Sam & Suzy: 12 weeks and 33 years

Yay! Yesterday officially started the Summer Fun Week! Rob's parents are down here for a week and it's my birthday today! My birthday to 4th of July has always been a week of fun a celebration.

It was so fun to have Sam see his grandparents again. He smiled and talked to them so much. I was actually surprised. Rob's mom brought so many old toys that Rob and his brothers played with when they were super young. There's a Little People house and a Fisher-Price ridey horse! Sam also got a bunch out cute outfits too. Lucky boy!

I'd also like to mention that Sam gave me the most amazing birthday present! He gave me 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep! Thank you little man!


Sam:
Sam got his second set of the 2 month vaccines. Such a champ! He cried for not even a minute and was smiling by the time we got home. He got measured again, grew half an inche and gained about a pound.

He's so close to laughing! I try to find things that really make him smile. I do this silly scream that gets him grinning and he's loving his contrast book more and more. It's so cute to see him get excited when I flip to a new page.

Suzy:
I am 33 years old today! I think that 33 is going to be awesome. I'm a mom now! I don't have to blow out my candles anymore and wish that we'd get pregnant. Gosh, I don't even know what to wish for anymore, I have everything that I want!

So putting that aside. Umm....hello did I get my period?! Ugh, another smack in the face that this whole breast feeding thing is screwy with me. But yup, welcome back period! I'm curious to see what this means for my breast feeding in the future. So far I'm not noticing a huge difference. Having my period did mess with me and I had bad anxiety for a couple of days. I took some of my placenta tincture and it helped so much! I felt clear headed the next day.

Yay!

not sure where this is originally from, found it all over tumblr

T.I.L.T.

i know...reusing this picture again this week

- Tomorrow begins Summer Week of Fun! My birthday, Rob's parents visiting and 4th of July.

- Free birthday drinks from Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks.

- I'm getting a most awesome birthday present that I'm so very very excited to get. I'm so giddy, I feel like I'm 8 again.

- Rob's cousin had a baby boy this week!

- Sitting out in the backyard.

- Slowly but surely the cicada are coming out. I love them!

- They opened a Duckworth's by us. We are going on Sunday!

- Summer beers are so great. You tend to see more fruit beers during the summer like raspberry and peach.

- Our neighbor gave us so many veggies from their gardens.

Super Summer Challenge Update

Just chillin' outside

I am loving the Super Summer Challenge! It gets me motivated to do all these things!

For instance, last Friday I was sick and working from home. On my lunch break I grabbed a quilt and I decided to go out in the back yard and eat outside, a mini picnic! A picnic was on my challenge list. On Saturday I ate outside again. It felt wonderful. I then brought Sam outside and we just chilled on the blanket. I can't believe that was the first time this year that I've sat in the backyard. Now I'm inspired to spend more time out on the blanket with Sam.

I also shuffled around some of the items into different point tier. Like flossing I only had worth 10 points. Meh. But I changed it to 25pt, now I'm interested! Dog walks are worth more too. And I added a few new things like going out as a family and spending time with friends.

I'm doing great with the Mind section, but I don't have many Body points. So many excuses why I'm not doing great (weather, time, Sam...). I'm trying to add more high point items to get me motivated. It's all good though, because it's a learning process. Learning how to balance this new life of mine and seeing what fits.

On BlogLovin'

Just one more week until Google Reader is no more. I'm quite bummed about it! I've been on the search for a good replacement. I've been using Feedly, which is pretty good. But I wanted something a bit more and most of the blogs I read have been switching to BlogLovin'. I didn't like BlogLovin' before their mobile apps, but I've been using it for about a day now on my iPad and I'm digging it and think I'm going to stick with it!

I've also add a BlogLovin' button on the sidebar there if you want to follow me.

Sam & Suzy: 11 weeks

We went to our first baseball game with Sam last Saturday! Sam was totally chill, just sitting and looking around. Yay, we can take him out in public, hee hee. It was also the first time I wore him in the Ergo carrier in public. I loved it! It was so comfortable and easy to get around. Way easier for me than the car seat.

Sam:
Sam's new favorite thing, his fist. He loves putting it in his mouth and munching on it. He'll even talk while he's doing it. So cute! I've tried putting other things in his mouth, like teethers or toys, but nope, only his first or my hand.

Another thing his totally digs is bath time. He just chills there while I get him clean. The other night I filled the tub where he was half way submerged and I let him "play" in the water. He loved it, kicking his little legs around and cooing. Then we dry off and I put lotion on him, which he'll sometimes talk to me then too.

I'm so amazed and proud of our little guy. He is such a laid back baby. Sam doesn't really cry unless he's hungry or wants to be held and if he does cry, he is abled to be calmed down rather quickly. We haven't had many full on red faced screaming moments either. I'm so grateful.


Suzy:
It's shedding time! I didn't think my hair would really fall out since it didn't change much while I was pregnant. But, I'm leaving strands everywhere. Sam even had one in his mouth the other day *vomit*

Earlier this week I got plugged milk duct. For some reason I thought I'd be exempted from these things since I don't make a lot of milk to begin with, but nope! And it hurt! I think I got it because I wore my underwire nursing bra a couple days in a row and I had some pretty stressful days last week. On Monday night I took a nice hot bath and gave my girls a massage. It totally worked! By the next morning I was pain free. Yay! *

*tmi? you're the one reading this blog! i'm glad to know that you now know what i did with my boobs in the bathtub, ha ha

T.I.L.T.

- Sam's crazy hair, which gets crazier every day.

- Watching Sam throughly enjoy munching on his fist and talking while he's doing it.

- Artwork by Sam.

- Being friends with my old boss and his family and our tech. guy and his family.

- Texting with my sister.

- Reading blogs with babies that are around the same age as Sam.

- Waking up to realize that it's been 4 hours or that Sam it still sleeping.

- Getting ready for work while Sam is still sleeping.

- Seeing inspiring messages in random places.

- Going to baseball games.

Shaping Up: 2 months Post Baby

office bathroom pics! yay!

I did not lose a pound! Losing weight after having a baby is so not the same as you normally would try to lose weight. I have to remind myself that my body is not the same and it's still weak and recovering from growing a baby and delivery. It's just a mental struggle because I've lost weight before. I've lost a total of 90lbs since graduating highschool so losing 1 pound should not be hard! Also, since I am breastfeeding I can't cut calories. In fact I still need more calories than a normal gal! It makes my brain hurt! heh.

Ok I could've done things a bit differently to help me lose weight. I need to start choosing quality calories over sweets and other high calorie foods. It's also not an excuse to have big extra helpings. Seriously, did I almost have an extra half a burger and beef one no less? Who am I?? Although, next Friday starts the summer week of naughtiness! My birthday, 4th of July and Rob's parents for a week....food fest! I will TRY to be good!

I'm also struggling with taking care of Sam and finding time to fit in some exercising. Sam wants to breastfeed as soon as we get home, which I don't blame him, he misses his mama. I'm going to see if I can exercise after dinner and start going to bed a bit later since Sam is sleeping more at night.

But again, it's only been almost three months! I'm not upset I haven't lost anything and I'm not hard on myself. Most days I feel great about my body! I look at myself in the mirror and I see the old Suzy, with  a bit extra on the hips and thighs.

Anyways! Next month will be better.

Rob's First Father's Day

We celebrate Rob's first Father's Day yesterday!

And what did we do? Well, only some of Rob's favorite things of course! We woke up way too early and drove down to South Carolina to our friends house. All the boy are training for an ultra marathon and it was their big run day of 20 miles. So off they went running while us girls got to stay in a nice cool house eating yummy breakfast and chatting.

After the boys got back about 4 hours later, we cooked out (southern speak for grilling). And we drank good beer. Not only is this a group of runners, but we are a group of beer snobs. We had tried some pretty good beer. Rob throughly enjoyed himself. It was a great time hanging out with our friends. Even Sam had a good time. He got to hang out with fellow baby Levi and they did a little baby talking, so cute!

Sam & Suzy: 10 weeks

this has to be my new fav. picture of Sam

You know, not much going on around here lately. We are just working/in daycare and evenings are spent cuddling with him. That's it.

I'm still trying to find a good groove so I can squeeze in some exercising, but a lot of the time we get home, I feed Sam and then it's time for our dinner and I can't exercise after I eat and then it's time for bed. I know, excuses. I think I can start going to bed a little later now and get exercise before I go to bed.


Sam:
Someone is starting to sleep longer at night! On Monday, after his midnight feeding Sam didn't wake up again till 5 am. It was amazing! We learned that if I feed him and then give him a small bottle, he'll sleep much longer. Kind of a duh, but he usually falls asleep after I feed him, so I would think that he's not hungry anymore. Now if we can get him to just wake up at 5 each time, because when he wakes up at 4am I have an hour and a half before I actually need to get up. Either way, it feels awesome to start getting longer periods of sleep!

Suzy:
Oh pesky hormones! They are causing me to breakout like a teenager. They cause me to be snappy and moody. They cause me to be up and down about my body image. It's funny because it was ok to feel these things while pregnant, but now that I'm not anymore it's like you expect to be all normal. And you know it's the hormones that are causing me to write this; )

Google Translate

Hello! Hola! Bok! Konnichiwa!

I added a Google Translate button to my website on the bottom right! I have a lot of family overseas that come here, so I thought it'd be nice to help them out.

Dodao sam Google Translate gumb na moje web stranice u donjem desnom kutu! Imam puno obitelji inozemstva koji dolaze ovdje, pa sam mislio da bi bilo lijepo da im pomogne.

T.I.L.T.

- It feels good to have the nursery all done.

- Getting 4 hour blocks of sleep.

- Sending family pics of Sam.

- The fireflies are out.

- Our friends just had their baby boy.

- Being motivated by the Super Summer Challenge.

- Having a picnic table at work so we can sit outside during lunch.

- That Rob is being awesome and making dinner practically every day.

- We found a new way to get home, it's so nice because we drive past open fields and trees.

- Getting our morning coffee from Dunkin or Starbucks.

Super Summer Challenge: My goals and rewards

Yesterday I posted about starting the Super Summer Challenge.

I spent last night thinking and writing out some goals that I'd like to accomplish this summer. Also, I thought about the rewards I am aiming for.

Here's a list of some of my goals:

Mind:
10pt - Write in journal

25pt - Paint my nails

50pt - Go out for frozen yogurt

75pt - Make something for Sam

100pt - Take a family photo

500pt - Go on a date with myself


Body:
10pt - Take dogs on a short walk

25pt - Workout to Post Natal Bootcamp DVD

50pt - Walk a mile

75pt - Run a mile

100pt - No sugar for a day

500pt - Go dairy free for a week

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Halfway  reward - A new pair of shoes

Ultimate   reward - Mini shopping spree

Super Summer Challange

image belongs to back to her roots

I love summer, my favorite time of year! This year however, life is so different and while I love it, I also  don't want to waste my summer away because of the excuse having a newborn.

I came across Back to Her Root's Super Summer Challenge that she is doing on her blog. Basically you have two categories: Body and Mind and you set up goals for each. You give each goal a set amount of points and your goal is to earn 10,000 points for each category by August 31st. These goals are to help motivate you to have a great healthy summer. You are also encouraged to give yourself a reward for getting 5,000 and then 10,000 points.

I thought this would be a fun thing to participate it. It'll help me stay motivated on getting my body back to normal since right now I'm allowing excuses to take over and I haven't been working out. I also like the mind aspect of it because I'm not allowing myself to just chill or not be a mom for even like 15 minutes. Not that I ever stop being a mom, but I make myself stressed out about trying to do and be all at the same time.

I actually told myself that it's ok that this will be a boring summer. Wait, what?! Ok, I can't have a carefree summer filled canoe rides or a sharing a bottle of wine in the afternoon with Rob. But I can have a fun filled summer with plenty of great times with Sam or even small moments with just myself.

I'm still in the process of writing down my goals and rewards, but just I am super excited to be doing this challenge! I'll even be dusting off my Twitter and Instagram accounts to participate.

Nursery Tour!

We finally got around to hanging up the prints we got for Sam's room and we hung up the mobile. So I present Sam's nursery! I love his room. It's so calming and relaxing to me. I can't wait till Sam sleeps and uses this room more. Right now I'm starting to play with him in here, so he gets familiar with it.

The cuddling/ one day late night breast feeding/ one day reading corner. I love to hold Sam while sitting in the chair, looking out into our backyard. On the wall, I have this print and my mother's day present. On the floor we have the book bin. So many books!

The changing station and Benjamin the bear. On the shelf we have a dinosaur painting Rob made me a few years ago, a sock animal from the New York Comic Con, a Totoro stuffie from Japan, a vintage puzzle and Rob's baby shoes. Above the mirror we have a print  from Fab.com, a crocheted stuffie, a Chan Pie Gnon teether and  a little buddha.

Sam's crib. We got those dinosaur prints from Fab. I made the mobile and the blanket. All the furniture is from Ikea by the way.

A close up of the mobile I made for Sam. I'm quite proud how it turned out! I used the same yarn for the birds as his baby blanket.

Sam & Suzy: Week 9

arriving at daycare (he's actually happy)

Sam had his 2 month check up this week. Everything is going good. He's now 24 inches long and weighs 11.5 lbs. He's in the 50% percentile (which I find that whole thing kind of weird) Sam's head is in the 25% percentile, so he didn't get the big head gene from Rob, hee hee.

He also got his 2 month vaccinations. Actually, he got the first half. Then in a couple of weeks he'll get the other half. I actually had to sign a waiver because that's an "alternative" schedule, which is kind of silly. I believe in vaccinations and the importance of them, but I just think it's a bit much all the shots they try to give at once. Oh well.


Sam:

Sam started interacting with the activity center toys. His teacher mentioned it the other day, saying he was totally batting at the toys. I noticed he started doing that with the toys at home too. She says that's impressive for someone his age. Also, his teachers and I have noticed that Sam is becoming left hand dominate. Yes! I'd love him to be left handed like his mommy.

So not only does he like playing with the activity center, Sam LOVES the mirror that's above his swing. He just sits in the swing, looking up with the biggest smile and talking away. I love it! Also, it's nice to have a place to put him down if we need to do something.

Sam is starting to respond to sounds. Yesterday when we went to pick him up at daycare, he was crying and I said hello to him and he stopped crying and turn his head towards me. Awww, happy mom. And just before we left him this morning, Rob says good-bye and Sam gives him a big smile.


Suzy:

I've been doing pretty good. I've been getting some great sleep, so lovley. I totally believe that Sam and I are connected somehow because I always end up waking up right before and right when Sam wakes up. Every night like clock work.

Pumping and feeding are going as good as they can. I was afraid that only pumping twice at work would make my supply go down, but I seem to be doing normal. I'm able to just breastfeed Sam at the midnight and 3am feedings. If I had to guess, he gets about 50-50 breast milk and formula. Hey, I'm ok with that!

T.I.L.T.

- Getting artwork from Sam, the best thing ever!

- I've worked out a couple times with my Post Natal Bootcamp DVD and it feels great to get moving again. I was even sore a couple days later.

- Watching Sam look at the mirror that's above him in his swing. He is just so happy and talkative.

- I got to buy some clothes for me and Sam. Capris for me and cute koala onesies for Sam.

- Sloppy Joe in a biscuit pocket, yum!

- Thursdays Rob and I go and have a beer after work at the beer garden next door. Yay for mini dates.

- Seeing Sam lift his head so high during tummy time.

- Hearing that Sam has been real good at daycare.

- As horrifying as last week's Game of Thrones was, I love that show.

- Ordered a HotMilk nursing bra for cheap from Zulily.

- When we pick up Sam from daycare and he's never crying.

- Our morning drives to work. Rob and I tend to have fun talks.

- Our fig tree is looking awesome this year and we have a couple tiny figs beginning to grow.

Fav. Photos: Month 2

Sam is 2 months old now! I can't believe how much he has grown!

Here are my favorite photos from the last month:

some tummy time

our first mother's day!

he just started smiling

getting sam cozy when he had a cold

sam loves looking at the mirror on his swing

I love his expression

say wha?

chilling after daycare

I'm on Top Baby Blogs!

my banner for TBB

I thought I'd put myself out there and join Top Baby Blogs, a website that has a listing of a baby of baby blogs that you can vote on and push them to the top of the list.


You can click on the button on the bottom right ------>
and vote for me. Truthfully, I'm not about getting votes, just to get the blog on a list, but I guess I DO need votes if I'd like to stay on the list.




If you found yourself here from Top Baby Blogs, HELLO! Nice to meet you! I hope you enjoy my blog: )