Oct302012

A Boob Juice Update!

Baby C had a pediatrician appointment yesterday, and we were pleased to find out that she’s now up to 10lbs 11oz! That’s over 4lbs gained since she was born, which is actually a little ahead of the curve of gaining a pound a month. She’s now moved up from the 10th percentile for her weight to the 25th, and we couldn’t be happier and more relieved!

With the blessing of her doctor, we’re going to start weaning her off of formula, straight over to solely breastmilk. I’m hoping we can make the full transition soon, but I need to keep working on getting my supply up so that she has enough bottle through the day. Right now, she’s getting two formula bottles and one breastmilk bottle while I’m at work, and then I breastfeed her through the evening and overnight. I’ve been pumping about two bottles-worth of milk during my workday the last week, and I’ve just been using the extra bottle to build up my freezer stash. I’ll be working my ass off, drinking tons of water and getting plenty of oatmeal and Brewer’s yeast and fenugreek, to up my production to 3-4 bottles pumped per day, so that I’ll be producing enough for her to eat and a little to freeze in case we need it later.

I’m going to post soon about some of the magical things I’ve been using to boost my production, so stay tuned!

Oct272012

October Bluum Box

Post packing tape ripoff

I first found out about Bluum boxes while wandering around watching mommy videos (yuck, I know, haha) on YouTube. I love getting my Birchbox every month; it’s like receiving a surprise Christmas present every month! Sometimes I even forget I’m signed up for it, until I get the email letting me know it’s shipped. So, I figured I’d enjoy Bluum, which is geared towards moms and their babies. Here’s what came in my first box, for October:

The theme is “Magical Moments”

Disney Cuddly Bodysuit (3-pack $14.99)
This is the sweetest, softest way to introduce Disney to your little character. Made with Disney Huggable Soft 100% Cotton and a double row of snaps, it’s like having two bodysuits in one, so that comfort and fashion last longer for your little one during his first magical year.
Burt’s Bees Baby Bee Shampoo & Wash (8oz. $7)
A natural plant-based cleansing complex that gently cleans your baby’s hair AND body with a blend of Aloe, oat flour, and soy proteins. Bath time is one of the best times thanks to this tear-free shampoo and wash.
Burt’s Bees Intense Hydration Night Cream (1.8oz. $18)
Beauty sleep takes on a deeper meaning with this rich, natural night cream. Clinically proven to provide intense hydration, it also helps reduce the appearance of lines and wrinkles, so you wake up to skin that feels soft, supple, and smooth.
Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer (.09oz $5)
Want your lips to speak volumes? Give them a smooch of luminescent color with this luscious lip shimmer. Shea butter and anti-oxidant rich fruit oils, moisturize, soften and nourish lips naturally and lovingly. Comes in 12 shimmering shades.
Happy Baby and Happy Tot pouches (3.5oz $1-1.59)
Happy Baby and Happy Tot convenient, portable pouches offer a perfect on-the-go organic meal for babies and a health snack for toddlers.

This service looks like it’s going to be pretty great, so I’ll let you all know about what I get in the future. If you’re interested in signing up, feel free to use my referral links above, if you’re not too skeeved out by that. I don’t get any money from it, it just goes towards me having some future Bluum boxes paid for, win-win!

Oct262012

Boob Juice

I’ll have to admit, of all the things about having a kid I thought would be difficult, I never imagined that breastfeeding would be one of my biggest challenges.

Before I gave birth (hell, before I ever became pregnant!), I had made the decision to try to breastfeed. Okay, let me be real here: I was judgmental. I couldn’t understand why someone would choose NOT to breastfeed, and was probably more than a little rudely outspoken on the subject. The idea of feeding my child in any other way never even crossed my mind, let alone the prospect that I might have any difficulties with it. In the months leading up to Clare’s birth, I watched as my friend and baby-guru Alicia’s breastfeeding relationship with her daughter flourished, and I WANTED IN ON THAT. I was excited to flex my boob power.

Then I gave birth, and figured out that an anatomical quirk of mine can make breastfeeding really fucking hard, unless you’ve got proper support and guidance. I was able to put her to breast almost right away when she was born, but she had problems latching right away, and so my L&D nurse was quick to offer me a nipple shield. This was a surprise to me, but it seemed to work a little better, so I didn’t think much of it. During our two-day stay in the hospital, I got the same spiel from staff about making sure to pump after every feeding to make sure my milk supply was stimulated, and trying to get rid of the shield within a few weeks of going home. Even the lactation consultant was pretty nonchalant about the shield, repeating the same thing about pumping and getting rid of it.

Sep172012

Welcome to the world, Clare Shannon!

Clare Rebecca was born at 4:42 PM on Sunday, July 29th, weighing in at 6lbs 9oz and measuring 19.75″ long. She was born after about 12 hours of active labor, and let me tell you how PLEASED I am about that, after hearing about first-time mothers being in labor for days.

It really started at around midnight on Friday, 5 days after my due date. I awoke with that feeling you get when your period starts in the middle of the night (ladies, you know what I’m talking about). I went to the bathroom, where I found that I had gotten my bloody show. I was pretty stoked about this, because I had read that, once you get it, you can expect to go into labor within about 72 hours. Hooray! The process had begun! I went back to bed a little giddy, and shortly thereafter I started having contractions, which felt like period cramps that were coming in a relatively rhythmic pattern. I actually hadn’t experienced any Braxton-Hicks contractions throughout my pregnancy, which made them even more exciting. They weren’t serious at all, and I eventually fell back asleep.

I woke up Saturday morning, and I was still getting the rhythmic contractions. They weren’t bad at all, and we decided to run some errands downtown. We had to pick up our wedding bands from the jeweler, and we wanted to get some lunch. Kevin was freaked out that my water was going to break in the middle of the restaurant, but I was pretty adamant that if I was going to be losing my babyless freedom within a few days, I was going to get some goddamned Indian buffet! So, we went to Masala. As we were walking back through the Ped Mall to the car, we had someone take our picture at the playground, to commemorate the occasion.

I laid down for a nap when we got home, and when I woke up, my contractions had stopped. I was a little disappointed, but we invited our friends Andy and JoAnn over for dinner and board games, and my contractions started up again sometime around 9pm, and continued on through the night.

Jul202012

Birth Plan

Now that we’re getting down to the wire, we were encouraged by both our Bradley Method class leader and our midwife team to get to writing a Birth Plan for special requests we wanted to make during our birthing process at the hospital. The BM leader sent our class a handful of sample birth plans from her previous attendees, and that, coupled with the list of standard practices in Labor & Delivery done by our hospital sent to us by my doula-pal Katherine, helped us write the following plan.

So, here it goes!

“Thank you for taking the time to read our birth plan and for taking care of us. Listed below are requests that we feel will help us obtain a natural birth without medication. However, we will be flexible in all of these points if a complication does arise.

Labor

Please do not offer pain medication unless Karrey asks for it. If she asks for pain relief, please feel free to offer nonmedical choices for coping and/or remind me how close we are to the birth.
We would like the freedom to walk around, take a shower or bath, or use other available means as necessary to progress through labor, and avoid augmentation (pitocin, stripping of membranes, etc.). We would also like the freedom to deliver in a position that feels most comfortable/ideal to us, rather than the preference of the provider (e.g. modified squat, all fours, side-lying, etc.).
Even if Karrey is fully dilated, she would prefer to wait until she has the urge to push, and would like to try to push instinctively rather than being coached, except when the baby crowns to limit the chances of tearing.
Karrey would prefer to avoid an episiotomy, unless one is required for the baby’s safety, and would rather tear.

After the Birth

It is important to us to hold and nurse our baby immediately after birth.
We would prefer to allow the umbilical cord to stop pulsating before clamping and cutting.
We want to give breastfeeding the best chance of success, and so we ask that no bottles or pacifiers be given to our baby without asking our consent first.
We would prefer to wait for spontaneous delivery of the placenta, ideally from breastfeeding, rather than receiving an injection of pitocin.

Newborn Care

We would prefer to delay treatments (eye ointment, assessments, testing) for a bit after birth to allow bonding time if there have been no complications.
We would like to hold our child skin-to-skin to help regulate the baby’s body temperature. Please weigh, bathe, and examine the baby in our room, and explain all procedures to us before performing them.
We will decline the Hepatitis B vaccination until the baby’s first pediatric check-up

Unexpected Situations

In case of induction, Karrey would like to try laboring without pain medication first, but may opt for pain medication if labor is too difficult. Please encourage her to try to go without medication, especially if labor is progressing well.
If a Cesarean delivery becomes necessary, we expect to be fully informed of all benefits, risks, and procedures. Kevin should be present for the delivery. After the delivery, Kevin would like to accompany the baby as much as possible. If the baby is born with complications, we ask that any procedures or medications be fully explained to us before they are administered.”

There were a few more items we wanted to add to the plan, but we also wanted to keep it relatively simple and limit it to one page, so that they knew we weren’t trying to be difficult or micromanage. Hopefully, this will help us ensure a smooth birthing process!

Jul172012

Seriously, weather?

What is this happy horseshit? Was this kind of weather REALLY necessary for the very end of my pregnancy? Obviously, if I’d been a planner, I’d have scheduled my third trimester to happen during the blissful autumn season, instead of sweating like a beast and letting the 100+ degree heat lead my feet to balloon up like Barney Rubble scale models.

I’ve got an appointment today, with the “mean” midwife on my birth team. Some people like her, but mostly I’ve been hearing horror stories about how she makes snide comments about various things, like when the parents (married!) don’t have the same last name, or insinuating you’re a terrible person if you gain too much weight during your pregnancy. I can’t imagine how she’ll react to the fact that I started my pregnancy overweight, but I’ll hopefully have the presence of mind to let her know she’s being rude if she does so.

I’m bringing in a hard copy of our birth plan (I’ll probably post it later), one bullet point of which specifically references something we heard about an experience with this midwife, where the couple delivering felt as though they weren’t permitted to push in any position other than lying back, reclined, sort of in the “traditional” position. Part of the reason why I wanted to work with midwives is that they’re more accepting of positions that are ideal for the mother and situation, including squatting, side-lying, being on all-fours, or whatever, so hearing about that experience with this midwife was startling to me. We’ll see if she says anything about it.

Update: She definitely wasn’t as bad as I had been led to believe she’d be, but she did spend the most time during the visit talking about my weight. My BP was in the 130s/80s, baby’s heartrate was in the 120s, and my total weight gain this pregnancy has been 22lbs.

She kept referring to me as “fluffy”, and said that heavier women have more trouble going into labor on their own, and that since I’m “Bradley girl”, she knows I want as few interventions as possible, so she wanted me to be walking 2+ miles per day, or swimming the equivalent, to get my body primed and start things moving. So, we’ve got our final Bradley session tonight, and afterwards (thankfully after dark), my partner and I will be taking a nice long walk around our neighborhood.

Jul162012

Still Pregnant, and That’s Okay

This is what your body looks like on 39 weeks pregnant

Yes, I’m still pregnant.

I’ve actually been getting that a lot, that whole sad head nod, sympathetic tsk-noises, people asking me if I just want the baby out already thing. And honestly? Things aren’t really so bad. I’ve definitely not yet had any of those desperate flailing moments that I keep reading about other mothers having, where they just want to get the baby out as quickly as possible and can’t stand to be pregnant another moment, omg. No crying jags about how miserable I am, no temper tantrums about how the baby just won’t be reasonable and come out already, none of that.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had my share of discomforts. I posted about my back pain that I got help for from a chiropractor. I’ve been dealing with some gross-and-slightly-uncomfortable-swelling in my feet and hands. I’ve even been coping with a pretty debilitating complication of pregnancy that’s limited my mobility, and which I haven’t written about yet but probably should, so I will. Even through all of that, it’s never once crossed my mind that I want the baby to hurry up and be born, to resolve all of the issues pregnancy is causing me. In fact, I won’t mind if it comes a little late.

Keep cooking, baby! We’ve got a lot of shit to do before you arrive!

Jun202012

So much to do!

The heat is on. The heat of less-than-5-weeks-until-the-due-date, anyway. And the due date is just a reference point, not a hard-and-fast rule! ARGLE BARGLE! We’ve got soooo much to do and so little time to do it!

The main project we’re trying to get accomplished before the baby comes is to have the floors refinished, and this project has already been a clusterfuck and a half, which I’ve detailed here. We had a whole list of things that would have been really nice to finish up beforehand, but with me being in school and us being scattered and everything taking more time than we thought it would, we’ve had to whittle that list WAY DOWN. So, floors it is.

Kevin and I are very into making to-do lists to be able to keep track of what needs to be done and to be able to check things off as we go along. We’d settled on regular notebook paper, but he complained last week that our lists keep getting lost, and that we don’t have a centralized spot to refer to, instead of a bunch of looseleaf sheets floating around getting lost. Following Tanie’s lead, I decided to invest in a ruled moleskine that was small enough to fit into my purse all the time, and that’s what you see above. It’s been BRILLIANT. Menus, shopping lists, to-do lists, things to add to the baby registries that I add to when I think of things…it’s magical. We also hung a dry erase calendar, and I’ve been copying our current to-do lists onto that board so that we keep up with it there, too.

Here’s our list for this week:

Finish arched wall
Pull up staples in floors
Remove all baseboards
~~Send save the date cards to printers~~
~~Hang more lights on the patio~~
~~Straighten up/organize basement~~
~~Take back returns (Target, Ace Hardware)~~
~~Move office furniture to basement~~
Paint back bedrooms
~~Move baby gifts to basement~~
Mow lawn
Change kitty litter
~~Make cheesecakes for work~~
Take care of donate pile in basement
~~Buy birdseed (Thiessens)~~

EFFICIENCY, AHOY!

Jun192012

BONAFIDE!

I received this quaint little piece of paper in the mail yesterday. I received my diploma from Kirkwood late last week, but that was a little anti-climactic compared to this guy.

I was telling Kevin last night that I’m sort of amazed that I was able to actually finish nursing school when I did. I got pregnant in October, so my entire spring (read: last) semester happened during my first and second trimesters. During this, my most difficult semester of nursing school, I had to:

Complete a 104-hour clinical internship, which for me meant working 12-hour overnight shifts in the Emergency Room on Friday and Saturday nights for two months
Complete three regular clinical rotations, which were two full days each, including Community Health, Obstetrics, and Pediatrics
Go to class every Thursday night from 5:30-8:20pm
Oh yeah, and work 40 hours a week

Plus, all of these things had to be done with taking NO TIME off from work, because I didn’t (still don’t) have enough PTO saved up in order to be paid for my entire planned 12-week maternity leave. SIGH.

It’s weird to think about how hard it must have been while I was going through it, because at the time, I slogged through and it didn’t really feel that horrible. I think I got through it mostly by not thinking about it too hard, just pushing through the exhaustion one day at a time. If I’d really stopped to think about how insurmountable that peak would have seemed at the time, it might have been really easy to give it up, maybe drop out during the semester, possibly to never return like so many people end up doing. I’m glad I waded through it until the end, so that my time wasn’t wasted, and so that I could prove to myself, my partner, my family, and my baby that hard work and doing what seems to be impossible can actually have worthwhile results.

Now, if I can just concentrate on not losing my skills by the time I start looking for a nursing position in November or December, I’ll be good to go!

Jun102012

Garage sale haul!

This weekend was pretty righteous, as far as garage sale hauls go. I managed to swindle my way into getting a bunch of stuff that’s pretty awesome (and cute to boot!) for not very much money. Setting out with $40 and my pal Alicia of Culinary Bliss, we started relatively late in the garage sale game, around 8am, and decided to hit two different city-wide garage sales: one in University Heights, a self-contained little community surrounded on all sides by Iowa City; and North Liberty, a little suburb to the north, who also happened to be having their “Fun Days”, a yearly event with carnival rides and a car show.

There wasn’t a ton to be found in UH, although Alicia uber-scored with lots of pricey, barely-worn shoes for $20. I would have been fighting her for some of them if they’d been in my size! North Liberty proved to be the best place for me, though, with several mostly-baby sales. I manage to pick up, as seen above:

a Bright Starts bouncer seat
an LL Bean bag that’ll work really well as a diaper bag
a toddler down comforter with a really cute flannel hippo duvet cover, and a flannel receiving blanket
two trays for storing breastmilk in the freezer in an organized way
a Boppy (courtesy of Alicia, thanks!) and a bag of bottles

I managed to score all of that for $18.25. Can you believe it?! It might seem a little silly to those of you who are either well-versed at the magic of garage sales, or who couldn’t give two shits about good deals on baby stuff, but I’ve officially gotten the taste for (garage sale) blood. My baby shower is next weekend, so we’ll see what kind of awesome stuff we’re given then, and then after that, the GAME IS ON.

Oh yeah, we stopped by a barn sale outside of town today and picked up this little bit of awesomeness for a very unbelievable deal of a price, too:

I can’t wait to see what we do with it!

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