Out with the Old, in with the new

Here I am, sitting on the couch, closing out the year. 2014 was a great year. Here's a quick run down of this year.

January: We announced our pregnancy to friends and family! We didn't know if baby was a girl or boy, but we knew we loved our little nugget so much! 

The photo we shared to announce we were expecting!  

Photo Credit: Let It Shine 

February: John left for Deployment. I didn't know if he would be home for the birth of our child, but with fervent prayer and faith, he was home just in time!

Last photo we took before he left on Deployment

March: We found out Eleanor was a girl! It was such a special time, finding out the gender of our baby with all our friends and family here in VA. We even skyped with some friends and family for the big reveal! =)

Our gender reveal cake! 

Cake by: Eric Eisele, my Brother-in-law! 

April: It felt good to do some outreach at a retirement community

Michelle sang some songs, I didn't have a picture of me, so I thought she was good enough. 

May: Lots happened! I had the majority of my baby showers, my Sis-in-law graduated and Courtney got married!! 

Holly and I like to be silly! 

June: To my surprise and answered prayers, my husband came home from deployment early. 

This was just moments before John got off the plane and back in my arms =)

July: I took two awesome trips to the hospital for my kidneys. I got to know some nurses pretty well there. LOL

#hospitalselfie

August: We welcomed our little baby girl into the world on August 7. Best. Day. Ever.

Payne Party of Three!

September: I adjusted to being a mother. I think I slept for about 4 hours the whole month. 

I baby-wore  for the first time. 

October: Our girl had her first Haloween! She was Batgirl. She was Cute!

Such a cute festive dress, made by her Nana! 

Here is my Batgirl =)

November: We took our first road trip to Florida to see her Nana and Papa. She had her first Thanksgiving too! 

My Little Pickle's first Turkey day.

December: We took a new Christmas Family Photo. Its so much different than last years! 

Christmas 2014.

I can't to see what 2015 has to offer. Happy New Year Everyone! 

Dedicating Eleanor Reece

Last week, we celebrated a joyous occasion. Yes, last week was Christmas, but that's not it. On December 21, my whole family got together at my church in Chesapeake, VA and we dedicated my sweet angel, Eleanor Reece to The Lord.

The reason why we dedicate rather than baptize, is that we want our children to make a concious, deliberate decision to be baptized, when they are older. We also believe that when people are baptized, one should be completely covered in water, not just sprinkled. in fact, the very meaning of "baptize" means to submerge, immerse. Not sprinkle. Anyways!

last week was such a great time. My parents flew in from Florida, my sister-in-law, her hubby and niece came in from North Carolina, and my Hubby's aunt drove from northern Virginia too. My sister and her fam were there too, but they live here so they didn't have to travel. All in all, it was a pretty great turn out. Lots of people went out of their way for Eleanor and it made my heart so happy.

I just want to share with you all, one of the most important parenting decisions Hubs and I have made so far. We pray for Eleanor every day. We want her to grow up and make her own decisions, but we want her to live for God, keeping His commandments. And dedicating her to Jesus, will help us as parents to keep the promise we made to take her to church, pray with her, pray for her, and to do everything we can in our power to make sure Eleanor grows up in the Truth.

Anyways, here are a few pictures of our little bundle of joy in her gorgeous dress!

Photo credit: Michelle Eisele by Let It Shine Blog

 Here we are with our wonderful pastor (Bro. Cunningham), with his beautiful wife! =)

 My beautiful family! 

 This is probably my favorite picture of us =) 

 Here is my parents, holding Eleanor. My wonderful mom spent countless hours, making Eleanor's dress. She got so many complements on the great job she did! 

 This is Johns side of the family that came out for the occasion. Don't we look spiffy? 

Here is the big group Photo! My whole family and John's whole family. Completed with Eleanor is the middle. I love. 

THE END! 

Christmas Party for the Win

This past Thursday was my husbands Command Christmas Party. I was pretty excited about this because even though John has been at his command for about two and a half years, this was the first one we were able to attend. The first year John was on duty, and last year he was TAD to another ship and was gone when his home ship had their Christmas party.

John's parents were so kind and agreed to watch Eleanor. Poor baby had just had shots the day before and was pretty fussy. I was hesitant to leave E, because she was so fussy, but John talked me into going.
So we got all dressed up and fancy and were ready to go.

Here we are all fancied up and ready to go! I would like to say I was pretty classy. And so was J =)

On our way to the party, John forewarned me that people were going to get drunk. Hammered would probably be a better word. He had heard stories of past Christmas parties of people who danced on tables, went home with people they regretted the next day and so on. So I thought I knew what to expect. However, When I got there for cocktail hour, I realized this was going to be so much more than just drunk folks going nutters. This party was a fashion show for ladies to show off, after being in a blue uniform all year long. This was also a chance for ship couples to show off their new relationships. During the cocktail hour I took a look around at everyone coming in and thought to myself "Oh my. Didn't their mothers teach them better" There were men showing up in jeans and a T-shirt. There were dudes with ugly sweaters and tennis shoes. There were girls in dresses so short, they had to walk with their hands on their dress to keep in covering their who-ha, Literally. There were ladies back missing out of their dresses and had back-fat spilling over their poor, unsupported straps. It was atrocious. It was then that I got the idea to take pictures, like a stalker and write about this.
Note: The Theme of the party was a Masquerade. Therefore some of these folks have masks on. Also, I took all these pictures on my iPhone and most people didn't know I was taking these. So I apologize in advance for some of them being poor in quality.
So without further a due, I present to you:
THE 2014 COMMAND CHRISTMAS PAGEANT

I am going to start with all the men first. Partly because they are sad and funny, partly because I want to save the best for last.
The winner of the most under-dressed man goes to this guy:

Complete with a T-shirt too big for him, black jeans that don't go with the too-big back shirt, a cheap mask ( that he shouldn't have been wearing because this was a masquerade ball for people who were dressed for a formal party!), and Navy-issue tennis shoes.
I really hope this guy was fresh out of boot camp and didn't have time to go shopping before the Christmas party, because this is unacceptable.

The next category is the Ugly Sweater award. And it goes to this guy:

The guy had a ten-point buck on his chest. He also was wearing converse. Can I please take this dude shopping?

Runners-up are these guys:

Homie on the left had a Pug with reindeer antlers on it. And the dude on the right had penguins, polar bears and anchors... I guess he was thinking "Anchors Aweigh"? Sorry its not a good picture. By the time I got this, a lot of people (not including me) were pretty hammered. The guy blocking my picture was one of them. =)

The next award of the evening is called "The 'I think I am so fly' Award"

This genius had on a metallic suit (Nice) great looking tie, which wasn't pictured (nice), and Jordan's (also, nice, but not WITH the suit.)

The most prestigious award of the night for the means category is the "Douche Bag" award. And its a tie, this year.

These two dudes thought it would be a great idea to get these tux's and dress up as Dumb and Dumber. What is even better, is that another two dudes had the same idea. Yes, that's right. There were TWO PAIRS of these guys. This was supposed to be a Masquerade party, not Halloween 2.0.
Not sure if you can see it, but they also had matching canes to go with their "outfits".
Oh my.

Lets take a break in our Christmas Pageant to share some other pictures. Here we have one of John's friends that sat at our table. He got a little liquor happy. He was having too much fun, so I decided to document =)

He decided to dance in his seat. But jokes aside, he is a really good guy and so is his wife! And I hear he is pretty good at his job too.

Next we have anther one of John's co-workers. Poor girl. Her Boyfriend is deployed and didn't have a date to the party. So she took the centerpiece, and called it her "date". Don't worry y'all, she was sober! Which makes all the more silly!

So, this is Sarah and her date, Eli (her boyfriends name). And might I add, her dress was super cute!! I am LOVING the navy blue lace.

Then, some friends at the table offered to take our picture. I thought it was super sweet. For like a second. They took my phone and instead of taking our picture, they took a selfie. But I wasn't mad. I thought it was funny, and John and I did the same thing to someone else just a few minutes later.

But here we are! We actually got our picture taken.

Stay tuned for the ladies edition of the Christmas Parade Pageant! You don't want to miss it. 

December to Remember

December is the most wonderful time of the year. Between all the shopping, decorating and good cheer, I have compiled a list of reasons why December is great.

• It's Army Vs. Navy time!! Each year, the United States Naval Academy and West Point get together for some friendly competition. People make spirit spot videos, everyone gets hyped up and I am all in. I love Army, Navy week! GO NAVY BEAT ARMY!

This is Billy the goat. Navy Midshipman mascot! Fear the Goat!

• It gets cold but not too cold. It gets cold enough to get in those cutsie sweaters, but not cold enough to get those super puffy jackets out and bundle up, looking like the Michelin man.

Here we are, all Bundled up last January. The snow was fun for a while, but it was too cold! BBBRRRR! and our little nugget was all snuggled up in my belly =)

• People get into the holiday spirit. People instantly become nicer because its just "the season" to be nice. I wish people were nice all year round, but its nice to see people Pay It Forward at least some of the time.
• Decorations. I love it when people decorate for the Christmas season. Lights on their houses, lights on the trees, lights on stick figures, light shows, blow up characters galore! Its so fun to see how creative people get with lights and so much more.

This was our previous home. We got in the Christmas Spirit in the years past, but this year with the new baby, John's surgery and getting a new car (and all the paperwork that goes with it) we just haven't had the time. So we will let other folks be creative this year. And See Charlie at the door!? So cute. 

• Christmas parties! I love getting all dressed up and going to Christmas parties. I am going to my first "Command Party" this Thursday. Even though my hubby and I have been here for 2 1/2 years, this is the first time we are able to go due to other things like Duty and Deployments (ugh). We are so excited! Oh, and don't forget the food! MMMMMMMM =)
• The Music. I love turning on the radio and  hearing songs like "Mary Did You Know?" or "What Child is This?". Granted, they aren't played very much anymore because someone might get offended, but its just so great to hear happy songs, rather than sad songs about breakups, or nasty songs about grinding in the club. 
• And from here on out, December will forever be the month that we found out we were expecting our little girl! Last year on December 9, I found out I was pregnant. I had to wait 10 extremely long days to tell ANYONE because I wanted to tell John first, but he was underway. I wanted to see his face, so I waited until I picked him up from the ship on December 19. I ordered a "Navy Baby" onsie and wrapped it up super cute. Then I gave it to him when he got off the ship. When he opened it, he took the shortest glance, looked at me and said "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" All I had to do was smile and nod, and he swooped me up and I had never seen him so happy in my life. He just kept on twirling me around, hugging me and saying "Oh my gosh! I am so Excited!" I bet we looked super weird to the other 500 people who were getting off the ship at the same time as he did. We probably made quite a scene but I don't care. We were happy. And still are! Here is my little girl wearing the onsie on the way home from the hospital. We had to girly it up since it was a little plain and boyish looking. 

This is the present, the ultrasound (which came a  month later) and Eleanor in her going-home outfit =) 

There are so many reasons why I love Christmas, but the most important has to be Jesus. He is the Saviour of all the world. This holiday celebrates the birth of how he came to earth. Later he died on the cross for our sins to set us free. Jesus is the Reason for the Season! 

The "Crunchy Mom"

Lately there has been a lot of talk on some Facebook groups that I follow of being "crunchy." Being the curious person I am, I googled it. According to the Urban dictionary someone who is crunchy, is someone who is eco-friendly, vegetarian, tree hugging, liberal (leaning to the left), cloth everything and "local" (meaning one who grows their own foods and only eats locally grown food.). 
In my research, I found this article from another blog entitled "20 signs you're a crunchy mom". I just want to share my results. Whether these are legit or not, I don't know, but here are my thoughts to how crunchy I really am. 
Disclaimer: The views on my blog are MY opinion and in no way reflect on anyone else. And I'm not mommy hating! I support all mama's. As long as they are doing what they feel is the best interest of the child. I just dont support moms who could care less about their children. But I support all Mama's! Peace, y'all. 

1. You have a chicken coop in your backyard, and you're not a farmer.

• I don't have chicken poop in my yard, but my in-laws do. Free range, organic eggs are the best. Slurp! 

2. You love a good chicken pox party.

• Not me. Not this one. I am so glad my parents decided to get me the chicken pox shot. I am thankful I never had to go through the chicken pox as a kid. And I don't want my little one to go through the chicken pox. 

3. Scoring raw milk is your idea of a thrill.

• I'm sure it would be great, Just don't know where I would score raw milk in Hampton Roads. I also think we would go broke, considering the amount of milk my husband consumes. 

4. You and your husband haven't slept alone in your bed since your first child was born.

• Well, that's kind of true. But that's only because my Little One is 3 months old. But other than that, I couldn't do this. My dog slips in and sleeps our bed almost every night. I couldn't imagine having a kid in the bed too. How are you supposed to have "mommy and daddy time" if your kids are in the bed with you? Don't answer that question. 

5. Your children indicate their need to nurse ... in full sentences.

• Nope. And if your kid can ask you to lift up your shirt to nurse, its time to stop. Sorry, that's just my opinion. I know others disagree, but I'm not a clingy person to begin with, and I'm not sure I can have all that all up on me. LOL 

6. You use terms like EBF and assume everyone knows what you mean.

• I do know what this means, but that's mostly because I do EBF. Its Exclusively Breast Feed. 

7. You coordinate your wardrobe around wraps, slings, and other baby-wearing devices.

• Guilty. I love baby wearing. Its so fun. And everyone always compliments on how beautiful my baby is. They don't do that as much if E is in the stroller. I got the Ergo baby Carrier. Its about $100, but I got mine used, for half the price! 

Here we are, babywearing in the middle of marshall's a few weeks ago! This was Hubby's first outing after his appendix surgery (He is alsmost fully recovered now. Thanks for all the prayers! )

8. Your kids whip out kale chips at playgroup while the other kids eat Oreos.

• Not sure about Kale chips, but I wouldn't have my kids out with Oreo's either. My Kiddos would probably have a granola bar. LOL Crunchy?

9. Their diets are gluten-free AND Paleo.

• I heart carbs. And I really hope E will love carbs too. I know how hard it is to eat gluten-free because my MIL has a gluten allergy. I hope E doesn't develop this allergy because gluten is everywhere. But it can still be natural. Wheat is something that is grown. In the ground. Its one of Gods natural creations. 

10. You know some really good placenta recipes.

• No. Just no. Not for me. 

11. You not only use cloth diapers, you make them (and wash them) yourself.

• I love cloth diapering. Its so much fun. The prints are so cute, the laundry isn't that bad, and there are no chemicals on my baby's bu. Oh, and I'm not filling up a landfill of dirty diapers. I don't have a terribly large stash of diapers like some do (but that's a whole new blog post in itself). There will be a few more added around Christmas.. I love my little stash =) 

Lot's of these diapers are what's called diaper covers. They are just a shell and have a place to put your own inserts in them. That means that if "Little Girl" just pee's, I can just change out the insert and reuse the same shell. So I might have 15 diapers, but about 7 are covers, which means that I can use 7 multiple times (safely and cleanly) before I toss them into the wash pile. But like I said, Its a whole different blog post. 

12. The only school for your kids is homeschool.

• My major in college was education, and while I know the school systems are flawed, I do believe that every child should be entitled to a public education if they want to, not just because the parent "thinks" that its best for them to stay home all day and minimally socialize with other children. 

13. You use "family cloth" instead of toilet paper.

•  I KNOW hubby would shut it down, so I wont bother. Since I cloth diaper, I figure I am making a good enough difference in the world, so I'll just use the regular toilet paper stuff. 

14. You drive a Prius (and almost never look longingly at minivans).

• I totally got a Prius last week! I Love it. EEKK!

15. You have a composter, and you use it.

• I don't even know if having a composter would be allowed in my rental unit. LOL 

16. Your children aren't vaccinated and never will be.

• It might just be my opinion, but I think that kids should be vaccinated. It leads to healthier life styles for the community. No one wants another outbreak of Polio. Or Scarlet Fever. President Roosevelt was considered a liberal (leaning to the left) president in the 30's and 40's, but I think that even he would agree that children should be vaccinated. If you didn't know, FDR was a victim of Polio in the 1920's and spent the remainder of his life on crutches or in a wheelchair. You can read more about him here. He is kind of my favorite President.

17. There's pretty much nothing you can't make yourself from bug spray to cleaning supplies to granola (of course).

• I haven't tried this, but I think I would give it a go. 

18. You believe coconut oil and breast milk can cure pretty much anything.

• I am quickly learning that this is pretty much the case! I am also kind of getting my sister on board with this one.

19. You use a menstrual cup.  

• I think I am going to leave this one alone for now. I'm not really in to talking about my lady bits and its correlating products all publicly like this. Awkward.

20. You talk about transitioning your children into their own bed ... about the time they're ready to go to college. 

• I am in the process of transitioning Eleanor into her bed now. Last night was her first night in her crib and she did wonderfully. I pray she keeps this up.  I think every child deserves to have their own bed. And sleep in it. Unless there is a scary storm, or the heat is out and everyone needs to stay warm, kids should sleep in their beds! 

Here's my Girl trying out her new bed! She was just making sure her monitor worked nicely. Look at that smile!! 

Some others that I read about on the group, but not mentioned above were:

"keeping all body parts on the body"

• Circumcision. Some people circumcise just because it has been the socially acceptable thing to do, but I believe in circumcision for Biblical reasons. Nuff said. 

Fecal pills

• I am not even going there. Google it if you want, but I am not going there. 

Birthing at home/un-medicated birth

• I did have an un-medicated birth, but that is mostly because I had an incredibly short labor and honestly didn't have any time to get medication. Birthing a home can be alright I guess, but there is always the chance that something unexpected could happen that could put the baby in danger, and I don't think I would want to be away from a hospital if something terrible happened while giving birth. 

So, there you go. That's pretty much how crunchy I am. I think I am a healthy medium between regular, normal American mom, and Crunchy mom. In food terms, I think that would translate to a granola bar. Not too crunchy, like a box of stale raisin bran, but not too soft, like smooth peanut butter.. So, lets see.. How crunch are you? 

Peace in the Storm

Its funny how one day you are just dancing through life, just living one day at a time, and then something happens. Then BAM, You're life is turned upside down.

This past week has been a very hard week. Monday evening was great. I spent the day making treats for my Hubby's ship FRG for a bake sale. It was a busy day and I didn't quite get to get everything done that I wanted. But it was a good day. At night, It was business as usual. Put Eleanor to bed, relaxed for about 2.5 minutes and then went to bed myself.

I wake up about 3 hours later to the sounds of my poor husband, saying that he needed to go to the hospital. I had just woken up and had no idea what was going on. He told me that he had been up since midnight, with sharp stomach pains, and vomiting. My immediate thought was either food poisoning or appendicitis. I felt so bad for him. He said that he was going to the hospital. I asked if he wanted me to take him because even in the dark of our room, I could see that he didn't look good. And when he agreed to let me take him to the ER, I knew it was bad. There was no way he was going to get Eleanor and I out of bed at 2 AM for a little tummy bug.

I instantly got up, dressed and got everything that I would need for E. Got Eleanor up last and we were on our way. When we got there, the ER took him right back. I stayed out in the waiting room with the baby who was super hungry at this point, when some friends from our church, comes out of the back. It must be a small world, because the odds of seeing people I knew at a military hospital at 2:45 AM are probably pretty slim. But Pat was so nice to take the baby for a few minutes so that I could get the stroller out of the car because I had already heard that we were going to be at the hospital for a while with John.

In our three hours down in the ER, John was seen by about three different doctors who all agreed that John had appendicitis and would need surgery ASAP in order to avoid the stupid thing busting and John getting even sicker than he already was.

Every other wife probably would have been hysterical at this point. I might have too, if I were well rested, and didn't have a baby to take care of. But I suppose something inside of me (GOD) knew everything would be alright. Its amazing that even in the craziest of situations, that God gives us such peace.

The hospital staff took John upstairs about 5:30 to the Pre-Op area to wait until an Operating room opened up. He ended up going back about 7:30 to surgery. By this point, Johns mom was almost here so I didn't have to wait in the waiting room for very long, which was good. I really didn't want to sit alone and wait.

About an hour later the surgeon came in and gave me the news that John had gone through the surgery well, his appendix was definitely inflamed and that the doctors in the ER were all right and made the right call to have his appendix removed. He said that John would be in recovery for about an hour, then he would be moved to a room. Then we would see him.

On our way to his room, we were stopped by an officer at a nurses station who was fascinated by Eleanor. She wanted to hold her and cuddle her. She even got centimeters away from her just to sniff her! I was so shocked that someone would get this close to another strangers baby to take a whiff. She almost got a Mama sized fist in her face. But I refrained.

We spent a little time with John and then had to go home about 12:30. By that time, both Eleanor and I were so over being in the hospital and wanted to go home for a bit. Later that evening we were able to take John home with us.

we were all so happy that John was home. And Even Eleanor was surpised as to how good her daddy looked right after surgery!

Since then, I have had to take care of two babies. I have been running around all day and sometimes all night trying to get things done and taken care of. One minute I have a needy infant that needs my attention, and the next minute, John needs something. I know that John hates it that he cant do more to help me out around the house, but at the same time, it truly is exhausting. He can no longer hold Eleanor when she is having a bad few minutes. That has to fall on me. When John needs something from upstairs, I go get it for him. What really is the worst though is the fact that Eleanor does not understand that John is hurt. She doesn't understand that John cant hold her because if she makes one wrong move and kicks her legs, it could hit one of his incisions and really hurt him. She does not understand why her daddy can only touch her head or her arms and kiss her, and not pick her up to play. And I think that has made her more fussy. She hates it too, that she cant laugh and play with her daddy. She cant lay on her daddy's shoulder and walk around, or lay on his chest and fall asleep.

Nor can he get up with the baby at night. He cannot get up to change her diaper or go downstairs if she needs a little extra milk. That has left me to be up with Eleanor every two hours. Literally. So here I am, only getting two hours of sleep at a time, and awake all day, keeping the house from falling apart at the seams.

I am only hoping for two things at this point: Eleanor to sleep more consecutive hours at night so that I can sleep more, and for John to make a quick recovery so that I am not so exhausted all the time. And I dot not share any of this to complain. I Love my family, and I would run myself in the ground to keep my family happy, healthy and fed. I write this to vent. I write this to share with others so that they can get just a little peek into my life lately. I take the time now to explain what happens, so that I don't keep getting a million texts from people asking whats going on and how my week has been, because  frankly, I am too busy to reply to anyone other than my family at this point.

And just in case you were wondering, I still have laundry sitting in the hallway upstairs that needs to be folded.. From Monday. You can come over any time you want to fold it =)

Best excuse to eat Cookies.. Lactation Cookies

When I first had little Eleanor, I had some problems nursing. I googled everything I could imagine. I turned to every mama I knew that nursed. I talked to my Doctor. I talked to my Lactation Consultant. They gave me so much advise, I had no idea what to do with it all. "Take Fenugreek. Take Brewers Yeast. Eat Oatmeal. Drink a beer. Eat your Placenta." Okay, that last one was an exaggeration. But not really. Some people actually do that.
In one of my darkest days, I turned to social media. Turns out, there are a TON of groups on Facebook and Instagram that their sole purpose is to help fellow nursing mama's out with their breastfeeding problems/needs. One of the most common topics on these groups, is how to get a good milk supply going. Most people suggested the usual, Fenugreek, Brewers Yeast, Oatmeal and more. One thing that caught my attention was something called a lactation cookie. Seeing as how the word "cookie" was in the name, it instantly got my attention. Duh.. I started looking into it. Where did I look first? Pinterest, of course.

I found this pretty cool recipe that I tweaked a little bit to my own liking.
You can find the original recipe here, but I put it below, with my revisions added.

3 cups of steel cut/ old fashioned oatmeal (Ive used both, but prefer old fashioned) 

2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 and 1/2 cups of brown sugar

2 eggs (could substitute with coconut oil. Think I will next time, actually.)

1 cup of  chocolate chips ( could substitute with raisins) 

1 cup of butter Salted or unsalted. Your preference 

4 table spoons of water

2-4 tablespoons of Brewers Yeast (be generous)

2-4 tablespoons of Fenugreek powder (I opened up the pills and emptied them into a container. Stored the extra for future use).

2 tablespoons of Flaxseed Meal

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of baking soda

Preparation time is around 15-20  minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
1) Mix together 2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal and water, set aside for 3-5 minutes.
2) Cream (beat well) butter and brown sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mix well.
3) Stir flaxseed mixture and add with vanilla to the butter mix. Beat until blended.
4) Sift together dry ingredients, except oats and chips.
5) Add to butter mixture. Stir in oats then chips.
6) Scoop or drop onto baking sheet. The dough is a little crumbly, it might be easier if you use a scoop- I just use a spoon- no need to get too  fancy.

Bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on size of cookies. Makes approximately 3-4 dozen cookies.

*Again, I can only vouch for myself, but this definitely increased my milk supply and it was a delicious treat that was easy to make. 

My finished product. By this time, I only had 4 left. Out of 16. They were just so good!

**Where to Get Brewers Yeast
You can get brewers yeast from health food stores, or in the health food isles of supermarkets. It’s a bit cheaper to buy brewers yeast from supermarkets than from health food stores. 

Brewers yeast comes in two forms. Pill and powder. I got the pill and I crush up the pills into powder when I want some. I keep some crushed in a small container and add it to things like oatmeal, cereal, smoothies and other foods to boost my supply. 

This recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies at one time. I don't really have the "fat girl mentality" to eat three dozen cookies within the cookie eating window (which is about 5 days in case you were wondering. If they sit out more than that, they start to get stale. And who wants to eat stale cookies?). After I scooped out my dozen or so cookies onto my stone, I got some wax paper out and scooped the rest of the dough into balls and put them in the freezer. Make sure they sit on the wax paper, separated, until they are frozen. That way it won't be a pain when you get them out of the freezer, to bake.

 My frozen cookie balls. All frosty in their little ziplock bag!

I couldn't post a blog without sharing a picture of my Little Lady. And she has something to do with the post.... She is the baby that I am eating these lactation cookies for. =) Here she is in one of my favorite cloth diapers! Isn't that little bum so cute?!

Again, this has got to be the best excuse to eat cookies I have ever heard. To help feed baby! I can honestly say that I don't feel the slightest bit of guilt when I eat one. Or three.
Happy Nursing!

Its Burlap Season

I sure do love burlap y'all. recently I got about 2 yards of burlap from Joann's in hopes of making a fall wreath. Here's a few things I didn't know about Burlap before I purchased it.

It sheds worse than a husky in the Florida Summer.
Its itchy.
It can make your allergies flare up. It sure made mine!
If you sew with it, make sure your machine can handle it. Its heavy duty stuff.

Anywho, I made a super cute wreath with my two yards of burlap. I already had the "P", so that wasn't a cost. When it was finished, I thought it still needed a little "something". I searched my house, high and low for something Fall-ish. Then I came upon this little pumpkin that my mom gave Charlie, my puppy, some treats in last year. Perfect! I love how it turned out. Just a little whimsical, but not over the top =)

I had just enough burlap leftover to make a super cute fall banner. I used all this fun stuff to make my banner. I was pretty much flying by the seat of my pants when I did this, but oh well. Turned out alright. So here is what I used.

I cut my triangles out, but I made a template first. That's the triangle, thing.
Then I used my handy dandy rotary cutter to cut my triangles out, and I used a sharpie to just write on the burlap. I said "give thanks" on mine but you can write whatever you want on yours! Last, I used my hot glue gun and jute to hot glue them to make it into a banner. Super cute! Here is my final product.

My little Pilgrim People have made their appearance! See them right next to the Photo album that doesn't have any outside cover pictures? I'm so classy. And lazy. But I do love my Pilgrim People. They are a blast from my past. You can only get them from Publix, which is a grocery store in the south. Ah, I miss it there.

And lastly, My favorite part of Fall. My sweet little lady, all dressed up in a candy corn outfit, made it love by Nana! =)

HAPPY FALL, Y'ALL!

5 lessons I've learned about Postpartum

Before I had Eleanor, I did a TON of research about having a baby and postpartum. I confess, I watched a few birth videos too. I felt that I was ready for when I had E. I knew what to do in labor, I knew what to expect directly postpartum, like in the hospital. However, there were a few things that I did not expect about postpartum that took me by surprise.

1. You cry a lot. Like a lot, a lot. 

Before I got pregnant, I'd like to say that I did not have feelings at all. People used to call me the ice queen, no joke. During my pregnancy, my hormones weren't too bad. I didn't have any crazy cravings, I didn't cry at the drop of a hat, and I stayed very active. My hormones were a little off, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. But after I had E, they went straight to the crapper. About two weeks after I had E, Hubby was on duty and was gone all night long. I was watching TV and a diaper commercial came on. It was one of those commercials that shows mommy and baby happy that the baby didn't pee through its diaper. There was some sweet music on and suddenly, I began to cry. When it was over, I thought to myself, OMG. Why did I just cry over this commercial? Then I began to think. I have been very emotional lately. I cry every time I see someone with a baby. I tear up when I see a cute puppy picture on Pinterest. 

I suppose that since my pregnancy hormones were pretty controllable, that postpartum would be controllable too. Guess not! 

2. Your body still isn't quite your own.
I suppose if you are formula feeding, then you get your body back faster, but if you breastfeed or pump, then your body still is not quite your own. You still have to carefully monitor everything that you eat. If you eat something that the baby doesn't agree with, the baby will get gas. If you indulge in some Taco Bell (which I have been too chicken to try post baby, because I am worried it will hurt her tummy), you have to weigh the good and bad. Will it be worth it to eat Taco Bell now, and possibly have a fussy, gassy baby tonight?
And you still have to drink, like half of your body weight every day. I drink anywhere between 120-150 oz of water a day. I really don't mind drinking water, since its all I drink, but its not as easy for others.
Some say that with breastfeeding and/or pumping, that mom will loose the baby weight faster. That might be the case for some women, but not all. I've read that in many cases that women stay the same, even gain some weight from breastfeeding. But Dieting while BFing is hard too. You have to take in enough water and calories to produce enough milk for baby to grow. If you don't take in enough, your baby won't have enough food for baby, and if you take it too much, you don't loose weight, you gain it. Catch 22, isn't it? Ugh, the struggle.

3. You go bald (or at least you feel like it)
I had no idea that I would lose so much hair, post baby. I never really noticed a big change in the thickness of my hair during pregnancy. I only noticed that it grew faster. But about a week after I had E, I started noticing that I was loosing quite a bit of hair in the shower. But nothing was different. I was still using the same shampoo, I was still fixing my hair the same way, but I felt like I was going bald! But no worries. I still have TONS of hair, it just seemed more dramatic because I have three feet of hair, rather than the normal amount the average mom has. Apparently its completely normal to lose hair postpartum, thanks to my hormones. Those crazy hormones just keep popping up, don't they!

4. You smell 
Okay, this one is a little gross. It also goes back to those lovely hormones, once again. Since your body is still adjusting to not having a bun in the oven anymore, your chemistry gets a little screwed up. For me, it meant that things like deodorant did not work as well. Neither did those cutesy smelling perfumes. I ended up having to switch to a different deodorant that was a bit stronger. However, I now carry a travel size stick of deodorant, just in case I have any more stinky incidents.

5. You can function without sleep
Its amazing the things you can accomplish with such little amounts of sleep. The first two or three weeks were really hard for me to get up with Eleanor in the middle of the night to feed her. Then the day time was even worse. I couldn't do anything productive other than feed myself, Eleanor and change diapers. However, after the two or three week mark, things got a ton better. I went from taking naps every day when E napped, to only taking naps when I only REALLY need them. I have learned to manage my time so much more efficiently than before. When she sleeps now, I clean the kitchen, clean the living room, do laundry and sometimes even do something for myself, like sew. I still get up with E about twice a night (at about 3 and 6 AM) but I don't feel like such a zombie anymore. It gets better, I promise!

Not all things about Postpartum are bad. I do love seeing my smiling girls face everyday. I love the look she gives me while shes eating, and looks up at me with love and admiration. I love when she plays on her play mat and laughs when she sees herself in the mirror. I love how truly peaceful she looks when she is asleep. I love her more than I could ever possibly express in words.