Friday Favorites

The first week back after winter break is always rough. Back to the land of real clothes and not spending all day in our pajamas. Back to 7 am wake up calls and rushing to get the big kids to the bus stop on time instead of staying in bed and snuggling a sleeping baby. Back to swim lessons and girl scout meetings. Back to scheduled pediatrician checkups on back to back mornings this week. One of the appointments I even scheduled at 8:15 am. I'm pretty sure I wasn't thinking clearly when I agreed to that time. Thankfully the week is almost over and we have a whole lot of nothing planned for the weekend.

The Good Place was back last night along with Brooklyn 99's debut on NBC, Victoria is back on Masterpiece this Sunday, and the Schitt's Creek season premiere is coming up on Wednesday. Best week of TV ever? Quite possibly. I bought this mug for my best friend and I as Christmas gifts. It is my new favorite mug and I hear Alexis's voice every time I read it.

This coffee with this creamer. It has put the happy back into my non dairy morning coffee.

I am using this halter swim suit as motivation to loose the extra 20 lbs I gained with Penny and am still holding onto. Ralph Lauren swimwear is my favorite, especially after kids.

I'm not doing Whole 30, but I am cooking a lot of my favorite Whole 30 recipes for dinner right now. This chili recipe is an absolute favorite. I tone down the heat for the kids and then add pasta and cheese just before serving them.

Cloud Island sleep and plays are my current favorite thing to dress Penny in for one simple reason, they zip from the bottom, plus the patterns are pretty adorable. It makes those 5am diaper changes a little bit easier when you don't have to fully unzip the sleeper and sleep sack.

I had a couple people mention the Haakkaa to me while I was still pregnant with Penny. I immediately bought one and it has come in so handy. It was great for when my milk came in and I was engorged all the time. I would get 3 ounces each time I used it. Now that my supply has regulated I get way less, but its still a great way to build a freezer stash without actually having to pump. I haven't been away from her for a feeding yet, but I know the time will come that I have to be.

If you follow me on Instagram (@jennpargeon) and watch my stories, you know that I love the band Tall Heights. Their album Pretty Colors For Your Actions has been on repeat pretty much nonstop since it came out and I am still loving it.

No favorites post would be complete without my favorite thing in the whole world right now, Penelope's smile. It's my absolute favorite when babies learn to smile and eventually laugh. The absolute best.

Penelope Jo - 2 Months

December flew by and our baby girl is now 2 months old. She had a lot of firsts last month. First evening with a babysitter(Grandma), first time rolling over, first time sleeping through the night(9 hours), first real smile, first Christmas, first New Year, first pub visit, first time meeting her aunts, uncles, and cousins. She slept through most of it, although we are starting to see lots more awake time.

Sleep is of course top priority with a newborn, and we are really lucking out in that department. She still refuses to sleep in the rock and play at night, but she will happily take naps there. We are still swaddling and make use of the pacifier during naps. At bedtime she refuses the pacifier if I'm around, but will occasionally take it from dad, or one of her siblings. Usually the pacifier results in her fussing again after 2 minutes. I'm sure we could push the pacifier more, but at this point, why bother? She prefers snuggles and nursing, and I don't mind giving it to her. One of my favorite things is being curled up next to her and feeling her little feet wiggle around against my legs while she nurses. It's the sweetest thing and something I will always remember about cosleeping with her.

She doesn't have a set wake time and her naps are very sporadic. She's usually ready for a nap after an hour to hour and a half of awake time, but it's anyone's guess as to how long she'll stay asleep. Sometimes she'll only naps 20 minutes, and other times she'll nap 2 hours. We try to stick with an E.A.S.Y( eat, activity, sleep, your time) schedule, but sometimes it ends up being more E.A.E.S.Y or E.A.E.S.A.E.S.Y. Not enough sleeping, way more eating, you get the idea. Activity consists of laying on her play mat, chilling in the bouncy seat, or having face to face time with whoever is holding her. She's definitely becoming more interested in the stimulation her toys provide. She will happily chill in her bouncy seat while I make dinner most nights.

She had her two month checkup yesterday and is weighing in at 14 lbs, up just over 2 lbs from last month, and is 23" long. There is some minor concern about the growth plates in her head, which I'll share more about once we know what's going on. I personally think it will turn out to be nothing, but our pediatrician wants us to evaluate the situation further. She was diagnosed with oral thrush at her 1 month check up and I thought we had it cleared up, but apparently not all the way. So she's back on Nystatin again until we can clear the thrush. Thankfully it hasn't effected me at all. Overall she is a big, healthy baby.

She had her hearing test done this month, and as we suspected there is no cause for concern. She passed her test and they are attributing the failed test in the hospital to retained fluid in her ears. None of our other kids had that problem, but it is relatively common, especially in c-section babies.

After two months I am still asking myself if she is really the easiest baby ever or if I just think that because she's a singleton after two sets of twins. I still have no definitive answer to that question, but I have a feeling it's a little of both. Whatever the reason, she fits in perfectly with the rest of our crazies.

Penelope Newborn Pictures

I hope you're ready for newborn Penelope overload. Back when she was just 10 days old, we had a newborn session with the talented Gillian Dyan Photography. Gill has been taking pictures of our family since Harrison and Brooke were a year old. With the exception of Scarlett and Clark's newborn session, all of our professional pictures since then have been taken by Gill. We've had a lot of great sessions with her, but this one is by far my favorite. None of the kids were too excited about participating, but she still managed to get a couple pictures where they're all looking in the general area of the camera and no one is picking their nose. I consider that a win. Penelope was a champ for the whole session and slept for basically 4 hours straight. 

All photos property of Gillian Dyan Photography.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a fun time celebrating 2018 last night. There was so much of 2018 that didn't get shared on this little blog so I thought I'd kick off 2019 by taking a quick look back at 2018. I was actually hoping to end 2018 by looking back, but the baby decided not to nap yesterday unless I was holding her. She did sleep from 9pm to 6am without waking to eat, so I can't be too mad about her lack of napping. I'm currently sitting in bed next to her while she naps, so fingers crossed her laying next to me is as good as me holding her.

January

We started off the year with new furniture, finishing off our living room makeover. Rob and I celebrated 13 years of marriage and he turned 33.

February

I celebrated Valentine’s Day with my little people. After being told at the beginning of the month that there was still a less than 1% chance of ever getting pregnant on our own, we found out at the end of the month that we were pregnant.

March

We celebrated St Patrick’s Day at the lake with my parents. We got to see the baby on ultrasound for the first time and confirm that it was growing well and had a nice strong heartbeat.

April

We announced our pregnancy on social media and got our final release from our RE’s office. Scarlett and Clark graduated from cribs into twin size beds. Harrison and Brooke got bunk beds and a room makeover.

May

We found out “it’s a girl!” Prenatal testing showed less than a 1% chance for genetic abnormalities. Brooke and Harrison turned 6 and finished kindergarten.

June

We went strawberry picking. Harrison and Brooke went to their first summer camp. While they were at camp, the littles and I enjoyed fun mornings at the zoo. We had baby girl’s anatomy scan which further showed that she was a healthy, growing baby.

July

We spent almost 2 weeks at the lake visiting with family and friends. All 4 kids learned to ski with the E-Z Ski. We drove a couple thousand miles on our first road trip ever. We visited my brother and brother in law in Denver. We drove up a 14,000 ft mountain, spent a day at a water park, and got to taste some of the best ice cream in the world. Rob and I finished out the month seeing Foo Fighters in concert with some friends.

August

I turned 36! Harrison and Brooke started 1st grade in separate schools. Rob and I spent a day in Indianapolis with friends. We ate great food, went to Cake Bake Shop, and saw Tall Heights, Cake, and Ben Folds in concert. The kids and I spent lots of time at the pool.

September

We enjoyed cooler mornings at the zoo during September. We went to our favorite fall festival with Rob’s parents. I spent a lot of the month starting to get ready for baby girl’s arrival. After 7 years with the same company, Rob started a new job.

October

We did all the fall things in October. Wild Zoo Halloween, visited the pumpkin patch, got to go trick or treating twice, ate pumpkin spice everything. I got the ok from my OB for one last day trip at 37 weeks, so off to Indy I went for another concert, Tall Heights again, tacos, and loads of macaroons.

November

We completed our family on November 1st when we welcomed  Penelope Jo. We spent the month in the newborn haze. We celebrated Thanksgiving with a laid back day at home and dinner with Rob’s parents.

December

This was the month from hell. Viral gastroenteritis, pink eye, strep throat, colds, and lice. We got hit with every terrible thing all at once. There were a lot of good moments too. Penny started sleeping through the night. We celebrated Christmas at the lake with all of my siblings and nephews. Scarlett and Clark turned 3!

2018 was so good to us. While not everything was perfect, the ups definitely outnumbered the downs. 2019 has a lot to live up to. 

I am not big on resolutions, but there are a couple things I plan to focus on in the new year. After being so great about healthy eating and mornings at the gym in 2017 and early 2018, it all went by the wayside once I got pregnant. Exhaustion and morning sickness took over and I never got back into healthy habits. Now that I'm 2 month postpartum, I feel like I am ready to start mild exercise and meal planning again. We aren't quite to a scheduled routine with Penny yet, but once we get there it will be a lot easier. Breastfeeding makes "dieting" impossible, but healthier choices need to become a priority.

Once Penny's routine emerges it will also be easier to plan our mornings. I'm hopeful that by the time the weather starts to warm, we can get in the habit of taking morning outings again. Simple things like trips to the library, park, or museum. I feel like Scarlett and Clark have missed out on a lot of the experiences Harrison and Brooke had when they were little. Older siblings in school and now a baby to contend with make it more difficult to find time for the same fun outings the older kids got to enjoy.

Finding more time for Rob and I is also a priority. We have been doing a surprisingly good job of it since Penny was born, but it's definitely easy to let work and kids take priority and then our relationship takes a backseat. On a similar note, I also want to make sure self care is a priority. Both of these get harder the more kids we throw into the mix.

Cheers to a great start to a new year!