Iphone Photo Update

Had to post from my phone before I got too backlogged. As usual, I have way more of Parker. He never, ever strays more than a few feet from me. Lily is my roaming free spirit, who finds fun in a blade of grass and a stick. She is always off playing and using her imagination, while Parker is making sure I don't smile at any other babies or try to sneak off to Starbucks.

Yummies as of late

Cannolis from Flour Child Bakery:

Crockpot Mac N Cheese:

Meat free vegetable soup:

Homemade pound cake with strawberries (whipped cream not pictured):

Sister as of late

Ready for our farm:

Reading the classics:

Her love for one of her BFFs:

Mellow Mushroom wordsearch:

Trouble with a capital T

Big brother practice:

His lucky day:

Wild child:

Real men change cloth diapers:

Nap head:

Morning reading:

Our new house-mini tour

Ohhh, how I wish I had taken before pictures so that you could appreciate how far we have come! I will try to describe the horrendous conditions of this house... but the pictures don't do it justice!! We still have a long ways to go, but I am anxious to share our new home!

Our house was built in 1999. We are the third owners. It's your typical Georiga split level, with 3 bedrooms, 3 full baths (one is in the basement though), an unfinished basement, and a large fenced in backyard. We haven't done much landscaping, but we did cut down an ugly tree that was in the center of the front yard.

When you walk in, you must notice these beautiful steps leading up towards the house. We also have the same steps leading down to the laundry room, basement, and garage. These steps were covered with dirty carpet. Shane ripped out the carpet, purchased and installed new wood, and stained it by himself. They turned out to be gorgeous!

Once you walk up the stairs, if you turn to the right, you can immediately enter the master bedroom and bathroom. I'll go ahead and say the entire house has been painted-mostly a neutral tan color. Also, the carpet in here was atrocious, and we replaced that as well.

Our bathroom is pretty plain Jane right now, but I do love our separate Jacuzzi tub.

If you exit out our room, you can walk directly into the living room. We still plan to buy a new entertainment center to match our coffee table for all our fun cable boxes and other goodies. We replaced the ugly carpet in here with hardwood, and we painted over the gaudy gold paint with a neutral tan.

Here is my soon to be growing photo wall:

Here is our lovely family plaque, made by my sweet friend Jennifer:

The formal dining room is set up like a makeshift playroom and computer room for now. Note all the books on the floor, but I am anxiously awaiting a new bookshelf for all of Parker's reading material. Once again, we put hardwood in here.

Our kitchen needs the most work. We did rip out the nasty linoleum and painted it a neat bluish gray color. We still need to replace the white dishwasher and white stove, and we will definietly be replacing the WHITE cabinets and the WHITE countertops. Whew, that's a lot of white! I didn't include that picture because I didn't want to blind you:) You're welcome!

Keep going down the hall (we're all on one level!) and you can enter Lily's room to the right, and Parker's to the left. They also have their little mini bathroom between the two rooms.

Lily picked out her blue room. It ended up coming together great!

I just painted her a green L with polka dots, and made her a little banner of cardstock and ribbon.

And look at her adorable, organized (for now) little bookshelf (loaded with lots of my childhood books!):

Parker's room looks just like his old room, it's even the same color. I had to snap these quickly since he was sleeping.

So, there you have it! And much much more to come. Stay tuned!

Baby's First Fluff

Baby #3 got his/her first cloth diaper today- a newborn Kissa by Kissaluvs:

Actually, this is the first item Baby has gotten period, and I think its so cute! I got this off a diaper trading website. Yes, newborn diapers are available, and no, they really aren't that cheap! I am not weird about buying used diapers, and I am planning on newborn cloth diapering! They won't ALL be used by no means (I'm managing to snag some AWESOME deals). But, since they don't wear them for too long, and they are pricy, I'm only going to be able to get 10-12 of the diapers like the picture above (the easy, throw in the wash, no folding or stuffing required kind). The REST of my diapers will be prefolds, which you have to fold into a diaper shape and pin (gasp!) or use a Snappi, or you can fold them down into an insert and put inside a diaper cover. They are much more practical and cheap, but not as fun or easy or cute. When Baby grows out of the said newborn diapers, he or she will inherit Parker's one size diapers (but if it IS a girl, I will definietly be selling and trading the boyish ones for girl ones! I won't be able to resist.)

Diaper trading... what a new and weird world. I like it though. I just want everyone's diapers, and no one seems that interested in mine, haha! I traded another diaper recently, but the one I got in return seems to be more of a medium than a small, so I guess Parker can wear that one until it fits the next one. If this baby is a boy, then he is sure outta luck on getting much new goodies, besides newborn diapers. Parker has enough clothes from newborn-current to cloth triplets. I've barely given away a thing!

He or she will already inherit the kid's bassinet (which was actually my sister Lacey's bassinet, and I love handed down things!) He or she will also inherit the bouncy seat, the swing, the car seat, the stroller, the Moby Wrap, the sling, the Mei Tai, the Bumbo Seat, and the high chair, to name a few! This makes me VERY happy because so many of these items were gifts and get to go to good use again!

Update: 2/23/2012

I really need to get back to my bloggin' for better updates. I'm never going to remember anything. We have been up to ALOT. Besides finding out we were preggo with #3, we finally closed on our old house and moved into our new house. We have come SUCH a long way and the place is starting to look great. We still have a few things to do inside, and Shane has started working on the yard and property. We have plans for gardens and chickens in the back, as well as a new deck and a swingset for the kids.

Lily and Parker have been great. My brother Andrew was in town from California for a week, and they got to spend lots of time with their Uncle Andy. My dad was in town for a night and took us to Houston's, we helped my sister Elizabeth buy her new bed at Ikea (love Ikea!!) and move into her own apartment, we went and ate Top Spice for lunch, and we had a donut brunch and took Andy to the airport (a lot of this revolves around food!)

Here is our latest purchase from Ikea (Parker didn't realize this WASN'T his own personal stage):

Lily is on winter break this week. It started off ok- we went skating at Sparkles for her cousin Faith's birthday, trips to the park, got haircuts, Target, Good Will, to name a few. Monday night, Parker came down with a stomach bug, and then this morning around 4 am, Lily caught it. So please pray and cross fingers, toes, eyes, whatever that Shane and I do NOT get this. Shane is off tomorrow, and we really want to have a fun three day weekend. We are actually FINALLY going to the Atlanta Zoo for the first time on Sunday, since they have $5 tickets. So we must stay well!

Here is the cutest find ever at Good Will, a vintage Fisher Price clock:

Everything else is going great. I'm 14 weeks (whoo hoo for second trimester!) I'm still tired and queasy on occasion, and I have been getting headaches. But I am doing well-I have a belly going and everything (our Goodwill trip was actually a maternity clothes search!) I was going to write about the fluffy mail I got today, but I'm saving that for another post. Otherwise, this entry would be quite the rambling post!

Belly Picture-10 weeks

I am not a huge fan of pictures of myself, and I get SO big when I get pregnant, but I did take this picture 2 weeks ago (I just ate dinner and am bloated, but I DO have a bump ALREADY!)

Announcement!

Coming Soon: August 2012

WAHM Cloth Diapers

I just entered a cloth diaper giveaway on Our Growing Garden (if you're friends with me on Facebook, you probably how obsessed I am with these said giveaways). This particular giveaway offers the CUTEST ruffly diapers by a work at home mom with an adorable shop. Not to mention, I love this blog...anyone who breastfeeds (exclusively and extended) and cloth diapers is awesome in my book.

Check out the giveaway here.

I've won a bunch of things from online giveaways, but a diaper would definitely take the cake-especially a CUTE diaper!

Shane's 28th in Pictures

Parker coloring and talking on the phone.

Lily hard at work on her homemade card.

From Lily and Faith

Ice cream cake

An Update on Night Weaning

I didn't realize that Parker knew how to read. I guess he read my blog post the other day and said, heck with it, I'll just sleep. I don't want to jinx anything or be superstitious, but since I offered him only that teeny bit of booby milk the first night, Parker will sleep from 8-515, waking to nurse and then going back to sleep. I can soooo handle that. Not that I love getting up at 5, but I cannot complain. He does want to nurse more during the day now, but I still practice the don't offer, don't refuse. However, one night he fell asleep in the car, and I was paranoid that if I didn't nurse him, he might wake up and be out of sorts in the middle of the night (shrug, I never said I was super woman). I feel both sad and empowered and proud of him at the same time. He will always be my baby boy, but it sure is nice for him to act like a little man and sleep!!

A High Needs Baby

I can't really decide how I want to do this post. I almost feel like I'm standing up and saying, "Hello, my name is Callie, and I have a high needs baby." It's not really a confession because I haven't done anything wrong. However, whenever babies are clingy, attached at the hip, or overall brats, most people have their own opinion, usually that its mommy and daddy's faults.

I've known Parker is a high needs baby for awhile. He needs lots of physical touch, lots of attention, and he is very intense. The moment he was born, he came out SCREAMING and did not stop until he got to nurse. Not much has changed in the last (almost) 19 months.

Other high needs qualities that Parker possesses include that he can be draining, he has always been a demanding nurser, "schedule" is not in his vocabulary, he is demanding, he awakens frequently (this is what spurred this post), he is often unsatisfied, he is rather unpredictable, he is VERY sensitive, he is not a self soother, as a baby he could NEVER be put down, and he has serious separation anxiety.

Let me first say that I am not complaining about all of these qualities. I just recently compiled a list from Dr. Sear's website and wanted to include them in this post for my records. I have known many of these things for a long time. Parker and I are together all day, and I am very accustomed to his behavior. I try to correct him when he is naughty, but I don't fault him for being sensitive, afraid to leave me, or demanding of my attention. Also, Parker is EXTREMELY happy when he IS happy, he is a total goofball and always has us laughing, and he is a VERY smart little boy.

The absolute hardest thing about having a high needs baby is the sleeping. I'm sure I've made 10 posts on this blog about Parker sleeping, I post it on my parenting message boards asking questions. It's been 19 months of lack of sleep, and honestly, it is the most draining experience.

I recently read on Dr. Sear's website about just why a high needs baby has difficulty sleeping. The description fit Parker to a tee. Basically, he is extremely used to having physical contact during the night and that is why he continually wakes up.

Last night I decided that I was ready, and I wasn't going to wimp out or give in. Parker went down at his usual bedtime around 8 pm. He did better than usual, skipping the midnight crying and waited until 330 am. I got up and picked him up and cuddled him for a second. I nursed him on both sides for a minute or less. When I put him back in his crib, he cried for a minute at the lack of booby time, but then dozed off.

Around 415, he began crying again. I hadn't even fallen back asleep yet. This time, I went in and held him and cuddled him but did not nurse him. I put him back down, and he cried for several minutes. He then went back to sleep until 615.

Tonight, I plan to only offer him on side for a minute and then continue with the cuddling. My main goal is to make these nightly meetings less exciting. If there's no booby, then why wake up, right? When I don't offer him any milk, I'll be sure to bring in a sippy cup of water in case he really is thirsty.

I've been dealing with this forever. I know he's not in pain, I know he's not sick. I think we ALL really need some good rest.

Being a mommy is so hard sometimes, but I have to stick with my gut decision...