Dare I say that I actually miss cooking? I may have just lost my mind. Me. The chick who doesn’t really care to cook…cannot wait to get in the kitchen for dinner.

We have an incredible support system of friends and family. They are keeping us well stocked with food. Delicious food. As you likely remember, my parents visited for a few days after we came home from the hospital. While they were here they prepared dinner every night.

Then, last night our friends came over to hang out and have dinner together. Our friends, Ben & Danielle, prepared a dinner of a macaroni casserole with chicken & broccoli along with some salad and cornbread.

I wished I felt better to spend more time hanging out, but I had a terrible epidural headache. I think it was one of the worst headaches I have ever experienced. I drank two cups of black tea for the caffeine, which apparently helps, and then crashed as soon as possible.

Today, we spent a large chunk of the day at a newborn photo session for baby B.

I cannot wait to see the photos! From what I could tell, they will be adorable. Don’t worry – I will share the gallery link here when finished in about a week.

Since we spent so much of the afternoon at the photo session, we never had the chance to go to the grocery store. I haven’t been in over a week. That meant we had to dig into the freezer for tonight’s dinner. We opted for Trader Joe’s mandarin orange chicken alongside some canned green beans. Sometimes you have to make due.

And crazily enough, cooking will wait until Thursday as I have a special dinner planned with my sister tomorrow and we have another meal provided on Wed night.

Question of the Evening – What do you do for dinner when you have basically empty cupboards? Any recipe recommendations for our dinner Thursday?

Catching up from the weekend? Check out the posts below:
10 Things Pregnancy Taught Me / Homemade Tomato Soup Recipe / Eating Well

I also decided to revisit Self-Love Reflections topics once/week on the blog. Topic 1 = Confidence. Check it out; share your thoughts; be confident this week!

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Things are still going smoothly around here. I haven’t gone a night without at least 6 hours of sleep and during the day we have slowly been getting into a groove. Getting into a routine is so important to me. I believe children thrive on routine…and I know I do too. Knowing (somewhat) what to expect during a day helps tremendously.

When I was pregnant with Makenzie, I read a book called Babywise. The book discusses helping infants get into a routine and it quickly became controversial. I took what I wanted from the book and adjusted it to fit us well. I will never rigidly place my own routines over baby B, but I can do things to help him fall into one on his own.

I focus on keeping him awake to take a full feeding each time he eats. It is beneficial to his health because he gets more of my quality, heavier milk. It also helps him go longer stretches between feedings. This helps him fall into a natural eating schedule of every 2-3 hours. I still feed him when hungry, but I can also tell around what time he will get hungry based on when he last ate. So important!

For sleep, I try to keep him awake briefly after each feeding. This is so when he naps, which is a LOT as a newborn, he isn’t used to being held, rocked, etc in order to fall asleep. I hold and rock and cuddle him plenty, but when he tries to sleep…he gets to fall asleep on his own. Which he does easily.

I used these ideas with Makenzie and very rarely did we have issues with them. I believe it helped her feel more secure to know what to expect in her little world. It helped me more easily go about life and be able to take her places. You certainly have to be prepared to go with the flow as a parent, because the unexpected always waits around the corner. However, you can still have some order with a little practice, patience, and persistence.

Please note: These are my personal beliefs on what works best for me and my family. Every mother knows her child and her own needs best. I never judge anyone for doing/believing differently. I hope the same courtesy can be extended to me as I know, from past experience, that these topics can sometimes get heated.

Question of the Day – Do you thrive on routine or does it stifle you?