10 Things No One Tells You When You're Having Your First Baby

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Disclaimer: This post is not for the faint in heart, but it's all truthful, and normal things that will happen when you have a baby. 

When I had our first baby 2 years ago, I had a lot of friends who freely told me a lot of graphic details about when they brought their child into the world. A lot of it was stuff I either expected, or already knew. I thought that I had been mentally prepared for pretty much anything that could happen. Within the first couple weeks though, I learned a few things I would have appreciated knowing ahead of time. 

Before I get started though I feel the need to say that I love my son, and clearly since I'm 29 weeks pregnant (yes, on purpose), none of this was too traumatic to make me never want to have another child. All things are temporary people!

1. Your nether region will be swollen to the size of a melon. I asked all my friends why they didn't tell me this and they all just said they just didn't look down for a few weeks and didn't know. Well, I'm here to tell you, it happens.

2. People who breastfeed are champions. I thought that this was going to be easy and I was unprepared for not only how physically draining it is, but emotionally too. Anyone who breastfeeds for the entire first year deserves a trophy. I couldn't emotionally handle breastfeeding and quit after 6 weeks. This time around I'll know more of what to expect and hope to be able to do it longer, but just know it's not a cake walk, it's legit stuff. 

3. You will think your baby died the first time they sleep through the night. Jay first slept through the night at 6 weeks. I for sure thought he died, and I laid in bed mentally planning the details of his funeral for 15 minutes before eventually hearing him cooing himself awake in the room next door. 

(he's alive!)

4. Baby blues are a real thing. This was one of those things that I didn't think could possibly happen to me, but it did. I was so embarrassed about it that when I went to doctors visits I would deny it's existence in my life and tell them that everything was peaches and butterflies. But I would really start crying like a mad woman at 5 o' clock every night because I was so scared about how much sleep I wasn't going to be getting that night. Sleep deprived brains can do crazy things, and it's OK. 

5. Don't even try it. You will not be capable of having "husband/wife time" (due to #1), for at least 6 weeks. Just don't even put yourself through the hassle of trying. 

6. Your boobs will occasionally spray milk halfway across the room... or right in your innocent baby's face. I'm pretty sure that this has to happen to everyone at least once, just laugh when it does.

7. Don't try on your pre-pregnancy jeans for at least 6 weeks. Just don't do it to yourself. They aren't going to fit, you're going to feel bad, nothing good can come from this. And, if you're like me, you'll even rip one of your favorite pairs and then you'll never be able to wear them again. Save your jeans, save your feelings, just don't go there. 

8. You will love your husband more than you thought possible. Seeing Derek being a dad to Jay and taking care of him just made my heart melt (it still does). Daddy/baby time will be one of the greatest things to watch. And you'll love your husband so much that you'll want to try number 5, but you can't because of number 1. Vicious cycle I tell you. 

9. You really shouldn't try running before your 6 week check-up. I thought that I was fine and good to go a couple weeks after having Jay. I went for a run one day and felt like all my organs were going to completely fall out of my body, and I was still sore from, you guessed it, number 1, and only made it a block away from our house before very slowly walking back home. Turns out your body parts are still trying to move back to where they were before the baby, so you should probably respect that a little more than I did. 

10. Most importantly... people will try to explain to you how much you're going to love your baby, but until you've been there, and have experienced it yourself, there just aren't words for it. It's amazing. And the best part is, you will love your child more and more each day... even when they get to be two and throw tantrums, the love is still there, and it's the absolute best. 

Read more »

The Flammily's Favorite Foods

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Last night I looked and realized that I've posted 169 recipes on this blog so far! Who knew?! I thought it was time to do a collective post of the recipes that have made it on the blog that we actually make over and over again. All of these recipes have been made at least 10 times each in the three years in which this family has existed, which is pretty good when you consider the other 153 recipes on this blog, and the disasters that will never see the pages of the world wide web.

Caution: Some of the images in this post are from the scary days when I had no idea what I was doing with a camera (although, lets be honest, I still don't really know, I just hide it a little better). Also, please don't hold me responsible for the words you see written in the older posts. I was 19, and thought I was cool, so you might see things like, "This was deeeee-lish =]!!", I apologize in advance, truly. Also, let me know if you've tried any of these recipes! I'd love the feedback!

1. Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Frosting
2. Chocolate Chip Cookies
3. Tuna Casserole
4. Chicken Enchiladas
5. Toddler Friendly Chili
6. Chicken Biscuit Pot Pie
7. Peanut Butter Cookies
8. Grandma's Chicken Noodle Soup
9. Smothered Burritos
10. Pioneer Woman Mac n Cheese
11. Sloppy Joe's
12. The Best Brownies Ever
13. Cinnamon Sugar Donuts
14. German Pancakes
15. Orange Chicken
16. Salsa Chicken

Read more »

5 Ingredient Meatball Sub

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

If there is one thing that I love about summer, it's the excuse to turn off my oven and whip out my crock pot. Our oven makes our apartment so hot, so any excuse to not use it is a bonus in my book. These meatball subs are an incredibly easy weeknight meal that can be thrown together in no time!

Ingredients: 

1 14oz package of frozen meatballs

1 24 oz jar pasta sauce

Mozarella Cheese

Grinder rolls (or any long sandwich roll that you can cut open into a large hot dog bun)

Dried parsley

Directions: 

In your crock pot, combine the meatballs and sauce, and cook on low for 4 hours. When ready to eat, cut your buns, but not all the way through, they should be like a hot dog bun. Place 4-5 meatballs in each bun and pour a little of the extra sauce over the top. Sprinkle a handful of mozzarella, and a light sprinkle of dried parsley over the top and place into a baking dish. Repeat this until you have enough sandwiches made for everyone. 

Put the baking dish in the oven under the broiler for a few minutes, until the bun is lightly toasted and the cheese is completely melted, about three minutes. Serve with a side salad, and enjoy!

Read more »

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Thursday, May 22, 2014

One of the best decisions I've ever made in my life was following Janssen on Pinterest. I was needing some cookie inspiration for some friends we were having over on Monday night, and happily cruised through her entire cookie board before landing on the recipe for these bad boys. When I told Derek I was making these he made a funny face and said, "I don't think oatmeal and peanut butter belong together", I got mad and almost didn't make them, but then went ahead and did as I pleased anyways.

Derek and I were both happy about this decision. Derek had no problem eating spoonfuls of the dough, and our dinner guests said that the final product was most definitely blog worthy. So without further ado, here is the recipe for the cookies that stole my pregnant heart this week.

Ingredients: 

1 1/4 cups flour

1 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°. Whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt, and then set aside. Cream together the butter and sugars. Then add the peanut butter and mix until combined. Then add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. With the mixer on low, slowly add in the flour mixture until it is all incorporated, and then add the chocolate chips.

With your tablespoon measure, scoop cookies out onto an ungreased cookie sheet. I like to roll the dough like a meatball between my two hands before putting it down on the sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown and the centers are still soft. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Yields about 2 1/2-3 dozen cookies.

Read more »

Homemade White Bread

Monday, May 19, 2014

I've been chopping things out of our monthly budget left and right lately, in efforts to save up some money for well, life in general I suppose. One thing to get the boot from this weeks trip to the grocery store was bread. Mainly because I forgot about it, but hey, I saved $2.29 by not getting it, so score. 

I've made this recipe a few times. It was actually one of the first things I ever made for Derek, while we were dating (you can read about our 149 day love story here). I've since tried many other recipes, but I keep coming back to this one every time. It's just one of those things where it worked so well the first time, why bother fixing it? Plus, this recipe makes one loaf of bread which is so much more practical for small families than other recipes that feed an army. 

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water

1/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp dry active yeast

2 tbsp vegetable oil

3/4 tbsp salt

3 cups all purpose flour

Directions: 

In the base of your stand mixer dissolve the sugar into the warm water, and then stir in the yeast and allow it to proof for 5 minutes. Add in the salt and oil and then stir. Add the flour one cup at a time, using the dough hook on low speed. Once all the flour is incorporated, let it knead on the dough hook on low for a few minutes and then transfer to a well oiled bowl. Roll the dough in the oil gently and then cover with a towel and allow it to rise in a warm spot for 1 hour. 

Punch the dough down and knead it for a few minutes before shaping the dough into a loaf shape and transferring it into a lightly greased bread pan. Preheat oven to 350° and cover the bread pan with a towel and allow the dough to rise again for 30 minutes until the dough is rising 1 inch above the pan. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes and cool on a wire rack. 

Read more »

How to Save Money on Household Products!

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Toilet paper, paper towels, diapers, baby wipes... etc... they're the things we all forget about when making our monthly budget (or is that just me?), and when you run out, they never seem to be on sale, and then you spend a ton of money trying to restock your house with them. 

I thought that I was saving a ton of money by purchasing these items at Sam's Club, but I was wrong. Way wrong. I thought that purchasing a massive pack of paper towels must be a good deal, and hey, it is only $14 dollars, what can it hurt? When I did the math I realized that I was paying over $1/roll. That is robbery in my book! Especially since I've pretty much memorized all the numbers on this stock-up price list. I now know that I should never pay more than 50 cents/roll for paper towels, and never more than 24 cents/roll of toilet paper (unless it's a double roll, then we can up it to about 48 cents).

One way that I love getting good deals on household products is through Amazon Subscribe and Save. This is not an amazon sponsored post, so this is purely me sharing what works best for us. With Subscribe and save, they often have deals where the prices for high quality name brand products are dramatically reduced, and then they will often have a coupon for a dollar or two off the sale price that will be added to your account at checkout, and then you can start scoring some serious deals! Better than that, if you have 5 subscriptions for 1 month, then they will take an additional 15-20% off your entire order! I've never gotten that intense with it, but if you really needed to stock up on things, and you got 5 killer deals, can you imagine the savings? My heart skips a beat just thinking about it! 

The best part is that if you have Amazon Prime, you can get free shipping, or if you have an order of $35+. So then on top of awesome savings, you are getting awesome deals without having to leave your house and waste gas money. It's a win win for your wallet and your car. 

While I find it over whelming to look on Amazon for all the deals myself, I let someone else do the work for me. One of my favorite "deals" blogs are, Freebies 2 Deals. She scours Amazon (and the rest of thee internet), looking for the best deals on practically everything. Whenever I find myself low on diapers or toilet paper, or whatever it may be, I go to her website, and scroll through a couple pages, and I'm usually always guaranteed to find a great amazon deal on something I'm running low on! 

Read more »

Duck Donuts| A Father's Day Giveaway

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Last summer Derek and I went to the Outer Banks for our anniversary. If you haven't been, it's truly amazing, and you need to add it to your bucket list of things to do. Anyone who has been to the Outer Banks has surely had the pleasure of eating at Duck Donuts. It's an absolute must if you're going to be in the Outer Banks, or Virginia Beach for that matter since they have shops in both locations. 

While Derek and I were in the Outer Banks last summer we stopped in at Duck Donuts twice and each put down 3 donuts both times. There was no shame at all since these were the most amazing things we'd ever eaten. 

When I got home, I couldn't live without Duck Donuts and scoured the web looking for someone who claimed to have the recipe but wound up not having any luck. Then a few weeks ago, Derek jokingly said we should get in the car and go get some. While he was joking, I seriously started inquiring as to how I could get my hands on some of these donuts without having to drive 3+ hours to get them. 

You guys, I came across a beautiful thing! Did you know you can order Duck Donuts merchandise online through their website? For only $20 you can get an entire gift basket complete with the official Duck Donuts donut mix, and an assortment of icings and toppings. I immediately knew that this is what I was going to be getting Derek for Father's Day this year, and I wanted to be able to share this decadent vacation treat with you too!

Duck Donuts is offering one reader a FREE Duck Donuts gift basket to give to their father this Father's Day,(or gift it to yourself, you've earned it). All my readers will also be able to use promo code, "HappyFlammilyDad", to receive 15% off of their purchases, now through June 16th on any product! So be sure to get the man in your life something sweet this Father's Day. You won't regret it!

Giveaway is open to all US residents and will close at 11:59pm on Wednesday, May 21st, 2014. Winner will be notified via e-mail and will be selected randomly through random.org.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Read more »

Tuna Casserole - 2014 Tue, May 13

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

I could go on for way too long about how much I love this tuna casserole. I always thought that the tuna casserole recipe I made was good, until I went to St. Anthony this last Christmas with Derek and his mom made it, and it was THE MOST INCREDIBLE thing ever. I don't know if it was just because I was in the first trimester of pregnancy, and therefore had an insatiable appetite, but I had three helpings of this tuna noodle casserole and couldn't get enough. Seriously the perfect comfort food, with a thick creamy sauce... it's a family favorite over here.

This Sunday I decided I couldn't go on any longer without having that same tuna casserole and asked Derek's mom for the recipe. I made it, and once again it did not disappoint. And to further drive this point home, Jay was obsessed. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The taste buds of a toddler do not lie.

Ingredients:

6oz (3 cups), egg noodles

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup mayo

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 1/2 cans tuna, drained

1 cup frozen peas

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°. Cook pasta al dente according to package directions. In a sauce pan on medium heat mix together the milk and the cream of mushroom soup until warmed through. Once warmed, add in the 1 cup of cheddar cheese and stirring constantly until combined and melted through. Drain the pasta when it's done cooking, and then combine the soup and cheese mixture with the pasta, along with the mayo, tuna, and peas. Transfer mixture into a 2 quart casserole dish and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove baking dish from oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.

Read more »

Baby Girl Update

Friday, May 9, 2014

I know lots of people are wanting an update on baby girl. I'll try to write this out as eloquently as possible, but words aren't really my thing at the moment... This morning we woke up and headed to the Dr's office. The ultrasound tech laid me down on the bed and started doing her thing. 10 minutes into the ultrasound I started getting lightheaded and we had to stop. I seriously almost passed out and it took me a solid 10 minutes to get back to the point where I didn't think I was going to die anymore... so that was exciting to say the least. I'm a fainter during pregnancy though, thank goodness Derek is just used to it by now. 

The ultrasound tech continued the ultrasound and started measuring the ventricles! We're still at 13mm, and the head shape and size are all still normal. This is all GREAT! That means that as of right now the ventriculomegaly is not currently progressing into hydrocephalus, and that is exactly what we've been praying for. 

However, the Dr came in to go over the ultrasound with Derek and I and he said that part of the frontal lobe of the brain is now dilated as well. He said that he wasn't too concerned with this because a lot of times when one part of the brain is bigger, it causes other parts to be effected, but once the fluid is drained from the ventricles at birth, this could cause everything to go where it should. Also, once again, head shape and size are all still normal, which is indicative that nothing super crazy is happening. Although let's be honest, this whole thing is just crazy.

Another blow to our happy dance was when the Dr started talking about the mid-line in the brain. Everyone's brain is divided in two halves. These halves start at the very back of the brain and run all the way to the front. The Dr isn't completely sure, but he thinks that the front little bit of our baby's brain might not be completely divided. Depending on the ultrasound picture at the time, sometimes he can see a division, and sometimes he cannot. 

If the brain is not completely divided at the very front lobe, than basically what that means for our baby  isn't very good. So what it means for us right now is that we have to wait another three weeks to get another ultrasound so that  they can try to see if there is that full division of the two halves in the frontal lobe. After my next appointment, I'll finally get to schedule my appointments with the Duke pediatric neurosurgeons and neurologist. They will most likely do a fetal MRI to be able to get the best imaging possible of the brain and then we should hopefully have more answers. 

This has just been a crazy ride. We're living our lives in increments of three week waiting games. That's still the hardest part. Each time we go to the Dr we hope that things will be more concrete and definitive, and yet it seems like each time we leave, we have more questions and more outcomes to worry for. 

The greatest moment today though was when we were able to get a 3D image of our baby during the ultrasound. She was sound asleep and just snoozing with her little hand on her face. When I saw the picture I just instantly knew that this little girl was ours, and I just loved her so much, instantly. I just can't wait to see her in real life! 

Read more »