Bath Time

 Raegan and Hudson take a bath daily. They are messy toddlers, but we really do bath every day because Mama loves the 30 minute break it gives.

Hallelujah for bath time. They play happily after dinner and before bed and it gives me a chance to clean up the house before Kyle gets home. Lord knows they are both little tornadoes all day long.

 The stacking bath boats from Nuby are some of our favorites!

 Once baby is old enough to hold them, they'll love them. They can easily be used for rinsing the babies off and Rae and Hudson both love filling them up and dumping them on each other. They stack easily for storage too.

Thank goodness for toys that are simple and easy to store to make bath time fun!

This post is in collaboration with Nuby, but opinions are 100% mine.

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Trying To Conceive

When Kyle and I got married we had a plan. Be married for a couple years, enjoy one another, travel, do whatever the heck we wanted, and then after a couple years, we'd have kids.

Looking back at my very naive self, I wish I could just put my hand on my back, and say "oh honey, if only it were that easy."

For some, it is. It is easy. They get pregnant on their first try or they weren't even trying at all. To those who have, I'm happy for you. No I really am. Because what we went through over the past 4 years is nothing I would wish on anyone.

It's hard. It's full of appointments, shots, invasive procedures, disappointment, loss.

When we started trying we knew we were ready to start a family. Like right then. We didn't want to wait. There was no messing around. I was going to try everything I could to help our chances. I took vitamins, I cut out caffeine, I ate healthy, used ovulation tests, and I even was taking geritol because a teacher at my school recommended it. See, I told you, I tried everything. 

Had I known about the Stork OTC, you betcha I would have been trying it too. No doctor appointments, no scans, no prescriptions, no procedures, more cost efficient than fertility treatments. Sign me up!

The Stork OTC is a uniquely designed device that you use at home to increase your chances of becoming pregnant.

It's available at Target in the family planning aisle. Target is even having a promo right now where when you purchase a Stork OTC, you get a $15 Target giftcard. Valid 6/4-6/17.

What an amazing product to try as you begin planning to begin or expand your family.

Want to win your own? Enter here!

Stork OTC Twin-Pack Giveaway

“This is a sponsored conversation from Mums the Word Network and The Stork OTC. All opinions are my own.”

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Getting Out of the House

When I first had Hudson getting out of the house with both babies was tough! It would take forever to get them both packed up and I had to make sure I had everything with me that I needed to keep them entertained and happy. So began the search for how to make life outside the house easier. I found as long as I had snacks and drinks we were good!

Insert NUBY's water canteen and snack containers.

Just fill them up before we leave and we are good to go! 

I love that I can hand the snack holder to Hudson in the car and he won't dump them all over himself. I was so happy the day he finally had enough coordination to hold it, put his hand in, and pull out a snack. Hallelujah! Snack independence at it's finest.

And the water cups are the best because they both can close them when they are done, and push the button to pop up the straw. I love that it keeps the straw clean and doesn't leak. It's easy to hold and has a little silicone loop that's great for tiny hands.

Now there's no telling how things are going to go when I try to get out of the house with 3, but for now, for the next 3 months before little guy gets here, I'm set!

I received this product for a review, but all opinions are my own.

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The Truth of Having Two Under 2

I am now a mom of two under 2. I've joined the club of the very tired, pulled every which way, always on the move moms.

Hudson will be 1 month old on Sunday and since he was born I get asked the loaded question at least 5 times a week. "How is it?"

I normally reply with, amazing! The kind of amazing that makes you feel overwhelmed and you aren't quite sure you're going to make it through the day amazing, but never happier.

But the truth is, it's hard. 

Having a toddler and a baby who both need your undivided attention is HARD! 

Getting out of the house takes hours. HOURS I tell you! We are never anywhere on time and if we are, it's normally because I didn't even have a chance to get myself ready. And while we are out I'm just praying we make it through without anyone having a melt down.

It's hard to feed Raegan lunch when Hudson is screaming. So I strap him into his ring sling and pray my way through lunch as the break of nap time is lingering right after.

It's hard to nurse Hudson as Raegan is digging through the trash and eating the lunch I just offered her, but she didn't want at lunch time, but NEEDS it now like a fat kid needs cake.

It's hard! Like seriously hard.

But I wouldn't change it for anything in the world.

We prayed for this. We prayed for this exact crazy. A crazy that I am so thankful I'm able to experience.

And right now I am in a season of grace. The grace that everyone is giving me, I need to give to myself. This is a short season in life that is absolutely crazy, but also pretty fantastic.

So for now, I will buy stock in Chick-fila Dr. Pepper and take a deep breath, because the days are long, but the years are short, and being a mom is the only place I want to be.

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Update on Life

Life is crazy right now. Like really crazy. We moved into our house that we've been renovating for the past 6 months. Even though we are in we still have workers at the house daily. Our dogs are still at my parents because Stella is not the friendliest of dogs with people she doesn't know. I'm ready to have my girls back in the house. I miss them. 

Oh and I'm 14 weeks pregnant. You may be thinking ummm how is that possible? Well 2 weeks after my D&C with Hadley, I got pregnant again. Yep. You heard that right. The 1-5% chance of naturally getting pregnant ain't got nothing on God. I still don't understand why we had to go through losing Hadley, but we did, and are stronger because of it.

Believe me, I was just as surprised as you. I stared at that test, hands shaking, with tears in my eyes thinking "here we go again. I cannot do another loss."

I went in for blood work and again, levels were low. Again. I prepared to lose our baby. I was just starting to heal from the 10 weeks of hell of low levels, slow heartbeat, and measuring behind at every sono, to seeing that our sweet baby girl was gone. I couldn't do it again. But every appointment we went to, levels were great, baby measured wonderfully, and it's heartbeat was strong.

I still couldn't allow myself to think this was happening. I couldn't allow myself to fall in love with another sweet baby that I may never meet. Even as I watched my belly grow I couldn't open up. 

We met with our MFM (maternal fetal medicine) doctor for our first trimester screening. With our history of loss and trisomy and also Pierre Robin with Raegan having early testing is important to make sure that our baby is healthy and we are doing everything we can to sustain the pregnancy.

They looked over our sweet baby and everything looked fine physically. They even gave us a prediction if we were having a girl or boy. (keep reading, I promise I won't leave you hanging). They took my blood and said they'd have the results within 2 weeks. This test would test for down syndrome, trisomy 13, 18, 21, and also for any chromosomal deletions. To be clear, no matter the results, this was our baby. There was never talk of termination. Our reasoning for testing was to prepare. To make sure we would be at a hospital that could handle if anything were wrong and have a NICU that was top notch. After having Raegan's surprise Pierre Robin diagnosis, NICU stay, hospital transfer, etc, we decided that we would be prepared for every pregnancy after. I needed that. We needed that.

Yesterday (Valentine's Day) I got a call from our nurse. She said she had amazing news that all the results came back negative. No deletions of chromosomes. Perfect sweet little baby boy.

I for sure thought we were having another girl, but Kyle's dream of having 2 boys close in age (they'll be 18 months apart) came true. Raegan is pretty excited about still being the queen bee.

We will continue seeing my MFM to monitor the baby's chin for Pierre Robin along with my fluid levels. I had normal to high levels of fluid with Raegan and Hudson. She also saw a funky spot on my placenta that she wants to watch. More on that after my next sono to confirm if it's something we should be worried about.

So for today, I am rejoicing in the sweet miracle growing inside of me. I still can't believe it's actually happening. Sometimes I feel like a fraud though. Infertility is no joke. We have been through the ringer, but then this happened. We got pregnant. Naturally. I have been pregnant 3 times naturally. We have lost 2 of those pregnancies. I still can't understand why we have been given this gift. Why us? It's a question I may never be able to answer, but I am so thankful. So thankful for this baby.

We can't wait to hold him and cry over him because you better believe I will be crying over him. Crying tears of healing and thankfulness.

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Hadley Elizabeth

I apologize in advance for the ramblings of this post. I am trying to process the 2nd worst day of my life.

We have 4 children.

Something that we always wanted. We wanted to have 4 kids. Little did we know that we would have 2 on earth and 2 in Heaven. A heavy burden I would never wish on anyone.

For those who do not know, we had a loss in July 2013 before getting pregnant with Raegan. I was about 6 weeks along. After that loss our RE said that the embryo was probably unhealthy because of Kyle's diagnosis (story here), which is why IVF was our next step for our family. Fast forward to 2016. We have our beautiful babies from IVF, Raegan (2) and Hudson (9 months).

Then about 6 weeks ago Kyle and I were shocked with a positive pregnancy test. A naturally conceived pregnancy. I am never late. EVER. I knew I was pregnant. I had been feeling off so I took a test on Monday, September 18. It was negative. I don't know why I took a test. I know our chances of naturally conceiving were low, but I just couldn't shake the feeling. Well by Wednesday I was still feeling off and when I took it this time it was positive.

I was shocked. I went in for blood work and got the results back the next day. The levels were low so my doctor said to prepare for a miscarriage. We continued doing more blood work and the numbers continued to grow much to his surprise so we started getting excited that this might actually happen.

Our first sono showed a gestational sac and I was measuring 2 weeks behind where they thought I was. They weren't worried since this was a naturally conceived pregnancy. Maybe I just ovulated late. So we drew blood again. Blood work came back fine so we waited 2 more weeks for the next sono.

At this sono the baby had grown but the heart rate was low. They had me wait one more week for another sono. Unfortunately at that sono, our sweet precious baby was gone. They could see that my body was starting to try and get rid of the baby. A D&C was scheduled. With this being my 2nd loss it is time to find out why. Our first loss happened naturally so they were unable to send the tissue (I hate calling it that, it's my baby) to pathology.

I need to know. I want to know. Why do I continue losing these precious babies when they are naturally conceived, but can carry my IVF babies perfectly fine?

I knew not to get excited. I knew not to plan for this baby. I knew not to think of names. I knew not to plan what room they would be in in our new house. I couldn't help it though. This isn't just a lost pregnancy.

It's the loss of a part of our family. It's a loss of Hudson and Raegan's little sister. Even in the 10 short weeks that she was a part of our lives she made a huge impact. We weren't planning on getting pregnant. We didn't plan to do another IVF transfer until late 2017, but now I can't imagine life without her.

When I woke up on Friday the day of our D&C my Timehop ever so sweetly reminded me that 3 years ago that day we were having our egg retrieval for Raegan's IVF cycle.

Oh the cruel ironic of infertility.

I had received a box of Milestone pregnancy and newborn cards to document our sweet baby's life while she grew in my belly. I was looking through them this morning and came across the "Welcome home little one". I thought I'd be using this card at the end of my pregnancy, not the beginning, but never the less, I find comfort in knowing that Jesus is the one who is saying,
"welcome home little one" to our sweet, Hadley Elizabeth.

We love you sweet girl. Give your big brother a hug for us and we will see you soon.

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Hudson {8 months}

Well Hudson turns 9 months tomorrow, so no better time to post his 8 month update right?

Stats

weight: 20 pounds

Sleep

He's still up 2-3 times a night. We are struggling with him peeing out of diaper. I've tried using overnights. I've tried sizing up in the overnights. Nothing works! If I don't change him at least once during the night he will wake up soaked. It's such a pain. I'm hoping we can find a solution soon! He's still nursing at night. I've accepted it. I know it's hard getting up in the middle of the night, but it won't last forever. He loves to nurse. I love to nurse him. If he could just throw me a bone and sleep past 6am then we'd be good!

Eat

He loves food. Bottom line. He will eat anything I give him, which shows in his 2 pound gain in 2 months. He's 6 pounds shy of Raegan. It makes me laugh what a chunker  he is. The upside to him eating everything is I can just tell Raegan "Bubba's going to eat your food". She's still struggling with eating a ton and that will normally get her to eat. So that's a nice incentive. He's still nursing throughout the day and at night too.

Play

He's crawling and standing! Granted he doesn't crawl much, but he will if he needs to get to mama or to take a toy from sister. Tonight Kyle and I witnessed our first fight over a toy. Raegan took his toy and he made the saddest little face and cried and cried. Normally he just finds another toy, but this time he put up a fuss. Sister better watch out. He's going to be bigger than her pretty darn soon!

Extras

He's all about mama lately. It makes for very tiring days. He's only happy if he's being held and that is hard. If I can get him playing happily I have to stay out of the room because as soon as I walk in the tears begin and he just wants to be held.

He also had his first sickness this month. His first ear infection. Him and Rae have been passing a cold back and forth for about 4-5 weeks. He's been miserable. He also was teething too. So he was just a mess, but he just wasn't getting better. I took him in a few weeks before Thanksgiving and she said it was just a cold and teething, but then 2 weeks later he still had it. Mama's intuition said to take him in again. Mama was right. Ear infection. Poor guy.

We also found these adorable milestone cards to help document all the fun and adorable things that he's doing these days because let's be honest, when they are little they are mastering new things every day! I love being able to celebrate those milestones and look back on these adorable pictures and moments that made us smile.

They also include free printables on their site too! You better believe we will be printing off the "my first Christmas card".

Alright, time for the photo dump. Can't believe how much this sweet boy has grown in 8 (almost 9) short months! Time flies. Way too fast.

3

Winter Baby Clothes

Texas is finally cooling off and I for one am so stinking happy about it! No more sweating as soon as you walk outside. Layers are my favorite and I'm ready for it!

Along with starting to dress differently for myself comes dressing my kids differently too. Can't just throw a short sleeve onesie on and be good for the day anymore.

I started searching for what I could start dressing Hudson in that wouldn't take forever to put on, was cute, warm, and didn't break the bank.

Then I found Finn and Emma. See Hudson is just as excited!

Garment snaps are lead/nickel free and feature real coconut inserts. Their garments have a generous fit—allowing them to be worn for longer—and accommodate cloth as well as disposable diapers.

They carry boys and girls outfits that are made with buttery soft, G.O.T.S. certified organic cotton and non-toxic, eco-friendly dyes. As well as muslin blankets in bright beautiful colors, wooden play gyms and corresponding play mats.

Can't wait to add more to his wardrobe. They will be on rotation a lot!

Thank you to Finn and Emma for sponsoring this post.

5

Grocery Shopping With Babies

I don't know about you, but I try to avoid going to the grocery store with the kids at all costs. Honestly, I try to avoid all stores, no matter what I need, but sometimes it's unavoidable. 

So I've put together a list of tips and tricks to use when you have to venture out with the babies.

1. Make sure you choose a time where the kids the happiest. After nap is our best time. Babies are rested and ready to go!

2. Wear comfortable shoes. When I get inside those doors it's on. I have about 30 minutes before all hell breaks loose and I have things to get done! So make sure you are comfortable.

3. Bring snacks and forms of distraction. Raegan likes to grab a few yogurt pouches and down them while we do our shopping. Have at it girlfriend. If all else fails, I'll whip out Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It always does the trick.

4. Use a Binxy Baby. Before you even fill up the cart with grocery items, you're taking up a ton of room with the babies. Either put your toddler in the front seat or get one of those big carts. Raegan loves those! They even fit the bigger carts like you find at Costco or Sam's as long as you put it at the front of the cart.

Then the Binxy Baby goes over the cart and voila! All your groceries can fit under the baby. What I love about the Binxy Baby is you can lay baby in it (up to 6 months or when baby is sitting up on their own) or you can put the carseat in it too. It holds up to 50 pounds. Just in case baby fell asleep on the way to the grocery store.

5. Give yourself grace. Meltdowns happen and if they do, power walk through the store to get the essentials, leave the rest for later, and head to the toy aisle. More often than not sometimes the toddler just needs to get out and get some energy out.

In the end, you braved the grocery store and that is a mama win in my book any day.

Thank you Binxy Baby for sponsoring this post.

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