Preparing dogs for a newborn

Ok so I believe this is highly important

when a newborn is about to be 

introduced into the family. 

Especially when it has only been 

you and the pup(s) for years.

I have two dogs--Xena and Diesel.

They are Blue Heelers. 

Xena is mixed with Australian Shepard

and Diesel is mixed with Red Heeler. 

They are seriously the sweetest dogs you will every meet.

Xena's personality is more laid back and easy going.

While Diesel can't sit still, and loves constant attention.

That being said, we wanted to prepare them

ahead of time before the new baby comes. 

They are literally my whole world 

and I could not imagine having to get rid of them

or something happening to them.

So I wanted to make sure they were well 

prepared ahead of time, 

We have had Xena since she was like 8 weeks old,

and Diesel since she was 1.5 years old. 

I honestly wasn't worried about how they would act around

the new baby

but I know my husband was

so I made sure to prepare them. 

My due date was in late May,

so in April I started implementing changes.

I started with having the pups sleep in the bonus 

room rather than with us.

Yes our dogs slept with us in the bed.

I think it was honestly harder on me than them 

with that change haha!

But we knew we didn't want the dogs to sleep with 

us anymore once the baby got here. 

I read an article suggesting to make all the changes

prior to the baby coming so the dogs

don't associate it with the baby.

So after a couple of days of changing sleeping

locations, I also added a baby gate

at the bottom of the stairs so they couldn't freely roam upstairs during the day. 

I then started playing cries of a baby off my phone,

and of course they weren't even phased by it haha!

I also started letting the mamaroo run by itself

so they can get use to the movement and noises it makes.

After a week,

they weren't phased by

it at all. 

The last thing we did was when Luca was finally born.

While John, Luca, and I were still at the hospital

my mom took a blanket he was wrapped in 

and let them smell it. 

And that was literally all we did. 

It is what worked for ours dogs.

When we brought him home

they were over the moon excited.

And Xena became his little protector.

It was the cutest thing I have ever seen.

For a good 4 weeks I believe,

I only took Luca downstairs for a couple hours,

and then we would spend most of  the time in our bedroom.

Each week that past I upped the time more.

To eventually spending the whole evening until bedtime

downstairs with the dogs.

Now being almost 8 weeks of being home

with the pups,

everything is completely normal.

Meaning, 

the dogs aren't phased by him at all.

Neither do they get jealous.

I truly hope it continues this way.

OTHER TIPS & TRICKS

#1..Once you have received everything from your baby showers

or purchased everything you need, 

start setting it all up.

In our case we had all the big items set up by

26-28 weeks of being pregnant. 

I would let the dogs go in his room and 

sniff the new furniture and just get familiar with it.

{Key is to introduce everything way early

like I stated above so they don't associate it with the baby}

#2...Our dogs are no longer crate trained and are free to roam the house

so like I stated above we started putting a baby gate

at the end of the stairs so all day they aren't allowed upstairs. 

So if your dog is crate trained,

or you want to create a designated spot for them

please start this early not after the baby arrives.

Place all of their belongings in one area, 

for us all their toys and beds are downstairs now in the living room.

And we actually kept their food and water in the same spot

which is in the kitchen by the garage door. 

Now even though their beds are downstairs they sleep 

on the couch in the bonus room

{they are still a little spoiled haha!}

#3.. If you don't want your fur babies on the furniture 

anymore at all just make sure to set the rules early on.

I couldn't stress anymore how important this is to do it early. 

Like I stated above I have read some many articles that if you change

everything too late, the animals can associate it with the baby

and become jealous and act out. 

I hope this was helpful

xoxo

Megan

Graduating with my MBA

This is something I always dreamed about

but never actually thought I would be capable of

or have the drive to graduate with a master's degree. 

But I did, and I am beyond proud of myself

to say the least.

I am actually the first person on my side of 

the family to graduate with that high of a degree. 

WOW!

So I started school to get my graduate degree

three years after being done with my undergrad.

I took a long break to make sure I could 

figure out what I wanted to get it in 

or even where I would want to go. 

After years of going back and forth,

I decided it would be best for me to get 

my masters of business administration

with a concentration of healthcare administration.

That way I could do either the business or healthcare 

route once I was finished. 

The program is accelerated due to the fact 

that the school I attended goes by quarters

rather than semesters. 

So it only took me a year to complete it. 

Right before my last quarter of school

I found out I was finally pregnant with our little miracle.

I was so ecstatic but I was so so 

sick the last quarter of school.

It was so hard for me to even turn

my assignments in on time. 

But somehow I graduated with honors.

Which is the first time I have ever graduated

with honors.

I made it my goal during school

to do just that.

Not only was I going to school full time, 

I was also working full time as well. 

I honestly don't see how I was able to do

all of that to be honest. 

It was challenging at times but well worth it in 

the end.

I set a goal and achieved it.

I didn't give up even though it was hard near the 

end with my pregnancy sickness 

like I stated above. 

Y'all,

there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, 

just keep pushing through 

and you will get their eventually I promise.

I did this for all of them, 

and I am so thankful I have each and every one of them 

in my life.

And even those that did not make it the ceremony

or my graduation party,

I am thankful for 

y'all as well. 

Have a blessed day

&

don't ever give up on your dreams!

Because as Walt Disney said...

DREAMS DO COME TRUE!

My Instagram Followers Chose My Date Night!

Y'all,

this was seriously so much fun to do.

Like I stated in my Instagram videos,

(explaining how this all works)

youtubers have been doing videos where 

their Instagram followers chose/vote on their day. 

To my knowledge I haven't seen any bloggers do this yet.

I could be wrong though! 

I just know I haven't read any blog posts on this yet.

Instead of letting my Instagram followers vote on 

how I spend my day, 

I decided why not let them vote on what 

John and I do for our date night.

Now we already planned on seeing Jurassic World

way before Luca was born.

When the trailer came out,

I told John we should go see that for our first date night. 

{and that is exactly what we did...but with a twist}

So since we were already going to see the movie,

I decided to first let my Instagram followers vote

on which theater we were going to watch it at. 

As you can tell in the above picture, 

the winner was Regal Cinemas. 

We bought the tickets early in the day

because I was afraid they would sale it.

{which when we got there we had to sit a couple rows back 

from the very front}

Side note: I waited about 30 minutes for my Instagram followers to vote, 

and then went with the results at that time.

Now some I did wait an hour,

but some we had to hurry up and leave,

so I took the results at the 30 minute mark like 

I just stated. 

Ok so we also wanted to know where we 

were eating in advance as well. 

So the two choices were Smokey Mountain Brewery,

and Steak n Shake.

The winner by a long shot was Smokey Mountain Brewery. 

{Both were right next to the Regal theater we chose}

It was finally time to get ready,

so I asked how I should wear my hair and do my make up.

Even though I asked how to do my hair first,

I always do my make up before.

So the winner was to curl my hair and do 

dramatic make up. 

I haven't curled my hair in a very long time,

so it was nice that it was picked. 

So this was dramatic for me. I am by no means a professional

at doing my make up, but I loved how it turned out.

Dramatic to me is adding a smokey eye, 

and lipstick. 

Everything I used to do my make up is in the picture above. 

I use my morphe pallete for my brows, eyes, and 

liner for my under eye. 

This is by far way more make up then I 

usually wear.

I either usually wear no make up 

or light/natural. 

I used my nume curling wand to curl my hair,

and this was the results.

I loved how it turned out.

And I believe I finally learned how to curl

my hair to my liking. 

Next was the outfit choice. 

I was wanting a casual look since 

we were just going to a dinner and a movie

{nothing fancy}

Mind you, I took these pictures in

advance. 

With a 7 week old,

you have to do a lot things in advance. 

Outfit #2 was the winner,

and I am not complaining about it.

It's funny because I literally just bought that oufit

earlier that day haha!

I bought the outfit from Fiore Boutique

This store is in our mall,

and it is one of my favorite boutiques we have in 

Knoxville.

But I know that they are everywhere.

Plus you can use the link above to purchase online!

So check them out!

Finally before heading out the door,

it was time for my Instagram followers

to pick my shoes.

Their choice was sandals,

but I was hoping they would pick heels. 

The funny thing was I took pictures in both 

before we had to leave the house ASAP!

So to not be late I took pictures in both, and just brought them 

with me in the car. 

{Which shoes look better with the outfit??

 Let me know in the comments or on 

Instagram ;) }

Ok so we finally got to their 

restaurant of choice

to eat.

So the next option was to see

what I should eat...

Yay! So I was very excited

that they chose pasta

because that was what I was really wanting

anyway. 

John did get the wings.

So we really got both, I just didn't eat 

any wings.

Which thankfully I didn't

because John got some super hot wings 

to the point where he was sweating. 

{NO THANK YOU}

I got the pasta with stuffed ricotta and meat sauce. 

It was so yummy.  

So after we were done eating,

we headed over to the Regal Cinemas 

movie theater that was next door

to watch the movie.

FINALLY!

I've been waiting on this movie since

the trailer came out.

Like I said earlier,

we had so much fun with all of this.

And something I definitely want to do 

again in the future. 

I also recommend for y'all to try it out,

especially if you can't decide on what to do. 

It's the new era of rock, paper, scissors haha!

Have a blessed day y'all!!

Luca's day in a life at 6 weeks old!

Luca's typical day currently,

isn't much of any sort of routine yet.

But I thought this post would be sweet

to look back at when he is on a routine.

{hopefully he will get on one--fingers crossed}

Luca as of right now, is eating anywhere between

1.5-3 hrs. On average every 2 hours. 

Since I am mainly breastfeeding,

I am not sure how many ounces he is getting per feeding.

But when I give him a bottle, 

he usually isn't completely full until he drinks 

4 oz. 

Now my supply is pretty good I should say,

but I do have a strong let down

and so my milk comes out really fast. 

So when breastfeeding,

he eats for a total of 5-15 minutes per feeding.

So anyways, thank goodness to my favorite nursing app (MyMedela),

I am able to keep up with when I breastfeed him, give him a bottle,

and pump.

The app also lets you track how many pee and poop diapers, sleep, 

height,and weight. 

But I only track what I just listed above. 

Little man, wakes up around 6-6:30 to feed, but then he will usually go 

straight back to sleep until 9-9:30.

Praise the Lord!

Therefore, I take full advantage of that and go back to sleep as well. 

{Also he sleeps in his bassinet at night, but once daddy leaves
for work at 6ish, I put his dockatot in our bed next to me. It is
just easier for me once he wakes up for the day.}

I then feed him again when he wakes up at 9ish,

and we are up for the day after that.

I change his diaper, and get him dressed to go on our daily walks.

We usually get to the park between 10-10:45 am.

{not what I wear to go walking, but we took this picture the
other day after we were up & ready for the day--ignore the messy room.
Haven't had time to clean it yet}

The reason there is a gap between the times we
go walking and not a set time is because

something always happens where the time gets pushed as to when

we finally get out the door.

Whether it be him spitting up all over him and I right when we 

are leaving and we have to go back and change. 

Or

he decides he is hungry again. 

{he is training to be chunky boy is what I tell him haha}

After our walk, 

he is usually hungry again so depending on how he is afterwards,

I will either feed him in the car or wait until we get home.

We only live like 8 minutes from the park we walk at which is nice. 

Now this is where the no set routine takes place.

From then on after our walk,

little man makes up his own schedule.

He stays up for hours and hours before he takes a nap, and 

decides he is always hungry.

So here lately, he hasn't been taking a nap until 3pm. 

He usually stays asleep for a couple hours though once he falls asleep.

The way you know he is fully asleep is when he has his arms either in the air

or above his head. haha!

For me, I either take a nap with him {because at this point 

I am exhausted from keeping him occupied for hours}

or I will skip the nap and get things done around the house.

Which prior to having a child, 

I could care less if my house was clean

and usually only cleaned it when we were expecting people over.

{lazy problems haha!}

But now I can not stand when the house is a disaster.

Once he wakes up from his nap, his daddy is finally
home from work, and spends time with him.
I start making dinner, and they usually cuddle on the couch.

SIDE NOTE: Keep in mind I am feeding him on average every 2 hours during the day, and usually
after he wakes up from this nap he starts deciding to eat every 3 ish hours. Also
I have been changing his diaper after every feeding as well.
Little man poops and pees a lot, and usually poops while I am feeding
him so I wait to change him afterwards.

Another SIDE NOTE: Little man spends some time in his mamaroo and/or his activity lounger thing at some point during the day.

(honestly have no idea what the activity thing is called--I borrowed it from my mother in law
because I read an article stating it is good for his auditory system for his age)

Sometimes its during the day and most times now it is in the evening
while his daddy & I are eating dinner.

But after dinner, the "routine" is feeding him every 3 hours,
and keeping him content. He usually hangs out with us on the couch or bed
laying on his boppy or either laying on our legs.

Little man has been lately falling asleep from
10pm-1am and then waking up to eat
around 1 am.
Once he falls asleep at 1 am,
he has been staying asleep until 5am-6am.

After he eats then he will go back to sleep around 7:15ish,
and will stay asleep (as stated above)
Then the whole day will start all over again after that.


I know I probably left some things out that we typically due in a day,
but those are the main activities we do at him being
6 weeks old.

I hope y'all enjoyed reading.
 I would love here what your little one's day consists of!!
Either comment on this blog post or my Instagram post.

Y'all have a blessed day!