Perfect

First, I wanted to start by sharing a few pictures of us babywearing:

Now that I’ve shared these photos, allow me to share my feelings on babywearing. I read this blog and there is no way I could say it better. Keep You Close

Please read this.

Crunchy or Creamy?

No, I’m not talking about peanut butter.  I’m talking about parenting styles.  I had never heard these terms before I gave birth to my baby girl.  With the recent Time magazine cover, “Are You Mom Enough (linked here for those of you out of the loop) I have become familiar with the term crunchy.  I’m actually not sure if creamy is a parenting style, but I’ll call it one since it’s the opposite of crunchy.

For those of you who don’t know, crunchy is a term used to define people who practice a style of parenting known as attachment parenting.  It was popularized by Dr Sears with his book titled The Baby Book.

The basic tenets of attachment parenting include breastfeeding, co-sleeping, skin to skin contact, and many other things.  Please visit the Attachment Parenting International website if you want more info.

So after all this research, and natural proceedings with my daughter, I’ve begun to realize–I’m surprisingly crunchy!  I never would have guessed.  I expected to do formula because it’d be so much easier than dealing with pumping while going back to school for my senior year.  My husband asked me to please try breastfeeding before deciding, so I figured I’d give it a fair shake.  I tried, Kaylen did great, and I fell in love with it. I’m definitely going to keep doing it. The only thing is, I’m not going to do child led weaning–I still don’t know if I really believe that’s possible, and I really want my breasts back to myself. I plan on feeding til she’s about 14 months. This is longer than the 10 month minimum recommendation, but not as long as more extreme APs do.

I bought a Moby wrap (still not sure where I found out about them) and FELL IN LOVE with babywearing.  It is so much easier than a stroller! I know a lot of women think it’s easier to leave them in the car seat and attach that to a travel system and go–and that part is.  But once you’re in the store, do you know how much easier it is to be wearing your baby? You can get lost reading the back of products without worrying about whether someone can run off with your baby. You don’t take up obnoxious amounts of space with your crazy big stroller.  And the baby sleeps so much better and is much easier to quiet down while you’re babywearing than when strapped into a stroller. (And she’s actually too low in that picture for regular babywearing in a wrap–because she’s breastfeeding! You can’t even tell, can you?) If you want to know more about babywearing, carriers, wraps, and proper babywearing safety please visit this website!

I also co-sleep.  I don’t bedshare–I have a rock n play pulled up next to my bed that she sleeps in.  I was originally only going to do this for the first few weeks until I was used to breastfeeding, but after researching SIDS rates and info, I decided to wait until she’s 6 months old before I move her to the crib.  And my cat loves when she sleeps this way!

So in short: I don’t consider myself an extreme attachment parent. Kaylen is knocked out sound asleep in her swing right now.  Do I feel guilty about lying her down? Sometimes.  But you know what? Another tenet of attachment parenting is balance.  And for some people, you need to put the baby down to achieve that balance. So yes, I’m crunchy–and I’m okay with that!

Wow

So it’s been a rather long time since I’ve posted a blog.  It’s been a blur of taking care of a newborn!

She’s doing fabulously.  She gained 2 lbs and 2 inches in her first month, but she still fits into all her newborn clothes and diapers! Kaylen is already sleeping through the night too–and I breastfeed so that’s extra amazing to me.  I feed her at 10:30 and put her down at 11.  She didn’t wake up this morning until 5:45 to eat, and she went back to sleep when she was done until 9!  So lucky. She’s six weeks as of yesterday.

Newborn Portraits

As I stated in an earlier blog post, I purchased a Bellies to Babies portrait session.  That means I had maternity pictures and newborn pictures done.

 

Here are some of my favorite pictures of my daughter! I have almost a hundred, but of course I’m only posting my very favorites for you guys. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Baby is Here! (Lots of pictures included! Warning, there’s one of a freshly born baby)

I had a pre-scheduled c-section because of a breech baby on April 5, 2012.

I went in for my appointment and they took me straight back.  The anesthesiologist came in and talked to me about the spinal procedure.  The nurse dropped an iv in my arm.  The doctor came in and talked to me for a minute.  Then an emergency 29 week pregnant woman who’s water had broken came into the L&D so I had to wait about two hours (totally fine with that).  After that, they came back and told me they were prepping the OR and would be back for me in about 20 minutes.  The nurse came in and put a catheter in me (which was the worse part because the baby would kick it and make it feel really weird…no pain though…just weird.)

They wheeled me back, and then I got a little freaked out because I didn’t know my husband couldn’t come yet.  In epidural videos, the birth partner is always with the woman, but because the surgery was pre scheduled, they didn’t do the spinal (which is different than an epidural….it’s a high dose one time shot instead of a catheter) in the room, they did it on the OR table.  They had to keep the environment sterile, so they did the spinal without him there.  I was going to have a natural birth with a midwife, but had to switch to a doctor because my baby was breech.  My favorite midwife from the practice was on call that day, and saw my name on the surgery schedule, and came in to see me. She was actually in the OR with me and let me lean on her while I got the spinal, so it wound up being okay.  She even took my camera from my husband and took the pictures of the baby for us.

The spinal took maybe 5 minutes to kick in, started out tingly like I sat in the same position too long, then completely went numb.  After I couldn’t move my knees anymore, they started pinching my stomach and asking if I could feel it (which I couldn’t).  The anesthesiologist told them to go ahead and start the surgery.  My husband came in all covered in scrubs and such.  He sat next to my head and held my hand.

A few minutes later, the doctor said, “Okay, I see feet!”  I got really excited and any nerves I had were completely gone at this point.  All I could feel was light pressure…I was aware I was being touched but couldn’t actually feel the touch.  And with the drape, I couldn’t see a thing.  Then the doctor said, “Did you want to know the gender? Oh, wait you already know I remember.”  And at that point I said, “Well we were right, weren’t we?”  No response.  “Dr Gay?”  And my midwife started laughing and said, “Dr Gay I think she wants you to confirm the gender.”  He started laughing and said, “Well it’s definitely a girl!”  Then I calmed down again, haha. I could tell there was a lot of movement at that point and could tell they were pulling her out, but again, no pain or real feeling.  The doctor said, “Okay your daughter is here and healthy! I’m going to open her amniotic sack and suction and you’ll hear her cry.” She was born at 11:49AM.  About 10 seconds later, I heard her cry which made me cry (from happiness of course!)  Dr Gay held her up over the drape so I could see her. (Warning, graphic picture incoming!)

 

 

 

She motioned for my husband to go over.  They started scrubbing her down, and then gave hubby the scissors to cut the umbilical cord.  He did, then they wrapped her up and put her in his arms.

 

He carried her over to me and laid her down next to my face so I could kiss her and stroke her cheek. They weighed her and my husband read the weight to me and brought her back over to me after they took her footprints.

 

It took about 30 minutes to sew me all the way up, and I was able to “cuddle” my daughter while they did.

 

They moved me to the rolling hospital bed from the OR table and took me back to a recovery room.  My husband came a couple of minutes later, and they brought the baby in after they fully cleaned her, which wasn’t long.  They gave me some anti nausea medicine because the pitocin they put in my IV after she was born (to shrink my uterus back up) made me nauseated.  Then they took me and the baby to our recovery room.  The spinal wore off slowly and was completely off by about 7 PM.  They took my catheter out around 4 AM.  I was up and walking immediately, but not for long stretches.  My IV came out around lunch the next day and I took a shower.  I came home from the hospital Saturday around noon.

 

Here’s pictures from the hospital photographer:

 

Kaylen Nichole Francis, born April 5, 2012 6 lbs 11.5 ounces, 19 inches long.  (The hospital measured her at 17 inches, but her pediatrician remeasured her at 19)

 

 

 

That one is very cute.  (I wish you could read her socks.  The soles of them say “Mommy’s Little Girl” =D

 

This next one is my very favorite one of my husband with her:

 

A really good one of both of us with her:

 

My favorite one of her with me:

 

 

And finally, just her:

 

Change of Plans

I found out today that my baby is breech and can’t be manually turned.  If you recall from earlier posts, I was hoping for a painkiller-free, all natural, water birth.  I am now having a scheduled c-section.  It’s scheduled for April 5th.  I’m glad she’ll be here and healthy, but I can’t help but feel disappointed.

 

On one hand, the positive hand, this birth plan fits with my type A controlling personality perfectly.  I can notify my professors of my last day in class. I scheduled for my dogs to be boarded during my hospital stay. (I live 65 miles from the hospital where I am having her.  We just want for Nolan to be able to stay there without having to find someone to feed the dogs and let them out, or without him having to drive back and forth multiple times.) Nolan can be scheduled off work instead of me going into labor, calling him at work, and him having to “abandon ship” mid dinner service.  There won’t be any surprise to when she’ll be here (unless she decides to be a rare first time baby and come early).  And of course, I have an “end date” for when her stuff needs to be cleaned, my bag needs to be packed, etc.

On the other hand (the negative one), I’m very sad I won’t get to experience labor. I know that sounds crazy, especially to those of you who have been through it, but I feel like I’ll be missing out on actually having my baby.  Also, I will now have to get an epidural, or go under general anesthesia.  This really depends on whether the anesthesiologist can place the epidural in my spine.  I have scoliosis, so it raises the complication factor of an epidural.  Either way, I also won’t get the natural labor experience I want, guaranteed.  This “sounds” petty as I type, but I’m really upset that I won’t have my hopes for birth come true. I really wanted to birth her, have her placed straight on my chest, and breastfeed as soon as possible.  Now she’ll come out, go straight to a bassinet for her APGAR test, my husband will cut the cord, then she’ll be washed, and handed to my husband first. Once I’m sewn up, I’ll have to be transported to a recovery room, and only THEN can I finally hold her.  I know, it’s petty to be jealous that Nolan gets to be the first one to hold her.  And, if they can’t place the epidural, I won’t even be aware of her being born.  That would be even worse than getting an epidural, I think.

 

Okay, I’m done complaining.  I know the most important thing is for her to arrive safely and soundly, and I know once she’s here I won’t care how she got here.  I also know that VBACs are easy when the reason for the c-section is because of breech baby.  And I know c-section recovery is easier when you’re body hasn’t dilated or labored.  And of course, I’ll get to hold and breastfeed her to my heart’s content, so why does it matter in the long run that it took a little bit of time before I could?

 

37 weeks

I’m almost there. I can’t believe my due date will roll around in 18 days. I sure as heck hope this baby gets on board with her mom’s plan and comes no earlier than 2 days prior and no later than 5 days after. I want an all natural labor, but I may request an induction if she’s overdue.  If she’s any later than 5 days after, I won’t be able to complete my semester.  Taking incompletes will auto disenroll me from my courses that I registered for this fall.  So here’s hoping!

In other news:

Little girl has decided she no longer wants to be head down and went breech last week.  We’re getting an ultrasound on Thursday to see if she’s back in the correct position. This is simultaneously nerve-wracking and exciting.  We haven’t seen her since 17 weeks, so I can’t wait!

I’ve gained 24 pounds, putting me on track for gaining 26-27 pounds by due date.  Exactly what my goal was.

I had fabulous maternity photos done by a photographer here in town.  This one is my favorite:

 

So yeah. Nursery is done.  Here’s pictures of that:

 

and

 

Other than that, we just have to install the car seat (it’s in the living room…we keep meaning to, I promise!), pack my hospital bag, unbox her bouncer/swing/all the other random baby stuff that will eat our living room, train the dogs to leave aforementioned baby stuff alone, and move a couple of pieces of furniture around.  Well, hubby needs to do that last one while I direct him. 

 

 

Swimming Babies

We live about 30 minutes from the beach.  So as you can imagine, we spend most of our summer in the sand.  I’ve been trying to find swimsuits for 3-6 months for the summer, but it’s very difficult.  I finally found some online at a few different places.  I’m super excited about buying these!

I know she won’t actually be able to swim yet, but she can put her little toes in the water! Plus, my husband’s family rents a beach house every July, so we’ll be there with her and there’s a pool at the house. And my parents have a salt water pool.  So she’ll have plenty of opportunities to go in the water.

The best part? The swimsuits have a HIGH UVP. I sunburn easily, and my husband has skin cancer running in his family, so she will be sunscreened from here til tomorrow.  I love the floppy hat, too!

Spring Break!

The day I’ve been waiting for has arrived! Of course, the cleaning won’t commence until tomorrow.  I work at a bookstore, so this weekend is a huge event weekend. In case you’ve been under a rock this week, we’re celebrating the birthday of Dr Suess with all kinds of crazy fun events at the mall.  It’s going to be a very crazy, busy shift.

 

In the meantime, I’m going to chill out all day being lazy before work.  This includes a day of watching The Biggest Loser while eating Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  (Am I the only one that does this?)

 

About that time….

I’m super excited that my spring break is next week.  I know traditional aged college students are ready to get their party on, but I’m ready to get my cleaning on!

My goals over this spring break are: clean the entire house from top to bottom.  Scrub everything, wash everything, etc.  Go through cupboards and throw out old food (like expired crackers on the top shelf we never even opened….oops).

Beyond that basic idea this is my plan:

Kitchen: Install drawers in our tall cabinet and convert it into a pantry.  Move food from our two smaller areas into this cabinet.  Rearrange plates/pots/pans/glasses/silverware/etc so we can store bottles/sippy cups/those ugly plastic plates and “glasses” kids use/etc.  Find a place to put our food processor permanently on the counter so it’s right there to make baby food.

Closet: Build my contraption to hold my cat’s litterbox and move it out of this closet.  Scrub down closet. Use to store stroller, bath tub, etc.

Bathroom: Put in a couple things of shelving above the sink. Buy a toothbrush holder for this bathroom. Put a toy caddy in the bathtub.

Nursery: Hang closet doors back up (we took them down for painting like 3 months ago and they’re just propped against the wall). Wash all the baby clothes and put in dresser/hang up. Wash all the sheets and put in bottom area of changing table. Put decals on the wall. Sand and paint bookcase. Put books on bookcase.

This is the so far of my nursery.  We’re doing a garden theme. The first picture is of the crib and you can see the walls painted.  No bedding present.  The second one includes bedding. And yes, I know all about bumpers–it’s just for the picture!

 

And the bedding: