a few of our favorite things... the six month old baby edition.

In honor of baby C turning six months old this week I figured I could share some of our favorite things at the moment. C always loves something that is soft and cuddly and teething toys are all the rage in our house right now.  All of these things are items that we use on a daily basis lately and are oh-so-adorable!

                                         

1. Lucy Owl- When I first saw these I knew C had to have one, or three... They are super soft and you can have your child's initials or name embroidered on any of the animal's chests. 

2. Muslin Swaddles- We have at least 20 muslin swaddles in our house. I use them for EVERYTHING-for laying on the floor, for wiping up spit up, and to put in the crib with C when she sleeps as she likes to snuggle with it.  Plus they are super breathable so I don't worry about her suffocating. We have all sorts of brands but this print is oh-so-pretty.

3. Sophie the Giraffe and her cheaper but equally adorable sister Kiki the Elephant- Sophie was B's when he was a baby. B didn't like her too much but C loves her. We also have Kiki which is a great alternative if you don't want to shell out the cash for Sophie!

                                    

4. Matryoshka Doll Teethers- I came across these and bought them because they were cheap and cute.  I was pleasantly surprised when they arrived, they are perfect for holding on to and all the raised designs probably feel good to chew on.
5. Baby Links- Another favorite from the first time around. I love these because of their versatility- they can be interlinked like in the picture to be a toy or, as I like to use them, as a toy leash! I link them to things like the matryoshka teethers and then to the stroller or car seat.

6. Sit-Me-Up Seat- This thing was all the rage on one of my mommy boards so I decided to give it a whirl. It's an awesome substitute for the Bumbo! C can't sit up unassisted yet but loves to "play" with her brother, so I put her in it, throw a few toys on the tray, and put her next to her brother! (This comes with or without the tray.)

the newest member of the pack

Once again, it has been an awfully long time since I last posted. School and life often gets the best of me and if we are being brutally honest I am the worst at trying to maintain balance.  There have been some big changes in our household since I last posted as we welcomed baby C to the pack! This may be a long post but I want to share my trying to conceive (TTC) experience to give hope to others who may be struggling with trying to have a baby.

First, let me back track a little bit.  From the get go I knew I was not going to be able to conceive B without a little assistance. It took about a year to get knocked up with B with the help of injectable infertility meds. 

{It was only appropriate to add an adorable Baby B photo here}

Already going through the whole having-a-baby thing, when the hubs and I decided to try for baby #2 we thought it was going to be easy peasy like B.  Well, what happens when you have that kind of mindset? Yup, it doesn't exactly go as planned.  We did about six rounds of injectable meds with no success and ended up doing an IVF cycle. Our cycle went about as good as it can possibly go and I ended up pregnant on the first go around with eight more embryos to spare.

I'll skip over the pregnancy part. All I will say is once again pregnancy is so not my thing. I was sick for the first 27 weeks with C, then became a wild, starving, bottomless pit for the remaining 14 weeks. If you noticed, 27+14 does not equal 40... That would be because I was a week overdue with C and had to be induced.  I think that the powers-that-be do me a solid when it comes to labor and delivery because both of my kids were pretty similar. About six hours of active labor and a whole whopping five minutes of pushing.

And now I shall introduce you to our newest member of the pack, hound terrorizer in training, and little love of our life: 

Claire Lily

{Born 01/12/2015, 8:05 PM, 8 lbs & 4 oz, and 21.5" long}

And now let me inundate you with ridiculously cute C pics....

{Lily honestly believes she is human}

{and just for good measure here is B & Big Tim... Only because these might be the cutest pictures of a boy and his dog EVER.}

[Disclaimer: I understand that not everybody's IVF experience is like mine and while some might find it insensitive of me to talk about my relatively 'easy' IVF process. You have to remember that everyone's experiences are different, however we are all in the same boat.]