It has been 8 months. So, what?! Our little Autie

I just had to quickly post a pic of my little lady and her first birthday pics. I just love her so much!

We sure love Autumn!!

#PinterestFail

Well, I had a #PinterestFail the other day. We weren't doing much so I wanted to try and make a rotating can rack. You know, one of these?

Well, mine wouldn't be so awesome as I was making a homemade one but you get the drift.  I found a website http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2009/02/16/build-your-own-can-rotating-rack that gives instructions and pictures to follow along in how to make one. So, I then enlisted Mitch in my efforts. I always seem to enlist him when I have projects:)

Here is our version of making one. Not as good as theirs.

We used a template to make the rack.

We completed the project and it kind of works, we messed it up a little bit. It also took us too much time. So, we are considering it a #pinterestfail. The way I always look at it is if I can work one hour and buy it for a decent price less than or equal to what I make in an hour then I might as well just buy it.

Here is what my pantry looks like now:

Here is what I want it to look like:

I am doing such lame posts, sorry. I guess my life is just lame right now!

Random food

So, now that I am home with Autumn during the day except for Tuesdays, I find myself trying out new recipes while she is napping. This week I decided to try butter, yes butter, mayonnaise, and meringue.

Butter
 Who knew making butter was so easy. I just mixed whipping cream in my stand mixer for a few minutes until it started to form butter and the buttermilk. I emptied out the buttermilk and there it was! Butter! I am going to go even more from scratch next time and get raw milk, let it sit to form cream on the top and then mix up that cream to get my butter.

 Mayo
 I used my food processor. I added in a couple of egg yolks and turned it on. Then, I SLOWLY drizzled in oil until it started to get clumpy and that was it! Homemade mayo! I added in a little salt, some lemon juice and dijon mustard to give it some flavor. So easy!

 Meringue
I had some egg whites leftover from the mayo so I decided to make meringue (cookies). The only trick with meringue is the sugar has to be super fine like powdered sugar. So, I put the sugar in my food processor until it was really fine. I read that the ratio of egg white to sugar is 1 egg white per 1/4 c sugar. I started mixing up the egg whites and a little bit of cream of tartar until soft peaks formed. Then I slowly added in the sugar until stiff peaks were formed. I was able to take the bowl and turn it upside down with no movement from the meringue. That was it! So easy! I then put the meringue on parchment paper and put in the oven at 200 degrees F for 2 hours. Yummy! Very sugary but yummy!

I decided to try these things so I knew how to make food from scratch when I am out. Look forward to more food posts! My next attempt is going to be sourdough bread, homemade tortillas with rendered lard, curds and whey, and buttermilk substitute (like sold in the store).  Wish me luck!

And she laughs for the first time!

Autumn thought that Mitch's family's miniature dachsund, Finn, was so funny!!

My baby is 3 months!

Last week Autumn turned 3 months old! I can't believe it! She is such a sweetie and we love her so much. She sleeps like a champ and has the sweetest personality. By far my favorite thing is seeing her in the morning when she first gets up and how she smiles at me. It melts my heart every time!

She has started to hit some milestones. She found her hands this last month which was really cute. She loves to use those hands . . . by pulling on my hair. What a grip she has! She loves to play on her play mat. She loves to grab at the rings above her head and kick them.

One thing that we just crack up about is her abs of steel. She loves to just lie down on the mat and hold her legs up for long periods of time. We just laugh that she is doing yoga or pilates. It is seriously funny and cute.

Everything she does is cute :)

Another thing that is funny that she does is her fake cough and gurgling. She loves it when we fake cough or gurgle with her. She smiles every time. So cute!

Did I mention we think she is cute?

We love her coos, gummy smiles, cuddles, and even her cries. We just loving every minute of our baby girl! We love you Autumn!

Just a few pics to catch up on

I have a few months of catching up to do. Here are a few pics from when Autumn was born to Christmas. Enjoy!

                                          First bath

                                         

                                          Going home

                                                         First day home

                                          Newborn photos      

                                          Blessing day

                                                       Autumn's beautiful blessing dress
                                                        and my blessing bonnet

                                            Gettin' warm for winter

                                          2 months old!

                                                   One of Autumn's favorite activities
                                                     is hangin' with Daddy.

                                        
                                          My dad's birthday tradition at The Mandarin

                                          Cousins!!

                                                    First shots!!

                                            Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Peterson

                                           The Girls

                                             Christmas!!

                                             Me and my girl at Christmas

P.S. I am not going to avoid posting pics on my blog anymore. It is so much faster and easier to post pics on blogspot now!

Breast is best

Breastfeeding is the best thing for your baby. It provides immunity, nutrition and is important in bonding with your baby.

According to the experts, "breast is best" and that is the way it should be. Well, let me tell you how it really is.

Again, I turn back to nursing school and remember all the lectures I had on how beneficial it was to nurse rather than use formula. So, I had it set in my mind that I was going to breastfeed. I read and read. We even went to a breastfeeding class. Yes, I said "we." I love how I dragged Mitch along to all these classes and we didn't even end up needing them! Poor thing! We should have gone through a class entitled,  "How men should deal with women in all their craziness after giving birth."

At the UofU hospital they really push breastfeeding even after just giving birth. They had her trying to latch within minutes of her coming out. We tried and tried for about 45 minutes but it wasn't that successful. I just pushed that all aside because she had just come out. Surely she would latch on when we try again! Well, it didn't exactly work that way. We tried, tried and tried until I bled, had cracks, and was so tender. Bless Jackie and Kim, my nurses in post-partum, for all their help in helping me treat all of those issues. Tea bags and lanolin cream helped so much!We tried and tried and she was able to latch somewhat by the time we left the hospital. So, I thought.

The first night home was awful. Awful, awful, awful. I was trying to breastfeed her but she finally got so hungry and frustrated that she started screaming bloody murder. It got so bad I didn't know what to do and so I started crying. But, wait! I finally remembered that by the grace of God one of Mitch's co-workers had given us some extra newborn formula as a gift. Bless you Trina! As soon as I remembered that I pulled it out and made up a bottle. While I was doing that Mitch came out wondering what was wrong. He heard us both crying and was really concerned. Yep, my crying woke him up too.

It turned out her latch was not good at all. Luckily, her pediatrician's office has a lactation consultant on hand. After assessing that the positions I had her in were proper, she taught me the neatest trick! She said that newborns can't focus on two things at once. Autumn would flail her arms around while trying to feed. The lactation consultant taught me that I needed to swaddle her to keep her arms from distracting her and then she would latch better. So, every time before I fed her I would swaddle her. It worked like a charm! She latched right on!!

I had that all figured out so now nursing was going to be a breeze! Had you learned anything thus far, Megann? Apparently not. I had already forgotten that things don't work out as planned.

She was still starving even after trying to feed her for an hour at a time. I still had to majorly supplement her with formula. Ah hah! I know what I need to do! Try some herbal supplements that people suggested and what I read on the internets. I tried fenugreek, blessed thistle, nettle herb, fennel seed, and shatavari. I know you have never heard of them. I hadn't either until I tried to increase my milk supply. I tried these all for 5 weeks and was not seeing any results. Yes, I was still breastfeeding and pumping after every feeding. It wasn't the demand that was the problem. So, after talking to the midwife she determined that I have insufficient glandular tissue or IGT. Oh great! Yet another condition/syndrome/thing! There is an herb you can take called goat's rue that apparently helps the glandular tissue to develop. I had actually heard of that before so I gave it a shot. After 3 weeks it started to work! Kind of. Instead of getting nothing each time I pumped I now got 5 ml. Whoopie! Just for your reference, 5 ml is a teaspoon. So, after 30 minutes of intense pumping that is all I would get.

All in all, I tried for 9ish weeks trying to breastfeed and pump. I just had IGT and couldn't do anything about it. I tried all I could. For me, getting less than an ounce for a whole day of pumping just turned out to be too hard and not worth it so I stopped.

Do you remember DABDA? The theory of coping with a loss? Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Well, I have gone through four of these and am slowly on the path of acceptance. I think I am still in the depression phase of it as well. And maybe anger. Apparently, the lovely PCOS that I posted about on the previous post can possibly affect glandular tissue development as well as a medication I take.  Lovely!

Breastfeeding does come easy to some babies and mommas, it really does. But I would dare say that it really is hard for most. It takes work, patience, and sometimes letting go.

So what, my baby is formula fed. No she doesn't get immunity protection or nutrition from my milk. But, so what. She is happy and healthy.

Formula coma-

 Happy baby!