Saying goodbye

Only 8 days until we move.

This week will be spent seeing friends and saying goodbye.  Over the years, these awesome people have seen me through some very hard times; bad relationships, the passing of my mother, and my miscarriages.  They have also been there to celebrate with me; meeting Steve, getting engaged, getting married, and of course successful IVF and Emily's birth. We have laughed and cried together and shared many ups and downs. These are the best friends a person could have and I thank my lucky stars that they are mine. I am going to miss you all very much.

Then comes my family.  We will be celebrating Christmas on the 17th and it will be so bittersweet.  I will be overjoyed to celebrate Emily's first Christmas with my family but sad that we will be saying goodbye.  I will miss my family more than I can say- their support and love mean the world to me and have made me who I am today.  I love you all so much!

TGIF

It's been a long week in this house!  I'm happy the weekend is here even though we will spend most of it trying to juggle Emily and packing.

I didn't get to TVT yesterday so I guess this would be TVF (Thought Vomit Friday)....

{1} We took Em to see Santa this week.  It's her first Christmas, how could I pass up taking her to the mall to have her picture taken?? She was so sleepy. (side note: the young man taking the pictures smelled like a combination of BO and cigarettes, awesome.)

{2}  I am tired of pet hair.  No matter how much I vacuum it still ends up on Emily and it drives me crazy.  If you have any tips for lessening pet hair- do tell.

{3} Speaking of pets, Emily noticed Sadie (our dog) for the first time last night.  She stared and stared and watched everywhere she went.  So cute.

{4}  It's not feeling or looking much like Christmas at our house....I keep seeing all of your Christmas tree pictures and I wish I had mine up! I am just hoping we get our tree up before Christmas day in our new house. It will be so fun to decorate and listen to Christmas music with Emily and Steve, I am so looking forward to that.

{5}  I am in love with smartwool socks.  They are perfectly warm and cute and everyone should have at least one pair. I also really really want one of their cardigans but they are soooo expensive (a girl can dream).

{6} So sweet.




















{7}  Steve and I love this chicken pot pie recipe. Make it, I promise you'll like it too.

Ingredients

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed
• 2 cups frozen mixed veggies
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts

Directions

1.     Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)

2.     In a saucepan, combine chicken and frozen veggies. Add water (or leftover chicken broth) to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.

3.     In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.

4.     Place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust. Pour hot liquid mixture over. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.

5.     Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Linking up with E Tells Tales

6 weeks postpartum

I had my 6 week follow up visit with my midwife and left her office *almost* in joyful tears.

It was so good to see her again and she was so happy to see Emily.  She sees a ton of patients a day and delivers a ton of babies, but she remembered my delivery and our background of losses and IVF and we talked about it while she checked me out.  I'm so thankful I had her deliver our baby.

At the end of my visit she gave me a huge hug and wished us the best with our move, then she ran and got one of her nurses to show off Emily's hair.

I felt emotional (in a good way) being there with Emily. I thought about all of my appointments with her growing away in my belly and how nervous and excited I was. I remember the day we went in and set up my induction like it was yesterday. 

I can't believe she is 6 weeks old already, where does the time go?

my crafty sister

Everyone should go check out my sister Kelsey's new etsy shop!

She is making Christmas stockings and after the new year she will be making American Girl doll clothes.

Here is an example- so cute!

While we are on the subject of craftiness, I am newly addicted to pinterest.  There are so many good ideas out there and it makes me wish I was just a tad more creative!

Probiotics and Chiropractic

I'm knocking on wood as I type this post.

For the past week, Emily has turned a corner- a less-colicky, awesome, smiling baby corner. 

I can't be 100% sure, but I think this change in her is due to 1) me taking probiotics (thank you Courtney for the suggestion) and 2) taking her to the chiropractor.

Since Emily was born, she kept her head tilted at a very strange angle any time she was laying or sitting in her car seat- it looked so uncomfortable! The chiropractor did a thermal scan on her spine and found that her poor little neck was out of alignment along with another spot in her mid-back.  Now don't freak out, they don't adjust her like they would you or me.  It's mostly a lot of stretching and massage. She loves it and her neck is slowly but surely straightening out and she seems so much happier!

I started taking probiotics last week and I noticed a change in Emily within a week.  She was much less fussy at night and didn't scream like she was in pain anymore.  Don't get me wrong, she still cries, but it is so much better than it was.

Here is an article if you're interested.

And now let's all knock on wood.

Amazingness

This was my day yesterday....I'm so in love.

so peaceful

Sadie is never far away from Em

loving playtime

oh the hair!

hold on tight little one

TVT

It's that time of week...TVT!

*  Ok ladies- I am in need of recommendations for baby carriers. We have tried the baby bjorn- she doesn't like it and it's really hard to get on! Moby- I've tried it a few times and she squirms like she doesn't have enough room and ends up crying like she's in pain. Are there any other good carriers out there that you would recommend?

*  Emily has gotten back to regular naps and sleeping periods at night.  It seems like any time we take her out of the house to run errands or appointments she gets thrown off track and wants to stay awake for long periods of time.  I think the excitement of Thanksgiving may have been part of the reason she didn't want to sleep.

*  Still haven't started packing.....18 days until the big move!  We have so much to get done in such a short amount of time, I'm trying not to panic. 

*  We had Emily's baptism last Sunday and it went really well.  She looked so cute in her little gown and slept through most of it.  Our families were there and it was great to see everyone!

*  The past two nights we have given Emily a bottle of sensitive stomach formula instead of breast milk and she slept much longer and didn't cry!  I'm trying to decide if I should switch to formula full time or just at night.  She really loves nursing for comfort and I don't think I'm ready to give that up.