It’s been forever since I’ve done a This Week’s Miscellany so feel free to skip this if you don’t want some long-windedness! And if you haven’t switched over to Bloglovin‘ or Feedly from Google Reader, be sure to add Carrots to your new reader so you don’t miss any posts (or subscribe via email on the left sidebar).
Life at the Stewart household is slowly transitioning from the chaos of adding Baby Gwen to our family into the awesome, crazy, fun world of having three kids to soak up the summer with. I’ve tried to be intentional about taking it very easy and not leaving the house too often and too soon. After Lucy (baby #2) was born, I tried to jump back into life too quickly and ended up exhausted and sick during her first month and then she caught pneumonia. Awful! Family and friends have helped us out with the “big kids” so they don’t get cabin fever and we’ve kept things simple so that I can recover and rest and get to know this new little one.
Our friends have been feeding us amazing meals (see Katherine’s wonderful tips about how to gift friends with meals) and then I’ve resorted to only doing slow cooker meals from what I stocked in the freezer for everything else.
Since I just discovered making slow cooker freezer meals about a year ago, I still find it amazing that I can toss a bag of prepped ingredients into the Crock Pot in the morning and it will be dinner by 5pm. (I always use Stephanie’s From Your Freezer to Your Family eCookbook and you can check out some of the recipes in this post.)
Baby Update:
This is the blessed view of life usually before me these days. I’m struggling through some overactive letdown/oversupply issues that make Baby Gwen a spit up machine. She isn’t typically grumpy about it but has a little hissy fit most evenings before settling in for the night. Give me all your knowhow about solving overactive letdown, mamas! I’ve had it with all three babies, but Lucy didn’t mind so I didn’t really research how to fix it. Trying out ecological breastfeeding with Gwen (it worked great with Lucy) and I think it’s going to be our style again this time.
Book Love:
I am way behind on keeping up with my 2013 Reading Goals! But these are the summer reads I’m going to try to make it through before September. I’m currently really enjoying The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. I haven’t read much in the way of 20th century fiction in awhile, so it’s a nice change before I jump back into some classics. I’m also re-reading The Collected Works of Flannery O’Connor for an online book discussion group. I can’t believe how much more I discover in O’Connor’s works each time I read them. What’s on your summer reading list?
In the past couple of months 4-year-old Benjamin has made a leap in his read aloud attention span and has been eating up “real” books. I tried to read him Little House in the Big Woods last year but he just couldn’t get into it. So we took a step back and just enjoyed picture books until trying out The Hobbit a couple of months ago. He loved it! Reading it together was truly one of the most delightful experiences of motherhood so far. Next we read Charlotte’s Web and now he’s loving Little House on the Prairie. If you’ve got little ones, what are they enjoying in the way of summer reads?
Not Actually News:
So I got fed up with this lackluster postpartum hair:
I mean…what’s going on here? Is it curly? wavy? straight? brown? blonde? Who knows. So I decided on going back to being a redhead:
Maybe I was inspired by letting my kids watch Brave far too much in the past month, or maybe it’s just a manifestation of my obsession with Anne-with-an-E.
The Quotable Lucy:
“Guess what, Lucy!”
“I wove wou!”
“That’s right. How much?”
“Tho much!”
“How long?”
“Ah-ways!”
I think she’s just the loveliest little girl. Even with peanut butter on her chin.
The Quotable Benjamin:
“Now that we have a kiddie pool, I can just do homeschool swim lessons!”
After weeks of throwing a fit about not wanting to take swim lessons this summer, Benjamin loves his swim lessons and is finally not freaking out about getting his face in the water. Success!
Links:
Sherlock Gets Its Celibacy Right and Its Irene Adler All Wrong at Catholic All Year (Interesting take on Sherlock. I completely agree with what Kendra says about the portrayal of Irene Adler! What made her fascinating to Sherlock Holmes was her ability to beat him with her mind. That being said…I loved the new adaption. What did you think?)
Snuggly Bedtime Books..our top ten picks at Surviving Our Blessings
It’s Not Okay to Yell at Your Kids at Life Your Way (I find myself yelling at Benjamin far too often. I made a serious effort to stop during Lent and saw a huge improvement in my mothering and my enjoyment in mothering, but in late pregnancy the yelling crept back in.)
Building a Preschool Arts Bin for Your Home at Two Os Plus More
How to Eat the Best Tomato of Your Life at Mama and Baby Love
Cave Dwellers? at The Imaginative Conservative
Wishing you a wonderful summery weekend!
Love,
Haley
P.S. You can also follow me on Twitter (@haleycarrots), Pinterest (haleyofcarrots), FB, and Instagram (carrotsformichaelmas). I love connecting with my wonderful readers!
LOVE that yawning picture! Baby yawns are the best. Pssshhht, of course Benjamin is right – *everything* can be homeschool. =) So glad he’s loving his swim lessons now though. I am dreading putting my boyOs into lessons. They love the pool, but I think they’d freak if someone other than us was attempting to teach them to do anything in it.
Oooh, Charlotte’s Web is on our list of books to read aloud. We’ve loved Mr. Popper’s Penguins, The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and 101 Dalmations thus far. =)
Thanks for the link loves, too. =)
I think we had the opposite problem, haha. B did NOT want to get his face wet and nothing I could do would motivate him (I seriously offered him a chocolate bar and no dice). So we figured that it needed to be someone other than us coaching him and he adores “Miss Amanda” his swim coach, so it worked out really well. We’ve read some of Winnie the Pooh but not Mr. Popper’s Penguins or 101 Dalmatians which I remember loving as a little girl!
Overactive letdown … usually my little guy couldn’t handle the letdown to begin with and would pop off choking, so I just caught the letdown in a burp cloth and latched him back on once I stopped spraying everywhere. He got kind of mad having to wait, but it helped things until my oversupply evened out. 🙂
Love the haircut! One of these years I am going to get myself a pixie cut. Maybe next summer. 🙂
Yes! That’s what Gwen does, too. She unlatches once the choking and sputtering begin. And thank you! It feels great for the summer!
I too experienced long-term over active over- abundant milk supply with all three of my babes. With my second, I took my midwife’s suggestion to drink sage tea. Using sage leaves from the spice aisle at the store, steep 1 tsp in 1 cup for 10min. Drink 1-2 cups/ day until you feel comfortable, for me it took two days. I did it again with my third and was successful again. Though it doesn’t do too much for an over active letdown, it does help to feel better when baby eats more than just half of one side each feeding! And if your letdown makes it awkward to feed in public, look up nursing scarves (they’re easy to make). I love mine because it gives more coverage so people don’t see or (get hit by) my letdown craziness 😉
I haven’t heard of using sage tea! Thanks for the tip, Ruthie! I won a really pretty nursing scarf from a Simple Kids giveaway and I love it.
I haven’t heard of using sage tea! Thanks for the tip, Ruthie! I won a really pretty nursing scarf from a Simple Kids giveaway and I love it.
It works well! Just take it carefully, since it can be very strong and women sometimes use it for weaning altogether!
What a great post! My favorite part: “Maybe I was inspired by letting my kids watch Brave far too much in the past month, or maybe it’s just a manifestation of my obsession with Anne-with-an-E.”
🙂 loving the red so much. I’ve always been tempted to do a pixie cut but my hair is so crazy it’d be nuts in this humidly. I will live vicariously through your pictured red tresses!
You also gotta tell me who did your hair. I need a new place.
Aw, thanks, Jeni! I go to Elizabeth Joy and she is fantastic. I’ll send you her number!
Love the red! I’m about to go back to my original (darkish blonde, light brown…whatever.) hair color. I loved being red for a bit though! Love the pics. Overactive letdown: block feeding. Feed from one breast for a period of time (3-12 hour blocks) until you start feeling comfortable (a week for some…months of others). The problem is though – while you do this you have to express juuuuuust enough milk from the other side so as not to trigger it producing more, but still avoiding mastitis. It takes me forever to regulate. I make milk like a jersey cow. I could probably easily feed triplets. I still leak at times and my nursling is 17 months old. :/ LOL. We do ecological breastfeeding here too. I love it. My little boy just turned three so I’m thinking he’s still not ready for read aloud books. I want him to be, lol, but I just don’t think the attention span is there yet. For now – we’re moving on to the more wordy picture books. 🙂
I’ve been doing the block feeding thing ever since my milk came in and it’s just now starting to help! 12 hour blocks, but I think now I can decrease to 6 hour blocks. Such a relief not to choke Gwen every time she tries to nurse! The attention span was NOT there for B at age three. But it’s so fun when they get to the point that they’re ready! You get to read all your favorites over again 🙂
I love the red hair. I’m going gray, but I’m still deciding whether it’s on principle or just out of laziness.
Thanks for the shout out!
Aw, thanks, Kendra! I loved your post and felt exactly the same way about Irene. Great insights. I’m really enjoying following your blog.
On the overactive letdown–I had that big time with my son and I had a hard time finding advice because I felt like most of the people I knew were dealing with the opposite problem!
I started nursing my son on one side at a time, which made for a SUPER painful opposite boob but slowed things down in a matter of days. I would use ice packs and cabbage leaves of the side I wasn’t nursing on to ease the engorgement discomfort. I also drank sage tea, but you have to be careful with that (& the cabbage leaves) because of course you don’t want to slow your supply down TOO much. My husband and I used to joke that we’d be good to go if we ever had triplets, because I’d be good to breastfeed all of them exclusively! Good luck with the ecological breastfeeding, it was such a huge blessing in my life and worked so well with my son (he’s 14 mo now and I’m still nursing and babywearing quite a bit!).
Just hopped over to your blog, Brandilyn. It’s great! I’m following now 🙂 And thanks for the great advice on the overactive letdown.
One of my favorite early read alouds is “My Father’s Dragon” and the two subsequent books. They are charming and adventurous and fun. I also recommend the first Boxcar Children book. It provides really wonderful examples of siblings loving and looking out for each other, and the adventure of living in a boxcar seems to be a big pull for kids. I love reading to my kids too!
I haven’t read “My Father’s Dragon.” Can’t wait to check it out! But I love The Boxcar Children. Thanks for reminding me about those!
I love your quotable kids! Adorable!
Thanks, Melissa 🙂
Love the new hair! And baby Gwen is adorable!!! (As are the other two ;)). Love reading your posts 🙂
Thank you so much, Becky!
Have you tried pumping first for a few minutes to get through the inital fast-flow, then latching Gwen on? Just an idea.
I haven’t tried that yet! I’m loathe to bust out the pump so I’m putting it off, haha. I’ve heard that can really help though! Thanks for the advice!
My dad used to read aloud to my little brother and I when we were kids. Some of our favorite “real books” were Winnie the Pooh and The Wizard of Oz. I really liked anything by Bill Peet, as I was just crazy about his artwork as a child. One summer I borrowed his entire collection from our public library and read them with my mom.
Your new do is adorable! Can’t wait to get some highlights in my hair again (only 20 more weeks (or so) to wait!)
Ooo, I love Bill Peet, too!
Have you tried nursing while lying on your back or at least reclining, with the baby on top of you? Also if you can have Gwen in a kind of vertical position- so legs down by your belly instead if your side? Gah, it would be easier to show you this in person than to try to describe it. Anyway, it feels a bit silly but it helps a little with letdown because the milk has to fight gravity and there’s less of a fire hose effect. Love the photos!
Commenting again–just wanted to second the reclining feeds! They helped a lot.
I wouldn’t recommend pumping through the letdown though, as that can ultimately lead to a worse oversupply.
Yes! We’ve been doing that and it does help a ton. If I try to nurse her in a typical hold she chokes on the milk and gets furious.
we block feed here too – 4 hours per side. really helps.
I think the block feeding is the most helpful method, by far! We’ve been doing 12 hour blocks but it’s eased up a bit so I think I can switch to 6 hr blocks.
Love the new hair! Super stylish and cute! Also love the pics of your beautiful family as always!
Thank you, Jennifer!