Girl Time & Polish Easter Fun!

It has been a busy couple of weeks!  Last week, Jess and Andrea came up from Long Island for a visit.  We were so happy to have them, our girl time was long overdue!

Tuesday night was a milestone for me, I went out to dinner with the girls and left Gwen at home with Justin.  He said he had a pretty easy time putting her to bed, and I had a fun night out with Jess and Andrea.  I did my best to try and limit the baby talk (I swear).  On Wednesday, the 4 of us girls went into Boston for lunch and did some shopping around the Pru.  Gwen was a champ, I think she's going to love shopping with me when she gets a bit older.  Jess and Andrea left on Thursday afternoon and Gram & Grandpa K arrived on Thursday evening.


On Friday, we spent the day condo hunting for my parents.  They're looking to become part time Massholes so they're able to see Gwen a lot more and come and go as they please (not that we don't love having them stay here with us!).  They were so close to putting in an offer, until we found out that someone beat them to it!  Oh well, the hunt continues.

Last Sunday was Gwen's first easter and the Easter Bunnies (G&G K) left quite the spread for her!!

We had a yummy Polish Easter feast - Thanks to my mom for bringing (and cooking) the kielbasa and perogies!

Congrats to Janelle, who won the egg wars!  No one wanted to crush Gwen's egg.  How could they, with this face?  It was a pretty good defense on her part. Well played, little G.

A few more Easter pics:

The past week was pretty standard, except for one big milestone - Baby girl rolled over from back to front!!  We had just come home from Yoga on Thursday and I put her down on the living room floor.  Without any hesitation she just rolled over! I was so excited :) :) :)  She hasn't done it again since then, but I'm sure she'll be rolling all over the place before we know it.

Home Brew!

Attention: This post is NGR (Not Gwen Related)

I documented our first home brew experience, which culminated today with the first taste!  The most tedious thing about home brewing is how sterile everything has to be.  Apparently, beer needs to ferment at the same temperature that bacteria grows, so it's really important to keep everything sterile. There's A LOT of cleaning prep work that goes into it (fortunately, my job was photographer, and not cleaner).

Rob, Justin, and Stevie - ready to brew our first beer!

 Boiling...

We ended up using 2 different sets of directions because we couldn't decide which to follow.  Not the best idea ever, next time we decided to make things a bit less complicated and choose 1 set to go with...

There was nothing very appetizing about the entire process..

Morgan was not a fan of the smell

We were just about finished when the rubber grommet fell INTO the bucket (not good because of the whole sterile thing I mentioned earlier)

 Trying to fish out the grommet - did not work...

 ...so Stevie had to go in

 Success!

**Now the beer has to ferment for 4 weeks.**

Time to bottle the beer and let it sit for another week to carbonate.

Fast forward to today: The moment of truth has arrived!!!

This photo gives you an idea how much we trusted the beer that we made - we had a lot of back up, just in case:

The poor, and first taste:

 Holy crap, it's actually GOOD!!

A definite success! A new business venture? hmmm...... :)



OK, twist my arm... here's a pic of Morgan holding Gwen.  It was too cute to resist posting

Yay Friday!

The Friday before a long weekend is always the best kind! The past week has been a busy one.  On Saturday, Aunt Kristen came over to visit with Gwen for the day (this pic is from a while ago, but I forgot to take one while she was here).
















Justin went over Rob & Stevie's to bottle beer that we all made (first attempt) a few weeks ago.  It has been fermenting, and will be ready to drink this weekend!  Pics of the process and end result to come...


We went to an art festival on Sunday where we met a bunch of great local artists.  I carried Gwen in the Moby - it was the longest I've had her in the Moby wrap and I really enjoyed it.  She stayed awake most of the time, just looking around at all of the people and artwork.










On Monday, we met up with Stevie, Morgan, and Rena Lynn at a playground near their house.  The weather was supposed to be warm so we wanted to take advantage.  Turns out it was chilly at the playground so we didn't stay for too long, but here's a pic of the girls helping me push Gwen in her stroller.

After that, we went to a local cafe for some coffee and treats.  Gwen had a lot of fun hanging out with the girls!



It was so nice out by the time we got home, that we decided to take a little nap on the porch :)

Tuesday was a grocery shopping kind of day, nothing much to report.  We were supposed to go to the zoo on Wednesday with some moms and kids from a group I found on meetup.com.  The trip ended up getting cancelled because of rain (bummer), so we met some other moms and their kids out for coffee and breakfast.  There was a good range of babies and toddlers, and Gwen met a friend who is 3 days older than she is.  The moms were very nice, and we're looking forward to more get togethers.  Later that afternoon, we went to our breastfeeding group.  When we first started going, Gwen would mostly sleep through the meetings.  Now, she's awake and looking all around at the other babies and moms.  She has the best tummy times during these groups because she loves looking around and smiling at everyone.  


On Thursday, Gwen and I went to our 2nd week of Mommy & Baby Yoga.  I felt like I got a better workout from this class because I knew what to expect, and it really seemed like Gwen was enjoying it.



  










Nana and Papa S stopped over for dinner on Thursday night, and they came bearing gifts for Gwen's first Easter, here she is modeling one of the headbands they gave her:






















Now we're just hanging out and playing until daddy gets home.
Enjoy the weekend!! :)

Booooooobs

I've been wanting to mention my breastfeeding experience, but I feel like it requires it's own post.

For as long as I can remember, I had been excited to get pregnant, (besides for obvious reasons) "so my boobs will get bigger".  Anyone who has ever seen me can understand that.  During my pregnancy, I thought "YES! the time has come".  I listened to pregnant friends tell me that they're already up 2 bra sizes at 6 months pregnant.  I was so excited, waiting for my new boobs to arrive...and waiting...  Nope.  I wore the same 'ol A-cup bras during my entire pregnancy.  Towards the end, my belly stuck out so far past my boobs that I looked like a pregnant little boy.  Even the *very limited amt* of XS maternity clothes were too big in the boobage.  I'm not gonna lie, many times I questioned whether or not I'd even be able to breastfeed.  My poor baby was going to starve.

After Gwen was born, I realized that breastfeeding is one of the most unnatural natural things in the world.  I didn't know what the hell I was doing, Gwen didn't know what the hell she was doing, but we were going to figure it out together.  By the time we left the hospital we actually felt pretty good about it.  Well, except for the excruciating pain and the fact that by the time I finished feeding, it was just about time to feed again (babies always lose weight in the first couple of days until mom's milk comes in, and once it does you have to feed on-demand furiously trying to get her back up to her birth weight by the 2 week Dr appointment).  Well holy crap, remember what I said before about thinking Gwen would starve?  Boy, was I wrong.  By her 2 week appointment she was over a pound heavier than when she left the hospital.  I was thrilled because seriously, it was hard work!  In the first 2 months, I fed her for over 208 hours! (don't think I'm weird, I have an app on my phone that kept track)  That's over FIVE FULL WORK WEEKS of just constant feeding in a 2 month period.  What the shit.  No wonder my nipples felt like they had been scraped against concrete and I winced in pain every time she latched on.  *note: Anyone reading this who is planning on BFing or has just started, I swear, it gets a lot less painful (actually, painless) after the first 3 weeks.*

We had one big setback very early on, where we gave her a pacifier after we had run out of ideas to stop her from crying (which worked), but after that it was like she literally forgot how to breastfeed.  The dreaded Nipple Confusion: contrary to what Gwen's pediatrician told us, most certainly DOES exist.  I spent hours trying to teach her again from scratch.  Luckily, by the next day we were back in business.

As challenging as it was in the beginning, I can say that I'm truly happy we chose to breastfeed her.  I say "we" because I know it would've been much more difficult if it wasn't for Justin's encouragement.  He has been an awesome and much needed support system throughout, and I doubt I could've stuck with it without him.  During the weeks that he took off of work, he was up at night with us for every single feeding so he could change her diaper.  It's funny, but I don't think I even changed one of her diapers for the first 2 days of her life because Justin took charge of it since he (obviously) couldn't help with the feeding.

I'm still exclusively breastfeeding Gwen now, which I'm very proud of because I know that even though it was a challenge in the beginning, it's the best thing for her.  It's amazing to me that she is growing so fast solely off of what my body produces for her.  Most of all, I love the fact that I get to look down at these eyes, while they look up at me.

three months

Gwen is 3 months today!  This means that technically she is no longer considered a "newborn", which makes me sad but excited at the same time.  I watch short video clips that we took of her during her first week and she seems soooo tiny (her cheeks hadn't filled in yet).  She was basically a little lump - eating, sleeping, pooping, crying, hiccuping.
3 months later... it sounds like such a short amount of time, but it's amazing how many little changes we've seen and how much more interactive she's become.  She's looking up at the toys on her play mat and grabbing for them.  She holds her head up like a champ during tummy time.  Just this morning I caught her staring at her foot while she was sitting on me, so I put her hand on it and she started playing with her foot!  It cracks me up because reading this back, if I didn't have a baby I'd be wondering what the big deal is.  But it's so amazing watching a little person learn how to interact with herself and with her surroundings for the first time.  I feel so lucky to be able to experience all of these little milestones with her.  The best part of my day is in the morning when I go into her room to the sounds of her cooing and "talking" to herself and she looks up at me from her crib with this huge gummy smile and starts shrieking with excitement to see me.  There's no better feeling, and I know it's only going to get better.
Happy 3 months baby girl <3

Outings

I had to post this pic of Gwen, on our way to our breastfeeding group yesterday:

She's wearing her favorite giraffe outfit from Aunt Annie, and the jacket was her very first gift after we found out we were pregnant - from Gram & Grandpa.

We go to breastfeeding group every Wednesday - it's been a great excuse to get out of the house for a few hours, especially with the brutal weather we've had this winter!

We went to our first "Mommy & Baby" Yoga class this morning.  Because I can never find anything going on up by me, we drove a little out of the way.  It was so worth it, though - I loved being able to do the exercises while holding and playing with her.  It's always nice meet other moms with babies Gwen's age, and they were such a friendly group.  We're looking forward to doing it again next week!

After Yoga, we came home for some lunch and then we had to take advantage of the sun, so we went back out to the park for a walk with The Jig.

Gwen Update:  She has been really reaching for toys and grasping them a lot more lately.  Also, I've started to pull her up to a seated position while she lays down on the floor, and today I caught her lifting her head and trying to sit up in her bassinet!  Obviously that's not going to happen for a while, but you can tell she really wants to do it. <3

well, I guess it IS April..

Gwen: moby wrapped,

Jackson: leashed,

Temp: 60 degrees(!!)...

...and it immediately began to rain.

It was still a good walk, but we seriously cannot wait for some decent weather!

Sew much fun!

My parents are up visiting and on this snowy (ugh!) April Fools Day, mom and I decided to make some pillow covers.  The blue ones are for the living room and the smaller birdcage pillow is for Gwen's room.  I had no idea what I was doing but I had a good teacher.
Look out Etsy, here we come!!!