Thankfulness

This summer has come and gone far more quickly than I ever imagined. I have spent the last few hours spending time praying and writing to Jude and thinking about the many things I have to be thankful for. The list is so long. Just about more than anything, I am thankful for time. Time with family and friends, time to be still and rest, time to make priceless memories with the people I love the most.

This summer has been filled with laughter, comfort, accountability, great conversations, time spent basking with my sweet little man, all day, every day and rejoicing in the things the Lord has given me.

I am so excited to say that we have another new blessing being added to our family. We found out last night that my sister and her husband will be adding me my first nephew, Elijah Mason Ball "Eli", sometime around January 13th. We had a fun revealing party last night to share the news.

To be thankful just doesn't seem like enough. I am so blessed, it's hard to think this place isn't our home. This Earth doesn't even begin to touch what our eternity will be like with our Lord.

Good Ole Rocky Top

 Over the 4th of July my Mom, Jude and I took a road trip to Tennessee to visit my Mom's side of the family. Even though we've always lived 5 1/2 hours apart, I am still very close to this side and always look forward to spending time with them. While there, we enjoyed just catching up with family and spending quality time with everyone. Of course, we did venture out to the lake a few days to let Jude play with his cousin Jamen. They're only 4 months apart and I really wish that we were closer so they could grow up together.

 My cousin Jeff is a personal trainer and actually does lessons on the paddle board. I paddled around the small island and played around a little on it, but of course, my adventerous son wanted to try it too. Surprisingly, he stood up on it alone for a few seconds.

 The 4 cousins chillin'.

Jamen and Jude

Whenever we go to TN, we always stay with my Mamaw. She is such a hoot and I love spending time with her. She is my only grandmother living and I think we all have a lot to learn from people of her generation. She grew up very poor, got married at 15 and was a mother of 4 by age 23. She survived stage 4 cervical cancer at the young age of 27 and has had 2 heart attacks on her 65th birthday. She is such a fighter and talk about a lady who loves her family and adores her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. I am so blessed to have my Mamaw in my  life and I am thankful for the time Jude was able to spend with her this summer!

We had a great time with family and I hate to think it may be next year before we see this side of the family again. :( I can't think of that now though...we'll focus on the wonderful things happening now!

Trip to Auburn

 I want to start this blog with a short history of why Justin and I moved to Auburn. When we got engaged in November of 2007, Justin had already applied to several schools to pursue his Master's degree. With that said, once we got engaged, he totally got me involved in making the decision of where we moved. In case you don't know, getting a Master's in Wildlife Biology is much different than some Masters programs. It's not just taking the GRE and getting into a school. You must have a professor accept you into their personal lab with funding for your field or lab research. With that said, Justin had gotten accepted to several programs, but had to wait to see who had funding.

It came down to Virginia Tech and Auburn University. Justin and I took road trips to visit both professors, campuses, and communities. When we left Auburn, I told my Mom "This is where we'll be moving." Justin and I had no doubt that God was calling us to move to this area. Doors opened, including me being offered a Special Education Position at Auburn High School in February of 2008 before I even graduated from UNCW. I could go on and on about what led us to Auburn, but bottom line, God's plan was being revealed and the Holy Spirit spoke directly to our hearts.

We moved South the day we got back from our honeymoon. Us two 22 year olds, starting brand new stages of life with jobs, school, and a marriage, all in a new town. Well, let me tell you. We were embraced. Not only did I have a great community at Auburn High, but the people in our church and community were amazing. After our 3 years in Auburn, it had truly become our home. Justin and I developed friendships and made memories that have impacted our lives and will continue to do so for the rest of our lives.

I am so thankful to have the flexibility to be able to go visit this summer. Most friends I have not seen since we moved, nearly a year ago, and talk about a wonderful reunion! It was like I was never gone and the time I was there was such an encouragement and blessed experience. It was also wonderful to see friends' babies who I had not met and let everyone see the little boy Jude has grown into. Most of our time was having play dates, letting our kids get to know one another and girl time just chatting, catching up. Of course I was able to get some of my favorite food from our favorite eateries, but the best part of course was diving back into our relationships.

I know that over time, sometimes friendships fade away, but I honestly don't know what I would do without some of the people in my life from Auburn. Their prayers were coveted during our short season in Arizona and I am so thankful to have these people in our lives!

 2 of my best friends with the babes, minus Asa who was napping.

Our sweet neighbors on Dumas Dr....the are our adopted grandparents.

Big Week

 As usual, time is flying by this summer. I have several things I want to post about, including our trip to Auburn, our visit to Tennessee, and some good girl time thoughts, but for some reason, I can't seem to find time. Any who, this week is BIG for the Dellinger family.

First of all, this little man above turned turned 16 months old on July 15. It is unreal to me to think that he's such a big boy. Over the last month, his vocabulary as soared tremendously. He will attempt to say just about anything we say, but still needs to be prompted to say the right words. He LOVED our zoo visit as well as our trip to a Bouncy House. He is becoming super independent, but when he is unsure of something, he'll still hold his hand out and ask for help. He eats pretty much everything we do. He doesn't love green veggies, so we keep veggie/fruit pouches on hand. His favorite foods would have to be fries from Chick fila, blue berries, and frosted mini-wheats. He enjoys reading books, playing in water, and snuggling in the mornings. His favorite songs, still including The Wheels on the Bus, include This Little Light of Mine and Bingo, but we change the name to Mason. He cracks up every time. Good news is, for about 3 weeks, he has started going to bed by 9:30 (It will go back to 8:30 or 9 when school starts) and sleeping until at least 7:15, usually 7:30 am every morning. Talk about one happy Momma.

I may be a little bias, but this little guy has one cute personality. He's also all boy, meaning when he poots, he laughs, and can be rough while playing. We're really working on "gentle hands". 1 week before Jude turned 16 months, he weighed 25 lbs and was 31 1/4 in. tall. Both are between the 25-50% so he's kinda small. He eats like a horse but is super active, going non-stop so he's burning calories! He naps great, usually going down between 12:30-1 and sleeping til 3-4.

Every day I realize how much I love him more and more. I am so blessed to have been given this little one to be my son.

 The second thing to celebrate this week is Justin's 26th birthday, which was July 17th! We celebrated with his family, grilling out steaks and having cake and ice cream. He used his birthday money to buy new boots for his PhD program and some cold weather gear, so he's ready for our move in August.

Justin's parents were 16 and 18 when Justin was born, with Justin's Mom still having her senior year of high school left. They chose to keep Justin, in spite of how difficult it would be and the sacrifices it would take, and I am so thankful they made that choice. I know God placed Justin in my life and I pray that the Lord blesses Justin with many more birthdays.

Lastly, tomorrow, July 19th, Justin and I will be celebrating 4 years of marriage. Look how young we look in this picture! Looking back, we were so young and naive at times, but we've grown tremendously and I am so thankful to be living life with this man.

I've wrote on my blog before about the trials Justin and I faced his past year while living in Arizona. While celebrating our wedding anniversary this year, we plan to focus on the vows we made to one another, to our families, and most importantly, to the Lord. This past year, there was more than one occasion when it would have been easier for both Justin and I to walk away, but we know that's not what God has called us to. I am so thankful during those hardest moments, mostly times of selfishness, financial strain, and simply figuring out life, that the Holy Spirit led Justin and I back to a place where we know we called to love, no matter how difficult it can be.

Happy Birthday and Anniversary to the love of my life. May the Lord bless us with many wonderful years together.

Summer Fill In

We have already had 3 full weeks of summer and are 1/2 way through our 4 week. It's going way too fast, as to be expected. We have enjoyed almost 2 weeks with Justin's family; time at home, trips to the library, and me enjoying being a stay at home Mommy. Above is a picture of Jude playing with his first worm. He found it outside of the restaurant on Father's Day and thought it was hysterical.

 Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's and Papaw's. (My Dad/Pop was not able to be there obviously, but we're looking forward to lots of time with Mo Mo and Pop to come.)

 We spent a great week at North Myrtle Beach to start the summer off with my family. Jude has been to the beach once before when he was 10 weeks old, but this was the first time he had the chance to really play and experience it. He isn't too fond of the waves, but he loves playing in the sand and in the tide pools. He'll splash, dig, and run all over.

 We enjoyed a night out one night to Calabash to enjoy amazing seafood. Jude loved spending daily lunch and nap time with Mo Mo and I enjoyed a few hours of quiet talking with my siblings and reading on the beach.

My little beach bum!!! We had an amazing time at the beach. It was so great to see that Jude did in fact enjoy the beach. He also enjoyed feeding the sea gulls.

During our transition to the Eastern time zone, we used this time to back up Jude's normal bed time of 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm (making it only a 2 hour difference) and moving to 1 nap a day. Since Jude was about 7 months, he had been taking 2 naps, 1 from 9:30-11:30 in the morning and another around 2:30 or 3 until about 4:15 or 4:30. He had been backing up his morning nap a little every week or so for about a week, so I thought it was time. Since June 3rd, he's been going to bed around 9:30 pm, getting up between 6:45-7 am (an occasional 7:30 sleep in day has been thrown in) and naps from around 12:45 to 3:30'ish. He has also cut 3 of his canine teeth which has been hard on him. Bad poos with terrible diaper rash, but he's been a trooper. I'm a littler nervous about transitioning him back into his normal crib in his own room once we move to Seattle in August. By that time, he will have been rooming in with us in the pack and play for almost 2 1/2 months. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Last week we spent our time in Auburn, which was wonderful. (Blog post to come later this week.) While there, I realized that for the first 5 weeks of summer, Jude will have been in a different place every week. North Myrtle, Shelby, Auburn, back to Auburn, Athens, TN, then to Asheboro for a little while.) Our sweet man has really been awesome with all this moving. I am so thankful that he is flexible and willing to let his Mommy see all these people she loves.

It's going quickly, but there is still lots of summer to come!

Already?

 Yes, this sweet man is ALREADY 15 months old! I can't believe it! He is truly a joy! He will give so many hugs and kisses if he knows you. He's all about giving anyone a high five.

 He continues to soak things up like a sponge. His spoken vocabulary has flourished just over the last few weeks, adding tree, horse, tractor, and JJ, Zach, and Papaw to people words. He can perform lots of "tricks", when he wants to of course, but my favorite one is to ask to see his "teeth" and he'll give you the biggest grin ever. Priceless.

Jude weighs 26.5 lbs and I have no idea how long he is. We have not had his 15 month check up yet. It will be a little late due to vacay in NC. He loves animals, reading books, playing outside, and trucks and tractors. He's definitely all boy. He is also a Momma's boy and I'm ok with that. I know the days of him reaching for me and crawling up in my lap won't last forever.

On a not so light note, we have really had to be persistant and consisten with disciplining Jude. He is very strong willed. He usually obeys when we tell him "no" to something but if we take something away that he wants and already has, for example, picked up a stick yesterday and started to run with it...Justin simply took it from him and said "That's dangerous Jude. We don't run with sticks." Jude flailed himself on the ground and had a coniption. He doesn't even want to give up his toothbrush until he's ready. It's a process though and with God's grace, we'll be just fine.

I'll have a summer update soon. We spent last week at North Myrtle Beach with my family and we've been in Shelby this week. Jude and I are visiting Auburn next week!!!

Thoughts on Breast Feeding

Ok, so I've been wanting to blog about my thoughts on breastfeeding for some time but have not taken the time to sit down and really put down my thoughts. As I've mentioned before, my blog is for others to enjoy, but it also serves as a sort of journal for myself. I do want to say that this post is not anything necessarily factual, but it's what breast feeding meant to me, for our family, and what worked or didn't work for Jude and me in our journey together. This is Justin and my opinion of what worked best for our family.

First of all, before getting pregnant with Jude, I had a wonderful group of friends who went through breast feeding before me that were able to offer me a great deal of advice and support. Once we were pregnant, I knew that breast feeding was something I definitely wanted to attempt and my goal was to make it through the 1st year. From my research, I felt that at 1 year, Jude would be able to get his nutrients from food and organic cow's milk, hence why I made this my goal.

Before Jude was born, I read several books that I found helpful, including Baby Wise and Secrets of a Baby Whisperer. I also researched different "tools" to aide in breast feeding like support pillows, the "right" bra, and different natural supplements like certain teas to help with lactation. Justin and I also attended a very imformative and beneficial breast feeding class offered to us by our hospital. By the time Jude was born, I felt confident that we were as ready as we could be to try this new adventure.

Before I go on, I want to make a list of certain items that I found very beneficial during my time of breast feeding.
1. The right bra: I will say to anyone who is a new mother, DO NOT invest in an expensive nursing bra at first...I got a nice sports bra from Gap Body and LOVE it. It is easy to pull down and supported my new DD's, in which I am usually a B. To be totally honest, I spent nearly $80 in Medela nursing bras and wore them each maybe 5 times. I ended up buying good bras from Ross (Izod and Bali in my new size) and just pulled them over to nurse. They were much more comfortable than the nursing bras.
2. The right pillow: For me, the Boppy was wonderful for Jude and I as we both learned what nursing was all about. It fit around me just right and allowed the necessary support that we needed as he learned.
3. The right cover: I personally like Utterly Discreet cover up. They offer really cute designs but are also bigger than many other cover ups. If you have a wiggly baby like me, the extra fabric comes in handy in case they try to show your goods.
4. The right nursing pads: I did not like any disposable nursing pads. Not only are they not environmentally friendly, which Justin and I try to be, I found them itchy and uncomfortable. I liked the cloth, reusable nursing pads by Gerber found at Target. They were super affordable and I would wash them every night by hand and they would be dry the next morning. Of course, I bought enough to have extra in case I didn't wash them.
5. The right nipple cream: This was huge those first few weeks. For me, the only thing I will ever recommend is Medela brand. Lansinoh is much thicker and when you're as sore as you'll be, you want something to go on smoothly. I also had a friend recommend to me to start putting nipple cream on every night a few weeks before the due date to help get your body ready. I did heed this advice I personally think it helped. Compared to others who told me how long their soreness lasted, mine only lasted about 4 days.

Ok, back to breast feeding. Once Jude was born, I was very blessed to have a child that latched well from the get go. I went through the "extrememly sore, need to scream and grip the sheets every time we feed" for a few days, but thankfully, that time passed quickly. If I can offer any advice, DON'T give up. You will be sore, it may be hard and frustrating, but it really is worth it. I also greatly encourage having your husband on board. Justin was wonderful during this process. Because he went to the class with me, he new the different positions it takes to teach the baby and me what we're doing and he was great. I also encourage heeding help from a lactation consultant. We were blessed to have 2 available to us through our hospital, free of charge. The gave a lactation appointment before leaving the hospital as well as 3 days after leaving to "check in". We also had a weekly support group. It was great to have access to such helpful people.

During my time nursing, following the schedule of Baby Wise worked for us. Jude fed every 3 hours for the fist 6 weeks and we eventually backed it up as we needed it to according to his needs. Once Jude started sleeping through the night (9:30 pm-5:30 am) I needed to pump after even nursing because I was so full. This ended up being a huge blessing because I actually put an extra bottle's worth away every day and really stocked up on my supply in the freezer.

I can honestly say, breast feeding worked well for us. Amid the cross country move, going back to work, and the emotional wreck I often was, I found my sweet time with my boy was what I needed. I used my time nursing (especially those early months when it's SO often) as a time to pray, sing, and talk with Jude.

When Jude was 7 months old, I got a terrible stomach virus and spiked a high fever. I actually totally dried up within 12 hours of becoming sick and was so distraught. I cried and cried but thankfully, my stock was up. I pumped or nursed every 2 hours and finally after 2 full days, my milk came back. (I also took some supplements and drank a lot of tea.) However, my milk did not come back fully. At that time, I began to have to supplement with formula 1/2 the amount of milk for Jude every day. (By January, his milk amount had gone down enough that what I was producing was enough, so he actually only needed formula for about 3 months.)

I continued to breast feed (of course, I pumped while at work) to supply all his milk needs through his 1st year. I made my goal! At 11 months, I started mixing my breast milk with oraganic milk a little at a time so by his 1st birthday, he was pretty much completely on whole milk. Once Jude turned 1 year, I personally wasn't quite ready emotionally to stop nursing. I no longer pumped at work, but I continued to nurse Jude in the mornings and right before bed for another month. It was a sweet time for us to continue to snuggle and bond. At 13 months, I stopped the evening feedings (I honestly think he was probably only getting an ounce or so at this point any way) and only nursed in the mornings for another week. The last time I breast fed Jude, I knew it would be the last and I did cry. I loved the time I got to spend with him because it was something only I could provide for him.

I do want to emphasize that I do not think breast feeding is for everyone. I know that not all women have an easy time as I did nor are certain jobs as flexible as mine to allow for pumping and such. As I stated before, this is what worked for us. Justin loved the fact that I breast fed Jude to my goal date and was always supportive. He was great about feeding Jude with my milk in bottles throughout the entire 1st year of Jude's life and we found a system that really worked for us. I am so thankful for the opportunity to have a good amount of milk, as well as rich milk that gave Jude what he needed. My experience was one that I am very thankful for and I can only imagine how hard it is to want to breast feed and can't. I also do not judge those women who for whatever reason choose to go straight to formula. Every mother and child are different. Again, this is what worked for us and I hope that something I learned through my experience can be beneficial to others.