10 Months!

My girl is getting so big! 10 months today and she's cruising!! It's just a couple steps here are there, but I'm sure she'll be all around the house in no time. She likes to stand at her crib, or the couch or coffee table. Then she's take a few steps while hanging on. It took her a while, but she went the entire length of her crib yesterday! 

Lexi is also getting good at reaching down and grabbing a toy while standing up... With out bonking her head each time! Lol she also can get from her belly to sitting up. She'll start on her belly and then get into crawl position. Then plop her but down to the side and wall her hands back to push herself onto sitting. She figured out this whole process on her own! 

Today is also the start of my first week as a SAHM! Awesome way to kick things off! It's so relaxing knowing that I don't have to rush around at night to get things ready for the next day. I don't have to pump any more (!!) in order to feed her during the day. And I have a huge freezer stash if she needs to have a bottle. No more running around trying to make to weekends count for all they're worth. It's very peaceful. Three days in, and I'm loving every minuet!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Lots of Love,

KJsbabe

The Great Cloth Diaper Change

Lexi and I got to participate in the Great Cloth Diaper Change in Pittsburgh this morning. What an awesome event! All across the world at 11 am local time mothers gathered to change their babies into cloth diapers. It's a great advocacy event for cloth diapering. It was so cool to be around so many CDing mommas and babies!

At our changing location they had a little expo set up with natural parenting things, BFing stuff, and of course CDs. Everyone kind of mingled. Then at 11:00am we all sat on the floor and changed our baby's diapers. It sounds silly, but it was fun! Lots of cute prints out there! They had some give aways at the end and I won a real nice wet/ dry bag (pocket for each). There was one girl who literally won half of the prizes (and there was a ton of stuff they gave away!). I don't know how she got so many tickets. I only got three in my swag bag...

Anyways...the swag bag! I got four nice cloth wipes, a little wrist toy, BG detergent sample, rash cream sample, magic washcloth (you know, those ones that are a little disk to start out and when you get it wet it expands into a washcloth), an "I love cloth diapers" bracelet, and some coupons for stores around the city. 

The CD store who was sponsoring the event had a set up and, of course, I had to buy somethings... You know, to save on shipping :) So, I got two Bummis swim diapers, a rash guard, and a BG 4.0 in their new fun print. Yay for new fluff! 

After the change, KJ took Lexi and I out to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Yum! It was my first time going and boy was it good. Delish all around! We walked around the mall a little as well, and then headed home. It was a real nice day :)

 
   
  Lots of Love,

KJsbabe

The Man I Can't Forgive

Sometimes I run though it all in my head again. My whole journey. I start out with the basics and then in this conversation I have in my head I go into greater and greater detail. My emotions start to swell up and I live through everything all over again in fast forward. I always seem to get stuck on my 4 month limbo-falling-beta time and how awful of a doctor I had then. I get angry and feel hateful towards him all over again. I remember conversations we had and all the things I should have said to him but didn't. And then I get to the part after my D&C and I'm trying to ask about IF testing, and he flat out says to me, "I'm not going to recommend testing or give you a RE referral until you've had a third MC." And then it hits me all over again... Had I stayed with him, my third baby... My sweet Lexi Grace, wouldn't be here. I would have lost her just like my first two babies. He would have let her die.

And then I cry.

That doctor no longer practices in the area, so there's no chance of randomly running into him and telling him what I think of him (not that I would have the words in the moment anyways). I imagine it, though. I would point to Lexi and say to him, "Look at her. Look at this perfect, sweet, kind little girl. She is the baby you refused to help. She is the baby you would have let die. Take a good look at her." And then in that moment, looking at my beautiful daughter, he would realize how awful of a doctor he's been, mend his ways, and treat his loss patients with a new found compassion. It sounds nice, and very vindicating, but I know it will never happen.

I'm usually a pretty forgiving person. I can look past a lot and forget many mistakes, unkind words, and hurtful things. Even my HS boyfriend who ripped my heart out and then rubbed my face in it, I managed to forgive him in time. But this... There are just somethings that are unforgivable. I don't blame him for my loss, but I do blame him for the terrible decisions he made regarding it. He was my doctor and I trusted him to guide me in the right direction. How wrong, how wrong.

Lots of Love,
KJsbabe

Two Weeks Notice

That was the first movie KJ and I watched together when we started dating... Aw!

I put my official two weeks notice in today! I gave my supervisor a heads up a week or so ago, but today I made sure HR knew and got the ball rolling on "closing up shop". It's very exciting!! I'm so ready to move on from that place and onto the next phase in my life. It's going to be so great to have a fresh start. Spring is the time for new beginnings and it seems very fitting for me to make this move now. Yesterday, also actually, marked 5 years of working there. That's way longer than I ever planned to be there. I'm glad to be getting out!!

12 more days to go!!

Lots of Love,
KJsbabe

9 months old!

Lexi is 9 months old today! She has reached a couple major milestones this past month. She got her first two teeth! The second bottom tooth came in about a week after the first. They are still pretty short on her gums, but they are there! It's cute, now when she chews on something hard, like a plastic block, you can hear tapping. :)

Mmmm... yummy broccoli!

Speaking of tapping, she loves to tap toys together to see what sounds they make. She'll take two of the eggs from her FP farm set and tap them together. Shaking things is also a big favorite of hers. I gave her a plastic container with some dry pasta shells in it and she just went to town! Same with waving things. I was trying to take 9 month pictures of her tonight and all she wanted to do was wave the cardboard 9 around. Lots of blurry pics this month!

We had our in/ out day this past Wednesday. Lexi was born at 38w 5d and that's how old she was this week. The first picture was taken about 5:00 in the morning on her birthday, just before we left for the hospital for our c/s. (I look so tired and puffy! I was soo ready to have her at that point!) The second picture was taken Wednesday night. (Looking much thinner and fresher!) Pretty cool comparison!

Another big milestone has happened just in the last two days, Lexi has started to pull up! I feel like this is huge! She's figuring out different ways to move and get her body into different positions. She starts out sitting and then lean and grab onto my hands. Then she gets on to her knees, puts a leg straight out to the side, and pulls herself up! i just steady her for balance! So proud of this girl!! Then once she's up, I clap and say, "Yay Lexi! Good job!" She smiles! She'll even take some steps with me holding her hands!

She's still not crawling yet. I'm ok with that, though. She's started doing a small but scoot instead. She'll sit with her legs out in front, pull them in quickly, and scoot forward a tiny bit. She's also getting better at sitting up from a reclined position. Still not sitting up from laying down. She'll get there.

And... In the pictures you'll notice Lexi is not wearing a headband, but a hair clip instead!! It's a silly milestone, but she finally has enough hair for a clip to stay in. Poor kid, her hair grows about as fast as mine does... Sorry to give you my slow hair growing genes, Lexi!

9 month stats:
18 lbs 6oz - 50%
28 in tall - 50%
47 cm head - 75%

Lots of Love,
KJsbabe

I Claim this Gum in the Name of Incisor!

We have a tooth! Lexi's first tooth is her bottom number 24 incisor. I noticed it coming though Monday night and by Thursday it was an official tooth. I think she might be working on the one beside it too. It's kind of bitter sweet. I'm glad that she's growing as she should, but I'm going to miss my gummy little girl! She's on her way to toddlerhood...

I've been trying to get a good picture of it all week, but this is the best I can get.

Lots of Love,
KJsbabe

Oh eBay... You are so Addicting... And Esty is Awesome, too!

I have been buying and selling all sorts of things on eBay lately. My true addiction started last year about this time when I really started building our CD stash. I found tons of diapers in EUC and things just grew from there. I really need to cut down on my spending, though. Lately I've been selling things around the house that we never use and using that money to buy new things. I feel much less guilty about that because it's like I'm just trading things in. I've sold a few outfits that Lexi never got to wear (or I just didn't like them, so I never put them on her!), a couple diapers that I ended up not liking, and a couple Christmas gifts that I never used. Right now I have some tea towels up for auction and am waiting for some Robeez shoes to arrive in the mail! Fun fun!

Baby shoes are my current obsession. We switched Lexi from her infant car seat to the convertibles a few weeks ago. Since she isn't bundled up in a blanket when we go outside any more, I wanted something to put on her feet to keep them warm. I made some felt booties for her, and they are working for now, but they seem to be wearing out quickly. I've been looking into Robeez shoes and really like them, just not the price. (I have a hard time spending $25 on shoes for myself, let alone something she'll only wear for a few months!) I of coarse turned to eBay. I found some good ones in 12-18m size for her to wear this summer, but didn't find any in the right condition / price combo I was looking for. I actually ended up finding some on Esty.

I don't do a lot of Esty shopping because some things on there seem over priced, and other things I could just make myself. I found some Robeez style shoes from a shop called Ebooba for $10 bran new! Yes, please!! $5 shipping, but considering they're coming from Ukraine, I feel like that's a good price. The guy who runs this shop started out making leather shoes for his daughter and grew his business from there. He has all kinds of colors and sizes he can make. I actually saw on his FB page a color combination from a while ago that I liked better than what he currently has available. I messaged him and he said he would make it up special for me! Awesome! They are light purple shoes with a little gray elephant on them. I'm still waiting on them to arrive in the mail, but again, it's going to take a little longer than normal considering they're coming from half way around the world... Literally. I can't wait to get these on Lexi's little feet!

Speaking of Esty, once my SAHM dream is fulfilled, I'm planning on setting up a little shop of my own. I'm currently thinking up products and making prototypes to test. So far, tea wallets, headbands, and soft baby books have made the cut. I started making tea wallets a few years ago and made them up for all the ladies in my family for Christmas one year. They're simple, but hold up great. I've been making headbands for Lexi all a long and she always gets compliments when we go out. They hold up decently, fit a wide range of head sizes, and look adorable.

I made a soft baby book for Lexi a few weeks ago, and it's still in one piece! Lol. She loves, loves taggies, so I incorporated a bunch into the book.

She yanks and sucks on them and they hold up! One thing that did not make the cut were the felt booties. My prototype didn't turn out how I envisioned it and they got pilly really quickly. My stitch on them wasn't great, and I chose to put a ribbon tie on them which Lexi loves to untie. I might try a different design later, but for now, they're out of the running.

I'm also currently working on a onesie design. I have some embroidery to finish up and then we'll test it out.

(For those of you at home, that says "You are my sunshine" not "You ate my sunshine" haha!) I think if I make the sun a little smaller the words will fit better.

I've been reading up on cost vs retail pricing and how to promote a small start up business. Interesting stuff! I think and really hope that this turns out well for me. The number one thing I hate about my job is how unfulfilling it is. I like to be creative and make things. I feel like all I'm doing at work is wasting my time. I really think that once I'm doing something I actually enjoy, life will be better. And a little extra money to take Lexi on outings would be nice.

Ok enough rambling!

Lots if Love,
KJsbabe