Crafts!!

Learn how to make a "lil turkey" outfit for your baby by applique!!

DIY-Applique baby clothes

Thanksgiving baby

Check out what I created for baby's first thanksgiving outfit... so much to be thankful for this thanksgiving <3

lil turkey outfit

GeTtIn CrAfTy

Today I accomplished multiple crafts- check out my craft page.

DIY- Changing Pad
DIY- Baby Rice Bag

bassinet vs crib

For the last few days I've been debating putting up the crib or keeping Lincoln in his bassinet, I read quite a bit online about it being based on babies preferences, but that you can keep them in it usually for about three months or until they've outgrown it but with as expensive as cribs are I wanted to get the most use out of it as we could so the debate began to put it up or not... Then the last few nights baby decided not to sleep very well so that was that I was going to put it together and give it a try. Last night was baby boys first night sleeping in his crib and he looked tiny in it but he did Great! I laid him down in it at about 8 pm and he slept until 3 am woke up to eat and went back to sleep until 7 am. I really did get blessed with a good sleeper and such a good baby. I put his bumper on its a breathable mesh bumper and I love it, it looks great with his crib and his grey elephant sheets, all I need now is a crib skirt which I think I might attempt to make tomorrow i'll make a post with what I come up with.

Whats in my Bag (Newborn Edition)

So since the last few weeks of my pregnancy I have had an obsession on what to put in my diaper bag and I don't mean a mild obsession I mean an OBSESSION!! I have read so many blogs on it and pinned so many pins on pinterest and with my baby almost 7 weeks old.. yes it has been 7 weeks already I can hardly believe it this is what i've been carrying in my bag.

 First off here's my bag that I absolutely LOVE, I made it a few weeks ago from a pin I found on pinterest. This Bag is the perfect bag because it is Huge and has a million pockets perfect for organizing all of my mommy things and all of my baby things, okay maybe its not a million pockets but lets be realistic it has 7 on the inside and 7 on the outside so its almost like a million!!

Here is all of the stuff that I pulled out of my bag today.

 

From Left to Right I have some paci wipes which I have found I haven't really had to use very often so far (knock on wood), my baby gas drops so that baby doesn't get fussy and this is the second bottle I have, I keep one at home also so that I don't have to keep putting it in my bag. The little pink egg looking thing is lotion I love this container for lotion because its almost completely flat but holds quite a bit of lotion, chap stick, mascara, eye liner, and pens, mam pacis the only ones baby will take, and a paci leash which might be a reason that I haven't really used many of the paci wipes, this holds tight on his paci and keeps it close!

This is mostly my stuff, from Left to Right again my wallet, then I have a zipper pouch that I keep all kinds of coupons in for formula (which ironically I don't even use), Jo Ann's for all my crafty needs, and  babies R us my favorite baby store with some of the best coupons out there!! Then I have a bigger pouch with my bills, important papers and my address book, I really probably don't need all of this with me all the time but for some reason I can't seem to take it out of my bag?

This is probably some of my most important and most used stuff, from Left to Right, I currently have 3 burp rags some times more sometimes less just depends on how many I refill at a given time, then I have an extra outfit including socks because the first few weeks my baby was extremly good at peeing on his outfits recently however either i've gotten faster at diaper changes or he's held it in better. The striped thing is my Infinity Scarf nursing cover (I made this also) which I'm still figuring out how to use but were getting the hang of it, and my Changing Pad (made this) which matches my bag!    

This stuff is important also Left to Right, wipes, I usually carry between 4-6 diapers in my bag, in the small print bag I have oil absorbing wipes, dirty diaper bags for either dirty diapers or dirty clothes, Tylenol because daddy gets headaches a lot, more chap stick for some reason I have 2 and in two different spots? who knows, deodorant because I get self conscience that mines not working from time to time, a perfume/lip gloss pen duo, and an extra set of nursing pads because I feel like I seem to leak a lot, in the small red pouch I have a carrying case for my nursing shields because my sweet adorable stubborn baby will only nurse using a shield :/, I have one gel soothe, and then a small tube of lanolin, then last is my picture album that I have some of the most recent pictures of my little Lincoln man. 

This is the bag I carry when i'm with my little man but I also have been carrying it as my purse, I have another bag packed with just his important stuff like diapers, wipes, extra clothes, and a bottle for if someone's watching him for me but I feel like there might be a better solution to this delema as well, any ideas on this are welcome. So that's what i'm currently carrying in my bag I feel like I have way to much in here but I don't really know what I would be comfortable taking out, if anyone has any ideas or has a post about whats in their bags leave it in the comments I love reading about that stuff. Oh

Playing dress up

Today mommy made Lincoln try on all kinds of his clothes to see if we could switch out some of his newborn clothes for some of his bigger ones. This brings up an issue regarding babies that I do not understand at all. Baby clothes sizes are one of the most confusing things ever, Lincoln has newborn clothes that at 7 weeks old still fit and then there's 0-3 month clothes some of which fix and some are to big. The 3 month clothes are the same way some fit and some are to big still and some of the 0-3's that fit in one brand there's 0-3's of the same brand that are to big. In order to try to figure out which ones fit right now and which ones don't we decided to have somewhat of a fashion show and Lincoln got bored I guess and fell asleep. Sites like this Baby Sizes don't even help I don't think, if you have other ways to help figure out babies size let me now.

Medical School Update

I figured that I would give an update on our medical school situation at this point and Josh's school in general. At this point Josh is on track to graduate in December from The University of Toledo with a double major in Psychology and Chemistry. He has currently been accepted to the following med schools; The University of Michigan, Ohio State, The University of Toledo, Cincinnati, and Loyola (Chicago). Just recently he was invited to interview at Northwestern (Chicago) and that interview will take place in January. We are waiting to hear from Harvard, Vanderbilt, Pittsburgh and Learner (Cleveland). Josh says he should hear from Vanderbilt in the next few weeks, Learner he should hear from in December, and Harvard he won't hear from until March. As of right now our top choice is The University of Michigan, however a lot could change depending on the other schools were waiting on. This is such a big exciting time in our lives and we can't wait to find out where we finally end up. Once we decide where were going to be moving to we will probably be moving there in the spring and Lincoln will be about 6 months or so and were so excited that we are able to be so close to our families during the first part of his life.

get a glimpse of what Josh has been getting when he gets accepted to a med school! - Josh Michigan Video

GeTTiN CrAFtY

ToDay WaS a CraFtY DaY!! - check out my craft page

DIY- Rag Time Baby Quilt

Gettin Crafty

ToDay WaS a CraFtY DaY!! - check out my craft page

DIY-Teething Necklace

Happy Halloween

Today was Lincoln's first Halloween and his costume was a tub of popcorn made by me and made on his carrier. We went to trick or treat at Great aunt Jen's in Benton Ridge but Lincoln had to stay inside it was way to rainy and cold for him to trick or treat this year, maybe next year!!

the fastest month of my life :/

Today marks the first month of my little mans life its crazy and hard to believe that it has already been a month. Lincoln and I spent the day taking pictures for his first Halloween and for his first month. At Lincoln's one month check up he weighed 9 lbs 3 oz and is 21 inches long and is in the 22% in weight and 18% in height he's just a little peanut! Lincoln is starting to smile more and more when talked to and he is just way to cute. He is still in newborn clothes and eats about 4.5 oz at a time. Lincoln is doing great and we are so lucky to have such a good baby in out life. We can't wait to see what the next month brings.

Check out more pics of Lincoln here: Lincoln 1 Month pics

Shower me Baby

Today was our second baby shower we had this second one so that we could invite people that lived further away so that they could meet Lincoln. We had a ton of guests and were thrilled to see all kinds of family that made the trip to meet him. The theme of the shower was books, our food was based off of books we had green deviled eggs and ham sandwiches to go with the green eggs and ham book, we had fruit salad to go with the very hungry Caterpillar book, and we even had a book cake made by Devin. We played games and got some great gifts including our crib, I can't wait to put it together and use it once Lincoln gets a little bigger. Lincoln was a party pooper and slept through almost the entire shower but no one cared because he was just to darn cute while doing it.

Nashville

Today marks the last day of our trip to Nashville, we drove down with Great Grandma and Grandpa Powell and stayed in a condo, this trip was for Josh to do his Vanderbilt interview. We headed down on Sunday the 13th and had a lot of fun. On Monday was dad's interview and the rest of us went to a mall to spend some time. Tuesday we took a trip to Franklin, TN and explored the area, there were some pretty cool shops around and we had a really good lunch. Franklin was the place of antiques and Gpa loved that lol! Wednesday we started the drive back home, we really liked Nashville and Tennessee however the drive was a little rough and I don't know if we would want to live that far away from our families?! Big decisions to be made... On the plus side Lincoln is such a good car rider and slept almost the entire way there and the entire way home minus a few pit stops to eat and change his pants!

Chicago

On the 7th of October our little family took our first road trip together to Chicago. We stayed in a small cheap flee bag motel but oh well it worked and allowed us to save money on the trip. The purpose of our trip was because Josh had a medical school interview at Loyola. We got there on the 7th and his interview was on the 8th, while Josh was at his interview Lincoln and I found a Babies R US to go spend some time at and after we got bored with that we found this cool metro park across the street from were Josh was and we hung out there for awhile. At the metro park there was a model airplane flying area and we watched the old men fly their planes for awhile while taking some selfies and some pics together and then with dad. We really enjoyed Chicago and hopefully dad will hear back soon about his interview and who knows maybe we'll be moving to Chicago soon?!

Lincoln Joshua Smith

here's the low down on baby smith...
Name: Lincoln Joshua Smith
Birth place: Findlay, Ohio
Born: September 28th, 2013 at 2:57 am
Weight: 7 lb 5 oz
Height: 20 inches
Mommy: Jacqueline Nicole Smith
Daddy: Joshua David Smith
Mommy's Age: 23 years old
Daddy's Age: 22 years old
Mommy's Job: Nurse at Heartland of Perrysburg
Daddy's Job: Student at University of Toledo studying Psychology and Chemistry
he is the first child, grandchild on both sides, and great grandchild on mommy's side he even made the first great great grandchild on mommy's side.
when we go home, we will be going home to Grandma and Grandpa Chiow's house which is where were currently living until daddy goes to medical school.

Baby

On Thursday we went into the hospital for me to be induced so that we could meet our baby boy Lincoln. Thursday night they started out by giving me a medicine called cervidal, and it was a restless night that Josh and I both had, due to excitement, nervousness, and the nurses coming in every so often. Friday morning they started the pitocin at about 7 am and the contractions began, at this point they were very tolerable and the waiting game began. By about 5 pm they decided that they were going to break my water and about an hour later the doctor came in and broke it. The breaking of my water increased my contractions in frequency and intensity drastically and by about 8 pm I was begging for an epidural. The placing of the epidural felt like an eternity because the doctor had to do it twice and it hurt like crazy. After it was finally in place I was in heaven and I could have gone another 3 days in labor if needed. At around 12 am the doctor came in and told us that I was still only dilated to 8 cm and that Lincoln's heart rate was dropping with each contraction and she didn't feel comfortable letting me keep going for much longer, she gave us the option to either have a C-section right then or she would let us have another hour and if I didn't have him by then she would do a C-section either way. We decided to go with a C-section right then because it had already been long enough and we didn't want him to be in any more stress, oh and we were way past being ready to meet him. Finally at 2:57 am on Saturday September 28th we got to meet the coolest little boy ever! It was definitely a rough experience but we both feel like Lincoln was well worth the wait, pain and labor that it took to get him here.

Let the Blogging begin...

So with the changes about to happen in our lives I have decided to start this blog to allow our friends and family to keep up to date with our decisions on school stuff, new things with baby Lincoln and the fun crafts I get into! I hope that we will be able to use this as a mode not to get more distant from everyone but to be able to allow you to feel like you are more a part of our lives.

<3