Newborn Photos

Precious Lene Lafoina. I can't get over that her newborn photos were taken ONE MONTH ago already! I want to freeze time and keep her in this newborn phase forever. I'm so grateful for being able to capture her in each phase, especially those precious few days of life! We just love our photographer, Kate at Kate Florian Photography, who also worked her magic with maternity photos here and here, and of course Mata's newborn photos here. She has such a special touch and knows exactly how to capture our family's vibe in every photo shoot!

The past month has been [knock on wood] smooth transitioning with our baby girl around. She's so patient and kind, as if the Lord knew exactly what we needed while helping Mata adjust to having to split everything in his life. Things are also easier having family around in rotation since we have lots of exciting busy things happening around this time: Fall semester has begun which means teaching is in full effect for me // Football season begins this weekend for Husker nation // My LO will be TWO in a few weeks // and on... and on... I'm also excited to work on blog content around career chatter!

Cheers to life! What's happening in your neck of the woods?

My [second] Birth Story

Last week on Friday, July 21st, we welcomed this sweet baby girl into our lives and in this world... Baby Lene. She is everything we could have ever dreamt about and more! 

Labor was similar to the first time around with Mata (blogged about here). I was scheduled to be induced Friday morning since I was officially 40 weeks (and 2 days), full term. By the time they finished admitting me, they started rolling with the pitocin at about 1pm. Labor was painless after the amazing epidural kicked in, and I progressed with minimal contractions. It was 4:40pm before I knew it and it was already time to start pushing this baby girl out to meet us! After 9 minutes of actually pushing, Baby Lene she was born at 7lbs, 19.5" long.

Shortly after she made her debut, her big brother, Mata met her, stared at her and loved on her right away. The first 4 days of Lene's life have been amazing so far. She sleeps a lot, nurses a lot, and gets TONS of kisses from brother.

If it's a bit quiet(er) on here than the usual, it's because I'm present in the moment loving on my children!

Photos by Bella Baby Photography

Transitioning

I can't believe I'm about one month out until the arrival date of our precious little baby girl! I must say that with my first pregnancy, I was completely aware of the count down, I took cute baby bump pictures every single week in the same outfit, and I was on TOP of the nursery well before the big D-day! With this second round, my energy and attention span is very minimal these days chasing after a toddler with an extra belly in tow. BUT we are sooo very excited to meet our sweet pea and begin our family of four. 

Until that day comes we become a party of four, I am staying present and mindful of our one-on-one time with Mata. It's been just him for going on 21 months, and when baby comes, it'll be a transition for each and every one of our family members. I've been thinking a lot about that lately... how will my LO react knowing my attention will be split between two babies? Will he get the attention he needs from me? How many times will we be waking up in the middle of the night to feed and attend to a newborn? How will I ever manage to get out of the door with two babies in two carseats? Most importantly, what will the football games be like with a baby in a wrap and a toddler who likes to be carried still?!

I have to continuously remind myself that it's OK not to have any of these answers. My faith lies in our Heavenly Father to guide my family and I through this transition, and to stay present in each moment not worrying about how to solve problems forever.

For this last month we have left of being a family of three, I will enjoy every moment we have with one child who is so loving and curious these days! I will also be shopping for cute little newborn dresses and rompers as I start to put some final touches on the nursery for 'sister'!

Any tips on when you made the transition on expanding your family?

Hello June

Every summer, we embrace the sunshine with open arms, spend gorgeous Saturday mornings at the local Haymarket Farmer's Market, spend mornings and evenings outdoors in the water, and of course welcome football workouts into our lives. What does this mean for our household? It means the hubs is at work most of the day all week long, almost as if it were season again. Don't get me wrong... summer is still my fave season EVER, but having a toddler to run after and being in my third tri makes me miss the hubs so much more!

We definitely soaked up the hubs' "extra" time in the month of May spending time at the Omaha Zoo, traveling to Syracuse for my sister's graduation, and just spending time outside while the sun was shining and the pollen was heavy! Once May officially ended this past week, business picked as usual in the weight room, and football has resided in our lives.

In other news, I was able to spend some time in May thinking about my career and where I can best utilize my strengths (read more about strengths here). I am excited to actually take action on some of my aspirations that stayed as thoughts for so long. It feels so good to take that ME time and actually focus on my own needs and wants, rather than just this needy little boy who I LOVE serving, but can use the break at times! I look forward to revealing more about aspirations as things unfold throughout June.

Did you make the most of May? What are you looking forward to in June?

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was amazing! The Husker Football team had an excellent run at the Spring Game on Saturday with over 78,000 people. Can you believe that many Husker fans came out to support their guys in some good ol' rummaging against one another? Another reason I love the state of Nebraska... the fans show the utmost support in all of America!

On Easter Sunday, the family kept it light and mellow. The LO was able to dig through a few Easter baskets he graciously received, and played with all sorts of toys that caught his interest a few minutes at a time. The greatest thing was watching him pick up the eggs the Easter Bunny left behind on our lawn and putting them in his basket.... well that's until he discovered they had goodies inside. Once he discovered the taste of a jelly bean (thank you Trader Joe's!), it was GAME OVER. He stopped picking up the eggs and wanted to open the many in his basket just for the one jelly bean I mixed in with cranberries and Aunt Annie's cheese rabbits.

The neighborhood kiddos were out and about, so Mata got to enjoy some fun and play with them and Dada!

We wrapped up Easter Day with a delicious dinner, and called it an evening (after some ice cream). Though we weren't home with all the kiddos to hunt for eggs, we made special memories with our little family here in NE, AND enjoyed my Dad and Stepmom's lovely company! It warms my heart watching the LO interact with family.

Husker Babies

As time ticks closer to July, things become more and more real about having another sweet little baby join our family. We are three months (and some change) out and much to get done before she arrives. I bought our first item for the nursery last week and it's motivated me to get a move on her nursery!

We also started to get cute little outfits and pink thangs for baby girl from dear family and friends. One of my FAVES by far has been baby's first ever game day attire... as you know how important game gear is for us! Our sweetest sitter, Claire, gifted Mata and baby girl the most adorable vintage Husker gear for the season. One of her good friends opened up a shop, where she makes and sells  cute Husker gear and also customizes based on what your heart desires.

I mean, how adorbs are these two fits?

Her shop is called H.Flynn based here in Lincoln, NE. Check out her website if your local or not!

We are STOKED for football season to begin later this year... and of course d-day!

Springing Outside

Yesterday was the official first day of Spring, and I am excited for spending more and more time outdoors with my LO! I'm sure you can tell by now, but playing sports and staying active is a huge part of our lives, from both my hubs family and mine. Not to say I'm a sucker for reminiscing about the good ol' days of playing outdoors with all of my cousins... from kickball... to pretend carnivals... to ice skating (aka rollerblading). We LOVED being outside and using our imaginations to be whatever we wanted to be. And I will fully support that with Mata and his sister-to-be!

Yes, it would be great if he picked up a sport here and there (football never disappoints my cheering game!), BUT I also don't wanna be a parent who pressures him to be this or that... not as young as he is anyway. So you can imagine how excited I am that Mata loves any type of ball, ever since he was able to hold his first Husker football. He loves watching me chase after the ball that rolls down the street when he throws it out to nobody. I may get tired after the 5th ball rolling down the street, but it's well worth hearing him laugh and giggle.

I swear there's such a huge difference in my LO's attitude and sleep from when we spend time outdoors rather than staying inside the whole day. Moving to Nebraska requires some tolerance of winter days meaning you just can't seem to leave the house when it's freezing and snowing. BUT it also makes us that much more grateful for gorgeous days where we can actually enjoy the weather outside!

In any case, if you're wondering what we've been up to lately... a whole lot of sunshine and catching some fresh vitamin D outdoors!

Playing Indoors

Mata is in a really fun stage right now! Language is blooming as he's learning to repeat actual words that we say (filter times ten!), he's understanding more dialect, and he's using his imagination quite a bit! Anything with buttons on it has to be a phone that he puts up to his ear as he says, "HOOOOH" which translates to Hello. Now that I can see him responding to words differently and in a more advanced way, we also try to explain things that may or may not be acceptable. I'm not sure if he quite gets it, but he certainly does talk back in his jibberish!

It's fun for me to snap away and capture his adventures on camera, but it's also nice to document things down in writing to reflect back on in his baby book! Here are a few of his favorite things (**in my Julie Andrews voice**):

// FOOD
- Goldfish
- Chicken
- Quinoa
- Blueberries
- Oranges
- Strawberries

// PLAY
- Any shape, size, weight of a ball, although he's been favoring his football lately!
- Reading books
- Puzzles (more-so banging them together like they're cymbals)
- Coloring
- Cars

// WATCH
- Bubble Guppies
- Peppa Pig
- Color Crew
- Curious George

I try and advocate more play than watch, and he's a pretty good sport about exploring. He LOVES being outside so much, but the weather hasn't been consistently cooperating lately. In fact, it's supposed to snow again on Saturday (folks... we just had high 70-degree weather last week!). With that said, we'll have to make the indoors playing our thang for just a bit longer until those spring flowers start to bloom! I wanted to update his tent a bit and make it more comfy for him to lounge in as we read books, play his piano, or just sit and chat! So we did just that and stocked up on some staple pieces at Home Goods.

I'm excited to spruce up the play area a bit with a few new things to promote fun interactive play, especially when baby #2 makes her debut this summer!

What are your tips for making inside more inviting for the LOs?

Sleep Work

It's been quite a week and a half in our household! All three of us have been working long and hard at sleep training, getting our LO to transition out of 1. co-sleeping, 2. weaning off of nursing to sleep (I know... it was a horrible habit all the way around!), and 3. sleeping IN his room IN the crib!

When I was preggo with Mata, I was adamant on him sleeping in his own space because I knew how much I wanted him, the hubs and I to sleep well without disturbing one another. We started him off in his bassinet and a nap here and there in his crib. BUT it eventually morphed into him sleeping in bed with hubs and I when we travelled. It was just easier on everyone!

Fast forward to 17 months later of restless nights and early mornings, extremely early morning wake-up calls, soar back and bones and watching the monitor like a hawk so baby wouldn't roll off of the mountains of pillows we surrounded him with to contain him on our bed. The time had come to get this baby in his own space to sleep, not just at bedtime but for his naps too.

We began our journey with the lovely Lauren at Sleep and the City who I discovered through another blogger who sought out help from her as well! Lauren was a breath of fresh air to work with. She definitely knows a thing or two about babies and sleep, and totally helps customize an approach based on baby. Yes, I read books on the Sleep Lady Shuffle, the CIO method, and others in between. What was missing for me was all the tips for babies who didn't follow the instructions as directed. There were way too many things that happened outside of the text, I didn't know where to go or what to read for those what if's. When we started working with Lauren, she helped the hubs and I understand our LO in ways we hadn't, particularly because he isn't able to verbalize his thoughts and feelings as we did. So we didn't know if his breathless cries meant that we were hurting him and causing emotional damage... and so on!

Here we are... almost two weeks into the process after implementing multiple transition phases and a sleep plan consisting of: a consistent structured schedule of eating and sleeping, tweaking his sleeping environment, having the answers to our what happens if moments, and a TON of patience. We have made SO much progression in this half-way mark to the 3-4 week period of seeing a consistent change in sleep habits!

1.  Mata is solely sleeping in his CRIB
2.  He learned how to self-soothe himself to sleep (from a whine, to chatter, or just silence)
3.  Mata is sleeping a whopping 11-12 hours at night with one to NO wakings at night
4.  We are nursing LESS and definitely not to sleep
5.  Hubs and I have a decent chunk of time in the evening to enjoy each other as husband and wife

The picture above was taken the first morning he woke up from sleeping in his crib... and it's proof that he made it out alive and HAPPY!

I totally recommend reaching out to Lauren with SATC to see how she may be of help!

Have you been through similar issues with your LO? What worked for you?

Growing

When the Hubs and I first thought about expanding our family with a child, we were excited... anxious... nervous... JOYFUL. We didn't anticipate it would take so long to conceive, but it surely did. God's plans included us waiting for over a year from when we decided to start trying. It was a heck of a journey in that time, as we had to deal with some health concerns that we had no idea existed. When we did find out we were preggo on New Years Day in 2015, we were over the moon!! Reflecting back to that time, we were actually beyond grateful that God had selected Hubs and I to be the parents of some precious little child... He entrusted us to be responsible for shaping someone's life... He loved us both enough for us to teach our baby what life lessons we had learned. We knew it wasn't something that was a fluke or was handed to us, but rather it was God's plan the entire time on His own terms and in His time.

My little boy is a gift to our family every waking day. I try to never to take things for granted with him, from having the luxury of staying at home with him, to temper tantrums, to hugs and kisses, to screaming at the top of his lungs because he thinks he's coaching like Daddy. I wouldn't trade the good, the bad and the ugly with anything else because he's God's special gift for us.

Hubs and I knew we just couldn't stop there... we wanted so bad to give Mata a little brother or sister. Under the circumstances of trying to conceive the first time, we just didn't know how it would go or what would happen. What we did know was that God had our back (as He always does) so long as we kept talking to him and praying for what our hearts desired. And that's just what happened...

I'm happy to announce that we are expecting our second baby, and as we were the first time... we are over the MOON!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day lovers! Though my 17-month old isn't quite in school yet, we still had an opportunity to make some darling Valentine's Day cards for a little Valentine's playdate we went to. I opted for bubbles this year because they were TOO cute to pass up with their heart wants and colorful packaging! I designed the card and we attached the bubbles with adorable Valentine's themed washi tape.... gotta love our Target stores!

Since this year's lovers day falls in the middle of the week, my LO and I will be enjoying some gym time, outside time, and hopefully NAP time until Daddy comes home from work! Maybe I'll make the Hubs breakfast-in-bed with one of these fine recipes I posted on Friday!

What are your plans for this fine Tuesday?