Kitty & Kevin

I get such a thrill from accomplishing goals. I don't know if you can be a goal-accomplishing addict...but if you could...that would be me. You can probably tell that when you look at how we handled getting out of our $100,000 of student loan debt...I like to see tangible results (like charting our progress)  I found out over the last few weeks that nursing has been one of the most fulfilling goals of motherhood for me. I realize that I get just as much excitement out of seeing my freezer stash of milk grow as I did watching our debt chart go down. 

I think this realization was the first moment it hit me...motherhood will really change me, and already has. I want to put a caveat in here that nursing did NOT come easy. I almost gave up a number of times, and one night did give up entirely because I was so burnt out and frustrated. I was eating lactation cookies by the handful, pumping after every feeding to try and get more supply, we were having to "trick" Lorelai by putt…

We all know I'm all about the photos. Long before I had Lorelai photos were still some of my most precious possessions, especially of our travels. Now my most important photos are of our little girl, because I know she is going to grow up way too fast.
I hear of so many parents losing, breaking or wiping a phone by accident and losing years worth of photos of their children. That makes me so sad, as I know it has to be miserable. I want to tell you, it CAN be prevented! There are very inexpensive ways to back-up your photos, here is what I suggest:

1. Amazon Prime.Amazon Prime can be used for a bunch of different things, and you may already have it. The one thing I think is the most valuable is that when you purchase prime, you get UNLIMITED photo storage with it. It is extremely low maintenance too, as once you have prime just download their amazon photo app and set it to automatically sync whenever you're on wifi. That means my photos are syncing basically anytime I'm a…

Lorelai is 1 month old! Each month we are planning a themed photo session for her...and this month was (you guessed it...) Harry Potter! 
This sweet little girl is growing so much. I had a moment a few days ago when I thought "wait a second...I think we can actually do this whole parenting thing".  Granted, I woke her up from her nap for these photos...which probably doesn't give me huge parent points, but it's for her best interest (awesome photos when she grows up). 
This month has been a roller coaster. We finally feel like nursing is mastered, but it was the longest 3 weeks ever. We've gotten back to a few photo sessions since Lorelai was born. Sleeping is still hit or miss with this little girl but we are trying! 
2 weeks into her life, the doctor put me on a no-dairy and no-soy diet because they suspect Lorelai has an allergy. We are learning all about MSPI and the food restriction is crazy tough but getting easier as we go along. (Thank goodness for Oreos…

Our little girl is 3 weeks old, and we finally felt a little less tired and up for the challenge of her nursery photo shoot! (It required me to do something with my hair, which I haven't done since before she was born...so I made sure I was good and ready to spend time on this, rather than precious sleep). It's amazing to think all that work we put into decorating the nursery, and she is finally here living in her room. We laughed about how we had this room closed off ever since we bought the home, because we found out we were expecting about a week before putting in the offer here (so we had earmarked this room as the nursery the whole time) and now it seems we are spending every waking moment in here with our girl feeding her, changing her, or rocking her to sleep (then falling asleep ourselves). 
We just love her so much, and especially now when she is sleeping :) 

In no way am I pretending to be an expert here in understanding health insurance, or an expert on ways to pay the least amount of money possible for having a baby (I'm hoping that isn't really your goal, because the epidural is worth every penny). However, I can say that I've spent many many hours on researching, talking with health insurance, and talking to others about how to best be prepared financially for having a baby. This means dealing a lot with preparing yourself for what you'll be paying out of pocket for the birth of your baby! 
Life is crazy busy, both leading up to having a baby, and I can say honestly the first 3 weeks of the baby's life (since that is where we are right now). Dealing with insurance is the last thing you want to do, but it is really important to handle this as an adult (duh, you're a parent now, so you better be acting like an adult here). The biggest advantage you have for dealing with preparing financially for a baby...is time. …

Let me just say...mothering is hard work. Between complete meltdowns by either myself or Lorelai regarding nursing, to sleepless nights, lack of energy, a messy house, and our new found colic....it is absolutely crazy.
I have a pretty amazing support group too. Whether it's questions on how to get poo out of baby clothes, nursing and pumping questions, someone to simply let me call and cry, social media encouragement from friends, family who is willing to drop everything and come help...and my husband who is absolutely amazing...I feel some days like I can barely do this even with all of this support, I can't imagine what it would be like without it.
I have a bunch of half-posts here that I've typed up in our downtime that I hope to finish someday :) But in the meantime we are alive, Lorelai is well...and we couldn't love this face anymore than we already do.

A few notes I've jotted down for other first time mom's in the first 2 weeks of being home with our baby: 
Pick your battles. If giving her a pacifier is going to let you get many more hours of a happy baby...decide what it's worth to you.
Nursing is hard. You hear this once you have a baby, but all you see in society is how natural and easy it is for mom to feed while at a coffee shop with friends. Find someone not afraid to tell you nursing is the hardest thing ever and call that person crying whenever you want to quit...and find someone who isn't going to judge you for it, and will tell you it's okay to quit if you need to. 
Cry it out. Holy buckets the tears....there will be so much crying. Your husband will be perplexed at why your are bawling giving her a bath...but let him be confused and just cry.
It's okay to secretly hate everyone who says "sleep when your baby sleeps" as if it is that easy. Sleep whenever you can is more accurate, and do…