Dd

D is for my DAUGHTERS... I love these girls

4 months old

My sweet little Noah James-

You are four months old today. I seriously can't believe that four months has already come and gone. Some days it seems like you have been in our lives forever and some days it seems like just yesterday you were born. You are changing everyday and I just want to make sure I remember everything about you at this age.

- You are really getting a good little personality.
- You smile like crazy, even at strangers. Your sissy never ever and still doesn't do this!
- You finally started to laugh. I was really getting worried about you not laughing.
- You sleep in our bed with us. I always said I would never let my baby sleep in the bed with me, but I am tired, and you and I both sleep better when you are in bed with me.
- You are still nursing about 2- 3 times at night. I don't know how much of this is comfort nursing and actually eating.
- You love when I hold you or rock you to sleep. Again, I said I would never be that mom who did that.
- You are wearing size 3 diapers
- You are in 6-9 months clothes, but still have a pair of pants in 3-6 that fit.
- You can sit up. You still use your arms to balance yourself, but I am amazed at how strong you are.
- You hate tummy time.
- You have been really gassy again, and we are considering taking you back to the chiropractor.
-Your big sissy tries to nurse you all the time. It makes me laugh and it also makes me proud that she is that interested into breastfeeding.
- Your eyes are brown. Some people still say they are green, but I am pretty sure they have made the transition to brown.
-You still hate the car.
- You are really starting to be really interested in toys.
- You have me wrapped around your little finger and I am so in love with you.

I will update in a couple days with his stats from his 4 month appointment.

Letting go of the "P"

Faith loves her "P". I am sure you are thinking " What the heck is a P? "
It is her Paci P. She chose the name for it long ago when she started talking and it has just stuck. We even call Noah's paci a "P".
We are approaching Faith's 3rd birthday and I really wanted her to be done with the "P".
Her " P" stays in her bed, and she only gets it at nap time and bedtime. We have been talking with her for several months about giving all her "P's" to Noah. We talked about how babies have "P's" and how she was a big girl now and didn't need them. She is really excited about giving her P away and talks about it everyday. Everyday she gets up and says" Today I am gonna give all my P's away to Noah". I tell her that is a great idea and she talks about it all morning. Around lunch time comes around and she starts saying " I don't want to give my "P" away. " I don't force the issue with her.
Today I decided that she was done having a "P" at nap time. I put her to bed and she has been in her bed for two and a half hours. She has cried, been angry with me, and recently started screaming "HEEEEEELLLLPPPP". I am pretty sure she isn't ready to give it up. I don't like the thought of forcing her to do something she isn't ready to do. I still need to talk to Damian and see what he thinks about it, but for now I think we shouldn't press the issue with her.

I am addicted to breastfeeding

There I said it. Judge away. I love breastfeeding my son. I know it isn't for everyone, but it totally works for us.
With I had Faith, I had so much trouble breastfeeding. I only ever nursed her with a nipple shield, and by 6-7 months old, Faith decided she didn't want to nurse anymore. So I pumped. I pumped, and pumped and pumped. Pumping was a full time job, on top of my full time job, and taking care of a baby. Faith never had a drop of formula. EVER.Do you know how hard that is to only pump and for your baby to never ever get any formula? It was a huge deal to be to be successful at something that had to do with babies. I didn't feel successful at pregnancy or child birth, so I had to make this work. There would be times when I didn't make a lot of milk, and I would freak out. My sister and Damian were the best support group I have ever had. When I was freaking out about not having enough milk, they talked me through it. They did whatever they could to make sure that I could sit down and pump and pump and pump. There would be weekends where I would stay at home all weekend, pumping. It became addicting. I ended up having a freezer full of milk, and was able to give Faith breast milk until she was 16 months old. I would do it all over again just like that if I had to, but when I was getting ready to have Noah, I decided that I didn't want it to be like that. I wanted to be able to nurse him, and I wanted it to work out the way I dreamed about.I read more about breastfeeding, I went to a couple LLL meetings and asked lots of questions. I had a game plan, and was ready to tackle breastfeeding again.
I was lucky to have Noah in the St David's Women's Center. They really push breastfeeding. In the hospital, they don't like your baby to loose more than 10% of their birth weight. Noah was at 7% when I started freaking out thinking they were going to make me give him formula. That wasn't the case at all. The nurse said that they would make me pump before they would ever try to make me give him formula.
Damian and I decided to make it a point to get Noah up every 2-3 hour to nurse him while we were still in the hospital. By the time we left he was up 2%.
If I said our breastfeeding relationship was a breeze after that, I would be a liar. The next two weeks were awful. I wanted to quit. It hurt so bad, and I felt like I was always nursing.
I had a lactation consultant come over and reassure me. She told me it would get better, and you know what? It did.
We have been going strong now for almost four months. No nipple shields, no latch issues, no problems. Well, the only problem we really have is that Noah doesn't like the bottle at all. He will take one if he has to, but doesn't really like it. And you know what? I am ok with that. I enjoy every moment that I get to nurse him.
The way he looks up at me while he is nursing makes my heart swell. And his milky smile when he finishes is the sweetest thing I have ever seen.

I told Damian that I totally get now why people want to nurse their babies as long as they can. I could honestly see myself nursing him way past a year. Judge away. Think I am a freak, a crazy woman who is going to "ruin" her child. I don't care what anyone thinks.
This is our last baby that I will get to nurse. I want to make sure that I do it as long as I can, and enjoy it. There will be no more babies from us. Both of my pregnancies weren't the easiest and it isn't fair to myself, or my family to have anymore kids. We are very happy with the two beautiful babies we have.

So that is my story.. My name is Diedre and I am addicted to breastfeeding.

Cc

Cousins

Bb

B is for bed head.......




and Baby Boys!!!

Noah's 3 month pictures ( sneak peak )

I love love LOVE getting pictures of my babies done. With Faith we have done, newborn, 3,6,9,12,18 months, 2 year, 2 1/2 years. I cherish every picture that is taken because it preserves that memory for me. I can look back at those pictures and remember how tiny Faith was, and how big her eyes were. Even though money is tight, we still found a way to do Noah's 3 month photos. He also has had his birth and newborn photographed but our awesome photographer did those as a gift to us. :)
Margie posted a sneak peak of our not so little guy and I just love them. She also got some of all my other babies. :) Check them out. What do you think?

Aa

I am going to try and do a 52 week photo challenge. We go though the alphabet twice. Every week we have a new letter. Wish me luck. I am hoping that this will get me to pick up my camera and take more photos. Also, hoping that it will help me get to know my camera better. :)


A is for Adventitious.........

Our Year in Pictures

January-
My poor girl had pneumonia for the second time :(




February
We got snow in Kyle!


We find out that we are expecting again!


March

My baby girl turns two years old!




We finally tell everyone that Faith is going to be a big sister!



April-
Damian and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. We all went out to a nice dinner




May-

Faith moved into her big girl bed


Swim Lessons


June-


Faith started dance class


July



Daddy turns 30!!!


August-
working on her tan




September-
Our last picture with just the three of us


Welcome to the world Noah James


First picture as a family of four


October-
Faith got her first hair cut.




November-
Faith caught her first fish.

Noah starts to smile




December-