saved our sanity

Ellery is exclusively formula fed.  We tried the whole breast feeding thing.  It didn't work, just like it didn't work for my mom with me.  Go figure.  Apple, meet tree.

So, we started her on formula at about 3 weeks old, and shes been on it ever since.  The brand has changed as well as the bottle we use, but one thing that stayed the same was making the bottle, and warming the damn thing.  It takes like 7 minutes with the most expensive bottle warming device.  Thats 7 minutes that I don't have!  Thats 7 minutes too late, when all of a sudden your baby gives you the "I'm hungry" cues and you need a bottle 1 minute ago.

So, we were at a party and another formula baby mom asked me if we had heard of the Baby Brezza Formula Pro, aka the Keurig for formula.  I was actually very surprised I hadn't.  Between my friends with new babys and facebook and pinterest, I thought I had heard of it all.

The Baby Brezza Formula Pro makes a bottle in 10 seconds.  10 seconds!  The water in the reservoir is already the perfect temperature, and there are these special discs you insert for your specific formula that make sure your 2 oz or 4 oz or even 10 oz bottle has the perfect ratio of water to formula, and it deposits them both in the bottle without you ever having to get your hands dirty.

I went and read some reviews on Amazon.  They were iffy.  Some said there was so much maintenance, and that it wouldn't do the right ratios and their baby got sick.  So I was kind of worried, but we HAD to try it out.  If it worked for us... it would be life changing.  We bought it at Target, kept the receipt, read all the instructions, set it up and now after 2 months, it still is probably the best baby item we have.  Sorry bumbo, sorry wipee warmer, sorry swaddle... Formula Pro you are the winner.

There are a couple of things the manufacturer could work on.

1.  There really is no need for the formula and water to be mixed within the machine prior to entering the bottle.  This just allows more mess within the machine due to the formula being so sensitive to moisture.  We have to shake the bottle after its been poured anyway...
2.  The "shelf" for the bottle is moveable for different heights of bottles.  Its a horrible design and does not stay in its slots, hence the coffee cup that sits under ours.

So, if you end up having to do formula, this is a must!

three funny pregnant moments, just today

These all happened today, and I had to share.  Enjoy.

1.  I went to Lowes instead of Home Depot JUST because the restrooms at Lowes are closer to the entrance.

2.  The shoe department employee at Nordstrom had to buckle the strap on the sandals I was trying on.

3.  I made a separate trip to the gas station after the grocery store to buy beer for David, because there are less people to judge me.  But I really don't care.        But I do.

Think of what happens weekly in my life.

Happy Sunday!
xo

holy belly

Happy belated holidays.  To be honest I'm glad the new year has started and we can look forward to all kinds of fun things in 2014!  Obviously one being to meet our little lady.  The other... I need it to be warmer.

Due to the technical difficulties with the last computer, I've been a little slow on the posts because I've basically had to re-install EVERYTHING onto a NEW computer.  I totaled my other one with just the smallest bit of water spilled on it.  But, thank god for the Best Buy protection plan.  Don't ever not do it!  Its a life saver.  New computer for free.  (Still had to pay another chunk of change for another protection plan for the new computer though.)  Geek talk over.

Sad thing is that I lost all my creative graphic bump info, and some of the bump pics and a lot of other stuff that did not get backed up.  But I'm not going to get upset about it.  There are much more important things in life.

Onto fun things going on.  The baby bump.  The last picture I took was at week 19.  

And its been 7 weeks since I took another baby bump pic.  Obviously there has been a lot going on.   But just wait until you see this crazy transformation...

Week 26

Needless to say, baby girl, and me... have been growing.  Funny thing is, this is just days after food poisoning too.  I promise I'm a small person, and I haven't gained THAT much weight... but it will be very interesting to see how big this baby is going to be at birth.

We have a bunch of furniture in the nursery now!  Crib, dresser, rocker/glider, and moses basket & stand.  I'm waiting for the bedding to come in.  After a lot of thinking and pondering, I just didn't want to stress over trying to cultivate my own bedding ensemble when in reality, in about a year, I'll probably want something different anyway.  So, I ordered a semi-custom set from New Arrivals, Inc.

I've asked my sweet aunt to make curtains out of the coral orange and grey dot.. and then we will just go from there.  For now, I'm not too worried about getting everything done in too much of a hurry.  But I know its going to come fast, so I should probably keep up the pace.

We have a name.  Its not a secret.  So I will share.  Ellery Kate Walker.  And we will call her all kinds of nicknames like Ellie and Ellie Kate etc.

She is moving so much, but not alien baby yet, and I can't wait to see that!

Heartburn is ramping up.  Its awesome.  Whole bottle of tums at my desk at work.  

Our puppy Bowie is now 8 months old and still a little terror, but I can see an improvement in his demeanor.  He doesn't nip anymore, and we are working on all kinds of other obedience with him.  He is the sweetest thing when he's not busy trying to play keep away and is tired from a day of chewing on socks and rawhide.  We love him!  He still has some learning and calming down to do before baby girl gets here, and because of this he still goes to School Days at Dog School Austin with Rachel Daughn (dog whisperer of Austin).  We love her!

David and I have been busy on a recent house project which I will post later this week.  It involves a built in desk in the kitchen.  It looks amazing, and David continues to impress me with his skills.  Its always awesome to see how we completely compliment each other.

Until next time!

baby bump

I have a bump.  I thought it was too early... but apparently everybody is different.  And I wear it like a badge of honor.  I've earned this thing!  Every Sunday, my week turns over.  As of this Sunday I am 14 weeks. 

 

{Side Note:  At 12 weeks my belly popped.  I then Googled (as I do a lot, but shouldn't) "12 week baby bump".  This is where I found a multitude of different size baby bumps.  But none was more shocking than this blogger who is apparently super fit, and didn't "pop" until she was about 24 weeks.  It kind of made me think... Wow, I'm a chunker.  But then I realized she just has a completely different body type than mine, and I like food more than her I guess.  You'll find her if you search pinterest for the same thing.  Her last name is "Hatch".}

[I took the following questionnaire from www.christinasadventures.com when I was scanning the "Kids" section of Pinterest, my new found obsession.]

How far along:
14 weeks

Maternity Clothes:
Yep.  First pair of jeans was about 3 weeks ago from old navy... and this Saturday, my mom and I went all over town in search of some fall/winter prego clothes.  It was a successful trip.  I love maternity pants.

Sleep:
I'm a worrier.  And I am a very light sleeper.  So, always having to think/worry of not sleeping on your back, and turning over because the left side is sore is just annoying.

Best moment of the week:
Having someone ask me for the first time if I was having a baby.  A property manager I work with a lot, who just noticed, the belly.

Miss anything:
Sadly, I miss drinking.  I don't know how people don't miss it.

Movement:
Nothing yet.

Food Cravings:
So random, and so bad.  Fast food... mainly because when I want to eat, I need to eat right then or I'll pass out.

Queesy or sick because of:
The nausea has pretty much stopped, but it was worst when I was tired at the end of the day.  Taking my prenatal vitamins always makes me want to puke.

Gender prediction:
David thinks its a boy.  I thought at first it was a girl... but now I am not sure.  I'll be writing up a list of fun wives tales and our determinations.

Labor signs:

Symptoms:
Appetite is up.  I lost about 4 lbs in the first 8 weeks.  And now finally am gaining that back.  And the frequent peeing thing is really convenient.

Belly button in or out:
In, but wow.  In two weeks from 12-14 weeks... it has changed a lot.  I can actually see the back of my belly button now. 

Temperment:
Ohhhh goodness.  I feel like I am a pleasant person.  But when something negative happens, I flip out, use profanity, and say some pretty blunt things to people.  This is mostly in my car whilst driving.  

Looking forward to:
Finding out what we are having, and gaining weight so that I know I'm doing everything I can for this little human.

Thanks for coming!

baby WALKER

So, we've made the official announcement.  We're expecting a baby!

In case you missed it on the all so public Facebook, here's how we let everyone know...

I will briefly somewhat briefly go into a little bit of some personal information about our journey in the process of becoming pregnant.  Some may think its not appropriate to share, but I've always said that I'm an open book.  For goodness sake I have a blog about all the things that David and I do in our free time.  And if it helps anyone, then all the better.

It wasn't easy.  But by no means was it as hard as some women go through.  I feel blessed that we didn't have to go to any extremes.  We started this whole process back in May of 2012.  And after about 6 months, I figured I would go to the doctor and see what was going on.  I'm the type of person that doesn't sit around and wait for things to happen to me.  I question and I ask, and I am proactive.  Call it impatient, call it meddling in life's plan, but I'm glad I made a move because otherwise we would not be where we are today.

All in all I found out I had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome in March after a couple of months working with my regular OBGYN without any success and then moving on to Texas Fertility. 

Side note:  I am no expert... And I'm not going to give you a WebMD definition, but this is how I explain PCOS.  Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is super common and it just means that you have some kind of insulin resistance which messes with your hormones which gets them all out of wack and never tells your body to ovulate.  (Many women have other side effects, but I'm lucky that I did not.)  So I wasn't ovulating.  That was it.   The solution.  Clomid.

Side note:  Again, I'm not an expert, this is just how my mind has chosen to understand how Clomid works.  Clomid is a fertility drug, but its probably the most common one out there.  It sends some kind of message to your brain that one hormone or the other is depleted, I think estrogen.  So the body then says, hmm.  I need to ovulate.  So, other hormones kick into gear and start the process.  Side effect.  Multiple follicles, that potentially mean multiple eggs "hatching", and therefore multiple babies.  Percentage:  about 10% chance you'll have multiples. (We are not having multiples.)

Clomid was the original plan for my OBGYN, but she wasn't comfortable going past a certain dosage, 150 mg.  So, when I started going to Texas Fertility, the plan was still Clomid, but to kick it up to 200 mg.  And after about 3 months, we started seeing results.  Results being follicles.  Follicles in your ovaries that potentially "hatch" the egg, which is ovulation.

And that's what finally worked.  It took some time, but by no means did it take multiple years, which I can't even imagine.  I know friends and friends of friends who have gone through much worse and I commend them for their grace, hope, and bravery through the whole process. 

For me, it felt like it would never happen.  I wasn't hopeless, but it seemed as if it were one of those things that you've always wanted to do, but was so out of reach, it would take a lot of time, a lot of money, the world shifting on its axis, and a lot of hard work.  But I had very supportive friends and family.  Friends who always asked how things were going.  And I wanted to talk about it when asked so that meant a lot.  It was kind of a therapeutic thing really. 

And David was amazing.  Always making me laugh when I'd have a bad day, and definitely amazing during the past 2 months with our little Bowie, who just sucked the life out of me after a day of nausea and work.

So now that we are past that part, I'm ready to have fun with it.  And all my other friends that are pregnant right now.  Because there are a lot, and I'm so excited.  More to come on Baby Walker and our house projects and nursery projects too.

Katie

front yard landscaping

We did it.  We finished the entire front flower bed plantings in one weekend.  1.5 days to be exact.

I'll be honest.  It took a lot of sweat equity to get this operation complete.  And we are not gardening experts  so it was a little bit of "fly by the seat of your pants" and "take the knowledge that dad gave you" type of thing.  And, David has an interesting ability to just know how to get things done.  Have I mentioned he's amazing?

Either way, we finished.  David did the post-hole digging for each plant and I planted and fertilized right behind him, then we mulched.  {Mulch is rule #1 in gardening 101}.  You need mulch to protect against weeds and keep the moisture in. My hamstrings are killing me.   He has blisters on his hands.  All in a days work.


We started at 8am prepping the soil.  David's dad has every tool known to man a gas powered tiller.  It mixes up the dirt and stuff.  It helps.  Our soil seemed pretty good.  Not too dry, really what do we know?  Seemed good to us, so we decided not to add any soil...  Just another step and more time.  

Then we went to The Great Outdoors which was amazing.  A young kid, Taylor, helped us find everything on our list.  (Prepared by me, in excel from the plans that Catherine made for us. Just call me Type A.) Everything we planted is native Texas, they can endure and actually love the sun.  And, we're pretty lucky in that the 100+ trees we have on our lot provide a lot of shade help.

Not everything on the list suited our fancy.  In particular, we opted to not buy as many "japanese yew" plants or "columbine", but substituted with other items that we liked a lot.  It ended up working out really well, and improvise is key to any plan, right?  We walked out of there for a decent price, what we expected, and it was only 11:00 am.

We laid out everything according to the plan, and started digging, planting, fertilizing, and watering.  Its pretty simple, but multiply that by about 100 plants and it gets overwhelming.  But we finished about 2/3 of the planting by 5:30 pm on Saturday, and hit the showers for a fancy shindig at the Four Seasons.  

{Shout out to Kathryn and Rick Ary on their beautiful nuptials last night.  It was such a fun night and Kathryn was so beautiful and the smile on Rick's face! priceless. }

We woke up nursing "the beverly flu"/hangover (thats another post), popped some advil and hydrated and got right back to work on the remaining 1/3 of planting.  

Here is the final product.  We are pretty proud of ourselves and the value that we added to our house.  And, have I mentioned that its scary how well David and I work together?  Go here for the BEFORE.

Dolly in the grass. {they love their home} and it makes me so happy.

All in all, life is good.  We are done with house stuff for at least a year ;)  But of course we've got some ideas in our back pocket.  They include:

- painting the brick

- back yard deck/arbor/built-in grilling station

- back yard landscaping

- pool.  just kidding  (there's no room in our backyard because our septic tank holds all the real estate.)

I'd love to hear what everyone else has been doing to their house/home to ring in Spring/Summer!

miscellaneous monday: utter enjoyment

We've been utterly enjoying the past several months.  No big events, no obligations, it has been nice just relaxing and living in the moment.  It helps when its too cold outside to make David do yard work and just easier to say lets watch a movie and have some hot toddies.  Here are some fun hi-lights of our past several months.

B.t.w.  I love Instagram and the filters you can use to create some classic pictures.  But sometimes I don't want to post to Instagram to just get that effect.  Are there any apps that just let you create filters for your camera roll pics?

{out at Little Woodrows}

{Rodeo Gala, Dierks Bentley sang a song for me (not really)}

{Dierks Bentley}

{We went and saw Bob Schneider for Valentine's Day.  And had dinner before with one of our favorite couples, Kathy and Ross Wilson}

{I saw this in Southern Living [subscription thanks to Nancy Walker] and am obsessed with this finish on the brick and now am insistent that we do it to ours.}

{Mom is the lover of all furniture consignment stores and found this little gem for us for our master bedroom.  It might need something large and gourd-ish up top...  It holds all my dresses and boots.}

{Did you know that jute rugs create sand deposits on your floor?  Now you do.  We discovered this little surprise one night around 10pm and I made David and my brother move the rug and clean the floor.  All while I had a glass of wine.  Fix. Drape ours over some chairs and blew it out with the yard blower.}

{Rodeo Austin.  This is the most unsanitary thing I have ever done. But it made me laugh.}

{My cowboy.}