Life Lately

I haven't done a blog update in awhile so here's a little snapshot on what has been going on with us the past few weeks. 

This is the 5th grade walk on the last day of school. Can't believe how fast this school year went. I had to leave around 12 that day because I managed to get into the pediatric ENT with Emma because they had a cancelation. Well after that visit our weekend was really thrown for a loop. We were just going in for a consulatation about tubes and her ears were so bad and she was on her THIRD antibiotic for the current ear infection (7th for the past 6 months) so the doctor managed to find one of his colleagues who had an opening on Friday for her to get tubes. Not ideal timing as it was my post planning day, tommy was already gone on a bachelor party, my parents were already at the beach (which Emma and I were supposed to be joining them), and my sister was in Mexico. Thankfully my in-laws live here too so they joined me on Friday for her surgery. Thanks Tom and Courtney for the moral support! 

So with the situation above Thursday ended up being Emma's last day of daycare for the year. We are so thankful for the care she's gotten this past year from her teachers. She (and me!) are going to miss them this Summer. She will go back in the infant room for a week or so as they transition her to the toddler room once I go back to work at the end of July. I am SO excited about the next two months at home with Emma! (Can you believe how much she has changed since August 2016!)

On Friday morning, Emma and I took some donuts to her teachers (I had planned on doing this all along but again was abruptly done with daycare) to keep us busy and her distracted from the fact that she couldn't eat before her surgery (which we checked in at 10:30am and her surgery was right around 12:00pm). 

 Trying to keep her entertained as we waited in our room for them to take her back to the OR room. 

She fell asleep while we were waiting. That double whammy of motrin and tylenol from the nurses knocked this little lady out. 

 She really did so well. I could tell she felt almost instant relief from the fluid being drained from her ears with the current infection. I pray that she has a much easier time when it comes to fighting off any infections that might come her way now that she's gotten the tubes put in. This was her on Friday afternoon.

 We spent most of our weekend poolside with friends while Tommy was away. Fortunately babies don't really swim with their heads submerged under water so she didn't really have any restrictions as far as the surgery went this weekend (minus not being able to have a bath and have water come above her shoulders for a few days).

 Monday was our neighborhood cookout at the pool and Tommy was home so we went up there for lunch for a bit. There is too much action going on for her to look at me! She was pretty cranky this weekend and clingy to me but she also has her molars trying to poke through. Poor thing has just not been herself lately.

 Love her little stars and stripes outfit for memorial day (and she wore a bow for a solid 30 minutes. That is BIG for lately!)

 Her new thing is to force a laugh when she hears someone else laughing. This is mid-laugh at lunch today with Ansley and Elizabeth. We are getting while the getting is good before Gavin makes his debut. Gavin is due this Thursday so any day now he could be making his grand entrance. We hope sooner rather than later! We are so ready to meet you little guy!

Everyone except maybe Emma ha! She knows she is about to be second place to the newest addition to our framily. Really happy Summer break is here!

Show and Tell Tuesday: Vacations

Twice a month, momfessionals, hosts Show and Tell Tuesday so I wanted to link up today to talk about best/worst vacations! 

South Africa 2013

My best vacations usually revolve around trips with my family to visit family. A very special trip to South Africa to visit family was 4 years ago (to the day pretty much) where Tommy came with me for the first time. He got to meet my granny (who is not doing very well right now. My dad is in SA currently) and my uncles as well as see what we talk about all the time. SA is a special place and always holds a special place in my heart. I usually make a trip around every 5 years so that means we are due Tommy ;) 

If you can even say "worst" vacation but maybe just "worst" part of a vacation is when you get sick. Well at the very end of this SA trip I must have gotten some kind of bacterial infection in my stomach. I was veryyyyy sick and ended up getting so dehydrated by the time I got home that I ended up in the ER in Atlanta upon my return. They did a CT scan, chest xray, and so many blood tests because my head was in excrutiating pain and I had just been in Africa. Well a few bags of saline and a lot of morphine later I was like new. Not a good feeling but I still look back so fondly of this trip. 

Pacific Northwest 2015

When it comes to vacations with just me and Tommy I think my favorite trip was our trip to the Pacific Northwest. It was not a good time for us (I had just finished physically recovering from a miscarriage and emotionally we were working through everything) and it was a much needed vacation for us to get away. We had been looking forward to this trip so much because neither of us had been to this part of the country. We ate and drank our way through Seattle and Portland. We laughed a LOT and loved exploring a new place just the two of us. It was such a healing trip for us both. You can read about our trip here, here, and here. 

Thanks for reading! I love to travel and we are getting the itch to plan something different for us for next year some time. 

Final Nursing post

Since I have posted about mine and Emma's nursing experience along the way I figured I should do a final post now that we are DONE. Over spring break (beginning of April), I dropped nursing/pumping the middle of the day feedings. I knew I had enough milk in the freezer to make up for it for the last month before Emma turned one. I was ready to be done pumping at work. Life changing not taking my pump and pump parts to work the week following the break. Also due to this I decided to go back to feeding her myself in the mornings before work so I wouldn't have to pump at all (unless I was gone in the morning or at night). For the last month I nursed Emma when she woke up and before she went to bed. The week before her birthday I dropped the night feeding (I was going to Athens on Friday the 5th for graduation and really didn't want to have to worry about pumping or else I probably would have dropped the morning first). I still had enough milk in the freezer to give her breastmilk at night until her birthday. The day before her birthday was my last day of pumping. The last morning I nursed was the Sunday (3 days) before her birthday. I went down on minutes pumping on Monday and then I kinda just stopped cold turkey on Tuesday and hoped for the best. I hadn't gotten mastitis or clogged ducts this whole time and so Emma was really leading the charge of weaning on her own. It worked out for me. It's pretty amazing what your body does and figures out regarding milk. I knew I wanted to be done by her birthday. I was ready for my independence to come back and for me to just be mom. Everyone's journey with nursing is different and this was just my take on it. I used up the last bag of my frozen milk the day after her birthday and we have fully transitioned over to whole milk. We made it to one year! I have to say I exceeded my own expectations. When Emma was born I felt a strong/good goal was to make it to six months. At that point we were in a good groove with nursing and she was really good at going between me and a bottle. If it ain't broke don't fix it was my mentality. I probably won't be able to make it to a year next time (I just know how much harder it is when there's a toddler running around) so I just enjoyed this time with Emma while I could. 

She had a rough two mornings those first two days I didn't feed her in the morning (sorry Tommy!) but then by her birthday morning she was back to normal with taking a bottle from him in the morning.

Now I'm just mom and not her food. I'm enjoying our new nighttime routine and can't believe we made it to a year of nursing and that Emma is a year old! My how time flies!

Pictures for good measure:

{My First} Mother's Day

On Mother's Day last year I was anxiously awaiting Emma's arrival. Emma made her grand entrance into the world two days after Mother's Day last year so this was my first Mother's Day with a baby in my arms and oh how sweet it was! We started the morning with breakfast (made by Danny and Beth) at the Robinsons. It was delicious! I didn't take a picture of the feast but there was bacon, sausage, cheese grits, tater tots, scrambled eggs, and juice. It was so yummy. Thanks guys! 

From the Robinsons, the four of us (Cooper included) drove down to Krog Street Market. We walked the beltline from Krog Street to Ponce City Market and back. We ate lunch outside at Krog Street Market followed by dessert from Jenis ice cream. Such a fun afternoon with my family. Tommy asked me what I wanted to do on Mother's Day and all I wanted was to enjoy the beautiful day with my little family so that's just what we did. We had yummy laffa's from Yalla. The beltline is so nice to walk on because it's wide and easy to get onto. It was a beautiful day outside as well. We all enjoyed ourselves!

After we ate we went home for nap time. We all laid down for a bit (still recovering from party time the day before). After Emma woke up from her nap we headed to my parents new house for dinner with my family (minus Claire who is in Europe for the Summer). We grilled out and enjoyed the pretty weather on the back deck. Thanks to all the men who cooked dinner. We felt very spoiled! 

And lastly thanks to Tommy and Emma for making me feel special not just on Mother's Day. I couldn't be half the mom I am without Tommy. We make a great team and I'm so lucky he's my partner in this crazy adventure of parenthood!