier is not cutting it.

she starts crying every time the car comes to a stop,

which is all the time as we make our way out of westport and

through the plaza.

we're not used to reid crying in the car,

so it pisses off brette and she starts yelling at reid to

"no cry more"  and "stop it."

newborn crying?  check.

2 year old yelling? check.

headache for mamma?  check.

want to kill daddy?  check.

fun times.

when i hit the highway i rolled down the windows

and reid fell asleep while i had to tell brette the title of

every song that came on the radio.
this really fun game we play all. the. time.

at what point can you just turn up the music and ignore her?

i called ronnie when i hit our road and he met me in the driveway

(in his undies because he's been enjoying a nice hot shower in an empty house)
to help me unload and get B ready for bed

while i fed my starving newborn.

as i finally laid down that night around 10:00 i realized i never ate dinner

and i was still in my button-up shirt.

 

and THAT is why we are rarely out of the house past 6:00pm.

pass me a beer,

i need a break just thinking about it.

pssst - HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY EDEN LOU!

 



reid: one month

in some ways i can't believe its already been a month,

but mostly i feel like she's been here for way longer than that.

but here's the low down on her life thus far.

 

 

growth:

we actually went to the pediatrician this week

and reid weighs 9lbs 3ozs. 

gaining weight just like she should.

they didn't measure her height, so

i'm not sure how much taller she is,

but i know she's grown because some of her newborn

sleepers don't fit anymore.

we literally have 4 more newborn diapers in the house

and then we'll be switching to size ones.

typically a newborn poops several times a day

but we're lucky if reid poops once,

so when it happens, its a mess

and i'm looking forward to getting the extra coverage

of the next size up in diapers.

as for clothes she's still in newborns,

but i have started putting her in 0-3 months

because the weathers been a little chilly and

all her newborn outfits are sleeveless.

i think her eyes are turning blue already,

or maybe that's just my wishful thinking,

but i swear i see blue.

her hair is still red and depending on the light,

it changes how dark or bright it looks.

 

 

sleeps:

by three weeks, brette was sleeping through the night.

unfortunately we didn't get that lucky twice,

BUT reid is still a really good sleeper.

we put her down between 9:00 and 10:00,

she sleeps until 3:00.

i nurse her, change her, burp her

and have her back in bed in 45 minutes

and she sleeps until around 6:30.

its nice because i can normally be done feeding

her before brette wakes up, so at least i don't have to fight that.

as for naps, we're not really in a "schedule"

because she's still so young and sleeps on demand.

in fact, some days, i feel like she sleeps all. the. time.

she is most awake in the evenings from 6-9,

especially if i'm about to eat dinner.

she can sense dinner and makes sure that ronnie and

i take turns eating so that she can be held.

a true baby move.

she'll sleep some in the evenings, but for the most part, she's awake.

it makes it easy to put her down at night because she's

exhausted by bedtime.

and if you put her in the car,

she's konked out in minutes.

basically, she sleeps just fine.

 

 

eats:

reid is exclusively nursing.

i've given her a handful of bottles before bed

to see if i could lengthen out how long she sleeps,

but normally she is SO tired i can't get her to

wake up enough to take a bottle.

she is nursing every two hours unless she sleeping.

i've developed mastitis this week so i've even been

waking her up to nurse just to relieve some pressure.  

she nurses really well and haven't had any issues with latching.

the biggest difference i see is how much she throws up.

brette was not a puker.

reid is.

i spend a lot of time keeping her elevated until i think

her stomach is settled.

i also burb her like crazy and

sometimes even an hour (or more) after she's eaten,

she still might throw up.

i've been doing lots of laundry.

 i took her to the pediatrician and they think she has some reflux,

so now i give her some medicine twice a day to help with the acidity.

she'll still puke, but hopefully it more pleasant for her,

if that makes sense.

 

plays:

she's not playing yet,

unless you count her interest in watching ceiling fans.

she also loves jeep rides,

walks in the bjorn and

being outside.

she also loves to shower,

so i've been doing that instead of giving baths.

its easier on me and i get a turn too. bonus!

we sing to her and brette gives her lots of lovin'.

in fact, brette has started calling her reidy.

she'll say "i love you, reidy"

which i think it the cutest thing ever.

 

 

firsts:

pretty much everything is a first.

she had her first time without mommy.

i left for 45 minutes to run to the store and left

ronald in charge of both girls.

i'm pretty sure he was relieved when i got home.

she had her first sleepover at mimi and papa's.

her first jeep ride.

her first shower.

her first invite to a bday party.

her first play-date.

so basically, she's doing really well.

we're enjoying watching her grow and

trying to remember exactly how to 

care for a teeny tiny baby girl. 

happy one month, reid!

 

(i was in a total rush for pictures and it frustrated her,

hopefully she'll be in a better mood for her two month,

because she really isn't much of a crier.)

 

 

 

 

here and there

i think what makes a house really cute are the details.

oh sure, paint color and floor choices are key,

but the furniture, wall hangings and

decorative items can really make or break a room.

little by little i've been adding some finishing touches around here.

nothing really on the first floor because ronnie

sucks at life and still hasn't finished the walls.

(i'm considering hiring someone at this point)

but the upstairs feels complete.

1- added wall art and a shower curtain to the girls "flamingo" bathroom.

this is the one room that i feel is kind of bright, but since

its a kids bathroom i figured, eh, why not!

 

2- bought curtains for reid's room.

it is actually a shower curtain from target.

i loved the gold and white herringbone pattern, so i cut it in 2,

used some hem tape and made it work.

ronnie is supposed to hang it tonight.

 

3- bought and hung our new family photos.

(master bedroom mantle and hallway)

4- found old washboards for the laundry room walls.

5- put a new rug in the family room

that we found on sale at home goods.

that old shag rug was my favorite, but its not kid

or pet friendly so it had to go.

it. was. gross.

just imagine - - the dogs had peed on it, brette spilt drinks,

dropped play doh and even took a crap on it.

one day i'll have a pretty cream shag rug again,

but probably not for 15 years or so.

6- finished my "white erase board" for the kitchen.

my mom found the perfect doily and

i replaced the glass and now it just needs hung.

i love it.

and that's it for now.

its the small things that i love to find and add to our house.

i have a bunch of stuff and ideas for downstairs when/if

the time ever comes. (fingers crossed its soon)

the reason for the delay is ronnie likes working outside better,

so he decided to get rid of one of our many weed/flower beds

and cut down six small trees in our front yard.

 

the outside still needs a lot of work,

which is why i'm begging ronnie to work inside while its hot

and do yard work this fall.

he says he's painting this weekend.

here's hoping!

if so, i'll post pictures next week.