As a Mom, I....

My friend Brandi over at Brooklyn State of Mind is helping me out with my first link up! Woo Woo, here's hoping I do this right folks! I love sharing new mommy stories, especially when they're hilarious and shed some light into our "not so perfectly cool" selves. Soooo here goes!



As a mom, I have learned to be pretty creative in a pinch. After "assuming" my engorgement days were behind me, I confidently left the breast pads at home one afternoon and headed out for a day of shopping, then dinner at the in-laws.

During baby Tallan's feeding time, as she nursed away on one side, I quickly realized the other boob felt left out and wanted to join the party! Before I knew it, my bra, tank top AND overshirt were soaked in that ooh so conspicuous "I'm lactating" area! Oooopsie! What a day to not have a change of clothes and breast pads for mommy!

Luckily my sister in law is 17, and I snuck to raid her closet. Stealing a small sports bra (yea, with these honker milk makers) and a T-shirt, I was almost home free. Here's the kicker....having NO breast pads to protect myself from future leakage, I was still in need of a fix. Scrounging through the SIL's bathroom, I found the solution - Astringent/make up remover pads! They fit perfectly over the "desired" area and are pretty darn absorbent! Who knew!

I made it home with no further spills...and no one was the wiser. There's nursing knowledge for your future boobie blunders!

I think my kid might be a vampire!

My husband reads for knowledge. Doctor Jarvis stimulates his brain with non fictional tales of disease states, pharmaceutical studies and all sorts of medical intellectual mumbo jumbo. Me? I read for fun! A lover of fiction and fantasy, I enjoy transporting myself into other worlds of make-believe. I have come to realize however, that my flare for fiction has jinxed my child.

Harry Potter, Edward & Bella,  and Sookie Stackhouse have gotten together to punish me for my reading exploits. My child, Tallan Hope, just might be a vampire! Let's review the facts shall we?

Pale skin, light eyes - vampire. Sleeps all day, up all hours of the night biting people - vampire. Will NOT eat  people food - vampire. Has only 2 upper teeth that are NOT the front teeth but the scary side ones....OMG VAMPIRE!

All joking aside, I have noticed as Miss Tallan has been teething, that the order of which these little pearlies appear is not the norm! Terrified by my vampire-esque imagination, I did some research on the American Dental Association's web page.

Per chart above, the lower 2 front teeth should come in first...CHECK! 

Followed by the top 2 front teeth...umm nope! Tal has decided to sprout her upper lateral incisors (the two flanking your big front teeth) first, leaving her looking curiously like our famous vampire friends. 

I have been reassured by Tallan's mimi, a registered dental hygienist  that this could be normal, and that one day soon my baby doll will expose her two front teeth. Gosh, here's hoping! 

My life is not ready for a vampire baby! My husband might look a bit like Edward Cullen, (have you seen him?,) but we have no werewolf friends that I know of; and I really would like to get some sleep during the nighttime hours sometime in the near future. 

Cloth Diapering Mama

I was given the wonderful opportunity to guest blog today for Miss Terri over at Rambling Momma! Seeing that my guest post was about one of my favorite subjects, I'd love to share it with you as well - Cloth Diapering!

Before getting pregnant, if someone would have told me I'd be one of THOSE cloth diaper moms, I would have laughed in their face. The concept, at first, conjures thoughts of pooped stained white cloth, safety pins, and sloshing around elbow deep in a toilet. Noooo thank you.

After some research, however, I found my above assumption to be one of the past. Today's cloth diaper speaks to a multitude of mommy styles. Cloth diapering caters to the green mom, the organic mom, the cost saving mom, and in my case.....the "I love the adorable cloth diaper prints - I gotta have the cuteness" mom!
While I like to consider myself all of the above, let's face it - they were just so darn cute I couldn't resist!

There are a plethora of cloth diaper options to choose from, and all have wonderful qualities! I found a local diaper store/web site that allowed me to research my options and make a decision on what worked best for us. Itsy Bitsy Bums and Cotton Babies are amazing research and purchasing resources! We have opted for pocket diapers and all in one diapers in our household.

If you clicked on the links above and got overwhelmed....join the club! Take a breath, soak in the knowledge, and choose a few to try! You don't have to cloth diaper 24/7, even 3 diapers a day can significantly reduce your nursery waste! Check out some great financial and environmental stats here.

How to get started?
Once we decided on exclusive cloth diapering, we checked the following off our list. Although an initial investment is necessary, it was nowhere near the up to $2000 the average household will spend on disposables per child! Plus, after potty training, you can resale your cloth diapers and make a portion of that moolah back! Score!

• diaper stash of 25 diapers (approx $20ea) = initial $500 investment in diapers
• diaper pail for dirties
• cloth diaper safe detergent 
• anti-bacterial diaper spray

That's it. Really. We even registered for cloth diapers from our favorite sites and decreased our personal investment by receiving some as shower gifts! Yay! Now, I can't promise this won't turn into an addiction. You MAY love diapering so much, you spend a little extra on new designs/prints, and fun accessories. (Don't tell my husband, though. He thinks I'm the "cost saving" mom!) To be honest, we have waaaaay more than 25 diapers now...but haven't I told you how cute they are?

I have learned throughout the process, that cloth diapering is not anything based on strict formulas for success. In a very low key way, we have found what works for us and stuck with it; as well as added a few new tricks along the way. I am a testimony to the easy breeziness of these things. If it was hard girls, I would not be talking about them! We've converted friends, taught the grandparents the ropes, AND traveled multiple times using exclusively cloth. A decision, that was initially made for fun and eco-friendly reasons, has morphed into one of our proudest parenting accomplishments thus far.

We have absolutely ZERO nursery trash at all (we use cloth wipes too, but that's a whole 'nother blog), no diaper rash, no chemicals on bum...and one adorable bum at that! Check out our sweet Tallan Hope, sporting her fluffy butt.

I would love to hear your thoughts and answer any questions you have! Happy diapering ya'll!

Tallan sporting an Applecheeks pocket diaper

ER Plight & a Texas Flight

Well, I made it 8 months before having a scary mommy story to tell. Thank heavens this story does not involve sweet Miss Tallan, but yours truly.

Before the Christmas holiday, Tal and I had planned a trip to Texas to see my family. A couple days before departing  however, I awoke feeling terrible nauseous. I spent the better part of a morning and an afternoon fighting the inevitable...and finally gave in a couple hours before hubbo got off work! It's one thing to worship the toilet gods by yourself; but leaving a screaming baby in her crib while you do so, is heart wrenching! With a very sour tummy, I set out on these very small, yet important daily tasks:

• Nurse Tallan all day - Success!
• Feed myself - FAIL (too nauseous)
• Google search "Pregnant with IUD" - which is waaaaay too common for my liking people!
• Puke again - SUCCESS!
• Push fluids - eh, somewhat successful

Hubs came home, and took over with Tallan (have I mentioned she won't take a bottle? Boob only? Well now ya know.) With Matt home, I could now focus on some quality toilet time. Noticing my hands were cramping after my most recent upchuck, I started to get worried. Hand cramps turned to arm cramps, turned to calf cramps. LOOOOOONG story short: Mama had to get to the hospital for some high quality muscle relaxers and fluids before the night was over. (No, the end to that story was not that simple, and YES the wait in the ER with total body cramps was horrible...but I'm tired of typing this story.)

Mucho thanks to my MIL & SIL who rushed to help with Tallan at home so Matt could be with me! Apparently nursing a baby all day literally sucks the life out of you. (Now, why not the fat? COME ON!)

Scary story accomplished, and still a bit weak tummied, Tal and I made it to Texas a day later! Cue happy music now! No melt down, fun new Picalo carrier used & no throwing up for either of us. We had such a great time in Texas with family. Tallan got to see her Mimi & Grumpy, Uncle Whiskey, & Great Gma. We were so thankful for the opportunity to visit!

A wonderful part about our Texas trip, was I got to catch up with an old friend; and was so excited for her to shoot pics of Tallan in the fall foliage. Local Texas peeps, Tamera with Snap'd Photography is flipping amazing, super speedy and affordable! I could not be happier with our photo's! Thanks Miss Tamera, for making our Texas trip not only great to see fam, but a wonderful time we marked with your photos. See a couple shots of Tallan Hope below, as well as a candid iphone shot of her and her Mimi. Adorbs!

All photos above courtesy of Snap'd Photography

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!