Thrifty Wife Happy Life

Helping women love what they wear on a budget

Baby on a Budget- Homemade Baby Food

by Katie Haller

 
When it comes to baby food, I always knew that I wanted to make my own when I had a baby of my own.  For one, I feel like it’s healthier for the baby to have fresh food.  Another reason is that it is so much cheaper!  I’ve browsed the baby food aisle and what I’ve found is that it would get pretty expensive to feed my baby store-bought food every day, especially if I wanted to use the organic baby food.  
 

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Baby Update- 6 Months

by Katie Haller

It’s hard to believe that my little Jack is 6 months old.  I had hoped to have this post up closer to his actual half birthday, but of course, it’s taken me a few weeks.  He’s now 6 months and 2 weeks old.  I can’t believe how fast time has gone.  It seems like I was just pregnant yesterday.  It just goes to show that you need to cherish every day during the first year because they change daily.

Currently, my little guy is trying very hard to crawl.  He’s very busy rolling everywhere.  He loves to play with his toys and I love watching him discover how to use them and play independently.  He is very curious about the world around him.  I love that about him!
6 months is such a fun age, but I’m also finding it to be challenging at times.  Right now, Jack is cutting his first teeth.  I’m not sure when they are going to show up, but I can tell that they must be getting closer by his discomfort.  Along with the teething, our nights are long.  Lately, he’s been up 3-4 times a night.  He has never actually slept through the night since he was born.  The doctor suggested that I sleep train him, but it’s not as easy as he made it sound.  I tried it but failed.  I might try again soon, but part of me is hoping that he will just magically surprise me and sleep a full 6 hours in a row one night.
I have also slowed up on breastfeeding.  Breastfeeding was such a challenge for me in the beginning and I hated it and couldn’t wait until I could be done.  But then after a while, I grew to love it.  Now I wish that I could breastfeed longer, but it’s hard when you’re working and pumping.  I knew that I wanted to start weening him around 6 months, but I wasn’t expecting him to ween himself.  I was really sad at first when I started to lose my milk supply, but now I’m just trying to slowly be done with nursing.  We are down to just comfort nursing at night, but it’s sometimes more for my comfort than his.  I just need a little more time before we are 100% strickly bottles.
There have been lots of changes in the last 6 months, but I’m trying to enjoy every minute that I can.  I’m loving being a mom and having this little addition to our lives.  

5 Free Ways to Get in Shape After Baby!!

by Katie Haller

   
For most women, one of the hardest parts of having a new baby is getting their pre-baby body back.   It’s not easy.  Every women’s body is affected differently by pregnancy.  For me, my weight gain during my pregnancy was all in my belly.  I remember when my baby bump first started to show, I could feel all my muscles in my abdomen stretching.  There is no doubt that my baby really did a number on my abs.  On top of the stretching of my abdominal muscles, having a c-section didn’t help much.   
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ashamed of my new mom body.  I’m actually very proud of it.  I grew a human in me for 9 months and I think that’s something to be proud of, but like most women, I’d like to lose the mom pouch as it’s called.

I’ve always been a very petite person and it never took me much to stay in shape, but things change after you have a baby.  I think it’s important to set realistic goals for yourself.  Remember that you just carried a 6 plus pound human in you.  It takes 9 months to grow a baby, so it will take time to shed that baby weight.  Don’t expect it to happen overnight.  My goal is to flatten out my belly and get some of my ab muscles back that I used to have. 

So how can new moms lose that baby weight and get back to their old pre-baby body?  For me, I don’t spend money on gym memberships or expensive classes.  I feel like there are plenty of ways to work out on your own.  Here are some ways that I’m working out for free.
Walk/Run- I’m not a runner, but I do love to go on walks.  I feel like there is no easier way to workout for free than walking or running.  All you need are a pair of tennis shoes and you’re ready to go.  It’s the perfect workout for new moms because you can include your baby.  Jack loves his weekend walks with me. 
Baby Exercises-  I love finding ways to include my baby into my workouts.  When I’m not at work, I like to spend every moment I can with Jack, that’s why including him into my workouts is a great way for us to spend time together.  I feel like there is a big movement with baby workouts right now, so it’s easy to find exercise ideas.  Here are a few great baby exercises that I’ve been trying out, here and here. 

Workout Videos- If you’re like me, you might have a few workout DVD’s laying around your house.  I like to use them to get a full-body workout from my living room.  I have a few Jillian Michaels videos that always give me a great workout.  I also like to use YouTube to search for new workouts.  There are tons of great workouts on YouTube and it’s free.

Pinterest- Using Pinterest as a resource for workouts is a great idea!  One thing for me when it comes to working out is that I feel like I have a lack of time to fit it into my day.  That’s why I love finding quick workout plans that are easy and effective.  I’ve been doing a lot of pinning of postpartum workouts you can check out on my Pinterest page (here).

Workout Apps- There is literally an app for everything.  There are lots of different apps out there that will help you diet and help you get on a fitness plan.  I’ve always used Map My Run to track the distance I go on my walks and it will also tell you how many calories you burned.  Since I’m focusing on my core, I recently downloaded an app called Abs & Core Sworkit.  It is basically like having your own personal trainer.  If you’re looking to count your calories, my favorite app for that is My Fitness Pal.  Find an app that works for you and use it.  The great thing is that most apps are free, so you can try one out and if you don’t like it, just delete it and find another. 

Those are my free ways I’m getting in shape after baby.  How did you do it? 


Simple Sunday

by Katie Haller

I haven’t done a Simple Sunday post in a year probably, but today I felt the need to quickly reflect on my weekend.  I like to do Simple Sunday posts to reflect on the things in my life that I love so that I can emphasize on the “happy life” part of my blog.
This weekend I barely left the house, but I got to spend the weekend with my boys.  Lately, on the weekends we have been trying to get out and do something as a family, but this weekend it was just nice to be home.  Jack is changing so much every day and I love getting to spend the entire day with him.  He’s smiling and laughing all the time now.  He thinks that his daddy is hilarious and I love to watch the two of them together.  Now that I’m back at work, I appreciate every moment I get to spend with my little family. 
My Saturday outfit, accessorized with a baby.

We took a lot of baby selfies! I couldn’t help myself.

He just discovered his hands a couple weeks ago.

All smiles!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend too!!  Have a great week!

Life with Baby

by Katie Haller

I promise that one of these days I will get back to my normal outfit posts and thrifty tips, but as of right now my life is revolving around my new baby.  It has been kind of a crazy couple of weeks at home with our little guy.  Time feels like it’s flying by, but I also feel like things are standing still.
It’s such a weird feeling when you bring a new baby home.  I know that people have told me that the first few weeks with a newborn are hard, but I think I just chose to ignore them.  I think the most challenging thing for me has been trying to recover from my c-section while caring for Jack.  Luckily, I’ve had a lot of help.  I feel better than I did a week ago and I’m starting to feel more and more like myself each day, but I’m not perfect yet.
It definitely feels weird not being pregnant anymore.  As much as I hated being pregnant, I miss it, if that makes any sense at all.  I hated how uncomfortable I felt and how huge I was, but I miss having my baby with me all the time and feeling him move around.  It’s a weird feeling actually holding him in my arms, knowing that he used to be inside me. 
Even though having a newborn has some challenges with the lack of sleep, the poopy diapers, breastfeeding and all the other things that come with having a new baby, it’s still one of the most wonderful feelings that I’ve ever had.  I’m overwhelmed with happiness when I look at Jack.  I can’t believe that I’m his mom and I grew him for 9 months.  It’s pretty amazing.  I love this newborn stage, but I look forward to watching him grow and getting to know him more every day. 
Here are a few pictures of my little angle.

My Birth Story

by Katie Haller

When it came to childbirth, I was always pretty relaxed about it.  I am not the kind of person to come up with a detailed birth plan with all my wants and wishes.  My birth plan was always to get my baby out as safely as possible and if I could make it less painful, then that was good too.  I’m so glad I didn’t have a birth plan that I felt I had to stick to because my birth experience was nothing that I could have planned for.  I talked with friends who have had kids, I read blogs of birth stories, watched birth stories on YouTube, but nothing could have ever prepared myself for what I experienced.  Everything that I thought would happen, didn’t happen.  I wasn’t going to share my birth story at first, but after going through with it,  I realized every woman has a different story, and maybe mine might help some first-time mom like myself. 
The morning of the day that my water broke. I thought I looked huge, little did I know my little guy was wanting out.

Labor
Wednesday, I went through my normal day.  I went to work, Kevin and I took my car in to the dealership for a check, we came home and had a normal evening together.  I had no signs of pain throughout the day.  Then at about 10:00 pm,  I woke up to go to the bathroom.  I noticed some extra water coming out of me.  I thought I was just losing control of my bladder, but it didn’t stop there.  I kept feeling leakage.  I spent an hour googling “water breaking”.  Since I had no contractions, I thought I had plenty of time to get to the hospital.  I didn’t want to wake up Kevin yet, so I went back to bed.  About 1:30 am I woke up with a pretty strong, but bearable contraction.  I decided to time them.  Before I knew it, they were less than 5 minutes apart.  I got Kevin up and he got ready as I tried to pack a bag for the hospital and clean my kitchen.  (It was 10 days before my due date, so I was a little unprepared.)  When we got to the hospital, I was in so much pain, it was horrible.  I was checked around 4:30 am and I was dilated to 4 cm.  There were so many babies being born on that day, that I got the last delivery room on the floor, which was doubling as a hospital storage room.  They were able to get me an epidural right away.  The epidural was amazing.  It helped make the pain go away and I felt relaxed.  The nurse checked me right after the epidural kicked in and I was already at 8 cm.  She told me I pretty much had dilated all the way to an 8 on my own without the epidural.  She also said I would probably be having my baby by lunchtime.  I was happy that things were moving along so quickly.  I thought that maybe my labor wouldn’t be so bad after all.  I was wrong though. 
Pushing 
Between 8 and 9 am, I was dilated to 10 cm.  Instead of pushing right away, they had me in a couple different positions to help bring the baby down.  The nurse would leave me in a position for 15 minutes then she would have me push a little, then switch positions.  We did this for an hour in a half or so.  Then she started having me really push.  This was the hardest part by far.  The nurse had turned off the epidural, so I could feel the contractions and know when to push.  It was so exhausting, frustrating and painful.  No matter how hard I pushed, the baby would not come down.  The nurse said I was doing a good job pushing, but the baby just wasn’t having it.  He was always cradled on my left side and he kept turning his head, making it harder for me to push him out.  After a little more than 2 hours of pushing like that with no results, the doctor said we would have to do a c-section.  Of course, I didn’t want that.  I was determined that I’d just get him out myself, but of course, that didn’t happen.  Before I knew it the epidural was turned back on and I was being wheeled into the operating room. 

Delivering
I really never thought that I would need a c-section.  I had such a healthy pregnancy, I was not prepared for this at all.  I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to hold my baby or see him when he came out.  Kevin was so calm and it comforted me just to watch him.  I could tell from his eyes what was happening.  Before I knew it I heard the sweetest little cry in the world.  Kevin took a bunch of pictures and kept showing them to me.  He was so cute.  My favorite part was when the nurse brought the baby to my face so I could give him a kiss.  He was perfect. The most beautiful baby I had ever seen.

Kevin cutting the cord


The first time I got to meet Jack.  It was love at first sight.


Recovery 
Unfortunately, I got the worst of both worlds.  Pushing followed by a c–section means double the recovery.  It’s not fun.  This was another thing I didn’t expect.  After the surgery, I was taken back into the delivery room while I waited for a recovery room to open up.  I got to spend some time skin to skin with Jack and feed him for the first time.  Later I went to the recovery room.  I was so thirsty, all I wanted was a huge glass of water.  The nurses told me that water would make me nauseous, because of the medicine I was given during the surgery.  Finally, they let me have some water.  I was just so dehydrated after all the pushing, but eventually, I did through up some of it.  The nurses at the hospital were all so nice.  I have a new respect for everything nurses do in their jobs.  Caring for people can’t be easy and they were all so nice, patient and helpful.  I had packed a cute going home outfit with my yoga pants and a cute cardigan, thinking I’d be walking out of the hospital with makeup on and my hair done.  Yeah right!  I quickly learned that wouldn’t be happening.  I barely fit in my baggy pajama pants, because I was pumped up with so many fluids, my legs were so swollen.  I got to go home 48 hours after birth, but it was scary to leave the hospital.  Luckily I had help on the way.   

Skin to skin time

Precious baby

Daddy and Jack

I can’t resist baby feet


Over all, my birth story was no walk in the park, but when I’m holding my little baby Jack in my arms, I know it was so worth it.  He is the most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen.  He’s beyond perfect.  Kevin has been an amazing husband and father.  He never left my side at the hospital and since Jack came 10 days early, he had to work this week.  Thankfully, we had family that was willing to come into town early from Michigan and California, to help us out with the first few weeks.  Each day has brought new challenges for us, but we are definitely making our way.  Besides, recovering from surgery is much better when you have such a cute little guy to snuggle up with.  I’m so grateful for everything. 

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