Life as a New Mom

These past 8 weeks have blown by incredibly fast, as I mentioned in my post below. It's hard to remember what life was life before Owen graced us with his presence. It's even harder to think I've only been a mommy for 8 weeks (plus 40 weeks, if we're counting pregnancy). I was looking at my bump pictures the other day and I couldn't believe how big I was!

I'll be honest with you guys, when we first brought Owen home, I never thought I would sleep again and while I enjoyed life with my new baby boy, it was so rough getting used to life with a newborn. That, on top of recovering from giving birth and dealing with all the insane hormones (or lack thereof) that my body was trying to adjust from was so hard. I was so thankful that Tyler was able to get a week off of work to help me regain some strength but unfortunately, he had to go back to work the first day that we were able to take Owen home and I had no idea what to expect and that first night was so tough to push through. I thought it would never get better...

Even though that was only seven weeks ago, I wish I could go back and tell myself that it is all going to be okay, so I'll tell you guys, as some of you will be new moms soon: life will get easier, taking care of a baby will get easier, it just takes some time to get into a schedule, and don't be afraid to cry and let it out. Cry.. and cry some more! I don't think I've ever cried as much as I did those first couple weeks after Owen was born.

Now that it's been 8 weeks since Owen's birth, we have gotten our routine down. While Owen still runs the show over here, life is easier and I'm much more adjusted to the lack of sleep. My days are filled with many lattes (my espresso machine is a life-saver), feedings, diaper changes, diaper washes.. (hooray for hand-washing cloth diapers everyday... we really need a washer & dryer), google searches (if you have kids, you completely understand), and lots of cuddles. It's amazing when I find time to make dinner for me and Tyler (yay for bacon-wrapped meat loaf tonight!)

Espresso is good for the soul... and sleep-deprived moms

Even though I have a lot on my plate, I still find myself craving to work and craft. There are so many things I keep adding to my to-DIY list (I have even been looking at 1st birthday party ideas.. I'm getting a little ahead of myself) and I can't wait till I have an opportunity to do some of them. Some crafts I hope to do sooner than later are: baby leggings, making a tablecloth for our dinner table, and hopefully getting around to getting our photo gallery up. We moved into our new apartment in the middle of November and still really haven't gotten around to doing any home decor (we still really need an ottoman and end tables). By the time we have it all situated, our lease will be up!

I wish I had unlimited space & money for fabric alone..

Being a new mom has been such stress and fun and I wouldn't have it any other way (okay.. maybe I wish Tyler could work from home) and while there are days when the house isn't in the condition I would like it to be, it's still filled with the people I love the most and if I spend more time cuddling with my son rather than cleaning a few dishes, who cares? I am going to enjoy every moment I can as a new mommy with my adorable family..

Little Owen enjoying his first fire!

Quiet Morning

Good morning, sweet people. 

This morning, I find myself reflecting on this past year, especially these past couple months and how much they have changed my life. I am sitting in bed, coffee in hand, enjoying the oddly quiet feeling in the apartment this morning. I don't know if it has to do with the fact that my little guy slept for 5 1/2 hours straight last night (an all-time record!) or what but, it has me in an extremely reflective mood.

I am in utter shock as to how quickly life is going by now that I'm done with school, married, and have a little one.. to think that I did all of these things in just under a year is impressive and I'd like to say I'm at a point in my life where I am just content, I don't need anything else in my life right now. It is just right.

All my life there has always been something to strive for whether it be a degree, a perfect guy to share my life with, or a sweet little person(s) to fill our home with.. there's always been something, but today, I find myself really relishing in all that I have. I am truly grateful for my little family and to be honest, a little emotional towards the fact that time is just going by too fast, no matter how slow the days seem to go by. I had my precious bundle of joy almost 7 weeks ago and in all honesty, it feels like just yesterday I was in the hospital. You always hear people tell you, "cherish every moment, they will be grown up before you know it", and I'm just now realizing how true those words are. Tyler and I were talking yesterday about how we're going to be old before we know it and if time continues to go at the rate it is, we will be in our 60s by next month.

I can be extremely uptight sometimes and it's easy to get wrapped in frustration from the day-to-day activities, so I hope I can hang on to this peaceful feeling for a while. I am so happy that I'm able to document these experiences and I can only hope that by reading this posts in the future, I can recapture this sense of calm and peacefulness I am experiencing today.

And I'm off to go to tend to my sweet baby boy.. I hope you guys have a great day.

xx

Pregnancy Update; Team Pink vs. Team Blue

Hello everyone.. I am back at it again (shocking right?!.. I'm shocking myself too, believe me) and I thought I would share some of my experiences so far with my pregnancy. 

Here is our pregnancy announcement in all its glory in case you haven't gotten a good look at it yet (it's pretty adorable right?!) and most would say it's extremely fitting.. (bun in the oven... catch the baking pun?) 

 

So while I have always wanted to be a mom and experience pregnancy (those baby bumps are quite envious, don't you think?), I really never knew what to expect once we saw those two pink lines on the pregnancy test. My mom had always told me her not so pleasant experiences, so I figured that was what I was in for. But, I also heard (and hoped) that every pregnancy was completely different. 

For me I have had it relatively easy compared to those horror stories that I encountered. Aside from feeling complete and utter exhaustion & some heavy bouts of morning (more like all-day) sickness from time to time, I've been doing great. Like most, I have my good days and my bad and I have been feeling really good lately. Especially since we get to find out whether or not this little one inside of me is a boy or a girl on Thursday! So much excitement is ahead and it helps to look forward to that whenever I am feeling gross. Here's little one at my last ultrasound weeks ago.

Another thing that helps me feel wonderful is being able to hear my little one's heartbeat just pounding away. I was told not to buy one of these before I got pregnant because it could cause unnecessary stress if I couldn't find the heartbeat, so I put off buying the Doppler until I knew I could probably hear it. While I was frustrated at first because it took me about 20 minutes to finally find the heartbeat, once I did it made everything worth it. The sound is so soothing (to me & Ty at least) and I could fall asleep to it. I guess the feeling of knowing your little one is so alive inside of you is what makes me the happiest. Here's a little video from today of our little one's heartbeat. I think little one is sleeping in this video because its heartbeat at the doctor yesterday was way up in the 160s. 

What do you guys think if you had to guess? Team Blue or Team Pink? Tyler & I don't have a clue and will be over the moon with a boy or a girl. We cannot wait to see what little one is! 

That's all for now. See you all Thursday ;)

New Adventures as Husband & Wife

Hello everyone! It has been just about forever since our last post... I can't believe it's been about six months. There has been so much chaotic goodness that has happened in both our lives so I'll try to keep all the gushing down to a minimum.

As most of you know, Tyler & I got married!! It was such an insane day full of so many emotions. Maybe one day I'll share all the hectic events that happened/didn't happen on our wedding day.. that will be an entertaining post. So far we have had a somewhat quiet couple months of marriage and to be honest, it does not feel any different being married.. maybe when I settle into my new last name I'll start feeling different? Maybe not. :) The important thing is that we are happy and enjoying being newlyweds.

On to other exciting news, I also graduated college. It was such a wonderful day. I actually said the words, "I'm going to miss school... a lot" yesterday. HA! Miss school?! Who would have thought. But, I am truly missing some amazing people that I left behind when I moved back home. Ah. Distance sucks. 

Is that enough exciting news for you guys? I hope not because I have yet to share the most exciting news of all...ready?!

There is a bun in the oven baking up a storm right now. That's right... we are expecting!

This has been one of the biggest dreams come true for us. I feel like we have been talking about little one's since we started dating.. (we are crazy, I'm aware) and always knew that we would want to "start trying" (I really hate that term.. but whatever) once we got married. We didn't think it would happen so quickly, but we are more than thrilled that it did. I cannot even begin to explain the love I feel for that little one growing inside of me right now. My heart is overflowing.

Okay, I promised no gushing, but seriously?! That's kind of impossible for me. I guess I'll blame it on my pregnancy hormones.

 I will leave you guys with a ton of amazing pictures of all the awesomeness that has taken place in the past six months. Unfortunately, there aren't too many pictures of our big day since we are still waiting to get those pictures back (the wait is almost over! hurray!).

Happy Holidays!!!!

Hello everyone!
Tyler and I have been busy celebrating the holidays with each other & our families... and then there was also work & school that are always in the way of a good time. Here are some pictures to catch you up on all the fun and excitement that we have been having.
*Oh and in just 8 short days, we will be getting married in just 5 MONTHS!!

 

Phew! That was a lot of pictures and quick look through our excitement.
Even in the midst of all that we were able to do some planning for the wedding.
We made some adorable yarn letters, we are in the final steps of the invitation planning,
we got bridesmaids & grooms/men outfits, and the list keeps going...
...now if we could only figure out where we want to honeymoon!

I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season!
I know that we have TONS to be thankful for and couldn't be more happier for the things that we have and the people we get to share those things with!

<3

Wedding Registry Excitement!

Hello friends and family, I hope you are all enjoying the week so far!
As for me and Tyler, we are extremely busy with work and school
however, this weekend we were able to finally finish registering for our wedding!

Doesn't he look like Michael C. Hall as Dexter in this picture..?
Maybe it's the creepy face and knife, I don't know.... ;]

Of course I'm scanning cupcake tins....

We registered at of course, Target. And Bed, Bath, & Beyond. 

You can view both of our registries here:
 Target Registry & Bed, Bath, and Beyond Registry.

I think registering has been Tyler's favorite part of all this wedding planning so far. Not just picking out gifts for our loved ones to get us,
but walking around and getting ideas of what our future home will be like.
It's so exciting, and I think it's safe to say that registering has been one of my favorite parts as well.

Other than registering, Tyler and I have been enjoying cool weather by baking, cooking and glorious cups of espresso. Here are a few pictures to leave you with.

Oh, the places we'll (want to) go.

$2000/per person for airfare to Australia.

$1200/per person for airfare to New Zealand.

$900/per person for airfare to Sweden or Ireland.

$400/per person for airfare to Hawaii.

Finding a place far away from home to honeymoon inexpensively: impossible. 

So... Tyler and I have been talking about all the places that we would love to go on a honeymoon. We have both decided that we wanted to go somewhere far from home (which is proving to be an expensive task).

Ahhhhh...

I mean... Who DOESN'T want to go to Ireland?

We have actually talked about moving to Sweden & even attempted learning the language. Haha.

We want to be able to go somewhere that we know we will never be able to get the chance to after we are married and settled down. We have so many ideas but they are all so expensive! It's such a let down. I just need to keep telling myself that I will honestly have a blast no matter where I go with my future hubby. 

I honestly wouldn't even care if we didn't have a honeymoon. But, there's that part of me that really wants a lavish vacation that we can remember for the rest of our lives. Ahhhh... 

If anyone has any suggestions to where we should go or what we should do, we would love to hear them! We are open to anything, really.

<3

Insider Edition

If you want to get an insight of our relationship,
here are three things that allow us to enjoy life just a little bit more. :)

1. Written By A Kid - Ep. 1: Scary Smash

They turn kid's funny stories into actual little movies. As their slogan goes "we make videos based on what they say", it's seriously the cutest & funniest thing.

2. Coffee, coffee, and more coffee (specifically iced)

 Okay, so there's some hot coffee in there too, but if you want to learn how to cold brew your coffee then click here for the details! Warning: it does take 8-12 hours to go through the complete process but it's definitely worth the time.

3. Ticket To Ride

We recently started getting into board games and can't get enough of this one. Each player draws a couple routes that they try to complete by the end of the game using their train pieces. For every completed route you get points added to your total, but for every incomplete route you have, you get points subtracted from your total. It sounds simple, but chaos ensues as every player starts to get an idea of what route you're trying to complete and tries to block you off. If you want to get a better understanding of how it's played, click here. Thanks TableTop!