Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Noah is just a growin'

Yesterday Noah decided it was the day he would sit up without any back support. Sean said he was trying to help him to sit up by himself all day but Noah just couldn't do it. Then when I got home from work he did it! I say its cuz he wanted mommy to be there for it. He is a mama's boy and I love it.

 This picture looks like he is leaning on Sean's legs but that is a deceiving angle. He is up all on his own. He only did it long enough for me to snap 4 pictures, about 20 seconds or so, but he was pretty still. He then toppled froward and pulled himself up again. Such strong ab muscles!

 Auntie Onda

 Uncle David reading to Noah while Onda holds the book. Such a sweet moment


 We thought Noah was in the room sleeping, I walked into the room to check on him and this is what I found. He was moving is tongue all around and staring. He was so quite we thought he was sound asleep.

 Hanging out with mom. We like to send pictures to Daddy while he is at work so he knows what we are up to. Noah was quite comfortable laying there.
 Noah enjoys being on his tummy when he has a toy. He is a pro at rolling over from his tummy to his back now. He has also been trying to figure out how to crawl. He moves his legs and tries to get up on his knees but he hasn't had any luck as of yet. He can't figure out how to get his arms to move him.
We went to the park with daddy. Sean was walking Davids dog while Noah and I played on the swing.

Noah is just growing so much these days. It seems like everyday he does something new and cute. Lets see what he does next!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Christmas is Almost Here!!!!!!









Christmas will be here in less than 2 days! Its crazy how fast time has gone by. We have been staying with Sean's family for a month now. Its going well. Its nice to have family all around for Noah to get to know better. They all just love having him here. Noah and I have been sick for the past week. Its so sad when a baby is sick. He can't tell me whats wrong so I don't always know what to do. Its kind of a hit and miss thing. His poor little nose has so much snot and gunk in it that it was like a dirty faucet. Sean and I feel so bad when he coughs too. They are so big it shakes his little body. He is starting to feel better finally. Its so sweet that even when he is sick he smiles. Such a cutie. A couple weeks ago we did Christmas family pictures. Noah makes the pictures. Sean and I are pretty cute too. 

















 I'm not ok with pictures anymore mom and dad!
This is the most beautiful sad face I've ever seen.



He was so tired after all the pictures. He had a very long nap afterward.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Awesomeness all around

First of all, Noah is just getting more and more cute every day. In fact its more like every second.

 This is his Sunday outfit. He looks so adorable all dressed up in his Sunday best.

 He loves taking his pacifier out of his mouth half way and sucking on his hand or one of his toys at the same time. Silly baby.
 He is a pro at sitting up propped up against things now. He doesn't even lean anymore or topple over. Now he is learning how to sit up not propped. He loves the view from sitting rather than laying. I love how he puts his arm like that.
 Not a great picture but this was from the breakfast with Santa on Saturday. Sean, Me, Noah and Jim went to the ward party. The food was cold but it was great to get a picture with Santa. Noah was pretty much indifferent to him though he got real excited when I grabbed him back.
 The red table cloth at the breakfast really captured Noah's attention. He stared at it intently and ate it and talked to it even.
He is so vocal these days. He loves to hear his voice and make different noises. He is really expressive with his face too. Always moving his eyebrows up and down and making his lips move, sucking on his lower lip. Just cuteness all day.

Sean and I went to our friends work party on Saturday and it was a blast! I wish I had pictures. Alas I do not. So you have to just read about it and imagine. Our friends Grady and his wife Rachelle and her sister Emily invited us to go to their (Grady and Emily) work party. Grady is a part owner of a software company and Emily is one of the customer service people. The party was at the house of the CEO of the company. Let me tell you, his house was HUGE! Like "MTV's cribs" big. The backyard had a tennis court, play house, giant trees that usually hang out in parks (yes they were that large), pool and a bouncy house thing. Sean said " I feel like Annie at Daddy Warbucks house" haha I also had the same feeling. It was so fun hanging out with the three of them. They are a funny bunch. At the party everyone was given $1000 in fake money to fake gamble with. They had roulette, black jack, and poker tables for everyone to play. Then after an hour they gave us another $1000 in fake money. Sean was really good he finished with $3200. We both decided that its a good thing we don't gamble for real. I would get such anxiety if it was real money I was losing even if it wasn't my money. It was fun though knowing we weren't really losing or winning anything. At the end of the night any chips we had left were exchanged for raffle tickets to be entered into a raffle for prizes. They gave out gift cards for $100 and the last prize was the best. Guess who won?!!!  That's right, THIS GIRL :)

I am now the owner of a KINDLE FIRE 
His name is Franklin. I seriously love this thing. Its so awesome. Its become my planner :) I ordered a case that makes it look like a planner too!

Isn't it lovely? Its still in the mail but should be here tomorrow. Fingers crossed X. A couple of the apps I have are the gospel library, a calendar app, a budget app and a ton of games. Its a pretty cool gadget.

Sean is to the end of this semester now. He has one last final tomorrow morning. He did pretty well in all of his classes and is ready for a break. He enjoys being able to be home with Noah during the day. I am still producing milk like a pro :) I get 13 to 15 ounces  every day at work and then 4 to 7 ounces when I get home after feeding Noah. When I'm home I feed him and then sometimes I'll even pump afterward just to get some extra milk in storage. It feels so great to not worry about providing for my baby. I'm very grateful for that blessing. I have a friend who's milk supply has gone down so I'm letting her borrow the extra pump I have so she can hopefully get her supply up again. I sure hope it works. Well that ends this post, have a lovely day :)

Friday, December 2, 2011

BreastMilk supply and Supplementing

For the past 2 weeks my milk supply had been decreasing. This really scared me because I would rather not have to supplement. I knew one of the reasons why it had be decreasing is because I was stressed out over the move and other family issues taking place lately. If that was the only issue then I would have just tried harder to keep myself not stressed. Unfortunately that wasn't the only reason for the low supply. Noah has been sleeping longer through the night, occasionally skipping the midnight feeding and going from 9pm to 6pm stretch of sleep. This has been great for Sean and mine sleep but not good on my milk supply. Breast milk works on supply and demand. The more often the baby eats the more milk is produced. Since he doesn't eat at night very much anymore he has been eating more during the day. The issue is that my body is not aware of the demand increase during the day since I am at work while Noah is home eating the pumped milk in bottles.  How do I increase my milk supply? I tried pumping at work longer but that didn't do anything but make me sore. The pump is effective but its just not the same as the baby. Thinking of Noah helped some but not enough. Finally my sister told me about an herbal supplement that she had taken that increased her supply almost instantly. I am very happy to report that it had the same affect on me! :) Oh happy day. After taking the capsules for 2 days I have already started to produce 2 bottles more a day, that's 4 to 5ounces. Yay! I'm hoping that soon it will be even more so that Noah will have enough milk supply to his hearts content.

So you may be wondering
What is this magical capsule?!
 Its called Motherlove more milk plus.
Motherlove's best-selling more milk plus alcohol free liquid concentrate in vegetarian capsules. A safe and effective herbal formula designed to quickly increase breast milk for breastfeeding mothers.
Not for use during pregnancy.

I found that its much more expensive if you buy it through their website. The cheapest I found it was through Amazon.com  They had a bottle of 120 capsules (1 month supply, 4 a day) for $27.65  It contain herbs that are traditionally and effectively used worldwide to increase and enrich breast milk. Ingredients are: fenugreek seed, blessed thistle herb, nettle herb, fennel seed, non-GMO soy lecithin, modified vegetable cellulose, coconut oil)
All Herbs Certified Organic
Since the FDA does not require scientific studies on natural herb remedies or supplements there is no research supporting that this works. However, there are anecdotal evidence that it does in fact help the milk supply increase. I for one am living proof it works. I hope that none of you have this issue but if you do there is an answer!

In other information. A friend of mine said she was not producing enough milk either and that she was supplementing with goats milk. I thought I had heard something about that before and remembered that it was not good but didn't remember why. I had heard that only breastmilk or formula should be used if your baby is less than six months old. So I did some research. Here is what I found on the subject.

Goat's Milk
Using goat's milk before 6 months or regular use between 6 and 12 months is not recommended. Goat's milk is no more appropriate to give baby than cow's milk. If you need to supplement and breastmilk is not available, formulas are a more nutritionally complete product. There are several comparisons of goat vs. cow vs. human milk in the links below. Using this information, goat milk is much closer in composition to cow milk than human milk. Goat's milk is high in sodium (like cow's milk) and is very high in chloride and potassium, which makes the renal solute load too high for babies. This can cause gastrointestinal bleeding and can result in anemia and poor growth (these problems are usually undetected until months later). Goat milk is also deficient in folic acid, which can lead to megaloblastic anemia. Also, infants who are allergic to cow's milk protein are often allergic to goat's milk too.
While it's true that whole goats milk (and whole cow's milk) was commonly used prior to the advent of infant formulas it is also true that the infant mortality and morbidity rate during the times of such substitutions was very high.



Cow's Milk
Use of cow's milk before a year is controversial among experts. You might want to get your baby's doctor's opinion on this.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends NO cow's milk until after the first birthday.
Cow's milk is more specific to a baby cow than a baby human. Cow's milk formula is based on cow's milk but has been engineered to be closer to human milk (still a ways off, but closer). Many infants still have problems with cow's milk formula (allergies, GI problems, etc.). Babies who are exposed to cow's milk before their first birthday are more likely to be anemic, have diarrhea or vomiting, and/or experience an allergic reaction (the proteins in milk are more numerous than those in other milk products, such as the yogurt). The excessive protein load in cow's milk can also overload a baby's kidneys. It is deficient in vitamins C, E, and copper. It is harder to digest as well, often causing intestinal blood loss. A number of studies have also indicated that early introduction of cow's milk may contribute to the development of Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus.
Others see no problem with starting cow's milk toward the end of the first year unless there is a family history of allergy to it. Dr. Jack Newman, a renowned expert in the lactation field, is one of these. See the "Breastmilk, cow's milk, formula, outside work and bottles" section of his article Breastfeeding and Other Foods. Notice that he qualifies this advice with the importance of the baby being well-established on a variety of solids and continuing to be breastfed (both of which should help make up for what cow's milk can't offer at this age). He also suggests that supplemental milk of any kind is not all that necessary if the baby is allowed to nurse frequently when with mom. He suggests offering the baby solid foods with some water or small amounts of juice instead.
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/milk/milk-supplements.html

Here is another website that has helpful information on goats milk. One reason parents sometimes use goats milk is because their babies have an allergy to regular formula. Here is what Dr Sears has to say about it.

http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/feeding-infants-toddlers/goat-milk

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The conversations we have

So I was at work today and I sent Sean a picture of my lunch because it amused me so. This was the conversation that ensued. I just have to say that I love my husband. His remarks are always so witty and silly. He makes me happy. I'm the grey and Sean is the green.

 That's right, I'm Deana My Love in his phone. Sweet right? :)

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Birthday Surprise

So the much anticipated surprise from Sean finally came! Let me tell you, it did not disappoint. He took me shopping at Forever21 and then to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It was a wonderful day :) We went in the afternoon on Friday so we got black friday deals without the black friday craziness. I got a couple of great outfits for pretty cheap. I love that Sean is so patient and caring. He didn't get annoyed or anything even though we were at the mall for 2 hours. Man I have the best husband ever <3  I also have to say that Texas Roadhouse is where its at! The rolls with cinnamon  butter (which Sean sadly could not partake of) are the bomb.  Yum. So thats it. Super sweet and Super simple. I even let Sean use part of my birthday money to get two shirts from his favorite store Vans. Yes we are that much in love. haha

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Grateful Turkey

Its the Grateful Month! That's right people, time to make your lists and show your gratitude. I love Thanksgiving! Not only is it a all out fest but we get to spend time with family and remember all the many many blessings we have. So here is my grateful list.

1. I'm grateful for our sweet Noah. He brings a smile to my face every time I see him. He is growing so much and I'm grateful for a happy healthy baby. He is so darn cute!!! I just love him.

2.  I'm grateful for an Eternal Marriage. Can you believe I get to be with this guy for ever? I know, luckiest girl in the world. I just love my sweet, silly husband. I love our crazy midnight talks and laugh fests. He just makes me happy. He is patient with me and doesn't point out my many flaws. Instead he just encourages me to be better with a loving example. He takes care of me and Noah. He is a perfect father and I love seeing him love Noah.

 3. Eternal Family. We are sealed as a family forever and any other babies we are blessed with.

4. The Priesthood. It continually blesses our lives everyday

5. Family. We have such great supportive parents and siblings. They are everything to us.
We are moving in with Sean's mom next week. I am grateful that we have family willing and able to help us out in a tough situation. Its really something we need to do to save some money up so we can afford to live in an apartment afterward. With maternity leave not being fully paid for like we had planned and the car breaking and needing to be repaired and all sorts of other unexpected expenses we have found ourselves out of savings. Its scary to be living paycheck to paycheck. So moving in with family for a couple months with less rent will be a life saver for our bank account.
 
6. Friends that keep me motivated and laughing

7.  Our jobs. Its hard being a working mom. I miss Noah all day! But its wonderful for our bank account and being able to provide for Noah. Someday when Sean is done with school I shall be a stay at home mama. Til then I can see the blessing of working.

8. School. Sean is able to learn and prepare to have a career to support our family.

9. The Gospel. It brings answers to questions and sometimes even more questions with answers to be searched for. I'm grateful for the knowledge of a loving Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ. For His atonement and the opportunity to repent and come closer to Him.

There are many other things in my life to be grateful for but I'm satisfied with this list for now. What are you all grateful for? Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Noah and his toys

Parents can spend 100's of dollars on toys to make their children happy. There are so many toys out there these days. Toys that make noise, toys that move, toys that make help children to learn, electronic toys, plastic toys. With all that said, the best toys tend to be the ones you spent nothing on. Anything can be a toy. Pretty much anything that captures their minds and makes them have fun. I find that the more simple the toy the more imagination it takes to play with it, therefore helping in the development of their little baby minds.
Noah's first toy was mommy and daddy. We were the first thing to make him giggle and become interactive. The next toy was his hands and anyone else's hands he could get to. He is still fascinated with both but now he has another toy to play with.  You'll never guess what it is.... Ok I'll show you.

 If you guessed a DQ blizzard cup then you are correct! haha. He loves this things. Grandma Elizabeth came to watch him last night and as she was eating her ice cream Noah's eyes would follow the cup whichever direction it went. He was so intrigued by the colors and the noise it made. So Grandma washed the cup and gave it to him for a toy. Ever since he has had it in his hands. Right now as I write this he is sleeping with it in his hands so it will be ready for him when he awakes. Smart lad I know. He sits and stares at it and shakes it around and bounces it so it turns on his hand. He watches as we hit it with a spoon and tries to get himself to do it.


He also has another toy that has captured his heart. Sean named it Pumpkinpus. He is an octopus with a pumpkin head, Sean says. Noah has such fun with the different textures of fabric used for the tenticales, the crinkle fabric around his head and the bell in the head.

haha He loves to eat his pumpkinpus too. This is also a good picture to show how strong he has gotten. He sits up all the time now. He loves this new view of the world. Also, do you notice how long his legs and torso are! He is such a tall baby boy. 12lbs 26 inches long! He has his 4 month dr appointment next week. The 26th is is 4 month birthday :) Such a cutie pie.

It's This Blogging Gal's Birthday!!!

That's right it was my birthday yesterday! Since I'm an adult though, I had to go to work. I could have tried to get the day off but since my birthday is next to Thanksgiving that is next to impossible. So I worked. It wasn't too bad though. I got home to a happy smiling baby and handsome husband excited to have me home :) Oh how I love them! Andrea planned a little surprise birthday party but I ruined that. haha. My bad. Sean and I were hanging out with Noah in the living room and he kept asking me to go to the bank with him or go give Noah a bath or go hang out in the bedroom but to all of his effort I kept saying "no not right now I just want to sit and relax, its my birthday" Then Andrea came home with Brittney and tried to get me to leave. That didn't work either. Finally Andrea said "heres the deal. We have a party planned for you but since you wont leave we cant surprise you but your friends will all be here pretty soon" haha what a beautiful surprise right??! It was a blast. Andrea got me a really cute shirt and phase ten cards. I love that game! Amanda, Jess and Kenny, Kirby and Britt all came and partied with us. It was a pretty fun night. Noah of course slept through most of it. Sean has a surprise planned for me on Friday to celebrate my birthday and he is actually doing a good job of keeping it a secret. This is a huge accomplishment for him! Normally I bug him for details and ask him questions of what we could be doing and at some point he ends up caving. I am a big supporter of surprises but I'm so bad at letting them happen. I just like to know whats going on and have to always know everything. This puts a damper on the surprise. I'm super proud of Sean for holding out this long. Only  2 days til my surprise (does it still count as a surprise if I know its coming but just don't know what "it" is? hmm. I'm going to go with yes) Tomorrow is THANKSGIVING!!! I love this holiday. A day to be grateful for our family, country and everything else and we get to eat all day?! Yes it truly is an American holiday. I shall write a post of Thanksgiving and all the things I'm grateful for on the morrow. Til then have a great day.

P.S. Happy Birthday to Amanda Henning, my wonderful oldest sister whom I love :) She is 30 today! Gosh what a old lady she is. We have a surprise bday party planned for her this Saturday but shhhhhh, dont tell her.

P.S.S Happy late birthday to Justin Rogers, my quirky brother whom I love as well. I wished him a happy day on his bday, which is the day before mine but I figured I could say something on here about him as well.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Baby Giggles

That's right! Noah giggled for the first time. He has made little happy babies noises a lot in the past but Friday night Nov 11th was his first really laugh. Let me tell you, it was the most sweet, adorable, cute thing I have ever heard in my entire life! I just love seeing how happy my little Noah is. Then last night he was laughing so much Andrea could hear him from all the way in the front of the house while Sean Noah and I were in the back. Sean and I were singing "Tony Chest Nut Knows I Love You". Noah loves that song. We point at his toes, chest, head, nose and eye while singing which in turn makes him laugh so much. We can't believe how much he has grown. He will soon be 4 months old. He is showing more personality and getting longer and chubbier. His little fat thighs are my favorite. Oh and his chubby checks. I love kissing them. <3 He is a champion sleeper at night still. 6 to 8 hours at a time. Oh yeah! Mommy and Daddy love the sleep.

Noah has been filling his days with staring at his hands. He is absolutely fascinated by them!
Daddy and Noah at church.

Noah is learning to sit up by himself. He has really good balance as long as he is leaning up against something. He can sit up with out support for a couple seconds and then topples over. haha

Winter Noah!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Bradley Class Reunion

All of the babies from our bradley class have been born. So you know what that means?! Reunion time!! Sadly Sean wasn't able to make it. He had to work yesterday and couldn't get it off. Andrea came with me instead so she could see all the cute babies and have some yummy breakfast. It was so great seeing everyone again and all their adorable babies. We all told our birth stories and took pictures.

 Noah made a friend right away, Rachel's baby Leila. She really liked him, and kept holding his hand and eating it.
We laid them down in birth order. It was fun seeing the different sizes and all of their growth and progression.