My Sweet Ruby

 She I cannot believe my little girl will be 8 months next week! When I read my posts from a year ago saying I felt her kick for the first time- I literally can't believe that was a year ago- it feels like yesterday yet I can't imagine not having Ruby in our lives!

She is growing and changing every day, I cannot believe it! I love that tiny human with my whole heart! 

A little update on Ruby: 

She rides in shopping carts like a big girl and wins the hearts of many! 

She loves watching Frozen. She is the typical all American kid I guess;) 

Still loves her jumper! 

And her playmat! 

She is obsessed with eating Mum Mums. I think they are baby crack. 

She is exclusively Breast fed still! Sorry no picture Of that;) With food here and there as a treat! 

She sleeps in her crib now. Like a big girl. This one sort of breaks my heart. I miss cuddling her all night. 

She is on the move. She rolls everywhere and does the backward scoot. But she

Can't figure out how to crawl forward and it ticks her off!  Haha 

She has a tooth! 

Penny and her are best friends! 

I am SO lucky to get to spend my days with this girl! I wouldn't have it anyway else! I am grateful for a husband who works his butt off to provide and take care of us so I can stay home and do what I was meant to do- be a mom!!! 

It is seriously the best! 

Pinch me.

Please someone pinch me, not because the shade of turquiose green on my shirt might not be considered your traditional green for St. Patricks day but because my little Ruby is 5 months old!! Seriously it happened right before my eyes.

One minute she looked like this :

and the next, looks like this : 

Okay but let's get real here, she is cuter every day. 

She weighs 11 lbs 

She is 23 inches tall

Wears 3 month clothes 

She still sleeps with mom and dad (we are working on this one) 

She sleeps mostly through the night, gets up maybe once to eat.

She plays with toys now!

She loves elephants! 

She thinks her jumper is rad! 

She babbles da dada da dada da

She gets so excited to see Penny. 

She waves her arms when she gets excited, just like her mama.

She is ticklish. 

Still takes baths with mama, and has started spashing 

Her favorite song is still I believe in you by. Don Williams. It calms her right down. 

She is my happy girl! 

She is starting to despise her car seat a little less.

And she is exclusively breast fed! 

Reese told me the other night " have I ever told you thank you for breast feeding?" 

He knows it always isn't the easiest feeling like  a milk cow and some days seem to be filled with nothing but nursing. But he is grateful for the nutrition I am providing her and the money I am saving. 

I am grateful I am able to nurse, I know some mamas can't and I am grateful got the blessing of abundant milk producing boobies. 

I think I deserve a present. For all of those countless hours of feeding, and pumping. And all that money I saved! Right? Do you agree?? He agreed! Haha I am thinking a curling wand! 

Xoxo

Shayna 

Why I'm Not "Whole"

I joined a holistic moms group on FB. I was really excited to collaborate with other moms and get ideas. I lasted about 3 weeks before I left the group. I guess I am no longer or maybe was never "whole".

I think I might be the opposite of holistic. I call it- realistic. 

Why I will never be holistic- 

* disclaimer- not all holistic moms are this way, nor do I look down on them- I'm just not one of them.*

I buy tampons at the store when I get a visit from aunt Flow. I do not use reusable /washable pads. Gag me. I do not like to attract sharks or dogs thank you very much. 

I had a c-section. And no matter what they say those home birth, no epideral mothers will always look down on it. And find some reason to deem it unnecessary .

I take Ruby to the dr, she gets vaccinated. They will tell you that you poison your kid. 

They will talk about how wonderful a natural birth is and how empowering it is and you will cry to your husband about how bad it sucked to have a c-section. (Trust me, I earned my badge) 

They will talk about oils and ways to treat different things with them and I wonder if my vegetable oil in the cupboard can do that because I am clueless and those oils are expensive!

I like doctors and modern medicine, they think it's evil. 

They believe in home births, I think they are incredibly scary and risky. Plus I do not want to sit in  a pool of my birth junk. Barf. 

They don't drink pop, diet coke is my slice of heaven. 

Now don't get me wrong, I think

Some aspects of holistic parenting are really interesting an awesome. Like I enjoyed reading breast feeding tips, best car seat tips, and how to help a baby sleep tips. But I realized on a bash post about the doctor who delivered Ruby (who I loved) that I will never fit in with those "whole" mamas because I am a "half" mom- half crazy that is;) 

It all comes down to the fact that everyone has a different parenting style, and where I might make Ruby's baby food, and breastfeed but I am not a holistic mama- it's not my style. But I do what's best for Ruby because she is my world and I have  a great gift called mothers intuition that I use everyday. Just like every other mom. If you clothe diaper- great! More power to ya! But you better think the same when I put a disposable diaper on my baby- because while I might be adding to the landfills, I am saving my sanity. If I try to live up to all the expectations every different mama has, I will pull my hair out. So I am my own kind of mama. 

Stay sane mamas. Do what you have to! What do you do to stay sane everyday? 

Pink

My last two blog posts have been somewhat depressing, so to reassure you my life is not a pit of despair I bring you the blog post titled Pink.

For those of you who know me, I mean know me know me..know that for the past 7 years or so I have boycotted the color pink. Blue has been my go to color. Trust me, go into my closet and there is nothing pink. Nothing. 

I think it was in 7th or 8th grade that literally everything I owned was pink. I got sick of it after that year, and hated how popular it was among girls and jumped of the pink wagon. 

But to my disbelief and the disbelief of my friends and family... I am a pink girl again. 

Blue is still my favorite color but my friends.. Pink is creeping up on me. 

My new diaper bag! Pink! 

Pink. Pink. Pink.

Girls are fun. :)

Excuses

You know your legs are hairy when you wear pants to bed so your husband of 3 years (who secretly knows about the beasts living on your legs) doesn't think he is snuggling up to the dog.

You know your legs are hairy when you have dreams about people lifting up your pants to reveal your man legs. 

I finally had an extra 10 mins and I shaved them! I told Reese I lost 3 lbs while in the tub. He looked confused, until I lifted up the leg on my pajamas and revealed my new smooth legs, fresh with shimmer lotion! He was stoked, he knew they had gotten bad, and was polite enough to pretend not to notice. Someone give this man a trophy. 

I thought of excuses. Many excuses. 

Like- oh is no shave November over already? 

Or- it keeps me warm! 

Or my razor broke! (True story) 

I wish I still had the I can't reach them

Over my pregant belly excuse. But sadly, that's no longer an viable excuse. 

The truth is.. I'm lazy. The last thing I want to do when I get down time is shave my legs, or organize clothes, or start the taxes, or mop the floor (I hate mopping the floor in the winter!). I just want to flop on my bed after a long Monday and watch gossip girls while snuggling with my best girl. 

But seriously, I need to get my crap under control. My eyebrows have gone all Brooke Sheilds on me and really need to be conquered. 

Ruby's newborn clothes really need to be put into storage. 

Taxes really need to be filed. 

And I have some sewing projects to attend to. 

I did make homemade laundry detergent, there is something I deserve I trophy for. I am excited to use it. 

So here's to promising a productive Tuesday. I will have to tell Serena, Blair and Dan (Gossip Girl reference) I am taking a sabbatical for my mental sanity. Netflix will serious suck the life out of you. So will a baby who suddenly decided she hates sleep. Good thing she's cute.

Xoxo 

Shayna 

Emotional Mama

Tonight like every night Ruby and I took our bath and I put her on our bed to get her ready for bed. She is usually sooo ready to eat after her bath and gets a little fussy while I lotion her and get her ready for bed. But today after I set her on the bed she just wanted to kick and talk.

 

It melted me. 

I wanted to cry. 

She is growing up, and she is changing everyday. 

Every new stage is fun but I can't believe soon she will be 4 months old. 

I am dying. 

I beg Reese to keep her small. Too bad he has no control over that. 

She is my best friend. We have great chats and great snuggles. 

I just love her so much I sometimes look at her and burst out in tears. My heart explodes for her. 

Now she is asleep next to me and I just want to lay here and stare. She has the sweetest sleeping face ever. Like her daddy. 

I cry more now, must be the whole I am a mom thing and everything pulls a little harder on my heart strings. Pictures of soldiers meeting their babies for the first time, TV shows, anything baby really. Call me a sap. I am a leaky faucet, in more ways than one;)  Heck, a Huggies commercial can come on, and if it is done the right way, I'm gonna need a Kleenex. 

I love babies. I love my baby. 

Now let's cry with laughter.

Xoxo Shayna

Miracle Poop Remover

In my last post I promised to share with you a miracle poop remover, and here I am now to share it with you.

Now I can't claim it as my own recipe because I found it on Pinterest. But I have perfected the process. 

Babies poop. A lot. And sometimes those cute little Huggies with Mickey Mouse don't contain all of poop, and it gets all over. And I mean all over. Blowouts keep us moms on our feet. 

I can't bare to think of Ruby's cute clothes being stained with poop, so I use the miracle poop remover and they are as good as new. 

Step 1- The baby poops. The poop finds it's way out of the diaper and covers your cute child and their tiny clothes. 

Step 2- You access the damage. You make a stink face. You ponder 5 different ways you can get the onsie off without covering the cute baby face with poop.

Step 3- You manage to get the poop clothes off and carry them to the nearest sink. Now isn't the best time to make the stain remover and treat them because you now have a naked baby on the couch. So soak them in the sink- make sure to use COLD water! If you add ice to the water-it does wonder. Ice has helped me remove many stains. 

Step 4- when you finally find a spare second slip away to make some of this amazing stain remover. 

Ingredients:dish soap, hydrogen proxide, and baking soda. 

I use a bowl or cup to mix it. 2 parts baking soda to one part dish soap and one part hydrogen proxide. 

I use a spoon to apply it and you can use an old toothbrush to scrub it in. A lot of scrubbing isn't required. 

Before. 

During. I usually let it sit on overnight. 

I did this while this sweet baby slept.

I washed it the next day and her cute gap onsie is good as new!

Stain removal is kind of my hobby. I have always been interested in new cleaning products, this is just an extension of that. 

Reese even brags about my stain removal skills. It makes me feel special ;) 

I have a sink full of tiny clothes right now that need miracle poop remover. 

Now you have been educated in Poop Removal 101. Try it. You will love it. Promise. 

My New Life

Before Ruby was born I had plans.

I had plans to go back to work.

I had plans to sleep train her. (Baby-wise)

I planned to move her into a crib at 1 month old. 

There were a lot of things I had planned and other things I swore I would never do. 

Ha. Ha. I laugh. I laugh looking back and thinking about how I thought I would be as a mom. 

There is this thing called mother's instinct: this is no joke my friends, this is the real stuff. Everyone thinks there was of parenting is the right way- their way or the highway. Well I am here to tell you- being a mother is different for everyone, I am not saying my way is perfect (it's really close though... Joking... Seriously I am joking, don't stop reading) but it works for Ruby, it works for me and it works for Reese.

Being a mom is my favorite thing in the world. Ever. I love it more than I ever imagined. I am not saying it is prefect. There is spit up, there are sleepless nights, I stay home a lot more now, my days revolve around nursing (I wore  a dress to church the other day- that was interesting come feeding time- that's a whole different story) , and getting stains out from clothes with baby poop on them (speaking of that- I have a magic way I am going to blog about- soon). My life has changed, but get ready for this- I love love love it! It is the hardest put most rewording thing I have ever done. Seriously- a little baby smile takes all of the not so glamorous things out of my mind completely. 

I have found I am a very attached parent. The thought of leaving Ruby to go out on a date makes me want to burst into tears. 

Ruby does one of those things I swore she would never ever do- she sleeps with us. We love it! It gives her dad some snuggle time and it gives me some good sleeping time. People might think we see crazy, all three of us crammed into a full sized bed and with a dog too- but we love it. I feel so close and cozy and I know she is safe. She sleeps sooo good with us. I love being able to sleep through the night! Don't knock it until you have tried it. ;)

She takes baths with me every night. She is so snuggly and smiley in the bath. I love bath time. 

She is growing up so fast. I don't want to miss one second of it. I look at her and cry sometimes because I know she will never be this little again, she changes so much in such a short time! I really truthfully think you cannot spoil a baby. They need all the love and nurturing they can get. Ruby loves attention, and she gets it. I don't want to look back and wish I would have slowed down to hold her more. I know when I look back I won't Remember the pile of laundry that needed to be done, or the dinner that needed to be made, or the low balance on the bank account- those things won't matter in the long run. 

I am so grateful to be able to soak in every second of my Ruby. I truly feel blessed. 

Slow down, enjoy life.