Thankful for the Weekend

This past week, my husband has been out of town for some training for work. This was my first time alone with Eleanor for the whole week. I had been staying alone with E on John's Duty nights since she was two weeks old, but a whole week home with her was a completely different story. On Sunday, Johns mom, Cindy came over to stay the night. She helped me a little Sunday and Monday with E, but she went home Monday afternoon. I really do appreciate all she did to help. But I'm sure she just looked at it as snuggle time with E.
Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty good days with the baby. Thursday everything fell to the crapper. I suddenly felt like I pulled a muscle in my back, which made it hard to do ANYTHING for Eleanor. It hurt to put her down, pick her up, change her diaper, and even hold her in some positions. I could have really used Hubby Thursday evening. When bedtime finally came, I was so relieved that she would be finally going to bed. Apparently not. Little girl decided to party until 11. Then woke up at 2 to eat. This might seem normal to yall, but she usually is passed out by 10 and does not wake up until at least 3 to eat. Thursday night, I literally felt like I was trapped in the song that never ends.
Well the morning finally came. It was Friday. The day that John was coming home. I think Eleanor knew today was the day that he was coming home too. She was so fussy, I didn't know what to do with her. On more than one occasion, I considered having a nervous breakdown, but apparently I am the one who thinks about a nervous breakdown before I have one. I figured it wouldn't do me any good to scream and cry while she screamed and cried, so I decided against it.
But I did learn something new about Eleanor. She likes to sleep on her tummy. Laying her on her tummy, on her play mat, was the only way I could get her to nap today. I know, I know, its not good to lay a baby on their tummy, but I needed a break and I watched her the whole time. Don't judge me.

John Finally made it home about 4:30 on Friday. Thank the lord almighty. I was so glad for my family to be back together. We had a nice dinner out with the Hubby and Little Lady at a place called Firebrew. It was so nice, being out in public, having an adult conversation. It was also nice having a reason to get dressed and decent, other than a doctors appt.

Saturday, E woke up earlier than usual. John was such a sweetie and got up with her. They apparently went downstairs to play. An hour later, I woke up to the sounds of my hubby opening the bedroom door. My love made waffles and eggs and brought me breakfast in bed. He even brought it on a tray! Granted it was the tray to the Baby Bumbo, which was the funniest thing ever, but it was so sweet. My little heart just melted. =)
After breakfast, we went shopping! Washer/dryer shopping to be exact. We picked out our washer and dryer at a local appliance store and got a pretty good deal, I think. We saved $178 on our appliances that were already on sale! And to top things off, we had them delivered the next day.

Here they are! Aren't they beautiful!?

And look at my grumpy girl. Shes just precious! She was NOT happy about taking her weekly Sunday picture.

Happy Columbus Day!
AND, Happy Birthday to the U.S. Navy. Celebrating 239 years today! Boy, they are old. Hooyah!

DIY Nursery Project

Today was a very busy day. We started off our day at the Doctors office with Eleanor's 2 month, well baby check-up. She is a very health baby girl!

She measured 9 lbs 9 oz. She is in the 20th percentile for girls her age. 

She measured 22 inches long. She grew two whole inches in 2 months! She sure is growing like a weed. That puts her in the 66th percentile for height in girls her age. She is one tall, slender girl!

Her head circumference was 14.76 inches, which puts her in the 18th percentile. Good thing she doesn't have a huge head. But she DOES have beautiful blue eyes. =)

The sad part came at the end of the visit when she got two shots. Other moms have told me before that it made them cry. I thought I would be prepared for this. Clearly, I wasn't. I cried right along with her. It was heartbreaking, seeing my little girl so sad and upset. But good thing it didn't last long. After she was all done, I scooped her right up and snuggled her until she calmed down. Good thing it did not take a long time to do so. 

After her appointment, I decided that we both needed some retail therapy. We decided to go to the new Hobby Lobby in Virginia Beach. It was a group decision, don't worry. =) She was happy because I put her in our new Ergo Baby Carrier so she was happy to snuggle with Mama while we shopped. 

While checking out the greatest craft store on earth, AKA Hobby Lobby, I picked up some goodies for some new DIY projects I have been meaning to do. Today's project is all about Eleanor. 

I got this super cute board from HL back in May at the Pensacola, Fl. location. It was on Super Sale. Originally $14, I got mine for about $3. SCORE! But its been sitting all plain on Eleanor's Nursery since we got it hung, back in July. Its purpose was supposed to hold E's birth details when she arrived. And it only took 2 months, but I finally got around to putting them on the board, and I couldn't be happier! 

I started with all of these supplies:

Cricut

Sticky Board for the Cricut

Cartridge of your choice that has the alphabet

Vinyl of your choice (the sticky stuff that makes stickers) 

sample paper (so you can see how big you want your letters. Its best to test with paper and use the Vinyl once. It can get pricey)

 Next, you cut all your letters/numbers out and BOOM! There you go!
This took me only about 30 minutes to cut and place on my board. I am pretty happy wit the way it turned out. It's not perfect, by far, but I like it.

 I put it back up in its rightful home, right above her changing table. Not the best picture, but you get the gist.

One final picture. This is my little girl in her two month photo! Isn't she a doll? =)

5 Things that helped me survive having a newborn

Having a newborn in the house is no joke. Being a mommy is no joke either. But here are some things that I have saved my bacon on more than one occasion.

1. The Bible. And its App.
Having a newborn is mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting. Being able to read the Word is what I need to hear the most, on some days. The scriptures are uplifting and always seem to give me the boost I need. I look forward to reading The Bible every night before bed. However, having a hungry baby that needs to nurse can sometimes hinder that, especially on the nights that hubby has duty and I am all alone. Having the Bible app is such a life saver. If we are having a bad night, we can set the app up, press play and the nice man with a British accent, reads us the Bible. His name is Max, by the way.
This app is especially helpful because back in January, both John and I decided to read the whole bible in a year. This app has plans that breaks down the Bible into little bits, that make it really easy to read the Bible in a year. It keeps track of the percentage of how much of the Bible you have read so far and helps you get back on track if you miss a day.
I have my app downloaded to both my iPhone, and iPad. It's pretty much the best.

2. Angel Care Monitor
I cant quite take credit for this one. My sister found this monitor years ago with her first baby, and I knew I wanted the same kind when I got around to having little ones.
The Angelcare sound and movement monitor that we have, can be found here. We got the standard sound and movement, but they also have a video option that is a little more expensive and it can be found here.
 This monitor is not quite like any other baby monitor. This monitor detects sounds as well as movement. This means that it makes sure that the baby is breathing when it is laying down in the crib or bassinet. If the baby doesn't make any movements for 15 seconds, the monitor will let off one loud beep. If the baby hasn't started breathing in 5 more seconds, the alarm will constantly sound until there is movement detected again.
The peace of mind that this gives new parents is un-parallel. There have been many nights when I know other moms would lie awake, listening for their babies breaths and I would be soundly sleeping.
And I know this sucker works. My sweet Eleanor has had a few scares with her breathing the last few nights. Take last night for example. Both John and I were snoozing away when we got a wake-up call by the warning beep. We thought it was a fluke so we didn't move. But when the real alarm sounded, I bolted up and woke Eleanor up. Right away, I heard her take a big breath in and start breathing again. This happened twice last night. I am praying that this was only a one night thing, but if its not, It does make me feel better that if she does have breathing problems, that monitor will be there for us, to alert us when our sweet baby has problems breathing.

3. Carters Swaddle Blankets
These suckers are gold. From day one with E, I have swaddled her and she has not minded it at all. I like the big ones, that stretch. The more they stretch, the tighter the baby can be swaddled. Someone gave me most of my blankets so I am not 100% sure where they came from, but they are available on amazon, here.

4. Fisher Price Swing
Since I worked in day care, I know the ins and outs of baby gear. Mom's used to come in all the time and tell me their kid didn't like the swing. I knew better. All kids like the swing, they just don't know it yet. I got my swing from a virtual yard sale site, used. Best way to save money, mind you. I snagged a model almost just like this, for the low price of $75. I heart saving money!
Any-who, for the first two weeks, E would not even touch her co-sleeper. All she would do is sleep in her swing. I don't know how I would have gotten through the first few weeks without this life-saver.

5. Electric Baby Scale
After having Eleanor, we had a rough start to get our breastfeeding routine going. Because my milk didn't come in soon enough, Eleanor started to loose weight. Which is normal, right? Well, yes, but to an extent. Little lady ended up loosing about 12% of her weight, and anything above 10% is cause for concern, apparently. We ended up having to supplement with formula for a few weeks, which broke my heart. I felt like such a failure as a mother that I could not provide the most basic need for my child. After having a few sad conversations with my Mom about the situation, my mom got on her lappy (her laptop) and bought me this amazing baby scale from amazon. She said that it would be much  easier to monitor her weight if I had one. It would also give me peace of mind knowing that she is gaining weight appropriately. This little beaut has an infant tray for when they are small, and when they can stand, you can take the tray off and it becomes a toddler scale. Pretty cool, huh?
Since we have had trouble with her weight, this product has given me peace of mine in another sense. I put E on the scale at least twice a week to make sure she is gaining the weight that she needs. AND, thanks to this handy-dandy infant growth chart calculator, I can monitor what percentile she is in.

Here's my little nugget! She holds her head up so good now =)

So there it is folks, my top 5 things that helped me survive a newborn. My little nugget is almost two months old now and I am happy to report she is gaining weight like a champ. She is still on the low side of the growth chart, but she has made so much progress! She goes back to the doctor next week, so I guess Ill share her progress on her height and head circumference then. Ta-ta for now!

DIY oversized headboard

Its Tutorial Tuesday!
Today I am going to share with you the headboard that Hubby and I made. I saw the idea on Pinterest a LONG time ago and have been waiting over a year to try it. I must warn you, this is my first tutorial, so if this is not quite clear, or the pictures aren't the best, I'm sorry. I will get better, I promise! Now that we are done with the introduction, lets begin!

We wanted the headboard to fit our queen size bed, so it measured 60 inches. We just decided to make it square, so we went with 60X60.
Here's what you need for the headboard:

4 pieces of wood (ours was 96 Inches long, by 2.5 inches wide, by .75 inches thick. Two pieces are cut at 60 inches and two cut at 55 inches.

Staple Gun

Staple Gun staples

Saw

Nails (if you want to give the frame a little bit of extra stability)

Hammer (to get those nails, nailed in)

Huge piece of fabric (We are using a super cute, old shower curtain)

Batting

Tape measure for your measurements

Level (to make sure you hang the headboard level)

Pencil 

Nails or Screws (depending on how you want to hang it)

Drill

Drill bit (whatever that is)

Wall anchors

Picture hangers

Here are most of the supplies. I forgot a few in the picture. Whoopsies!

We started our project out at Lowes. We got the pieces of wood that we needed, cut. Two of them at 60 inches and two of them at 55 inches, so that it would really be square when we put it together. 

When we got home, we simply made our square and stapled away! We figured that since the wood was thin, that we would just staple the pieces together instead of nailing them. Plus J wanted to play with his new toy! 

With the extra pieces of wood that we had leftover, we made support beams in the center. We just cut them to fit, so there aren't any real measurements there.

Here is what the wood frame looks like all put together.

Next, we fit the batting to the frame. The batting I bought was really thin, so we doubled it up and cut to size.  You can see here what the batting looked like after it was cut and stapled to the frame.

Here is my hubby, stapling away! Isn't he the greatest?

Next it is time to put the curtain, or your choice of material, on the frame. Just remember that your material has to be large enough to fit the frame with at least 5 inches on each size to fold over and staple to the back of the frame.

Make sure you CAREFULLY flip your frame with the batting over. The batting should be closer to the ground. And also, make sure you have your fabric positioned carefully. The up-side of the fabric should also be facing the ground.

Chose the side you want to start with and staple the first corner. Measure the distance from the edge of the fabric to the edge of the frame.  Take the same amount of fabric on the opposite corner and staple.  Repeat this step with the middle of the fabric. Next go to the opposite side of the frame and pull the fabric tight and staple the edges and the middle of the fabric to the frame.

We had the cutest little audience while doing our project! Charlie was so interested in what we were doing. But of course, he could not part with his ball!

Next is the corners. Fold those suckers like you are wrapping a Christmas present. Make sure you staple the corners well.

Now, when its done, your front corners should look like this:

Now you are ready to staple along the sides of the frame. Go ahead and get staple happy, my hubby sure did! Make sure to pull the fabric tight. Tighter than the late Joan Rivers face. LOL Too soon?

Here it is, all done!!! 

To hang the headboard, we used standard picture holders (the ones with teeth). On the back of the headboard measure 11 inches from the side and 1.5 inches down from the top and mark the fabric (do the same to both sides).  The picture hanger on the left side is placed with the left side touching the mark on the fabric.  The hanger on the right side has the right side touching the mark on the fabric.  Here is a picture of the left hanger.

Then we decided to move the party to the bedroom...... not in that way you nasties! We took our headboard up to the bedroom to see where it would hang. While hubby held the headboard up on the wall I told him how high or low I wanted it. Once the location was decided, we placed the level on top to make sure it was level. Then I marked on the wall, the top (left and right) edges with a pencil. Once the edges were marked, we measured from the edge of the frame to the middle tooth on the hanger and marked that on the wall so we would know where to place our nail to hang the headboard. We repeated this process on the opposite side and then hung the headboard on the wall.

Hubby decided to put wall anchors in the wall, to ensure that nothing slipped out of place. And since its going above our bed, better to be safe than sorry.

Once that was done, we just slapped that sucker on the wall, and all done! The project really wasn't that hard, and only took a few hours to put together. Here is our finished product. =)

Our project isn't the best, but its our own! The pictures aren't the best either. Our living room was a wreck too, so I'll apologize for that. Sorry! I'm soooo not perfect. LOL

Eleanor's Birth Story

Today I want to share with you the story of the birth of my beautiful daughter Eleanor Reece on August 7, 2014. The past few weeks of being a mother have been a whirlwind of new experiences and emotions but I would not change any of this for the world. I must warn you of two things. One, this story will be long. Two, this story is the story of me giving birth, so if you can't handle it, just go ahead and stop reading. You can wait until the next post, which will be less awkward. Okay, Are you ready?? Here we go! 

To start the story of her birth, I must start with the day before she was born which was August 6th. Hubby and I went for my 38 week check up. As we were on the way, we discussed the hopes that progress had been made in the last week, because I had been doing a substantial amount of walking and "other activities" wink wink. We talked about how excited we were to have our little girl here with us. We got to the doctors office and did the business as usual. Then the midwife came in she told me she was going to "check me". While she was checking out my lady bits (which by the way I was 4cm already. WOWSA!), she decided to do some other things. These "things" she did said that they would make me go into labor within 1-3 days. The excitement that I had at that moment was like no other. I was so ready to have my baby here with me and not be pregnant anymore. 

We left the doctor's office and immediately called our family to update them  on my progress. My parents were in Florida, so I told them to start making plans to come to VA. My parents said they would start packing (ppsshh, my mom was already packed for weeks by that time), and get a rental car to head our way soon. We then went about our business, doing some yard work for my MIL. It was more like my hubby did yard work and I sat on the porch with lemonade and watched. My MIL brought us some Chick-Fil-A for dinner. It was Delish! It also happened to be my last meal before baby came. 

That night we went home and decided that we should make sure we had everything we needed for the hospital. I unpacked my hospital bag, laid everything on the bed and repacked it, just to make sure everything was in order. We brought everything downstairs and by the door so that we could load up at a moments notice. Then, finally, we went to bed. I only slept for about an hour before I woke up with contractions. I made sure I was having regular contractions before I woke John up. He did the right thing and started to time them. After about 45 minutes of them being 4-5 minutes apart, I called the doctor and told her I was coming in, which was about 12:45AM or so. 

Let me stop right there and share with everyone that going into labor does not happen like it does in the movies or commercials. It also takes a lot longer to get dressed and ready when you are in labor. I thought that it would take me about 15 minutes to get dressed and ready. Wrong. Having to stop for a contraction every few minutes really adds up. So instead of being ready to go in about 15 minutes, it took me about 45 minutes to get everything ready and out the door. 

Our ride to the hospital was uneventful, with the exception of Charlie being with us. Poor charlie knew something was up, and looked at me VERY concerned the whole way there. Since we knew this was "it", we took our dog with us and my MIL would meet us at the hospital to take him to her house. 

We got to the hospital about 2:15, but by the time we actually got to the womens center it was about 2:30 because I INSISTED on walking in myself. I did not want to be carted around the hospital in a wheelchair because, you know, pride. I have no idea why I did this. 

Finally, we arrived at the women's center and got all of our paperwork in order, only to find out there were no rooms! I felt like the Virgin Mary on Christmas night. No room in the Inn. We spent a little over an hour in a waiting room, waiting. All the while my contractions are becoming more intense and closer together. It seemed like every 3 minutes I was asking John to go see if they were ready yet. 

I wasn't until about 3:45, when the nice nurse came for me, saying that they were ready for me. We got to the room and I finally got to put on that ever so attractive hospital gown. I looked smashing. 

The nurse asked if we wanted to take bets on how many centimeters dilated I was. I wasn't amused so I didn't guess. Hubby guessed 6, I believe. Before she could even check me, another contraction hit, and lo and behold, my water broke. Boy, was that awkward. When she finally checked me, she said I was 9cm and ready to go! Honestly, I couldnt believe that I progressed this far without any drugs. 

My nurse said that the doctor was on the way, and asked me if I wanted the epidural. In the middle of my thought, my first contraction post "water breaking" hit. WOW. It was about 5342 times more intense than what it was before. I succumbed and said "yes". "give me the juice." She nodded and said she just needed to wait on the labs to come back. Apparently, the people running labs that morning were too wrapped up in a Netflix marathon to run my labs because they never came back. 

With each passing contraction I was losing hope in the fact that I would get the juice. I looked at John and asked him to pray for me. we shared a quick prayer and finally, I made peace that I would never be able to get an epidural because I knew she was coming too fast. However my doctor wasn't. I felt, and fought, the urge to push for 45 minutes before the doctor showed up. 

Then, to my relief, the doctor decides to make her appearance. I didn't even pay attention to the directions she was giving me on how to push. I just put my legs up and went for it. I only had to give about 5 good pushes, or about 10 minutes worth of pushing before my sweet girl was finally here. At 5:32 AM. It was the most rewarding feeling, knowing I did it. I delivered a baby into this world. I could hear my husband saying "Shes here, baby! She's here! You did it baby! You did so good!" My first words were thanking God that I my delivery was over and thanking God that she was here safe and sound.  

I have to say, out of all of my accomplishments in life, tending to multiple infants at a time at the daycare, graduating college, getting a licence to teach, teach students with disabilities, I knew this was my greatest accomplishment. Bringing another life into the world with-out the help of any drugs what so ever, was the greatest thing that I have ever done, and it will be the greatest thing that I ever do in my lifetime. Anyways, back to the story. 

The nurses immediately took her, made sure her lungs were in proper working order, weighed her and gave her straight to me. Holding Eleanor in my hands for the first time was so crazy. I waited 9 months to see the face of the baby that I created. I had no idea what she would look like. But she was BEAUTIFUL. She IS beautiful. I immediately Thanked God that she was in my arms and healthy. From that moment, we went from being John and Melissa, party of two, to John, Melissa and Eleanor, party of three. 

Here is our beautiful little family =)

Photo by: Alicia Austin

I leave you with this verse. We used this verse to announce our pregnancy with Eleanor. 

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. I Samuel 1:27

Tales from the weekend

Good day, everyone! Lets talk about the weekend! Shall we start with Friday? Okay.

Friday I had my six week postpartum doctors appt. I decided that in order to cut down the times that E spends in doctors offices, I should probably have someone watch her. My sister ever so willingly volunteered. It worked out because she lives only 10 minutes from the Dr. Office. 

This was the first time that I ever left Eleanor. I was so anxious about leaving my precious little angel. Not that I didn't trust my sister... She has two kids and they are still alive... LOL I just did not want to leave Eleanor quite yet. But I did, and I am proud of myself. There may or may not have been tears shed by both Eleanor and I at some point, but it got better. 

After my appt. I hung out with my sister at her house, for a bit. It was so nice spending time with my one and only sissy. She helped me get the last few things together for my blog, because she is a blogger too! You can check her blog out here. =)

Saturday was quite a busy day for us Payne's. We took a family trip to Lowes to get some things for our latest DIY project, tutorial to come later. We also had lots of cleaning to do around the homestead. This is due to the fact that we have a newborn.  And mommy can't always keep the house in tip top shape all the time, because, you know, I'm human and I need naps. 

Saturday afternoon, our new couch was delivered! This was so exciting for us. The couch we had was a piece of junk that we bought for pretty cheap off craigslist when we got married. This is the first (new) major purchase that we made for our home. We searched high and low for the perfect couch and finally found it. We bought it before E was even born and waited 7 whole weeks for it to actually get to us! P.S. I do not reccomend going couch shopping while extremely pregnant. All the couch-ploppin you do at the funiture store gets super old after about 5 test plops. 

Now on to Sunday. Church day! My favorite time. I dressed E in a dress made exclusively for her by Nana. Eleanor's cousin, Sophia, has one just like it too. Aren't they the cutest?!

After church I made a trip to Joann's fabric. I got a few things for another DIY project. I am so excited to share later this week about a baby wrap I am making. YAY! I do love going to the fabric store, but E does not. It seems like every time I go into that store, she knows. She knows, and she throws down. Full on screaming. The ladies at Joann's have gotten to know me because I am now the nice lady who comes in with the cutest, screaming baby there is. 

so, that's pretty much it for my weekend. Well, the highlights at least. Tell me how yours was in the comments! 

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