My Hair Is Falling Out!

About a month ago I noticed that my hair was falling out when I brushed it, washed/conditioned it in the shower, or even took it down from being tied up.  At first I didn't give it much attention because I mostly thought it was regular ol' everyday hair shed. Then I started to notice that it was coming out heavily when I would run my fingers through it or brushed it. It even started to feel different in it's texture. I still thought maybe it could be adjusting to the new water here in Maine or that it must be stress.  Well, it's not the water and it's not stress. Upon research I found out that this issue is called Postpartum Hair Loss and it's right on time.  My hormones are starting to normalized after having Anderson and this is the result of that hormonal shift. This usually happens to about 30% of women 3-4 months after giving birth. I didn't have this issue with Damien or Amar'e that I can remember and that is why I had no idea what was happening.

 I've been shedding hair for almost a month now and I am hoping it will slow down soon because I feel like I'm gonna lose all of my hair and be bald. I keep asking Andrew if I have bald spots that I can't see. He reassures me I don't but when I see the amount of hair that I pull out of my brush, I get a bit worried. I wonder what I would look like with no hair? Maybe I could pull off a do like Amber Rose?

Has this happened to anyone reading here? How long did it last for you?

Finding Our New Normal

Well, if I thought things were chaotic and busy before Anderson was born I was dead wrong. I was for sure I had it all planned out in my head how I would manage everyone, the house, sleep depervation, laundry and cloth diapering, food, having 3 kids, the bills but I guess you can never truly plan things that have minds of their own. We are working really hard to find our new normal. Everyone is adjusting fairly well.  Amar'e is getting better with being told she has to wait for some requests. That took some time for her to understand because she hadn't been told "that will take me a second to get for you" many times before Anderson was here. Damien has already been through a total life change when Amar'e arrived, and being almost 12 he is fairing very well. For the most part, Damien is in his own world doing is own thing….ok that means constantly on his iPod. That thing is going to be the end of us both.

There are so many things I want to write about and share, but I can't find justifiable time to put these thoughts into print. Even now, as I type, I am thinking of things that I can be doing around the house. I guess I just need to find a happy balance of time. Most of the time I am sitting and nursing Anderson, and I am not particularly good at sitting still for long, so while I nurse him I crotchet baby blankets to sell in my Etsy shop. This is a good use of time since I am now officially a stay at home mom (more on this later). I am not sure how my beloved grandmother did it. She not only had me to raise, but my sister all while having and managing apartments and working. Wow, I just look back on it and I have a totally different appreciation for her and all she did for me. Things in our home were always neat and orderly. She worked hard to make this all happen. Andrew's grandparents had 7 children in the house we live in now and I am blown away how they managed to even function in this space. I truly find it beyond difficult to have 5 people in this house, nevermind 9 people. I am constantly trying to minimize our living and simplify things in the house because we don't have any closets in the bedrooms (not joking) and our living space always seems extremely cluttered. We do our best, and I really don't mind having to constantly donate things we don't use and can't store. I feel much better living simply.

Damien just got through his regular basketball season and I was only able to make it to one game because I wasn't sure how I would manage Amar'e and Anderson on my own while Andrew coached Damien's team during the game. It really worked out great that Andrew helped coached Damien's team because he was able to be at every game and every practice. Although I would of loved to go to every game, it would have been down right difficult, possibly borderline insane. Damien's immigration night, which is an activity where the kids take on an ancestor of their's and go through a mock immigration process, went really well with no tantrums or breakdowns from Amar'e, and Anderson remained asleep. Things also went really well at a Christmas band concert Damien was in. I was constantly on edge during these events hoping that Anderson would stay asleep and Amar'e would stay under control. Once again, still finding our new normal.


This is what finding our new normal looks like:

Immigration Night-Damien as Fortunate Cote

Amar'e is so happy to be hanging out with Uncle Ryan

These dogs, and the rest of the family, aren't into the cold weather and want to move to Florida

Feeling festive at Damien's Xmas concert

Lunch

Our Basketball star

Attempting to put my lens cap on as I snap pictures of her

This is what the mornings look like from my prespective. Love these guys! 

Fryeburg Fair 2013

Along with the onset of Fall comes fair season, and from my post from last year you know that we try to make it to the Fryeburg Fair in Fryeburg, Maine during this time.  We originally wanted to go on Tuesday or Wednesday night because Diamond Rio was playing Tuesday and Janna Cramer was playing Wednesday.  This didn't work out for us because Andrew had to work both nights. Super bummed out about that. The night show is always a big draw for me since I have recently become less interested (and totally disgusted) by seeing all the animals. Yah, I use to love going to see all the animals, but not anymore. There are to many reasons to list for this, and if you know me I am sure you know some of them. I found out that all the animals are pretty much confined to one spot for the entire week of the fair. Yah, I should obviously know that this is the nature of an agricultural fair, but I still don't have to like it. We actually got a chance to see cows getting milked. Damien refused to watch it and this was a sign that he is understanding the concepts that I speak with him about. It was rather funny and sad that the girl next to me was saying as we watched the cows get milked "I hope they don't sell that milk", my thought was: "if you only knew my dear". We also use to enjoy the horse pull that takes place during the evening....but not anymore. The specially food pavilion is fun and the food expo is awesome too. It is a huge fair and covers a lot of ground, so there is a lot to see and I don't think we even got half of it in.

Where Have I Been?

Well.....anywhere but here on the blog. I have been so blog-absent for the past few months and it saddens me. My lack of energy is probably to blame. I wish it was because we were so busy with summer fun that I had no time...but that isn't the case. I think that this summer was great, but we didn't do anything as a family to blog about or anything at all for that matter. Most days were filled with me being consumed with exhaustion.  Most of my energy went to getting out of bed and to work for 7 a.m.  Most days are a task in itself and throwing pregnant onto that seems like a cruel joke. After work was lunch and nap (if I was lucky). The most we did the whole summer was make our monthly (now its weekly) visit to North Conway to see the midwives (and get sushi, french fries, and edamame). The one weekend we were suppose to head to Maine to see family and friends, and to visit an aquarium everyone,besides me, came down with HFMD. Yah, not fun. A good amount (almost all) of the summer weekends Andrew was away playing shows, so this left me home with the children with absolutely no energy to venture out to do anything with them solo. It just seemed overwhelming to try and wrangle a 2 year old and an 11 year old (who would insist on brining a friend...I dont blame him) on my own. So, not much venturing took place. I also hoped to put up a few food posts but I barely wanted to make food, never mind photograph and blog about it. I have this awesome vegan fettichini alfredo to share eventually. So yeah, this post is a bit whiney and I apologize for that....but it's real.

Now, we are heading into fall. Damien is in middle school, and I'm just waiting on a baby. I feel that I have to make up for the lack of summer fun during this fall season. We will see how that works out for me. Well, at the very least we do have a Maine Apple picking adventure planned for this upcoming weekend and this is Damien's last week of regular soccer and it's gonna be a busy one with three games and a practice. Bored, I wont be......I see these upcoming events as opportunity to work on my photography and get more familiar with my editing program (Lightroom 5).  Sigh.......


This is what our calendar looked like at the beginning of the month. Some changes since the picture was taken...but mostly adding events.

Also this happened: Gorham Soccer tournament champs! Yay!

Where have you been? 

A Farm Stand, Horses, And A Strange Obsession

The other day was beautiful, so Andrew and I decdied to take Amar'e to our favorite place, the Shelburne Park. Well, our plans got a little distorted because Amar'e fell asleep on the way to the park.  We decided not to wake her, so we took a nice ride to Maine. On the way we stopped at a Farm stand and got some yummy goodies like Cucumbers, Tomatoes, and Corn. Seriously, the best tasting Cukes, Toms, and Corn yet this year. Now, I'm born in raised in this area and I'm still blown away that the honor system still exists. This makes me feel that there is still some good in this world. There was no one at the farm stand, just a scale, lots of wonderful veggies, some horses, and a container to leave your money in. Yah, I've seen this before but this time I really thought about it. It makes me smile that there are people out there that still have trust in others. Well, why wouldn't they? Who in their right mind would steal vegetables? You would have to be crazy.....or starving (if that is the case I understand)....or downright not a good person. Anyway, there happened to be a couple of small horses there as well. Fun fact about me is that I am slightly frightened of horses. These horses weren't that big so they were less frightening to me. But the horse that is one farm over is HUGE! I love how beautiful they are, but they frighten me with their size and strength. This time the huge horse only peeked his head out to see what we were doing unlike the last time, when he came out into the field and stared us down. After getting our veggies and hanging with the horses, we took a ride on a back road to Maine. I've done this more times than I can count, but we never get tired of it for some reason. Now, here comes my strange obsession part....The reason I love this ride so much is because it has a few really old cemeteries on it. Yes, I have a strange obsession with old cemeteries. Now, dont get this confused with an obsession with death....not even close. Death is something that scares me but old cemeteries I feel drawn to. I love the creepiness of them, the old headstones, the creepy looking fences that surround them. Strange, yes I know, but I can't help it. I've probably visited these old cemeteries more than a dozen times each. I do it more often in the month of October....fall in Northern NH is unbelievably beautiful and the foliage is breath taking, especially driving down North Road in Shelburne.  I can't put it into words as well as I'd like but it feels like home when it's peak foliage out, drinking vanilla chi, listening to my Practical Magic soundtrack (super super lame I know), and driving down North Road. I look forward to these days coming soon. Until then.....we will enjoy what's left of our northern New England Summer.

Dr. Seuss Trees??