I have a new wrap! And a teething baby.

Homegirl is currently cutting bottom tooth #2. I can't believe my baby is going to have TWO teeth any second now - hopefully sooner rather than later because teething makes everybody involved (aka Lillian and me) cranky. Apparently Lillian's thing is that she doesn't sleep when she's teething. Just Does. Not. Sleep.

Last night I got her to go down before 8:00 for the first time in dayyyyyysssss. I immediately went downstairs to happy dance about it in front of Lee, announce that I was going to take a celebratory bath, and then beeline it back upstairs to our master bath with the fabulous jacuzzi tub that I have barely touched since I had her because #motherhood...

I fiddled with the water until it was the perfect hot-enough-to-make-me-sweat-but-not-give-me-second-degree-burns temperature, added my cup of baking soda, cup of epsom salt, and lavender essential oil. I blissfully sank into the bath, cranked up my book on tape (which I'm not going to share because I am mildly ashamed to be enjoying this series so much), and made it almost ten whole minutes before she awoke and demanded my presence. Assuming I could nurse her back to sleep super speedy like, I grabbed a towel, crawled into bed, and snuggled up to her with my magical boobs.

THIRTY minutes later, she was soooooo almost asleep when our asshole cat, Olive - whom I love dearly, decided that she was feeling social and jumped on the bed and started chirping and mewing (which is normally super adorable). NOT CUTE. Lillian is currently obsessed with our creatures so she immediately woke alllllll the way up and started trying to play with (aka yank on) Olive.

By the time all these shenanigans were over and she was merrily babbling away on her dad's lap, my bathwater was so so cold and uninviting and very sad.

Moral of this unnecessarily long story: tonight Lee is in charge of the baby monitor and if she wakes up, screw trying to get her back to sleep in a timely manner because mama needs her bath.

In addition to not sleeping, teething also makes her super clingy. So I was extra pumped when our new Didymos Summer Breeze Indio arrived today!!! After the longest washing and drying cycles EVER, it was ready to play with!

The above picture on the right cracks me up. She 100% inherited that resting bitchy face from yours truly.

Loooooooooooooove this wrap.

Although I did have one pull within hours of it being delivered. Gonna have to be careful with this one - no snaggy jewelry. But I don't even care because it is just so lovely.

Babywearing. It's my jam.

My little darling has always been a bit clingier than the average baby and lucky me, she is currently deeply committed to the separation anxiety phase.

Thank. God. For. Babywearing.

Robin's Hip Carry w/ My BB Slen Pineapple

via

In addition to all the awesomeness above, I have chronic tendonitis in my right shoulder/arm/neck and babywearing allows me to carry my little nugget without suffering debilitating pain on the daily.

Coolest Hip Cross Carry w/ My BB Slen Pineapple

Babywearing in all forms (soft structure carriers, ring slings, stretchy wraps, mei tais, etc.) is awesome, but I've fallen head over heels in love with woven wraps. The comfort, the versatility, the high snuggle factor, and the relativity low cost (if you somehow manage to stick with just one) are just some of the reasons I'm loving LOVING L. O. V. I. N. G. wovens.

Reinforced Kangaroo w/ Natibaby Magic Grid from Local Babywearing Group Lending Library

I have a 3 step process that will change my cranky baby into a happy baby 99.9% of the time:
1 > Ensure belly is full
2 > Ensure diaper is dry
3 > Wrap in a carry with a high snuggle factor

...and voila. She will almost always immediately settle in to observe our surroundings from the safety and comfort that are mama snuggles. And she will usually fall asleep eventually at which point I can always sometimes occasionally successfully transfer her to the bed for further napping.

Front Double Hammock w/ My BB Slen Pineapple

Babywearing means I can take her out and about without relying on strollers and/or car seats for nap time which is so clutch.

Front Wrap Cross Carry w/ Little Frog Jasper from Local Babywearing Group Lending Library

Babywearing. It's saving this mama's sanity right now.

Stepping Up My Babywearing Game: Buying a Woven

It's happening. I can feel myself being sucked in and I don't even own a single one... yet. It seems that all the mommas I know who wear their babies in fancy smancy woven (aka non-stretchy) wraps are completely o b s e s s e d. I can tell that I am about to be sucked right down that rabbit hole.

I love wearing her in our Moby, but she's getting bigger and it's not as comfortable as it used to be (because it's stretchy and doesn't provide as much support as we need). Our Ergo 360 is great for running errands, but not so much for snuggles around the house. 

Yes, that's a Moby on the left. I had a little bleach incident in the laundry room and decided to creatively camouflage it.

The next step in babywearing is the almighty woven...

I borrowed the striped wrap at our local babywearing meet-up a couple days ago and I'm already hooked. I spent an absurd amount of time yesterday researching the different kinds of wraps and watching videos of different complicated ways to tie my baby to myself with what is literally just a long piece of fabric... but such pretty long pieces of fabric!

I know that I will be buying one soon. And I know that I drop a cringe-worthy chunk of change on it. And there are so many options, how will I ever choose? What type of fabric? What weight? How long? Is it shimmery? How bouncy? How long until it's "buttery soft"? Is it grippy? What about breathable? How much shoulder cush? There is a whole babywearing subculture out there with their own forums and lingo and I am one very confused newbie.

I've been researching and pinning some possibilities and  ohmygoodness I want them alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.

I'm stoked to learn a bit more about it all and become proficient at a few simple carries, especially back carries. Oh to be able to wear her on my back while I do housework! We've done a couple of back carries with the Ergo but she's still a little small and it doesn't feel as secure as I would prefer.

Do you have any experience with woven wraps? What would you recommend for a beginner who will be using it on the daily?

PS. The benefits of babywearing vs. carseat lugging.

The Busy, Busy World of Lillian Isadore

Lillian and I have been crazy busy traveling recently. She has been a total champ for all of it except for when we did six hours in the car in one day... she got a bit extremely pissy about that one.

Here she is doing some light reading in the car (pre-meltdown):

It all started in mid-April when we went to my parent's farm (where she was christened in the church where Lee and I were married)...
then to my aunt and uncle's lake house in Virginia (for lots of visiting with lots of relatives)...
then back home for two days (but with house guests)...
then to Sunset Beach (to spend a week with our good friends/Lillian's godparents)...

then to Asheville with my parents (we went to a small music festival and toured The Biltmore House and Gardens)...

we are currently home for three days...
and are flying to Vermont this evening so Lillian can meet her great grandmother this weekend.

Anyone have advice for flying with a four month old? It's her first flight and I'm going to try realllllly hard not to be that family with the baby that wails the entire time.

Lee was home Tuesday and I passed her off to him and literally slept almost the entire day. I was completely exhausted. I woke up to find her passed out in the Moby while he played video games in his basement man cave (complete with our sweet thrift store granny couch from our newlywed days).

Lillian is becoming more and more interactive and it is so fun! She is grabbing at things and talking constantly.

She smiles the second I walk back into the room which of course gives me all the warm fuzzies every time. And she loves to practice standing.

Apparently I never crawled and went straight to walking at ten months and my mom is convinced she will do the same.

Wish us luck with our flying adventures and hope you have a great weekend!

Lillian Report + Spring Capsule Preview

Heyooo!!! My kid and I were up partying until 1:00am last night... or I was sitting in bed rewatching the first half of the new season of Mad Men so I could watch the newest episode (SO EXCITED/so sad that it's almost over) while she gleefully babbled and nomed/drooled all over my hands and arms. But it's 10:00am and she's still sleeping so whatevs, I'm rather enjoying the baby free morning. And painting the fingernails on my right hand which never got painted last night because I thought she was down for the night and painted my left hand and then she woke up and that was that. Call me old fashioned, but I feel fancier when BOTH hands are painted. (Mom tip: only paint one hand at a time... just in case someone wakes up and demands a boob asap.)

Now that she's 3 months we're going to start exploring sleep training. Any moms out there have a method that worked for you?

And homegirl has some new skillz. Yesterday she took a toy out of my hand and put it in her mouth. WHAT!?! I am so not ready for this. Where is my sweet, docile little newborn?

But then again, now she will hang out in this thing for a while and let me do exciting things like eat a quick meal without a baby in my lap. So fancy!

I'm working on taking pictures of all the pieces in my spring capsule wardrobe. So far, so good! It actually wasn't as difficult as I expected it to be. I still have a couple of basic pieces I need to buy though. Stay tuned for further discussion. But here's a preview:

Life Lately

Happy Friday! This afternoon we are heading to Boone, NC to visit some good friends and go to BANFF Film Festival. Then tomorrow Lillian and I are heading to Asheville to stay in a mountain cabin with some of my college girlfriends for a fun baby shower/reunion weekend. Hope you have a great weekend in store for you as well!

My "Oh hey, Friday!" five:

1. The nursery is ALMOST done! I just have to get my shit together and finish putting stuff up on the walls. I'm quite pleased with everything so far. I made that fun bunting recently and I must say, I don't hate it.

 2. Lillian has some mad neck strength going on lately.

3. The goodies in the gift bag for to the mom-to-be in Asheville:

I tried to come up with stuff that I would have been excited to receive at my showers six months ago: 

- A handmade teething necklace from the Etsy shop Stitching to Craft. I ordered one for myself too, oops. (It came with a surprise keychain.) I was having a hard time deciding which colors to choose for her, so I went with her wedding colors from several years ago. Wedding colors are usually a safe bet, right?
- A Babies R Us gift card. We were so thankful for all the gift cards that we received at our showers. We ended up buying a lot of the more practical stuff on our registry ourselves.
- Never used socks, mittens, and pacifiers that I was going to pack away. Hey, why not? It's always fun to have plenty of cute little things when opening a baby gift.

4. I reused wrapping from one of my showers to wrap her gift. Reduce Reuse Recycle!

I chose the cheesiest bag I had, she will appreciate it.

I like to make my bows by hand. Plus bows can be freakin' expensive, dude! I usually just browse through Pinterest until I find one that I like. They're usually pretty easy. I used this one this time.

5. Dexter and I spent the majority of the afternoon yesterday walking around the backyard with a very cranky Lillian. He's been working on this hole when we're not around to scold him. He's quite proud of it.

Dexter so loves Lillian. We have to watch him closely when he's around her though, he wants nothing more than to lick her face and can be pretty sneaky about it. She does not approve.

5 1/2. I've always disliked those stick figure families people put on the back of their cars. Turns out, they are putting your kids in danger! So go take them off. Now.

 Happy weekend!

Oh hey, Friday!

It's Friday! And my husband doesn't have to work at all this weekend! Hip hip hooray!

Below I give you five random Friday thoughts. Surprise! They are all about the tiny human with whom I currently spend 100% of my life.

1. We are so ready for spring! Tuesday was gloriously warm and sunny. The rest of the week has been cold and/or rainy. Boooooo. I can't wait to be able to spread a blanket out in our backyard and chill in the sun with Lillian and Sir Poindexter (our German Shepherd). In the meantime, she was pretty cute in this sun hat she rocked on our Tuesday walk.

2. I kiss this tiny human an absurd amount. I realize this every time I wear lipstick and have to abstain so I don't leave lipstick all over her face and head.

3. I wear my baby A LOT. Partly because I have chronic tendonitis issues in my right shoulder and arm and babywearing is seriously saving me from excruciating daily pain. I also love having her all snuggled up against me. Plus, it makes running errands/shopping/eating at a restaurant like a real person SO much easier because I don't have to deal with a stroller and she rarely gets fussy when she's on me.

4. Getting my baby to sleep is so much easier when I'm wearing her. If she is fussy and obviously ready for a nap, I just pop her in the Moby and wander around doing little tasks around the house while humming and swaying until she's asleep. However, it is tricky tricky to transfer her to the bed once she's asleep. I try not to let her fall asleep in the Ergobaby 360 if I can help it because the waistband has a giant chunk of Velcro which is SO LOUD when trying to take off a sleeping baby. Below is the proof of the one and only time I successfully transferred her to the bed in the Ergo... and she woke up five minutes later.

5. I can't sing her to sleep because my ridiculous bunny gets all excited whenever I sing and will start grinning and "singing" along. It's insanely adorable. And I'm rather enjoying having someone appreciate my singing; I am completely tone deaf and usually people (ahem... my loving sister) beg me to stop making their ears bleed.

That's all for now. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

A Successful Week of Momming

This week was a win. Tuesday, Lillian had her 2 month pediatrician visit and is crushing it at babyhood, duh. She's in the 80th percentile for weight and the 90th for height, like a boss. She got her first set of shots though... we both cried a little. What was worse, though, was the band-aid removal that night because yours truly had to be the source of the pain. The look on her face was heart wrenching. And there were three band-aids. There were more tears.

After the pediatrician's we ran some errands. I went through a Taco Bell drive through on the way to Wal-Mart (a necessary evil on occasion - both the fast food and the supporting of Wal-Mart). I parked, she was super pissed about being in her car seat, per usual. I proceeded to simultaneously change her poopy diaper on my lap in the driver's seat while eating my cheesy gordita crunch (with beans instead of beef because that shit scares me). I had one of those moments where I was like... yup, I'm definitely a mom now. Then I put her in the Moby wrap, got out of the car, and immediately felt something warm and gooey on my chest. Yes, she had indeed spit up down my chest... inside my shirts so it all collected in the built-in bra of my tank. So I scooped it out with a burp cloth and went on my merry way.

I took a victory picture in the Wal-Mart bathroom after I successfully hover-peed while wearing her, the culmination of my small mom-victories of the past half hour. I'm starting to feel like I've got this shit figured out.

Wednesday, we attending our local La Leche League monthly meeting. For those of you who haven't experienced being a human milk machine and aren't in the know, it's a breastfeeding education and support group. Breastfeeding is surprisingly complicated, ya'll. I always learn so so much at the meetings. Plus it's fun to see all the cute babies and get an idea of what to anticipate as she ages.

Thursday was mommy baby yoga followed by a hospital lactation consultant led new mommy support group meeting. Yoga is fun but I am not good at it... at all. I am so uncoordinated and not very stretchy. I used to be super flexible back when I danced and did gymnastics... when I was 6. But I will persevere, I've got over 20 pounds of pregnancy weight left and I refuse to be still talking about losing the baby weight when I get knocked up with the next one... which won't be for yearrrrsssssssssss.

I've made some connections with a few moms I've met at the meetings and yoga and have been corresponding with one of the moms from our Bradley Method birth class. Also, I just learned about a babywearing group that meets once a month that I'm excited to investigate. I'm trying to find my community here. I'll go insane if I don't. We moved here in August, and while Lee's family is here as well as one of my bestest friends, I'm really feeling the need for some ladies who recently made tiny humans with their uteri (yup, had to Google that one to be sure). I'm making progress, if nothing else I'm finding some good reasons to get out of the house on a regular basis.

Who says that snow days can't be fun when you're an adult?

Lillian was unimpressed by her first snow.

We awoke yesterday morning to find a perfect blanket of snow. It was that magical soft, fluffy kind that makes everything look absolutely beautiful. Campus was closed (because in mid North Carolina everything comes to a screeching halt the second it flurries), so Lee didn't have to go into work. He was still fast asleep when I plopped a freshly fed and changed baby into bed with him and headed downstairs to enjoy my morning coffee in solitude, a rare treat these days. 

Dexter was thrilled with the new development and ran exuberant laps around the backyard. Eloise... not so much.

We brunched while watching the neighborhood kids make some rather subpar snowmen, and then headed out for a walk around the neighborhood.

After our walk we ventured into town to our friends' bottle shop for some fancy beer. Because snow day.

Lillian wore her cutest bear ears.

We finished the day with pizza, Settlers of Catan, beer, and some Girl Scout cookies we accidentally bought while we were out. PS. When the hell did they change all the names? WTF?

It was amazing to spend a day together without any obligations. We slept late, dicked around all day, and discussed at length how absurdly cute our daughter is. We get so wrapped up in the demands of the day-to-day and weekend projects, that sometimes we forget to just hang out and enjoy each other. I married him because he's my best friend, after all, and it sure is nice to spend a day just chilling with my best friend

And now Lillian and I are eagerly awaiting Lee's return home from work so we can watch HOUSE OF CARDS!!! What what! So excited!

No lunch breaks.

I'm currently sipping hot tea and cuddling my sleeping baby while I watch the snow fall outside.

I'm trying reallllllllllllllllly hard to acknowledge the beautiful small moments with her and not lose them among the blur of never ending nighttime feedings, sore boobies, spit up everywhere, and dirty diapers... so many dirty diapers.

I've reached the six week mark. When it is no longer new and sparkly, and the realities of staying at home to care for a tiny human 24/7 begin to set in. To top it off, she is currently in a wail-nonstop-if-anyone-but-my-mom-holds-me phase. So there is no passing her off to my husband when he gets home from work. The only way I can get a moment away from her is if I nurse her to sleep in our bed and then very slowly ninja my way out of our very squeaky old bed. She will not fall asleep on her own. She will not stay asleep if I put her down after she falls asleep in my arms. I wear her. All day. Everyday.

Now don't get me wrong, I am still super stoked about her. She is amazing and I am so lucky to be able to witness each and every adorable thing she does every day. I'm just trying to adjust to this whole mothering a tiny human 24/7 thing. It's for reals. There are no lunch breaks.

Holy crap, my kid is is six weeks old.

She has started to really look at faces and is working on figuring out the whole smiling thing.

She coos and ahhs constantly. When I wear her in the wrap, she holds her head up and looks all around.

Speaking of babywearing... it is amazing. She stays happy because she feels like she is being held, and I stay happy because I can get stuff done. She will fall asleep in my arms easily, but will almost always wake up the second I put her down. However, she will nap long and hard when she's in the wrap. I also like that she is constantly with me in the wrap, when I do manage to get her to nap in the bed I feel compelled to check on her absurdly often. I can't help it, it's the mommy hormones making me crazy paranoid!

We went to our first mommy baby yoga class yesterday. I loved it and it's definitely going to become a regualr occurrence. It's a great way for me to learn some new ways to stretch and work out this post-baby body. Plus, I can get in a little exercise when it's too cold or gross to power walk with her at the park.

She has started to actually watch stuff. She watched the mobile on her swing for the fist time a couple of days ago.

We co-sleep.  I actually don't know any moms who don't. She sleeps for longer periods of time and I sleep better because I can wake up and check on her without even moving. My husband sleeps with us sometimes, but usually sleeps in the guest bedroom which is easier for everyone. There is no need for him to wake up multiple times throughout the night since I'm the one nursing her. Plus it's nice to have the entire bed to ourselves, I sleep better when we have a little space and I'm not on my side curled around her which is what always happens when he's in the bed with us.

Sunday we asked two of our best friends to be her godparents and it was a really happy moment all around. They were totally surprised and touched and it meant as much to them as it did to us.

We are not particularly religious, she is going to be christened in April but it's more for our families than for us. But it was still really special to name them as her godparents, we chose a couple who have been really excellent friends to us for years. They are just really good people and will be great role models for her as she grows.

I'm still totally loving my new all-consuming role as her mom. I've wanted it for a long, long time and am super excited that it finally happened!