Day care, not something I want to deal with. Having to deal with this means that I have to face reality, that I'm going back to work and can't spend every waking minute with my daughter. It's heartbreaking. I know that she'll be fine, and I know tons of kids are in day care while their parents work, and they are all fine, and they grow up to be wonderful people. But somehow I feel like I'm a bad mother, leaving my child for the day while I go to work.
My mom was a stay at home home and so I think that's why I feel like I should do that too. Because that's what I had growing up and that's what I know. But at the same time, my mom didn't really have a career, sure she had a job before kids, but nothing worth holding on to. I'm a teacher, my job is perfect for being a mom once she's school age. I get the same days off and vacations as she does, so why is this so hard?! Well it could be that I just got a new position at work - yep interviewed while on maternity leave and got a promotion - and I'm nervous about going back because there is a bit of a learning curve to this job now. I think it wouldn't be so bad if I was going back to the same old job, knew what I was getting into with work and just had to deal with separation anxiety with leaving Naomi. Now I have to deal with anxiety over this new position. Don't get me wrong, I want this new position and I know I can do it, its just, well new! And sometimes that's the scary part.
We looked into a home day care at first. I like this idea, there would be a few other kids and it would be at someone's house and it would be the cheapest. So I called a bunch that were in my town and only 2 called me back. One said I could come and check out her house and see what a home day care was like, but she didn't have any openings. Great. The other one said she was only open Monday thru Thursday and I could come and check out her home day care but only on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Wow red flag there. Why can't I come and see how you work with the kids? So that one was out. I did go and see the first one and it was well, a home day care, not really sure what I was supposed to look for. Her house was fine, but nothing to write home about. There were 6 kids and they were hanging out. It was fine. But then I started thinking, well there are kids from 5 months to 5 years old. How do you ensure that the infants will get the attention they need while taking care of the 5 year olds? So home day care was out.
So next I thought about getting a nanny. I liked the idea of having one person to one kid. This way my daughter would get the individualized attention that she needed, I'd feel safe that she was constantly being watched, and they would be in my environment, my home. So I placed an ad on care.com. Well I received over 50 responses to this ad. Most of them are high school and college students, and a handful are older women. After reading through the first 30 or so I saw a pattern. Almost everyone wanted to take my daughter to the local park or the play ground, enjoy outdoor summer activities such as swimming and taking walks around the neighborhood. I started thinking two things: 1.) I wanted to do these outdoor activities with her, and I started getting emotional and 2.) I do NOT want anyone other than myself or my husband driving her, taking her into the water or leaving the house - especially a high school or college student! I started getting anxious about them getting into an accident while driving, drowning her while swimming or taking their eyes off her at the park and having her go missing! I know I watch way too many crime dramas on tv. So nannying was out.
Finally we looked into day care centers. I looked at a couple and found the right one for us. I felt comfortable that my daughter would be with children her own age, have enough individual attention and socialization as well as be able to go outside to the playground or stay inside and have plenty of age appropriate stimulation all in one safe environment. This is the right fit for my family and our needs, but it may not be the right fit for others.
Needless to say this took several months of research, telephone calls and visits as well as LOADS of stress to figure out. Now that it has been figured out I feel much less stressed about leaving my daughter at day care, knowing that she will be with others her own age, with people who care about her, play and learn with age appropriate curriculum and especially knowing that she will be safe.
Changing the world one diaper at a time.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Does Getting A Dog Prepare You For A Baby?
No. The answer is no. Nothing can prepare you for a baby. But if you want a dog, that's different. Get a dog because you want a dog not because you want to see if you can handle a baby.I never really wanted a dog, but several years ago we watched the Westminster Kennel Club finale and saw this cute little beagle, Uno, win best in show. And that was it. I was convinced we should get a dog. Which was strange because I didn't like dogs before this.
We ended up getting a Pug Beagle mix - Puggle, that we named Pippin. He's so cute and adorable, but all dogs are when they are puppies. Puppies, as you know, need training. So my husband and I watched lots and lots of episodes of the Dog Whisperer before getting the dog, so we knew how to be good dog owners and so we'd be on the same page about training. In the beginning the dog, like the baby needs to get up and pee every 2 hours. The dog is a little easier to potty train and teach to 'hold it' and not pee for several hours. I think it took us a week maybe 2 to house break the dog. To teach him to pee only outside and to let us know when he needed to pee. Of course we had the occasional accident in the beginning.
As for the baby, well lets just say she's 20 weeks and still isn't house broken! Being on the same page with a dog is way easier than being on the same page with a baby. The dog doesn't throw that many curve balls at you. Every time we think we know what we're doing and one thing is working, our daughter, decided that it doesn't work for her anymore. The dog never really did this. If we fed him and played with him and let him out to pee, he was cool with us. Plus we each have our own parenting styles. I don't like when the baby cries at night in her crib, so I go in and pick her up. My husband doesn't like that she cries at night but can't go in and pick her up and calm her down because he's so agitated that she's crying, she picks up on this and won't calm down. So he lets her just cry. We didn't have to deal with this with the dog....
Now that we have a dog AND a baby, the dog gets way less attention. Not intentionally, but we're just so tied up with the baby that we can't always give him the attention that he got before. I know what you are thinking, he's a dog, he'll get over it, I should get over it, but I can't! He looks like he's pouting sometimes I swear!
Newborn Oddities
There is nothing like holding a newborn, they're so precious, innocent and weird. Yeah, I said weird. From funny shaped heads to bruising and baby acne to cradle cap, newborns can be strange!
Weird things about newborns no one told me:
• Baby Acne - this is just like an adolescent would get, all across the forehead and into the scalp and around the cheeks and nose! However, this goes away much quicker - within a day or two.
• Girls get their first period a few days after their born. Something about being around the moms hormones. This lasted about 2 weeks for us. I'm glad someone mentioned this to us because I think we would have freaked out when we saw blood for the first time and didn't know!
• Newborns make a lot of noise when they sleep. I don't think I slept the first night at all because of all the weird noises our daughter made, from grunting to sneezing and spitting up. I was certain that she was going to choke on her spit up and die that first night, so of course I didn't sleep and bolted upright and looked in on her in her bassinet every 5 minutes.
• Cradle cap - ok so you may have heard about this. Its just like really bad dandruff. But you can see the dry flaky skin on their head if they have no hair. Its weird and kinda gross.
• The Belly Button - so you know that they cut the chord and tie a knot and it dries out and eventually falls off. Well its kinda weird looking and I was sure our daughter was going to have an outie and get made fun of her teenage years, but once the scab fell off it was an innie. You have to just be careful with this, not getting it soaking wet (so sponge baths until it falls off) and not covering it with the diaper.
• The second the baby is put on your chest after birth (if you choose to do this, and I suggest you do, because it was amazing!) the baby bobbles its tiny little head right down to your breast. It knows where the food is and what to do....too bad we don't know what to do and have to teach our bodies to breast feed! (See breastfeeding 101)
• Babies release a hormone out of the top of their head to help the mom with breastfeeding. Supposedly if you smell your babies head before breastfeeding it is supposed to help your body get ready to feed the baby.
• When you (or anyone) is holding your breastfeed baby, the baby will turn its head into your chest or whoever is holding her, signaling she is hungry and its time to eat. So if someone is holding your baby and she does this, its time to give her to mom!
• The soft spot. You can see your babies pulse in the soft spot on top of their head if you look closely. It beats up and down...very weird.
• Funny Shaped Head - your babies head may be oblong or cone shaped from giving birth. They may also have bruising on their face from the birth as well.
• The bald spot - babies lose their hair on the back of their head after a little while and they look like old men. This is from lying down so much.
• They come out all wrinkly and again, they look like an old man, especially their hands, legs and feet.
Weird things about newborns no one told me:
• Baby Acne - this is just like an adolescent would get, all across the forehead and into the scalp and around the cheeks and nose! However, this goes away much quicker - within a day or two.
• Girls get their first period a few days after their born. Something about being around the moms hormones. This lasted about 2 weeks for us. I'm glad someone mentioned this to us because I think we would have freaked out when we saw blood for the first time and didn't know!
• Newborns make a lot of noise when they sleep. I don't think I slept the first night at all because of all the weird noises our daughter made, from grunting to sneezing and spitting up. I was certain that she was going to choke on her spit up and die that first night, so of course I didn't sleep and bolted upright and looked in on her in her bassinet every 5 minutes.
• Cradle cap - ok so you may have heard about this. Its just like really bad dandruff. But you can see the dry flaky skin on their head if they have no hair. Its weird and kinda gross.
• The Belly Button - so you know that they cut the chord and tie a knot and it dries out and eventually falls off. Well its kinda weird looking and I was sure our daughter was going to have an outie and get made fun of her teenage years, but once the scab fell off it was an innie. You have to just be careful with this, not getting it soaking wet (so sponge baths until it falls off) and not covering it with the diaper.
• The second the baby is put on your chest after birth (if you choose to do this, and I suggest you do, because it was amazing!) the baby bobbles its tiny little head right down to your breast. It knows where the food is and what to do....too bad we don't know what to do and have to teach our bodies to breast feed! (See breastfeeding 101)
• Babies release a hormone out of the top of their head to help the mom with breastfeeding. Supposedly if you smell your babies head before breastfeeding it is supposed to help your body get ready to feed the baby.
• When you (or anyone) is holding your breastfeed baby, the baby will turn its head into your chest or whoever is holding her, signaling she is hungry and its time to eat. So if someone is holding your baby and she does this, its time to give her to mom!
• The soft spot. You can see your babies pulse in the soft spot on top of their head if you look closely. It beats up and down...very weird.
• Funny Shaped Head - your babies head may be oblong or cone shaped from giving birth. They may also have bruising on their face from the birth as well.
• The bald spot - babies lose their hair on the back of their head after a little while and they look like old men. This is from lying down so much.
• They come out all wrinkly and again, they look like an old man, especially their hands, legs and feet.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Your House Will Look Like A War Zone
Your house will look like a war zone...its ok, you need to let it go. If you are anything like me, you'll have trouble accepting this. Pre-baby our house was pretty tidy. We'd spend a couple hours each weekend cleaning up the house on the weekend, picking up clutter that had accumulated during the week, vacuuming, doing a load of two of laundry, cleaning the bathrooms, you know typical DINK (dual income no kids) stuff. So when I got home from the hospital with our daughter and saw that the house was getting a bit messy, I tried to keep up and clean up and OMG it wipes you out! Not only do you have your stuff and your husbands stuff, but now you have mountains of baby stuff too. Our house looks like a war zone of baby stuff. We have bouncers and swings and play mats and exersaucers strewn about the house like land mines. You will be constantly picking things up - or stepping over them - so sometimes you just have to let it go.
Pre-baby we usually picked up the house when we knew we're having company over - so they don't think we live like slobs - and in the beginning I did that every time we had a visitor come over to see the baby. Well it stressed me out so much that the house was a mess when I knew people were coming over, I had to pick stuff up. But then people were coming over quite frequently, so it only stressed me out more to have to pick up all the time. I finally realized that no one cares what the house looks like, all the visitors care about is seeing and holding the baby. It was really hard to let this go. I felt that this was one of the things that I still had control over with this new phase in life - because I knew I didn't have control over the baby yet - so I felt giving up this was one of the last straws in my control of my new life.
Letting this go was hard but also a little bit relieving too. Now I had more time to take care of myself. Every free second I had in the beginning I was using to clean or do laundry or pick up, instead of napping or showering or taking time out of the day for me. And I was exhausted because of it. I think I felt guilty that I wasn't helping out around the house or pulling my weight with the cooking or cleaning, I was JUST taking care of the baby all day, that was it. So I wanted or NEEDED to prove to my husband that I was helping out. Again I became exhausted and sometimes cranky. Once I started to put myself first and the house last, I got more rest and I felt better about myself and our new family!
Pre-baby we usually picked up the house when we knew we're having company over - so they don't think we live like slobs - and in the beginning I did that every time we had a visitor come over to see the baby. Well it stressed me out so much that the house was a mess when I knew people were coming over, I had to pick stuff up. But then people were coming over quite frequently, so it only stressed me out more to have to pick up all the time. I finally realized that no one cares what the house looks like, all the visitors care about is seeing and holding the baby. It was really hard to let this go. I felt that this was one of the things that I still had control over with this new phase in life - because I knew I didn't have control over the baby yet - so I felt giving up this was one of the last straws in my control of my new life.
Letting this go was hard but also a little bit relieving too. Now I had more time to take care of myself. Every free second I had in the beginning I was using to clean or do laundry or pick up, instead of napping or showering or taking time out of the day for me. And I was exhausted because of it. I think I felt guilty that I wasn't helping out around the house or pulling my weight with the cooking or cleaning, I was JUST taking care of the baby all day, that was it. So I wanted or NEEDED to prove to my husband that I was helping out. Again I became exhausted and sometimes cranky. Once I started to put myself first and the house last, I got more rest and I felt better about myself and our new family!
Naps
So what's the secret to getting your baby to nap? No idea, I still can't seem to get my kid to do it on her own.
In the first few weeks she would sleep a little here and there during the day, but as she gets older, it has been really hard to get her to nap let alone get her into a routine. A few weeks ago someone told me that the baby should be awake for only 1.5 - 2 hours, then it's time for them to take a nap. Well this is helpful! I wish I knew this earlier. Now that I know this, I can tell when it is time for a nap, figure out the cues my daughter gives me that she's ready for a nap - even though she doesn't want to take one. And once I was told this, I saw a pattern forming with my daughters behavior and her naps became more 'scheduled.'
Still we fight the nap. My daughter was born with her eyes wide open ready to explore the world. She doesn't want to miss anything, that's why she doesn't like napping. Or so I keep telling myself. So when that two hours is up, I know that I've got to force her to nap. I can do that several ways... Driving or walking in the stroller is a sure way to get her to sleep the fastest. Putting her in her swing or bouncy seat also is a good way. Holding her and bouncing or rocking her works but it tends to take longer to get her to sleep because she's at the age (4 months) where she is realizing her actions cause a reaction from me, so she wants to interact with you while you're' holding her and trying to rock her to sleep. I try to avert my eyes and pretend that she's not there, and this seems to work most of the time, but sometimes I can't help looking at her!
The same someone also told me that sleep begets sleep. So the more naps they take during the day the more sleeping they will do at night...I was skeptical about this theory in the beginning. If they sleep a lot during the day, I for sure thought that they would be up all night. This is not the case with us. If she sleeps a lot during the day she is not up at night. But if she doesn't sleep during the day it doesn't seem to impact her evening sleep.
I think part of this no routine nap time is due to me not working. I am on baby time, if she needs to sleep, she sleeps, if she needs to eat, she eats, - she dictates the schedule. Once I start back at work I'll have more of a routine and so she'll have more of a routine too. I think this might help the napping. But who knows!
In the first few weeks she would sleep a little here and there during the day, but as she gets older, it has been really hard to get her to nap let alone get her into a routine. A few weeks ago someone told me that the baby should be awake for only 1.5 - 2 hours, then it's time for them to take a nap. Well this is helpful! I wish I knew this earlier. Now that I know this, I can tell when it is time for a nap, figure out the cues my daughter gives me that she's ready for a nap - even though she doesn't want to take one. And once I was told this, I saw a pattern forming with my daughters behavior and her naps became more 'scheduled.'
Still we fight the nap. My daughter was born with her eyes wide open ready to explore the world. She doesn't want to miss anything, that's why she doesn't like napping. Or so I keep telling myself. So when that two hours is up, I know that I've got to force her to nap. I can do that several ways... Driving or walking in the stroller is a sure way to get her to sleep the fastest. Putting her in her swing or bouncy seat also is a good way. Holding her and bouncing or rocking her works but it tends to take longer to get her to sleep because she's at the age (4 months) where she is realizing her actions cause a reaction from me, so she wants to interact with you while you're' holding her and trying to rock her to sleep. I try to avert my eyes and pretend that she's not there, and this seems to work most of the time, but sometimes I can't help looking at her!
The same someone also told me that sleep begets sleep. So the more naps they take during the day the more sleeping they will do at night...I was skeptical about this theory in the beginning. If they sleep a lot during the day, I for sure thought that they would be up all night. This is not the case with us. If she sleeps a lot during the day she is not up at night. But if she doesn't sleep during the day it doesn't seem to impact her evening sleep.
I think part of this no routine nap time is due to me not working. I am on baby time, if she needs to sleep, she sleeps, if she needs to eat, she eats, - she dictates the schedule. Once I start back at work I'll have more of a routine and so she'll have more of a routine too. I think this might help the napping. But who knows!
Figuring Out Sleeping
So you've just arrived home from the hospital with your baby. You still can't believe they let you out of the hospital with this kid, because you have no idea what the heck you're doing. You're excited and exhausted. Evening rolls around and you are ready for bed but your new baby isn't. They don't know what night time is let alone that night time equals sleeping time. Great.First order of business: train your baby that at night, we sleep. They don't know night from day in the hospital because it is consistently the same brightness with the hospital lights being on 24 hours a day. So how do you teach them when we sleep?
In the evenings we kept our lights down low, we have dimmer switches on most of our lights, this helped our daughter to start understanding that this low light = sleep time. We never had her in the family room with the TV on while we gave her her last bottle before bed. The noise and the lights seemed to stimulate her and not teach her this is sleepy time. (The pediatrician had to tell us to do this because when we went in for our 2 week check up, we weren't sleeping and must have looked exhausted!) Eventually we formed a bedtime routine for her, so she knew that when we stared this it = sleepy time, for example, in the beginning we put on her pajamas and just turned on a music box while giving her her last bottle and then bounced her to sleep on a yoga ball. Now we turn on a sound machine, put on her pajamas, read her a story, feed her and then bounce her to sleep on the yoga ball. Sometimes we give her a bath before doing all of this too. This seemed to help her settle down for the evening. But it took us a long time to get this routine figured out. We kept keeping our daughter up until we went to bed. This included lots of screaming time in the evening that we termed "The Witching Hours" - my parents called it "Arsenic Hour," which usually fell around dusk, 4-7pm. Finally my husband suggested putting her to bed before The Witching Hour so we didn't have to deal with her screaming. This was the best idea ever. Since then we start our bedtime routine way before The Witching Hour and this has helped both her and us with bed time!
We noticed that once we put our baby down to sleep for the evening the first time this was her longest stretch of sleep. She would sleep 3 hours the first few times and then she would stretch it out to 5 hours. Each time she woke up and we feed her and put her back to sleep the length of sleep time decreased from there. So in the beginning when we started putting her to bed at 7pm, she would sleep until 10, but then she would go from 7pm to 1am. After she woke up at 1am she was up every two hours for the rest of the night until 7am when she was up for the day. So she put herself in the routine of waking up and eating at 1am, 3am, 5am and 7am. After several weeks (around 3 months) she dropped the 3am wake up, so she was getting 2 really good stretches of sleep. At her 4 month appointment the pediatrician said she was gaining weight and she should be able to drop the 1am feed. For this we would need to sleep train her.Sleep or lack there of
Sleep, the most coveted of all things by moms...
Once your baby is born, you will not get a full 8 hours of sleep for several months (earlier if you are lucky.) Since you have to feed the baby every 2 hours (see breastfeeding 101) you will be up every two hours at night as well, so you may get an hour here and an hour there at night. So how do you log more sleep hours? Here are my suggestions:
• Have someone come over and help you with the baby, while they are over, go take a 2 hour nap.
• Nap when the baby naps. You hear this a lot. It is not as easy as it sounds. Some babies don't take very long naps. My daughter only naps for half an hour at a time, so by the time I lay down and stop my brain from thinking about all the things I should be doing, my daughter is done napping. Also, she likes to nap in places like the car seat when we're driving somewhere or the stroller when we're out for a walk, and well, I can't exactly nap then either.
• If you have a breast pump or are formula feeding, have your partner, friend, family member, neighbor, anyone, feed the baby the bottle at one feeding. This way you may be able to nap for more than 2 hours. If you feed the baby, give the baby to your partner after, go lay down for a nap. Then at the 2 hour mark your partner gives the bottle, (you are still napping) and then wakes you up at the next feeding.
Your body will get used to these wacky hours and sleep deprivation unfortunately. At the 4 month mark if your baby is not sleeping through the night yet, and is gaining weight and you've got the OK from your pediatrician, you can start training your baby to sleep through the night. This will help you feel a little more like yourself!
Once your baby is born, you will not get a full 8 hours of sleep for several months (earlier if you are lucky.) Since you have to feed the baby every 2 hours (see breastfeeding 101) you will be up every two hours at night as well, so you may get an hour here and an hour there at night. So how do you log more sleep hours? Here are my suggestions:• Have someone come over and help you with the baby, while they are over, go take a 2 hour nap.
• Nap when the baby naps. You hear this a lot. It is not as easy as it sounds. Some babies don't take very long naps. My daughter only naps for half an hour at a time, so by the time I lay down and stop my brain from thinking about all the things I should be doing, my daughter is done napping. Also, she likes to nap in places like the car seat when we're driving somewhere or the stroller when we're out for a walk, and well, I can't exactly nap then either.
• If you have a breast pump or are formula feeding, have your partner, friend, family member, neighbor, anyone, feed the baby the bottle at one feeding. This way you may be able to nap for more than 2 hours. If you feed the baby, give the baby to your partner after, go lay down for a nap. Then at the 2 hour mark your partner gives the bottle, (you are still napping) and then wakes you up at the next feeding.
Your body will get used to these wacky hours and sleep deprivation unfortunately. At the 4 month mark if your baby is not sleeping through the night yet, and is gaining weight and you've got the OK from your pediatrician, you can start training your baby to sleep through the night. This will help you feel a little more like yourself!
Breastfeeding 101
So you're having a baby and you are thinking about breastfeeding, or rather, you're planning to breastfeed because well, its the most natural thing to do for your baby right? Well here is my take on breastfeeding based on my experiences.
1. Breastfeeding hurts, a lot. I mean really a lot in the beginning. I'd say the first 4-6 weeks, it is pretty painful. You'd think that it wouldn't because it is the natural progression of what you're body goes to do once the baby comes out. But turns out that your body needs to be trained. It hurts because you've never done this before, your nipples are soft and supple and sensitive, and not ready to be yanked on by a hungry infant. Make sure you are getting a good latch every time, this will help to make it less painful. Once your baby gets the latching on thing down, your nipples have to toughen up. You'll build up calluses on your nipples after several weeks, which will be the beginning of the painless phase. It does get better after a while, and will become painless. So stick with it. I can remember hearing people say (and reading) that it should not hurt, and my nipples were so sore, even just wearing a bra or toweling off after a shower hurt my nipples! So invest in some really nice soft towels and some nice soft material nursing bras - nothing with lace! Note: Your nipples may crack in the beginning. If this happens make sure you let them air dry, this will help them heal faster. You can put lanolin cream or APNO (all purpose nipple ointment - prescription) on to help sooth and heal, I'm not really convinced they do much.
2.) You have to feed your baby every 2 hours in the first few weeks & months. This will teach your body to produce more milk (some people have trouble with making enough milk) The more you feed your baby, the more your body will produce. Sometimes your baby will want to feed every hour and a half some times the baby will be able to eat every 2.5-3 hours. Watch your baby, not the clock...its approximately every 2 hours! This tends to make living your life a bit tricky with this every two hour thing. Its ok, you can still go out and do things even though your baby needs to eat frequently. Plan to go out right after your baby eats so you can maximize your time out - whether you are grocery shopping, or just going out for a walk. If you are out for longer than 2 hours, don't panic! You can feed your baby anywhere, from a mall family bathroom to your car in the parking lot. It will be a little scary the first time you go out, but don't think you are trapped in your house all day because of the baby!
3.) Get a breast pump. You may over produce milk and your boobs will become rock hard, so you'll need relief from the pump. You may not produce enough so you'll need to pump and feed to tell your body to produce more. You may find that it is easier to give the baby a bottle in the evening before bed - or when you venture out of your house to run errands!
4.) You will wake up soaking wet from your boobs leaking milk at some point. You're body will learn when to produce milk and when you need it as your baby gets on more of a schedule. You may also leak or shoot milk out after a warm shower!
5.) Sometimes your milk ducts can get plugged up. This can be really painful. If you get a plugged duct it will feel like a lump and be tender to the touch. Make sure you let your baby feed on this side as much as possible first each time. Your babies suck is the strongest in the beginning, this will help to unclog the duct. Also putting a warm wash cloth or compress on the breast with the clogged duct before having the baby feed on that side will help to loosen it up as well. It can get more serious and more painful - if this is the case call your doctor as soon as possible as it could be mastitis.
1. Breastfeeding hurts, a lot. I mean really a lot in the beginning. I'd say the first 4-6 weeks, it is pretty painful. You'd think that it wouldn't because it is the natural progression of what you're body goes to do once the baby comes out. But turns out that your body needs to be trained. It hurts because you've never done this before, your nipples are soft and supple and sensitive, and not ready to be yanked on by a hungry infant. Make sure you are getting a good latch every time, this will help to make it less painful. Once your baby gets the latching on thing down, your nipples have to toughen up. You'll build up calluses on your nipples after several weeks, which will be the beginning of the painless phase. It does get better after a while, and will become painless. So stick with it. I can remember hearing people say (and reading) that it should not hurt, and my nipples were so sore, even just wearing a bra or toweling off after a shower hurt my nipples! So invest in some really nice soft towels and some nice soft material nursing bras - nothing with lace! Note: Your nipples may crack in the beginning. If this happens make sure you let them air dry, this will help them heal faster. You can put lanolin cream or APNO (all purpose nipple ointment - prescription) on to help sooth and heal, I'm not really convinced they do much.
2.) You have to feed your baby every 2 hours in the first few weeks & months. This will teach your body to produce more milk (some people have trouble with making enough milk) The more you feed your baby, the more your body will produce. Sometimes your baby will want to feed every hour and a half some times the baby will be able to eat every 2.5-3 hours. Watch your baby, not the clock...its approximately every 2 hours! This tends to make living your life a bit tricky with this every two hour thing. Its ok, you can still go out and do things even though your baby needs to eat frequently. Plan to go out right after your baby eats so you can maximize your time out - whether you are grocery shopping, or just going out for a walk. If you are out for longer than 2 hours, don't panic! You can feed your baby anywhere, from a mall family bathroom to your car in the parking lot. It will be a little scary the first time you go out, but don't think you are trapped in your house all day because of the baby!
3.) Get a breast pump. You may over produce milk and your boobs will become rock hard, so you'll need relief from the pump. You may not produce enough so you'll need to pump and feed to tell your body to produce more. You may find that it is easier to give the baby a bottle in the evening before bed - or when you venture out of your house to run errands!
4.) You will wake up soaking wet from your boobs leaking milk at some point. You're body will learn when to produce milk and when you need it as your baby gets on more of a schedule. You may also leak or shoot milk out after a warm shower!
5.) Sometimes your milk ducts can get plugged up. This can be really painful. If you get a plugged duct it will feel like a lump and be tender to the touch. Make sure you let your baby feed on this side as much as possible first each time. Your babies suck is the strongest in the beginning, this will help to unclog the duct. Also putting a warm wash cloth or compress on the breast with the clogged duct before having the baby feed on that side will help to loosen it up as well. It can get more serious and more painful - if this is the case call your doctor as soon as possible as it could be mastitis.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
The First 48
Once in the room you realize that you are starving, because who knows how long it has been since you last ate. In my case I was nauseous from the contractions so I didn't eat anything for about 10 hours prior to delivery. So you eat something while the baby is sleeping in the bassinet next to you. The nurses come in and introduce themselves, telling you how beautiful your baby is and what a beautiful name you gave her (I'm sure they say this to everyone, even if they don't mean it!) and ask if they can take the baby and give her a bath. And while you don't want to let the kid out of your sight, a bath would be nice. So you let the baby go get a bath and the nurses show you how to clean yourself off in the genital area every time you pee and give you this wonderful pad that has a built in ice pack to relieve some of the pain you are just realizing you have down there. And then they let you unwind and sleep.
I should say 'sleep.' because if your breast feeding the come in every 2-4 hours to let you feed the baby. (We'll get into breast feeding at a later post) So the good news is the nurses are awesome and help you so you are not stumbling blindly through this phase in life.
You have many excited visitors - especially new grandparents -who come in to see the baby, not you...this is pretty standard from here on out. They stay as long as you let them & drinking in this new little member of the family, sometimes leaving when you need to feed the baby, sometimes not. You tell the story of the birth over and over again to the grandmas who try to remember giving birth to you or your husband, while the men recall their part in the story - driving really fast, not being at home when their wife went into labor, leaving after the birth to go home and take a nap but throwing up first, you know typical guy stuff :) ! Then the visitors say their goodbyes and head home to get a good night sleep.Once everyone leaves you have a few precious moments alone with your new little baby. Here you can really inspect and take in this little thing that you gave life to. They are so small and so fragile, you have to hold their head because their neck isn't strong enough, you count their little fingers and toes over and over again, you watch her take little breaths as she silently sleeps in your arms. Then it is time to feed her again.
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| Our daughter, Naomi, under the UV lights. |
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| Dad and Naomi |
We got home and brought our daughter in to meet our dog, Pippin. They hit it off right away, and the rest is, as they say, history!
The Nursery
Setting up your babies room is fun and exciting! You get to paint and pick our new furniture (or get hand me down stuff if you're like us) put up cute decorations. But don't let it stress you out. It is not a contest to see who can have the cutest nursery. The kid is not going to appreciate all that hard work you did until... well maybe never. But don't wait until the baby is born to get the room ready. I know some people do this because it is a tradition in their family or their religion. But you can never be too prepared for this baby. SO get it done before the baby is born! That being said, make sure you get the low fume paint, or get your husband to do all the painting. My husband chose to do all the painting, which was wonderful, but it was on his schedule...which was not as fast as mine, but he got it done and it came out beautiful. I think it is good for the husband to do it, it gets them in the mind set that they are going to have a kid and this will be their room. Maybe that's why they procrastinate.
Things you NEED in your nursery:
A changing table with a changing pad, place for diapers & wipes, a crib, a dresser, a rocking chair/glider/yoga ball, diaper genie and a white noise machine. Most of these things are pretty standard. We use a yoga ball to bounce our daughter to sleep instead of the rocking chair/glider - she just likes the ball and not the rocking chair. We also use a white noise machine, more to drown out the other noises in the house.Things you may WANT in your nursery:
A video monitor - you don't need this but it is nice to have.
A night light - more for you to see when you go in to check on the baby or to put the pacifier back in.
A rug - to keep the room from being too loud and echoy.
A mobile - for over the crib - something to look at while they lay there screaming!
A bookshelf filled with books - this can be in another room, but books are key to the child's literacy later in life.
Decorations - not necessary but can tie the room together.
Birthing Class
Everyone takes a birthing class, because you hope they'll tell you all about what it is like to give birth. Some people may refer to these classes as Lamaze class as it was a popular birthing technique developed in the 40s and most of our parents used it. It's all about teaching you to deal with labor pain through breathing and massage. But most birthing classes teach you about all birthing techniques, not just the Lamaze technique.
The birthing class we took was really not helpful. She told us how the body grows and showed us amazing drawings of the baby growing inside a woman's body. She told us how the pelvis works and moves so the baby can get out. She showed us, very briefly, some positions the mom can go in to help relieve pain. But the whole thing was pretty slanted to natural child birth with no drugs. She talked about how drugs could lead to having to use other drugs. So for example the instructor said that an epidural slows down the birthing process, thus causing the need for Pitocin, a drug used to help induce labor and contractions, but that it makes the contractions more painful, so you'll want more from the epidural.
I wanted to know how painful the contractions were going to be, where I'd feel them, how to push... you know relevant things! So I left the class just as anxious about the birth as before the class.
We also took an infant CPR class. This class was WAY more helpful, not for giving birth, but for after the baby is born...She talked about how to prepare your house for a baby, gave us important phone numbers - like poison control, taught us CPR and when to call the pediatrician with our new little one. I would recommend taking this class. The birthing class is up to you!
The birthing class we took was really not helpful. She told us how the body grows and showed us amazing drawings of the baby growing inside a woman's body. She told us how the pelvis works and moves so the baby can get out. She showed us, very briefly, some positions the mom can go in to help relieve pain. But the whole thing was pretty slanted to natural child birth with no drugs. She talked about how drugs could lead to having to use other drugs. So for example the instructor said that an epidural slows down the birthing process, thus causing the need for Pitocin, a drug used to help induce labor and contractions, but that it makes the contractions more painful, so you'll want more from the epidural.
I wanted to know how painful the contractions were going to be, where I'd feel them, how to push... you know relevant things! So I left the class just as anxious about the birth as before the class.
We also took an infant CPR class. This class was WAY more helpful, not for giving birth, but for after the baby is born...She talked about how to prepare your house for a baby, gave us important phone numbers - like poison control, taught us CPR and when to call the pediatrician with our new little one. I would recommend taking this class. The birthing class is up to you!
Giving Birth
Ok, so the time has come for this baby to make his/her grand entrance, but what does that mean. Well this is my experience...
You know what its like to have menstrual cramps...well that's what it feels like in the beginning. They start and stop sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for a few minutes. They are around your whole lower belly area and just feel like cramps coming and going. After a while they come more frequently and they feel a bit stronger. My initial contractions lasted more than 24 hours. They were strong enough to be painful so I couldn't rest or sleep because they'd keep me up but they were not close enough together to go in to the hospital yet. This was annoying. I was exhausted, mad, frustrated and I just wanted it to be over with, the painful cramping that is.
After a while of this, they finally told me to come in to the hospital, only to be told when I got there that I wasn't dilated enough, and to go home and come back later. How do you tell a hormonal emotionally a mess woman this?! Needless to say, I was NOT happy about this. My husband was awesome through this whole thing though - we went in at 2am only to be sent home at 6am. He was supportive and kept me sane through this whole thing. So we went home.
When your water breaks, it is NOT like in the movies or on TV. There is no huge puddle on the floor under you. There is a bit of water that comes out yes, but nothing that your underwear or clothes can't absorb before you realize what happened and can get to the bathroom. This was my ticket (back) in to the delivery room. ( I was diagnosed positive with group b strep, an infection that some women carry in their genital area, which is no big deal and many women have it in one pregnancy and not another. Once your water breaks you need to go to the hospital and get treated with antibiotics to make sure the baby doesn't get it.) So like I said, this was my ticket in to the hospital.
I think my husband wanted to speed and get pulled over and tell the officer that I was in labor, because this is the only time they'd let you go for speeding - or so the movies say.... but he really was motivated by my pain and constant whining about it to get to the hospital as speedily and safely as possible. So no he did not speed and did not get pulled over.
The contractions were coming faster and closer together now and I was trying to breathe like they talked about in the class we took (which was a joke, more on that later). Well it is really hard to breathe slow and calm when you're in pain! I was breathing fast and short and well, I was going to hyperventilate at any moment. My husband was awesome, as usual, telling me to breathe slowly, in through the nose and out through the mouth. I wanted to punch him, and thank him all at once. Hormones can do that....
Once admitted I was dilated to 5 cm, so they hooked me up to the monitors and began the epidural. Yes I opted for the epidural. I'm not ashamed, I have nothing to prove to anyone. I wanted the pain to go away. I think my husband wanted me to do it without any drugs just so he could tell people how amazing his wife was, giving birth with no drugs...again I have nothing to prove to anyone, and he wasn't feeling the pain. So this was tricky...they were going to stick a giant needle in my spine and I had to stay absolutely still...um, but I was still having these things called contractions every few minutes. This was probably the hardest part about giving birth honestly. Once the drugs kicked in the birth was no big deal!
So the epidural is in and they tell me to go to sleep for a few hours (it was 11:30pm) and they'd check back in on my at 5am. Um, WHA? Ok, you don't have to tell me twice to take a nap because I'm exhausted... but I thought that this whole birth thing was kinda underway now that my water broke no? Before the midwife steps out, she checks me one last time and says "oh, you're dilated to 10cm, we're ready to have this baby!" Wait, now? I thought you said I could take a nap? Nope, no napping.
So pushing. It's like you're trying to push out a poop. But no one tells you this. No one tells you how to push the baby out, they just say 'push.' Push what? Well I had no idea what I was doing but I guess I was good at it, or at least the nurse kept saying that. So this went on for half an hour and I was well kind of getting bored and anxious to see the new member of my family, so I asked how long this was going to go on like this, and the answer was several hours! Whoa... Luckily for me it only lasted 45 minutes.
This whole experience was really amazing. I was so curious about how the baby was actually going to come out of me that they had a mirror so I could watch our daughter being born. (It sounds weird saying that now, but I'm glad I did it) Just make sure that once the baby is out, you tell them to remove the mirror. You don't need to see all the blood and placenta that comes out after....and besides, you are so preoccupied with your new little bundle of joy that it doesn't matter what happens down there.
You know what its like to have menstrual cramps...well that's what it feels like in the beginning. They start and stop sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for a few minutes. They are around your whole lower belly area and just feel like cramps coming and going. After a while they come more frequently and they feel a bit stronger. My initial contractions lasted more than 24 hours. They were strong enough to be painful so I couldn't rest or sleep because they'd keep me up but they were not close enough together to go in to the hospital yet. This was annoying. I was exhausted, mad, frustrated and I just wanted it to be over with, the painful cramping that is.
After a while of this, they finally told me to come in to the hospital, only to be told when I got there that I wasn't dilated enough, and to go home and come back later. How do you tell a hormonal emotionally a mess woman this?! Needless to say, I was NOT happy about this. My husband was awesome through this whole thing though - we went in at 2am only to be sent home at 6am. He was supportive and kept me sane through this whole thing. So we went home.
When your water breaks, it is NOT like in the movies or on TV. There is no huge puddle on the floor under you. There is a bit of water that comes out yes, but nothing that your underwear or clothes can't absorb before you realize what happened and can get to the bathroom. This was my ticket (back) in to the delivery room. ( I was diagnosed positive with group b strep, an infection that some women carry in their genital area, which is no big deal and many women have it in one pregnancy and not another. Once your water breaks you need to go to the hospital and get treated with antibiotics to make sure the baby doesn't get it.) So like I said, this was my ticket in to the hospital.
I think my husband wanted to speed and get pulled over and tell the officer that I was in labor, because this is the only time they'd let you go for speeding - or so the movies say.... but he really was motivated by my pain and constant whining about it to get to the hospital as speedily and safely as possible. So no he did not speed and did not get pulled over.
The contractions were coming faster and closer together now and I was trying to breathe like they talked about in the class we took (which was a joke, more on that later). Well it is really hard to breathe slow and calm when you're in pain! I was breathing fast and short and well, I was going to hyperventilate at any moment. My husband was awesome, as usual, telling me to breathe slowly, in through the nose and out through the mouth. I wanted to punch him, and thank him all at once. Hormones can do that....
Once admitted I was dilated to 5 cm, so they hooked me up to the monitors and began the epidural. Yes I opted for the epidural. I'm not ashamed, I have nothing to prove to anyone. I wanted the pain to go away. I think my husband wanted me to do it without any drugs just so he could tell people how amazing his wife was, giving birth with no drugs...again I have nothing to prove to anyone, and he wasn't feeling the pain. So this was tricky...they were going to stick a giant needle in my spine and I had to stay absolutely still...um, but I was still having these things called contractions every few minutes. This was probably the hardest part about giving birth honestly. Once the drugs kicked in the birth was no big deal!
So the epidural is in and they tell me to go to sleep for a few hours (it was 11:30pm) and they'd check back in on my at 5am. Um, WHA? Ok, you don't have to tell me twice to take a nap because I'm exhausted... but I thought that this whole birth thing was kinda underway now that my water broke no? Before the midwife steps out, she checks me one last time and says "oh, you're dilated to 10cm, we're ready to have this baby!" Wait, now? I thought you said I could take a nap? Nope, no napping.
So pushing. It's like you're trying to push out a poop. But no one tells you this. No one tells you how to push the baby out, they just say 'push.' Push what? Well I had no idea what I was doing but I guess I was good at it, or at least the nurse kept saying that. So this went on for half an hour and I was well kind of getting bored and anxious to see the new member of my family, so I asked how long this was going to go on like this, and the answer was several hours! Whoa... Luckily for me it only lasted 45 minutes.
This whole experience was really amazing. I was so curious about how the baby was actually going to come out of me that they had a mirror so I could watch our daughter being born. (It sounds weird saying that now, but I'm glad I did it) Just make sure that once the baby is out, you tell them to remove the mirror. You don't need to see all the blood and placenta that comes out after....and besides, you are so preoccupied with your new little bundle of joy that it doesn't matter what happens down there.
Pregnancy
I was lucky enough to have an easy pregnancy. I didn't get morning sickness or sick from the smell of any specific type of food. Below are some of the things I experienced during each trimester.
The First Trimester
You will be exhausted. Seriously, exhausted. Not tired, not a little sleepy but exhausted. (This is to prepare you as to how you'll feel the first few weeks after giving birth!) I remember driving home from work literally holding my eyelids open with one hand while driving with the other. I would get home and go right to bed, only to be gently roused by my awesome husband to tell me dinner was ready and I had to get up and eat something. After eating I'd climb back into bed until my alarm went off and I had to do it all over the next day.
You will also have to pee a lot. Seriously, a lot. I'm a high school art teacher and being able to pee whenever you want to is, well, not gonna happen. (Again I think this was to prepare me for once the baby was born!) I remember running in between classes to the ladies room, then running to class, only to feel like I had to pee 10 minutes into class time. At this point though, you're not going to pee your pants...that's what comes after the baby is born.
So I was feeling good, I didn't feel pregnant, aside from the tired and peeing, I didn't show yet and so it didn't seem real to me, not yet at least. Plus there was always that underlying feeling of possibly losing the baby at any moment that made you think that it wasn't real yet either, you know to protect yourself from feeling sad if and when you did lose the baby. Because of this though, you probably haven't told many people about being pregnant, only those on the 'need to know' list. Like co-workers that had to cover for you on occasion, possibly your parents for that excited moral support, but not too many people. (Make sure the people you do choose to tell can keep a secret, if that's what you want. I told my parents and well, my dad is not a secret keeper. He told all the neighbors within 2 days of us telling him...next time, he doesn't get let in on the secret.)
The Second Trimester
This is when you feel a little relieved because you made it past the point of possibly losing the baby, so it is starting to sink in that, "Yeah, I'm having a baby!" I still wasn't showing yet so it was kind of no big deal when I entered into the second trimester.
During this trimester I felt the baby kick for the first time, around 22 weeks and that was exciting! My husband also felt the baby move during this trimester, around 26 weeks. Once you feel the baby start kicking, you feel it all the time. Not every second of every day, but you feel it moving from now on. Right as you lay down at night, when you're sitting at work and its quiet or when you're in a meeting. It really starts to feel real, that you're growing a little person inside of you!
The Third Trimester
The beginning of the end of the pregnancy journey. You're showing now and people are commenting on your belly and asking you all kinds of questions about the baby. Random people will want to come up and touch your belly, also family will do this, like it is not your belly anymore, it becomes public property for any and all to have a feel. Its weird. People are super nice to you, they don't want you carrying heavy or light things, they want you to take the elevator and not the stairs, they hold the door for you. You feel like a celebrity with all the fuss and attention! It is great.
At this point my ankles began swelling up and my deodorant stopped working. I was retaining so much water, but all in my ankles. I had to wear compression stockings for the last 3 months just to keep the swelling down, it was really annoying and I felt like an old lady (no offense to old ladies.) I also tried several different deodorants and none of them ended up working for long periods of time.
I didn't ever get the feeling of 'get this thing out of me.' I wasn't that big in the end. They said the baby was deep and low in my belly, so it didn't show out in front as much I guess. Towards the end I was more anxious about giving birth than anything else. It seems to be this big secret also (see getting pregnant), that even though you take birthing class, well they don't really tell you EXACTLY what is going to happen, what it is going to feel like. And that is what scared me the most!
The First TrimesterYou will be exhausted. Seriously, exhausted. Not tired, not a little sleepy but exhausted. (This is to prepare you as to how you'll feel the first few weeks after giving birth!) I remember driving home from work literally holding my eyelids open with one hand while driving with the other. I would get home and go right to bed, only to be gently roused by my awesome husband to tell me dinner was ready and I had to get up and eat something. After eating I'd climb back into bed until my alarm went off and I had to do it all over the next day.
You will also have to pee a lot. Seriously, a lot. I'm a high school art teacher and being able to pee whenever you want to is, well, not gonna happen. (Again I think this was to prepare me for once the baby was born!) I remember running in between classes to the ladies room, then running to class, only to feel like I had to pee 10 minutes into class time. At this point though, you're not going to pee your pants...that's what comes after the baby is born.
So I was feeling good, I didn't feel pregnant, aside from the tired and peeing, I didn't show yet and so it didn't seem real to me, not yet at least. Plus there was always that underlying feeling of possibly losing the baby at any moment that made you think that it wasn't real yet either, you know to protect yourself from feeling sad if and when you did lose the baby. Because of this though, you probably haven't told many people about being pregnant, only those on the 'need to know' list. Like co-workers that had to cover for you on occasion, possibly your parents for that excited moral support, but not too many people. (Make sure the people you do choose to tell can keep a secret, if that's what you want. I told my parents and well, my dad is not a secret keeper. He told all the neighbors within 2 days of us telling him...next time, he doesn't get let in on the secret.)
The Second Trimester
This is when you feel a little relieved because you made it past the point of possibly losing the baby, so it is starting to sink in that, "Yeah, I'm having a baby!" I still wasn't showing yet so it was kind of no big deal when I entered into the second trimester.
During this trimester I felt the baby kick for the first time, around 22 weeks and that was exciting! My husband also felt the baby move during this trimester, around 26 weeks. Once you feel the baby start kicking, you feel it all the time. Not every second of every day, but you feel it moving from now on. Right as you lay down at night, when you're sitting at work and its quiet or when you're in a meeting. It really starts to feel real, that you're growing a little person inside of you!
The Third Trimester
The beginning of the end of the pregnancy journey. You're showing now and people are commenting on your belly and asking you all kinds of questions about the baby. Random people will want to come up and touch your belly, also family will do this, like it is not your belly anymore, it becomes public property for any and all to have a feel. Its weird. People are super nice to you, they don't want you carrying heavy or light things, they want you to take the elevator and not the stairs, they hold the door for you. You feel like a celebrity with all the fuss and attention! It is great.
At this point my ankles began swelling up and my deodorant stopped working. I was retaining so much water, but all in my ankles. I had to wear compression stockings for the last 3 months just to keep the swelling down, it was really annoying and I felt like an old lady (no offense to old ladies.) I also tried several different deodorants and none of them ended up working for long periods of time.
I didn't ever get the feeling of 'get this thing out of me.' I wasn't that big in the end. They said the baby was deep and low in my belly, so it didn't show out in front as much I guess. Towards the end I was more anxious about giving birth than anything else. It seems to be this big secret also (see getting pregnant), that even though you take birthing class, well they don't really tell you EXACTLY what is going to happen, what it is going to feel like. And that is what scared me the most!
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Getting Pregnant
How come no one talks about how hard it is to get pregnant. I'm a 32 year old new mom, and well, it took us over a year to conceive. I know that doesn't seem like a long time or like a big deal. But it was REALLY frustrating. Who knew that you had a 30 second window once a month to conceive? Ok well maybe more like 5 minutes, but seriously. One day a month and you had to time it right... I wish I knew this sooner! I think its a big secret because your parents and society wants to put the fear of G-d in you when you're younger so you don't have sex!
It seems like it's harder to conceive when you're older, financially stable, or 'ready' for some reason. I kept thinking about all those teenage moms or poor moms you hear about on the news living on welfare with 10 kids while we were trying to have just one. How come it was so easy for them to get pregnant and have kids but not us? We're responsible adults, financially stable and ready for the next phase in our life...that's why it was so hard. You can't plan this having kids thing....
Unfortunately, I'm a planner. I'm a high school art teacher, and my life revolves around plans...lesson plans. I have things planned out days and weeks in advance for work. I try to keep my home life equally planned, like getting my Masters degree before thinking about having kids...getting married, saving money, getting a dog to practice being responsible! All this planning, and then the time comes to have kids, and well...that doesn't go to plan!
When we finally stopped stressing about it, it worked. So my advice to those of you who are trying to conceive, is to relax and not stress about it. It will work, eventually. (Ok, if it doesn't there is always Invetro. We didn't have to do this, but several of my friends had great success with it.)
It seems like it's harder to conceive when you're older, financially stable, or 'ready' for some reason. I kept thinking about all those teenage moms or poor moms you hear about on the news living on welfare with 10 kids while we were trying to have just one. How come it was so easy for them to get pregnant and have kids but not us? We're responsible adults, financially stable and ready for the next phase in our life...that's why it was so hard. You can't plan this having kids thing....
Unfortunately, I'm a planner. I'm a high school art teacher, and my life revolves around plans...lesson plans. I have things planned out days and weeks in advance for work. I try to keep my home life equally planned, like getting my Masters degree before thinking about having kids...getting married, saving money, getting a dog to practice being responsible! All this planning, and then the time comes to have kids, and well...that doesn't go to plan!
When we finally stopped stressing about it, it worked. So my advice to those of you who are trying to conceive, is to relax and not stress about it. It will work, eventually. (Ok, if it doesn't there is always Invetro. We didn't have to do this, but several of my friends had great success with it.)
New Mom
This blog was the brain child of many sleepless nights of things I wish people had told me about pregnancy, being a mom, & growing with my husband as a family.
I plan on writing about all these things for a record for me later in life, when my daughter is going through all this and for my friends that haven't yet gone through the wonderful, exhausting, painful, beautiful experience of becoming a mom.
I have two other blogs, http://briggschronicles.blogspot.com/ where I post photos of my little one's growth and first time experience, and http://robyn-briggs.blogspot.com/ where I post all of my artwork that I make, some inspired by my little one, some just for me to keep sane!
I plan on writing about all these things for a record for me later in life, when my daughter is going through all this and for my friends that haven't yet gone through the wonderful, exhausting, painful, beautiful experience of becoming a mom.
I have two other blogs, http://briggschronicles.blogspot.com/ where I post photos of my little one's growth and first time experience, and http://robyn-briggs.blogspot.com/ where I post all of my artwork that I make, some inspired by my little one, some just for me to keep sane!
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