Lost in the World of Motherhood

I took a look at my last post and realized it has been a month and a half since then. Whew, where does time go? I wish it would hide out in my pocket or something, so I could save it for when I really needed it. Which is like, all the time! :)

I'll admit it, I have been lost away in this place called Motherhood. And to be honest, I do love it. I love being a mommy. The new things that come along with a growing baby can be quite challenging at times, but then you just get past the bump in the road and keep going until the next one comes up.

My little girl is just amazing. I love her to pieces. She makes me smile every morning I go to get her from her crib. I know she can hear my footsteps when I walk into her room... then I take a peek at her and she realizes it's me, and out comes a big smile from her little mouth. Ahh, that is what makes it all worth it, friends! Layla is 5 months old. Can you believe that? Seems like not too long ago I was gigantically pregnant and on "couch-rest", and now I have a beautiful daughter who shares every moment of the day with me. I do enjoy having a little girl, and I know it will only get more and more fun as she gets older. We do everything together. Where I go, she goes. What I do, she does. I think she just might be the mini-me someday. The poor girl. ;)

So while I have been occupied with mommy things, we have also been on a new diet, which takes a little more thought and time each day. About a month ago, we decided to try the Paleo diet. No refined sugars, grains, dairy, gluten, etc. The nice thing about this diet is that you can tailor it to what your body responds best to. So while we may not be 100% Paleo in our eating, we follow the main principle. And that is to cut out a lot of refined, processed, boxed foods and eat more fresh, raw foods. I personally have noticed a huge difference in the way I feel. My skin is finally clearing up and healing (part of that is from using coconut oil on my face), I have lost weight, and I feel less lethargic during the day. Finding enough food to fill us up that isn't a grain, gluten, dairy or full of sugar was hard at first. But we are getting it down now. We bought RAW Meal Replacement powder to make shakes in the morning. That fills us up for quite a while and is extremely good for us. It's plant based and full of live enzymes. We do "cheat" a bit on the weekends, but I feel that is perfectly okay as long as it's not a binge fest. When I say cheat, I mean, we eat some gluten, grains and dairy... we don't eat desserts all weekend or stuff our face with chips. Hehe. Layla will also be practicing the Paleo diet with us until she is a bit older. I'm waiting to introduce grains to her, and am sticking with veggies and fruit. I plan to make all her baby food homemade.

Today is Saturday, and that means we are together as a family. I look forward to this day every week. Hope you all enjoy your weekend! Here's to hoping for some nice, spring weather. :)

I'm Still Here...

Wow, has life been busy. I have also been way too tired to get on here and catch up. So, I guess I will have to update in a nutshell... but we'll see. I tend to be long winded sometimes. :)

Sickness finally hit Layla. I was kind of expecting it at some point, sadly. I try to be flexible and let people hold her and play with her... that means germs are obviously spreading. And I do take her everywhere with me when I shop and such, so it was kind of bound to happen eventually. She's still so little and hasn't had a chance to build her immune system, so she caught the cold that's been going around. At first it was a dry cough, then it developed into a wet cough and congestion. The congestion is what really made me nervous. She would cough and gag and choke on the mucous and I felt so bad! I took her to the doctor on Monday just to be on the safe side. We ended up seeing a different pediatrician since Dr. Maalouli wasn't in. She basically said that Layla sounded fine and was holding her own. She gave me some suggestions and warned me of some things that might happen... like that she might throw up a ton of mucous at some point. And the doctor was right. Layla screamed for ten minutes before she threw up a bunch of gunk. The poor girl. :( She was so tired from that that she clonked out not a minute later on my shoulder. She is finally getting over it, though she still has a rattly cough now and then. I think everything is just trying to make its way out.

The good thing about Layla's cold is that it will make her stronger. I hated seeing her struggling all week, but thankfully it didn't last too long and her immune system is that much stronger from it. Surprisingly, she slept the best those few bad days while she was sick. She actually slept through the night! Now we are back to our usual schedule of waking up 1-3 times during the early morning hours. Sigh. I am exhausted and ready for some solid sleep. O.o

Last Saturday, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law came to visit us for a few days. It was so nice to have them here for more than a day, and it was also helpful to have them around while Layla wasn't feeling well.

Kyle just sent out his application to the Maine State Police on Tuesday. Now we begin the waiting game, once again, and see what happens this year. I will be so thankful when he is hired, so we can get through a year without wondering if we will be moving or not.

Last Friday was our Celebration of Love Banquet at church. It was a nice evening. Needless to say, Kyle and I never got to celebrate Valentine's Day together, though he did buy me flowers and a card. :) There was just too much going on this year to do anything special.

Last Friday I also rearranged my living room and dining room... all alone, in a few hours, right before my company came. Haha. I don't know if it was hormones or just sick and tired of the set-up, I just wanted it totally redone. So I completely switched rooms. I am liking the new set-up and am still working on organizing. I feel so much better now that that is done! Silly me.

I am so glad it is Friday. I know I don't work out in the world, but when Friday comes I am so happy I get to see my husband for the next two days! He is working lots of overtime lately, and it seems like I hardly see him before he clonks out at night. Now let's see how much cleaning and organizing I can get done before the weekend sets in... ;)

Family Time

Opening a gift with Daddy. 

Well our weekend did not go as planned, but we did make it to Maine and back! It was a very short trip, because of the snow that came in. We were too nervous to be driving in it with a baby, and Kyle, Kurt and Coralie all needed to be back to work for Monday (we all rode together). We arrived in Maine a little past midnight on Friday, stayed up until 2am, then woke up early for a "Saturday morning" to do Christmas gifts. During those five hours during the night, I woke up twice to feed Layla. I think the traveling and bed time threw her off quite a bit.

Kyle used to sleep in this... his dad made it. Now Layla can use it!

We decided to leave Saturday afternoon to try to beat the storm home. We stopped at my grandparent's house near Freeport to introduce them to Layla and have a gift time there. By the time we left their house it was 4pm. We did run into snow, and it was quite bad especially near the coastal areas. All of the weather sites were saying something different, so it was hard to know exactly what to do. I think the snow came in earlier than some were saying. Anyway, we made it home, praise the Lord. I was pretty nervous with all of the crazy drivers speeding past us with the snow building up on the highway. I don't understand why people have to be so "macho" and speed through the snow like they are invisible. We took it slow and easy and had no troubles.

Great Grammy and Grampy Shatney

Papa and Grammy Hansen

Layla did so well with the car rides. I was a little amazed. I figured she would sleep a good amount of time, but I never thought she would last through both the entire 3+ hours without a screaming fit. She did sleep most of the entire time we were on the road. Hence the reason for lack of sleep during the last couple nights. I do hope we get into a good routine soon!

I am spending today trying to recover. Haha. Really, though. I had another stiff neck on Sunday. I don't understand why I am getting them, but they are a real pain. This week should be pretty busy with the last preparations for Christmas. I still have people to buy for, and I hate shopping in crowds, so it should be interesting. I think I will plan to go in the morning sometime this week... maybe the crowds won't be so big.

Auntie Kiersten 

Well Layla is on the verge of a nap, so I think I will take this time to relax and do something fun.

Layla enjoying her new swing from Papa and Grammy Hansen. Checking out the fun toy... 

Family Christmas Photos

Here is a little peak of our Christmas photos. We have lots more to post, as well, but I still don't have those on my computer yet. We are so happy with how they turned out! Thank you, Alyssa Beth Photography! I have already ordered our Christmas photo cards and they are on their way in the mail. Enjoy. :)

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