Traveling as an Exclusive Pumper and the Holidays!

     We're going to Georgia for the holidays to see my mom.  And I even pumped in public in the airport. I had Daphne in her little car seat on the wheel board drinking. Dallyn was playing and such. I just got the cover for privacy and plugged the Medela in. I kinda just didn't care.  I, of course, got a lot of smiles from strangers. haha But when guys figured out why I had my nursing cover on they moved on lol. Oh man is the struggle real!! Got contacted by the milk bank! So close to a pay check! I've donated over 30 gallons to 6 mommas so far. It'll be nice to get reimbursed for all the work. I'll be giving some milk to a local momma here before going back to Cali. 
     I got this super clog.  It has lasted for about a week. I sure broke out the Lecithin! I mean OW!! It was terrible. I also used hot rags, hot showers, slight massage/ pressure while pumping, Dangle pumping (while leaning forward)... every trick in the book.  I think since I hit the 6 month mark that my supply started to go down AND then this happened. :( I hope I still over produce in order to donate and get some moola.

My pregnancy goals evaluated

My goals with this pregnancy were:

1.       Gain a NORMAL amount of weight 25-35lb. (Not 52)

2.       Be able to wear my wedding rings the entire time. Or maybe just passed week 26.

3.       Fit in my combat boots longer than week 17/18.

4.       No overeating.

5.       Watch my sodium intake.

My results were:

1.       I gained 39 pound

2.       I wore my wedding rings until the very end

3.       I wore my combat boots to work until my boss told me to stop coming to work at 39 weeks.

4.       I didn’t overeat.

5.       Sodium wasn’t an issue. I didn’t want a lot of salty things. I wanted sweet and healthy things: fruits etc.

I certainly was happy with my overall health this time around.  I'm currently 13 weeks post partum.  I have 5 pounds more to lose.  I feel great. :)

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Milk Cow Status!!!

I appreciate the work dairy cows go through to give us milk. Oh yes... I've reached milk cow status. Lol (36- 43 oz to the freezer every dayafter feeding baby girl enough for the day) I have enough breast milk in the freezer to feed Little Miss for more than 40 days. (that's over 1,000 ounces... 9 gallons). feels like winning.

Breastfeeding to Pumping Exclusively

     Daphne was really good at breastfeeding.  She seemed to be perfect at it.  I just couldn’t figure out why it hurt so badly.  I mean it was a deep stabbing pain deep in my breast.  It seemed to travel under my arm pit to my back.  There were a few times when it wouldn’t hurt at all.  It was perfect! Just a slight tugging and she would get so much milk. J She was adorable.  But the pain and such got worse and worse. 

     My blood pressure started to rise.  I was having pains in my arms and losing feeling to my fingers (like my cubital tunnel syndrome).  My ankles were super swollen up to the size of softballs.  I was getting shortness of breath and dizzy.  Tyler later told me that he had checked me in the night to make sure I was breathing still.  My nerves were over reacting all over my body causing my whole body to shake in pain when she would nurse.   I knew the reason wasn’t her; I just couldn't figure it out until I started losing feeling in my hands. That was a symptom from my nerve problem before.

     So I started pumping and after a day my body was feeling a bit normal again. I immediately started producing a lot of milk. So pumping is going to be my way and freezing the milk she doesn’t need right now. This is just the beginning.

Birth Story

So there I was... 5 days overdue.  Of course, I was seriously discouraged!! I had been having contractions for a few weeks but they were not getting us anywhere.  We would go on walks all the time to help.  We tried everything to induce naturally.  Nothing worked.   So , at my appointment on day 5 overdue my doctor massaged my cervix in hopes that it’ll kick start things (which it did). 

I had contractions for hours and they increased over the night.  I woke up at 6am and decided to tell my hubs that it was time to go to the hospital.  The hubs, my mom and I got up there around 7.  I was only 4 cm, but the contractions were strong enough to make me have to pause and breathe through them.  At lunch time, the nurse suggested that I use the labor tub.  The hot water was nice but it didn’t take the pain away like everyone told me that it would.  The jets in the tub really started to tick me off tho.  We listened to Johnny Cash, the Jackson 5 and Craig Morgan.

My water broke in the tub at 1:24.  I almost passed out trying to get back to the room from the tub.  I went to the bathroom and got onto the bed.  It was getting super intense.  I decided that doing this all natural thing was silly and a little too painful for me.  I asked for the epidural.  As the doctor was prepping me, my body decided it as time to push Little Miss out.  I had gone from 5 cm to pushing in 20 minutes!!   

My body pushed so violently.  The doctor came in and stated that he’d let me do my own thing and basically just catch the baby.   I pushed a few times and the doctor told me to stop.  Little Miss was trying to come out with her hands up on her head.  So the doctor pushed her arms back in and after another push or two she was born.  She was born at 2:22pm, only 58 minutes from the time my water broke.  No wonder it hurt so bad!! Birth doesn’t normally happen that fast. Haha

She was placed on my chest immediately.  The doctor stitched me up.  My husband cut the cord after a few minutes.  Our sweet Little Miss was just soooo cute.  She was placed on the breast pretty much immediately.   She didn’t really cry.  She liked to just look around and snuggle.  She is very much like her brother in that way.

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DIY Pacifier Clip for CHEAP!!!

 

 

While updating some “wants” onto my baby registry, I came across some very cute pacifier clips.  I was amazed at the $6 + price tag tho.  Holy wow!!!  So I was determined to do it myself.

I ordered some plastic pacifier clips from Amazon.(here) They were just over $6 for 10.  I already had some cute ribbon and some Velcro circles (they are adhesive on one side)

What I did:

1.       I found an older pacifier clip from my son. I measured out some ribbon and cut it to match the length of the older clip. (I did not get a picture of this)

 

 2.       I passed the ribbon through the plastic clip and hot glued it into place.  I also hot glued the opposite end of the ribbon to reduce fraying and for a clean look.

Pass ribbon through hole in clip

 

 

Let glue cool a little before folding it. Avoid burns

 

Then fold the ribbon onto the glue

 

3.       Then I placed the Velcro “stickies” on the ribbon, similar to those on my model clip.  And that is all!! 

 

Here you see both ends are glued down. The velcro stickies are on the ribbon with some space in between

 

This is a completed one on an actual pacifier

 

A close up.  Our Little Miss is having a peacock themed room and this now matches. :)

 

The finished lot

 

 

4.       For the ribbon I DID buy, I paid $1 a spool.  I used that to make two (though, I could have made more with it).  So that would have been about $1.10 to make one entire clip, since I already have the Velcro circles.  They are cheaper and more personalized than the ones I have seen to buy.  I’ll be ok if one of these gets “lost” or broken, as opposed to the $6 ones.

I hope this inspired you. Go out and make something J Good luck!!

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Items I love this Pregnancy

I’m now 29 weeks pregnant. Woohoo!!! Time has flown by. 

I just have a few products that I wanted to share that I LOVE this pregnancy.

1.       Compression socks!! J They help keep the swelling down.  No way water retention! Momma wants to keep wearing her wedding rings. (And I have).  I can still wear my Army boots for my uniform too.  (I bought them at Wal Mart).

2.       Hazelwood and amber necklace!!

 

      I found this necklace Here on etsy (I bought a matching one for our Little Miss).  It has just about CURED my heartburn.  When I did my research, I read that the necklace is supposed to take a few weeks to balance the acidity in your body.  It took 3 hours to start alleviating my heartburn.  There are still times that I can feel heartburn starting, but it usually doesn’t last long. J  And as a bonus the Baltic Amber helps with headaches too.  It is wonderful! I got a 20” long one (long enough to hide in uniform but short enough to show everyone in civilian clothes).

3.       Essential Oils! Since I am allergic to Tylenol and should not take other medications while pregnant, I find myself using EOs a lot more.  I have reoccurring hip pain (from a stress fracture that never healed all of the way).  I just put a drop of Frankincense on my fingers and rub in over the spot.  It feels sooooooo much better.  The pain just melts away.  Also, my husband rubs the knots out of my back with lavender oil (and coconut oil as a base).  Not only does it feel great but it helps me to get to sleep too. So awesome.  I have DoTerra oils, but also bought some from Plant Therapy Essential Oils (buy Doterra for cheaper  Here and Plant Therapy here on Amazon).

I hope these can help others.  :)

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Some newly Completed Crafts and Our Garden this Year

      On to other news,  I have completed a few projects.    I FINALLY  completed my mom’s Gator colored crochet blanket.

 



Close up



  I also made a patchwork baby blanket! I love it.  I made it from scrap yarn. I think it turned out well.

 

 

A rosette and minky blanket.

 

I even made a light rug for a friend.

 

 

 I started another blanket for a friend with the orange and blue.  Then I will be crocheting an awesome baby boy blanket with Grey, Navy, light blue and mustard yarn.  It should be awesome.  I have to finish some baby girl clothes for someone (as a gift), a batman quilt, and then I get to work on the projects for Little Miss.  I’m making a crib sheet and bumper, a large minky/ rosette blanket, many dresses and shirts and a TON of hair bows.  J It’s going to be so much fun!

I made a TIE RACK!! For Mr. Dall.  It cost under $4.  I went to Michael's and got a small piece of wood for $1.30 and small embellishments for $1.98.  I already had some paint, clothes pins and glue.  We are just going to screw it into the wall and start clipping up that large tie collection he has. :)

setting things up to get an idea of what I want.

Letting the glue dry.

 

Also happening in our family, we planted our family garden!! We repotted the fruit trees from last year, in hopes that they will wake up and thrive again.  We planted 12 new strawberry plants and revived our 6 from last year.  They are already doing so well!! I’m excited to have so many to eat this year!  We have seen the pea plants sprout already.  There are about 12 of them already. J Last year 3, simply, was not enough.  My men eat these things straight from the vine.  Carrots, also have started to grow.  They should be ready around the fall time and I can use them for baby food for Little Miss, when she gets to that stage.  Yay growing your own food.  I hope this inspires you all to get out and do something. :)

strawberries

Pink Lemonade Blueberries

 

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Valentine’s Day crafts

 

This year, I decided to scale the crafting down.  I let the boy pick what he wanted to do for his friends at school.  He decided to give cars to the boys (15) and candies for the girls.  I spent about $24 in order to get small clear favor bags, 20 cars and some banana candies (like from RUNTS).  I made 16 boy valentines with the cars.  I then made 6 for his girl friends, 4 for teachers, 4 for missionaries, and 8 for our primary class with the banana candies. 

So, roughly, each valentine cost $0.63.  That is so great… plus we may or may NOT have taken a few of the cadies here and there. J  

 

 

 

They were a big hit with everyone!!!

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Our Special Day

We got sealed in the Sacramento Temple in January!!  It was a very interested day.  The ceremony was wonderful and meant a lot to us.   The photographer went to the wrong temple.  Haha  She went to the Oakland temple.  Luckily for us, it is close enough that she could still make it.  She did a great job, when she DID show up.

We ,then, had a great Italian lunch at a nearby restaurant.  We had a really wonderful time. 

For favors,  I made Pink Velvet cupcakes that I put in jars with the cream cheese frosting.  I used this recipe Here.  I changed the recipe from blue to pink.  I used Duff’s neon liquid food color from Michael’s craft store.  They tasted delicious!!!  I also canned banana bread.

Before putting my pink velvet cupcakes in jars and adding frosting and sprinkles. MMMMmmm

I also made some vanilla extract and vanilla sugar.  I used the recipe here for vanilla sugar.  I ordered some spice jars from Amazon and simply filled them up. J I also go the vanilla beans on Amazon for a great price.

 

 

    

Here are some family pictures.

Some of our wonderful friends and their families that were able to attend.

 

Had to represent. :) Ok so I wore silver sparkly shoes for everything else. :)

 

Soon to be Family of FOUR

                I know it has been a few months since I updated my blog. Haha A few days after my last post about what to and not to say to women TTC, I found out that I was, in fact, pregnant.  I, immediately, had some goals in mind for this pregnancy.

                My goals with this pregnancy are:

1.       Gain a NORMAL amount of weight 25-35lb. (Not 52)

2.       Be able to wear my wedding rings the entire time.  Or maybe just passed week 26.

3.       Fit in my combat boots longer than week 17/18.

4.       No overeating.

5.       Watch my sodium intake.

I am currently 25 weeks with our baby girl.  So far, I have been really good about wieght gamin this time.  I have only gained 19 lb.  I don’t overeat and have a normal sodium intake.  I can still fit in my boots (and I only now got into my maternity uniform).  My wedding rings still fit!!

My cravings so far have included:

1.       Hot Chocolate (at first)

2.       Orange Juice

3.       Toast with grape jam

      4.       Milk

5.       Fruit

I am so blessed to have some great friends who have given me some hand me downs from their daughters.  Little Miss even has a shoe collection.  I bought her two pairs of sandals and some pink converses (all second hand).  Here is some of my wonderful second hand deals that I scored. :) 

I also got her two newborn rings.  One is an Emerald (for her birthstone) and the other is one that is silver with her initial stamped on it. 

 

I got a GREAT deal for Black Friday on some cloth diapers!! Happy Heiny’s were on sale for $15 each.  So I got some blue, green, and grey ones.

 

I’m so blessed!  My sweet sisters are knitting and crocheting her blankets and sweaters.   She is soooo lucky. J I’m excited!  I bought my first “real” wrap, the one that I have thought to be my ideal colorway. It’s a Girasol Ardent wrap and looks like this. 

 

I can barely wait to put her in it.  My husband laughs at me and says it’s definitely for me and not her.  He’s right.  We are super excited and feel truly blessed. J Things are going really well with us and we are happy to see how things continue this year!