Truth or Dare

The Let Your Blog Shine writing prompt this week is Truth or Dare - so here are some truths or dares that Brittany from Country Chic came up with for us and my brave responses!
Truth - What is the most embarrassing TV show you like?  I guess for awhile the answer was Glee - I was a pretty big "Gleek" for a long time.  This whole last season was pretty abysmal but I did watch it to the end and I guess the finale was all right, I think Parks and Rec and Parenthood did a better job of the "look into the future" thing, but maybe that's just me.  Besides that I don't know that I like much for embarrassing TV.  We don't have cable so I'm not really able to get sucked into the reality stuff all that much, though I will admit we did watch quite a bit of the show Amish Mafia when it was first on the air a couple of years ago.  I still can't believe that's a thing!
Dare - Show Us Your Prom Photo I have one scanned into my computer that I can share.  Get ready to see Nate and Beth look like babies. This particular picture is from our junior prom and we were 17.  Ready?

Truth - When was the last time you peed in a pool? Does a river count?  Because when you go tubing down a river for two hours drinking beer, pee is going to happen.  And we went tubing last summer.  So there you go.
Dare - Post a photo of yourself when you first wake up. Oof.  I did it.  Yep.  It's rough, but this is what I look like at 6:00 in the morning.  No edits, no filters, this is real life!

Truth - What is your favorite thing about the opposite gender?

I was extremely attracted to Nate's eyes when I was first finding myself interested in him.  And well, I like his behind.  Let's just say that.

Dare - Show us all the contents of your purse.

Here's a current shot of what is in my purse.  I did a "what's in my bag post" back in September and the contents haven't really changed much since then!

Truth - What is the worst thing you ever cooked or baked? I haven't done much of either of these things lately so it's actually kind of hared to remember right now.  I know that there were a couple of times that I burned some pork tenderloin I was making for pork tenderloin sandwiches that we couldn't even salvage and had to just throw away.  And I would say my Super Bowl dessert this year was decent, it turned out fine, but it was almost so hurt your teeth sweet that I actually don't count it as one of my hits.
Dare - Show us a photo of your goofiest face. I don't know if this one is super goofy, I actually took it by mistake the other night when I was wrestling on the floor with Ollie, I had it out because I thought he was going to lay on the floor with me and I was going to take a selfie (cause that's what we do) but then he ran off and I still hit the button.  Man, this post is getting real today!

Truth - What is the stupidest thing you have done because someone dared you to do it? There is photographic evidence that I will not share here of me licking spilled beer off of a table on my 21st birthday.  Not my finest moment, but we all do dumb things when we get drunk right?
Truth - If your life was a movie, who would you want to play you? I think I'd have to go with either Emma Stone or Anna Kendrick on that one.  I love how spunky and sassy they are, they actually both remind me of me when I was in my 20's and bonus, Anna Kendrick can sing, and I sing too.
And on that note, there was a bonus credit entry we could do today and post a video of us singing - and that is something I have wanted to do for you all for quite some time now, but I had zero time to make a video (or at the very least, to make one that I like enough to post!), so sadly, that dare will not be happening today.  Hopefully someday soon!
Otherwise, there you go.  I've either frightened you all horribly today or endeared myself to you all the more. At the very least, I'm keeping it real, right?

One and done

So apparently Wednesdays are my days to get real on the blog.  So I'm getting real again today. This is a post that's been on my heart for awhile now but I haven't wanted to write it because it's a bit of a hot button issue and I don't want to be judged.  I've read a couple of articles recently though that re-affirmed my feelings so I decided it's time to share. 

The long and the short of it is, as far as having children goes, we are likely one and done. And now you're like, what does that mean?  It means, Oliver is probably going to be an only child.  We aren't making any true, permanent decisions until he is at least two.  We'll be close to 35 by then and wouldn't want to be much older than that if we were to choose to have another one, so that is another reason while we'll wait until then to be sure.  And we certainly could change our minds, but we're not likely to.

I am not anti-siblings.  I am not anti-big families. I have total respect for anyone who has more than one child, almost all of my friends do or plan to.  I see nothing wrong with that at all, it's just not what we feel will be right for us and our family.

We have heard it all as far as why we should have another one.  My favorite is "you need to give Oliver a sibling."  I need to give him a sibling? Um, I can think of plenty of other things I need to give him - a roof over his head and a safe place to grow up, food on the table, clothes on his back and all the love and support he needs - those are the things he truly needs.  I do not like the mindset that I'm basically scaring him for life by not having a second child.  Guess what people - I am an only child.  And I don't feel that I suffered for being one.  I loved it.  I thrived and survived.  I have a fantastic relationship with my parents.  I was not spoiled - but I will say I did have opportunities that maybe other kids didn't get to have.  I had many cousins around so I got the sibling experience with them and overall I feel had a great childhood.  I just don't feel like I'm lacking in not having a sibling.

The other part of this is while I love being a mom and I think I'm a pretty good mom, I also know my limitations.  I feel in my heart of hearts that emotionally and physically (and financially) that we will best be able to provide for one child.  I had a dream pregnancy and delivery with Oliver and that may not be the case with a second.  I could go on and on, but I think these two articles from Scary Mommy also kind of make my point too, so I'll share those links here, I think they're both pretty good:

http://www.scarymommy.com/one-and-done/

http://www.scarymommy.com/reasons-why-i-will-never-have-another-child/

Again, I don't judge anyone else who have multiple children and their reasons for doing so.  I also don't judge those who chose not to have children at all.  I plain just don't judge.  What works for you and yours is your business, not mine.  So I certainly hope that others will treat me the same way.  I just felt that it was time to put this out there, especially as we are getting closer to Ollie's first birthday and the questions are starting to fire up a bit of the "when are you having another one?"  Or you have to love how one of Nate's aunts was just automatically assuming and using the words "when you have the next one." We just kind of smile and nod right now.

Oliver is truly the best thing to have happened to us, he is the light of my world and such a blessing to me.  I love being Oliver's mommy and Nate's wife.  At the end of the day I think that is what matters most - not the size of the family, but instead the love that is in it.  Seems so simple doesn't it?

Roller Coaster Weekend

It was a bit of an up and down weekend at our house.  Overall I'd say I've had better, but we press on! Here's a little recap so you can see what I mean.
Friday I was lucky enough to get out for another Twin Cities Moms Blog event down at the new Premium Outlet Mall in Eagan, MN.  It was a ton of fun, they had free wine, free waxing and lots of swag as always and of course, being at the outlet mall you couldn't not shop!  I snagged some great stuff for Oliver at the Gymboree and Janie and Jack Outlets.  There also may have been a stop in the Coach Outlet and everything in the store might have been 50% off and my enabler friends might have convinced me to buy this purse.

Happy early birthday to me!  It's a great size, shape and color for winter and what can I say, I'm weak. Nate's grandmother in St. Louis always sends us money for our birthdays so I'll just say this was an advance on the check that's coming or something like that!
Saturday we braved the cold weather and met up with Erin from Due Midwest Photography to get our family photos taken for our Christmas card and some fun ones in advance of Ollie's first birthday.  I think she got some cute shots, I'm anxious to see how they turn out!
The rest of the day on Saturday found both Nate and I not feeling the greatest, but we pulled ourselves together enough to go have dinner at his parents house.  While Nate made some soup to bring over there Ollie played his new favorite game, Peek A Boo Taylor.

We had a nice dinner with Nate's parents but headed home pretty early since we were both kind of wiped out from feeling slightly lousy and not sleeping great on Friday.

I slept much better Saturday night thankfully.  Nate still wasn't 100% but seemed like he was doing pretty good, so we got Ollie out of the house for a bit during the day and walked at the mall.  We hung out and laid low otherwise and then had dinner with some friends in the evening and enjoyed some time in their hot tub.  Then after we got home the roller coaster dipped down again and Nate woke up in the night when I was up feeding Ollie and was pretty sick.  So it was a bit of a long night after that and I am dragging a bit today.

I managed to dress Ollie and I in pretty cute matching fox looks today though even being dog tired!  I got this cute new shirt for him at the Gymboree Outlet and I couldn't resist!

I had to wear my favorite fox shirt to match of course!  I didn't manage to get a picture of the two of us together, but I still thought we matched each other pretty well because once again, I am a Mom Dork.  (I should make a new hashtag for that).

Nate stayed home today to try to get a bit of rest and over this bug.  I mostly feel pretty good other than being tired and now we're just hoping beyond hope Ollie doesn't catch it!  We're hoping maybe he had a touch of food poisoning and therefore wasn't necessarily contagious, but I guess time will tell.  So there you go, a good and not so good weekend, but on we go!  How was your weekend?

Rock and roll all night

Two bloggers whom I respect and admire recently started doing more "honest" posting and I have decided to join them.  So often as bloggers we only want to share the good, the fun, the sunshine and roses in our lives.  But that isn't real life.  Real life isn't always sunshine and roses.  So in the spirit of that I'm attempting to be more honest myself and letting myself share the occasional truth post.  So, here's my real life moment for this week.
I've alluded to this a bit in his monthly update posts - the fact is,  at 11 months old, Oliver still does not sleep through the night.  If you count the last month of pregnancy when sleep was difficult, this pretty much means I have not really, truly slept a full night (I'm talking 7-8 uninterrupted hours) in a year.  And sometimes that fact starts to really get me down.
Now before you start saying "well are you doing this and have you tried this" let me tell you - we have.  We have tried everything from this way to Sunday to help encourage him to sleep longer at night.  He gets a nice full meal about an hour and a half before bedtime.  He has a fantastic bedtime routine and he goes down pretty well most nights.  We've taken steps to make sure his room is comfortable, he sleeps in warm pj's and on flannel sheets - we know he isn't too cold or too hot.  We make sure to give him medicine if he's having a bad teething day.  I have tried simply ignoring him for a few minutes when he wakes in the night and sometimes he'll settle.  But sometimes he won't and to help us both get back to sleep sometimes it's faster to get up and let him nurse a bit.  He never is awake longer than about ten minutes at that time and then goes back down.  So while it's not fun having my nights interrupted that way, at the same time, we're not up for hours at a time.  A few minutes and then back to sleep.  I could be awake that long on my own sometimes.  
It can be discouraging though to feel as if you're doing everything wrong.  Wayyyyy back at his six month doctor visit, my well meaning and very clinical Dr. Uncle stated that at that age he should be doing at least eight hours without feeding.  Now mind you, at that time, he was still waking up almost three times a night so I know he had a point, but it did make me feel like I was doing wrong by Ollie.  I started taking some steps to help and we got him down to waking only once (not counting the fact that he was getting a little dream feed when I'd be getting ready for bed).  I was pleased with our progress.  We stumbled into a pattern that worked for us - and it has pretty much remained that way for the last several months.
The closer we're getting to his first birthday though, the more I'm realizing though that I may need to do more to help encourage him to sleep better and not need to eat at night, especially if we are going to work towards weaning to cow's milk.  And of course reading about sleep issues online really hasn't done much more for me other than start making me feel like I'm the one that has contributed the most to his waking.  There are some thoughts that basically are saying that by not working on weaning sooner, I've taught his body to wake up hungry overnight.  Well that's encouraging.  I thought I was just a compassionate mom who doesn't like her baby laying awake crying.
It's also easy to feel pretty lonely and like I'm the only one going through this with a child this age, every time I turn around I see other moms stating "Junior slept through the night!" and sometimes it's about a child younger than Ollie.  But then I have to remind myself - every baby is different, some can teach themselves to sleep by three months and some can take up to 18 months.  And I also have to remind myself something even bigger than that - this is just a season in life.  There will come a time where that won't be the one thing Ollie wants more than anything anymore.  And when I look at it that way, it puts it more in perspective.  He's separated from me for a big chunk of the day and so nighttime is a time he can get extra mommy time and I can totally understand his little brain waking up and saying "cry out for momma, you can get some snuggles and a snack."  I never want him to feel scared or alone in the night, so I will always go to him.  If I can't calm him down just rubbing his back, then snuggles and milk it is.
This isn't to say I don't think I should try to encourage him to break the habit, but I feel like I want to do it gently.  A big step is, I used to wake him up for a feed before I went to bed to help him sleep longer and I've stopped doing that now.  I let him wake up when he wants to.  Sometimes it still happens before I go to bed and sometimes it doesn't.  I'm trying to time his nursing sessions so that we slowly decrease the amount of time he spends doing it - not easy to do sometimes at 2:00 in the morning as it's so easy to zone out - but I'm trying.  The thought is by working to reduce the amount of time he nurses, eventually it will be phased out all together.  And we'll see what happens as we work more on the transition to cow's milk.  The less mommy milk he gets during the day could lead to him not really wanting it at night - or it might make him want it more, but we'll see.
No matter what happens, while it might get me down at times, at the same time I am surviving.  I catch up on sleep where I can on the weekends and I am averaging much more than I had been a few months ago.  And even when I'm dog tired, I have to say, there is nothing like holding your sweet babe in the middle of the night when they're calm and cuddly.  I don't get as many cuddles during the day now that he's active. And you know what, he's happy and healthy even if he does wake up sometimes.  So again, sometimes it's just a matter of perspective.  And I imagine that when that day finally comes that he doesn't need me in the night, I will likely look back and miss it.  I said it in this month's update, it's a work in progress. I am not so naive as to think that when I signed up for motherhood it would all be completely perfect all the time. Sometimes we have to go one day at a time!

So that's my real life truth for the week.  If anyone has any tips I haven't already talked about I would welcome them!