The Story of Isla June

When Avey girl was about 14 months old, we decided to start trying for a new baby. We wanted our littlies to be close together in age so they could be close friends. I was an only child growing up and Robert always felt like he and his brother were a little too far apart in age, so we wanted our kids to be at most two years or so apart. I was still breastfeeding at the time and I hadn't started back on any sort of monthly menstrual cycle, so we didn't think it would even happen any time soon, but we started trying any way. Well, the next month, I started getting really tired in the early evenings again and sure enough - pregnant. I didn't even see a period.

My pregnancy was fairly uneventful, just like Aven's (If you aren't familiar with Aven's birth story, you can find it here.) I was actually a lot less sore this time around because I'd been more active shooting weddings and portraits and was in better shape than I had been when I was pregnant with Aven. As my pregnancy went on, I was so surprised at how fast it seemed to be passing by. Aven's pregnancy seemed to last forever, but with this one, before I knew it, I was 38 weeks and baby should be making an appearance any day. I was starting to get sore by this point and really having trouble rolling over in bed and I was having a lot of pelvic pain again. My pregnancies are ALL belly pregnancies so I have a lot of extra weight in the front and moving tends to be really hard at the end.

At our 38 week appointment, we figured out that our little surprise baby was posterior. Most of you know that Aven was posterior and for that reason, we had to be transferred to the hospital with her. After I came home that day, I spent the next few weeks on my hands and knees, doing spinning babies exercises and doing Miles Circuits multiple times a day. It was exhausting and baby wasn't cooperating. Oh well, she'll be here soon because second pregnancies are generally shorter than first pregnancies so she'll be smaller than Aven and more than likely come out easier. 

Well, my due date comes and goes and little baby still hasn't made an appearance. I'm having no labor signs at all and baby is still posterior. At this point, the pregnancy that had flown by starts moving in slow motion. Forty-one weeks comes and goes and still no sign of baby. No sign of labor except the loss of a few little bits of mucus plug (if that grosses you out, you should probably read no further, also, never google mucus plug. I promise, I'm doing you a favor by telling you that). At this point, I'm getting nervous that my due date might have been wrong and that we won't be able to birth at home like I so desperately wanted. Like I said earlier, I never had a period, so our due date was measured by an early ultrasound instead of my last menstrual period so I wasn't sure if it was totally accurate.

At 41 weeks, we had to get an ultrasound to make sure everything looked okay. Baby was measuring eight lbs and a lot of ounces, I don't remember exact measurements, but it was almost nine pounds according to the ultrasound. I also had more fluids than normal, but other than that, everything looked great still. I wasn't worried about the weight because with Aven's ultrasound, she was measuring above nine pounds and came out at eight pounds and two ounces, so I knew the measurement was probably bigger than what baby actually weighed.

The next day, I discussed the ultrasound with my midwives. I was overdue, I was expecting another big baby that was still in the posterior position and 42 weeks was approaching in a few days. I cried all day Wednesday because we were already picking out hospitals that we would transfer care to if we didn't go into labor by Sunday and no one really seemed hopeful about my delivery at all, or so it seemed to me being the overdue, hormonal, pregnant woman I was. I was starting to get very disheartened and incredibly sad. I was still having no labor signs at all. Nothing seemed to be happening. I walked the mall twice. Walked the parks. I had sex while feeling oh so glamorous with my ginormous belly. I ate eggplant parmesan. Pineapple. Evening primrose oil. Red raspberry leaf tea. I pumped. Nothing.

On Thursday (my last day to successfully try for a home birth was Sunday) I went into the midwifery where we would now try to stretch my cervix and see if it would help to jump start labor at all. This was pretty much a blast. If you've never had your cervix stretched before, you should definitely try it.

I'm kidding obviously because it's the worst thing I've ever experienced.

Back to being serious. I was already dilated to a three and pretty thinned out so we were able to successfully stretch it a little bit and cause a few contractions. This made me a little more hopeful. However, after going home that night, I didn't have any more contractions, just a few little cramps that tapered off before I went to bed that night.

I woke up Friday morning around 5:45ish disappointed again that nothing had happened throughout the night and I still wasn't having contractions. I got up to empty my pregnant bladder and came back to bed. I fell back to sleep and woke up after having four surprising contractions within 45 minutes. Still denying the fact that I was in labor, I tried to go to sleep again but couldn't because I kept having contractions about every ten minutes. I went to get my phone so I could start timing them. They were coming about every ten minutes and lasting about 45 seconds or so but I still wasn't totally sure I was in labor yet. I got up, let my mom know that things seemed to maybe be picking up, and I messaged my midwife who was supposed to come to my house at 9:00 that day so we could try some natural induction methods to try to get labor started. I let her know I was having a few contractions every now and then and she said she still wanted to come at 9:00 just in case. I decided to take a shower and put on some makeup and get ready for the day. At around 8:00, I decided to wake up Robert and let him know what was going on, called my photographer and we called the rest of the family to let them know. Contractions were coming faster and harder by this point so I stopped measuring and timing them completely because I was pretty sure I was in labor by this point and my midwife was already coming over in a few hours so I didn't really see a need.

By 9:00, I was on my couch on my hands and knees (still trying to spin a baby!) with pretty intense contractions, but still getting a pretty good break in between. I ate some breakfast and we blew up the pool and waited through contractions for my midwife and assistants to get here. They arrived around 9:30 and we decided to check dilation to see where we were and if we were progressing at all.

"Oh shit," was my reaction when I was informed that I was dilated to a seven. A seven? Already? I've only been in labor for a few short hours and it's still morning! I was in labor with Aven for around 18 hours and early labor lasted even longer! 

I got up, labored through a few contractions while standing, and then decided I wanted to get in the pool soon. It was taking AGES to fill up but we eventually got it full and I finally got some good relief with the hot water. Aven was super excited that there was a pool in our living room, so she got in to swim with mama for a little bit before contractions started getting too intense. I labored in the pool an hour or so and started to lose track of time. I labored in the pool on my side, on my knees, while pretty much floating on my stomach, anything that felt comfortable - if you could call it comfortable. I was feeling a lot of pressure down below at this point and everything was coming fast and strong and way too intense. I started thinking, why did I decide to do this again? Was there really a good reason for not just going to the hospital and getting an epidural? These contractions were coming way faster and stronger than anything I remember with Aven and I just wasn't sure I could endure another five to ten hours of it! Ack! I was starting to stay really uncomfortable through all of the contractions in the tub so we decided to go to the bedroom because all I really wanted to do was lie down. I had a few contractions in the hallway and I realized I was already way more comfortable than I had been in the tub so that was exciting. Maybe I could endure the rest of this.

We got to the bed and decided to check progress while we were there. Guess what? I was fully dilated. What? How was this going so fast? It had only been a few hours since hard labor had even started. I flipped over on my side and started having really intense, really strong contractions. They were overlapping each other. Instead of coming and going. They were coming, then pretending to go, then picking back up again even stronger before offering me any relief. They were more intense than anything I remember with Aven. (I already said that, but I just want to reiterate that fact. I was thinking to myself at this point that there was no way I could take anymore of this and those are thoughts that never crossed my mind during Aven's labor, even when I was in the car for 20 minutes while trying to fight off pushing.) Then I remembered what everyone says. When you're at the point where you think you can't do it anymore, that's transition and you don't have much longer to go. Maybe I could do it after all. Another contraction. Maybe not. This was way too intense. No way I can do this for three or four more hours.

My midwife suggested that I try a few contractions on my hands and knees and then a few standing up. Moving sounds awful at this point, but I agree. Once I'm standing up, Robert is behind me supporting me and rubbing my back. Then my water breaks. All over everything. Including my husband. It's funny later, I promise. Remember when I mentioned that I had a lot more fluid than most people, for some reason? Yeah, that was really noticeable right about now. 

After my water broke, contractions got more intense and I was feeling a little bit of pressure to push, but nothing nearly as intense as with Aven. With Aven, when I finally wanted to push, my body seemed to be convulsing and it was this involuntary contraction that I couldn't stop. This time, I just barely felt an urge to push like I needed to take a bowel movement, but not even that intense. I labored for a few more contractions on the bed frame and then my midwife asked me to turn around and for Robert to hold up my arms so I could sort of squat. I was really confused by this position and really uncomfortable as Robert is almost a foot taller than me. My legs were shaking trying to hold myself up because I was basically on my tiptoes. I could feel "the ring of fire" and I knew that that's when baby starts to make its appearance. Some people push for hours though and I just wasn't sure I could take this burning for much longer. "I can see your baby's head!" What?! I haven't even pushed yet! "Can you reach down and touch it?" Absolutely not! I can't even hold my body up right now! "Give a little push... Baby's head is out!" WHAT?! And one or two more pushes and baby was here!

What just happened? I pushed for literally less than five minutes and I already have my baby in my arms. It looks like a boy. Is it a boy? It's a girl! I knew it was a girl! Then there we were, in the corner of our bedroom, holding our new baby. And that was that.

We moved over to our bed and Aven came in to meet her new sister. Everyone was happy and everything was perfect. Everything was everything I had imagined it would be. ..and it was only 1:21 P.M. I could still have lunch. We all laid down, had some snacks and stared at each other and drank some juice and talked about what had just happened and stared at each other some more. Baby never cried and tried to nurse a little bit and everything was perfect.

Baby had all her finger and toes and everyone guessed her height and weight. Everyone was wrong. Baby girl weighed in at nine pounds and five ounces and 23 inches long and everyone was shocked. Dr. Ryan had said that if Aven had been any bigger, she wouldn't have come out naturally. She would have been a c-section. I just pushed out a nine pound baby in less than five minutes. I'm still processing everything.

We named Isla June three days later and now here we are. She sleeps all day and stays awake right about the time I'm most tired at night. Just perfectly how a newborn should. She gets cuter and cuter everyday. Big sister has had a few meltdowns, but mostly loves her baby sister.

A much less suspenseful story than Aven's, but much less traumatic for this mama. My body and mind both feel better and I'm much less emotional than last time. All good things.

Thank you SO much to Catie Bartlett for all the wonderful, beautiful photos! 

things every first time mom should know before breastfeeding

I decided to write this post because I was so naive at the beginning. I was the girl who said "nursing has to be so easy, I mean..we're made to do it, how hard can it be?!" I'd read all these blogs that recommended visiting with a lactation consultant, reading up on information, and although I did that with everything else that involved pregnancy and childbirth, I thought the breastfeeding part would be the easiest. I was definitely wrong.

Be prepared for it to be hard. Be prepared for it to take up a l l of your time. I'm not kidding. For the first few weeks you will live in one spot on your couch or bed and you will spend the majority of your time feeding your baby.

Here are some things that might seem pretty obvious to some, but it's really astonishing how much some first time mommas don't know about this:

1. Do not give your baby a bottle or pacifier until at least six weeks. Don't listen to the nurses in the hospital. Don't listen to your mother/aunt/MIL who says your baby needs one. If your baby is sucking on a pacifier, he's not nursing. He should be nursing. These first few days, weeks even, are very important to  establishing your milk supply. Also, you don't want baby getting nipple confusion. That's a real thing even though your husband might tell you you made it up.

2. During the first few days, your baby is not hungry! I know, your milk hasn't come in yet and it's been a whole day. Don't worry. It's not supposed to come in until 3-4 days after baby is born. Your baby's tiny tummy is the size of a marble. All he needs is the little bit of colostrum that you're producing. That's ALL he needs.

3. Nurse on demand. Don't give your baby an eating schedule. What if someone told you when you could and couldn't eat/drink/snack/have medicine/be comforted? Your baby has to double his birth weight in a few months. He has to eat a lot! Plus, it's good for your supply. Your baby might nurse every thirty minutes - let him. He's only this tiny for a short while and he's more at home right on your chest than anywhere else, you'll miss him needing you this much in just a short while.

4. Do not supplement with formula! Don't even have it in your house. If you're supplementing, you're not nursing as often as you could be. Your milk is supply and demand. You will only make as much as baby is eating. If you're supplementing, you won't magically start producing more - you will only produce as much as baby eats. The reason I tell you not to have it in your house is this - It's going to get really hard and at one point you're going to say to yourself "I wish I could just give him a bottle and take a nap" and if you have formula in your house, you might give in and do that.

(If your baby hasn't gained his birth weight back by their two week appointment, talk to your doctor or a lactation consultant about maybe supplementing then.)

5. Around four to six weeks in, your baby is going to act crazy. He's going to pull off your boob and act like there's no milk coming out and cry and eat some more and cry. Your milk supply is FINE! You are still producing enough. This is a growth spurt and this will happen at least a few more times in your nursing relationship. I found that when she would start crying, I would hand express a little milk just to make sure it was still coming out. It was. She was just moody. ;)

6. Don't listen to the nurse that tells you to switch sides during every feeding. That's not realistic, plus, it's not right. Your baby needs to get the hindmilk that comes at the end of each feeding. You can switch every feeding if you feel like it, but really, don't even worry about doing that. Use whatever side is comfortable for you at the time.


7.  Relax. Those first few weeks, I would write down every bowel movement, every nursing session, every pee-pee. It just stressed me out. Just relax and nurse your baby when he wants to nurse. That's all you need to do. Oh, and sleep when he sleeps.

Your baby is normal, everything you're experiencing is more than likely normal. Unless your baby is pooping blue poop (green is normal, although you need to look up green poop, it can be a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance) or turning yellow polka-dots, everything is probably normal.

Other things you should know as a first time mom.

Some realizations I had as a first time mom.

Are you feeling blue? I was, too.

Edit:
This is for moms who plan to breastfeed exclusively. I realize that some moms plan to formula feed and even do half and half. This post isn't for you. It's for moms who want to only breastfeed their little ones.

Also, I HIGHLY recommend the book The Womanly Art Of Breastfeeding. I wish I'd had it before I gave birth because it helped to put my mind at ease in those first few weeks!

aven's milestones.

Aven is now six months old. I absolutely cannot believe it's been six months since she's been with us. It's so surreal.

Here are some of the things that Aven can do now:

She's sitting up all on her own.
She can push up on her hands and feet.
She can scoot crawl all across the floor.
She's pulling up on all the furniture (and hitting her head on everything, too)
She can roll over....and over and over and over.
She has some pretty good baby words that she says.
She can throw her toys off of her high chair.
She chews on everything.
She LOVES Frenchy.
Her favorite toys are wet wipes packages and my toes.
She's wearing 6-9 month onesies (unless they're gerber and then she's above a 12 month).
She wears 12 month and above pants because of her big diaper butt.
She does this little sucking in air laugh when she's excited.

She sleeps from around 8p.m. until 8a.m. waking to nurse a few times.
She takes a nap around 10, 1 and 4 (on good days).
She'll nurse to sleep or fall asleep in the Ergo, and only lately has she been falling asleep in the car again (occasionally).
She's finally gotten to where she'll let me get up and do my own thing when she falls asleep. Hallelujah!

We're still exclusively breastfeeding but sometimes she'll have an occasional taste of something.
We've decided on baby led weaning to introduce solids.

She still doesn't have much hair.
She's gettin two (sharp) teeth!
She has a smile that will warm any heart.
She's the silliest girl I know.

She is 18.02 lbs & 26 inches long!

DIY Nursing/Teething Necklace

Aven is always playing with my hands while she's nursing so, I thought this nursing (teething) necklace would be a good little accessory for her to play with while she was nursing. Plus, she has two teeth coming through right now so she can chew on it, too! I was inspired by Rachel's Nest. I didn't get a picture of everything, but most of it is pretty self explanatory so, here goes!

What you'll need:

Fabric

Scissors

Thread

Wooden Beads

I bought one of those little packets of complimentary fabric at hobby lobby and it came with four squares (the fourth one isn't in the picture because I think Aven had it). Cut them into 5 inch wide sections. These were each 18 inches long. You'll need the fabric tube to be pretty long since you'll be tying knots in it. 

Sew all of your fabric together (right sides together) until you have one long strip.

Then, fold your fabric in half hotdog style (right sides together!) and sew up the side leaving enough room for your wooden bead to fit through the hole.

Now you have to turn your fabric tube right side out. This is the hardest part. Pin a safety pin to the end (or in my case push a bobby pin through it because I have no idea where a safety pin is) and start pushing it trough the loop, pulling the excess fabric down as you go. I'm sure you can find tons of tutorials on youtube on how to do this if you don't know what I mean.

Next, tie a knot whereever you want your beads to start and put in a bead, then tie another knot. I doubled my knots because I wanted them to be as large as the bead.

Do that until you have the same amount of non knotted fabric on both sides. Then all you need to do is flip a little bit of the ends into the hole and then sew up the ends so your fabric won't fray. ..and that's it!

Aven liked it more in this picture than she does now. 

Viola!

Why don't you use cloth?

I had to put Aven in a disposable diaper today and it inspired this post.

I guess since we've always used cloth diapers, I just don't realize that everyone doesn't do it that way. Last night I forgot to put the diapers on their last rinse cycle, therefore this morning Aven is having to wear sposies while I finish up the laundry. As I was unfolding the diaper, I was shocked at how thin it was. I also just noticed how perfectly rectangular disposable diapers are and how similar they are to a piece of paper. I put it on her and though to myself, "How the heck is this going to hold ANYTHING in?" Then I tried to imagine going about life with a crinkly piece of paper attached to my crotch and then I laughed.
So, my question is: Why don't you use cloth??

Is it the cost? 
From the research I've done, the average family spends around $1700 dollars on disposable diapers and wipes PER CHILD. I've spent around $600 total (which is more than I needed, but I have sort of an obsession) and I can reuse these for EACH child.

Is it the smell? 
Disposable diapers smell worse than cloth. Period. Dot. They have that weird "fake baby" smell, as my husband and I like to call it. Plus, they go in your trash and get all poopy and fake baby smellin'. My cloth go in a diaper bin and I never smell them again until I take them to the laundry, which brings about my next question...

Is it the laundry?
I do an extra load of laundry every three days. No big deal. And with laundry - doing laundry is the easy part. Folding and putting away clothes is the hard part, which you don't have to do with cloth diapers, unless you're just realllly OCD. Plus, going and getting diapers from the store at 9:00 at night was way more annoying then doing a load of laundry.

Are there just too many steps?
I've shown a million pictures and even done a video before about how easy it is to cloth diaper. I just put it on and go, just like a sposie. Then I take it off and throw it in the bin, I don't even have to fold it up like a disposable, so that's one less step! They are SO easy.

Are your disposables just way cuter than cloth?
That was just a joke. Cloth diapers are SOOO cute!

Cloth diapering is just SO crazy easy. It's easier than I even thought it would be and I planned on doing it anyway. I never imagined that I wouldn't already be tired of it and considering disposables, but that's just not the case! I didn't even know about all-in-ones when I first started and those just make it a billion times easier.

Now, I do have to be honest. I'm used to using reusable things already. We don't keep paper towels in our house and we use a washable mop (no swiffers) and we have reusable coffee mugs and tumblers. About the only throw away thing we keep is toilet paper and of course all the other trash that comes with buying food and whatnot. Trash just kind of freaks me out. I get really grossed out and scared when I think of where all the trash goes when it leaves everyone's house. Not from a political standpoint, or from an environmentalist standpoint, trash just really freaks me out when I think about it all going to one huge place and stinking and smelling and getting all moldy and nasty. Ugh. Blehh.

Now, I do have to say that right now Aven is exclusively breast fed, so we don't have to do any rinsing or scraping into the toilet beforehand. That probably makes it pretty easy for me to say how easy it is. I also believe that with formula fed babies you have to rinse the diapers, too. But, I know plenty of mamas that feed their babes solid foods and still use cloth diapers, so I know it's doable! I'll probably write a new post once we start solids to let you all know how that goes.


So, why didn't or don't you use cloth? The Changing Table runs a great newborn rental program that's really, really cost efficient and let's you try out tons of different brands. Heck, I'd even be willing to let you borrow some of our diapers if it meant converting you!

Let me know below! :)

*disclaimer - I am in no way saying that your parenting skills aren't awesome if you use disposables. I just wonder WHY you don't when it's just so crazy easy! :)

how easy cloth diapering can be

...and some scooting!

We bought 7 more freetimes, so now in our big girl stash we have:
12 BumGenius Elemental Organic
  8 BumGenius Freetime
  1 Thirsties (Size 2)
  1 Tots Bots Easy Fit

more on cloth dipes

This is a continuation of our last cloth diaper post. Notice how I'm always saying "we" and "our" now that I have a baby? Is that a common thing?

So, we left off with our Thirsties AIO sized diapers. We were using the small size which is supposed to fit until 18 lbs or approximately nine months of age. However! (exclamation point!) Our baby is in the 90th percentile for weight and >97th percentile in height. Basically, she's a very large baby. The size of an average seven month old according to the pediatrician. That said, we needed new dipes about 5 months earlier than I assumed we would. She was popping out of those suckers like crazy. Which, by the way, is one reason why I will now always buy snaps over velcro. Velcro is great for micro-adjustments but snaps are much better when it comes to keeping the dipes on and longevity.

Bye Bye, Dipes!

So, my search began again. I already have the Tots Bots Easy Fit OS which fits her now but wanted to branch out and try some others. I bought one Thirsties AIO in the size large and even though I really like the way it fits and I really love the entire design of the Thirsties AIOs, I hate that the microfiber (or whatever it is) holds in smell! My diapers always had a sweet smell to them no matter how many times I washed or stripped. I decided, this time, to go with a natural fiber diaper. I love the idea that only natural fibers will be touching this little bum and I like the fact that natural fibers don't hold stink nearly as bad! (or so I've heard). By the way, Thirsties, you should really make an AIO with natural fibers like the AIO you make now. I would buy the heck out of those! ;)

Anyway, back to the story.. before I decided to stick to natural fibers, I decided to check out the BumGenius Freetime.

It's an AIO OS stay dry diaper. Translation: All in one (no stuffing), one size (fits from 8-35 lbs, although I would argue that), stay dry, meaning it has micro suede on top of the microfiber so that the baby doesn't feel the wetness on their little bums. I really liked this diaper. I still really like this diaper. I just don't love that it's not natural fibers and I know in time it's going to start holding a smell. Next on the list was the BumGenius Elemental Organic.

It's similar in shape to the freetime with all the same colors and styles, only it's made from organic cotton and instead of having two overlapping flaps inside the diaper, it has two sewn in inserts laying on top of each other. I searched around and asked for reviews on this diaper and then I did something that I would not recommend doing: I ordered twelve of them without ever trying them out. I got a really good deal though! I signed up for the amazon.com rewards card and immediately got a $50.00 gift card - awesome! - and because I ordered them in bulk, I got a $50.00 discount - also awesome! - so I ended up getting twelve diapers that should have cost me $300.00 for only $200.00! Have I ever mentioned how much I love amazon.com? I so wish I would shop local more, but I live in a small town and I don't have the patience to drive 45 minutes to the city every time I want to buy something good. Plus, no tax and amazon prime rock my world!

What was I talking about?

Oh yeah, diapers. ;)

I love the elementals and they're really absorbent because they're made of natural fiber, but I can't help but want to buy more of the freetime! I really love it and I always pick it out of my stash first to use. I think I'll buy six or seven more freetimes, even though I know they're going to end up smelling a little, because I just like them so much. They're cute and easy and they dry fast because the flaps are overlapping, so I even save energy that way.

So, now in our big girl stash we have:
12 BumGenius Elemental Organic
  1 BumGenius Freetime
  1 Thirsties (Size 2)
  1 Tots Bots Easy Fit

Oh, I forgot to mention the thing I don't love so much about both BumGenius diapers. My Thirsties diaper has TWO rows of snaps for adjustments so that I can snap the first snaps and then the second snaps so that the little "wing" of the diaper stays put. Kind of like when your pants have a second inner button to keep the fly in place? Is this making any sense? Anyway, the BumGenius only have the one row of snaps so the little "wing" gets all bunched up and I have to work it into place. Small problem, but one I notice every time I'm putting the diapers on.