Amelia's 7 month update

Food: This girl likes to eat, and so far has enjoyed everything she's tried. New foods she has tried this month are:

• Blueberries
• Mango, blueberry, and banana yogurts
• Greens beans
• Banana Baby puffs
• Peas
• Pumpkin

Sleep:Still sleeping in her room all night in her crib. 

Size: At her doctor appointment on 10/ /14 she weighed 18 lbs and was . She is still in a size 3 diaper, and wears 6-9 month clothing.

 Milestones this month...

• As of 10/14/14 she has officially figured out how to army crawl, and is all over the place now.
• Bottom two front teeth have poked through the gums as of 10/21/14. 
• Finally got to meet your aunt Stephanie and cousin Psyreena!
• Went to a Japanese restaurant with the family for the first time on 10/22/14. You were amazed by the chef cooking the food at our table.
• She is getting better and better each day at picking up her small baby puffs and actually getting it into her mouth to eat. 
• As of 10/21/14 she is crawling with her legs. She army crawled for about a week and quickly moved onto regular crawling.

Pictures:

Amelia's 6 month update

These past 6 months have flown by! If the next 6 months go by as quick as the first 6 have, I need to go ahead and get a jump on planning for her first birthday. It's going to be here before I know it.

I just realized that I believe I've been keeping track of her monthly updates wrong. Since this is her 6th month update I really shouldn't post it until she turns 7 months so I can capture her full 6th month. I've been posting her updates as she turns another month old so really my updates have been for the previous month if that makes any sense. I really want to capture her milestones/pictures in the correct month as they are happening so I can look back at this and see exactly what month she did certain things. For now I will post this blog early but keep adding to it as things happen during this 6th month. That seems like an easy way for me to keep track.

Food: Just began to eat baby food this month. She's been such a good eater. So far these are the foods she has tried, and her reactions to them:

1. Avocado's
2. Carrot's .
3. Banana's  
4. Apples 
5. Sweet Potatoes

Sleep: Amelia has been an amazing sleeper from the beginning. She was sleeping through the night at 2 months old! She began sleeping in her crib in her own room at 5 months, and has been doing so ever since. She generally is down for the night between 7-8 pm, and wakes between 5:30-6:30 am. 

Size: Amelia is wearing 3-6 month and 6-9 month clothing. It just depends on the outfit and brand. She just moved into a size 3 diaper when she hit 6 months. 

 Milestones this month...

• Has the whole sitting up thing down pat!
• Loves to grab anything that gets near her little hands. That includes your face and hair. Ouch!
• She has her hand coordination down now and loves to play with toys. Especially toys that light up or make noises. She also LOVES her jumparoo. 
• Moves all over the place now. She can roll from her tummy to back and from her back to tummy.
• Gets in the crawling position, but hasn't yet figured out how to crawl just yet. Although I can place her on the floor and 2 minutes later she will be on the completely opposite side of the room.
• She seems to be a people person. Anytime someone pays her any attention she gets so excited. She especially likes playing with other kids.
• Standing with support. She no longer wants to lay down. All she wants to do is "stand" or sit up like a big girl. 
•  Now eating baby food, and drinking water from a sippy cup. The first food she tried was Avocado and she can't get enough of it. 
• Took a trip to Pullen Park with mommy and uncle Rodney. Got to swing for the first time, Also got to ride on a paddle boat. 

Picture time...

Amelia's 5 month update

On July 26th Amelia turned 5 months old. You have to be kidding me. There's no way it's been 5 months already since we've had her join our little family. Time sure is flying by! I love her personality. So far she is such a laid back, go with the flow, kind of baby. I couldn't ask for a better baby.

Highlights from the past month... 

• She now sleeps in her crib in her own bedroom, and she seems to love it. She's such a big girl! This is how she wakes up every morning. All smiles. =)

• 

• I've gotten her to laugh at me a few times and she's laughed in her sleep a few times, but she's still not laughing consistently yet. 
• She has now rolled over to the left and right when I place her on her tummy. (before she was only rolling to her right side)
• Also when she's on her belly now she tries to push up on her knees. She hasn't been successful yet, but I have a feeling she will be very soon.
• She hasn't officially rolled over from her back to her belly yet, but she's about 95% there. She rolls on her side but just doesn't completely roll over just yet.
• She took her first trip to the beach to visit her great grandma, and she did wonderful. She slept in the car on the 3 hour drive there and back, and also slept all night in her pack-n-play even though this was her first time sleeping away from home. Made momma proud. :)

Picture Time...

Stocking up on Diapers

Everyone knows that babies require a lot of personal care items that can be pretty pricey. There are ways of getting those items at a fraction of the cost, and in this post I'm going to share my tips with you.

Generally the best deals on diapers are at drugstores. Pretty much monthly Walgreens, CVS, or Rite Aid will run a sale on diapers that will also print out a reward at the register. One tip I have is to give up being loyal to a specific brand. I know this will not work for everyone as some babies are cloth diapered or sensitive to certain diapers, but if your baby isn't, keeping this in mind will help build your stockpile quicker. This way you can grab whatever brand is on sale, and not have to wait for your specific brand to run a sale. I currently have Luvs, Huggies, and Pampers brands in my stockpile. All of which I bought while they were on sale for much less than I would have had to pay if I bought them full price.

To give you an idea of this here is a deal I did at CVS today 7/12/14. (This deal is no longer available)

• Buy 4 Pampers = $9.00 each (on sale for 2/$18. Regular price is $11.99. You also get a $10 gas card when you spend $30.) 

Total = $36 + tax

• Use a $5 off $35 baby care CVS coupon  (can be found on the CVS website)
• Use 4 $2/1 manufacture coupons
• Use $1 extra care buck (I was sent this in an email. Make sure to sign up with your extra                                     care card to get special coupons)

Total after coupons = $24.63 including tax. I also got back a $10 gas card. 

If you factor in the gas card it's like I paid $14.63 for 4 jumbo packs of diapers, or $3.66 per jumbo pack!

Oddly enough I typically get the best deals on baby wipes at Harris Teeter, but there are other stores who run deals on them as well. (Lowes foods often have cheap wipes as well. I don't have a Lowes Foods near me but if you do that's also a great place to find baby deals.) My price goal for wipes is $1 or less a pack. When I see that they are this price I make sure to not just buy 1 pack but as many packs as I can with the coupons I have. That way I never have to worry about running out of wipes and having to go to the store and possibly pay FULL PRICE for them in an emergency.

My little lady will normally go through a jumbo pack of diapers, and a pack of wipes per week. I use this as a guideline to keep track of how long my stockpile of diapers/wipes will last us. I feel so much more at ease knowing I have about 5 months of wipes and 1.5 months of diapers waiting for me in the nursery. (Not just 1.5 months of diapers in the size she's currently in, but 1.5 months worth in 3 different sizes. The current size she's in and the next 2 sizes she'll move into)

What tips do you have on finding baby deals? Do you keep a stockpile of items on hand as well?

Weekly grocery trips - 6/25-7/2

We are now a 1 income family and I've been working hard to save every penny we can to ensure we still live comfortably despite the loss of my income. One area I can do this is by couponing in order to save on our groceries while keeping a strict budget. Each week I plan to write a post similar this one to hold me accountable for sticking to my budget.

This week I made multiple trips to Harris Teeter for the bulk of my shopping. They were having their Super Doubles sale and I was able to score some killer deals. I like to buy multiples of an item to keep extra on hand so that we never have to run to the store and pay full price for something just because we have run out. My favorite deal this week had to be the Purdue chicken at .19 a bag. We tried some earlier in the week and it's delicious, and you can't beat .19 for a bag of chicken that originally cost $8.39!

Here is a break down of my trips for the week:

Harris Teeter  (Super Doubles trip #1)

• 1 bag of Purdue chicken 
• 3 Birds Eye recipe ready
• 3 Tom's of Maine bar soaps
• 4 Yakisoba's
• 3 Vidal Sassoon styling products
• 1 Tide detergent 
• 3 boxes of snickers/twix icecream bars

Total value = $66.51
Money spent out of pocket after coupons = $2.84
Savings = 96%

Harris Teeter (Super Doubles trip #2)

• 3 bags of Purdue chicken
• 1 Birds Eye recipe ready
• 1 box of Twix icecream bars
• 6 Old El Paso seasonings
• 3 Lunchables  (I accidentally picked up one that wasn't the smoothie variety, so I did not get my $2 Catalina coupon back. I still made out pretty good so I don't feel the need to refund the items.)

Total value = $46.62

Money spent out of pocket after coupons = $5.76
Savings = 88%

Harris Teeter (Super Doubles trip #3)

• 2 cans of Planters peanuts
• 4 Horizon Mac-n-cheese
• 2 Zevia 6 pk cream soda
• 2 Sara Lee pound cakes

Total value = $35.54

Money spent out of pocket after coupons = $3.32
Savings = 91%

**I also received a .50 Ibotta deposit on the Zevia but I did not include that in my savings**

Harris Teeter (Super Double trip #4)

• 4 boxes of Mueller pasta
• 2 packs of Angel Soft toilet paper (12 double rolls)
• 4 Yakisoba meals
• 6 Maruchan bowls
• 1 Hormel Complete meal

Total value = $37.58

Money spent out of pocket after coupons = $5.36
Savings = 86%

Harris Teeter (Super Doubles trip #5)

• 3 bags of Purdue chicken

Total value = $25.30

Money spent out of pocket after coupons = .72
Savings = 97%

Target

• 4 Market Pantry frozen appetizers
• 1 pack of Gerber baby utensils
• 1 box of Up & Up rice cereal

Total value = $16.34

Money spent out of pocket after coupons = $7.62
Savings = 55% (not as great of a trip as I'd like but I needed the baby items which didn't have coupons.)

Harris Teeter (Super Doubles trip #6)

• 1 bag of Purdue chicken
• 4 boxes of Horizon mac-n-cheese

Total value = $16.46

Money spent out of pocket after coupons = $2.00
Savings = 88%

Here is a break down of my grand total for the week:

Total value for the week = $244.35
Total out of pocket money spent for the week = $27.62
Savings for the week = 89%

Amelia's 4 month update

Happy 4 months to this cutie!

Amelia is now 4 months old! She is growing so much each month. It's unreal. This past month wasn't too exciting event wise but we did have a few things happen worth mentioning. 

• We celebrated our first fathers day as a family on 6/15/14, and daddy and daughter celebrated with special outfits for the day. My husband wore a "Dad" superman shirt and Amelia wore her "My 1st Fathers Day" onesie. 
• Baby girl rolled over! (this wasn't the first time but before I believe it was more on accident that she rolled over)
• She's in that stage of sticking everything into her mouth. Her item of choice - Her fingers. She loves those fingers! (I believe she's doing this because she's beginning to teethe)
• She's also in the stage where unless she's wearing a bow or something pink people mistake her for a boy. (Amelia you totally don't look like a boy though I swear! People are just silly.
• She now sleeps in her pack-n-play until I can move her into her nursery, so she's still in our room, but not sleeping right beside me anymore. (I have to admit I still wake up a few times a night to go check and make sure she's still breathing and looks alright. When will that stop? Ever?), and as of a few nights ago sleeps unswaddled.

And because I take entirely too many pictures of this sweet girl here are a few of my favorites from the past month...

Positive Thinking

Every single day is something new as a mom. Some days you can get a lot accomplished and feel like super mom, and other days it is 5pm and you've got a house that looks like a tornado hit it, nothing on the stove cooking for dinner, and you wonder where the day went. Most of my days are fairly routine at this point, but there are those days that I am thrown for a complete loop. Friday was one of those thrown for a loop days for me. I had a fussy baby who refused to sleep all day. She is usually a very good sleeper but this particular day she gave me the hardest time I think I've had with her since we brought her home almost 4 months ago. Any mom knows the frustration you feel during those fussy times with your baby. You try everything to calm them and nothing works. It breaks your heart that there's nothing you can do, and all you want to do is just cry with them. After dealing with the baby all day I was just drained. Drained or not my work was not over for the day. That afternoon my husband injured his eye pretty badly at work and was in the ER. When I got that text I thought I was just going to loose my marbles. I was already so stressed out and now this? I couldn't take much more. I almost let things get the best of me before I realized I was thinking in a negative manner about things, which only caused me to feel worse. Sure things did not go the way I had planned that day but in the big scheme of things I am a very lucky woman. I have a happy (usually) and healthy baby, and my husband is going to be okay once he's healed. Things could have definitely been worse. Everybody deals with life situations different.  I always try and be a positive person in anything I do, but there are those times that I get down and feel sorry for myself. I think that's just normal. As much as we'd like, everything can't be all peachy keen all of the time. It's how we deal with the situations that come our way that will determine how the day plays out.

What helps you get out of a funk mood?

Family changes

2014 has brought many big changes my for family. We happily welcomed our first child into our home in February.

Our sweet girl.

If that in itself isn't a big enough change we also decided I was not going to return to work once my maternity leave was over. For the first time since I was sixteen I will not be making a steady income, and that was a pretty scary thought for me. However I wanted so badly to stay at home with my baby girl, so we decided we'd make it work no matter what. On top of all of that, my husband and his brother just began their own flooring business. As with any new business, my husband has been putting in long hours 6 days a week with only taking Sunday off to rest.

Life sure has changed quite a bit for us in such a short time, but we're figuring things out together as a team and making it work for our family. Any new mom knows it takes time to figure out your baby and get into a routine. Until that happens moms can feel tired and stressed out more than usual. We brought our little girl home from the hospital on a Friday and by Monday my husband was back at work full force. I was alone with a newborn, and as a first time mom that can be intimidating. What will I do with her all day? What if I don't know what I'm doing? What if something happens? Can I handle it alone? All of those thoughts go through a moms head, but thankfully they quickly subside. I have finally gotten into a good schedule with my daily routine (more on that in a later post) and things are now starting to become easier on a day to day basis. Life has it's challenges, but overall I am so extremely happy with where we are at this point in our lives.

How have things changed in your life recently? Did it take you awhile to figure things out when you were a new parent?

Slow down time!

I am one of those crazy women who likes to keep track of everything. What better way to document the milestones than with a blog?! So here we are. Now what?

We welcomed our baby girl 3 months ago and my oh my how time has just flown by! She has changed so much already since she was born. Here are a few new born pictures.

Just born. Isn't she perfect?

Look at all that hair.

Getting ready to leave the hospital!

All wrapped up and ready to go home. She looked so tiny in her car seat.

1 month old already!

2 months old!

I can now hold my head up.

I love to smile!

3 months old!

This little girl is so fun! Every day is new an exciting now seeing what new things she learns to do.I am so happy I made the decision to leave my job to stay home full time with her. I don't want to miss a second in her life. 

 

HOT diaper deal at Target through 5/31!

If you have access to a printer and can print coupons you can possibly score a killer deal on Huggies diapers at Target. Target is running a 10% sale on Huggies little movers making each pack $8.09. Head over to Huggies.com to create an account to be able to print the following coupon:

$2.00/1 Huggies diapers 20 ct or larger Target store coupon. (bottom coupon.)



Also if you go to pickupthevalues.com you can print a $3.00/1 coupon that can be stacked with the $2.00 Target store coupon to make the deal even sweeter.

Here's a break down of the deal:

Huggies little movers jumbo pack diapers = $8.99
Minus the 10% off sale through 5/31 = $8.09
Use the $2.00/1 Target store coupon = $6.09
Use the $3.00/1 manufacture coupon = $3.09 per pack!