One of the Most Valuable Players in baby goods while our daughter was little was the Fisher-Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium swing. She was the kind of baby that could not sleep unless she was held. (Is there any other kind? I heard a rumor that there are angel sleepers out there but none in our household!)

The only way we could eat a meal without one of us holding her on one shoulder or cradling her in our arms, hoping… Read More

We knew that introducing a small, dependent creature to our house might turn our toddler daughter's world upside down so it was an all-out effort to prepare her for the Invasion.

We got a couple of Big Sister books - always a very effective way of getting our hidden agendas on Jolie's radar - and one of her Christmas presents was a baby boy doll. The baby boy doll was an instant hit. She loved how his eyes would close when… Read More

Foolishly, I thought that my second time around with breastfeeding might be a little less painful.

Nope.

Still painful.

I've become used to distorting my face in a silent scream of anguish with every latch. It gets better from that initial painful jolt, but it still hasn't become that thoughtless action that does not evoke my pain receptors from firing like crazy.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is only temporary and self-limited. The first two weeks are hardest right?

I… Read More

What a week it's been. It started off pretty hard to beat with the birth of our son, JL. Despite my still 4-5 month pregnant appearances, my body is recovering nicely, I think. Engorgement is not exactly joyful, but it in terms of overall aches and pains, I think I escaped labor relatively unscathed, making me feel like I could do it again, no problem. Something my husband does NOT want to hear right now. His strategy for making me… Read More

Wow. Labor this time around was speedy.

From the first contractions I felt to having him pop out of me, total time elapsed was about 6 hours. Everyone at the hospital seemed to think it would be fast from what I could gather by their off-hand comments. At first I thought it was a joke when my nurse said we'd be done by the time he got off shift which was in 5 hours. Apparently, he was not.

I was worried beforehand… Read More

Maybe it's my bossy side, but I am the main picture-taker in our household. I'm the one who remembers to bring the camera and delights in finding that perfect shot that captures the moment. I developed an early love for photography in high school. At one point, I was developing my own film from an entirely manual Pentax camera. THAT was cool. Over the years, I lost that technical know-how and gravitated toward the easier and less thought required point… Read More