April Give Thanks, Week 4

April 22:
     My first block is done. I started my Halloween wall quilt. Its all done by hand applique. I am so thankful for the few hours after the kids go to bed, to work on this project. This first block took me a few days. Feels great to have the first one done!

April 23:
     Thankful today for those moments you get to catch, while your child learns/touches the kitty for the first time and really understands what it is. The laughter, the excitement, the puzzled looks, and the overall joy of the experience for him, is just the best feeling and a great experience to see. I love watching my kids grow and learn.

April 24:
     Today I am thankful for a HUGE milestone for myself. I have officially lost 30 pounds! Its an amazing feeling, and I can not weight for the next few pounds to fall off. I am half way to my goal weight. However, this overall life changing experience of putting the weight on and then slowly taking it off has helped me realize what healthy LIVING is all about. Its definitely a lifestyle change.

Left: December 2013, Right: Current weight today.

April 25:
     My youngest, Jared is 10 months old today. I am so thankful for all the wonderful days that he has blessed me with, and the wonderful experiences and life changing moments that have happened in the last 10 months. He is a unique, happy, funny, out"spoken" kind of personality, and a picky eater. I love him to death, and I could not be more thankful for him.

April 26:
     Since we arrived here in California, months ago; we still are going through stuff and trying to "clean up" and "clean out" the items we don't need or we don't use. Today, we spent at least an hour or more going through boxes apon boxes of stuff and posting them for sale, or putting them in the thrift store pile. I am thankful that we can give our unwanted or unused items to people who can use them, and still give back and help out our military community in return. Feels good.

April 27:
     Thankful for each and every second I get with my kids. They are my world, my only world. As a stay at home mom, this is what I eat, breath, and well... clean! Its my life; I never get a day off from it, even when I have strep throat, and I will work harder then I ever thought I would, at any other job. (No other job, can you go to work with strep throat and still have to work, taking care of 2 kiddos who also have strep throat... yeah this job rocks!) In a positive though, us all being sick means we are spending a lot of time cuddling and thats what its all for.

April 28:
     I am thankful for my kids love for one another... just look at this photo. It says it all. This is what life is about.

Holding hands... awwww

 Give Thanks,
Sarah

February Giving Thanks, Week 1

This month I am going to do my giving thanks by weeks. I felt like I was sitting on the January post for too long. It drove me kind of nuts. So, ill post weekly, and that way you all can read a few at a time, and not 30 or so.

February 1:
      I am so thankful its February! My sisters baby shower is this month, as well as my sons 2nd birthday! Its going to be a great month, I can just feel it!

February 2:
     I am so thankful for a husband who knows how to use tools. He was able to bust out a cutting table for my fabric, in my sewing/craft room, in less then an hour. Its awesome, and its pretty much custom built for my height. He said hes going to eventually add a shelf to it, so I can place fabric below thats not is use. I am extremely happy, and it works great!

February 3:
     Today, I am thankful I hit a goal weight I had in mind, for my weigh in today! Yep, I had to weigh in for my WW, and I told myself I wanted to be at xxx number and I landed right on it! I even went out and spoiled myself with an In-N-Out burger!!! Yeah!

February 4:
      Double seated shopping carts, like the ones you find at sams club or costco, yep those; thats what I am so very thankful for today! Jared man is at that point where he can now sit in a shopping cart, and so today when we went to sams club, both my boys got to enjoy a ride in the cart! Jared was just so excited, and Brian loved having his brother right next to him. It definitely melted my heart.

February 5:
      I am so thankful for those special moments I get to have with my wonderful kids. They are growing up so fast, so those special moments that I do have mean the world to me.

My big boy is not feeling well, and my little guy is sleeping!

February 6:
     Husband came home super early from work, so thankful for perfect timing. He helped load up the car for our trip to southern Cali tomorrow!

February 7:
     Arrived in southern Cali before noon, so thankful for the very little traffic we hit and the two extremely happy kiddos the entire way!

Enjoying the in-laws coffee table as a teether.

Dinner at grandma and grandpas house!

Giving thanks 365 days,
Sarah

The Holidays and Hand Made Gifts

Well, December has come and gone. I had a hundred projects/gifts to make and finish before Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and luckily I finished MOST of the projects I had on my list.

Lets start with my sister-in-law. She has an, almost, two year old daughter (my wonderful niece). I wanted to make her something she could use for awhile. However, a quilt or a blanket is just so over done for the kids in the family. I then did some looking around, checked pinterest and I came across whats called the pillow dress. I thought about it and it was perfect. She can wear it as a dress, and add the pants I made when she gets a little taller. Then when she grows even more and the pants don't fit anymore but the dress fits more like a shirt, she can wear it with jeans or leggings! I hope she loved it, and when she opened the box she looked happy!

opening one of the boxes

Next was my very own sister. She and her husband are expecting their first son in a few months. I love to make baby stuff, so I racked my brain and tried to figure out what was one thing I use a lot. A carseat cover. Its like a blanket but with straps. It simply covers your carseat and keeps those unfriendly hands off your newborn! Thanks but no thanks dirty finger person. I had some really cute whale flannel fabric, and some grey mink hanging out. I checked my measurements and needed a little extra fabric to cover the small pieces missing. My mother-in-law is awesome, and also sews, so lucky for me she had some scrap mink hanging around. I grabbed some navy blue mink and it worked perfect. I love the end results, it totally looks like a racing strip on a car! Check it out and let me know what you think.

Front

Side

When the bottom is flipped open (back view).

When the bottom is flipped open (front view).

 The last big project I did, and where I got that grey mink from is the quilt I made for my mother. I wanted something warm, large, and unique. Something I haven't done yet. Something that makes you say wow. Again, i checked pinterest for ideas. I looked at modern quilts, old quilts, and hand stitched quilts. After a lot of thought and a trip or two or three, to joanns fabric, I found the perfect jelly rolls to use, and the perfect fabric to go with it. The end result was this:

Front

Back, grey mink

The quilting design I did.

All folded and ready to go!

I also made some small cinnamon ornaments that smelled amazing. I found the recipe on pinterest as well. It worked great and was so much fun to do with my son. It seemed like a lot of our family members liked them which is always a win in my book! I hope next year we can get amazing gifts, or make even better gifts for everyone. I want everyone to be happy with the gifts we give them, but I never can tell how people feel about hand made gifts. I hope you enjoy hand made gifts and I hope you find some inspiration in this post!

Happy Holidays, and happy crafting everyone,
Sarah

Breastfeeding vs. Formula Update

For those of you out there following my breastfeeding story, I thought I would give you an update.

I left off when Jared was roughly about 4 weeks old. We were struggling but on the right path. We continued breastfeeding and fighting the fight. However, the short nights of 3 hours or 4 hours of sleep was starting to take a toll on my body, and it didn't help we were PCSing (moving) to California a few short weeks after Jared was born. I was stressed A LOT of the time, and I heard stress can effect your breast milk, but I never believed it until now. I noticed my son went from breast feeding every 3 hours back to 2 hours and sometimes 2 1/2 hours. He was still spitting up a ton, and he wasn't sleeping much at all. The most sleep he would get was from around 11pm until 2 or 3 sometimes 4AM (if I was lucky).

We were back and forth with the doctors and we just kept getting the run around with the acid reflux. The amount of times we changed medicine and then the number of times we were suppose to give it to him changed, and then we had to buy some $80 pillow to help him sleep (Which I didn't buy, I made one, check HERE to see how). It all was just so frustrating. I felt so pissed off at myself for making this milk that was upsetting his stomach, and that his body was refusing my milk. I just felt so worthless and my spiral of depression just got worse and worse as Jareds reflux got worse as well. It was just a horrible downward spiral.

My husband finally said he couldn't take it anymore, seeing me tired, seeing me upset, and seeing me the way I was. I really was glad he was seeing it, and not just ignoring it; as thats what I felt for awhile, but he just didn't feel right saying anything. Once he did, we both discussed the formula that worked the best for our first son (who also had a VERY sensitive stomach). The formula is by Enfamil, its called Gentlease. This formula helps with gas, and fussiness. I was unsure about it at first, but we tried it once or twice a day and I was still breastfeeding him as well. He was getting a little of the formula throughout the day and a little of the breast milk as well. It was amazing how much the formula helped not only with his gas, but as with his acid reflux. He wasn't spitting up as much, and he was keeping down about half of what he was spitting up before.

Eventually we decided to just do breast milk with the formula so that way we could just have all the bottles ready to go and it made it easier on me during the day with my 1 year old and also at night because I wasn't sleeping well anyways. With the change I was pumping several times a day and I started out pumping about 8-10 oz a day. Which was perfect for the amount he was eating during the day. Then I had my 6 week check up, started my birth control and noticed a HUGE lack of supply. I was frustrated, so for a week or so I drank my mothers milk tea, the mothers milk drops, and the fenugreek to help my supply improve. After a week of attempting that I noticed my milk supply just kept dropping. By the 8 week mark I was pumping 3-4 times a day and only getting 1-2oz a day.

My heart was heavy, and I was (shockingly) sad that I wasn't producing anymore milk. In the end I came to terms with it and I was happy that my sons reflux was almost all gone, and he was completely gas free. We slowly used up all the milk we had on hand, and then we moved to California. When we moved we were on the road for two days and it was extremely easy to drive and feed a bottle vs stopping and having to breast feed. It made our trip a lot shorter and I was happier. I was sleeping 6-8 hours a night thanks to the formula which was now making Jared feel more satisfied, and I was even feeling a lot more joy again!

My sons reflux today (hes now 3 months old) is almost 90% gone. He still spits up here and there but it has been a major change in the amount he spits up. He also has absolutely no gas, and when he does have gas I am seriously shocked at it. He sleeps almost 12 hours each night, and yes this is more then likely due to the formula, but it helps me out a lot. Finally, he and I are bonding and so much happier together. We hangout and laugh together, and I feel so much closer to him then I have since he was born! I am a thousand times happier and its amazing how much I love my kids now.

Last time I talked about breastfeeding vs formula I had said that BF wasn't for everyone and it just wasn't for me. I still stand by that and I realize now that I am a happier mom being a bottle feeding formula mom! Its okay to feed your child the formula, especially if its going to help your child's reflux and gas issues. I am glad we made the change, even though it wasn't really our plan to go full formula, but I am still glad we did. I always said that you should do whats best for both of you. If your happy, and baby is happy then thats what matters!

Remember what makes you happy is all that matters,
Sarah