Five on Friday - Weekend Fun

Happy Friday! Another week is coming to a close and I am that much closer to the end of my maternity leave. Anyone have any thoughts on how I can offset my salary and daycare costs from home? *Sigh* While I'm waiting for those genius suggestions, let's talk about about how fun this past weekend was and what I'm looking forward to this weekend - it'll be a good distraction.

One. 



Phase 2 of "Make the Playroom Great Again" was delivered on Saturday! I am VERY happy to have a comfortable place to land upstairs. Now on to Phase 3 - new curtains and curtain rods.

Two.



We had a BLAST with my sister this weekend and it was very sad to send her back to Indiana on Monday. We even got to celebrate the BIG 4-0 with her a bit early! Zoey and I made her a cherry cheesecake - recipe coming soon!

Three.



She's a brave woman. Zoey LOVED getting to do make-up with Aunt Stacie (Zoey did fake make-up for herself, of course). We need to work on technique but she's got the basic idea down!

Four.



I reached "Duggar" status this past weekend by nursing on the move. If you don't have a My Brest Friend Nursing Pillow and you're nursing or planning to nurse, you need one! It's so great for the early months of breastfeeding.

Five.



Trying on my bridesmaid dress one more time, because wedding weekend is here!! My sister-in-law is getting married and we are looking forward to celebrating big this weekend. 

Now I need to sign off and go finish writing this MOH speech! Don't look for it on Youtube or anything, but I think it's going to leave an impression. ;)

Linking up with these lovely ladies - check out their blogs below.



See ya next week!

The First Six Weeks

When I got pregnant with Luke, I thought to myself, "people always say you forget things about your first so you'll have another. Your mind protects you for the benefit of the future. Well, I remember everything - I loved being pregnant and giving birth was hard, but magical. This'll be easy the second time around.". 



When it came to the pregnancy and birth, it was all as I remembered. That first night home from the hospital though, it hit me - the newborn phase. What I didn't know I'd forgotten (I sound like Professor from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse....), was the newborn phase - THIS is what people meant when they say you'll forget. Banished to some dark place in my mind, the newborn phase, where newborns are basically still a fetus for the next 3 months, the fourth trimester. It's the waking up every 2-3 hours at night, crying, endless diapers, spit up, blow outs, no smiling, no babbling, just taking everything you have. It's such a short time and so very worth it, but my goodness that part sucks. Amplified further by having a toddler who, no matter how YOU slept last night, is going to wake up between 6 and 6:30 am (or earlier). 



This was my first adjustment to life with two - I can't just go to sleep until Luke wakes once I've finally gotten him down at 5 am after 2 hours of pacing the house. My sweet girl will be up in less than an hour and her "tummy will be hungry."

The second adjustment  - I can't just be Zoey's mommy, I'm shared now. Before Luke came along, Zoey ran the show. When she was home with us, we played, we shopped, we went to the park, etc. Having Luke right after the most epic Christmas ever, made the adjustment a little harder for her and me too. 












We can no longer drop everything and jump in the car to go shopping or to the park. I'm not always available to climb in her teepee and play now that a small barnacle is attached to me 24/7. 

While celebrating this amazing addition and completion of our family, I also have had to mourn the loss of our family of three and the routine we had down to a science. This is our new normal for now - divide and conquer, man coverage. 


*Photographic evidence of why we don't eat out

Things have already started to even out, and as Luke gets bigger, the fun really begins. Until then, I'm walking a fine line of nurturing and bonding with my baby boy and continuing to try to foster the beautiful relationship I have with my daughter.





The third Adjustment, a doozy - It hit several weeks in to our new normal. We chose to keep Zoey in school during my maternity leave so that her world wouldn't be completely rocked. This afforded me some time to bond with Luke during the week too. It was a very good decision for all. That being said, the fact that we house a walking Petri dish is amplified by the fact that she hangs out with 12 other Petri dishes, 5 days a week AND sucks her fingers. Without a doubt, she caught strep within weeks of bringing Luke home and it manifested as a rash on her face (due to the finger sucking) and a cough. Scary when she is in "baby brother's" face 100% of the time she's at home and awake.



It is so hard when the tiny human you love SO much is sick and could possibly infect the other tiny little human you love SO much. Luckily, we did survive this round. Luke is unscathed and Chris and I were easily cured - thank goodness for teledoc.



There are so many other adjustments we'll have to make, as Luke continues to grow and develop and our new family routine takes shape. Teaching Zoey the fine line between loving and smothering baby. Keeping Luke, with no sleep schedule, from waking the (finally) sleeping toddler (did not see that one coming - I always thought it was the toddler who would wake the baby). I'm growing and developing as a mom too.

Everyone's experience is different and everyone's mom guilt manifests differently - my heart did not magically and exponentially expand as soon as my second child exited the womb (as so many bloggers and people on facebook claim happened to them). I am beyond joyful that we have a son and he's healthy and safe. He was wanted, prayed for, and loved from the moment I knew I was carrying him, but that love took time to grow deep roots in my heart. I had to get to know him. I had to teach my heart and my mind how to love two tiny humans fiercely at the same time and I'm still learning. It is HARD. Zoey had 2.5 years of my undivided attention and we rocked her world with baby brother. Luke will never have his parents all to himself and that's hard too.



We knew it would be hard to adjust logistically, but these emotional adjustments caught me off guard. Why did no one prepare me for this? Why do people "lie" and say it "feels like they've always been a family of four", "your heart exponentially expands immediately", they can't remember a time before their second or third"? 

7 weeks in to this new and crazy life, I know it's because luckily, our mind is beautiful and it forgets these rough first weeks and lets us simply remember the magic and love of bringing a baby into this world. I know I'll forget the days when Luke kept us up all night and Zoey woke up at 5:45 am - living out our Saturday counting down to bedtime and just thankful we all survived the day. 



This chaos that is parenting with a toddler and a newborn - I'll only remember the fierce love for my beautiful children, the look on Zoey's face as she met her very own baby brother, the care and adoration she has for him, the first time he smiled at her, the hugs, the laughter, the playing. So I'm writing this now, while I'm in the thick of it, for me and those of you in the throes of the newborn phase (or those of you watching us and thinking you'll never have a kid or another kid). The days are long, but the months and years are so short. I love the chaos of two and I'm glad my heart knows loving two babies.



I'm also so stinking lucky to do this life with Chris. He is THE MOST AMAZING husband and father of all time, but that's an entire blog post in and of itself.

Mindful Monday - Let's Catch Up

Quick post to let you know that I'm still alive. I hope to rejoin the blogging world consistently soon - I have so much I feel like sharing with you and not enough time. I've actually had to start keeping a list when topics come to mind. Hopefully, I can start knocking them out now that we are sleeping nice stretches at night. (hallelujah!)

On December 31, 2016 - Our little man decided to make his appearance just 3 days shy of his due date. My labor (one blog topic) was extremely short compared to my 72 hours with {Zoey}. Just a little over 12 hours of labor and we got to meet our son, Luke Christopher, weighing a whopping 8 pounds 9 ounces!! 24 hours later, we were given the all clear to go home early and took our sweet boy home to meet his PROUD big sister.

My heart explodes every time I look at these pictures.

Since then it's been a whirlwind month of very little sleep and trying to keep everyone healthy (Chris and Zoey went down with colds - you try telling a 2 1/2 year old they can't kiss their brand new baby brother or touch them with their saliva drenched hands). Just when I was feeling like I had this mommy thing down....having two kids just rocked my world (another blog topic). We are a month in and I'm starting to feel like it's going to be okay though. I wouldn't change anything for the world, but it hasn't been easy and I just felt a little lied to when people told me it was "like they'd always been a family of four from the start" and "their heart immediately expanded exponentially", etc.

This boy though, he is everything. We just have the two very best kids in the world and our family is most definitely complete now. 

PS. Shout out to my {Stitch Fix} stylist, Jamie! She's been making me feel human with a couple postpartum fixes (another blog topic). I had the best maternity fixes with her too - she's awesome.

For now, I'm going to resume cuddling my baby boy and binge watching all the Netflix (another blog topic). Talk soon. xx

Baby #2: Gender Reveal

So I asked Zoey before the ultrasound, if she thought she was getting a baby brother or a baby sister. She, without hesitation, emphatically announced she was getting a baby brother. Was she correct?





Yes - she was spot on!! Zoey will be big sister to a little brother!



Zoey is thrilled to remain the only princess in this clan! And we are thrilled to be adding a wiggly baby boy to our growing family!



Stay tuned - I have stitch fix updates and more coming soon now that the secret is out. <3

A Little Update

Hi guys! I wanted to write a quick post explaining my absence from the blog these past couple of weeks. I've been enjoying the heck out of being home with Zoey and soaking up these last few weeks of summer. I've also gone quiet, because I've been keeping a little big secret and it's hard to talk about life and keep big secrets!

So we are excited to FINALLY announce...

Zoey has another little secret for you too...

She knows if she's getting a baby brother or baby sister!!

Just for fun - We want to know what you think before we announce! Take the poll on the side bar -->

I'll be back tomorrow morning to let you know. ;)

Five on Friday

Wow - Just like that, another Friday is upon us! These past few weeks have just flown by it seems. Again, the best intentions were to post something other than Five on Friday but I'm doing great just to make this post each week. Summer will be here soon!

And just because I have a lot to say - I'm leaving six of these today. Let's get right down to it!

1. #BestSelf



This was my weekend. I had the opportunity to help chaperon 20 - 8th grade girls to the #BestSelf conference for women and girls on Saturday. Such a wonderful event for these young girls. I hope they all left feeling empowered to be their best self. Three things I learned: 1. Drive yourself, don't ride the bus 2. Zumba is really fun and I'm really bad at it 3. I need to be less judgmental of people to be my #BestSelf

2. Facebook Cares



Except when it renders gut punching reminders of our losses. This one caught me a bit off guard this week, but this picture depicts the exact day I miscarried my first pregnancy. I got pregnant with my beautiful daughter just months later and I have no doubt it worked out just the way God intended, but I was just reminded of how isolating and painful that experience was for me. We don't talk about miscarriage near enough and it's often a dark secret we carry around. I just want you to know that if you're experiencing a loss or have experienced a loss - it sucks and I get it. If you need someone to talk to, I'm here.

3. RocksBox



So on to happier things...my newest Rocksbox set came and I think it's the best one yet! I let my stylist know that I was loving Kendra Scott and looking for "layerable" summer pieces. She delivered! I can't wait to wear it all soon. Remember, you can try Rocksbox free for a month with the code: stephaniepbff4





Just look at those earrings! Gorgeous.

4. Snapchat



I just joined snapchat and I'm loving it! I know, I know - I'm way late to the party. I still don't really know what to post and I'm pretty sure I typed my user name in wrong but I am loving creeping on people's posts!

5. The Flu



Despite vaccinating the entire family, as we do every year, Zoey came home on Tuesday with a 103 degree fever which was promptly diagnosed as the flu by her pediatrician on Wednesday. Tamiflu was prescribed and upon the first dose, she proceeded to puked up her dinner all over my pillow and bed, so we've been fighting this the old fashioned way, rest and lots of TV. Chris and I tag teamed staying at home with her for the rest of the week and I'm happy to report, she is finally feeling better today. Fingers crossed we stay healthy.

6. Make Oklahoma OK Again



I'll just leave this right here - Make Oklahoma OK Again!. 


                    Linking up with a few of my favs - April, Christina & Natasha!

Happy Friday! See you next week!