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.

my favorite squash recipe (written while holding a babe)

ingredes:
1 butternut squash
~4T butter (NOT margarine!)
~1T fresh, chopped rosemary
salt & pep to taste
pan with lid
whisk

step uno: brown your butter. how? put butter in pan. let melt. whisking a lot. keep cooking. keep whisking. eventually will turn yellow, then shortly after - brown. it will start to smell nutty. take off heat. don't burn. this can happen quickly.

step next: throw in rosemary and whisk. butter will froth.

step last: throw in squash (oops, forgot to tell you you were supposed to peel, deseed and cube that earlier). let brown on one side until brownish/charrish. stir it around and try to brown other side. salt and pepper it. put on lid and set your timer for 15 minutos.


 

Adapted from Simply Recipes (it's supposed to look more like their picture, but I overcooked it this one time).

our ergo

I decided to post this blog because I got two comments on our carrier today, and because my daughter is actually taking a nap on her own for once. I'm not one of those moms that tries out every carrier and ends up with a million of them until I find the right one. I'm not like that with most things, in fact. I like to take my time and look up a million and one reviews until I think I've found out the good and the bad about everything and I can make an informed decision on what I want.

We started out with the Moby wrap. Now, I loved the idea of the Moby and I wanted to love it, but as Aven kept getting bigger, the Moby kept getting harder and harder to use. It hurt my back and was just too stretchy. Plus, every time I tried to put it on when I was about to do something while I was out, it would drag all over the ground and get really dirty and I don't need another thing to wash. It was really great when Aven was a tiny baby and would just sleep in it, but as soon as she was big enough to hold her head up and thrash around, it just didn't work out. At this point, I started looking for something more structured. I believe I was trying to decide between all three (or is it four?) Ergo carriers and then the Beco carrier. They're pretty similar but I believe the Beco has a piece of fabric that goes in between you and baby for extra support and for easy access to the back carry position. Anyway, I ended up deciding on the Ergo, and even more specific, the Ergo Organic because I read that the original is pretty rough and scratchy. Oh, I also want to add that one of the main reasons for my choosing between these two carriers, besides the ergonomics and the fact that they put most of baby's weight on your hips as opposed to your back, is the fact that baby is in a sitting position when being carried. "Crotch danglers" are not the way to go when baby wearing. The baby bjorn, although popular, carries your baby is a horrible position, supported on only their crotch with their legs straight down. Baby's hips are still supposed to be pretty spread apart at this point and aren't meant to be straight like adults. This is known to cause hip dysplasia as well as other problems with the hips and legs.

Anyway, enough of that. Now I'll tell you what we like about it.

1.) We love the fact that it puts baby's weight on mom's hips.
2.) We love the fact that mom can be hands free!
3.) Aven loves being able to interact with people's faces instead of their knees.
4.) We love that Aven can sleep in the carrier when she's being a fuss bucket. Sometimes the Ergo is my last resort and it usually works every time!
5.) We love that it's cute!
6.) I love that there's a pocket that perfectly fits my wallet, keys and cell phone.

Here are some things that take getting used to.

1.) It's pretty hard to figure out at first. The instructions are your friend; read them.
2.) The back strap is hard for me to reach, but I've finally figured out a method to buckle it and I think my arm has gotten stretchier.
3.) The bottom of it is bent now because I sit in it so often, but that's really not a problem.

I think that's it. We love our Ergo! If you're considering one and have any questions that aren't answered here, feel free to ask away! :)

things no one tells you

Sometimes I wonder how mothers get through the first year. When people are warning you about having kids and how things "will be different", they should really give you specifics so you'll be prepared. Here are some things people don't tell you about babies that everyone should know:


Breastfed babies have yellow, sweet smelling poop
After all that meconium (the first few tar-like poops your baby will have) is gone, your baby's first poops will be yellow and seedy and look really strange. It's totally normal, I promise.


Growth Spurts
Babies go through growth spurts where they get extrememly irratable and fussy, don't sleep and then sleep for hours and hours the next few days. There are specific ages for these, but you can basically expect that as soon as one growth spurt is over, it seems like the next one rolls around. You can basically blame anything on a growth spurt. Is baby hungry and then screaming when you try to feed them? Growth spurt. Not sleeping well anymore? Growth Spurt. Looking at you funny? Probably a growth spurt.


Babies DO NOT and are not supposed to sleep through the night. 
When you imagined having your baby, did you imagine them sleeping soundly in their crib most of the time while you and hubby stared lovingly at her and then did your own thing? Nope. Nuh uh. At the beginning, babies will nap, nap, nap like crazy. However, babies aren't meant to sleep through the night. So don't expect that you will be either. 


Teething
We haven't experienced this one yet, but I didn't realize that it's such a bad time. Fevers, crying, fussiness. Not looking forward to it.


Puke
From about 2 weeks on, Aven puked everyday. No, not spit up. Projectile vomit. It's tapered off, but as soon as I type that she'll probably do it again.

Four month sleep regression
I just found out about this one. Aven is four months. I'm not excited.
Last night I was in tears because every time I would lie her down (right beside me, mind you) she would cry and cry.. in her sleep. Supposedly this is the time when babies start sleeping like adults and not babies. That phrase "sleeping like a baby"? Pshaaa!

What would you add to the list of things people don't warn you about?
Leave a comment below and I'll add to the list in another blog post.

an oklahoma storm

Last night I had my first storm shelter experience. I've been in numerous storm shelters in my life, but never actually during a storm. We didn't have a shelter when I was little and storms are pretty scary without a shelter, especially in Oklahoma - in the middle of tornado alley. Anyway, we were planning to just stay in our house during the storm since it was only supposed to hail; however, the weather channel decided to mention that just earlier, there wasn't supposed to be a tornado and one was produced before a tornado watch was even given. Then we noticed on our weather app that the precautions for this particular storm said to get into a shelter. So, we abided. Aven was pretty interested in all the fuss and didn't make a peep the entire time we were down there, except when we started getting all hot and sweaty. My phone happened to go dead just like it always does when I need it most. Rob had to brave the storm once it died down to go run and get his phone so we could check to make sure the storm was actually over before we went back home.

Our electricity was off when we got back home, but came back on after an hour or so. It ended up that we didn't even get any hail where we were, although a few very small tree branches fell down in our yard. We're supposed to get more, maybe worse storms tonight. I hate Oklahoma summers for this very reason. Storm watching is especially stressful with a new little baby. Plus, I always want to pack up all my important gadgets like my camera and computer, just in case.

I guess this post isn't really that great; I usually only write when I have something important or insightful to say. Meh. It was an interesting night. Hopefully tonight will miss us and not be as bad as they think.

Also, I think it's funny that while we were watching the weather to see whether we needed to go to the shelter or not, the lady reporting says "Now, this is really important..what you need to do RIGHT NOW is...

go outside, check your roof, and call your insurance agent."

What?! I don't wanna go outside and check my roof! It's about to storm and that seems really unsafe, lady!

Not the best of advice if you ask me. ;)

some realizations

You don't realize how naive and how much of a know-it-all you were before you were a parent until you become a parent. :|

That said, here are some things that, before I had a baby, I said I would never do or things I thought would be different.

I'll never let my baby be pacified by something other than myself.

No pacifiers, no t.v., no swings! Parents are so lazy sometimes, I said. If my baby needs to be pacified then I'll just pick her up and hold her, because I'm going to be the best mom and I don't need all of those other things! Well, in my mind, that was all great, but sometimes my shoulder get sore and sometimes my arms hurt and sometimes I need to do the laundry, cook or clean my house. Sometimes, I just need a break! Sometimes when Aven cries, the only thing that makes her stop crying is looking at that stupid television. Plus, if that t.v. is on, she will turn her head like an owl to see it. We still don't use a pacifier, because I feel like my boobies suffice for that, but I have stuck one in her mouth a few times just to see what she'd do. She definitely just spit it out. "This is NOT a boobie!"

Breastfeeding will be so easy! (formula feeding mommas are just lazy!)

That's what our boobs are for: breastfeeding! I carry them around on my chest and I don't have to fill up a bottle and we're born to do it, right?! What could be hard about it? Turns out, it's not that it's hard to do, it's the commitment that's required on your part. Those first few weeks, you're nursing almost every hour! Prepare to leave to get somewhere an hour before you need to be there, because odds are, the baby will need to eat before you leave and if you don't calculate that time in, you're going to be late for where ever you're going.
The beginning of breastfeeding was one of the biggest commitments I've ever made. I now totally understand why some babies are formula fed. Especially if you're not a stay at home mom. I don't understand how working mommies even do it. Kudos to you if you're a working momma and you also breastfeed your baby. I don't know how I'd have the energy!

Being a stay at home mom will be great! 

(First off, I love being able to stay home with my baby. Not a lot of moms have that luxury and I don't want to seem like I'm complaining about it by any means.) BUT:
See above - "Sometimes I just need a break!" Sometimes, I get really lonely. Sometimes, I get so tired of being in this house, I just want to scream. Aven does scream when she gets tired of it. Going to the grocery store or just out for a drive can seem like a vacation now.

I'll never be one of those moms that looks frumpy and doesn't have time to clean her house.

HA! My baby doesn't sleep during the day most of the time. She's a great nighttime sleeper and will go to sleep at 9 or 10 and sleep until 7:30, waking up a few times to eat. So, when she does happen to take a nap during the day, the last thing on my mind is putting on makeup or cleaning my house. Most of the time I want to sit down, chill out, write a blog, get online, or watch a t.v. show. Plus, cleaning the house usually results in something noisy just waking her up.



So, with all that said, if you're not a mommy or daddy, you can give parenting advice all you want. Just know that on the inside I'm laughing, because until you've been there..you have no idea.

The Video

Here is the (sort of incomplete) video of my birth. :) Thanks Franny!

If the video lags or acts "jerky", click on the top where the title is and it should take you to the youtube page and it should work fine there!
   

Read my story HERE

behind the scenes

waiting on you..
 



 your first full day home, nothing sweeter than this. <3





 full belly and a nap. :)
 

cloth diapering so far

**This post has been edited as of Tue Mar 27 @ 3:28 P.M.**

Before baby got here, I knew I wanted to cloth diaper. I searched "cloth diapers" on google and the first thing I found were kissluvs cotton fitted fleece diapers. "Great!" I though, these look good! So, I registered for a whole bunch of them and ended up getting 18 of them.
They are these:



These had to be used with covers, as they are not waterproof, but I hadn't done much more research so I wasn't, at this point, aware of all the other options out there.

For the first few weeks, we were just using disposable diapers to deal with the meconium and just long enough until we could get the laundry caught up and get into a schedule with baby. Boy, everyone seems to think disposables are SO much easier, but I just found it to be quite the opposite. I felt like we would go through so many of them and just into the trash they would go, day after day after day. No more diapers? Darn, we need to go run to the store to BUY some more. Ugh. I felt like I was drowning in disposable diapers. Before I had the baby, I thought I might get spoiled to the disposables at the beginning and not want to do cloth, but it was definitely the opposite of that. So, after about 3 weeks, we tried on our first cloth diaper, put on the cover and...no success. The diapers were newborn size, but with the added bulk of the cover, the whole thing came down to her knees and spread her legs way too far apart. Well, hell..Now I have these 18 diapers that I don't know what to do with that aren't going to work for her.

So, I talked to another mama that cloth diapers and she recommended the All in Ones (AIOs) and talked about her love for the Tots Bots Easy Fit One Size (OS). Now, I'm not totally caught up on all the abbreviations and jargon yet, but there are tons of abbreviations and internet speak in the cloth diapering world, and TONS of cloth diapering options, too! You have your prefolds, your pockets, your all in ones, your one size, doublers, covers, etc, etc, etc. A one size is supposed to fit your baby from 8 lbs until they potty train (this is accomplished by having different snaps for different size rises that you can adjust to your baby) and an all in one is like a disposable in the fact that you don't have to stuff it or prepare it, it's already all done for you. I decided to order one Tots Bots Easy Fit which is a combination of both of these. I was super excited to get it in the mail and boy was it cute! Well, no success there either. My 10 lb baby wasn't fitting in a diaper that was supposed to fit an 8 lb kiddo. Darn, again.
That diaper is here:


So, off I went to the Green Bambino in Oklahoma City to check out some more options. Maybe if I could actually see the diapers in person, I would have a better chance of being succesful, because at this point I was feeling like we'd be in disposables forever and I was starting to hate it! The woman at the Green Bambino told me that maybe I should try some newborn diapers, because with girls, they can actually fit for quite a bit longer. She recommended the Bum Genius AIO in XS and I bought two to see if they'd work. Success! These seemed to work great! The only downside was that Aven was growing so fast and these weren't adjustable to fit her as she got older. I toyed with the idea of ordering a whole stash of them for a few days, but then decided against it. So, back to the Green Bambino we went!
Bum Genius AIO



This time, I was introduced to sized diapers. These would be another option besides the One Size type of diapers. I looked at the Thirsties Duo and a few others and finally decided on the Thirsties. Although they're technically a size small, they still have an adjustable rise that will grow with baby until we need the next size up, and because they're cloth, we can either sell them when we're done or we can keep them for the next little one! This seemed like the best fit for us. I bought two of them, tried them out, and so far we're loving them!

We love this tunnel design because the diapers dry a lot faster since you can flip them inside out. Plus, I can stuff an extra layer of absorbency underneath it! And I also find that the wetness doesn't go all the way up to the elastic on the back because it's not attached to that part of the diaper, which is more comfortable for baby.



I went home, got on amazon and ordered 20 more! We were so excited to get these babies in the mail. We immediately washed and dried and put them on baby! We are absolutely loving them so far. If I feel like I'm running out of diapers, I head to my laundry room instead of having to head out to the store (which is almost an impossibility with a newborn). Plus, they are SO much cuter than disposables. No diaper covers when she's wearing a cute outfit because these are already so darn pretty. Not to mention that I'm not contributing to the tons and tons of garbage that I already throw out every day. Did you know a disposable diaper takes 600 years to decompose? Gross. That means the diapers that were on my bottom when I was a baby are still sitting in a landfill somewhere. Not to mention my MOM'S diapers! whoa.
The only problem we've had so far are a few wet leaks at night (probably because I need to stuff an extra layer in there for absorbency) and a staining issue. I've ordered a clothesline for the staining because the sun is supposed to bleach those stains right outta there!



How do you go out, you ask? Where do you put your diapers, you're thinking? Wet bag!
We have the Planet Wise Wet Bag!

Dry dipes in the side and wet ones in the middle. Take them out when you get home and throw them in your diaper pail! Viola!



**We're also using cloth wipes in our Prince Lionheart Wipes Warmer. We use the warmies with it and we love them! I do have to make new wipes every few days, but it doesn't take that long so it's not that big of a hassle. Also, I once saw the wipes warmer on a list of things that you didn't need to buy for your baby. Let me tell you, though, there's a huge difference in how baby acts during a diaper chance when I'm using a warm wipe vs. a cold one! She loves her warm wipies!
Anyway, here's what I use for my wipes:
1-2 T Coconut Oil (I've hear it's anti microbial plus it's smooth on her bottom!)
2-3 pumps of her baby wash (we use Rainbow Baby Oh Baby, because it's all natural and free of harsh chemicals, sulfates and mineral oil! Yuck!)
2 C HOT water
Put the wipes in, ring them out, and stick them in the wipes warmer! Done!



Oh! I ended up being able to return two of my six packs of the kissaluvs, but since I washed one of them from the other pack, I had to keep that one. I think we might use a few for nighttime or sell a few. I'm just glad I was able to return the majority of them.

Are you thinking of cloth diapering? I can't answer all your questions, but if you have any, feel free to ask and I'll try my best to answer!