My one and my only

So I have been pretty excited about this post just because I have really given it about 8 months of thought. A lot of friends and family members are expecting and I thought I would give my 2 cents on things that were really important for me being a first time mommy. After reading and researching before Ripley was born about "Baby necessities" These were items that were golden for me.

Valerie is my best friend, she was/is my go to for pretty much everything in life. I just wanted to post that here because shes going to be mentioned a lot in this post.

Wireless head phones: At the time we had Ripley in our bedroom and I was breast feeding which means I never left the bed. It got boring. We couldn't watch TV (First world problems) because Ripley would wake up or the TV was so far we couldn't hear anything. We read subtitles for a long time until Scott discovered they made wireless headphones that we could hook up to our TV and listen great while Ripley lay next to us sound asleep.

The owlet: This was the biggest purchase I made. It costs about 300 dollars but IT WAS SO WORTH IT. Ripley was born with a heart murmur which later ended up maturing but the weeks before we saw the cardiologist again just had me thankful this was on her as she slept. I mostly only kept it on her as a new born 24/7 because she was sleeping more often then. I now only keep it on Ripley when she sleeps at night. I slept so much better knowing this was on her. There has been times where I'll forget to charge it and don't end up using it and its such a weird feeling knowing its not on her...

fuck man im becoming a helicopter parent....

Anyways... this is a great gift for a new mom. We take it with us when we travel so I know shes okay. I have no complaints either. Her sock has never fallen off, we havent ever got any warnings. It was worth it.

A portable decent white noise machine... When Ripley was born, the only thing that kept her calm was be bouncing on the birthing ball vigorously or playing this youtube video of white noise BUT ONLY THIS ONE for some reason any others wouldn't do it.. but then I couldn't use my phone while she slept... so we bought this tiny white noise machine.. I needed something with multiple noises (incase she didn't like some of them) and that was loud (i had a feeling the white noise in the video was louder and higher pitched and thats why it calmed her?) and this is the one we bought, it gets super loud and the battery life is insane.. its gone for 12 hours. We take this with us when we travel, it cancels out noises and it helps her sleep really well. I feel like when we go see family and she's in a place she doesn't recognize, at least she knows this noise.  

Nose Frida. If you are doing any research for registeries and what you will need, youve probably already hear of this. Its totally worth mentioning. It was weird when I first heard about it. I honestly thought it was crazy to go to that extent but I put it on my registry anyway. I am so glad I had that alien tube. Those bulbs SUCK! well.. I mean they dont actually suck. For real they dont do anything in the nostril and sometimes I wonder if I'm making it worse? The nose frida made her instantly unstuffed and she actually enjoyed it haha. You dont suck any snot into your mouth. Its reusable and easy to sterilize.

Clothes. I mean yeah clothes are a necessity but I wanted to shed some gold that no one ever mentioned in anything I read. Babies grow fast. DO NOT SPEND A LOT OF MONEY ON CUTE CLOTHES. Valerie donated all of her sons clothes to me. I never had to buy clothes and a lot of them were gender nutral anyways. Even if they weren't, I didn't care. She didn't care. Ripley was also so large that all of the newborn outfits I had DIDNT FIT HER. Yeah all those "delivery bag" packing lists... PLEASE PACK 3 MONTH OLD ONSIES. My best friend Adriana made a trip to target for Ripleys first outfits because the ones I packed didn't fit her. 

- footie pajamas were my jam. It was easy to keep her warm in them. Socks are always falling off of her feet and all the sets of socks I had are all missing a sock by now. When we travel we put her in footie pajamas. This girl never wears shoes anywhere... seriously shes barefoot 9/10. i actually dont even have a pair of shoes that fit her. This will change when she starts walking I'm sure

- When I was working at the animal clinic before I gave birth, my office manager told me to have everyone bring diapers as an entrance fee to our baby shower. I thought this was a great idea lol. Only thing is, we never got to actually have our baby shower because a hurricane ripped through the weekend we were supposed to have it lol. Diapers are so awesome for gifts. 

- As I said Valerie basically furnished Ripleys bedroom with literally everything I could possibly need. She donated a rocking chair, unused bottles, pacifiers, jesus I mean really everything. I had some other friends like Jessica and Olena donate a BUNCH of things too like diaper pails and clothes and boppy pillows. This was truly a blessing, we had saved so much money by not having to really purchase anything. 

- I never used the steamer container for the microwave. I am still sterilizing her bottles in boiling water every night for 10 minutes. I felt weird about microwaving bottles? 

- I do have a bottle warmer but I only usually use it at night. She gets room temp bottles and doesn't even care. My sister told me this word of advice. 

- If Valerie hadn't already done everything she also was my go to for parental advice on pretty much anything. She told me NOT to get an infant carseat but to buy the grow-with-me car seat. Its essentially the only car seat you'll ever need. I should've listened to her advice. It is convenient to have the infant carseat to take baby in and out of car but I am a minimalist and having to buy ANOTHER seat was so stupid to me. I should've just listened to her. 

- There is a redick amount of support for pretty much anything on the internet. If you DONT happen to have a friend like Valerie OR even if you want more friends like Valerie... you can find them in online forums like facebook pages and groups. The what to expect app also has a ton of groups for pretty much anything on there as well. It was really fun joining them and seeing everyones progress or different advice. I feel like I have gained so much knowledge just by having that online support. 

Lastly....Lets talk baby registries. The great thing about signing up for registries is you will get free sample bags of really great items. I found that amazon and target were pretty great. My actual registry was just with target though. My only reason is I know I'm a procrastinator and I wanted to give the option to just pick up at the store rather than wait the 2-7 days for delivery for friends and family. I noticed though that the majority of items I wanted were cheaper on amazon by a few dollars or less. I am also a minimalist. I didnt want to send my family and friends all over the place to find an item. I saw someone post their registry and it was on 3 different websites, which is fine I just wanted it to be as easy as possible for people. Valerie told me when she was setting up her registry at target they gave her a gift bag every time she went to add items. You guys.... I GOT 4 FREE BAGS. These bags had formula in them, advent bottles, teething toys, pacifiers and other various tiny samples.

Take this advice with a grain of a salt. What worked for me, wont work for some but if you liked what you read I'm happy I could help. 

how can this great love be inside me?

We went and had our first picnic. The weather here has been so nice. I still cant believe we came all the way out here. 

There is not a more perfect feeling as a child to sit outside eating strawberries and kiwis. Feeling the warmth kissing your back through the shade of the trees. This is Ripleys first time in tall luscious grass. I watched her feel it. I imagined the thoughts going through her head. "This is pokey, and dewey and it tickles" She kicked her rear legs up (first time I've seen this) in the most perfect "downward dog" position trying to examen why the ground felt the way it did. She is such a fast learner. While we munched on some sandwiches I made before we left the house, she quickly climbed in my lap trying to grab my sandwich.  She eats everything we do. 

Ripley Loves: 

- Strawberries, kiwis, hard boiled eggs, broccoli, sweet potato, avocado, spinach, carrots, chicken, hamburger, pasta, bananas, pancakes, bacon, grilled cheese, and prunes

- Climbing anything

- Cruising all around the couch

- RACING TO THE CAT BOWL

- Going on walks

- Playing with water

- Cats 

- People

- Pepa Pig

Ripley is not a real fan of: 

- Green beans, certain apple sauces? scrambled eggs, oatmeal (I have to hide it) 

- Sitting in one spot for too long

- Waiting for her bottle

Her first word has been "Yeah" She says "MUMM" when she cries and today she said "DADADADA" over and over. 

I want to remember these things

You know theres a lot of posts I didn't post for so long because I didn't want to get too personal. At least I had some fear about it. I still feel pretty reserved about certain things but I realized that writing is actually extremely therapeutic. I wanted so badly to talk about being pregnant but I had this fear that I would lose her.

I remember the first sign I had that made me think for some reason that I was probably having a girl. For dinner one night I ate 4 lemons. Yeah like.. I peeled them and ate them. I remembered thinking "They don't even taste sour." I guess I heard through the grape vine that if you crave lemons, you're having a girl.

I don't believe in superstition-y things but it was interesting to make the assumption. Finding out the sex was so crazy for me. You just wonder the whole time who is growing. We placed bets, Kim even told me to look into the Chinese calendar... turns out it was right.

I was really reserved this pregnancy. I had a rough first trimester. Morning sickness was all day long. I quit my new job and started working at an animal clinic that was around the corner from where we lived. I made a promise to myself to work for as long as I could. I made it to about 37 weeks. I was pretty proud of myself and I loved going to work.

During my pregnancy I carried during the hottest months in South Florida. I was T-boned by someone, our car was totaled. Ripley was fine but it was a real real terrifying moment. Hurricane Irma left us with out power for almost a week and that in itself was a crazy amount of anxiety. I had no idea that the drop in bio-metric pressure can cause woman to go into labor. I was already so close. 

Ripley grew perfectly in my belly. I ate what ever my body asked for. I gained 40 pounds. I don't feel bad about it. I feel reserved about it?  but it did take time for her to grow perfectly. It took a lot out of my body but I did it. I had no Gestational Diabetes. I did have to take progesterone in the first few weeks because there was some concerns with levels? but it went smoothly after (minus the 24 hr morning sickness). 

Lemon drops or anything that was lemon flavored were life savers for me in my first trimester. It took away the nausea for a few seconds. I am not typically a "vomit" kind of person but if you're like me and your morning sickness is a constant thing I recommend just forcing yourself to vomit when it gets bad. For some reason I had the want to throw up but that first sign of vomit never came, after forcing myself I felt a lot better. 

My migraines went away pretty much. I had 2 that I could remember where I needed to take Tylenol. I didn't stop drinking coffee, I just usually had a small cappuccino, it was the only thing that made me not totally exhausted and bright eyed for work. I used straight organic coconut oil on my stomach twice a day and never got a single stretch mark. I only got my stretch marks after I had Ripley and I stupidly stopped using it?? (why1?!?!?!) I had to take prescribed woman's vitamins because the ones over the counter caused me to have bad heartburn and made my morning sickness worse (My OBGYN actually said they were better quality anyway) Drink all the water they tell you all the time, if your body isn't craving it already anyway.

I craved a lot of salads. Cobb salads mostly and not just any Cobb Salad, it had to be a legit Cobb salad from this restaurant in coral gables. Spring mix, hard boiled egg, blue cheese, bacon, tomato and avacado (ugh I want that right now). I also craved fried chicken, and it had to be Publix fried chicken. I couldn't stand the thought of any Asian food and weirdly enough Pizza? I didn't eat pizza for about 35 weeks. 

Ripley would dance the most when I would drink something really cold or eat Ice Cream. She danced a lot actually. She was a pretty active baby. That anticipation for the first kick feeling is sooooo real. Sometimes I think about it and how it felt. How I was making this baby (who is now 6 months old) and seeing her now. I remember one of the first time I really felt her, Scott just so happen to be laying next to me and as soon as I felt it I grabbed his hand and he felt her kick too. Sometimes he would lay his head on my stomach and she would kick him in the face. Her mighty legs and feet were so unbelievably tinier than they are now.... 

I wish I was more active in my pregnancy. My anxiety had me taking things very slowly and cautiously and as a result I have no muscle left really lol. I am starting from scratch here guys haha. I wanted to really experience pregnancy though. When I was younger I told myself that was would be the one time I could eat what ever I want and get a guilt free pass. I did. I ate everything that my body craved. I wasn't like shoving food in my mouth every second but if I wanted a guava pastelito... mama was going to eat one for breakfast. Ripley loved when I ate them... I still would allow myself to eat what my body calls it to eat... but I would be more active. 

I slept GREAT my whole pregnancy. I don't know why but I got lucky I guess. I also did not get swollen till about 2 days before I gave birth. Its probably because I worked a lot too. 

I could go on and on about my experience but these were some of them that ran through my mind that I wanted to write about. What were some of the things you remember during your pregnancy? 

Ripleys First Wedding

On our second portion of our trip we began the trek to Scotts Dads Wedding. We said our byes to my brother and his fiance, got to the airport on time. I still did not follow my first tip because I'm still getting used to this mom thing and like I said before, time escapes me. However our flight was a bit delayed due to some mechanical issue that was fixed in an hour but that hour was crucial for us to get to our connecting flight on time.. 

Tip #4: Avoid connecting flights as much as possible when you travel with an infant. This might change as she gets older but it just becomes so much more stressful when you have a baby. If you do make sure you have more than an hour to reach your connecting flight in the event your first flight gets delayed. 

Scott knew this, he's a travel agent but we fly all the time (pre baby) and things have always gone so smoothly. Shit happens though. Its okay though, the Dallas Airport has Salt lick BBQ and its pretty decent. Ripley also enjoyed her new toys we bought to keep her preoccupied. She also really likes seeing new faces. Honestly I think all the traveling she did is what tuckered her out the majority of the time. She didn't have time to fuss really. She just had time to take everything in and then sleep it off. 

We waited 3 hours for the next flight arriving into San Antonio. Texas is an hour difference to North Carolina, still Ripley did better than we did. We were ready to just be where we would be staying for the next few days. 

Tip #5 Don't be a back seat driver. I'm a back seat driver. Its because I have to have control. I used to be the one driving and now I'm in the kid seat in the back. Sitting in the back seat feels faster for some reason. Am I the only one? It feels at least 10mph faster. Anyways I got to drive to our destination and I got to feel what it feels like to listen to a back seat driver. Just relax. 

We make it to the meet up. So I meet all of Scotts family. Family is a big deal for me. I think its because I grew up really close with my siblings and my cousins. To me it felt so nice having that, like I cant believe people dont get to have that luxury. I also really love stories. Everyones got their stories. They're sometimes the only things people have for memories and thats always been so interesting for me. I'm kinda sad we didnt have more time, there was a lot of people I really just wanted to sit with and get to know more. 

Having a baby has also made me more aware of time. I used to think days were long and now I feel like they are so short. I feel part of me just wanting to press on the breaks any way I know how. I think thats why photography is so important to me? Its one of the ways I feel like I can preserve time. 

We head back to the house we would be crashing at for the weekend. We got the basement which was awesome because who doesnt love basements? We had like an entire house to ourselves lol. Kim brough an extra Pack N Play for Ripley which also lightened our load. 

Tip #6 Pack light. We took a medium carryon suitcase (that we checked) 2 backpacks and Ripleys stroller and car seat (which we also checked) We carried Ripley in the Ergo Carrier we have through the airport. I have these awesome bottles called MIXIE bottles that have the formula encased at the bottom and water on the top. When your baby is hungry all you have to do is pop the bottom and shake. We took enough diapers for 2 days but bought a pack when we landed just in case. Most of the people we plan to visit already have an extra pack n play so that gives us space. We also didnt need to pack much clothes because we knew we could just do laundry where we were staying. 

The next day was the wedding for Robert and Nancy. I can't get over how nice her dress was. They both looked great and we were so happy to be apart of it and be around so many amazing people. Scott made Ripley belly laugh for the first time at the wedding so that was absolute pure joy. It was just so nice that we all got to meet so many different family members and say hello. It was awesome playing late night jenga and watching cartoons in the morning. It was nice to have these amazing biscuits that Jennifer made. The jacuzzi cheese plate with champagne Kim prepared lol...  It feels really nice to be apart of this family and it made me want to be around family so much more. So there will definitely be more trips in the future. 

Tip #6 check your flight status just to be sure youre running on time. 

Yeah we missed our flight out of san antonio. Scott was under the impression that the flight left later, but it didnt. So we wait a good portion of the day in the airport for the last flight only to be told they can only take one of us. Scott immediately said "No" thankfully his Dad was awesome enough to come pick us up. It was pretty embarrassing but I'm not complaining. We worked it out and got to spend more time with them. I got to hear really really really great stories about his dad and scott when he was little. Which I always cherish soooo much. 

Still though coming home... feeling your beautiful bed. Seeing your little fur babies. I also missed home so much. 

Get a travel baby....

This wasn't Ripleys first trip. She visited her Aunt Kim in Houston when she was almost 5 months old. It was our test trip before Scott put is in full vacation mode traveling from one place to another before coming home.

She did great on the first trip, it made us confident enough to start back on our traveling routine.

Parenting for me so far has been an on going online search for "best tips on"... I assume most first time moms are this way, so aside from watching everything I could watch on youtube about traveling with a baby there are only a few things I would like to add.

Ill get into those in this post about the first leg of our trip to see my Brother and his fiance Nicole.

Tip: #1 pretend your flight leaves 2 hours before your real boarding time. Im usually so great with time but after having Ripley its like it just disappears... I've learned to tack on an extra hour before I actually think we need to leave. It works out well for me personally because if I get everything right I can have an extra hour to do something like change her diaper AND get some coffee. Instead of one or the other.

We woke up on time and I didn't follow my first tip. We made it to the gate in the most perfect time except... there wasn't anytime for coffee. I still was pretty proud because I got everything packed that I needed to the night before (Scotts advice) made sure everything was clean in the house (OCD over here? I like coming home to a clean house thats normal right?) We just needed to wake up and leave really.

Tip #2 Buy an EXTRA LARGE bag for your stroller. We got ours at Babys R US for like 16 bucks (it was actually 12 because they're going out of business.) and it fit both our stroller and our infant car seat.. (she needs a toddler seat now) both of those are so large but the bag resembles a body bag and fit them both. I say this because you dont actually need to pack them in anything but Scotts heard of horror stories from work about nasty fluids spilling around during flight because of turbulence or what have you and we weren't about that life...

We flew into Washington D.C because Scott wanted to take Ripley to see the blossoming Cherry Blossoms. Of course she did great on the flight. It was cold and rainy for a bit but theres always so much to do around there. We took some strolls around the gardens and walked to the Washington Monument. We really walked all over the place. Ripley took her first train ride to Matthews house. I havent seen my brother in a while and him and I are close. We had nothing else on our agenda but to hang out with him. I just miss being around him so much some times. We used to be only rooms apart and now were in different states.

The good thing about us moving here is we are closer to him. Flying to him is only about a 45 minute flight. We went out to a couple of places, tried to see a crypt at the naval base. Played with Matthews corgi "Einstein". 

Tip: #3 When traveling, don't rush. If you get one thing that you planned to done, you've still done something. Every time we go to Washington we have this need to do ALL OF THE THINGS. We really only get 1 or 2 of them done. You should be proud of that. 

I didnt know today was the official "Sibling Day" so this post is dedicated to my brother (I love you too Sally) for always being there and listening to me. For always "Doing it again" when I would ask you to do it again. For making me laugh all the time. I miss you every day.