Here’s another thing about being a new mom. You will take 20351355 pictures of your new baby. And the only picture of you with the baby will be an unfortunate shot of you probably five minutes after giving birth with several IVs in your wrist, a terrible looking hospital gown, a crying baby covered in birth stuff, and a look on your face that is a mix of love, exhaustion, and shock.

Maybe you will get a couple postpartum shots of you, but most likely you will be covered in one or more of the following substances: poop, pee, spit up, and/or breastmilk. Oh, and you will probably be wearing the same shirt for the past several days and you hair will look like a flock of rodents has taken up residence in your dirty locks.

So maybe somewhere around 12 weeks you will get yourself straightened out and clean enough for a few nice shots. Many thanks to our friend, Matt, who quickly took these lovely pictures of us before I got covered in some sort of baby slime.

Motherhood is wonderful, but no one said it was clean. It is a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.

I love to organize. SO MUCH FUN! My Brother P Touch Label Maker is one of my all time favorite tools. The only thing that keeps me from labeling every inch of my house is the cost of additional labels. Otherwise I would take over all surfaces with labels. Also Dan would probably not appreciate his office stuff covered with helpful notes like DAN’S COMPUTER and STAPLER and PRINTER. Gee, I cannot imagine why.

Anyway, I love to stay organized. This is especially important now that I am a SAHM mom who runs not only my schedule but baby Kate’s schedule, too. I feel like I am her agent. (Note: she does not pay well.) So I am managing doctor appointments for both of us, playdates (a.k.a. mom dates with other mommies), breastfeeding support group, dinners with friends, Dan’s work stuff, etc… I could not keep all our To Dos in my head, and I like to see what is coming up a couple months at a time. So, I went to Target and bought three monthly whiteboard calendars and one weekly whiteboard calendar. This way, I can see three months at a glance and also a more detailed weekly view. Then, as dinners and appointments and other stuff come rolling in, I can see right away when we are booked and when we are free. And Dan can also come into my office and write down important work stuff for him, too, so I can see what is on his agenda.

I have been keeping us on track with this whiteboard method for a couple weeks now, and I find it highly effective. I also keep the dates in a planner I carry in my purse. That way, I am all synced up.

How do you stay organized?

We’re finally here! Twelve weeks! Hurray!

According to many, three months is a huge milestone. That is when babies seem to “wake up” and become more interested in the world and better able to function.

Kate is awake all right. In fact, she has decided naps are for wimps. She naps here and there throughout the day, but no real long naps. This is totally cool with me because girlfriend proceeds to sleep seven, eight, NINE hours overnight. Mommy is so happy.

She is “talking” up a storm, cooing and making noises to get my attention. Kate is supporting her neck like a champ. And she is gaining weight without issue. How did someone as Type A as myself get this sweet happy-go-lucky baby? Easy to please, easy to soothe. My parents predict the next one is going to be trouble

Yes, I am exclusively breastfeeding Kate. And I have enough breastmilk in my freezer to supply an entire hospital nursery full of babies with milk. Since I am a SAHM, I do not need millions of gallons of milk, but I wanted to keep a supply in case for some reason I had to be away from Kate for an extended period of time, or I was sick, or if sometime over the next 12 months Dan and I get up the gumption to actually leave the house without Kate. You know, like a date. For grown ups.

So I have been pumping it up with my Medela Pump in Style (PS – There is NOTHING stylish about pumping, but nice try, Medela. Pumping is the strangest thing I have ever done, and I look like a cow hooked up to a milking machine. But, the pumping parts do come in a pretty cute bag, so I guess that is the stylish part). However, I was pretty lazy about practicing with the bottle (you know, so she could make use of my pumped milk), and we got so good at breastfeeding that I delayed practice.

And now Miss Kate refuses the bottle. And by refuses I mean she screams like we are murdering her. She hates those bottles with a passion and makes sure we feel her distain.

I keep telling her lots of babies like bottles – the milk flows easier! Less work for more reward! Babies loooooooove bottles! You can love them, too! Plus, Mommy spent lots of money on an assortment of bottles for your eating pleasure!

I have tried different nipples. All sorts of different nipples. A plethora of types and sizes and shapes and textures. Kate is well aware those nipples are totally FAKE! SHE ACCEPTS NO SUBSTITUION FOR THE REAL THING. She likes to keep it real.

What am I to do? I am thinking I am just going to have to go straight to a sippy cup once she learns to hold objects. Or else whoever is in charge of her could feed her via a syringe.

I am running out of ideas, so I decided to ask the Internet. What should I do? Any advice?

Yeah, parenting is hard work. But it also comes with some pretty awesome rewards – smiling, cooing, intentingly looking for me like a heat-seeking missile. Now that Kate is really starting to use her voice, she is becoming even more fun. Like a real person! So I wanted to capture it on video. This is what I got:

Breastfeeding was the hardest thing I have ever done. Well, besides actually birthing the baby. When I stumbled across this video, I had to share. I think if more women talked about breastfeeding and its postive outcomes as well as its challenges and offered greater support, more women would breastfeed. So the next time you see a woman breastfeeding in public, give her a silent thumbs up. You go, girl.