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Sleeping like Royalty: One Night in a Castle
A couple of weekends ago my family and I spent the night in a castle. Quite an experience if you ask me and I realize YOU didn’t ask but something led you here so let me tell you about it! I saw a post on my local travel advice page on Facebook about sleeping in a castle, and it immediately intrigued me. Our time overseas will eventually come to an end, so I’m trying to stock up on experiences while we can and how cool did that sound?! It is only an hour from the Kaiserslautern area, so it would be an easy weekend trip. Booked it! We got to…
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Bedsharing: How it Helped My PPPTSD & How We Transitioned
For the past 7+ months my son has been bedsharing with us. It started when my husband was gone for a 2 week TDY and I just found it easier to bring him in bed with me. It made a world of a difference and we actually both slept the night just about straight through, at least neither of us had to fully wake up to nurse or get back to sleep. Up until that point he was sleeping in his bedside bassinet and then for a short time the crib. Once we lowered the crib it was harder to get him to bed because he would either wake as…
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DIY: At Home Baby in a Pumpkin Fall Photos
I’m sure you’ve seen all the adorable photos of babies inside of pumpkins. If you haven’t but found this post then now you have, and you might be here to learn how to do it yourself. When I was browsing “Baby Fall Photos” there were so many cute and unique ideas but the pumpkin really stood out to me because let’s face it…a baby inside of a pumpkin, does it get any cuter than that? So I quickly read a few different blog posts about how to do this DIY. I’m not here to claim the idea was my own but I do want to share how we did this…
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Cuckoo! – The World´s Largest Cuckoo Clock
Cuckoo cuckoo! I’m sure everyone has seen or heard a cuckoo clock before. Even if just on TV somewhere. I think the first time I saw a cuckoo clock, that I can remember, is from cartoons on the weekends. Wasn’t it Tom & Jerry? Well, a couple years back my husband (then boyfriend) flew me to Germany for Christmas to see him while on his deployment and to visit my family and best friend. We searched for Christmas presents for our families while we were there and for his mom we found a beautiful cuckoo clock. She LOVES it by the way, my father in law… not so much. Fast…
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Our Breastfeeding Journey: My Saving Grace
Before getting pregnant I always knew I would want to breastfeed once I have a baby. And I’ll admit, I was naïve in thinking that it mostly was a choice of wanting to or not wanting to and next a matter of if you can or can’t. The reality is, I thought this way because there’s a major lack of support and general education surrounding breastfeeding and I feel most women are never introduced to it or given the opportunity to learn better. Which is why many women end up quitting or never trying to begin with. Let me also say that I am pro feeding your baby any way…
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Our NICU Story: The Intersection of Heartache and Love
If you read my birth stories part one and part two then you’re aware of what lead me to this blog post. If you haven’t you can find them from the main page and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss any more! To catch you up real quickly though our little boy was born via cesarean at 34 weeks and 2 days gestational age. While there are babies born earlier than that it’s still a very early and potentially critical age for birth and nonetheless scary for us. I was induced at 34 weeks exactly due to severe pre-eclampsia but after 48 hours all methods were deemed failures…
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Birth Story Part Two: It was an Inevitable Delivery
Welcome back! Continuing where I left of in Part One, the induction process wasn’t going quite as planned. A few years back I witnessed my niece’s mom go through an induction and it seemed to just…. happen. My expectation was the same when I heard I was getting induced however, at 6am the day after starting the process, we still hadn’t broken my water. I was having minor contractions, but they were becoming less frequent and less noticeable. Instead of dilating further, my cervix was closing back up, and my uterus was still too high for the doctor to safely break my water. The baby would have been at too…
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Birth Story Part One: Welcoming The Unexpected
Welcome to my birth story. You’re in for a wild ride! Keep reading and subscribe to follow my birth story, NICU journey, and new mom life during a pandemic. It’s filled with indescribable emotions, frightening scenarios, and moments that were heartfelt. Ending as one of the most rewarding experiences of my life despite the pain that accompanies it. Years before I was ever thinking of getting pregnant, I always wondered what it would be like for me. Would I be brave enough to go unmedicated? Would I have a long and stubborn labor or a quick and easy one? What other kinds of things would be a part of my…
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Cross Country for T-Rex: A Jurassic Trip to Switzerland!
Welcome back! I have some catch-up blogs to write and share, but I wanted to share this one first to feel [a little] less behind since this was already quite some time ago… so here I am sharing another travel blog, but please don’t read it as that and more like a diary of our travels instead. I will share the things I learned from the area and all the fun facts, but mostly, it’s for me to share about our trip. So without further rambling, I’m taking you to Basel, Switzerland! Our son has been dinosaur obsessed for months now. It’s cute and impressive, and I’ve learned quite a…
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The Magic That is the Hans & Grietje Pancake House!
Imagine this, you’re sitting at a restaurant eating your food when all of a sudden the table starts to rise on one side! Everyone reaches for their plates and cups, hoping nothing spills! Pretty wild, right? Well, that’s exactly what you’ll get when you go to the Hans & Grietje Pancake Huis in Zeewolde, Holland. It’s about an hour from Amsterdam. Not to worry though, if you’re reading this and think to yourself, there’s no way I would go there if there’s a possibility my food will spontaneously try to escape from me. They have “non-moving” tables as well. You can set your preference when making your reservation, and you…
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Adventures in Brugge: A Mama and Son Day Out
Whoopsie-daisy! It seems I’ve been playing an epic game of hide and seek on this blog and, spoiler alert, I’m winning! But not to worry, I am back and taking you on an international journey with this one! Blogging was easier in the beginning when my son slept a lot more and I could sit and write while he napped in my lap but these days naps are nonexistent and I spend more time building duplo blocks and racing cars than anything else. It’s a wonderful season of motherhood full of life and joy and laughter. Seriously, the entertainment that comes from this age is priceless! Another intangible priceless thing…
