Collins' BIG Annoucement

I have been "dropping" hints on some type of news that November would bring and we are finally able to announce it. With help from my husband, we are expecting again. Collins is going to be a big sister...already :) We were just as surprised as you all may be reading this right now, for Marty and I weren't really sure if we wanted to expand our family at all considering what we go through. However as Marty and I learned the hard way through the loss of Sloane, it is out of our control and God mad that decision for us, so the Mitchell's are expanding by one more!

Wait, it gets better. We are due the day before Collin's due date. Meaning we could quite possibly have Irish twins on our hands :) For those of you who cannot remember the details of Collins pregnancy (I mean it was only months ago) her due date was May 20th. This babies due date is May 19th. I am currently 13 weeks along. We found out at 6 weeks, when one morning I was feeling a bit under the weather. Keep in mind I have been exclusively breast feeding since Collins was born. I haven't had a period so knowing when I ovulated or if I even did was unknown. Breast feeding is 98% contraceptive, so I'd like to introduce you to the 2% minority, US :)

Thanks Taryn :)

That morning like I said I was feeling under the weather and something (mother's intuition maybe) told me to take a test. I yelled down to Marty who was downstairs with Collins to come upstairs because I was going to take a test. He laughed, but felt like we might as well get the test out of the way. After 30 seconds the three of us, Collins, Marty and I sat staring at the test and what I thought was the control line, popped up and very faintly another line showed. I looked at Marty saying do you see that? He looked at me like I was nuts, he said how do you not see it, it was the first thing that popped up and has taken all the ink from the control line. What I thought was the control line was in fact the positive line all bright and bold and red! We were for sure pregnant, and probably farther along than we thought. I mean who knew how far along I was, there was no way to tell. I won't lie, after the crying, shock, and what did we do, we got excited after a few weeks. Babies are a blessing! And to be quite honest, having to go through all this again I might as well do it right away before Collins is more mobile, and before I lost all my baby weight and got pretty again, ha joking but for real.

To put it into perspective, I have been pregnant since October 2011. I haven't had more than two months worth of a period since then, what is a tampon?

Baby Mitchell #3 at 6weeks

Everything will be the same as far as I have been already taking progesterone cream since 6 weeks. Surgery at 14 weeks, P17 shots at 16 weeks. The only difference is bed rest. After the cerclage placement I will have to be on bed rest for a few days. After that Dr. Font is comfortable with me resting as much as possible. Meaning staying off my feet, not lifting heavy things (Collins alone is ok), and stairs obviously a no. He will monitor me and make sure that my cervix has no changes like he did last time. Crossing our fingers that I do not have to go on bed rest as soon because taking care of Collins would be quite hard. So Collins and I will be home bodies for the winter. Unless of course anyone wants to pick us up and take us to a sit down lunch :)



10 weeks

We are extremely excited! Actually we are over the moon happy, excited, so unbelievably ecstatic! Collins is going to make an amazing big sister, and Sloane is definitely looking over this baby as she did Collins. We find out boy/girl on November 26th, I have my intuition and so does Marty. He just might have his hands full-full of estrogen :) So here we go again! I hope you all are ready for another 6 month adventure with us. As always I will blog when I can with updates. Dr. Font is today with cerclage scheduling, and then Dr. Khater is in a week.

Oh FANTASTIC news. I already did my 3 hour gestational diabetes test. They wanted to do an early test like we did with Collins, and I passed! So just like I did with Collins I do not have diabetes just yet :) Fingers crossed, when I re take it at 28 weeks I still pass :) Also because I let you all know of everything, I already have a UTI. So I bit the bullet and have been taking Macrobid. (You all know my fuss with Medicine). But we needed to get rid of it before surgery.

HERE WE GO!!

For real Mom and Dad?

Baby Food Making

Today on this lovely Sunday Fall day, I spent my morning making Collins "hopefully" a month or so of baby food. I know when I started researching baby food finding other women's blogs on how they did it really helped me so I thought I'd do the same for those of you that read mine :) Let me say that I don't pretend to know what I am doing, I researched how to's and based most things off of the pamphlet that came with my baby bullet. Some veggies I bought organic and some I didn't. My reasoning behind that was because of the pesticides that I read about online. I am learning as I go and hope that this might help another fellow momma out there that might be in the same boat as me. Oh and I only burned myself once.

I went to our local Caputo's and bought some new fruits and veggies and some that I already know Collins loves from the past few weeks. I bought organic peas and carrots, leftover butternut squash (her favorite), sweet potatoes, avocados, peaches, apples, pears, and bananas.

 

The 2 bags of frozen organic peas were 2.99$ a bag, I got the 2 sweet potatoes for .48$, the bananas (4) for .56$, the organic carrots that came in a bunch of 7 for 2.99$, 3 pears for 1.11$, 3 peaches for 1.37$, 2 butternut squashes for 2.62$, and the 3 apples (Michigan Gala) on sale for .53$. My total was less than 20$.

 

 

The only two vegetables I cooked in the oven were the sweet potatoes and the squash. I cleaned the sweet potatoes and made tiny holes through out with a fork. Then wrapped them in tin foil and had them cook for 50 minutes on 450 degrees. At the same time I cooked the squash sliced in half, with the seeds taken out and laid upright on a cookie sheet for the same time and temp. After they were done, I skin them and place in the baby bullet for processing. I am not sure how much water I add but enough to get the consistency that I am looking for. Right now we are doing more of puree to get her used to eating. She is still using her "nursing" tongue and a lot of it comes out so we have to make sure we are there to help her, obviously.

 

The avocados and bananas are simple because you do not need to cook them. Same as the sweet potatoes and squash, enough water to get that puree consistency.

 

For the remaining vegetables and fruits I peeled the skin and then steamed each one by itself. Except the peas, those I just placed in the steamer obviously unpeeled (because I'm not even sure if you can peel peas hahaha) Steaming at least from what I read is better, as far as keeping the nutrients from the fruits and veggies and you can also use the water from steaming it to puree which I did with each food.

 

I was able to make a total of 143 ounces of baby food in 3 hours. 4 hours if you count the shopping part of it.

 

Three Pears-17oz of food

Three Peaches-17oz of food

Three Apples-6oz of food

Two Avocados-6oz of food

Seven Carrots-15oz of food

Two Squashes-24oz of food

Two Sweet Potatoes-28oz of food

Four Bananas-10oz of food

Two frozen bags of Peas-20oz of food

 

 

Most went into my freezer. Baby food stays good in the freezer for 30 days, and good in the fridge for about 3-4 days. I used my baby bullet storage cups, some glade cups, and other baby storage containers that I received from my baby shower. It is very time consuming however I was able to do most of it while Collins took her morning 2 hour nap. So far Collins is loving momma's home made food, and I cannot wait to experiment putting foods together and giving her different fruits and veggies. Big girl status in full effect :)

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Miami (Bienvenido a Miami)

Our first trip as a family and I can't lie, it couldn't have gone any better. Well maybe besides the hurricane type winds the last two days but other than that we had a blast. Collins loves vacation and was so good. When I talked about big girl status last post she killed it in Miami. Sitting in high hairs, staying up past 10pm, and hitting up Lincoln Road for the last two nights :) 

We got to Miami on Friday morning and immediately hit the breakfast bar. Momma needed to eat and Collins was hungry herself. We were the first ones to arrive at the hotel for the wedding so we had some time to relax as a family from our early morning plane ride. Oh wait! I forgot Collins has found her niche. She's definitely going to be a flight attendant when she is older. This girl LOVED the plane ride. Never made a peep. Unless of course she was giggling or flirting with the passengers. As I write this I'm knocking on wood she cooperates tonight for our night flight...

Friday and Saturday consisted of all the wedding festivities. Marty was in the wedding like I said before so Collins and I had girls day for the better half of Saturday we had a nice little lunch Oceanside then took a little nap before the wedding. She did okay at the wedding. A little fussy but that we as to be expected, blaring music and a ton of people all having too good of a time (as expected) it was time for mommy and Collins to call it a night. Luckily daddy got to party all night and from what we heard the next morning he was quite party goer :) 

We set off to our next destination on Sunday morning, Surfcomber Hotel off of Collins Avenue :) For the next few days we spent our time shopping on Lincoln Road, taking a dip in the pool, and bringing Collins to the beach for the first time. Unfortunately the wind has been a Debbie for us and with sand flying in your face Collins could only take so much. Collins was great at night for us. We were able to do dinner both nights as a family and even celebrate our anniversary on Monday night with some Sushi. 

Overall a great time was had by all. Vacationing is definitely different as a parent, and as a mom there really isn't such a thing as vacation but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Seeing Collins face light up when we took her out on the town, or when we took her on the beach made it all worth the few times a day I'd have to sit and wait in the room while she napped :) 

Until next time! 

Let's play catch up

I cannot believe October is going to be over in one more day. Fall is flying by, and to be completely honest so is life! Collins is already 6 months old! Where the heck did my baby go? Besides being a little peanut, she is rolling all over the place, babbling, sitting up with support and eating solids!! Before we get into her 6 month update lets play catch up. We have been busy busy, with Halloween parties, gearing up for our trip to Miami, Marty got a new job, and getting Collins acclimated to solids and finally sleeping full time in her own room/crib :( Big girl status at its finest. With Marty's new job at Clorox he had to be away for a couple weeks so I played single mom for a bit. Recently we have been getting ready for our mini family vacation plus a wedding Marty is in for one of his good friends. I used to think traveling was stressful with just Marty and I, holy crap I am in full anxiety mode with packing an infant. But no worries, she packs like her mother. We have a good 2 weeks of things packed for a 5 day trip :) shh don't tell Marty. Our 2nd Anniversary is also Friday! A whole 2 years :) seems like a life time after what Marty and I have been through, but let me tell you something, I wouldn't want to go through these things with anyone else. We are very excited about the trip we will just feel better once we are there safe and sound with all our things. The OC planner in me needs to remember that I probably will forget something, and something will probably go not as planned, but I need to not freak out like I usually would. It will all work out, I think :) That will bring us into November which will also bring us to HUGE news! But you all will just have to wait :) Halloween is tomorrow and we are very excited for our little fortune teller. I only have a sneak peek so you'll have to wait to see the final product.

 

 

Age: 6 months

Stats: 13lbs 2oz (6th percentile), 25 inches (33rd percentile)

Clothes: still 0-3 months and some 3-6 months

 

 

Favorite Activities: watching Lola and Lucy run all over the house, pulling Lucy's ears, playing with all her news toys, and standing up like a big girl. She gets so proud! And still of course bath time, put her in water and she immediately will stop crying or fussing.

 

 

Favorite Words: still screaming like a little girl. We love it and she just will scream to get your attention or to make you laugh, she knows exactly what she's doing.

Least favorite Activities: when you don't feed her fast enough. As soon as you give her one spoonful you better be ready immediately with the next or little lady will start fussing.

 

 

Mom's Favorite Moment: feeding my little pig solids for the first time. Loving everything we put in her mouth and wanting more even when its clearly all gone and she's had more than most 9 month olds eat :)

 

 

Dad's Favorite Moment: while at an appointment Collins had missed her nap and was walking around with Daddy laying on his shoulder and for the first time fell asleep like a little angel on his shoulder.

 

 

Other Milestones: she is sitting up pretty well with assistance and grabbing at everything! And guess where everything goes, directly in her mouth! She is super nosey too, weird where does she get that from? I wouldn't call this a milestone however stranger danger has set in, and it has set in with everyone unless its mommy. And most recently daddy.

 

We hope everyone has safe and happy Halloween! See everyone in November, just in time for family photos, Thanksgiving prep, and Christmas shopping!!

 

 

 

 

5 month update and lots more!

Well haven't I just been MIA! Lots has been happening, of course all great things but they have been keeping us busy! I played single mom this week while Marty was out of town on business, so Collins and I had a fun filled best friends week together :) Dinners over at Nonna's and Pop Pop's, hanging with her Uncle Zeke, pumpkin patch with her cousin Gia, and of course shopping :)

 

 

The blog also got an update! Which I am in love with, not only because its exactly what I pictured in my mind when I asked Becca at jumping jax designs but also because my cartoon makes me look skinny :) haha Becca is amazing and is the mastermind behind this blog design as well all my Christmas cards I've sent out as well as our birth announcements. Love her, she does amazing work and you can check her out HERE and see what she has to offer :) Now for the more important update of the two.

 

Age: 5 months

Stats: We had to go to the doctor for a small infection in her eye and she was 13lbs 10oz!

Clothes: Still 0-3 months, and some 3 months my little peanut

Favorite activities: I think no matter how crabby at night she is as soon as we put her in the bathtub she is a new woman! Loves her bath time!

 

 

Favorite words: Still screaming like a little girl and loving when you scream back at her in a high pitched squeal.

Least Favorite Activities: Napping! Or sleeping for that matter. For the past week she hasn't been sleeping through the night, wakes up tossing and turning and fussing. At around 4am every wide awake ready to party. I don't think so.

 

 

 

Mom's proudest moment: When I put her down for a nap for the first time in a while in her crib and she slept for 2.5 hours like a big girl!

Dad's proudest moment: Skyping while he was away and Collins really interacting with him.

 

 

Other Milestones: One night while Marty and I were watching TV we heard Collins sort of moving around in her bed, and as we looked she had rolled over from back to tummy. She was so proud of herself that she immediately picked herself up onto her elbows knowing we were watching and gave us the biggest smile! It was too funny not to bust out laughing and cheer for her.

 

 

Sometimes the outtakes are just too funny not to share. She had had enough of us at this point :)

Big things happening in the Mitchell household that will come to light here shortly but until then we have more pumpkin patches to explore, more shopping to do (we are going to Miami in a few weeks for a wedding so Collins needs a new dress :) and more crisp fall morning walks to attend. Happy 5 months Collins!

 

4 month update

Age: 4 months

Stats: 12lbs 13oz (34th percentile), 24 inches (42nd percentile)

Clothes: Finally out grew size newborn and is wearing  0-3month clothes best. However her pj's range from 3 months to 6 months fitting loose.

 

 

Favorite Activities: Just recently loves playing in her jumper and grabbing at all the toys. Loves swinging in her mamaRoo. 4moms This summer she enjoyed swimming and definitely be outdoors. Of course loves bath time, and sitting up like a big girl 24/7

Favorite Words: Screaming! After finding her voice and babbling she has not picked up the cutest, tiniest little girls scream we have ever heard. She does this when she is super excited and happy.

Least Favorite Activities: I hate to even say this and jinx myself, but Collins goes with the flow and does just about everything :)

 

 

Mom's proudest moment: Hearing her giggle for the first time at me while playing and both of us being surprised at the giggle that came out.

Dad's proudest moment: Knowing she would roll over if he just kept trying, and sure enough rolled over for the first time under Daddy's watch.

 

 

Other milestones: Collins not only has found her cute little voice, she has rolled over (once) (and we are still working at it again), she is cutting a tooth! Yes at 4 months she is getting her first little tooth front bottom. She has also graduated from her rock n play at night to sleeping in her pack n play still next to mommy. I know it's crib time however I cant let her be alone in her room just yet, so the pack n play is just like a crib just closer to me :) baby steps...for me!

 

 

 

Fall is right around the corner and my little 4 month old and I have already started decorating. Yes we have pumpkins already around the house and yes Collins is ready to put on her jeans and a cable knit sweater.