Mom Guilt

Whew!  This week has been something else!  I normally only work 2 days a week.  Which has been the perfect mix for me.  I have enjoyed being out of the house working but I still get lots of time at home with my girl.  This week I was covering for my job share partner who went on vacation (which I’m totally happy to do!) but I realized this week just how hard it would be to work full time!  This week was hard on me.  My emotions were all over the place.  It didn’t help that every evening we had to go help at our church since we are moving into a new building (post on that later!)  So I worked all day and then I would pick up E, feed her and then we went to church….and someone else watched her.  :(  I told Tim I was worried she didn’t love me anymore.  That she didn’t remember me.  I was worried that we were taking her too many places or keeping her out too much.  Basically every bit of mommy guilt you could imagine!  This week I was also ready to throw my pump in the trash!  Ugh….pumping all week is no fun.  But I persevered and I pumped enough milk everyday for E.  yahhooooo!   (I need to post on this too….but I am so stinkin proud of myself that I am still breastfeeding E at 6 months!)  On top of everything, our house is a wreck and we went to bed LATE every night.  It sounds like I’m complaining.  Ok….I kind of am! ha!  It was rough.  Yet, I am thrilled to be doing all of these things you know? 

So back to mommy guilt. 

I talked to my momma and she said she worked full time all through my childhood.  You know who it was hardest on?  Her.  She said when I was talking to her about everything…..it brought back all her feelings of guilt she experienced when I was little.  But, the wonderful thing…..I don’t remember any of that.  All I remember are the times I was with my momma!  I remember wonderful times with my family.  Moms beat themselves up!  My mom worked so hard for us.  And when she was with us, she gave us her all!  She was selfless.  And still is. 

I’m all over the place in this post aren’t I?

But you know what?  We don’t always have weeks like this.  We got through it.  We made it! 

And today I am home with my girl!  She is getting oodles of attention and snuggles!!!!!  I appreciate today so so much. 

My hat goes off to momma’s that work full time for their family.  It is hard stuff.  But staying home is no cake walk either. 

I love love love being a mom! 

One other thing…..my friend Melissa has a cute etsy shop.  She is having a fall sale in her shop and I wanted to share that with you all.  Click here to see all her cute things.  If you use the coupon code shopfall15 you will get 15% off!!!  Yippeee!

Here is one of the cute recipe boxes in her shop! 

Go take a look! :) 

Well everyone….I am off to do a little house work!!!!! 

Hugs to YOU!

Amanda

0-3 month must-haves!

While I was pregnant, I loved reading posts about baby must-have items!  Everyone seemed to have different items they loved.  I thought I would share Eleanor’s must-haves for her first 3 months of life!  Those items changed quite a bit after 3 months….so I will be back later with another post on that! 

Remember that babies like different things!  But this is what Eleanor HAD to have!  And her mommy and daddy had to have. :)

1. Fisher Price Rock N Play Sleeper

This is by far probably our favorite item!!!!!  We got so much use out of it.  This is what E slept in from birth to about 4 months.  It was so handy to put up right next to your bed.  You could give it a little rocking action.  It folded up quick & easy.  We took it everywhere we went!  We moved it into the living room for naps…..or just moved it wherever we were at.  She actually could still fit in this if we wanted to put her in there….but now she just naps in her crib or in her carseat if we are out.  I’m telling you moms-to-be…..you NEED this!!!!!!!!!

There is E sleeping away in her Rock N Play!

2.)  The Boppy!

Another item we really couldn’t (and still can’t!) live without!!!!!! 

We seriously have used this thing so much!  For all sorts of things!  Main use is breastfeeding!  You need this if you are breastfeeding.  At first I tried the whole stacking pillows thing….and that got old quick.  This is the perfect size and shape.  And easy to transport.  We have also used it to sit E in it for storytime, playtime, pictures, tummy time…..you name it!  She has taken an occasional nap in it….even though you are not suppose to use it for sleeping.  But we were right there with her during the nap! 

Here is our teeny tiny Eleanor in her boppy…..I think she was 6 weeks there. 

3.  Fisher Price Glow Seahorse

What can I say…..Eleanor loved this thing!!!!!!  She napped with it and slept with it.  The music had magic powers!  I only have one beef with this thing…..the batteries!!!!!  I don’t know if we kept getting lemons or we just used ours way too much, but we went through so many batteries!  We also had to buy another one because our doggie stole it and took it under the bed and ate it! ha!  Even with the battery issue, we still found this item to be a must-have!

4.  Fisher Price Snug a Bunny Bouncer

A bouncer is a life-saver for those newborn months for sure!  This one was awesome because it vibrated and played music and bird chips!  Plus it was the softest fabric ever.  This was how I was able to grab a quick shower in the early days!  Bouncer in the bathroom next to the shower!  :)  The only negative for us…..for some reason the bouncer made Eleanor poop….almost every.single.time!  wow!  If we turned on the vibrations, she would poop!  I guess if you had a constipated baby……put them in this thing! 

She was such a tiny bunny!

5.  Paci wipes

If you are a germ-a-phobe like me…..get yourself some of these wipes!!!!!  Granted in the early weeks, the germ fears are more intense.  And it didn’t help that I had a preemie!  But I still like to use these when we drop her paci.  A diaper bag staple. 

6.  Bottle drying rack

Eleanor was and still is breastfed…..but we have to have our drying rack!  You don’t need one if you don’t pump.  Since I work part time, I am always pumping milk…..so we are always cleaning and drying pump parts and bottles.  This is much more effective than laying everything out on a towel. 

7.  Receiving Blankets

The perfect all purpose blanket!  We used these things for everything!  They are small and light weight.  We used them to swaddle her, cover her carseat, for a burp cloth, to prop her head up and many more!  Even though they are a little small for her anymore…..we still find ourselves using them for things!

8.  Car seat strap covers

We didn’t have these at first and the straps were leaving marks on her neck!  We promptly ordered these from amazon!

9. Swaddle wraps 

Eleanor quickly learned how to break out of her swaddle and would wake herself up.  So in comes the swaddle wrap!  We used the Halo and Summer brand.  We liked  both equally.  As she got older she learned how to break out of these…..but then she was learning how to roll over….so it was time to stop swaddling anyway! 

10.  Zip up sleepers!

This is another thing that just depends on your preference.  Some people prefer the snap up sleepers.  For us we thought zippers were the only way to go.  So much easier for all those middle of the night diaper changes!  I don’t know how many nights I would get so frustrated because I would snap the wrong snap and would have to unsnap the whole thing!  sheeesh!  Plus, Tim hated the snaps and would only put the zipper ones on her.  And I liked his help in the nighttime…..so zippers it was! haha! 

10.  Pampers

Diapers are totally unique to every baby!  They all work differently for each baby.  For Eleanor, Pampers contained everything the best!  We had some serious serious blowouts in Huggies!  yikes is all I can say.  Now that E is getting bigger, we tried Luvs and we are Luvin them! heehe! :)  Someone told me that Pampers actually makes the Luvs brand!  They fit the exact same….but are about $3 cheaper!  And we have yet to have a blowout!  And we are actually going to start doing cloth diapers on the days I’m not working. 

So those are the things that made things work at the Shepard house for Eleanor’s first 3 months!  I am going to do a post on my favorite items for myself during the first 3 months too! 

Oh yes….and a few things we didn’t really use the first 3 months:

Wipe warmer

diaper genie (we just take our diapers out everyday and that works fine. I’m also cheap and didn’t want to buy refills for the genie!)

a swing (E hated it! but she ended up loving it later.)

diaper rash cream (she has never had a rash and still hasn’t. I’m sure we will have to use it eventually.)

crib mobile (we just never bought one….and I thought I had to have it.)

That is all I can think of right now!  Hope that helped all you prego ladies out there! 

Lots of love!

Amanda

Peanut’s first road trip.

We had our first family road trip!  Where to?

A Mizzou game of course! :)

The drive is only about 3 hours….but I was still nervous.  Plus we rode on a 15 passenger van with other MU fans!  So, I really didn’t want E crying the whole time.  I was also worried about how and when I was going to feed her since we were traveling with a bunch of people and a football game isn’t necessarily nursing friendly! 

Here was peanut on the drive to Columbia….

The trip there was perfection!  She didn’t cry or fuss one time!  whoohoo!  We stopped for lunch and I stayed in the van to nurse her.  That went well….so no worries there!  Then I joined everyone in the restaurant to eat. 

Oh another good thing….she didn’t have any blowouts on the trip!  Another thing I was worried about.  She is definitely a big pooper!!!

We got to the stadium in good shape!  We all got out of the van to hangout for a bit.  Most people come to tailgate, but we didn’t this time. 

We got peanut all dressed up in her cheerleading outfit for the game!  She was sooooo adorable I could hardly stand it!!!!!!!!

Then it was time to enter the ZOU……

E was just taking it all in!  There was so much for her to look at and enjoy!

Bringing a baby to a football game sure brings you a lot of attention too.  Goodness….I don’t know how many people stopped to talk to us about E!  haha! 

She was a very good girl for most of the game!  yahoo!  I brought the Baby Bijorn and she sat in that for the first half.  The other half she went back and forth between me and her daddy. 

It got a little chilly as the sun went down.  We had brought a hat for E but it was too small! haha!  We should have tried it on her before.  It must have been a newborn hat or she just has a large melon!  So, we bought her a hat at the team store!

It kind of made her look like a boy….but she was still wearing her cheerleading outfit……so…….

We had to leave our seats once because she was fussing pretty bad and I felt bad for those around me.  It was about time for her to eat anyway.  I had packed a bottle with formula for this very moment! ha!  I was not sure where to nurse her at in the stadium?  I didn’t want to in the bleachers! I have nursed her before on a toilet (at church) but I didn’t feel like doing that in a nasty bathroom.  So, bottle it was!  I would be interested to know…..where is the strangest place you have nursed your baby?  haha!  Mine is the toilet! :)

Tim and I headed back to the van just a bit earlier than everyone else so we could get E ready for “bed”.  We changed her dipe, put her in jammies and I nursed her.  Then it was time for her carseat.  She slept the whole drive home!!!! yay!  When we got home, she transitioned to her crib just fine. 

So I would call that a successful first road trip!!! 

I love taking Eleanor new places!  It sure is a lot of work…..but it is so much fun!!!!!

Go Tigers!

xo,

Amanda