Megacrib

To the family who can't decide between co-sleeping and a crib... 

I introduce, megacrib.  

 Still have the photo mobile up in the corner.
She loves pointing at the pictures as I name all her family.

 That blanket never stays like this,
I'm faking that cuteness for the photo.

Its a pretty small room,
sorry I don't have a great picture of the whole thing at once.

She likes it, I like it, we like it.  

We started out trying Montessori, just having a mattress on the floor, but that didn't work out as she kept rolling off in her sleep and bonking her precious sweet head. 

So we added the gate at one point and then added the bed frame a couple months later.  

Pretty cool right?

Sip n See Party

This afternoon I hosted a "Sip N See" for my sister-in-law."  In late December she gave birth to her first daughter, her second child.  She has plenty of baby gear from her 1st who is now about 19 months old and she was given a work shower where she received loads of girly items.  So this party was not about giving the mother and baby gifts but just celebrating the baby girl and mamma.  

Since Sip n See's are a rather new trend in these parts, and we wanted to make sure it was not confused for a "shower" where she'd receive more gifts.  So I thought it would be fun to make crafts at the party!.  Finally, I had an opportunity to try out some of my pinterest pins!  On the invitation I stated we would be doing crafts rather than gifts.  I had hoped this would make it clear that it wasn't a baby shower and it worked.

Before the party, my mother-in-law and I prepared bags of crafts.  Each had the materials needed inside with a note on how to do it.  I marked each bag with a black, purple, or pink bow to say if it was a difficult, medium, or easy craft.  Really none of them were super difficult but people that love crafting might like to do more involved crafts while people who don't could just do the simple glue on a bow type craft.

A plus to having a Sip N See rather than a shower before the baby is 

born is the mamma can enjoy adult beverages!  

Chocolate fondue fountain for desert.

Ladies sippin' and creatin'

A few boxes were set out of random crafty items for people to do a little more than what I put in the bag. 

When a craft was finished the crafter could bring it to the mom and baby.  

Creating a tutu

Even the little guests participate

The whole party with their creations!

This party was a relaxed way for friends and family to see and hold the new baby.

Everything made at the party.

We had a lot of fun, and I think that my sister in law really liked it.  She was hoping to have a stress free get together and that's just what we had!

Cloth Diapering

I bought 4 flip diaper covers for $13.95 each ($55.95)
(and then with my luck the next week they were by one get one free- oh well)
and then about 35 prefolds at $1. 78 ($62.30)
3 Stay Dry Inserts totaling $12.95
Total cost: $131.20
Added cost: $0.21 per laundry load

Not bad right?  Of course it actually cost me more than $131 because I bought several other diaper methods till I found this one.  If I would have figured it out in the first place it would have only been $131.20 plus about a dollar per month on laundry!  (I wash about once a week- would need to wash more if I wasn't practicing elimination communication)  I hope my findings can help someone skip all the hassle of experimenting and just jump to this system.

A few months ago I did this video on prefolds and I think it is pretty useful if you just prefer using a different type of cover (other companies DO have some designs that are much more cute than Flip but in my opinion not as simple and not one-size).



But this video is my more recent video as I have discovered the simplicity of Flip!

Adelaide's Room

Probably four months ago, we converted the guest room into Adelaide's room.  The set up changes month to month, but I've finally gotten it to a place I like now.... I think.  So I took some photos and before I did I thought, oh I should put the pretty flowery blanket and matching pillows down and put the cool headboard up so this photo ends up on everyone's pinterest across the country.  But then I realized I should keep it real. ;)  I at least tidied up a bit first... here is what we got...

You can see baby over by the basket by her bed... she loves rubbing her hand up and down the wicker.  Babies love the most random things.  

We have a queen sized mattress on the floor.  I got the idea from someone who introduced me to Montessori style nurseries. (Click on the link to learn more)

I believe feeding at night time is very good for baby health so I feed her 2-3 times (on her cue) through out her 10-12 hour night sleep.  I end up in the bed with her for probably half the night...I fall asleep while feeding her and she falls asleep while eating!  When we have house guests, we allow them to stay in our room and Chris and I both sleep in there with her.  We're not a full-time, year-around, co-sleeping family.  We're not against it, but just find it better for us personally not to do it all the time. 

Since she is a crawler and roller now, I've started lining the bed with pillows at night so that if she rolls she doesn't roll off and bonk her head.  Its not life threatening if she does, but no one wants to wake up to a thud on the head!  I also have the video monitor so I usually know when she starts rolling away.  As she gets older we will come up with new ideas as we need to. 

I often have a few layers of blankets on the bed so that if she spits up in the middle of the night (she has some major spitting up messes sometimes) I can just pull off one layer without having to change the sheets completely in the middle of the night.  

Using a mattress with regular sheets and blankets should be done with caution from what I hear.  Our baby is able to roll around on her own and sit up with no problem so we don't have to worry about some of the things that you have to worry about with much younger babies or less developed babies... I guess.  I just thought it'd be responsible for me to mention that.  Do the proper research to see if this is right for you.  Or ask me, I'd be glad to help you talk it through.

The closets in our house have those folding out doors that always seem to get off track and they take up unneccisary space... so I just took them down and threw 'em in the attic!  No more hiding things in the closets, but I like feeling like there is just a tad bit more open space.  I was able to put a piece of furniture in there (where I keep her cloth diapers) and her little potty!  Its like she has her own bathroom.  

Well let me stop being so wordy and just show you the rest in pictures:

Top of the chest of drawers.  I got them and her
whole bedroom set off of Craigslist!  

Matryoshka doll my mom brought home from
Eastern Europe back in 2008.

Whimsical little lamp my brother gave me for Christmas back when we were in college.
To the left of the lamp is the video monitor.

A hat Chris wore as a baby, a piggy bank from Chris' mom,
and a sweet bedtime book with matching rabbit.

What is that purple thing?
A normal bean bag chair?

No!  It's a stuffed animal holder!  She has so many, now we have a place to put them all.
It also doubles as a nice chair or pillow.

The butterfly and the elephant were decorations from a shower someone gave me.
I just glued on some ribbon from a gift and they became bow holders!

Ziplock containers make good dividers for small things in the drawers.

Long sleeve shirts on one side, Long sleeved onesies on the other.

Short sleeved shirts on one side short sleeved onesies on the other. 

And on the bottom drawer all the pants I rarely put on her.  Life is too short to mess with baby pants!  I usually only put them on for photo ops and special occasions.  Leg warmers keep her legs warm the rest of the time.

During my photo shoot she decided to stand up!  What a strong baby!

Box of books... I bet I need to move those so she doesn't tare them up when she starts crawling in that direction.
Basket of blocks I move around the house depending on where we are.

Sweet rocking chair with a horse rocking on it... Rocking horse?

Oh here is a picture of that wire drawer set by the potty....  that little green thing is a potty when you lift the lid.
I also keep some cleaning supplies hanging at the top of the drawers for a quick clean up.

So that was Adelaide's room as it is today!  It will likely change by next month but I like it how it is for now :)

Breastfeeding Part 3 (Chastity's experience)

Fun thing about Facebook is talking to people you haven't talked to in 10 years.  One such person for me was Chastity.  We went to Hallsville High School together and haven't spoken since but with the beauty of Facebook she messaged me when I had my baby.  A year before me she had a baby boy prematurely and had to learn a lot about pumping.  She gave me all sorts of tips and while I rarely pump, I know many of my friends will need to so I want to share her wisdom.  After all, its my friends I'm writing this blog for.  It's my way of passively giving unsolicited advice when they have their babies. ;)

So with Chastity's permission I'm going to basically copy and paste our Facebook conversation... minus the parts about if we are going to our 10 year reunion or not, and added a few bolds so if you want to skip to some good stuff.

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  9 August 201
• 

  11 August 2011

  Chastity 

  • We're doing great! It takes time to adjust to having a baby but so worth it!
    How is nursing working out for yall? My son was premature and I wasn't able to nurse. I exclusively pumped for just over 7 months with a supply of 50+ ounces a day. I was able to fill a 5.0 cu ft deep freezer and have enough breast milk to get him through his first birthday! I can't be much help nursing but if you pump at all, I might be able to help if you have and questions 
• 

  11 August 2011

  Elizabeth A Guilbeau

  • Wow that's a lot of milk! That's great that you were able to do that- after all "breast is best!". Nursing is going okay for us. She came out ready to nurse so I was pretty luck there. Since I've gotten more tired recently it's been more difficult to stay on a good routine though.
    
• 

  11 August 2011

  Elizabeth A Guilbeau

  • Oh and btw, what kind of pump did u use? Mine is already starting to act up- I might need a new/different kind soon.
• 

  11 August 2011

  Chastity

  • Because my son came early (it was expected but still a surprise if that makes sense) I hadn't bought a pump yet. The hospital set me up there with a Medela symphony that seemed to work well. When I had to leave the hospital, they set me up with a rental because my insurance paid for it. It was a Lactina something. Older model but it worked for me. I rented it from Good Shepherd [hospital] but for some reason they stopped doing that so I had to buy one. I strongly recommend buying the medela freestyle. I only used mine a couple weeks but it was so nice. You can walk around and fold laundry, do dishes, even go to the bathroom! I can't tell you how many times I sat down to pump only to have to stop to go pee lol. 
    
    
    No matter what, if you pump you HAVE to make a hands free bra. You can buy them but they are $30-$35 each most places. I can not tell you how much easier and less stressful this bra will make pumping. I think I ended up making 5 or so to make sure I always had one. Also you have to make sure your shield size is correct. It can determine your milk supply and cause clogged duct and mastitis if your shield is too small. Don't be surprised if after awhile it seems your normal size is too small. I had to buy a bigger size after pumping awhile. Staying on a schedule, nursing or pumping, is extremely important. 
    
    
    I pumped around the clock every 3-4 hours for 7 months! I was exhausted! They say it takes about 12 weeks for your supply to be more stable, I say at least 16 weeks. Are you having any problems with your supply? There are lots of things you can do and take to up it. I took fenugreek for a few days to try to get my milk to come in faster but didn't take anything after that. Also how is she on your milk? Matthew had a lot of gas issues but I think it was due more to him being premature and still adjusting.
• 

  12 August 2011

  Elizabeth A Guilbeau

  • Actually she has TERRIBLE gas! It is the only thing she is fussy about. It makes me sad because I dont know what to do to sooth her when she is working out a toot... Though when she does finally get it out it is soooo funny! How does such a big noise come out of such a little bottom?
    So I have been a little worried about my supply. The midwife said I shouldn't worry cause I am making exactly how much she needs- problem with that is that I have none stored up for situations when it's awkward to pull out the boob. I've never heard of what you are suggesting, but I might give it a try. I welcome any other suggestions too.
• 

  14 August 2011

  Chastity 

  • Sorry it has taken me so long! Try taking acidophilus. It will go through your milk to her and it should help. I'm not sure how long it will take because I was able to pump so much milk I was always ahead of him. You should ask your peditrician about it though because it can be given to babies. I think Matthew was too small at first and that's why ours asked me to take it. I was told that the chances of it being something I was eating were pretty slim but I seemed to notice when I ate green veggies especially broccoli that he seemed more gassy. 
    
    
    Also someone at my baby shower gave us a "frosty bear". It's basically just a cold/hot gel filled pack. We would microwave it a few seconds then wrap it in a towel and put it on his belly. It would help almost immediately. Sometimes it fixed it and sometimes it didnt last long but in the least it gave us all a break. 
    
    
    As for your supply, you can take fenugreek. It's suppose to be natural. I can't say really how much of a difference it makes because I didnt take much but I've read a lot of good things. There is also mother's milk or tea. 
    
    
    You have to massage. I'm not sure why it makes such a difference but it helps to stimulate your milk production. If you massage for a minute or two before you pump or nurse it will help you have a let down a little quicker too. If you ever feel any knots or have sore spots make sure to massage a little extra there while nursing or pumping because it is probably a clogged duct and that helps to loosen it. I personally pumped both sides everytime. I feel like this made a big difference in how much I produced. I know some are saying now to nurse one side the full feeding and switch sides the next. I recommend getting a cheap nursing bra with the pull down flaps. This way you can nurse on one side and use the other side to pump hands free. 
    
    
    Using a hands free bra is the biggest suggestion I can give anyone wanting to pump. All you need is a cheap bra ( I bought the 3 for $10 sports bras at walmart) and make slits in them. Put it on and mark about where your nipples hit in the cup with a sharpie. Cut where the slit is but make sure you start with a pretty small hole. Your going to slide the neck of the shield through the hole but your going to want to make sure it fits tight so it stays in place. Just hook your pump up like normal and you should be able to pump without holding the shields in place. If that doesn't make sense let me know lol. This makes it so much easier to massage wtihout spilling milk. Do you plan on trying to pump enough to freeze or just to keep a couple in the fridge just incase?
    
    When I found out I was pregnant, I signed up with babycenter.com. In their community section, I found a message board for exclusive pumpers. That's where I found most of my help and tips. They have other boards too for pretty much everything. You may try reading some through the boards on there if you don't already.
• 

  27 August 2011

  Elizabeth A Guilbeau

  • Hey Chasitity!
    So I'm sitting here pumping away, and I remembered that I never thanked you for all your advice! I've taken a lot of what you said and applied it.  I haven't made a bra yet, but I love that idea! A few months ago I found one on sale and I keep using it, but if I need another one I'm going to use your idea.
• 

  30 August 2011

  Chastity 

  • Your so welcome! I don't think I mentioned it earlier, but of you plan to freeze any of your milk be sure to defrost it in a ziploc bag. The milk bags you buy to freeze it in are awful about leaking! I stopped pumping the beginning of April and Matthew just had his last bag of breast milk Friday. He will be 1 September 13th. When I stopped pumping I calculated him cutting back on his milk around 9 months only to find out that because he was premature he wouldn't cut back until right at a year old. I also lost a good bit of milk with the bags leaking, especially when the milk bag leaks as well as the ziploc bag. I'm a little sad he didn't get a complete year of breast milk because I thought I was freezing enough to get us just past that. I can't complain though. I got about 2 1/2 weeks less than a year of free milk if you don't count all the time and work that goes into it  If you have any questions or just want to talk, let me know! I'll be as much help as I can.
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Showering with baby

So Adelaide is just a few days shy of 6 months old, and I love this phase.  Right now she can sit up on her own and play with toys.  Its so much fun interacting with her.  She even tries conversation.  I say something and she says, "bla boo ga da ma!" I say, "really?" and she says back, "ba ba ga!"

I use my feet to give her a little extra support.

Anyway, since I am basically a subscriber to attachment parenting, I won't leave her in a play pin or crib to take a shower while my husband is not home.  And I just know if I try to sneak a shower while she naps, she will most certainly start crying for me the minute I get my hair all sudsy!  So now with her stage of playing and sitting up... and loving water as she has since about one month old, I just take her in the shower with me!  I plop her bare bottom on the tub floor with a few rubber duckies and blocks and put the water on about 99 degrees and we do our thing!  She has fun playing with the toys, and I enjoy talking to her about her play while I wash my hair and body, shave my legs, and even my old routine of just standing their for 5 minutes enjoying the warm water on my neck. At the end Adelaide gets a good scrub down too!

We are way more careful with the products we put on our baby than we do ourselves so when I'm showering with baby I try to use products I wouldn't mind getting on her, just incase some soap splashes her way.  We received a ton of Johnson & Johnson body wash, shampoo, and such before she was born, but our doctor said she sees case after case of skin problems, acne and diaper rashes caused by Johnson & Johnson products.  She says "the bottle might say #1 choice of hospitals, but I don't know any pediatric dermatologist that condones it."  So since our baby doesn't seem to have great allergies I just use it on myself and if it gets on her, I'm sure it won't be too terrible!  We use California Baby products which are made in the USA (hurray!) and are very gentle on babies.  

Breastfeeding part 2 (My experience)

Someone in MOPS suggested to me that when I blog I should try to just pose things as a question or give simply my personal experience rather than state my opinion bluntly when I blog.  I TRIED to do that with Breastfeeding part 1.  And with Breastfeeding part 2 I think I will be more successful in sharing just my personal experience with feeding Adelaide. 
To keep my already long blog from becoming a novel, I've included links you can follow if you have questions about some of my terminology. 

Skin to Skin contact
after labor and delivery.

The first seconds
There were only about 2 seconds... maybe just one second, that my baby was not on my body after she came out of me.  Those seconds were only because someone had to catch her!  (Maybe if I have another I could try to catch my baby myself but I'm not that big of a warrior mamma yet!)  From the time she was born she was on my chest- skin to skin.  No one took her away from me for at least an hour- not even to weigh her or clean her.  A nurse simply washed her off while she was on me.  This skin to skin contact I am told helps increases milk supply, so I guess that is why the midwife prescribes it immediately!

For about an hour the only people in the room were the people who were their for the delivery.  Other loved ones were standing anxiously at the door of the birth room to see the baby.  They finally were let in and hung out with us for about 30 minutes.  (They waited 8 hours in the lobby for a 30 min visit!)  She got the ceremonial weighing and measurements that everyone enjoyed watching and then the crowed went out the door and the lactation nurse came in.

She said, "let's get you to feed her."  It was kind of funny at first how the nurse took the baby's head in her fingers and rubbed the baby's nose and lips on me till baby's mouth came open.  As soon as the mouth opened the nurse shoved the baby's face into my breast and the baby went to town munching away at the colostrum.  She laughed when she heard the snorting sound that to me sound like she was suffocating a bit.  The nurse said, "that's so cute... don't worry its normal."

The first days
I was instructed that every two hours I should be feeding her.  If she seemed hungry before 2 hours then by all means I should go ahead and feed her then.  I would feed her on cue when I saw she was hungry which was about every 90 minutes.  I found a special app on my iPhone that would remind me or wake me up every two hours... it even had a special Left or Right button.

The birthing center is a little different from the hospital setting in that they send you home 8 hours after the baby is born rather that a couple days after.  So her first night was in our house with no one instructing us what to do.  (Though the midwife was on-call for us).  I hadn't gotten any sleep the night before so I was exhausted!  When I woke up for one feeding at about 2 am, I started loosing it.  She wasn't opening her mouth wide and so it was hurting really badly and I kept taking her off the poor latch to try again... she was crying and crying and then I started to cry and cry.  My dear husband saw my pain and wanted to relieve it for me.  He said, their is some formula that the Similac sent free in the mail, I can get it and give it to her.  He had the sincere heart in saying this but it set me off.  I'd been studying breastfeeding for months now, I wasn't going to give up not even a day into it.  So I gave out a big loud deep NOOOOOOO.  I cut back the tears, took a deep breath and tried again.  The latch still wasn't perfect, but I knew a midwife would call me in the morning and another would be in the house the next day so I could ask her then.  Plus, I'd been told that the baby wasn't going to starve.  The 5 ml of colostrum they get is enough for their itty bitty 1-3 day old stomach.  It's not till about day 7 that their tummies can even hold up to 2 ounces of milk!

So with my every 90 min feeding and loads of skin to skin contact it didn't take long for my milk to come in.  I believe it started coming in at day 2.  It was day 4 I believe when I went closer to 4 hours without feeding her in the night and I woke up feeling like I had two huge stones on my chest.  I wonder if getting your milk supply in is what it feels like for a woman who wakes up after getting breast implants?

The first week and a half I spent feeding the baby every two hours during the day and every 4 during the night... or at cue.  I mean if she acted hungry before the 2 or 4 hour mark, I'd go ahead and feed her and restart the clock.

After a week
When she was 1 and a half weeks old she went to her "one week" appointment at the pediatrician's office.  (Austin Area Birthing Center does plenty of newborn check ups for the first 6 weeks so we didn't NEED to go to the pediatrician but we wanted to start our relationship off good with them.)  The pediatrician was impressed with the baby's weight gain and told me I could try to sleep through the night now without waking her... just continue feeding every 2 hours during the day and on cue at night.  So I started getting 6 hour stretches without feeding the baby at night.  Though this caused uncomfortable engorgement so after about 4 hours of sleep I'd wake up, and play on Facebook for 15 minutes or so while I pumped.

Breastfeeding at the Texas State Capital

Some issues
When she was probably about three weeks old I started noticing that sometimes when she was nursing she would look very frustrated and popped on and off her latch and even "tore" at me.  (I don't know a better word to describe it but it hurt).  I thought, oh no, she isn't getting enough milk!  I got advice to drink way more water so I did, and try special teas, so I did.  Maybe those things did help my supply but it actually wasn't low to start with.  I pumped after she did this and found I still pumped an ounce or two.  When I started practicing Elimination Communication and had diaper free time, I found out this is what she does every time she pees while nursing!

Now at 6 months
In the past 6 months I've mostly just followed my instinct on feeding.  I don't have to set a clock for when she needs fed (I think I ditched the app at about 4 weeks) but I just know.  Sometimes when I'm super busy in the day I have to look at the clock a little and make sure she has been fed in the past four hours, but even that situation is pretty rare.

Sleeping through the night?
Everyone asks me "does she sleep through the night?"  And I would say "no, not really,"  and get all sorts of advice on how to get her to sleep through the night and not feed her when she cries.  For a while I was trying to go by their advice even though I felt like it wasn't the right choice for me.  I'm so happy that God gave me a friend who goes to my church and happens to be a lactation consultant and doula.  She encouraged me to continue doing night feedings as I felt necessary because God gave me instinct for a reason.  She also said it isn't even that healthy for babies to go 12 hours without eating at night.  Heck, I never go 12 hours without food or drink!  So that makes sense to me!  Its funny how I get so tired when people tell me all these ideas of how to get the baby to "sleep through the night."  I feel all this pressure to sleep for 8 hours straight and the pressure wears me out!  But when I just relax and say, whatever, I'm a mom, its part of the job.  I feel totally rested even if I got up 3 times to feed her!
My sleep trick

One way I feel totally rested even if I do night feedings is when I co-sleep.  Instead of buying her a crib, we bought her a queen sized mattress to put on the floor.  So most nights I start off in bed cuddling with my husband and then when she wakes up hungry, I go in and lay down with her and feed her in a side laying position.  She doesn't even wake up and I hardly wake up either.  I have actually woken up with her latched on and I don't even remember putting her there... it is just pretty natural now.

My advice
My biggest advice that comes from my experience is get a good lactation consultant who is just as determined to get you breastfeeding as you are. Find out what she/he thinks about breastfeeding before you have the baby.  If she says half her clients end up not being able to breastfeed (or bottle feed with expressed milk) then fire her!  Find someone who has a great success rate and knows that your body is not a lemon!



Well that has been my experience for the past 6 months.  I know everyone has their own ways of doing things, and their bodies and babies may have a different experience.  But I hope my experience encourages you in your breastfeeding adventure!

Now Adelaide has begun grabbing food off of our plates so now begins baby-led weaning!  I'm sure I will be blogging on that soon enough! :)