That is what I get...

For having two babies so close in age. What did I get? A van? A high-five? A hernia? We will be getting a van and I am sure I have gotten a high-five from someone for having babies. What I was not expecting to get was a hernia. I had my postpartum check-up on Tuesday and everything checked out good. I made a comment to my doctor that I hoped one day my stomach and specifically my belly button would look normal. He then dropped the H-Bomb - HERNIA! Wha-What?

I have a small hernia in my belly button. There is a fancy term for it but I am too lazy right now to swagbuck it. The doctor said that most likely it will go away on its own and that it really isn't that bad. But still, it wasn't what I wanted to hear. So I am working on strengthening these abs like it is going out of style. I am doing 75 sit-ups a day - I guess I am not as motivated as I was when I did all those squats. Maybe I will start doing some more. Who knows!

I am weighing less than I was with Eden at this time but still not quite to my postpartum weight. I think I would like to lose 3 more pounds or so. If I could lose them just in my tummy area that would be fantastic!

Life is going well here at the Hufford house! Cooper has been getting up at 2am, and then 6am to eat. I need to just start staying up after his last feeding but I crawl back into bed with just enough time to fall asleep before being woken up by a jibber-jabbering little one year old:-) He also is going to sleep around 7:30 but I wake him up at 8:30 for one last feeding before laying him down for the night. Tomorrow we are going to try and have him sleep up in his and Eden's bedroom. He sleep in his car seat so I am not sure if I will just put the car seat in the crib or not yet (he sleeps in his car seat because of reflux issues).

Anywho, Eden is waking up and then we are off to look for a van!!!! Woohoo!!! I am going to be a soccer mom! Now I just need to get the cute outfit to fit job;-)

Who unrolled the toilet paper???

I think we have a cat loose in our house because the toilet paper seems to be getting unrolled quite a bit as of late. Either that or Garrett has a new fascination with unrolling the entire roll all over the bathroom floor because he thinks I like picking it up. There is no way that Eden Grace would do something like that...she is just too sweet and loving and kind:-)

Cooper, Eden, and I are loving spending time together during the day! Cooper is growing and gave us his first real smile two days ago!!! If that doesn't make your heart melt, nothing will. He is also only getting up twice at night and since I have cut out most dairy (sometimes I forget) his tummy aches have been less frequent. Eden is growing like a weed and is walking full time and running around the house like she is practicing for a race. She also says "Hi, dada!" daily when Garrett comes home from work and says the words: this, yes, yeah, more, all done, mama, and of course dada. I am her translator as it isn't the clearest English in the world. She also got her toe nails painted today because she was a good girl and it is the cutest thing in the world!!

Hmm...in other news...I got a bread machine!!!! Garrett's mom gave me her's and I have fallen in love. Since they visited I have made a total of loaves of different kinds of bread. My favorite so far is applesauce cinnamon bread:-) I really enjoy making fresh bread and I am becoming quite the cook - if I do say so myself! There is something about preparing each part of the meal from scratch that makes me appreciate food more and also it tastes way better.

Well, I need to go and hang out with my hubby because I kinda like the fella!

PS - We are selling our 2005 Altima because our family has outgrown it (carseats take up lots of space). So if you would like a really great car (fully loaded) or know of someone who is in the market for a car and doesn't want to deal with a dealership, let me know! We will miss our car but I am looking forward to having a van!

Life with two

Here is a sample of my days right now:

6:30am/7am - Eden gets up -I give her a sippy of milk and get the coffee started.
7:30am - I get in the shower and Garrett plays with Eden.
7:45am - Cooper gets up and I feed him.
8am - I get breakfast for Eden and myself (if I can actually get any food in my own mouth).
8:30am - Eden gets a bath if she didn't get one the night before or we just get ready for the day.
9am - We play in their bedroom and read our Bible story of the day and a coup.
9:30am/10am - Nap time (both Cooper and Eden sleep at the same time in the morning - this makes mama very happy!!!).
*During nap time I finish getting myself ready for the day and look at my list of things I would like to accomplish during the week. I usually clean and do laundry during their morning nap and I also read my Bible and listen to sermons online.
11am/11:30am - Eden gets up and I get lunch ready.
12pm - We eat lunch and Cooper gets up and I feed him.
1pm - 3pm - We either play or we run an errand during this time and Cooper eats again.
2:30pm/3pm - Nap time!
4:30pm/5pm - Eden gets up from her nap and Cooper eats.
5pm - I start dinner and Eden plays in the kitchen with me. Daddy also comes home during this time!!!
6pm - Dinner:-) And then family time afterward (we go for walks or we Eden comes with one of us to do something alone with her).
7:30pm - Off to bed for Eden!
After Eden goes to bed Garrett and I spend time with each other (right now since Cooper is so little and doesn't have a set bed time yet, he joins in the fun by being held and eating).
10:30pm - We go to bed!

Cooper gets up two or three times a night depending on when he goes to sleep (and very soon he will go to bed at a set time). I also pump after every time I feed him (even in the middle of the night) to create a stash of breast milk and also because that is what we are giving Eden instead of Lactaid (she doesn't tolerate regular milk well yet and Lactaid is $4 for a half gallon - plus they recommend breast milk until the age of 2). Cooper is on a 3 hour eating schedule that he actually got himself on during the day, so he is pretty predictable. I do spend a lot of time changing diapers and cleaning up spit up and holding children but I wouldn't change it for the world!!

A new toy

"Here, why don't you play with this - mama's breast pad."

My breast pads are Eden's new toys that she plays with while I am feeding Cooper. She usually just gives them to me eagerly and then asks for them back. This is her new game with her new toy:-)

Things I have found myself saying lately...

"Eden, do not touch the Bible." and "You know you are not supposed to touch the Bible."

"You need to eat your macaroni before you get anymore carrots."

"Please don't poop in the bath tub again."

"Please don't grab your brother's face."

"Eden, if you walk to mommy you will get a treat!"

Here are some funny pictures that I thought I would share!

Girl kisses make me want to throw up...hey, wait...I just did.


Mom, I am not too big for the swing!

Cloth Diapering 2 Children - Day One - FAIL

We have been cloth diapering Eden at home for quite a few months. Her bottom is so sensitive and she was getting rashes left and right and the smell of disposable diapers was getting to this mom, so we decided to give cloth diapers a try. We love it! It really is no harder than disposable diapering and only 2 or 3 extra loads of laundry a week. The poopy diapers leave a lot to be desired as far as ease of cleaning but this mama will do what she has to do for her baby's behind.

Well, since Cooper has arrived we have wanted to cloth diaper both of them. It is sooooo much cheaper than buying huggies every week (even with some awesome coupons). That meant that we had to dive right in and try it out...

It was a HUGE fail! Eden was fine being in cloth because she already had been. But Cooper was another story. First of all, it is hard to cloth diaper a newborn who weighs less than 8 lbs. Secondly, when I bought two of my cloth diapers I should have read the descriptions instead of buying on the cute factor (little giraffes were just too cute to pass up). Thirdly, the umbilical cord issue was something I failed to remember from having Eden.

Here is what went down...

After Cooper's little man parts had healed from his circumcision I put him in a cute little giraffe diaper. No more than two minutes after I put it on he was soaking wet and I was perplexed. I thought this was an AIO (all in one) diaper - I seriously felt ripped off. I then changed him into a cute little monster diaper while I went back to look at my order. Well, his legs are still a bit scrawny and he peed and pooped out the leg holes. I change the diaper again and made sure that it was extra tight around the legs. Next thing I know he has peed and pooped out it again!!! And the only way to keep the diapers where they needed to be was to put them over his healing belly button. Back into disposables he went.

I was sooo frustrated with all of this that I was literally about to cry. What I learned was that I bought two diapers that are fitteds (these need a diaper cover) - hence the peeing through it and that little bitty babies need either time to chunk up a little or you should just stick to disposables until the umbilical cord fall off. We are sticking with the latter.

I know this is probably not the most interesting post ever but I want to highly recommend trying cloth diapering to anyone and also to share my frustrations and what I learn a long the way. I hope this helps! And I won't leave you all without a picture to share:-)

Happy Birthday Cooper!!!

So, I really wasn't expecting to have a baby last week but Cooper had different plans! I honestly thought for sure that he would be born some time this week since I made it to 39 weeks with Eden. But here is how his birth story goes...

Tuesday I was feeling kind of off all day and my stomach just wasn't feeling good. I had taken milk of magnesia that the doctor told me to take to help deal with a few ailments (sparing you all the details) I was having. I chalked it all up to that. The tummy issues did cause me to have more than my normal 6 to 8 Braxton Hicks an hour but that seemed very logical as well. When I got home from work Eden was a little off her game - a combination of being tired and having a light fever from teething, so it was a looong evening to say the least. I did manage to get some cleaning done and actually packed our hospital bag because I was bored. Garrett and I went to bed as normal.

Then at midnight I woke up to go to the bathroom and I was having some very mildly painful Braxton Hicks (they were contactions but how was I supposed to know) but I had had these before at night, so I just drank a ton of water and crawled back into bed. I woke up on and off to go to the bathroom and to try and get comfortable. Finally at 5am, I woke up and after a few of what I believed to be true contractions, I decided that it would be a good idea to go to the hospital. I woke Garrett up and told him that I thought I was in labor and to call my parents. He called them and I decided to do some laundry while Garrett hopped through the shower. Shortly after 5:30am my mom arrived to stay with Eden and we were off. In the car my contractions started to get pretty painful and I was having trouble talking through them but they were still very manageable. BUT the kicker is I had made up my mind that I WAS going to get an epidural this time because I didn't think I could stand the pain of them getting worse or more frequent for the next 5 hours.

We get to the hospital at 5:45 and the parking lot was empty. Garrett was like, "We can get an awesome parking spot!" I told him that I really didn't want to walk that far, so we pulled up to the front but the doors to the women's center wouldn't open because it wasn't 6am yet. I am now bending over having a contraction and saying you have to be kidding me. Garrett picks up the phone on the building and tells the lady in the most chipper voice, "We're having a baby!" and we get let in. We get let into a triage room where they make sure you are actually in labor. I don't think the nurse believed me because she asked if I had been timing the contractions and I said no but that they really hurt so I decided to come in and that they seemed to be getting more frequent fairly quickly. She hooks me up to monitors and after 5 minutes of being monitored she calls someone on the speaker phone and tells them to get a room ready for me because she was keeping me (apparently 4 contractions in 5 minutes means you are in fact in labor). She asks me if I would like any pain meds and by this time with the contractions coming so fast and the pain intensifying I tell her I would like an epidural (I still think I am experiencing normal labor and that I have 5 hours to go). She checks to see how dilated I am and says, "You're at 9.5 cm...I am sorry but you aren't going to get that epidural." This is when things went crazy!

She gets back on the speaker phone and is practically yelling, "We are having a baby...NOW!" The first thing that goes through my mind is that there will be no doctor and that I will be giving birth on this little bed. Thankfully they get a room for me very quickly (the exact room I delivered Eden in) and I am now thinking that they are going to want me to walk there but of course they just wheeled me to the room and I get on a much bigger bed designed to have a baby on. I swear that it took the doctor forever to get there (maybe 10 minutes) and the whole time I am thinking that I can't believe this is happening again. The doctor finally gets there (not my OB but another one in his practice who is all muscle and bald), he then breaks my water - this was the only thing keeping him from coming at this point - and starts chatting with me. Then about 10 minutes later Cooper arrives! I pushed 5 to 6 times and he was born at 6:33am!!! He was 7 lbs 2 oz and 20 inches long (exact same measurements as Eden - I make very average sized babies:-)).

God answered my prayers for a fast delivery and for the fact that I never got my epidural. I wanted a short delivery so there wouldn't be an option and I was given that (although at the time I was wondering what I was thinking). Garrett was so wonderful through the whole thing! I couldn't have asked for a better man to be by my side!!!

Praise the Lord for short labors and short births!!! But I am wondering if next time I should just check into the hospital as soon as I feel slightly different...