Support System

Happy Friday Product Junkies!!!    I feel like I'm on cloud 9 today-not sure if its bc I finally have a day where I'm not going to the studio (don't worry-I'll be back tomorrow), if its bc we made the yummiest cookies yesterday (lactation cookies and they TOTALLY increased my output this morning!!! I'll post the recipe soon!), maybe its bc my little sweetie only flipped himself over once last night (Tanner is a rolling maniac and keeps scooting all over his crib and rolling over and getting stuck which wakes him up-which wakes me up, etc), or if its bc I'm surrounded by people I love (Tanner, my Mom, the pups, sweet Hubs and I are all hanging today).  Regardless-life is good :)

Onto today's post-recently I got an email or 2 asking about nursing bras, so that is what we will discuss.  When I was preggo I was an idiot and just kept on upgrading the size of my regular bras until the week before T came-but once I was at Pea in the Pod and tried on their nursing bras-it was like a whole new world of comfort and support!  Amazing.  And-holy crap-I could breath (I guess my regular bras were tighter than I thought-whoops!)!  My favs are the Seamless Clip Down Nursing Bra from A Pea in The Pod ($42.50-pictured above) and this other one from Tagert(its Gilligan & O Malley) that I cant seem to find right now.  Honorable mention also goes to the Unlined Nursing Sleep Bra  and the Sports Wrap Nursing Sleep Bra( both from Pea in The Pod).  I would say invest in a few good comfy ones that you can basically live in (comfort wins here ladies-they aren't glam-but trust me-they will be covered in milk/baby slobber soon enough anyway).  As far as nursing tanks/nursing night gowns-I have a couple of each but really prefer to wear regular clothes w/ a nursing bra underneath.  For my hospital stay I did get a few soft and comfy nightgowns that were short and loose and so comfy and it felt great to not wear the ugly hospital gown the whole time!!  I also got a new robe that is soft and cozy and wore that too.  Awe all this talk about my hospital stay makes me want to have another baby...

Shedding

Well this is out of hand. I kid you not-I am shedding more than a Husky in July. Like handfuls of hair. Uggghhhhhh. I know this isn't a cute post about a fantastic product or about my fantastic baby-this is just a FYI to other mamas to be and a huge bitch session for me! I have looked into it and it is perfectly normal to lose hair after you have a baby. I guess one of the reasons preggo women get such amazing hair is that they don't lose as much when they are pregs which results in think, long hair. Well don't get too attached to it! Mine started really coming out at about 3.5 months and I think (knock on wood) that the worst is over. Literally a huge handful would fall out when I wash my hair. It is so gross. I could stuff a king size pillow w/ all this damn hair! And Tanner is so into grabbing things that it isn't usual to find a my hair in his little fist. Oh well-another perk of mother hood!

Growing Up Too Fast!!

In the top photo my sweet Tanner Charles is 2 months old, in the bottem photo he is 5 months. I cannot belive how big he has gotten. Look at how much more of his bouncy seat he takes up now!!!! He is a little man and he is growing and changing everyday :) Sorry Product Junkies-today's post is just a chance for me to show off my gorgeous boy!

Nipple Confusion

Alright Mama's. I have been through the ringer. I knew I wanted to breastfeed my baby-but I did not know how challenging it was going to be in the beginning. I mean-holy crap-it was hard. Way harder than my c-section. My little munchkin latched right away, maybe 45 minutes after he was born (I was so drugged up-it was very blurry). The nurses were shocked that a 45 minute old baby could latch and suckle like a champ. So that was good. Then on Thursday(T was born on Tuesday) morning I woke up and made Pam Anderson look flat chested. My milk came in and came in like it was nobodies business. So it seemed that this was going to be a piece of cake, right? Wrong! Tanner could be part human part barracuda. He destroyed my nipples. I mean-I hate to be so graphic-but really, things were looking bad and feeling worse. I had to get on antibiotics-it was a mess. My nipples were bright red and painful to the touch. I cried while I fed him and eventually I started to pump more than I nursed(which is a whole other post bc exclusively pumping is tough too and then my milk supply went down and the saga continues) So along the way I tried just about every nipple cream under the sun and that's what this post is about.
The very best choice is the Medela Tender Care Lanolin. It is the perfect amount of stickiness and is super easy to apply. It weirdly has the same texture as my beloved Kiehl's #1 Lip Balm. Its my fav. The next one worth mentioning is the Mother's Love Nipple Cream. It is all natural, organic, yada, yada and it is good-but it doesn't feel like it stays on. And last and most certainly least is the Lasinoh Lanolin. This stiff is thick. Like rubber cement. I kinda hate it. It is too hard top squeeze out of the tube-then once it is out-it is too hard to apply(think very cold butter not spreading on bread-its the same idea). So there you go-this was the longest post and the moral of the story is: Medela's Tender Care Lanolin Nipple Cream is the best:)
PS: Nursing gets a million times easier w/ time. I'm glad I hung in there :)

I Cheated....

On my product BBF Kiehl's #1 Lip Balm. I was at Nordies minding my own business (and smelling the perfume you guys recommended-more on that soon!) and then I locked eyes on a little black tube of happiness: Jo Malone Vitamin E Lip Conditioner SPF 15!!! It's $20-but worth it in my opinion. This stuff is AMAZING!! Yummy smell/taste and a very nice texture (similar to Kiehls!), but this stuff has SPF! Be still my heart. It had me at hello. Here is how Jo Malone describes it:

"A targeted treatment that softens, smooths and cares for vulnerable skin. Known for its restorative powers, Vitamin E is enhanced with UVA/UVB protection to defend the lips from the damaging effects of the environment. Honey, a natural emollient, brings a hint of flavour to this curative treatment"

Yes!!! All so true! Soooooo will I stop carrying around my little white pots of Kiehls? Will little black tubes be my newest accessory? Only time will tell....I have the loyalty of a Labrador-so there is no way I would drop Kiehls that quickly. But it may turn into a joint custody type of situation. We shall see!!!

Mama Must Have: Video Moniter

Love this. The Summer Infant Slim Secure handheld Color video monitor. It really is wonderful and we use it daily. The 1st few nights of Tanner sleeping in his nursery-I swear I slept with this monitor in my hands and would wake up every hour and check on him all night long :) It is amazing and helpful and such good quality that I can see him breathing at night (yep in the dark-it has night vision!) It is also helpful bc now my sweet little man makes all sorts of weird noises at night and I can just see that he is fine and I don't need to go into his room. It is great. Knock on wood-we haven't had to do any sleep training-but for those who do-this would be a lifesaver bc you could see that your little one is fine. Worth every penny!

Looking for the Perfect Scent-Help Me!!

Oh Bloggers, In all of my 31 years-I have not been able to find the perfect perfume. I REALLY want a signature scent and have tried and tried-but have come up empty handed :( I just think everything always smells amazing when I'm shopping-then I get home and hate it. Any advice/suggestions/recommendations? I like subtle. I don't have a type of scent that I usually go for bc Ive dabbled in everything from clean scents (Bobbi Brown Beach) to floral (Marc Jacobs or Micheal) to sexy (Angel, or Chanel Chance) to Vanilla-y(DKNY Pure)-I mean really the list goes on and on. I'm desperate. Help a friend in need! And just for fun here is a pic of my sweet Tanner :)

Skinny Snack and a Major Chunk

Bloggers, who has time to eat a normal meal these days? Not me. I need something quick and easy and hopefully healthy that I can make quickly and gobble up w/out much preparation. Enter my new go to skinny snack (well its my go to when I'm hungry for something savory): Lean Cuisine Fajita Style Chicken Spring Rolls. OMG these are delish! And soooooo easy to prepare (take out of the freezer, microwave for 2 minutes 30 seconds and voila!) and very easy to eat (I can make, eat and clean up one handed if a certain someone wants to be held). And being a Lean Cuisine, they are pretty healthy:
Calories 200
Fat 7g
Fiber 2g
Protein 15g
Sodium 580mg
Carbohydrates 20g
The only problem w/ them is that I tend to burn my mouth on them:(

**In cute Chunky news, Tanner had his 4 1/2 month check up yesterday (we are 2 weeks late bc of his stomach flu-we didn't want to give him shots when he was a sicky), and the man is quite the chunk. I'm not surprised that my little stud is not so little bc his Daddy is 6'5 and I have lots of tall peeps in my family too (My sister is 6' and my Dad is 6'3"). Here are his stats:
Weight 19lbs 8oz (97th percentile)
Height 26.5" (75th percentile)
We went shopping for Tanner's swimwear yesterday and it is so freaking cute-I cant handle it!!! Pics coming after our trip!!!!

Mama Got Out of Town & My Handy Little Machine

Happy Monday!! I had such a nice weekend! One of my BFFs is getting married this June (in Hawaii!) and she had her bachlorrete party this weekend in Mammoth. It was my 1st time being away from Tanner over night (actually I was gone for 2 nights!), but I was so happy to spend time w/ my best girl friends and Kevin is such an amazing dad-that I wasn't worried at all:) We talked and ate and drank too much wine and just had a fabulous time!! I don't drink very much at all anymore and so this weekend was my 1st time "pumping and dumping" which leads me to this post about my beloved/handy little machine: The Medela Pump in Style Advanced breast pump! This thing is AMAZING I use it all the time-it is quick, efficient, portable and easy to clean. If you plan on pumping at all-you need to have a double electric pump-and this pump is the best on the market!! Medela also makes some great and very helpful accessories to use w/ it-but we will save that for a future post. Oh and my insurance reimbursed me for $100 for my pump (which was $329)-but hey I'll gladly take and extra $100! I got mine at Babies R Us and used a 20% off coupon and it has been worth every penny!!! I pump every morning and night to make enough milk to bottle for when I'm teaching at the studio and then nurse Tanner once I get home during the day. Nursing has gotten very easy-but holy crap it was hard in the beginning-I'll post more on that soon too ;) Alright-I'm off to the studio-I'm in serious need of some exercise bc I ate my face off all weekend and will be in my bikini in 5 days...

Where does the time go?

So I'm really trying to get organized. I even got a organizational book (more on that in a future post)! I feel like there just aren't enough hours in the day to get all the things done that I want to do. So to track where all my time is going, the book suggested I take a day and log exactly what I did all day and hopefully I will identify places I'm wasting time and where I can be more efficient. So here is yesterday:
5:30am-sweet baby boy makes noise in his crib and I wake up, check the monitor (its a video monitor-another must have!) and he goes back to sleep, so I snooze for a bit too :)
6:00am-alarm goes off. I sneak downstairs leaving Kevin in bed w/ the pups and w/ the monitor. I quickly make coffee, pop 2 pieces of toast in the toaster, get my pump parts out and sit in front of the computer eating breakfast, pumping and writing my blog/reading my fav blogs.
6:30am-put dishes in the dishwasher, assemble bottles using pumped milk for the day. Wash pump parts. Tanner wakes up and Kevin goes to get him (which is the sweetest thing bc he is so smile-y 1st thing in the morning) and feeds him a bottle of pumped milk while I wash my face/brush my teeth/make up/get dressed.
7:00am-I get Tanner dressed and get his diaper bag all set. I tidy up, make the bed, throw dishes in the sink or dishwasher.
7:30am-snuggle that sweet boy on the couch for 15 minutes. He is so chatty and discovered a new voice that we call his "Darth Vader" voice bc its low and growl-y. Too cute.
7:45am-Tanner's babysitter gets to the house-God bless her, he loves her! I grab my purse, hop in the car and head to the studio. During my drive I am listening to my Ipod trying to finalize my music for today's class.
8:15am-get to the studio, open up, get music ready.
8:45am & 10:00am-teach classes. Love my clients.
11:15-help 2 instructors w/ their music/timing/questions(eat a banana)
12:30pm-Trish(Tanner's sitter) drops him off at the studio, Kevin gets there at the same time to meet us for lunch. I'm still helping my instructors so I nurse tanner in the studio while they practice.
1:30-we leave for lunch(I have a half cup of soup and 1/2 a sandwich).
3:30-get home, T is sleeping. I jump online to do our payroll. T wakes up. I nurse him.(eat a skinny cow)
4:30-Kevin, Tanner, the pups and I go for a walk.
5:00-Tanner and I do tummy time, read a book, and start a load of laundry
5:30-Nurse T again-he falls asleep on my lap so I jump onto babycenter (my guilty pleasure) and catch up from my phone.
6:00-T goes in his jumperoo and goes crazy in it(this boy can jump!)(I eat a flat out wrap and dip it in hummus) and fold T's laundry
6:30-Bath time for T. I get in our big tub w/ him and Kevin assists. Such a happy family time-he loves "swimming".
6:45-Kevin get him in his PJs and they read a story while I throw on a robe and get his last bottle ready.
7:00pm-Feed Tanner and put him to bed (he is an angel and I put him in awake-but sleepy and he falls right asleep).
7:30pm-Kevin is doing his P90, I make oatmeal w/ nuts and fruit for dinner(supposed to increase my milk supply and steel cut oats helps!), we have leftovers from last night's dinner (pork chops, risotto and broccoli slaw) and Kevin will eat those.
8:00pm-I get in the shower and plan my class for the next day
8:45pm-Jump on the computer and pump again.
9:15pm-Wash dishes/bottles/pump parts, eat another skinny cow and head upstairs.
9:30pm-snuggle pups and Kevin in bed, I'm working on some text for cards we are sending to our clients and Kevin is on his ipad.
10:00pm-Go to sleep!

So that is it...this was probably pretty darn boring to read-but I think it will help help find extra time...and see that I'm eating too many skinny cows :)