K. Designs

I recently started selling these lovelies!! I find sewing super relaxing and it makes me feel good about accomplishing projects!  I've sold around 6 pairs of baby boots now!  I custom design each one and so far all of them have turned out great.  They are super soft and super adorable!! Head on over to my etsy shop if you are interested!! I'd love to help you create a custom pair :)

Click here for my Etsy Shop!!

BLW in action!!

Just in case you didn't know...yes!! Babies can eat meat!  Try it out, you will be surprised :). Here he is eating sausage (that I cut into strips) and pancakes.  I like to mix in purées veggies and fruit with his pancakes to make sure he gets those extra nutrients.  

Our Adventures in Baby Led Weaning

We started our BLW  journey when Kaiden was just 5 1/2 months old!  So far, we are loving it!! The first food he had was toast and it was quite messy! haha! Actually...doing blw, all you have are messes!!! But I would definitely recommend it!
What is baby led weaning?! It's where you give your child solid food and skip the purees!  Why?  Because food before 1 is just for fun!!!  He is still taking momma's milk every 3 hours, so he is getting all of the nutrients he needs from that.  We started off with just small amounts and just one "meal" per day.  He eats what we eat!  So if we are having sausage and eggs for breakfast, guess what he's having?! Sausage and eggs ;)  It can be frightening to start at first because you think...well what if he chokes?!  That's exactly why you need to wait until your baby is 6 months before introducing baby led weaning!  They have a better developed gag reflex at 6 months, so I urge you to wait until then before starting.  We make sure all of his food are easy to handle.  His veggies are in thick strips, so is his toast and pretty much everything else...except for meats.  We chop meat up small for him :)  It's important to not intervene when they are gagging, this just makes that reflex even better!! The only time you want to help them is if there is choking.  We have yet to experience any choking here!!

Here he is exploring :)

Then he got his two bottom teeth so we decided to get more adventurous!! 

Eating waffles!!

Mmmm! Baked apples & sausage!!!

Cornbread & ground bologna sandwich...clearly you can tell this was a massive mess! Ha!

Bananas & graham crackers

Scrambled eggs, graham crackers & 2 spoonfuls of applesauce 

Pasta & sweet potato fries!! 

French toast & yogurt melts

Meatloaf & roasted carrots

It's never ending!! And so much fun!  Now that we are closer to 7 months, he is getting 3 meals a day and also offered water with those meals.  Our main goal is to get him excited about food and it's working :)

Working Full-Time & Pumping

First off...good Lord is this hard work.  If you are planning on breastfeeding and/or pumping, be aware that it will take up most of your day. This is just my schedule...please remember that everyone will be different.  I send fresh milk to daycare every day in a 32 oz mason jar.  Whatever I pump today, I send tomorrow. Friday's milk is refrigerated and used on Monday, since I exclusively breastfeed on the weekends.  I use 2 mason jars and swap them out each day.  Here is my daily schedule:

4:15am-Get up and shower before Kaiden wakes up.

4:30am- Breastfeed

6:30am-Give Kaiden a bottle with yesterday's leftover milk and put him down for a nap.

6:45am-Pump (this is normally when I get my most milk 6-8oz).  I pump for 30 minutes each time because I usually get my second letdown around the 20 minute mark.

7:15am-Leave the house.

8:00am- Get to work and set up my "station"

The backpack holds my pump, no-hands pumping bra, extra pump pieces, milk storage bags for freezing if I pump over 16oz that day & markers for the bags.

This is the bag (buy here) where I keep both of the bottles with shields on them..after every use I put them right back into the bag and put them in the refrigerator.  I repeat that until Friday, when I take everything home and wash all of the parts and bottles.

This holds my 32oz mason Jar and my 8 oz Medela bottle. (buy here)

I put a chalkboard label on my mason jar and label it with a chalkboard marker every day.  I put the date and the oz on.  After every pumping session I always keep the fresh milk in the medela bottle and refrigerate it before adding it to my refrigerated mason jar of milk.  

After I'm done pumping, I take these 2 bags to the refrigerator :)

9:00am- Pump (another big pump, I get 5-7 oz)

Noon- Pump (getting around 4-5oz) This is also my lunch break, so I pump for 20-30 minutes and still have time to eat, before getting back to work at 12:30pm :)

I keep track of my ounces on my phone using iDO-notepad app.

3:00pm- Pump

5:00pm- Leave work and go pick up Kaiden from daycare.

5:45pm- Get home and wash the mason jar that was used today and get it ready and labeled for tomorrow.

6:45pm-Give Kaiden a bath...yes. Every single night we do this, because of his eczema.

7:00-7:15pm- Nurse him to sleep.

9:00pm-Last pump of the day. (Only sometimes...)

Kaiden is 3 months old now and normally wakes up once during the middle of the night and I will nurse him back to sleep. 

*I drink three 32 oz containers of water per day and also try to remember to take 2capsules of fenugreek 3 times per day.  I snack a lot too, to make sure I'm getting enough calories.

Kaiden's Birth Story

They aren't lying when they say that you will know when you are in labor!! I kept thinking I was in labor with those stupid braxton hicks contractions. I timed them out, they were painful at times and I made Kyle take me to the hospital 3 times...thinking that THIS IS IT! Haha! What a freaking joke. July 7th, 2014
I got up and went to the bathroom, wiped and saw there was a tiny bit of blood.  I immediately texted my sister the picture of toilet paper! Yes...we are that close.  She and I were both thinking that it was the infamous "bloody show".  I had a little cramping that morning, but I knew that I was probably getting close to giving birth (I was 39 weeks 6 days) so I wanted to get some work done and train this new temp they hired for my position. I did my makeup all pretty and even did my hair, because I wanted to look good for pictures (again...Lol!). I kept having cramps and contractions at work, luckily I had my 40 week OB appointment that morning at 10:00.

I got to my appointment and there was a mother and daughter sitting next to me in the waiting room.  I kept breathing through those stupid contractions and the mother looks at me, very concerned, and asks when my due date was.  I tell her, tomorrow! LOL! The look on her face was hysterical!! She said that if they were called in next, that they would let me go ahead of them...luckily, I was called in, so no worries!  We went through the normal routine: peed in a cup, got weighed (35 lbs gained), had bp taken.  The nurse then asks if I was having any contractions, um duh.  I have been having these stupid braxton hicks for weeks now!! I told her it was a little different today though, I was having period-like cramps and was pretty sure I had the bloody show this morning.  She hooked me up to do the NST.  I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes, lasting up to 1 minute.  My OB came in and checked me and I was 3 1/2cm dilated!  He told me that I could go home and get my stuff to be admitted or go straight over to the birthing center right now.  Since I was having contractions for weeks now, I already had my car packed, so I was ready to go!!  I called Kyle and told him that it was baby time!! He was completely surprised, but super excited! I called my mom right after so she could start travelling here, since she lives 2 hours away.  Then I called my sister and had her call Grimmie.
I headed over to L&D and did all of the paperwork.  I walked the halls for 30 minutes and then they broke my water.  

Then the real contractions started.  OMG!  I thought I was dying!  I asked for an epi soon after I was 4cm dilated.  Let's talk about the epidural.  It hurts.  Everyone says that you are in so much pain from labor that you won't feel it.  Um yeah..sure. I felt it.  TWICE!! The tech who put it in didn't get it right the first time, so he had to do it again.  I was in tears the entire time as I was breathing through my contractions too!  That's another thing..he tells me to be completely still.  How the crap can you be still when you feel like your insides are ripping?! Seriously. I was as still as I could be. Ha!  After that was finished, the contractions were much better! I progressed from a 4 to a 6 in no time!  It took a few hours to get to 9cm, and then I was stuck there forever.  My family was in there with me watching the Bachelor and trying to make me laugh.  We were all talking about poop, since we all know that everyone poops while giving birth. Lol!  I was really sad that I had forgotten to bring my stick-on air freshners for my thighs!! I'm sure my OB would have gotten a kick out of that!! Haha!  

After what seemed like forever, I was finally ready to push!! Yay!
Pushing was extremely painful.  The epidural started wearing off, since I had been in labor for 8 hours now.  My OB thought the pushing would be super easy for me because Kaiden's head was super low.  Well...he was wrong. Haha! With almost every push his head would come out and then he would go right back in.  It was excruciating pain, and I was crying to my sister that she lied about the epidural. LOL!  The nurse and I tried tons of different positions to try and get him out...I was so tired and Kyle kept feeding me ice chips because I had the most intense acid reflux ever.  I remember at some point, I told my husband to turn on some music so I could focus better. Between my mom and sister, singing and dancing and Christmas music playing in the background, I could not stop laughing!! They all definitely made it a lot more fun, although I had to yell at them to stop because it hurt to laugh. LOL! 

I had Amanda and Kyle at my shoulders and my mom holding a leg.  Amanda was trying to help me push by pushing with me!  She was pushing so hard she popped a blood vessel in her neck!!! Hahaha!
After 2 hours of pushing, Kaiden Kyle was born at 10:10pm.  He weighed a whopping 8 lbs 3.7oz!!  I can't believe I had that big of a baby inside me...must have been all of the sweets I ate with him!  After he was born, I felt so much relief and happiness!! I did it!  I pushed him out, even though it was the worst pain I have ever encountered and it's still very fresh in my memory.
Here is a few pictures from his birth:

   Lol! So much for doing hair & makeup

The next day, my OB came in to visit and told me that with the next pregnancy I will need to be induced, because he was ready to take me in to get a c-section.  He told me that my body can't handle a big baby like that and that he had turned off the epi on me so I could feel to push better!! I wanted to shoot him in the head right there. Douchebag. I was in severe pain, because of him!! LOL! Anyways, Kaiden was born healthy as can be and we love him to pieces.  I can't even remember how my life was without him.  He totally completes our family!!