*Banana Puree* - Homemade Baby Food

Yummmmm

Ok, it does NOT get easier than this.

All you need is a banana (I use organic) and a blender/food processor. Yup, it's that simple!

Toss the banana into the blender/food processor and blend until it's the right puree consistency. 

I didn't need to add any breast milk to thin it- the banana itself gets good & creamy. 

(When making my homemade baby food purees, I use a Ninja Blender...specifically the single serving attachment. It makes the most PERFECT purees- perfectly creamy and no chunks that get left behind! I highly recommend it!)

Once you have your banana pureed, pour it into an ice cube tray to freeze. Once frozen- store in freezer bags! 

*I used two bananas, and once pureed, I got 10 cubes out of it*

  

*PS... banana mixes good with avocado, sweet potato, pumpkin, peach, blueberry, watermelon, and plain yogurt (full fat)

12 Things About The First 6 Months as a New Mom

1. In the beginning you'll be tired. Very tired. But, your energy will finally decide to come back, eventually (or maybe you just get used to being tired...???hm.).

2. Your days no longer revolve around your schedule. Your days revolve around baby's schedule.

3. Wait until your baby's morning nap to make your coffee- well, if you want to enjoy it while it's actually WARM.

4. Baby spit up and drool become nothing to you.

5. Your arms are more toned & stronger than they ever have been, because you're lugging a baby around all the time (and if you're like me, it's a 20+ lb baby!).

6. Holidays are WAY more exciting, simply just because of your baby!

7. "Sleeping in" now means sleeping until 8:00am, and that's if you're lucky.

8. You start getting emotional thinking that your baby won't be a "baby" much longer... 

9. You find yourself enjoying the new solid foods as much, if not more than your baby.

10. You realize time is going by so much faster than you expected, and you wonder if your baby was ever really that tiny, little newborn in the pictures...

11. If you're like me, you're already planning the 1st birthday party!

12. What I learned in those first 6 months as a brand spankin' new mom: 

Stop worrying so much! When you're baby's hungry, he'll eat. When he wants to sleep, he'll sleep. Having a schedule and a routine is good, but don't stress yourself out over it- allow for some flexibility. Savor every single day, and thank God for it every single night! Take some LOTS of pictures- you'll forget how much your baby has changed. Don't always be looking for the "what's next", enjoy the right now. 

Paint Existing Trim WHITE in 5 EASY Steps

In my opinion, there is nothing more gorgeous than a house with all white woodwork. Trim, doors, everything. I think it gives the home such a fresh, clean & crisp look. Not to mention, it goes with any paint color!

Our house we currently live in was built in the 70's. The previous owners did some updates- but what they did- really only made things worse. When it comes to trim..they did horrible (sorry previous owners, but you really suck at DIY work). They put in 3 different types of trim- so we have 3 different colors of wood trim in some of our rooms. DRIVES ME ABSOLUTELY CRAZY. But, I also don't want to spend a small fortune on replacing all of the trim throughout the house... so what's a girl to do?

Paint it. 

Yup, I plan to paint all of our existing mismatched trim in our house a beautiful white!!  

When it comes to painting your already existing trim, you have a couple options. You can either remove the trim or you can leave it right on the wall and tape around it. I've done it both ways- and for me, it's just as easy either way. I removed the trim in Gavin's room only because we were replacing the floor and had to take the trim off- so while we had it off, might as well paint while it's off. The steps to painting the trim are the same either way.

So lets get to it!

Here's what you'll need: 

Sandpaper

Painters tape

Paintbrush

White Primer

White paint

What to do:

STEP 1: Sand. 

You want to sand down the trim just enough to rough up the surface so the primer adheres good (honestly- I hardly sand at all. The primer I use adheres amazingly to everything I've ever used it on). Once you're done sanding, you want to make sure you clean up the trim and get rid of all the dust you've made from sanding! I always just use a barely damp cloth of some sort- hand towels, old t-shirts...anything like that. You don't want to get the wood too wet, so whatever type of cloth you use just get it barely damp enough that it just picks up the dust and cleans the wood, but doesn't leave the trim wet. (I know some people worry about using anything damp/wet on the wood, because it "raises the grain of the wood and effects the primer/paint"...I've never had a problem with it.)

STEP 2: Prep. 

If you're painting your trim ON THE WALLS: tape off the wall above the trim, and tape off the floor below the trim. Basically- tape any where you don't want to get white paint. :) So you'd also want to tape around the door frames...etc.

If you have TAKEN OFF THE TRIM: Make sure the trim is easily set up so you can paint not only the front side of the trim, but the little top rim of it as well. I set my strips of trim up on two saw horses, that way I can paint them, and just leave them right where they are to dry. There's no having to move them around while they're covered in wet paint.

STEP 3: Prime.

Using your paint brush use your primer and cover that ugly wood! Well- your's might not be so ugly, but I can't stand the trim in our house! You want to put the primer on thick enough that it covers the wood good- but you don't want too much that it drips, or dries uneven. Let your first coat of primer dry, then do a second coat. The primer I use dries SUPER fast, so after about 30 minutes it's already dry and I start my 2nd coat. Remember that the primer is not going to completely cover your dark wood, it's just prepping it for the white! So don't be worried that after 2 coats of primer- you can still see that ugly wood color! 

STEP 4: Sand.

Wait, what- sand again? Yup! Give the trim a super quick sanding- I do this because it sands away any thicker areas of primer- and leaves everything smooth and ready for your white paint! This is where if you see any drips, you can get rid of them! Sand them away, NO DRIPS ALLOWED! Just make sure you don't sand it too much- you don't want to completely sand off your primer. You're just giving it a nice smooth finish so your white paint looks as smooth as possible!

STEP 5: White paint!

This is the best step, because it finally starts to get rid of that ugly wood color!!! Like always, you want to paint it on thick enough that it covers good- but you don't want ANY drips! Depending on the color of your wood, you may only need one coat. If your wood is darker- you may want to do 2 or even 3 coats. You just want to make sure the white has completely and evenly covered your trim. You don't want any dark spots peeking through. 

There you go! Beautiful WHITE trim!! 

Once everything is dry- if you painted the trim on the walls, remove the tape. When I paint trim on the walls I actually use a box cutter knife and cut the tape along the top of the trim, just so it doesn't peel any of the paint when I remove the tape. I would recommend doing this- you'd rather be safe than sorry! It would really suck to just quick rip off the tape- only to have it peel off half of your paint!

Check out some of my before and after pictures with painting trim white below, and for more details about each project, click the links below!

(I'm currently working on painting ALL of the trim & doors in our house white, room by room!)

Gavin's Room Remodel

Upstairs Bathroom Remodel

Reminders for Mamas on Tough Days

What mom doesn't need a little inspirational pick me up here & there. 

These are the things I reminded myself of that somehow brightened up my crying baby, spit up covered, never-ending dirty diaper days (those days where all you want to do is crawl under the covers and go to bed!). 

Oh and incase you were wondering, no, you are not the only one who has days like that! 

But before clawing out your eyeballs or bursting into tears, 

Remind Yourself of These Things:

Life right now is not easy, BUT it will not be like this forever. It WILL get easier.

Just because you had one bad DAY, does not mean you have a bad LIFE.

Just because your baby might have had a bad DAY, does not mean you have a bad BABY.

Some day your little baby will not be "little" anymore (that day comes far sooner than you think).

Some day your baby that needs you to rock him to sleep, will not need you to rock him to sleep.

Some day your baby that needs you to feed him, will not need you to feed him.

Some day your baby that wants you just to hold him, won't want you to just hold him anymore.

Some day that baby that needs you to get toys for him, pick him up & move him, reposition him, etc., will move himself around, crawl, walk...he'll do it himself.

Take a minute to remind yourself- your baby WILL grow up. 

This "baby" phase where they are SO dependent on you for everything, will come to an end. As hard as that may be for you to believe right now, it will.

Your baby will not need you to rock him.

Your baby will not need you to feed him.

Your baby will not want you to hold him all the time.

Your baby will eventually want and NEED independence. 

Your baby will eventually want and NEED to do these things on his own.

Instead of telling yourself how badly you want this "dependency phase" to be over- 

tell yourself to enjoy being needed.

And then actually ENJOY BEING NEEDED!

It won't last forever.

These are precious moments you have with your baby, that you will never get back. 

It truly changes your entire mindset when you think this way.

Remind yourself to cherish every moment with your baby, yes-even the tough ones, because it all goes by so fast.

Enjoy your baby being small, tiny, precious and dependent on you. 

They grow up too fast to spend even ONE day, wishing it away.

  

 

My Beloved Coffee Bar

Ok so one of the highlights of my day currently, is when Gavin goes down for his morning nap, and I get my morning coffee. Ahhhhhhhh. Peace, quiet, and coffee!! So nice.

So, I was pathetically excited when I finally got my "coffee bar" that I'd been desperately wanting!

I have this weird thing, where I really hate having clutter all over my kitchen counters- we don't have a TON of kitchen counter space, and the Keurig was just one more thing taking up space on my counter. I also never realized how much space our "coffee stuff" took up in our kitchen cupboard either! We had the cupboard above our Keurig set up as our "coffee cupboard". It had all of our coffee mugs, k-cups, teas...etc. We also don't have a TON of kitchen cupboards/cabinets for storage- especially since we now have had to add bibs, baby bowls, spoons, baby food...etc., to the mix! So I was in need of some clever reorganizing in my kitchen! I knew relocating all of our coffee stuff was not only going to give us more kitchen storage, but it could make for a super cute little area all on its own.

I had been keeping my eyes open for an old dresser or hutch of some sort, that I was going to transform into my little coffee bar. We totally struck out in that department. We went to all of the local Goodwills, donation centers- nothing. Nothing that would work well anyway... I wasn't looking to spend a couple hundred dollars on some old antique hutch- just to spend even more money and time on it to re-do the entire look of it! So finally, our never ending (and unsuccessful) hunt led us to this super cute local store we had never even seen before- or knew existed! And low and behold- this little, beautiful, already refinished dresser!! I couldn't say no! (it was $100...ugh. I didn't want to spend that much- but at that time we had no other options- and it was just what we had been looking for!) So, we got it!

We put the coffee bar right in our dining room. We moved all of our coffee stuff into the drawers- and we still have 3 empty drawers for whatever else we can think of to store over there! We also moved Harley's food & water onto the bottom shelf to free up a corner in our dining room! I think Harley feels special having his food on a cute little shelf too. ;) 

Moving our coffee stuff over to our coffee bar freed up an entire kitchen cupboard!! (that has now become the "kid cupboard", containing bibs, bottles, baby food, baby bowls...etc...all of that fun stuff that takes over your kitchen once you have a baby!). We also just love having the coffee in it's own little spot. It's right off the kitchen- so it's still close and convenient, but it adds some extra character & charm having it set up as it's own little "coffee bar".

I love the distressed look it has. So gorgeous! As I like to say,
"Perfectly Imperfect"!!

Motivation for Breastfeeding Mamas

This post is especially for those mamas struggling with breastfeeding. 

I have been in your shoes.

The more women (moms) I talk to, the more I realize- wow, a lot of us have been in the same boat.

More specifically, in the same boat when it comes to breastfeeding.

 Breastfeeding.

A word that I think scares some women. Why? Because maybe it was wasn't easy for them. Maybe they never even gave it a chance. Maybe they felt so pressured into it, that they hated it. Maybe they so desperately wanted to breastfeed, but it just didn't work for them. Maybe it's just a topic they don't care to discuss for a number of reasons.

Then, there's the opposite end of the spectrum. There's the women who can't rave enough about breastfeeding. It was so natural and beautiful for them. It was so bonding for them and the baby. The baby took to it right away- and since day one it's been smooth sailing. The women who whip their boobs out right in public like they don't give a **** who sees them breastfeed. The women who shove breastfeeding and the benefits of breastfeeding down other women's throats and think of themselves as "better" than the women who don't breastfeed.

Then there's me.

Put me somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. Here's why..

I breastfed Gavin since the day he was born and still do (he's currently just over 6 months old). He has not had an ounce of formula in his system. I DO think breastfeeding is better for a baby nutritionally than formula. And yes, selfishly, I like the fact that it's the easiest way for me to burn calories every single day!

That being said, for the first 8 weeks of Gavin's life, I had a love-HATE relationship with breastfeeding. I was one of those women who felt so pressured (to the point where realistically "giving up" wasn't even an option) to breastfeed him, that it made me despise breastfeeding. It took awhile for him to learn (AND me to learn) how to get him to latch on good. But why?? Aren't babies just supposed to come out and know how to latch on to a boob??!!! I think many of us new moms think so! And sometimes, (for lucky women) they do! Sometimes- they don't, and it's a learning process for BOTH your baby AND YOU! 

Not only was latching on a tricky part of breastfeeding for me, I hated not knowing how much he was eating. It drove me crazy. I don't know if I'm the only one, but wow- it really drove me crazy for awhile. Sometimes he would eat for a total of 10 minutes.. sometimes he would eat for 30-40 minutes! What are you doing kid!? Besides confusing your mother!!

Then there's the whole, painful part of breastfeeding. It takes awhile for your nipples to toughen up and get used to it! Not only your nipples- but before your milk supply really smooths out and gets the hang of things- I don't know about you, but my boobs would be so big, swollen, and sore that I felt (and looked) like I just woke up from getting boob implants!! IT HURTS! 

Look at all of the things that stack up AGAINST breastfeeding. Add in there the fact that you have to sleep in a bra (what woman wants to do that), wear pads in your bra and worry about your boobs leaking (again, not something us women WANT to worry about). Not to mention- if you're going to be away from your baby, you have to hook yourself up to a pump (aka, pretty much stick your boobs in a vacuum) every few hours to keep up your milk supply.

I never saw a lactation consultant- yes I probably deserve a slap on the wrist for that one, because I'm sure it would have helped both me and Gavin, and I would have gotten the hang of things much faster. But, if you haven't already noticed from my blog, I'm a die-hard do-it-yourselfer. Yes, I wanted to figure out this breastfeeding thing, by myself. 

But these were the things that really got under my skin in the first couple months of being a new mom. I honestly had it in my head that I was just going to be miserable breastfeeding Gavin, but I might as well suck it up 'cause it's going to be awhile before I'm done.

WOW, was I wrong.

WOW, am I glad I DID NOT "give up" on breastfeeding.

And, WOW, I HAVE to encourage other moms to do the same! 

I'm not going to lie- there was no "flick of a switch" and things "just got better". I honestly can't say exactly when things turned around for me. 

What I can say, is once I stopped worrying and driving myself crazy over the "small" things (exactly how many ounces he was eating) everything started getting easier and better for me. I didn't really care how long he was eating. Ok, sometimes he'll eat for 15 minutes, sometimes he'll eat for twice that long. Who cares? He's hungry, and he's eating. Isn't that all that matters?? But it took me time to get used to that idea, and once Gavin was a couple months old, his eating leveled out. He was a more consistent eater- all of his feedings were usually about 1/2 hour long. What do ya know, it just took time. 

Latching on. It took at least a month before I felt like Gavin established a good latch. Again, it just took time. If he wasn't latching on good, I'd have to stick my little finger in his mouth, break the suction (which wow, you never realize just how strong a baby can suck until it's stuck on your boob!) and keep on re-latching him until it was right. Again, big deal... why would I let this drive me so crazy that first month?! As a parent, aren't we supposed to be patient with our kids (especially babies!), and give them time to LEARN? That's all it was- he had to learn how to latch on properly, and learning something always takes time. 

Then we get to the...well...(I'm looking for the words...)...the "Ya, it's just a part of breastfeeding" things (sorry, that's the best I could do for these things). Boob pads. Pumping. Bras- (all the time).

Ugh. Yes, just ugh.

But really- boob pads. What's so bad about them? Like everything else- you get used to them after time. I'm sure once I'm done breastfeeding it will be weird getting used to NOT using them.

And pumping- yes, it's something you have to do if you're away from your baby for feedings. But again- you get used to it and it just becomes a part of your every day.

Wearing bras, all the time, even at night for sleeping- ok, that just plain sucks. There's nothing else to that one. But, I'm used to it and I know (and dream of the day) that I eventually won't need to do that anymore! Yes, someday I will be able to go bra-less! (Haha, wow, the things that make us women excited...or at least me...no shame y'all).

So why do I think a lot of women throw the towel in on breastfeeding?

Because they don't give it TIME. 

(and yes, I know some women truly CAN'T breastfeed, or have to stop for all kinds of other reasons, so I'm not digging any moms that have stopped breastfeeding!)

It's usually so much easier just to "give up" on breastfeeding. But if you have a deep desire to breastfeed your baby- but it just doesn't seem like you can keep up with it... GIVE IT TIME!

Don't be foolish like me- talk to someone! Call a lactation consultant- ask your doctor. Talk to SOMEONE... even just another mom who's breastfed before! Sometimes just sharing your frustrations, opens your eyes, and you see that you are NOT the only one struggling with breastfeeding.

And hey, stop worrying. That was my problem- and I realized that. At some point, I got it through my head that "wow, I am way too much of a control freak, I need to chill out, and stop worrying". That my friends, is life changing. Your mindset - it will make or break you. 

Understand that being a new parent (especially those first couple months) is so draining. Emotionally you'll be on one heck of a roller coaster and physically you'll be exhausted and drained. I think you can thank hormones for all of that. And when breastfeeding is stressing you out- of course there will be times you just want to be done with it!!

But from one mom to another- you can do it. If you have the determination to keep going with it- then don't give up out of frustration! 

Hang in there, give it time, and you will be so glad that you did! I am so unbelievably glad I stuck in there and gave it time. Now, breastfeeding is a breeze. I see so many more benefits towards breastfeeding than I ever have before! And remember, I started out hating breastfeeding... it wasn't smooth sailing the entire way for me (I'm not one of those lucky women!)  :)

But either way, your baby will love you. Boob or bottle- they'll love you the same.  

I wrote this post hoping to inspire other moms struggling with breastfeeding by showing them they are NOT alone. I was in those same shoes for a period of time, and a lot of other women are too.

  

I hope this gives some mamas some much needed inspiration and hope! 

:)

Keep on keepin' on mamas!!

.....ps....one last thing.....I don't whip my boobs out in public to breastfeed. I'm too shy for that I guess.
In case anyone was wondering.
;)
Check out my Breast Milk Queen page for even more breastfeeding tips and insights from my own breastfeeding experience, as well as how to stock up breast milk for your sweet babe!