Teething...

Teething. It's the one thing that mothers love and hate at the same time. They love it as it means their babies are growing up and which can also be a little sad at the same time. But at the same time it's horrible as babies don't always take well to teething. Fevers can come and go. Your happy baby can turn very crabby. And your baby that used to sleep through the night. That can go away and change too.

Since the beginning of last week Colton has gotten 2 teeth on the bottom. He's still an extremely happy baby, but my wonderful sleeper has gone away. He used to sleep from 8p-6a everyday. Now he's usually up at 10:30-11p to eat and then again at 4:30a. He's a hungry growing boy too. Some days he will drink his entire 7 oz bottle of formula and then 5 minutes later he will still be hungry and he will eat 2 jars of baby food. And thanks goodness so far he's had no fevers from teething.

He looks so cute when he smiles all big (which is pretty much all the time!) and you see these 2 cute little teeth poking through. Hopefully this weekend I can get a shot of him and those cute little teeth. 

I can only hope that his sleep schedule is the only thing that gets affected by his teething as these next months roll by where more and more start coming in.  

The Beginnings of Speech Therapy

So Bradley Just turned 2 last week! YAY! 

 We are beginning the process though to begin speech therapy. At 2 years old he say just 2 words, 3 if you want to count uh-uh for no. Most 2 year olds have between 50-100 words, so we are looking at starting speech therapy to see if this can help him out some. He knows so much and can point to things when you ask him what something is and he can figure out how to do so many different things. He has his own little way of communicating but we can tell he gets frustrated sometimes when we don't get what he wants. Most of the time though I'm able to gauge pretty good what it is that he is wanting. The speech pathologist and our case worker are coming out next week to evaluate him to see if he meets the qualifications of the program that is offered through the school system. I am really hoping that this helps him to learn to use more words. I know though once he starts talking that he won't want to stop talking, but I'm okay with that. I think.... lol!

The joys of Toddlerhood

Toddlerhood is one of those things that is hard to understand sometimes. When I look at Bradley I see this happy go lucky almost 2 year old that loves to get into things and explore and learn new things. His favorite thing to do when we get home at night is to wave to the moon goodnight and blow it kisses. He gets so excited when he sees the moon and gets a little sad if there are clouds out and he can't see it. 

We are also starting to enter into the world of getting rid of ninnys( pacifiers) and trying to warm up to the idea of potty training. He gets all excited to sit on his potty, but only if he's still in his clothes. If I put him on without his diaper he just screams and cries. Getting rid of ninnys will probably be the hardest. I can't bring myself to do it cold turkey but I'm trying to get better about having it less and less during the day. 

The other fun adventure we are working on still is talking. Bradley will only say about 2-3 words. Mama, here and eh. I try not to be too concerned, he'll do it in his own time. He's done the same for everything else. He didn't crawl l 11 months, standing at 12 months and walking at 18 months. It's a little hard for me to see kids younger than him talking and saying multiple words and sentences even. I know not all kids are the same and each kid will do things when they please but its still hard not to compare sometimes.

Is enough really enough?

I find my self sometimes struggling with breastfeeding and there are times that I want to give up. I know that breastfeeding is what is best for Colton, but I know that formula isn't terrible either. Colton gets a combination of both breastmilk and formula and sometimes I find myself just giving him a bottle instead of nursing because its easier and it fills him up faster. But I know that every time I give him a bottle and don't nurse him or pump him that I am hurting my supply. 

I can only pump 2 times a day a work the way my schedule is and I am able to pump enough for about one bottle total throughout the day. So he ends up getting the rest in formula which is about 4-5 bottles. Sometimes I am able to get enough for 2 bottles, but he's a growing boy so he has been eating larger amounts now. I nurse him all night when he wakes up so I know that helps with keeping my supply up, but its still really hard sometimes. I've tried supplements to help keep it up and they help sometimes. I try to drink a lot of water but sometimes i feel like I am forcing the water down and I just get full from it. When i was still on maternity leave I was making lactation cookies with Brewers yeast, flaxseed and oats, but with working 8-10 hours everyday by the time I get home and make dinner and get the kids ready for bed I'm exhausted and don't have time to do it during the week, and weekends end up being so busy with everything, I'm lucky I have time to do laundry sometimes. 

I try not to think of my pumping as struggling, that every little bit is better than nothing and I feel like if I can at least get 1 bottle a day of breastmilk thats something. With Bradley it would sometimes take me 2-3 days to get enough for 1 bottle of breastmilk. After 3 weeks of that I knew I had to give up. I really don't want to give up because I love nursing him and having that special bond with him. I feel like I am giving him a special gift and its special time for just him and I. I want to enjoy it as much as I can before its gone. They are only little once and I want to cherish all that I can with him. My goal has been to get to 6 months. Once I get to 6 months I'll reevaluate and see how things are going and then decide if I am going to continue or not.

Being Mom

Being a mom is one of the hardest jobs that I have ever had. Having my boys 18 months apart has made for some interesting times and challenges, but I love it and the support that I have both near and far is amazing. 

When I first found out I was pregnant with Bradley, I went to the website, Thebump.com. I joined a group for May 2012 and met some other girls who were all due within the same month. After a few months several of us went and created a facebook page and we moved our group there. These girls were there to talk with me for the 1am, 3am and 5am feedings. There was pretty much always someone that was up at the same time I was whether it was a feeding for them or they were up late in a different time zone. May Moms as we are known is a great support group and I have met some wonderful people. I love getting to talk to the other girls and we can all relate to one another as all of our kids are just about the same age. 

Our group is about 200 girls but it feels so much smaller as we are such a tight-knit group. We have been through numerous events including one of the May babies being born in February at 30 weeks, losing a family member or loved one, divorce, marriage, moving, new babies, miscarriages, and even losing one of group babies. Its been a rough 2+ years for us and we have taken everything in stride and stuck by one another through everything. Numerous girls have met one another in person and we all talk almost daily. Its like having 200 sisters and we all love one another and our babies and would do anything for each other. 

We all have different views on how we do things, or different lifestyles. Yet we don't criticize one another for how we raise our children. We just stand by one another and show our support.

Customer service is key

Customer service is sooo important. I work in a job that I have to utilize customer service and so I know how to treat the patients and their family memebers that I encounter everyday and I know how I want to be treated. 

The other day I had a bad customer service experience that turned out okay. 

I had been having issues with my breast pump that i use daily to pump milk for Colton while I am at work, so I called Medela, as my pump was barely 3 months old. The suction and power had pretty much stopped working, it would take 5 minutes to finally get it to turn on and then it would turn off in the middle of a session. I was not a happy camper to call medela about these issues. 

The first person I spoke with kept giving me problems about which pump I had and questioning me on if my issue was really occurring then he was like let me put you on hold while I look into this further and I need to you email us to show proof of payment for when you received the pump (I had gotten it free from my insurance company). Then after I was hold for about 10 minutes the phone  got disconnected and I was hung up on. I was absolutely furious. I just wanted my pump fixed somehow. 

So I called back and after going through all the prompts and such I was connected to someone in less than 4 minutes and he was pleasent and helpful. He looked into my account and saw what was going on and said well I am just going to send you out a new pump and when you get the new one, just pack up the old one and put it back in the box we sent and just send it on back. I was shocked! I didn't expect them to send me a new pump. I was beyond grateful. Unfortunately I had already missed the cutoff time for them to send it out the same day. But they said it would go out the next day and it would be next day delivery, so when i get home tonight it should be on my doorstep! 

Medela's customer service definitely rocked! I was so tempted after being hung up on to get a pump from another company, but now I can't wait to get my new Medela pump!

Just another Tuesday night

Every day Bradley does something that is just so cute and adorable or it's absolutely hysterical. Monday night Bradley went to bed early, well it was more of a nap before I got home from work at 8pm. He woke up around 9:30pm and Jordan gave him a snack while we were watching tv. At 11pm when the news came on and we turned the Tv off Bradley stopped in his tracks and put his hands up like hey I was watching that what did you do?? Jordan and I just burst out laughing it was too funny. 

Bradley isn't your average 2 year old that just like to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Disney Jr. He loves singing competition shows and will clap when he likes someone's performance and will be very reserved if he doesn't like it. But he also loves to watch Big Bang Theory. I don't know what it is about that show but he loves it. He gets so excited when I ask him if he wants to watch Big Bang. 

Bradley or Bubby as we call him is in that stage where he wants to do everything your doing and have the same stuff everyone else has. Well Tuesday night Jordan and I were having soup for dinner and I had pulled out just chicken and veggies for Bubby, but he saw we had broth in our soup and he didn't and he wanted some. Jordan gave him a little broth and he was a happy camper using his spoon eating his soup. He did pretty good eating it too. He'd made a mess but was happy and proud of himself. 

Until next time...

The Mommy Diaries

So I've decided that I am going to start blogging and writing about all the fun times that my little family has together as well as some of the silly things the boys do as they grow up. I wish I had thought of this idea when Bradley was smaller, but its still never to late to start something. 

Let me start by telling you all a little bit about myself and my family.

My name is Amy and I am 27 years old. I grew up in Carroll County Maryland and have lived there my whole life. I have been married to my husband, Jordan for 2 1/2 years and we have been together for almost 7 years now. We live in Hampstead, Maryland and have 2 wonderful boys together. Bradley will be 2 in May and Colton is 3 1/2 months. 

I never could have imagined myself as the mother of 2 little boys, but now I wouldn't want it any other way. I know through my life they will certainly give me a run for my money and will cause me to worry all the time. I keep telling Bradley the way he is eating now he will eventually eat me out of house and home when he gets to be a teenager. Bradley and Colton bring so much joy into our lives and I love seeing how they grow, change and evolve into wonderful little boys every day. 

Bradley is discovering how to do all sorts of things such as putting wooden puzzles together and sorting shapes. We are still working on getting him to use his words and talk more. He loves to say "here" and "mama" and every so often he might say "cat". He knows what things are and where to find everything. He loves to explore and get into everything. But he is the sweetest boy. He is a wonderful big brother and loves to help us with Colton. He will bring Colton his ninny if he is fussing makes sure Colton has his blankie when we put him in the car. He loves to give him hugs and kisses every day. But then the next minute he's pulling, prodding, poking, smacking and throwing things at him. I just tell him to wait a few years that he's gonna get you back one of these days and you won't know what hit you. 

Colton is such a sweet little thing. He's my tiny little peanut. At his 3 month appointment he weighed in at what Bradley was at 1 month. Bradley was always a bigger baby. Bradley was born weighing over 9lbs and Colton was only 7 lbs 9oz. He's a peanut compared to what I am used to! He was able to wear newborn clothes for over 2 months and the only reason he outgrew them was because he got to be too long. He loves to coo and smile and laugh and loves to sit up and look around. He's had pretty good head control since he was about 30 minutes old. My mom was shocked that just after delivery and Jordan was doing Kangaroo Care with him while my c-section was being finished that he would pick his head up and turn it however he wanted. Colton loves to spend time on his belly and loves to eat! He would eat all day and night if I let him. 

Being a mom is one of the most rewarding jobs that I have ever had and also one of the most challenging. There are many ups and downs and times that I have questioned if I am doing the best job that I can, but then I get a smile or a hug from them and I know that I must have done something right. 

I hope that you all enjoy reading my antics that are yet to come in my Mommy Diaries.