My almost ELEVEN month old!!!

HAPPY ST PATTYS DAY!!

and yes, i'm well aware, she's flicking me off.

(already, wahhh!!! LOL)

Monthly Update: 

Sleep Schedule: She goes to sleep anywhere between 8-9:30 (most nights) and then wakes up anywhere between 7-9:00. Which works for me :)

Food Schedule: She is still eating a little bit of baby food but the last week or so I have started her on real food FOOD lol whatever her daddy and I make for dinner -  is what she gets, just the plain version! She is doing pretty good chewing, sometimes if shes too lazy, she won't eat and will just sit there and cry or play with her food.. that's when she gets a bottle and its bathtime for her!

Favorite Toy: She loves ANYTHING that she is not supposed to have. She is spoiled with toys, yet goes for the remote or our phones every chance she gets. I'd have to put those as her faves.

Favorite Time of the Day: BATH time or early in the morning - always in a good mood making us smile!

Big Milestone Passed: She is still crawling/trying to walk. She hasn't really taken any serious steps but any day now.

Clothes Size: Still in 12 month (same as the last six months) -- she'll be in 18 month soon!

Best Memory: Can't really think of a single one -- lately the best memories have been right when she's about to go to sleep for the night, and just snuggles trev or I for hours. It's amazing. Perfect ending to anyones day!

Weight: Still haven't weighed her (I don't have a scale) -- but same probably 20-25 lbs.

Height: Same as always, idk -- TALL :)

Any Movement: Crawling like a PRO! and I'm sure she'll be walking any day now.

Any Teeth: Ugh, sore subject lol she has FOUR teeth coming in right now. They took so long, then they all came at once :( Hurting but snuggggly baby.

Favorite Words: DAAA DAAA!!! She did say MAA MAA first, but now all she says is Daa Daaa. She also says 'ohhh' 'baa baa' 'kiii' <--- (trying to say kitty - adorable)

8 MONTH OLD BABY LOVE

Like always, I'm a total slacker when it comes to this blog. I haven't updated anything in almost two months! Time is flying by, like always. Esp with me working at my old job (VERIZON) almost 40 hours a week. I never have time for anything -- or anyone for that matter (besides my little family). When I'm not working, it's Ash and Momma time! We have been working really hard lately, trying to get her to crawl, talk, and eat solids. NONE have happened yet, but I have a HUGE HUGE feeling, this next month is going to be the game changer. Pretty sooon, I will have a crawling, walking, little person on my hands -- not a baby :( Breaks my heart! She's growing up way too fast, but here are some updates!

 

BABYS FIRST CHRISTMAS was a HUGE success. She is beyond spoiled by everyone in her family. She pretty much has a new wardrobe! And thankfully, everyone got her 12 months plus outfits. I'm a little less stressed out knowing she has clothes for the future!!

 

And of course, I took Ash to see santa. SHE LOVED HIM! then after I took her, I found out that you could take your dogs to also see Santa, OBVIOUSLY she had to go see the big man again. and again, SHE LOVED HIM!

Monthly Update: 

Sleep Schedule: Lately she has been going to bed kind of late, which works out since her daddy has been watching her, and he LOVES sleeping in.

Food Schedule: She is starting to get the concept of chewing. We have started her on yogurt bites, but hopefully as soon as these teeth rollll in, we will start on some more solids!

Favorite Toy: SOPHIE the giraffe like always, and recently her Doc Mcstuffins toy - STUFFY! (thanks to her Nana & Papa - from Christmas)

Favorite Time of the Day: BATH time, always!

Big Milestone Passed: Well since I have done a horrible job of updating this.. The last three months have been kind of crazy. She is starting to crawl and scoot everywhere! She eats her baby food (& some solids) LIKE A PRO!

Clothes Size: ANDDDD my 8 month old is in 9-12 month clothing. Some 9 month doesn't fit her :(  

Best Memory: WE MOVED! FINALLY! In our first home as a family (& her Aunt Nanny is living with us, Thank God for her). We have been LOVING unpacking and getting settled in. We will be starting the remodeling process to her nursery VERY SOON!

Weight: Haven't weighed her in awhile. My guess is 20-25 pounds!

Height: Once again, I have no idea! ALL I KNOW IS SHE IS A TALL ONE!

Any Movement: She will be on the go any day now. She is crawling a little bit but hasn't quite mastered it (I'm trying to enjoy these last few weeks of being her immobile!)

Any Teeth: NO :( My poor girl has been teething for too long. FINALLY there is a little bump coming through, which hopefully means TEEETH!

Favorite Words: Nothing yet. Pretty sure she has said 'hi' before, but it wasn't clear enough to be her 'first word' lol MOMMA !!!

Ashtyn Kade's SIX MONTH photoshoot!

 

 We got Ashtyn Kade's SIX MONTH pictures done last week, by our wonderful photog: Jason Loudermilk with Collective Image Photography! HIGHLY RECCOMENDED! We have went through him for Maternity, newborn, and now her six months, & we're always happy with the outcome. Can't wait to go through him for her one year, engagement, and wedding!! (WHENEVER that happens!)

 

HERE ARE SOME OF MY FAVORITES!!

 

 

It's crazy she has only been in this world for 6 months, and I can't remember what the past 22 years were like without my little princess!

My little FIVE MONTH old love

My little love is FIVE MONTHS!

(Calvin Klein PJ's & bow from Burlington)

Ahhh! SHE IS GETTING SO BIG! It's insane. She is starting to eat baby food (home-made, check out my post earlier for recipes!) & she's still rolling all over the place. The second you go to change her, there she goes.. the second I put her on my bed, there she goes.. Now she can't be left alone, on the bed, or couch (not that we'd leave her ALONE but we can't even go into the other room now!), and she has pretty much stopped using her swing because she was pushing her feet up against it & lifting her whole body up! Crazy girl! I have a feeling she is going to be a pistol & we will have our hands full. She is deff getting a little personality - constantly 'smiles mcgee' (as her daddy would say), & she knows exactly what she wants.. it seems like it's been like that since day one to be honest! When it comes to food, nursing, nap-time, and the shows on TV.. she knows whats going on & I am picking up more and more on her ques as too what she wants before she starts freaking out. She starts to get excited if you hold a bottle in front of her, SUPER EXCITED, kicks her feet in and out, starts screaming! It's so cute. Same goes with TV shows, DC MCSTUFFINS she goes crazy over, and she loves Mickey Mouse, Jake & the Neverland Pirates, Bubble Guppies, Dora, Baby Einstein, and Paw Patrol! I REALLY want to start her on baby yoga & baby sign language! 

Monthly Update: 

Sleep Schedule: Same as normal! From about 8-9 at night, then during the day she may take two naps. They are getting longer, since I've been feeding her brown rice cereal & baby food! She has been taking 2 hour naps! It's much easier for her to stay asleep now.

Food Schedule: She gets 8 ounces when she wakes up of formula, sometimes she nurses (I don't know where that came from, but she started nursing again :D MAKES ME SUPER HAPPY!). Then around 10:30-11am I feed her some brown rice cereal mixed with food (right now she's had sweet peas, peas, and sweet potatoes). She will have another bottle inbetween then and when she eats again around 6:00-7:00pm. Then she gets her bath, sometimes a wittle baby massage, bedtime story, and naaa night!

Favorite Toy: Her activity gym & she's IN LOVE with sophie the giraffe.

Favorite Time of the Day: BATH TIME!

Big Milestone Passed: EATING BABY FOOD! YAY! She loves it. Most of it at least, she hasn't been very found of the sweet peas, but sometimes she'll eat them. She LOVES sweet potatoes tho. Next week I would like to make her a few more veggies & some more fruit! I need to start her on apples, bananas, and i'd like to try to make pears, although she has already ate them. I also bought avocado! SO fun!

Clothes Size: Wahh :( She completely fits into 6 month clothing.

Best Memory: The day her daddy and I found out our first house accepted his offer! Couldn't of been more emotional for both of us! We FINALLY got our baby a home. She has a place to grow up in, and I have so many ideas in my head for decorations ESP your new nursery!!!

Weight: She hasn't been to the doctors in two months & doesn't have another appointment til November, but i'd guess 16-17 pounds!

Height: Couldn't tell ya, super long though! SUPER MODEL tall :)

Any Movement: GAHHH like I said earlier, super rollie pollie ollie constantly! SHE WILL NOT STAY PUT! It's adorable to see her roll around though. 

Any Teeth: My poor babe has been teething for the last almost three months & still nothing to show for it :( I hope these dang teeeth pull through soon. Seeing my baby in this much pain is horrible!!!

Favorite Words: Still nothing.. IT BETTER BE MAMA, or else!! :)

 HIII MY WITTLE LOVE BUG!! I LOVE YOU!!

Homemade baby food!

Hello Loves!

I've been wanting to make baby food for awhile now, and although I don't have a food processor, my lovely mother let me borrow hers (FOOD NINJA)! It worked perfectly! It's pretty simple, but I thought I'd give you my beginners recipes & tips (this is my first time so bare with me, I'll let you know more tips when I try again in a few weeks).

Ash is almost 5.5 months old, she has been showing all the signs of needing more food. She had been waking up in the middle of the night (she's been sleeping through the night since about one month, so that was a BIG SIGN), she was drinking a ridiculous amount, I fed her almost 12 ounces at one time!! & she was refusing to take naps!! I started her off on brown rice cereal (Organic - HAPPY BABY is the brand) when she was around 4.5 months old, so she has been on that for about a month now. Usually I feed it to her once or twice a day, at night & sometimes mid-day. Now she is getting cereal more frequent & we are starting to introduce her some YUMMYS!

^^ This was the sweet potato ^^

Recipes

Sweet Potato

3 sweet potatoes - 1.5 cups water
After I poured some into plastic sandwich bags plain, I added a dash of brown sugar to a few bags for taste!
Of course, after her stomach gets used to the taste of it plain. That can be a dessert for her :)

Sweet peas
One bag organic frozen sweet peas - 3/4th cup of water

Butternut Squash

Small organic bag - half cup of water
I also added a pinch of brown sugar to a few bags for added taste!

Oh, & I bought avocados that I will be feeding her straight out of the shell thing :)

 Directions

All I did was wash all the veggies. Then I boiled the peas, squash, and potatoes for about an hour - hour and a half. Threw them in the food processor with water and waited til they were the frequency I wanted. I kind of just winged it!

 I made them pretty runny this time since her little tummy is just getting used to the taste, and hardly added anything to them. I made enough for AT LEAST two and a half weeks, cost around $30 dollars.

OH, and my plan was to pour the finished product into ice cube trays (let them freeze over night) then put two ice cubes of baby food in a plastic bag, label them, and throw them in the freezer. But we didn't have as many ice cube trays as I thought, so I poured two batches into the trays as planned, then with the other batches, I just labeled bags, and poured a little bit into each bag. I'm sure there are easier ways to store, but this was my first time & that's what I came up with!
Next time, I will be doing some fruits! & HOPEFULLY, i'll have bought empty baby food jars/mason jars/SOMETHING for a better storage process, if not, i'll let you know how the plastic bags are working out :P

My little Ashtyn Kade eating her sweet peas! She LOVED them & went crazy over the sweet potatoes!

Nursing Must Haves!

Nursing Must Haves!

1. Night Light - A night light is a BIG must have if you're planning on co-sleeping with an exhausted new daddy next to you, that has to work at the crack of dawn. Luckily my co-sleeper had a little night light on that I just pressed, it lite up just enough of the room that I could change a diaper and see where to put the baby and myself for a good latch. Even if you aren't planning on co-sleeping it's a good idea for the nursery, if you aren't trying to fully wake yourself up with turning the lights on all the way. 

 

2. Nursing Bra - I heard so many bad things about nursing bras before I had baby from all the moms I knew. They said they were uncomfortable & not attractive, but I LOVED mine. I found a few comfortable and some-what affordable nursing bras at Target. If you're like me, you won't be too worried about the way they look anyways, I was way more worried about easy access for my Ash!

 

3. Mother's Milk Pills - My milk didn't come in very much at all. I exclusively breast fed for the first month but after that, it was a serious struggle. I wasn't producing enough milk to breastfeed and pump for the times I wasn't around (even if it was a quick errand, I had no back up milk to give to the loved ones watching her). No matter how much I pumped to try and tell my body to produce more, it just wouldn't. But these pills were the one time I noticed a HUGE difference. Only downside, I noticed if you stop using them you completely lose like half of your milk supply, so take at your own risk!

 

4. Milk Storage Bags - These are a must have for very obvious reasons. If you're planning to exclusively breast feed, then you need a place to put milk to store in the freezer. These bags are perfect, and after you heat the milk back up they pour right into the bottle with no spill. 

 

5. Boppy Pillow - Ahhhh! My lifesaver! When you're exhausted and have a nursing two week old baby on your boob, there is nothing better then the boppy. You can put your baby right on the pillow, lean back and (try to) relax! Then it's also perfect for tummy time or a pillow when your baby naps. 

 

6. Johnson's Nursing Pads - These are great for when you get a little away time from your nursing babe. Even for just around the house, those milk stains will ruin bras and shirts. Just buy these so you don't have to worry about more of your clothes getting ruined (believe me, enough will be ruined being covered in baby spit up and poop). Oh! And I discovered Johnson's are my favorite brand of nursing pads. 

 

7. Lanolin Nipple Cream - If your baby (or should I nipples) is anything like mine, your nipples will be raw and bleeding by day three of nursing! Mine were in so much pain, I would sob in pain every time I nursed for the first week or two. It's okay for babys to digest so you can apply before feeding to help with the latch or raw nipples, and afterwards.

 

8. Tommee Tippee Bottles - I wish I would have known about these bottles from the start. A friend of mine bought them for Ash because she had heard they were the closest nipples to nursing. Ash is in love with her Dr. Brown's bottles, and after three months won't take anything but a bottle besides when she's tired or wants to be comforted. I feel if I had these from the start maybe she would still be used to breastfeeding and wouldn't of noticed a difference. 

 

9. Nursing Cover - I very rarely nursed in public, and if I did I was in the car. I was just uncomfortable, but I don't think there's anything wrong with nursing in public. & I know there are a ton of super cute nursing covers on etsy.com 

 

10. Breast Pump - Any breast feeding mom needs a good pump (exclusively or not exclusively) it's nice to have some back up milk esp if you produce enough! The more mommys milk, the better. 

 

11. Nursing Tank - (see nursing bra explanation) pretty much the same reasoning!

I absolutely LOVE breast feeding. It's SUCH a bonding experience! I never thought I'd be this comfortable breast feeding. But there is honestly nothing like knowing your daughter is alive and thriving because of you. Although I didn't exclusively breast feed, I tried my hardest! Ash is almost five months old and I still breast feed her at least twice a day. Which I am absolutely proud of! Breast feeding IS NOT easy. I never expected how hard it would be, but I also never expected that I would want to make it work so badly. I am supplementing with Earth's Best Organic, it is a cow based milk formula, highly recommenced for moms that are having breast feeding problems like myself!

I am a HUGE believer in just going with the flow. I didn't stress or freak out when breast feeding didn't go as planned, and I mean this in any aspect of my parenting. My birth plan didn't go as plan, but I just went with the flow - a lot less stressful! My plan was to breastfed for a year & she may be barely hanging by a thread, but a little is better then nothing.

 

Also, to help with successful breastfeeding, have your baby latch AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Ash was latched within the first 15 minutes of being alive & she ran with it!

 

XO hope these help!

 

 

My Four Month Old babe!

I know I say this every month (probs everyday for that matter), but I can't believe how fast time is flying. It's no joke! My baby is already 4 months old. Watching our little creation grow has been the absolute most amazing experience of my life! I swear she learns something new everyday.

I haven't seen many baby blogs, or at least monthly questions for baby blogs, so I decided to make my own. Here are some updates witttle Ashtyn Kade has made.

Monthly Update: 

Sleep Schedule: She sleeps every few hours, they are almost always CAT NAPS! 20-45 minute naps during the day. Then at night she sleeps from around 9:00/10:00pm to 7:00/8:00am then wakes up wanting to nurse, nurses and passes back out til about 11:00am.

Food Schedule: I'd say she eats about 6-8ounces (Earth's Best formula & breast-milk) every 3-4 hours.

Favorite Toy: Her new activity mat! Which is extremely girly.

Favorite Time of the Day: As always, bath time!

Big Milestone Passed: The biggest milestone she has passed this month is hand/eye coordination! She can now reach any object you hold in front of her. She is ALMOST holding a bottle by herself. She is constantly sucking on her toes. She can reach the toys hanging from her bouncy seat and activity mat.

Clothes Size: You're almost out of 0-3 months & we're starting to pull out the 3-6 month clothes.

Best Memory: We have been extremely busy this month with myself going back to work, trying to find baby-sitters, and going on vacation. But I think one of the best memories from this month has to be the day she REALLY found your her voice. She has been coo-ing and making noises for awhile now but one day out of no where she just let out the girliest little yell & didn't stop for about 45 minutes! It was adorable. She hasen't stopped since! Also, the day she found her toes was pretttty adorable also!

Weight: You haven't been to the doctor in about two months, but if I had to guess i'd say you weigh around 13 pounds! You have your four month check up next week so i'll have to update. 

Height: UGH! I have no idea. She is SUPA long though. With her daddy standing at 6'5 & myself at 5'7.5, I'm sure you can imagine!

Any Movement: Thank God, no! I'm not looking forward to the day I can't trust her just to lay on the couch.. although you are learning to scootch a little bit :( so I know that days coming soon.

Any Teeth: She is without a doubt teething, but no teeth have cut yet! Thank God for her Aunt Tam getting her some new teething toys that fit her tiny mouth. All the ones we have from your baby shower are too big for your mouth just yet.. & I just bought a chew necklace (I wear, she chews) for you, I think that should fit you soon too (the beads are still a little big).

Favorite Words: None YET! But I'm really pulling for 'MA MA' first! 

I think those are the only questions I can think of right now that will work every month. I'm exhausted. I'm sitting here at 3:30 in the morning, even though I have work tomorrow :/ ugh. I guess it's just nice to relax and unwind by myself for a few hours everyday after everyone is alseep.... LIFE OF A MOMMY!

XO

Oh & here are some pictures from this month!

 ^ You & your new activity mat ^

 ^ Like I said, they are ALWAYS in your mouth (SILLY baby!) ^

 ^ My HAPPY babe in the bath ^

^ You sleeping on my shoulder as I was getting ready.. soaking up every little second with you as a baby, I know (and have already learned) 'it won't be like this for long.' ^