Hey friends!

I have been telling myself that I want to get back to blogging regularly, but only if I can figure out what to blog about besides Lucy. The trouble is that, at this point in my new stay-at-home life, Lucy is the only thing to blog about.

And she’s freakin’ adorable.

I’m not really cooking because awesome family and friends have supplied us with food since early December (not that I ever cooked much). And I haven’t been cleared for exercise yet, which is really what I’d blog most about.

So here it is, a post about mom things. I’m sorry, I hope that I don’t post too many of these.  But here are some products that I love and have made my transition to mommy-hood go relatively smoothly this past month.

ItzBeen Pocket Nanny: This is with me almost constantly, just like my cell phone. It keeps track of four things: baby’s last dirty diaper, last time baby ate, baby’s last nap and something else of your choosing. At this point, I don’t keep track of her sleep, but it’s great for feeding! If she’s fussing, i just look at the timer and can usually tell if it’s a hungry fuss or a gassy fuss. I also use it while I’m nursing to keep track of how long she nurses on each side (it also lets you keep track of WHICH side). And I use the miscellaneous timer to keep track of the last time I took ibuprofen (nursing is NO joke, people). There’s also a flashlight!!! I can’t say enough good things about this! (Yes, I realize your cell phone can do all of this, but you can’t really leave your cell phone with a baby sitter, can you?)

Lansinoh‘s Lanolin and Soothies Gel Pads: Like I said, nursing is no joke and the girls end up being quite sore…and chapped. The combo of Lanolin and these gel pads really help the pain and soreness. I also have Lansinoh’s manual breast pump, which is easy to use and painless. I honestly have yet to meet a Lansinoh product that I don’t like.

AngelCare Movement and Sound Monitor: I love this monitor because not only can I hear what’s going on in the nursery, it monitor’s Lucy’s breathing for me. Newborn breathing is really erratic and I had her sleeping in a bassinet next to me for a while, but I was stressed about her breathing (although it’s normal!), so we put her in her crib and I’ve been sleeping well ever since. This monitor will let me know if she goes longer than 10 seconds without breathing. Some people have complained about false alarms, but I’d rather have false alarms than no alarms at all.

SwaddleMe Blankets: Swaddling is great for newborns. It puts Lucy to sleep and keeps her warm, but it’s difficult to do a good job swaddling at 3 am in a dark nursery. SwaddleMe is the solution. Some fabric and velcro and VOILA! swaddled! Sleeping baby, happy mom.

Moby Wrap: Baby wearing is all the rage right now, and I’m totally on the band wagon. When I put Lucy in the Moby wrap, she goes right to sleep and I can get some chores done. And it won’t give her a flat head. Also, it keeps us warm, so I don’t need to crank the heat (Dave loves that, too). It’s just one long piece of fabric, and once you know how to put it on, it’s easy to use!

Boppy Pillow: This is great to use when I’m nursing, and it’s also a good prop. I will often swaddle her and prop her up in the boppy (on the bed or couch) when she’s awake. She can see what’s going on and is safe and mommy has her hands free! I think that its use will increase over the next few months, too.

Also, I really like gowns! Snaps are a pain in the butt in the middle of the night, so gowns are great because you just pull them up to change the diaper and then pull them back down. I try to be really quiet at night, so the less I can upset or disturb her when I’m up with her, the better. So I recommend getting a bunch of those to wear at night!

Ok, well, that’s it for my mommy post. Sorry if I bored some of you. I really hope to be running and exercising soon… but I don’t know if my life will ever be interesting. Thanks for sticking around!

On Saturday, December 8, at 10:12 a.m., Dave and I welcomed our precious little girl, Lucy Jean, into the world.

She was 7 pounds and 20 inches long…and so perfect! We are so in love!

I know a lot of you like hearing birth stories, but I don’t really have much of a story, so I’ll just give you a quick run down.

First of all, I had no real expectations for labor. My mom had lightning fast labors and I was hoping I would be the same. But I also knew that each person and each delivery is different, so I wasn’t banking on a fast, epidural-free delivery, although that would have been ideal.

Well, a fast labor I got!

I woke up around 4 a.m. with some light cramping in my back that quickly turned to full-blown, excruciating back labor. One minute I was saying, “Hey! I might be in labor, ” and the next minute I was shouting, “GET IN THE FREAKIN’ CAR NOW!” By 6:30 we were at the hospital and I was BEGGING for the epidural. The thing about back labor is that YOU NEVER GET A BREAK. Because Lucy was “sunny side up” (head down, face up), the bulk of the baby’s weight is resting on my spine, so the pressure in my back was unbearable. Amazingly, Lucy turned to the proper position right as the anesthesiologist was coming into the room to give me the epidural. At that point I was 6 centimeters dilated…and when they checked me after the epidural (about 1/2 hour later), I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing.

Forty-five minutes of pushing later (sorry, ladies, I felt great and didn’t even break a sweat), I had my little girl! Six hours of labor. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. I have hardly even had any pain or discomfort in recovery as well.

God truly blessed me with a wonderful experience and a beautiful, healthy baby. And an awesome husband who takes good care of us! And in light of my Grammy’s recent passing, Lucy has provided joy to my family that only a baby can bring. She is so loved!

As for me, I am loving motherhood. I could just hold and kiss her all the time! She’s a great sleeper and eater. I’m feeling more rested now than I was when I was pregnant! I’m waiting for the bomb to drop…What’s even more amazing is how quickly my body is bouncing back. As of today, my belly is flat (still very soft and funny looking, though) and I hardly look like I had a baby a week ago. I’m not in any rush to get back to my “pre-pregnancy weight” (honestly, I don’t even know what that was…), but it’s still amazing to see how quickly the human body adapts. But I am anxious to put my wedding rings back on.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a baby to cuddle…

(You can visit my photography website to see some more photos of Lucy.)

A week ago, my Grammy passed away. The past weekend had been spent back home with my beloved family from all over the world. We celebrated my Grammy’s wonderful life, her selflessness and her love of Jesus. It was a truly beautiful time. We shared tearful memories and joy knowing that we’ll see her again.

Despite Dave’s best efforts, it was hard to keep me off my feet during the viewing and other get-togethers. Thankfully the baby is still “cooking,” but now she can come out whenever she wants. We are ready to meet her! And today was my first day as a stay-at-home wife/mom, and I felt kind of bored. I’m looking forward to focusing on the baby. But I’m really nervous too.

Staying at home was both an easy decision and a hard decision for Dave and I to make. It was easy because I’ve always felt called to stay at home and have had a desire to be at home and eventually homeschool.

But it was really hard, too. It was hard because it the decision means a lot of sacrifice. It was hard because I’m a social person. I’m not exactly an extrovert, but I love human interaction with challenging and uplifting relationships and conversations–things I received daily at my job. It was a hard decision because my income will certainly be missed. And mainly, the decision to be stay at home is to sacrifice a lot of things that I find joy and satisfaction in. I know that I’m not entirely giving them up, but all of my hobbies and desires are taking a back seat to this child and my new lifestyle (I don’t even have the ‘escape’ some moms may find at work…).

But regardless of the sacrifice and fears that I have, I am really looking forward to it. My new position may not give me a paycheck but I am confident that its rewards will richly enhance my life. And I don’t want to ever sound like I’m ungrateful, because I’m certainly not. Many parents don’t even have to option of staying at home with their children and Dave and I are exceedingly blessed that we do have that option. I pray that I never lose sight of that.

Of all of the memories that my family shared over the past week, one thing my mom remembered really stood out to me: she said that my Grammy used to say, “children won’t remember how clean your house was, they will remember that you played with them.” And so, thanks to my Grammy and her wonderful example, I am looking forward to giving this little girl so many memories with the time I’m blessed to spend with her.

P.S. If it’s any indication of what’s to come, I’ve already posted three photos of Dexter on Instagram today. I apologize to my followers…I will try not to inundate you with baby photos when she arrives, but I’m only human!

The nursery is finally finished! It is now just waiting for the baby to occupy it. You can probably tell that we didn’t really have a theme, but we wanted a lot of bright colors and to make the room as welcoming as possible. No one wants to spend time in a dull room, right? We made a lot of the art and things like curtains (thanks, mom!), pillows, crib bumpers, etc. Dave also replaced/dry walled the ceiling, which was an enormous undertaking, and I am so grateful for his hard work!

I still want to add some ties to the crib bumpers around the corners to eliminate any spaces between each bumper. And if you’ll all please notice the AMAZING striped wall.. Again, a Dave project. If you ever want to paint stripes on a wall, let us know. Dave has it down to a science. Seriously, even up close the stripes look like stick-ons. PERFECT. Marrying an Engineer has its benefits for sure.

(Click to enlarge)

Well, that’s all for now. I promise to be back–and soon! I have some things to write about, and now that the nursery is complete, I have some more time on my hands!

Less than 5 weeks until my due date! Woo!

Hey hey hey! Look who decided to blog. But before you get too excited, let me be forthright and say that I am going to share a recipe that contains pumpkin. So if you like pumpkin, allow me say, “AREN’T YOU GLAD I’M BACK?” To the rest of, “I’ll try to blog about something other than pumpkin soon.”

But really, this recipe is worth ending my blog hiatus. It’s simply a stroke of genius–a stroke of genius that struck me while I was in the bathroom. But that’s not really a surprise. I’m currently making my way through my third trimester, so due to the fact that *someone’s* head is currently resting on my bladder, I spend most of my time in the bathroom.

Anyhow, I set out just to make a simple pumpkin cake, which I did, and after I put it in the oven, I went to the bathroom only to get THE BEST IDEA EVER. So I ran downstairs (don’t worry, I washed my hands), took the cake out of the oven, and created this:

Gluten Free Fall Coffee Cake (a.k.a. Pumpkin Cake with Apple Streusel)

-1 box Betty Crocker Gluten Free Yellow Cake mix
- 1 15 oz. can pumpkin
-3 egg whites
-1.5 tsp pumpkin pie spice
-1 large apple (I used a honey crisp, and it was about the size of my face)
-1/2 c. butter, softened
-1/2 c. white sugar
-1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
-2/3 c. gluten-free oats
-1 tsp. cinnamon
-1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix the cake mix, pumpkin, egg whites and pumpkin pie spice (note: don’t ever over-mix gluten free recipes!!).  Place in a greased 8×8 or 9×9 pan. (I used a glass pan. If you’re using a dark pan, I believe you can lower the baking temperature to 325, according to Betty Crocker.)

Chop the apple into bite sized pieces.

Mix butter, white and brown sugars, oats, cinnamon and nutmeg to make your streusel topping.

Sprinkle about 1/3 of the streusel mixture onto the cake. Then add the chopped apple. Then top with the rest of the streusel.

Bake for 35-40 minutes.

This is super moist!  The corner pieces are my favorite because they are the juiciest from the baked apple pieces. It’s obviously the best right out of the oven, but if you’re eating it after it has cooled, put in the microwave for a little bit. And I highly recommend enjoying it with a cup of coffee.

Now friends, it’s past my bedtime. And I haven’t forgotten about you. I just don’t have much to write about so I don’t want to bore you. But I’ll try to be more intentional.

Night!

P.S. I’ve been working on my photography a lot lately. You can see my latest photos at Abby Jackson Photography on Facebook!