Life is Beautiful

Motherhood, Sewing, Family

Sunday best

~ Etc.

As a stay at home mom, the only times I actually have the reason to dress up, or time and energy to try to look decently nice is on Sundays when I go to church.  I LOVE dresses so I have plethora of dresses(more than any other clothing item I own) but Sundays and occasional weddings are the only chances I get to wear them really, which is a bummer because I feel like I don’t put them in good enough use!  So I’m going to try to wear dresses more often, and if I’m a little over dressed sometimes, oh well, who cares? I will also try to start a weekly post called “Sunday Best” to take pictures of my Sunday outfits.  
I found this pretty dress online, and I knew it’d be just a tad too short for me since I’m LDS and I wear garments, otherwise I personally think it’s a great length(shhh, don’t tell my LDS peeps I said that ;), but I knew I could do something about it.  
Before:

I debated between getting fuchsia fabric or white fabric to use to lengthen the dress, and decided to go with the white in the end.  I wanted the floral details to be the main focus of the dress and using fuchsia fabric would’ve distracted from that.  
I flipped the dress inside out and attached a 4″ width white fabric to the bottom lining of the dress.  Then hemmed the bottom of the white fabric I attached by folding it twice in 1/2″ width.  That’s it!  
(don’t look too closely, my bobbin’s been giving me problems and the stitches were looking terrible!)
After:

outfit thanks to: jacket: sheinside(buy it here) | floral dress: choies(buy it here)
I have two more dresses that I want to alter, one dress I want to lengthen, the other dress to add sleeves, so stay tuned!  If I can manage to find some time with my crazy, hectic life with three kids, that is.  Raising three kids is kicking my butt right now.

A little preview of Halloween and my fabulous shirt I made

~ Etc.

I stayed up ’till 5 in the morning last night to make my costume. Let’s hope it was worth it. 🙂 I made Ariana’s costume as well and here is a little preview of it.

And this is the plain shirt I made into a fabulous~ shirt that I was talking about. I added the flowers.



Everybody have a Happy Happy Halloween!

Aiden’s baby blessing

~ Etc.

We blessed Aiden two Sundays ago at our LDS church.  Aiden was surrounded by our family and friends as they gathered in a circle and held him as Jay blessed Aiden. Jay and I bore our testimonies afterwards and my dad bore his also.  Jay shared a personal, spiritual story in his testimony and many people went up to him afterwards to tell him how touching and beautiful it was.
Jay’s parents flew from HI to attend the blessing
yes, the girls’ faces are blurred.  still trying to figure out the kids’ privacy thing.
fresh berries that we picked the day before on top of the cheesecake tarts!
We provided lunch at our house afterwards.  The menu consisted of: BBQ chicken, kalua pig, Korean glass noodles, kimchi, caesar salad, rice, deviled eggs, fresh fruits of watermelon, grapes & cantaloupe, mochi, cheesecake tarts, white chocolate chip & macadamia nuts cookies, donuts & pink lemonade.  Thanks to my mother-in law and my mom for all their help! 

You need to wear socks because you have a uterus

~ Etc.

day one of postpartum; enjoying my cupcake and cuddling with baby

“Sarah!  Why are you walking around the house barefoot!  You need to wear socks at all times because you have a uterus.  You need to keep your feet warm at all times, it’s not good to walk around on the cold floor.”

This quote was repeated by my mom at least twice a day after I had the baby.  My baby was born on July 30th, in the middle of the hot Summer.  So why is she wanting me to wear socks you ask?  Because I have a uterus!  It makes perfect sense!  Another reason is because she is Korean.  Koreans have a very strict tradition on postpartum care, and my mother is no different.  My mom came over every single day from Monday through Saturday, morning to evening for 30 days to take care of me while I was ordered to rest and take it easy, just like she did after I had my other two children.  Isn’t she awesome?  But she was very strict and I was to adhere to her guidelines.

With my other two kids, I didn’t take her advice too seriously and thought they were too much, but I paid the price for it.  After I had my first child, my mom would give me room temperature water to drink and told me I should not eat or drink anything cold for at least 30 days.  I think any water that is not cold is pretty gross so I drank ice water while my mom looked at me and shook her head, and I wanted to prove to her that it’s no big deal!  Drinking ice cold water is just fine!  But I was wrong.  I felt cold sensitivity on my teeth every second of the day for two weeks straight.  With my second child, I really wanted to go eat all you can eat crabs, but I knew that was against the rules, I was not go step outside the house for 30 days, except for doctor appointments.  But I thought, I’ll be fine, I feel great, it’s not a big deal!  So only a week after I had the baby, Jay and I went out to eat despite my mother’s warnings not to.  That night, I got mastitis(see post here).  So with this child being my third and me having learned a lesson or two, I took her advice more seriously and trusted her advice a lot more.  My mom says we have to be more careful and strict postpartum because Asian women are more petite, therefore it takes more toll on our bodies to carry and push out the baby?  It makes some sense, right?

Here are the list of her guidelines(which seems to be universal with the other Korean moms too.  I swear Korean moms take a Korean mom 101 class while they’re pregnant with their 1st baby because THEY ALL SAY THE SAME EXACT THING.):

  • Drink Korean seaweed soup with every meal, 3 times a day. The seaweed soup cleanses the body and clarifies the blood, and helps to produce milk.
  • I was not allowed to open up a water bottle.  It’s not good for you to twist your wrist.
  • We have stainless steel utensils at our house and my mom would not allow me to use them, but instead gave me plastic utensils instead.  She said the stain-less steel utensils were way too heavy for my poor, weakened wrist.
  • I was suppose to wear many layers constantly despite the hot Summer weather.  I was suppose to be sweating constantly and never let my body feel the cool air from the air conditioner or the fan.
  • I couldn’t drink ice water or liquid, let alone cold liquid.  My mom would pour me water or milk and let it sit in room temperature for at least an hour before letting me drink it.
  • I was not to chew anything too hard or chewy such as beef jerky.
  • I was to sleep when the baby slept(as much as I could with two toddlers which wasn’t much).
  • I couldn’t pick up or carry anything heavier than the baby(7 lbs.).
  • No cooking, or doing any chores.  No cleaning, no laundry, no cutting with the knife, using scissors, anything that required strength.  This one I loved! 😉
  • I was not to go outside the house for 30 days.  She let me go to the farmers market near our house before the 30 days which I jumped at the chance to go.  But I was so surprised she suggested we go there!
  • I was reprimanded for going through coupons and throwing the expired ones away.  I shouldn’t pick up a paper or put any stress on my hands, fingers, and wrist.
  • A couple days before the 30 day mark, I told my mom I wanted to go raspberry picking.  She told me I could go but I wasn’t allowed to pick the raspberries, but I could just watch everyone else pick them.
In Korea, they have postpartum care centers where mothers with their babies stay at a 5-star like hotel, and the center offers spa treatments, meals and massages, while the babies are taken care of 24-7 by their trained nurses and only bring the baby to you when it’s time to nurse.  Pretty intense right?
My mom stopped coming less than a week ago and it’s been an adjustment for me being completely on my own with three kids.  I’m so grateful to have her in my life and for all that she did for me the last 30 days.  I love you mom!
So do you have any traditions you follow in your culture?  Or any guidelines that your family follows?  I would love to hear about other mothers’ postpartum care!

Who needs sleep anyway?

~ Etc.

This past month has been a blur. I knew I would get up every few hours to feed during the night and I wouldn’t get much sleep with a newborn, but oh man, I forgot just how much fatigue and exhaustion I would feel!  
But this face he gives me while he’s sleeping.  It’s worth every minute of sleep I don’t get.  And no matter how tired I am, I can’t help but to melt and smile back at this face.  I love him, I love him, I love him.