My name is Sheena Gardner-Minnehan and I am a mid-twenty, WAHM/student (work at home) mom to a little boy, Trayton Ryan! My husband, Ryan, and I welcomed our little guy into the world, on April 2, 2010 at 4:01 AM; he weighed 8 lbs 14.9 oz and measured 19.5 inches.
I am originally from Des Moines, Iowa and Ryan is from Churdan, Iowa. Ryan and I met at Iowa State University where we both graduated with our bachelor’s degrees in animal science and biology. We got married on October 25, 2008 and currently reside on one of the family farms outside of Churdan. Our family raises pure-bred Gelbvieh beef cattle, cross-bred feeder cattle and roughly 1,100 acres of corn and soybeans. I work part-time at a local bank and will be leaving to return to school to pursue a career in nursing. I also own a small business called Gardner-Minnehan Designs, specializing in floral design and wedding and event concept and design.
Diapers Full of Blarney our first blog ever; we’re Irish (not that you couldn’t tell from our last name or the title of the blog) and Trayton was actually conceived in Ireland (see our Made in Ireland tab for an overview of our pregnancy and Trayton’s birth story!) We had a baby website throughout our pregnancy to document our journey to parenthood, baby’s weekly developmental milestones and other pregnancy related topics, which we made into a keepsake book, your typical fill in the blanks, pre-formatted site, so bear with me while I learn the ropes as a new Mommy Blogger! During pregnancy I did A LOT of research, obtaining a wealth of information about pregnancy itself, baby’s development, labor, delivery, breastfeeding etc. It was only toward the end of pregnancy that I realized I knew nothing about a child’s development from birth onward. When do they start smiling, following/grasping objects, form social bonds with others aside from their primary caregiver, when do their lower limbs straighten out, what about different parenting styles? I decided to create this blog to share our journey as new parents and focus on development! In today’s mobile, digital world, where everything comes with instructions or a manual, parenting and babies seem to be among the few things that DON’T come with either of these items! My goal is to learn and discuss developmental milestones, products we love and use related to development, parenting tips and tricks, the latest baby trends and whatever else we find interesting or have questions about. We also want to share with family and friends what’s going on in our life since Trayton arrived and engage in healthy discussions! I’m really creating this for myself as a learning tool but very much welcome and hope other readers/mamas will find it enjoyable and helpful too! We are very open minded and welcome any and all advice/tips/discussion within the realm of respect for one another, so please join us!
I love to research and learn new things, love writing and I am a complete newbie when it comes to being a mom. I was never around a lot of children or babysat when I was younger (I have one younger brother and there were no children in our neighborhood growing-up.) My husband and I talked A LOT about when we wanted to have children, how we wanted to raise them and what we wanted for them before we got pregnant and although I knew I wanted to be a mom someday, I was honestly scared to death (and sometimes still am!) Once we got pregnant in July of 2009 everything felt surreal and it took some time for the realization to set in that we were going to have a baby! Now I can’t imagine life without our little man!
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