Eilee Leighton is NINE MONTHS OLD

 Every single time that i write these updates, i cry. Every. Single. Time. I can’t fathom that my baby is growing so fast. It is incredibly emotional for me. Like, borderline unhealthily emotional. It breaks my heart. Of course, I’m thankful that she’s thriving. I’m thankful that she’s healthy. That she’s learning. That she’s growing. That her bold personality shines brighter and brighter each day. I do not take the goods for granted just because there are bads too. I’m just an overly emotional mom, i suppose. This aspect of motherhood has gotten hard for me with each kid. People assume that if you have more than one child things aren’t as personal or heart felt with each of them. Kind of like “If you have too many kids they just start to blend together”. That is 110% incorrect. I’m extremely attached to each of my kids on a very deep level for very different reasons. 

**I’ll get into that more on tomorrow’s post

Anyways, I’m pathetic and sad about the fact that I’ll soon have a “toddler” and not a “baby”. It eats me alive and makes me want to get pregnant like, yesterday BUT another baby 9 months from now won’t change the fact that Eilee still won’t be a baby anymore. One child doesn’t replace the passing aspects of another child. I wish that all of my babies were still babies. They each had very unique baby quirks that i miss big time and I can’t just keep having babies because i get baby fever. I would have 10 kids if i financially could. Don’t get me wrong. But that’s just not how life works and ultimately it won’t give me back the baby years with my children so i cherish it. I eat every moment up. I hold her through her naps. I make my bigs cuddle me despite the fact that they rarely want to. I let laundry pile up. I order take out and lay in the floor with my kids watching Zootopia instead of wasting time cooking. I don’t sleep alone with my husband because we have an open door policy and almost always have a kid or 4 in our bed by the end of the night. We know all to well how much we will miss these ages and these moments so we take it in. 

Okay, wow! Now that i got that off of my chest let’s get into the actual reason for this post ha. 

Eilee Leighton is NINE FREAKING MONTHS OLD! Guys, she’s been out longer than she was in. I’m crying. Again. 

Y’all this kid kills me. She is the funniest baby that I’ve ever met and we all know that I’ve met my fair share of babies. She’s loud and silly. She snorts at us and scrunches her nose. She mocks EVERYTHING! She will copy just about anything that you ask her to. She’s eager to learn. She cheeses it up randomly all day long. I’ll catch her literally smiling at the ceiling or wall. She’s that happy. She is very friendly with everyone and anyone. She cackle laughs. Not this quite girly laugh but a full blown witch cackle/squeal. She thinks the world of her siblings. The. World. She follows them everywhere and gets upset when they aren’t in her views. They are so amazing with her. They eat her up. I’ve always said that seeing my babies interact with each other and seeing their friendship is by far my favorite thing about being a mom. That’s still true to this day. In fact, my love for it has grown even more as time passes. It’s the best. 

Eilee is 17 1/2 lbs and 29” tall. She has SEVEN teeth. She says many words and tries to mimic anything that you throw at her. It’s the same with tricks. She knows many and will try anything that you ask her too (with in reason of course, she can’t do a back flip or sing her abc’s — maybe tomorrow — ha ha ha). She claps, shakes her head ‘no’, gives kisses and hugs, blows kisses, signs ‘more’ and ‘thank you’, blows spit bubbles, fake laughs on demand, ect. She sucks her thumb constantly and has since birth. I always forget to include that in these updates and it’s something that i don’t want to forget years from now so i threw it in today. She nurses 99% of the time but will — sorta — take a bottle on the rare occasion that i leave her. I almost always time it to where i leave her in between feedings so I’m back before she’s hungry again. No bottle needed because she’s not a big fan of them. She is a booby/milk monster in the biggest way and our bond is incredible. I’m her favorite person. It makes me feel so good. Brian always says how much she loves me and i must say, it’s true. She watches me if I’m not holding her. She smiles when she hears my voice. She is my shadow if i put her town. She’s my girl. My others ended up being daddy’s kids’. Im holding out hope that Eilee never converts. That’s secretly why I’m going to breastfeed until she’s 3 plus ha. Gotta keep her attached to the boob. Literally. She does loves big girl food too though. She eats what we eat for the most part. She really likes meat. If she has fruit on her plate, she will still pick the meat first. She crawls everywhere and just yesterday started trying to pull up. Although she fell and hit her chin hard and it scared the shit out of me so now I’m stalking her like a scorned women stalks her cheating lover to make sure that she doesn’t do it again. It was a good month of growth and  learning new things. She’s such a joy. I catch myself tearing up regularly out of pure love and happiness. She completed parts of me that i didn’t know were missing, as did all of my babies. I’m stupid blessed and honored to be Mama Lane. 

School Clothes — Spring Haul, Sales, & Tips

Recently i did a Spring clothes haul for the kids. I noticed that some of our favorite stores were having big sales so i took advantage of it seeing as all 4 kids are in different sizes then they were last Spring and the weather here has become increasingly more mild. When it comes to having kids (especially kids in school who constantly ruins their clothes, we will get to that) I’m sure that I’ll need to buy more clothes for Summer at some point but for now, they are set. I bought from 4 places, all of which were having some sort of sale — aside from Amazon. Target is having a BOGO on dresses. The Children’s Place is having 60% off of the entire store. Carter’s is having 50% off of the entire store plus doorbusters. If you have kids, check out the sales. I got 3 new wardrobes basically for around $375. The baby had plenty of onesies and pajamas so she didn’t need an entire wardrobe haul. 

Anyways, to the point of this post: a Facebook conversation last week brought up the topic of how much kids trash their clothes at school. I learned quickly to not send my kids to school in expensive clothes. For a long time that frustrated me. I was always the mom who had her kids dressed super cute and in nice clothes. Dressing my kids is actually something that i enjoy. It’s my favorite. I have an addiction to buying clothes for my kids and i love kids fashion. Dressing the girls, to be more specific. I LOVE being a girl mom and dressing them up all girly with matching outfits and bows. I love the jewelry. The nail polish. The glitter. The fluff. The frills. I just love it all and would totally be okay with having a 4th girl ha. So obviously, having my girls covered in paint and dirt drove me nuts. Ruining $80-$100 dresses drove me nuts. Losing expensive hair bows drove me nuts. And them swapping shit with other kids? Don’t even get me started on the girls constantly coming home with other girls hair bows because they “traded JoJo bows for the day” with so and so. Ugh. Drives me insane not only for the obvious yuck, lice reasons but also because if you have girls you know how expensive those JoJo bows are. I’m doing better with the not dressed to impress stage of life that we are in. I have a method to simplify my life and save my sanity. 

The kids have 2 categories when it comes to clothes. They have ‘school cloths’ which are folded in their drawers and they have ‘dress clothes’ which are hung up in their closets. School clothes are new-mildly wore cheap clothes that they wear to school or to play outside. Dress clothes are for special occasions, pictures, dates, parties, ect. I always send spare clothes too just to be safe because we’ve had a few times when a kid peed their pants or spilled syrup on themselves and needed to change. It’s much easier for the school to have extra clothes for them rather than me having to take clothes to the school. There were a few days when i had to run to school twice in one day. Brian and i laughed about it later but at the time waking the baby up, getting us both dressed, and driving to town within 4 hours of each other was frustrating. 

I hope that these current sales and tips help some of you and if anyone has any more tips on this topic please feel free to share them. I’m always open ears when it comes to making my life easier. 

My Advice to First Time Moms

Today at my cousins baby shower i was asked for my advice to first time moms/what would i tell myself if i could go back before i had my oldest. At first, I joked and said that i had no clue because i lacked experience. We all laughed seeing as I’m a mom of four. But then i gave them my answer — which was this (minus some of the in depth points that i added after thinking it over more deeply):

• Don’t wish time away by rushing your baby to grow faster. As a first time mom most of us get so eager for our babies to do new things. We rush it. We brag about how our freak of nature, prodigy child defines all odds and does things super early. We push tummy time to build muscles faster so that they will physically mature by society’s standards. We introduce solids early on because we get excited to see what that will be like despite the fact that it’s proven to not be best for baby’s under developed guts until they reach 6 months old AT LEAST. We claim that they can sit up unassisted even though the reality is that they only sat long enough to snap a second long picture (guilty of this with my oldest). We rush things because we are curious about what the future holds. We are curious about what each stage of development will be like. We also feel pressure from outsiders for our kids to do things on a certain timeline. After all, we’ve never been a mom before. We don’t know better. Don’t do it. I promise you that you’ll regret how fast time goes. It’s your biggest enemy! Cherish every single moment for what it is authentically worth. Kids will do things when they are ready, which leads me to my next point. 

• Don’t compare your baby to other babies. Let them be their own person. Let them develop at THEIR rate. Don’t freak out if they aren’t crawling by 6 months old. Don’t freak out if they take longer to hold their heads up. Don’t worry if so and so’s baby who was born the same week as yours can do things that yours can not and on the other side of that don’t rub it in to those parents if yours can and theirs can’t. You will find that motherhood is full of pressure for kids to meet certain milestones by a certain age. Don’t obsess over that. Kids learn at their own pace. I have 4. I know this for a fact. They were each different despite my parenting methods being exactly the same. This continues for basically ever. From crawling to potty training to learning to write their name to who has the best grades to who is the best driver. You’ll face that forever so just learn now to not compare and to teach your kids to not compare either. 

• Don’t stock up on each size of baby clothes. Most babies grow super fast. They don’t stay in the same size long. I learned the hard way to not have a ton of baby clothes. Eighty percent of their wardrobes still had tags on them. A good base in my opinion is the 14 rule. Fourteen styles per size. Fourteen sleepers. Fourteen everyday sets. Fourteen onesies. Fourteen dressy outfits. 

• You can never take too many pictures or videos! Be sure to get the up close details. Their hands. Their feet. Their lips. The way that they suck their fingers. The way that they curl their legs up under them and stick their butt up. Be sure to record the special quirks. The noises they make when they eat/nurse. The giggles. The coos. The babbles. The growls. Get it all. 

• If breastfeeding is important to you, DO NOT GIVE IT UP! You will absolutely regret it if you do. It’s hard. Their are many reasons to quit but don’t. Exhaust all options first. This is easily my biggest regret as a mom. I gave up breastfeeding by 6 months with three of my kids and i hate that. Breastfeeding my youngest has been my favorite thing. Our bond is unexplainable. Of course you bond with all of your babies despite how they are fed but from experience i can say that the bond through nursing is undeniably different than the bond without it. It’s deeper and more personal. It’s beautiful. I wish every mother was able to have it.                   

• Research both sides of vaccinating with a genuinely open mind. Don’t look for what you want to see. Look at ingredients. Look at reactions. Look at statistics for deaths related to illnesses vaccinated against vs deaths related to vaccine injuries. Ect. 

• Baby wearing is LIFE! Seriously, life! Get you a good carrier. A wrap is hands down my favorite baby wear carrier style for infants. Boba and Solly are my favorite brands. To me, a good wrap is the #1 must have baby product. 

• Slow down and simply enjoy it. Make rocking your baby to sleep a priority. Make holding him or her while they nap a priority. Make skin to skin a priority. Breath them in. Make play time in the floor on their level a priority. Make story time a priority. Sing to them. Cuddle them. Cherish them. The chores can wait. You don’t get these moments back. Ever. 

Have Kids, They Said

Mom life is disgusting. Seriously, y’all it can be the dirtiest job on the planet. I often find myself looking at my life and thinking, ‘This can’t be normal!’ or ‘I wish someone was recording a day in the life of me.’. My most recent glamorous mom life story: 

**Disclaimer — if you have a weak stomach do not read**

The kids and i went to my parents house to visit. As always my dad instantly gets the baby out of her car seat so that he can hold her. The bigs go outside to play with Liv. Dad and i are talking (gossiping most likely) when Charlee throws the front door open, runs to the bathroom, is in there like 30 seconds, then runs back outside. Okay, no big deal. We continue to talk but dad started to smell something awful so he blames Eilee then hands her to me. I check her diaper. It’s clean. Again, we continue to talk not knowing where the smell was coming from. A few minutes pass and dad just keeps making remarks about the smell. Soon Andlee comes in to go potty. She walks into the bathroom but quickly comes running back out, tears in her eyes, and gagging. Not just the fake ‘that’s gross’ gag but the deep, loud, made her cry, ‘i just threw up in my mouth’ gag. Charlee had shit and it was stuck to the side of the toilet so it wouldn’t flush. We all die laughing. Joke was on me though because i had to go clean it up and it was the worst smell that I’ve EVER smelt. I was gagging and pissed by the end of it. Let’s be honest, i hated being a mom in that moment. Little did i know what was to come. I had just finished cleaning the bathroom when Charlee comes back inside. I asked her why she didn’t make sure that her poop flushed. She got embarrassed and began to cry — triggering an asthma attack. If you have kids with asthma you know that the attacks can lead to coughing which usually leads to vomiting and/or gagging. Guess who threw up her entire carrot based lunch all over my parents foyer?! Charlee did. Guess who had to clean it up? I did. Guess who threw up while she was cleaning it? That would be me. Guess who almost threw up while i was throwing up? That would be my dad. My mom is in the kitchen laughing so hard that she’s bawling. My dad was laughing so hard through the gagging. Hudson was just sitting there eating his grapes and didn’t even flinch. He was not phased. This is normal for us. It’s a shit show. Literally. 

Have kids, they said. 

It’ll be fun, they said. 

Mom life can be ugly. It’s down right disgusting at times. I could be all motivational and say embrace every moment but those gross moments suck. You just have to make it through it, drink a big glass of wine, and take a deep breath. This too shall pass. 

Eilee Leighton is EIGHT MONTHS OLD

We officially have an 8 month old baby girl today. Holy shit. Like, didn’t i just take the pregnancy test with her?! Wasn’t that 5 minutes ago?! Ugh. It’s a very conflicting emotion to watch your children grow. It’s exciting to see them learn so much and to see what their personalities are like but it’s sad that you’re losing so much time with them. It’s sad because i miss them being tiny. Mom life at it’s finest, bittersweet. Month seven was another great month of learning. Eilee is 18. 7 lbs and 29 1/2” tall. She can wave ‘bye-bye’ with her arm and her leg, shake her head and say ‘no no’, give kisses, clap her hands, she’s mastering a crawl, and we are working on sign language and blowing kisses. She now has 3 teeth and her 2 top middle teeth are also about to break through. She’s the friendliest and happiest baby on the planet. She will literally smile at anyone 100% of the time even if she’s sick. It’s the first thing that people say about her when they meet her, “She’s so happy!”. Her happiness is contagious. She loves to wrestle with her siblings and she’s definitely on the rough side when it comes to pets. She grabs them and doesn’t want to let go. She has the cutest squeal/cackle. It’s super loud and she does it constantly. She tells me ‘no’ when i put her into her car seat but she actually loves car rides. She just doesn’t like being strapped in, not that i blame her. She loves to stare out the back door at the cows and dogs. She has recently started baby led weaning with food and isn’t picky at all. She loves food but she also still loves her milkies. If you ask her where her milk is she pulls my shirt down/up and buries her head into my chest ha. She’s a true joy and we all love her dearly.