Happy Birthday, Magnolia Raine!

Happy Birthday, sweet baby of mine! We had fun celebrating you and your amazing first year of life. Thank you for all the ways you challenge me and inspire me. I look forward to all the new stages and moments we have together. I am thankful every day for you and the gift of life that was given to you.

Sacrifice

When AJ and I began the process of deciding things we wanted to do for our baby once they were born, one of the biggest things for me was breastfeeding. It is pretty amazing and also pretty overwhelming but here's a few things I sacrificed along the way.

So off I embark into this world of unknown after Porter is born. So many questions come up and you feel like you are a deer in the headlights many times as you are trying to get this smooshy bundle of newborn baby to latch and eat from you. They don't work too well with you in the beginning but they are pretty resourceful the hungrier they are! It is amazing what the survival instinct will do and they can snuggle right up, latch on and go to town.

Well, I knew that the blissful days of on-demand feeding were going to come to an end once I had to go back to work. I wasn't going to work full time, but three days a week, Porter would have to take a bottle. Thus, this is where the sacrifice came in. I had to pump. Oh, the dread and the drudgery. Breastfeeding every two hours and sometimes more often than that often made me feel like I was just a warm food source, but pumping is probably my least favorite thing in the world to do. But knowing how much AJ and I felt the value of breast milk for our baby while I was at work, I embarked on this journey. So for a year, I pumped at work, 3 days a week.

Fast forward to now. Maggie is 13 months old and I still nurse her as she likes. We definitely still have the morning and night feeds and before naps feeds. Sometimes she will nurse more when I am home but she always gets a bottle before her nap, thus I pump. Every day at 3pm when I am at work, I grab my phone and take a pump break. Oh, the glamorous life I live! Who knows how long this will continue? I don't see a reason to end as I am still producing and Maggie is still drinking it. I have pumped for 2 plus years! Who does that?

I guess when I sit down and think how long I have been nursing, pumping and had babies in diapers and still to go, I get a little excited for these stages to be done. But then again, that really will signal the end of babyhood for us. So for now, I am cherishing the moment with my Medela pump and 3 o'clock breaks at work. Ah, the sacrifice.

I may be back...

Well, here it is some time since my last post and I may be back. I have been doing a lot of thinking and processing about life, love and the pursuit of happiness. But one of the things I have been thinking about a lot is my blogs and what I want to do with them. What direction do I want to go? Do I want people to pin my posts? Do I want to just put pictures up of my kids and dog? Do I want to write and write and write about something in particular? Maybe I just want to become a tv show critic and blog about all my favorite shows.

Well, in all my processing, I can't say I have come up with any brillant, gonna-make-me a millionaire ideas. And I haven't decided I have to pick one direction. I sort of am going to keep it the same format. Sometimes, if I feel like it, I will post pictures. I know my mom likes to see the grandkids. And then other times, when I need a soap box to rant on, I'll rant. Other times, I just might list all the 1001 shows I watch and the other 275 I wish I had time to and you all will realize I spend way too much time watching TV and judge me. Oh well. We all have our things, right? I do work out and am in a book club and that is how I justify my TV watching!

The title of my blog I feel is pretty appropriate. It is truly just a peek in to our lives. Come on by anytime, you never know when I might surprise you with another post!