Blayner Weekend Wrap-up

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to have a girls weekend with my college girlfriends. It had been too long since our last girls weekend together and we were ready to catch up and have a couple of drinks together!

 

We decided to meet in Storm Lake this trip since it's centrally located for all of us. So it was back to Beaver Country for us!! It was fun {and different} to hang out in our college town. The last time we were there was in 2010 for our 10 year class reunion.

 

{All of these pictures were taken on camera phones and some aren't very good quality!!}

 

Beth, Ann and Megan met me at work and then we headed up to Storm Lake together!
 

 

We came to a "screeching halt" {as Megan would say} and made it to campus just before the Campus Store closed, so we were able to pick up a some BVU goodies!

I bought Kimber her first BVU onesie and can't wait for her to wear it!

 

 

On Friday night, we went out for dinner and then headed to the bar. The bar was dead. Rumor has it that the college kids don't know how to party like we did when we were in college. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing?!?

 

Of course, we had to do our Blayner Cottage signature move!

 

 

 

On Saturday, we headed to Boathouse for lunch {and Frickles...fried pickles}, did some shopping on main street and headed to campus for a short tour. The campus is beautiful and there have been so many renovations & improvements to the building since the last time we were there.

 

We got our picture taken under the arch.

The tradition of the arch at BVU is you pass thru it on your first day as a freshman and pass back thru it on your graduation day.

 

Another fun fact about the arch: I met Ann on my very first day at BV and we instantly became friends. On our graduation day, we were able to walk back thru the arch together during our graduation ceremony since they line you up by your school {business for us} and your last name {Schuler & Schoeppner}. Love that memory!

 

 

We toured the remodeled dorms and the view of the football field & track really took me back to my college days! We went to almost all the home games and I ran around that track too many times to count during track practice!

 

 

Our last 2 years at BV, we lived in a college owned house. Each house had a name. Ours was Blayner Cottage. Hence, the reason we call ourselves 'The Blayners'. All the cottages have since been torn down and made into parking lots. We had to get a picture where our house used to stand!

 

 

On Saturday night, we went out for dinner and headed out to the bar. This time the bar was a little more lively!!  We could definitely tell we were in a college town - there was a $5 cover and free draws!

 

 

 

 

I had a great time with my friends and can't wait until the next time we get together!! I love that we can go months without seeing each other and pick right back up where we left off.

 

While I was gone, Nick and his mom tag teamed taking care of Kimber. She went on her first Easter egg hunt on Saturday and rode on the 4-wheeler with Great Gramma & Grampa. I love that they sent me pictures while I was gone, so I could see how much fun she was having!

 

 

 

Kimber: Ten Months Old

This month has been so much fun!! Kimber seems to be learning something every day. She's becoming more & more mobile, interacting with us and talking non-stop. She seems to have her own little language right now. She can carry on an entire conversation, but we have no clue what she is saying. Nick likes to call her mush mouth. We can't even re-create the sounds that she makes!

The only downfall to this month is that is was so busy! Between work,  planning  & attending Blake's birthday party, appointments and going on vacation - it seemed like we were always doing something or going somewhere.

Weight: 20.5 pounds {home measurement}

 

Height: 28.0 inches {home measurement}

 

Diaper Size: Size 3.  

Clothing Size: 9-12 month. We moved her up to 9-12 month clothes on Sunday, March 9. I tried to put her in a 9 month dress for church but I couldn't button the dress! I always wait so long to move her up to the next size. Thinking her current size still fits and it's normal that her leggings are tight on her thigh rolls. Nope. I probably should have moved her up a size a week or so before this point. But now she has all new clothes to wear! And mommy is a shopping freak again - which happens every time she moves up a size!

 

Sleeping:  What a roller coast ride her sleep has been! Kimber was sleeping well about a week after her tube surgery. In her crib. All. night. long. And mom & dad were SO happy!! It lasted about 5 nights.  I nurse her at 8pm and she went to sleep until 6am the next morning!  I don't believe this has happened since September {before she started getting all her ear infections}. But then, her ears started bothering her and they started draining. Which meant, she had another ear infection. And once again, she stopped sleeping thru the night. One day we'll sleep again.

Her nap schedule has changed from prior months. She typically doesn't take a nap to & from daycare anymore unless she's had a really bad night. She takes a 30-45 minute nap at 10am and a 1.5-2 hour nap at 1pm.

 

Food: Breast milk & Baby food & Table food. Some time during the month, she started weaning herself from 2 bottles a day at daycare to only one. I now nurse her at 6am and at 8pm before bedtime and she takes one 5oz bottle during the day {with an ounce of water}. She also drinks a lot of water with either apple or prune/apple juice during the day in her sippy cup.

She eats all 3 meals and snacks through out the day. She has been eating more & more table food. Most of the time, we give her baby food because it's easier and we don't always have supper made by 6m when it's time for her to eat. But we're trying to make more of an effort to make baby friendly food for supper, so she can eat with us.

Health: Kimber had her tube surgery on March 11. See the post here about the day. Since her surgery, she'd had drainage in her ears so we are going through lots of baby Qtips to keep her ears cleaned out. Man, I cannot believe all the gunk that is in her ears! It reminds me to cold maple syrup. It's so thick! No wonder why her ears were always hurting her so much. I'm so happy we did the surgery and her ears can drain and relieve the pressure. 

About two weeks after having the tube surgery, Kimber woke up with lots of eye gunk. And she continued to produce gunk in her eye all day. At first, we thought she might have pink eye but after calling First Nurse and telling them her symptoms, that didn't seem to be the case. They thought it might have to do with the drainage or maybe a clogged duct, we just had to keep it clean with a warm washcloth and it cleared up in a day or two.

Nicknames: Kimber Sue. Kibber. Sissy.

Likes: {new} Standing. Rolling over. Scooting around. Walker. 

Standing went from a dislike last month to a like this month. Once she figured out how to pull herself up holding onto our fingers, that's all she wants to do! She will pull herself up from a sitting position to standing if she's holding onto our hands, but she isn't doing it on her own yet.

She finally figured out how to rollover, scoot backwards and scoot on her bottom this month, so she is semi-mobile. To get around on her bottom, she'll bounce up & down and inch herself forward. It's so cute to watch because she's smiling the entire time! I'd say she still doesn't care to move around that much.

We got cousin Abey's hand me down walker this month and Kimber loves it. The first time we put her in it, she started 'walking' forward. She moves all around the kitchen in it!

{same as last month}: Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Love to Play Sis' Puppy. Vtech Sit to Stand Walker. Eating. Bath time. "Getting Mommy & Daddy".  Puffs. Music/Dancing.

Disikes: Getting Dressed. Changing her diaper. Ear Drops.

Kimber is still not a fan of getting dressed.

This month, she has started fussing when we change her diaper. When we lay her down, she starts whining until we give her something to play with and then she's usually fine.

The good news is that Kimber doesn't need oral antibiotics any longer since she has tubes, but we had to give her ear drops for a week after her surgery and she hated them! We'd have to hold her down to put the drops in, so I'm not sure if she hated the fact that she had to be held down or the feeling of the drops? Either way, she cried and kicked and tried to get away!

 

Things to note:
We traveled to Omaha to celebrate Blake's birthday. We met at his gravesite to let off balloons and then catered in supper for the Schuler/Overman clan. It still makes me sad to think that Kimber will not grow up with her cousin. She won't get to know firsthand what an amazing person he was. How he lit up the room wherever he went. How strangers were drawn to him because of his fun outgoing personality. She'll never get to hear the Blake "phrases" that we all know like "Really, Dad, Really". She'll never get to hear his laugh. She'll never get to play guns or swords with him. But I tell her about him all the time. So even though she won't get to experience these things first-hand, she'll always know what her cousin was like and what a strong little boy he was.

Kimber celebrated her first St. Patty's Day this month. Last month, I went overboard with the Valentine's Day themed outfits so I decided to keep it simple this holiday!

I guess we can say that Kimber has her official first word. DaDa. She's been saying it for awhile, but we didn't think she knew what she was saying and was just putting sounds together. But now she'll say it when she sees Nick, so she must know what she's saying.

Kimber stayed with Gramma & Papa for a week while Nick & I went on a {much needed} trip to Punta Cana. It was so hard to leave her and we thought of her often while we were on our trip, but it was a nice & relaxing vacation for us.

Additional thing to note:
We're still going strong with breastfeeding. 10 months down and 2 {or more} to go. I don't talk much about breastfeeding on the blog because I feel like it's something between Kimber & I. I don't feel like I have to be an advocate for "breast is best" because it's not about that to me. It's about me & Kimber and how it works for us. It's our story. People say you have a stronger bond with your child when you breastfeed. I hope that I'd feel just the same about her whether I breastfeed her or gave her formula.  

I was never the type that had to breastfeed. I thought I'd give it a try and see if it worked. And it has. And to be honest, it's been pretty easy. I hear stories about how it hurts when you let down, cracking, bleeding, hurting when the baby latches on and engorgement. I can say, I've never had any of that. Kimber latched on about an hour after she was born and it's been pretty smooth sailing from there. We had one lactation consultation a couple days after we left the hospital and they helped with additional techniques. But other than that, it's just been me & her figuring it out together. On our own. I never read one book. I never took one class. I know this isn't typical. I've had several friends that have tried and it didn't work. Even after they took classes and read books. But I feel so lucky that it has worked for us. Don't get me wrong, as a working mom the pumping part is very time consuming and it sucks when I plan a weekend trip and have to sit in the car to pump while others are at happy hour or shopping. But it's all part of being a nursing mom.

I love that every night Kimber & I escape to her room. Just the two of us. I read her a book and then we nurse. I love watching her while she eats. I look at her red curly hair and try to memorize what those curls on the back of her head look like. I look at her face and those chubby cheeks. As I watch her, I thank God that he picked me to be her mom.  

When I tell others that I am still nursing, some will say "But you're not going to nurse her past one year, right? That is gross". I can honestly say we don't have a plan. Right now, she is weaning herself off the bottle during the day and we'll eventually replace that with cow's milk {at about one year}. But I am still nursing her in the morning and at night. At this point, I see us continuing that until one of us decides we want to stop. I'm sure that sounds strange to some people, but to us that's what we know. We nurse.

Kimber's 6 month pictures {part 3}

See part one here and part two here

 

While on girls shopping trip in early November, I found these shorts at H&M and knew I wanted to use them for Kimber's 6 month pictures!

 

We took a majority of the pictures inside since it was freezing the day of her pictures. If I remember correctly, it was about -10 degrees outside! Even though it was so cold, I wanted to get at least one picture outside in front of pine trees. We found a park with a perfect line of trees, jumped out of the car for a couple pictures and jumped right back in the car! But I love the pictures and it made the cover of our Christmas card!!

 

 

 

Kimber's 6 month pictures {part 2}

See part one here

 

Since we took pictures in early December, I wanted to do Christmas themed pictures. I found the ruffle diaper cover & headband at Hobby Lobby and knew it would be perfect! It took us a while to set up the Christmas lights - what a pain those were and it took a lot of editing by my photographer for them to look good.  But we were able to get some cute pictures of her with the lights & Christmas bulbs, so it was worth it. 

 

This is a case of looking at picture inspirations on Pinterest and not realizing how much work goes into them. It took us over 30 minutes to set up the lights and not many turned out with the  'perfect bokeh lighting' and it took editing to get them to look good. I did uploaded some unedited pictures and might do some more editing on them to get the lights to look right.

 

 

The 3 pictures {below} are my favorite from this outfit {and the lights look perfect in them!}