Travel Baby Formula

Travel Baby Formula

Brittany Payne
Household, Vacations, Kids

Brad and I travel a lot.  We decided while I was pregnant that we would not let a baby slow us down.  We are really trying to stick to that goal after having Melody.  Of course some trips are not realistic and traveling is definitely not as easy as before, but we are doing pretty good.  We have a baby that loves the car, so that definitely makes traveling easier.  One thing we faced on our first big travel (it was 3 1/2 hour trip to Brad's parents' house) was making Melody's bottles.  We now usually make all of her bottles for the day in advance, but that has not and will not always be the case.  I decided to make use of some of our breast pump supplies and create my own travel baby formula containers.  Check it out below!

Tealight Candle Favors

Tealight Candle Favors

Brittany Payne
Crafts, Household, Parties

For my best friend's baby shower, I decided to make the favors simple but cute.  I wanted something that people might would actually use at some point.  A lot of times you go to showers and weddings and end up with favors that you just throw away.  I did some research and decided to use candles somehow.  I mean people can always find a purpose for candles.  Using washi tape, I was able to make some cute and decorative tea light candles for everyone to take home.  Check it out below!

Burlap Football Door Hanger

Burlap Football Door Hanger

Brittany Payne
Crafts, Household

So Brad and I cheer for opposite college football teams.  We have good reason seeing that we both attended different colleges.  I am an Alabama graduate and fan, and Brad is an Ole Miss graduate and fan.  It is very, very hard to find house divided things for Alabama and Ole Miss.  I could always get something custom made, but I usually want to attempt it myself if I am resorting to that.  So I decided to make a door hanger from burlap.  It is a super easy craft.  It only took me a few days and that was primarily me waiting on paint to dry!  See the steps below:

DIY Baby Bath Gift Set

DIY Baby Bath Gift Set

Brittany Payne
Crafts, Parties

My cousin is having a baby boy in October.  We celebrated baby Samuel at her baby shower recently.  I struggle to just go and buy a gift without making a basket out of it.  I looked over her baby registry, and I decided I wanted to do a bath gift set.  Sure, you can go buy pre-made ones, but why do that when you can make your own?!?  So I went to Target and started my search.  I bought as much bath stuff as I could from her registry.  I wanted the "basket" to be the actual bath tub, but our Target did not have the one she registered for, so I had to improvise.  Check it out below:

What to Wear to Disney World in January

What to Wear to Disney World in January

Brittany Payne
Vacations

Winter is my favorite time of year to go to Disney World.  I especially love going in January.  My mom and I go almost every year for my birthday, and the crowds are extremely low.  You do have to be careful if you go on the weekends, however.  There are cheer competitions going on most weekends in January, but during the week is perfect crowds.  Some rides are usually closed, but you will honestly find a ride or two closed during all parts of the year.  Beyond the low crowds, I love the weather.  It is rarely too hot or too cold.  However, it can be difficult to dress.  The reason is because it starts off chilly in the morning, warms up in the afternoon, and gets chilly again.  Below are my tips and suggestions for what to wear in January (or general winter time):

Burp Clothes

Burp Clothes

Brittany Payne
Crafts, Kids

I hear with every baby there is one thing you get a lot of.  For some people it is blankets and for others it could be bibs.  One thing we did NOT get a lot of was burp clothes.  I personally did not want to go pay a lot of money for something I knew Melody was going to just spit up all over.  Instead, I decided to make my own (well sort of). 

Pokemon Go

Pokemon Go

Brittany Payne
Randomness

Brad begged me to start playing Pokemon Go from the moment it was released in the App Store.  He would send me links to the app; he would show me the game itself on his phone; and he would constantly ask me to play.  Then one day, he just downloaded it on my phone while I was feeding Melody.  Talk about being sly...

Melody's One Month Schedule

Melody's One Month Schedule

Brittany Payne
Kids

Our pediatrician gave us the green light to remove one of Melody's feedings when she turned one month old.  She said we could now go 4 hours between our nighttime feedings.  It is very similar to the newborn schedule except we eliminated one nighttime feeding.  I also stopped pumping/breastfeeding after she was 5-6 weeks old, so I am not including the pumping in my schedule.  If you look at her newborn schedule, you can kind of figure out where I would have pumped.  See below:

Baby Shower Mini Diaper Cake

Baby Shower Mini Diaper Cake

Brittany Payne
Parties, Crafts

I made a larger diaper cake for my best friend's baby shower, but I decided to use some of the other diapers and ribbon I had left over to make "mini" diaper cakes.  I am a huge fan of decorating with items that can either be given to the guest of honor as a gift or that you get to keep yourself.  These diaper cakes doubled a cute décor and a much needed gift for the mommy to be.  See below!

Postpartum Expectation vs Reality

Postpartum Expectation vs Reality

Brittany Payne
Kids

Prior to having Melody, I had a lot of expectations about how things would be postpartum.  A lot of these ideas came from our childbirth/parenting classes, books, and movies.  However, once I had Melody, reality was much different.  Below are some of those expectations vs the reality that was.

Melody's One Month Pictures!

Melody's One Month Pictures!

Brittany Payne
Kids

So Miss Melody was a month old on June 25th!  I know, I know...I am almost a month late, but below are her pictures that I took of her in her cute Minnie Mouse gear to celebrate.  I even included a picture of her now at 8 weeks old!  Watch for her two month pictures soon-ish :)

Baby Shower Elephant Balloon Guestbook

Baby Shower Elephant Balloon Guestbook

Brittany Payne
Parties, Crafts

For my best friend's baby shower, I gave her a couple of options for a guestbook.  Since she would be the one displaying it, I wanted her involved to an extent without giving too much away.  I found some different options through Pinterest, and I let her pick.  She thought it would be cute to have an elephant and balloons that people signed.  So I took that idea and ran with it.

Melody's Newborn Schedule

Melody's Newborn Schedule

Brittany Payne
Kids

After Melody was born, our pediatrician put us on a 3 hour feeding schedule.  It took us a few days to find a schedule and rhythm that worked for us.  We wanted a schedule that would provide us with some sleep, but also work with us once Brad went back to work.  The first week at home, I pumped, and we supplemented with formula.  After I built up a day's worth of breastmilk, we went exclusively breastmilk and no formula.  This schedule was especially rough on me because I was pumping almost every feeding, but we eventually got into such a good routine that it really wasn't too bad.  Check it out below:

DIY Breast Pumping Bras

Brittany Payne
Household, Crafts, Kids

The biggest trouble I ran into while pumping breastmilk was not having any free hands.  This was troublesome for two reasons.  One - this prevented me from being able to feed Melody AND pump at the same time.  This was an issue only at night because I did that feeding alone, and I was ready to go back to sleep!  Prior to my pumping bra, it was taking me 15 minutes to prep for feeding and pumping, 30 minutes to feed, and 30 minutes to pump.  Then I had to clean up, change Melody, put her to bed, then go to bed myself. That was over 90 minutes!  The second reason was that my hands would get super tired from holding the breast shields in place while pumping. I sometimes would slide my bra over the bottom of the shields, but it would still leak.

Baby Shower Diaper Thoughts

Baby Shower Diaper Thoughts

Brittany Payne
Parties

Originally I had not planned to do this at my best friend's baby shower.  However, after doing her diaper cakes and stork bundles, I had some diapers left over.  I decided that this would be a much cuter way to give her the diapers rather than throwing them in a bag.  I designed a cute sign and used a picture frame from Hobby Lobby to put it in.  I also found an adorable basket at Hobby Lobby that went with the color scheme that I put the diapers in.  I bought Sharpies in a variety of colors and used a small vase to put them in next to the diapers.  I put these next to the party favors for everyone to sign before they left!

DragonCon 2014 and 2015

DragonCon 2014 and 2015

Brittany Payne
Vacations

I already kind of discussed DragonCon back in May when I was going over what Brad and I wear to it.  I thought it might also be informative to discuss some of what we did at the last two DragonCons that we have attended.  It is highly unlikely we will be attending DragonCon 2016 (primarily because we have a little one now, and we prefer she not get the ConCrud), but if you are and have never been, hopefully this will give you some idea of what to look forward to.

Load More