Twenty One Weeks with Chicken Nugget

This week, you finally conquered sitting. You have been trying for so long to sit on your own and this week you did it! I still put the boppy behind you because sometimes (ok a lot) you get excited and tip over. I like to have something soft for you to land on. 

This week also started on Mother's Day which was a wonderful day. I was able to spend time in the yard while you played with your Dad. Then later in the day we met up with my family for dinner. You were so happy to spend time with everyone and I was happy to spend time with you. 

We spent a lot of time at home this week which was actually wonderful. We had some playdates at home and while the house is more trashed than usual, it was wonderful to spend time at home. Because we were at home more, you were able to take some epic naps in your crib. I think this is just what you need so I'll be figuring out the best way to give you time for good naps while also figuring out how to run off Molly's toddler energy. 

I moved you from the co-sleeper to the Pack 'n' Play. I wanted to see how you did in it and well that transition went very well. I have missed having you sleeping right next to me in bed but you need to move to your crib at some point. I'm more concerned that your sister will bother you than if you'll be able to transition. You already nap in your crib so you are familiar with that space. 

Twenty Weeks with Chicken Nugget

This week was way calmer than the week before. We spent a lot of time outside. I had some dirt delivered and I spent a lot of time hauling it to the appropriate places in our yard. Maggie spent a lot of time perfecting her sitting up skills. She can allllllmost sit up all on her own. She's still a bit bobble-heady though so she gets off balance. I've been making a conscious effort to give her tummy time every day which does not please Maggie. This just means that she is getting even better at rolling from front to back! 

Maggie is also showing me what all the sleep experts mean when they say to put a baby down when they are sleepy but not asleep. These experts must have all had easy babies because Molly never ever went to sleep on her own if I put her in her crib sleepy. Maggie, on the other hand, sighs and goes to sleep! 

I've recovered from the mastitis but my supply is definitely down. I've been working to get it back up but I have to say both Maggie and I are grateful for formula. It's been a little less pressure on me which is good right now. I'm still pumping a lot and eating oatmeal by the bowlful to get my supply back up but I know Maggie is happy because her belly is full. 

Maggie has started to get super excited over her Sophie doll and I hear squeak, squeak, squeak from the backseat as I drive around town. She chews on that thing constantly. It's adorable. I'll need to start bringing out the other baby toys soon!

Garden Update

My arms are quivering spaghetti noodles. On Monday, I had two cubic yards of dirt delivered along with two cubic yards of landscape mulch. It didn't sound like much on the phone but two cubic yards of dirt is a crap-ton of dirt! I've been hauling wheelbarrows full of dirt since then. Molly has been helping but it is slow going since I really only get a chance to work on my dirt piles when Maggie is napping. Luckily she naps often.

Molly has been helping me with this project but let's be honest, she really just likes to climb the dirt mounds and sing, TA-DA! 

On Monday, my four garden boxes were empty but perfectly located to catch all the Seattle sunshine. Then I cheated. I should have dug out the grass and then layered in the dirt. I decided to be brazen. I lined the boxes with weed protector and then shoveled dirt in. I feel pretty good about my lazy decision. Ask me how I feel about this decision in July. 

The boxes are now filled to the brim with dirt, good dirt. I ordered some of the best dirt I could find since good dirt is a great start to good vegetables. I've also put landscape mulch over most of the plant beds around the yard. I had so much weeding to do in between spreading the much. This has been a week of yard work!

This weekend, Molly and I are going on a date to the nursery. We're going to pick out tons of plants and then come home and plant them. I hope Molly understands that these are for growing and not playing. This should be an interesting adventure.

Any suggestions on what to plant? I have lettuces, zucchini, tomatoes, peas and carrots on the list but I'd love more suggestions! Oh and I'm going to steal some strawberries from my parent's house. To be honest, they are my strawberry plants from when I had a garden their house. 

Maven Meals

When I was pregnant with Maggie, my friends sent me a gift certificate to use with Maven Meals. I admit that I may have cried when I opened their email. I blame the hormones.



A few weeks after having Maggie, I decided to take the plunge and order my first Maven Meal.  I had heard about the company from another friend who uses them a lot. After ordering from them a few times, I completely understand why she loves this service.



The food is fresh, healthy and most importantly delicious! I'm pretty sure that I don't make food that tastes as good as the dishes from Maven Meals.



Here's how it works: You order whatever you want from the weekly menu by Midnight on Sunday. Then on your delivery day (I live in Ballard so my day is Tuesday), your food is dropped off on your doorstep. The containers are labeled with how long you need to heat the cook (some dishes require some cooking but it is minimal) and how long the food will last in your fridge. All of this is also on the website so there are no surprises when the food arrives.



I'm personally addicted to the Breakfast Cookies. They are full of tasty goodness and are a great meal when you are trying to eat quickly before the children wake and take away the morning bliss. Some of the other delicious dishes we've tried are Seafood Curry, Chicken and Wild Rice Salad, Granola and Lamb Meatloaf. All of the dishes have been fantastic but the granola is simply amazing!



The dishes range in cost from $2.00 to $10.95 per serving. Yes, you could certainly make all of the food cheaper yourself but then you'd have to make the food yourself. Sometimes it is just nice to have healthy, homemade food already prepared for you.







I was not compensated for this review. These are my personal opinions and thoughts. 

Nineteen Weeks with Chicken Nugget

Oh man, this has been a very rough week. Maggie was a champ through it all. 

Monday was a quiet day. We had a playdate with a friend and Maggie got lots of dog kisses from her dog. Jersey LOOOOOVVVVEEESSSS babies. Maggie thought Jersey was ok unlike her sister, Molly who adores Jersey. 

On Tuesday, we spent most of the day in the car. Maggie did get some good Grandparent time in though so that was a highlight for her. 

On Wednesday, I woke up and felt sick but it was picture day at Molly's co-op so I decided to power through. Molly wigged out at preschool so we came home early. Maggie was having a good time with her Dad but was thrilled to see me. She later accompanied me to the doctor while Molly went to play at a friend's house. I found out that I had mastitis which explained why I felt so terrible. Scott brought dinner home and I went to bed with Maggie. I ended up sleeping from 8 p.m. until 7 a.m. with a few wake-ups to pump. 

Thursday brought some devastating news for my family. Scott came home early and I crashed. I spent most of the day in bed recovering from the mastitis and dealing with emotions. Scott said that Maggie spent most of Molly's nap, rolling around on the floor and staring at her toys. 

Friday, I decided that we needed a normal day. I was feeling much better (blessed be antibiotics!) so we met up with friends at Golden Gardens. Maggie was able to rub her feet in the sand which she found to be very amusing. In the afternoon, while Molly had quiet time, Maggie and I spent time snuggling on the couch. 

Maggie has started grabbing her wub-a-nub this week and sucking on it. It's hilarious. She hasn't been able to get the pacifier in her mouth but she is thrilled that she can hold her wub-a-nub. Her lizard tongue has been in full effect too. My shirts are wet from all her slobber! Maggie also discovered the baby in the mirror. She thought she was a pretty cool baby! 

The Wednesday Links from Around The Web 4.30.2014

It's been super busy around my house and now that the sun has decided to make an appearance, life feels even busier. I'm really looking forward to some lazy days in the backyard with the girls and our veggie garden. This week's links have me thinking about all the things that drive us forward through our busy-ness to enjoyment. 

How to Make Great Beans I'm having a bit of a love affair with beans right now so this article is right up my alley!

12 Healthy Hacks from FitBit Great tips! 

Why You Don't Have Anything to Wear I'm planning on revamping my wardrobe this year. After three years of pregnancy and many post-partum months, my body and lifestyle has changed. My wardrobe needs a big update!

Companion Planting: Putting Your Garden to Work I'll be keeping this in mind as I plant my garden in the coming weeks. 

33 Graphs That Reveal Painfully True Facts About Everyday Life These are awesome! 

Eighteen Weeks with Chicken Nugget

We had Maggie's 4 month appointment this week and she is a giant! She's in the 97% weighing in at 16 lbs, 11 oz and is 26 inches tall. Whoa! It's nice to have direct feedback that all my pumping is growing a healthy and hearty child. Maggie took her shots like a champ. She cried for about 10 seconds and then shook it off and went back to smiling. She is really such a happy little girl. 

We celebrated Maggie's first Easter. She got a small basket with some teething toys, books and rabbit ears. We had a low key day at home. We did take the bus down to the Ballard Farmer's Market and had some coffee before heading back home. Molly found the bus adventure to be super awesome! Maggie didn't really care either way. 

Maggie is really showing us that she doesn't like to be rocked to sleep. She just likes for us to put her down in her crib and walk away. She'll sleep on me in the carrier if there is no other choice but she'll loudly protest. Maggie's way is so different from Molly's that I keep forgetting and keep trying to rock her to sleep and wondering why she protests so much. Then I remember and put her down. She usually sighs and goes to sleep. 

Overall it was a pretty quiet week. We stuck close to home and Maggie practiced more of her rolling skills. She is *almost* sitting up and she wants to do it so badly. It's fun watching her learn and acquire new skills. 

2014 Garden Plans

I've wanted to plant a garden at our house for the past three summers but pregnancy, babies and life have stopped me. This year, I am not letting anything get in my way of a vegetable garden. 

Earlier this month, Scott and I escaped to Home Depot without the girls and procured some great raised garden boxes. The next day, Molly helped me dig out the spots for them near our patio. I've been studying the light for the past few summers and this is the sunniest spot in our yard. The previous owners grew tomatoes here so I have high hopes for this area. 

Now that I've gotten my boxes set up, I need to fill them with dirt and then start planting! I've been researching different delivery options for the 45 cubic feet of compost soil that I need for my gardens. The hard part is that most delivery places have a minimum order of 2 cubic yards which is about 1/2 cubic yard more than I need. I'm trying to decide if I could find a use for the extra soil. I'm also considering having landscape mulch delivered as we need to re-bark our yard. 

Once I have the soil delivered, hopefully next week! I'll be ready to start planting my garden! I forgot how much work goes into setting up and planning one's garden but it's been fun. Next up, what I'm planning to grow! 

Four Months with Mag-Pie

Maggie,

Happy Four Months! Things are starting to get real. You are starting to grab everything, wiggle like a worm and laughing so hard. I love it when you get a fit of the giggles. It gives me a fit of the giggles.

The drool has really intensified in the past few days. I had to break out the bibs because Wow! there is so much drool! You have definitely started teething. I don't think we'll see teeth for a few months but you are so busy sticking your hands in your mouth when you aren't busy drooling. 

You and your sister are really starting to interact. You love watching her and her antics make you laugh. The two of you spend so much time cuddling. I love watching the two of you. 

I'm pretty sure that you are going to be sitting up all by yourself in the next month. You are ALMOST there and your world is going to really open up once you get a grasp on that. Your Dad and I were talking about how eating out is going to be so much more fun when you can sit in a highchair and check out all the excitement. Right now you just try to crane your head around your carseat to see the action. You are also getting bored facing in when I wear you so I've started having you face out sometimes. You LOVE it! 

You've established your own bedtime routine this month. You like to have one last bottle, be quickly rocked to sleep and then put in the co-sleeper for the night around 8 p.m. You usually sleep through until about 6:30 a.m. You are also starting to have a rough nap schedule. You take about three naps a day - one at 9:30 am ish, another around 11:30 a.m. and a nice long one around 2 p.m. Sometimes you sneak in a quick one around 5:30 p.m. You still sleep pretty good in your carseat but I can tell you really prefer sleeping in the crib so I am working to adjust our schedule to give you at least two good naps in the crib. 

I finally figured out how to bathe both you and your sister at the same time this month. I put your whale tub in the big tub and fill them both with water. Then I place you in the whale tub and your sister in the big tub. She helps me bathe you and as soon as you are clean, she insists that I take you out so she can sit in the whale tub. It's super cute! 

We love you Mag-Pie! You are such an amazing baby and we are so lucky to have your relaxing presence in our family. We have your four month check up at the end of the week so I hope you keep chill through your check-up and shots. 

Easter Favorites

It's a rainy weekend here in Seattle but I know that Spring is around the corner. I've seen hints! We're going to have a low-key Easter at home today with a visit to the Ballard Farmer's Market after an indoor egg hunt. We celebrated Easter with my family yesterday so today will be spent enjoying the day, just the four of us. Maybe I'll even get some time to check out more of the awesome photos I keep seeing on Flickr. Flickr continues to provide so many wonderful photos. I just had to share some of them today. Enjoy!

1. Whit's Knit's: Woven Pearl Cowl, 2. IMG_5831IMG1231, 3. Whit's Knits: Chick-in-an-Egg, 4. They should have carpooled., 5. ., 6. Mimosa, 7. The Marching of the Machines, 8. Golden Gardens Park Rocks - Seattle, 9. Day 3: Plans & Machinations, 10. Pralined Almonds, 11. Bathurst Hat, 12. Day 2608, 13. Turned the heel & just have the gusset decreases and foot left on my second March sock! #sasockclub #operationsockdrawer, 14. Looking out on the lake, 15. _E5A5640.jpg, 16. my Alberta, 17. IMG_02338ed, 18. Untitled, 19. pond, 20. Whit's Knits: Stitch Block Cowl, 21. Untitled, 22. Glasses in black, 23. wool-eater, 24. majorly blackified, 25. Abate

Seventeen Weeks with Chicken Nugget

This week, Maggie has developed so many new skills! She's now able to grab her wubanub and sometimes gets it in her mouth! Her grip is getting super strong and she's really into rolling over. She's also tracking so much more with her eyes and is starting to show interest  in what we are eating. I think she's realizing that we eat differently than she does.

We started out the week with lovely sunshine and a walk around Greenlake with a PEPS friend by Wednesday the rain had returned so we headed inside. We dyed Easter Eggs this week, had a playdate at the local coffee shop and then on Thursday, Maggie went to her first library story time. She LOVED it! I'm going to try to make this a more regular part of our routine. Friday we went to a new Tot Gym at the Magnolia CC. Maggie had fun watching her sister play and chatted a bit with Baby Vivi.

We celebrated Easter early today with my family. We had waited too long to make Easter brunch reservations so we decided to go early. It worked out fantastically! Maggie spent most of the meal in her Grandfather's lap. He was thrilled! I was happy to eat a hot meal with two hands. 

Tales of an Exclusive Pumper

I've always held exclusive pumpers in high respect. Why would anyone subject themselves to hours of pumping every day just to give their child breast milk when there is perfectly fine formula? Pumping is not comfortable and the pump never gets faster at pulling milk out like a baby does. There is so much cleaning involved and logistics, so many logistics. You can't pump at the park in an Ergo.

When Maggie was a few days old, I told the doctor that I'd give her a month to get better at nursing and that I just couldn't see myself pumping for every feed. And yet somehow, here we are almost 17 weeks in and I pump for every feed. I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. I'm honestly not sure why I do it. Formula would probably be easier. I could pick up a few cans at Costco, pre-mix the bottles at night and not worry about when I needed to pump. But there is a part of me that says, I'm making enough milk for Maggie and breast milk is potentially better for her so I keep on pumping.

It is limiting. We can't really go on any long car trips/flights right now because I have to pump. The good side to this is we can't really go on any long car trips/flights right now. We also have to leave playdates before Molly is ready because I have to go home and pump. Molly does not like the pump. I often hear, "Mommy, No PUMP!" It's hard explaining all this to an almost 2 1/2 year old when I can't quite fully explain it to myself.

Maggie usually sleeps through the night and yet I don't. I get up to pump. It's a quiet thing and I've started to enjoy my middle of the night sessions (I might not get much alone time). I'm quick and efficient at 3 a.m. I head to the den where I pump while checking Twitter and Facebook. Then I put my efforts into a cooler and head back to bed.

During the day, I try to pump when Scott is here (in the morning) or Molly is napping (in the afternoon) as toddlers can get into quick trouble when their Mommies are busy. I still usually end up having two pump sessions while alone with the girls as I'm pumping 6-7 times a day.

I figured out the other day that I spend about 4 1/2 hours of my day making milk and cleaning up. That is a HUGE chunk of time! I will admit to looking forward to getting that time back when I pump wean. The funny thing though is that I think I spend less time on milk production with Maggie than I did with Molly. I used to breast feed Molly, pump and then bottle feed her the results. I also spent a lot more time worrying if I made enough milk for Molly. Due to my former breast reduction, I've had to supplement both girls. This time around though I've been producing more milk.

I thought I'd lay out my tips for future pumpers who might stumble upon this post. I've gotten some great support from ex-pumpers and since it helps keep me going, I feel like I need to pass it along.

1. Get a cooler for pumping in the middle of the night with a re-useable ice pack. In the beginning, you might be pumping 3-4 times a night and you want to be efficient. I pump, put my stuff (flanges, bottles, etc) back in the cooler along with the filled bottle and then go back to sleep. 
2. Have two sets of everything so that you don't have to wash your parts after every pump.
3. Alternatively you can keep your parts in a ziplock bag and place it in the fridge after every pump throughout the day. Then give your parts a good wash at night. 
4. Don't be afraid to supplement. I don't have to supplement Maggie as much as I did Molly which is nice but sometimes Maggie gets hungry and I just don't have enough of my milk to give her. That is when formula comes to the rescue. 
5. Keep a regular pump schedule. It's important that your body thinks that the baby needs milk. I try to pump as many times as Maggie takes a bottle.  

The Wednesday Links from Around The Web 4.16.2014

Take Time to Give those littles LOTS OF LOVE!

Putting Your Garden to Work For You

Maple Nut Granola - Putting this on my Sunday prep list!

The Best Treats to Bring to Your Co-Workers

Muesli Snacking Cookies

Options of Non-Plastic Kitchen Storage Great suggestions!