A Little Mama Love

Happy Halloween!!!

I received the MOST AWESOME care package from my sweet bloggy friend Becca. If you arent reading her blog, you should be. She sent me a care package especially for me... one of the few non-baby things Ive received in the last nine or so months. She knows how much I LOVE pumpkin flavored things (have I mentioned that on here before?).

She sent:

*Pumpkin Spice Cookie Mix with cinnamon icing. YUM! I cant wait to make these! Im a sucker for all things pumpkin, but also for cookies. They are definitely a weakness of mine.
*Organic chocolate roasted tea. Seriously? Chocolate flavored organic tea? Yes please!
*A fall themed foodie magazine. I <3 magazines. I only subscribe to one (Cooking Light) because I feel bad spending money on magazines for myself, but I love them. If I could, I would subscribe to Martha Stewart Living, Southern Living, several cooking magazines and maybe even People for some mindless entertainment.
*A satin sleep mask for some help with daytime shut eye. Haha, yeah right. Like I get any shut eye ever, but one day I know my baby will sleep and when she does, Ill happily put on my new mask and snooze right along with her.
*Medela quick steam clean bags. I've been using these for a few weeks and love them! They are so convenient and easy to use.
*Organic lip balm. I cant tell you how much I needed this. Most lip balms give me a yeast infection in the corners of my mouth. Yes, seriously. It started with Bath & Body works lip gloss and now Blistex does it too. That's a whole other post though. Im super excited to try some organic balm because my poor lips need some moisture and the long cold Germany winter is looming.
*Two cans of organic pumpkin. I made pumpkin brownies this week. (Thank you Pinterest) They were so good, Im going to have to make them again and this time, Ill use the organic stuff. Love it, especially since we cant get specialty things like that here in Germany.

and......

*PUMPKIN SPICE COFFEE!!!!
I cant tell you how excited I am about this. Ive just started drinking coffee again this week- only half a cup a day. It's been heavenly having coffee again. I decided that since Baby M is crazy and fussy no matter what I eat/drink, I might as well enjoy half a cup a day. My lactation consultant agreed. =)

Thank you Becca! You are so awesome and sweet and receiving this care package seriously made my week!

Newborn Photos

When Baby M was 10 days old, we had her newborn photos taken. 

It was not a pleasant experience, to say the least. 

First off, I dont think our photographer (who came highly recommended) had very much experience with newborns. She didnt have a lot of ideas for poses or props. Thank goodness for Pinterest; I came prepared. 

Secondly, she suggested taking the baby's diaper off for some naked shots about 15 minutes into the two hour shoot. So I took off M's diaper. While Im waiting for the photographer to arrange the props, M pees ALL over me. 

Ugh. 

Thank goodness I was wearing black, right? 

Sure, and so she peed on me again. All within the space of five minutes. 

Cue the incredible fussiness, the inconsolable crying. She was seriously hating having her picture taken. 

So I decided to try and feed her, which usually calms her. I take her into the bathroom, sit on the toilet (because the photographer did not offer a more comfortable option, rude), and proceed to feed her. 

Aannnddddd............ 

She poops.... explosively.....all.over.me. 

Of course. 

So she's screaming and Im getting all teary eyed because we havent taken our family photos yet and for f*ck's sake, we'd only been there for maybe 30 minutes and it was already a cluster. Thank God my mom and J were with me to help clean us up and calm me down. I was ready to cancel the whole thing.

After lamenting that my shirt was ruined and we wouldnt be able to have our family photos taken, the photographer offered one of her black shirts. It wasnt perfect, but it worked. 

M was fussy for the entire rest of the shoot and most of the photos with her eyes closed are in between screams. 

I now know better for future children and future photo shoots. 

*Schedule the shoot in the morning or late afternoon, not at noon, when the baby is most likely going to be fussy.

*Save the diaperless shots for last, for goodness sakes.

*Bring extra clothes. For everyone. 

*Bring extra wipes. We ran out. 

*Wait until the baby is 3 weeks old. They may be "less flexible", but will probably be better behaved. (M was much calmer at three weeks than 10 days.)

Despite the shit storm that was this photo shoot, we still managed to get some absolutely adorable shots. Here are some of my favorites:

And my favorite:

Happy Monday!