Raisinglittlegrays

I forget just how fast time flies when you have littles. In the blink of an eye, we now have a 4 month old!   Just within a months time Annestyne has fully gotten rid of her colic, as well as her reflux. I pulled her off of her medication for reflux over a month ago, and it disappeared all in its own time! She is growing quite the personality, and has incredible head control!  Annestyne's stats for this month are as follows: Height: 24" upper 25th%tile Weight: 14lbs 45th %tile She is growing wonderfully, and is still only exclusively breastfed. Her 4 month check up wasn't necessarily needed, but we like to take our children in for wellness checkups so no crazy person can say "they don't vaccinate OR EVER take their kids to the doctor!" WRONG. Our pediatrician is completely RAD and respects our views as our children's parents!  Just this past weekend, we took our first beach trip of the year. It was Annestyne's first beach trip, as well as her first LO...

Another month has passed us, and per usual has flown by.  This month has been a month of a couple of changes for us! Annestyne is slowly saying goodbye to her colic. Hallelujah, praise Jesus. I felt like some days we would never see the light at the end Iof the tunnel when it comes to Colic, but it's here.. Or at least we're close. She is crying less and less everyday, and when she is crying it's more so to be held (which by the way is normal), or she wants the nahnahs.  We have recently encountered the big 3 month growth spurt. She is nursing like a champ still, and is growing at a perfect pace.  Annestyne now weighs 12.4lbs! The first 3 months of breastfeeding are the hardest, and it has come and gone for us! I'm excited to continue my journey of breastfeeding with her! I believe Annestyne will be like Hasting, and start popping teeth early. She's beginning to drool a ton, and her bottom gums are starting to swell a bit!  AT 3 MONTHS OLD ANNESTYNE: ❤️nurses to fal...

Time has seriously flown by (and I knew it would). The newborn stage doesn't last long enough.  Miss A had her two month checkup yesterday with her ped. Her stats are awesome thus far!  Weight: 10 pounds 11 ounces Height: 22 inches  Head circumference: 15 inches  She is growing at a good pace, and I am proud to say every bit of it is because of me. At 2 months old Annestyne is still exclusively breastfed! I'm extremely proud of this. Hasting and I had a very shaky breast feeding experience, and by either 3 or 4 weeks I gave up.  Breast feeding isn't easy the first couple if months, so when you hit a milestone like 2 months you should be proud of yourself!!  A week and a half ago Annestyne had to have a lower tongue tie revision. Her ferenulum (the piece of skin under your tongue) was tight, and causing some restrictions to her breast feeding. She was gaining the correct amount of weight, so at first I had no worries. But then, a food friend of mine shared a...

It took me a while to compile this, and I wanted Chad to have an input on it too. We FINALLY got it all together, from what we can both remember.    For those who have been waiting:         The Birth of Annestyne Nova Gray   I guess you could say that I knew she was coming. Not that she was coming the way she did; I mean that labor was here. Two days before I went in to full blown labor I was started to have contractions, but they were extremely irregular. Just the type to let you know that labor would be approaching within a couple of days. I was feeling more pressure, I could feel she was LOWER, and I was having those crazy horrid sharp vaginal pains (that only kept getting worse every time).   Ok, so skip to the night of. Chad and I had laid Hasting down for the night, and turned Netflix on around 9ish to watch Sons of Anarchy (btw—that show is awesome, it’s probably what put me in to labor.. seriously though!). I n...

As the time draws closer for Baby A to make her appearance, so does the need for my birth plan.     When I had Hasting, I didn't really HAVE a plan. I basically just went in, and did what everyone else did -- because it's all that I knew. I really don't even think that I knew natural birth was a possibility to be honest (woah right?) So after I had him, I met some awesome people. I was introduced to the concept of so many things I never knew existed. I began researching on my own, and here I am, almost 2 years later, planning my OWN natural birth.   I understand that natural birth isn't for everyone. Before I share my birth plan, I would like for it to be known that the options I have outlined in my plan are options that my husband and I have done extended research on. They are options that we have chosen to be best suited for our family. I hope that by me sharing my birth plan that it will help to empower women to know that they have a choice. It is ...

When I first got pregnant with Hasting I knew that I had a lot to learn. I mean, a lot. One of the first decisions that I made as a new mother-to-be was to cloth diaper. Woah. Say what? Cloth Diaper? You mean like the old school diapers you fold and pin? THAT is the response I got from A LOT of people. They looked at me as if I had 4 eyeballs, told me I was insane, it would be too hard, and too gross. Oh the judgment! At one point, I even thought that I was in way over my head with my decision, and almost backed out. Not because I knew I couldn't do it, because I had SO MANY people telling me all these same things over and over.     Once you become a parent, it's like a whole different ball game. Not just because you are now responsible for another life, but also for the way that you choose to do things. I became extremely defensive towards others and their opinions on the lifestyle that I had chosen for my family. I was tired of being "criticized" for my out o...

    Everyone has that point & time in their lives where they catch themselves saying "I wish I would have done that differently." When you become a mother, it's more common than you realize. You always hear that you learn a lot from your first child, and tis' true. Even if you aren't planning on having another child, you will still learn so much! Motherhood within itself is a HUGE journey, for mother AND father. I have learnt so much through the journey of being pregnant, and I have become a much better person than what I used to be. Before Hasting, I never imagined myself baby wearing, making my own wipes, using cloth diapers, or studying in to HALF the things I'm now much more informed on. Hasting was planned, and actually so was baby A. Of course when you get pregnant it's always a surprise, but we had planned it perfectly to have them exactly 2 years apart (although we weren't quite so sure it would happen!) Now that I am almost 21 weeks...