An Ode to My Post Baby Body

March 25, 2015 julie

Dear Baby Boy, I am different now. You’ve made me different.

My back is different- broad and strong. It’s spent hours bent over your changing table. Cleaning you, dressing you, making funny faces to make you smile. I’ve bent over your bassinet. Rubbing your belly, singing you songs, waiting for you to drift off to sleep.

My arms are different- muscular and tired. They’ve carried you in your car seat in and out of the house. They’ve held you, snuggled you, hugged you. Fallen asleep under you after the 48th verse of Wheels on the Bus.

My stomach is different- loose and far from toned. It may not be pretty, but it held you before my arms ever could. It was the first place I felt your tiny kicks and hiccups. It kept you safe and warm and for that, it will always be beautiful.

My breasts are different- lets just leave it at that. They’ve fed you, comforted you, soothed you. They were all we needed in the cool, dark, quiet nights together.

My eyes are different- older and sleepy. They are never closed for long but they wake to your big grin which is the best alarm clock I’ve ever had. They watch you get bigger and smarter everyday. But they are also filled with worry. They watch you cry, frustrated with your congestion. And stare at your belly rise and fall when you’re extra quiet at night.

I’m different, my sweet boy. But you’ve made me better. My body is stronger and my heart fuller. I love the me now. Perfectly imperfect and getting stronger everyday.

Eli Update | 3 Months

Image March 23, 2015 julie

Hey! It’s Not a Baby Post!

March 13, 2015 julie

Yeah, I know. My sweet little DIY blog has turned into the “Look at my Baby!” blog but so what?! He’s the reason we did our whole renovation in the first place. The reason we turned this house into a home.

But back to a little home improvement project…

Our second floor bathroom has had this little cubby behind the shower. It was always intended to have shelves but since we were gutting our whole first floor, a couple of shelves were low priority and needless to say, fell by the wayside.

Until that is, Momma realized we needed to make space for baby in our bathroom too.

Eli’s baby bathtub fits great on the countertop next to our bathroom sink. His head-to-toe wash and wash cloths and bath toys and lotion and that little ducky cup that rinses all the soap off his head… were ALL living in that cubby.

So Gramps worked his magic and installed some shelves!

What a difference a couple boards can make. I really think it gives the space dimension and purpose.

And with a couple of bins, everything is perfectly corralled and looks so neat and pretty!
So there you go. A home improvement – not entirely about baby – blog post. Go me.

Don’t Grow Up! It’s a Trap!

March 11, 2015 julie

How did this tiny naked boy go through so many clothes in the span of 11 weeks? Well no matter how, he did. And he’s getting bigger every day! As much as I love looking back at the photos of him when we first brought him home, I couldn’t be happier to have a perfectly plump (and super tall!) boy.

Yup, our little man of just over 2 months is wearing almost exclusively 6 month clothing! So to make room for all these new clothes, I’ve been throwing all the tiny tops and bottoms, hats and booties, jammies and onesies in two bins under his crib. Well those bins were starting to bust at the seams.

Time to organize and label, label, label!

I know if everything is organized and labeled by type and size it will either help me out in the future if we have another boy, or help whomever we pass on the clothes to. (I’m looking at you cousins! That baby-making train isn’t far from the station! Toot toot!)

So first I dumped out everything I’d been storing and sectioned them into piles.

There’s newborn jammies, hats and socks, 0-3 month sweatshirts, 3 month pants and onesies, and 3 month jammies. Oh yeah, and those newborn cloth diapers from when I was blissfully pregnant and said I was going to “give it a try.” I think one week in, Jared looked at me after Eli’s fifth poop of the day and said, “remember when we were going to try cloth diapers?” and immediately we both just bust out laughing. All power to those who do and those g diapers we bought are insanely cute but cloth diapering falls under my parenting mantra of “good for them! not for me.”

So after the sorting I corralled some essentials…