Can't think of a catchy title...

Yeah, I'm not sure what she was doing either...

Just playing around with some of the different functions on my camera.

Really mom...  How many more of these do we need to take?

My favorite thing...  A sleeping baby =)

NAK

Oh how I love typing that when I'm chatting with my on- line mommies. 

When Sweet Pea was born, for multiple reasons, she wasn't able to nurse.  So, I resolved myself to pumping and bottle feeding her.  But at about 2 months (just last week) she decided she was done with bottles and just wanted to nurse.  That made me so happy and it felt like I was finally getting that bonding time that I had missed out on in the first few weeks. 

This whole experience has made me realize a couple things.  One good and one not so good.

I realized that I have looked down on other moms I see out in public bottle feeding.  Who am I to pass judgment on them without knowing what their story really is.  When people saw me bottle feeding Sweet Pea, did they, like I use to, automatically assume that I was too lazy to breastfeed and took the "easy" route of formula feeding?

I've come to realize that I can't look down on them.  I don't know, if like me, their babies couldn't  nurse for one reason or another.  Or if they were getting up every 2 hours to pump just to try to keep their supply up.  Or what if they had adopted their baby?  Or if they were too uncomfortable to nurse in public...  So many things that I now see that can affect how a mom chooses to feed her baby.

The good that has come out of this whole experience is that even if a mom can't nurse, there still is an option for her to give her baby breast milk.  With all the pumping that I was doing in the early weeks to make sure I had enough, I ended up with a nice little stash.  But now I don't need it.  So what am I suppose to do with it?

Hospitals and milk banks typically won't take stored milk.  There is an application process that potential donors need to go through before their milk will be accepted.  So, that option was out for me.  Then one of my Above Rubies moms directed me to this website.

HM4HB is a message board for connecting moms- those looking to donate and those looking for donations.  The nice thing about this website is that it's up to the individuals to decide how much background information they need to accept the milk donation.

So, last week I posted that I had (conservatively) 600oz frozen that I was looking to donate with the possibility of more- I have to continue to pump until after Sweet Pea has her surgery.  Within a couple days, I had two moms contact me wanting part of my stash.  One because breast milk helps with her LO's asthma and the other because her baby is the result of a surrogate pregnancy.  

Unlike milk banks that charge for the milk, HM4HB is free.  The moms who donate their milk typically only ask for storage bags in return and sometimes a small fee to help cover the cost of the pump.  The only "requirement" of moms asking for donations is that they truly cannot nurse their babies- either because of surrogacy, adoption or a genuine lack of milk for medical reasons.  

Congratulations!!

Sarge earned his black belt in Tae Kwon Do today. We are all very proud of him =)

This is what he really does when he's deployed...

His breaks.  He's so important that he had a world record holder in breaking stack his bricks for him.

And his sixteenth (last) and toughest fight...

Junior had a lot of fun helping his dad earn his belt.

Bathtime!

What's sweeter than a freshly washed baby?

Those of you who have been following along and know me =)  should also know how happy this makes me.  Sweet Pea is getting to the point where she would rather do this than take a bottle.  Yeah for getting bigger and stronger!

And of course I just missed it, but she can hold her head up for a couple seconds =)

2 Months Already?

Sweet Pea had her 2 month check- up yesterday.  And while the pediatrician continues to try and make me worry about how she's doing, Sweet Pea is doing just fine =)  

She was up to about 8lbs 10oz and 20.5".  So she's still gaining a bit over half an ounce a day.  Which is very good.  And she's gained an inch and a half in length.  

She goes in to see the cardiologist next week.  He plans on doing another echo cardiogram, so we'll have a better idea of how her heart is doing.  

And the best news is that Sweet Pea doesn't have to go back to see the pediatrician for 5 weeks!

4th of July

We've had some friends from out of town visiting this week.  We thought they were crazy for coming to TX in July, but I guess they really wanted to experience TX =)

She really wanted to break this with her elbow. 

Monday night we took the crew to see Cars 2 at the drive in.

Pretty neat experience.  Only down side is you have to wait until it's dark to start the movie which makes for a really late night.

At the Uptown Fountains.  Great way to cool off on a hot day.  The dads watched the kids have fun while the moms went shopping =)

 

Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum and the wax museum.  We also went through the mirror maze and the boys did the laser race/ maze.  Junior was pretty amazing.  Twenty- one seconds to get through without breaking any beams.  Guess we know who's going to be breaking into vaults for us ;)

Girly- girl kept telling me she wanted pink, purple and blue hair.  She was able to have it for a few minutes at least.

Striking a pose with some hats.

It's been a good visit, but it will be nice to have the relative quietness of just our kids again =)

The Other Kids...

Since Junior had a post to himself, I thought the other kids deserved a post too =)  Some random pictures from the last couple weeks.

Naptime!

What Girly- girl does while Junior's in class.

 

What Sweet Pea does...

And what Junior- junior does.  He thought Thomas needed a tunnel to go through =)

In case you can't tell, the tracks connect both sofas and the table.  If they had more tracks, they would have built bridges down to the floor.

Double Take

Sometimes I love a challenging project and other times, well...  Not so much.  This is one of those projects.  When I pictured it in my head, it came out perfect (of course!) but when I actually tried to put it into practice.  Well, needless to say there was lots of seam ripping, broken needles and hair pulling.

While I'm not 100% happy with the design, I'm happy enough that I will continue to tweak it until it is perfect.  If I wasn't happy with it, the whole project would have ended up in the "I will fix this later" pile.

The idea behind this wrap is to give the wearer more options.  The panel in the center is interchangeable.  And that's where the design flaws come in =)  I have to figure out a better "framing" system for the panel and a better way to attach the panels.  Once it's perfect, the wrap will offer a lot more color options for the wearer.

The main panel that cannot be removed.

The optional panel.

After working on this one for awhile, I came up with a design that offers only two different panels (instead of unlimited like the original design).  So, for now this is the design that is available.  

The first side.

The second side.

You'll notice that it's "missing" the black border around the panel.  

If you're interested in the second design, please let me know what colors you would prefer- for the wrap part and for the panels.  Depending on the fabric, prices start at $40.