Today our precious little bubs turned 6 months old. Half a year old. We are halfway to his first birthday and I am feeling alllllll the mama feels today. As hard as the early baby days were, and sometimes still are (we will sleep good someday again right?) I am starting to see just how lightning fast all of this goes and with each new milestone I see him moving further away from being my tiny baby and more of him growing into my little boy. Today was a beautiful day to celebrate him, as Sundays are our favorite around here. We get daddy cuddles in the morning. Slow, delicious breakfasts, THIS breakfast was on repeat all weekend and we spent the late morning in the sunshine playing with toys. We also decided to implement a family tradition of celebrating his half-birthday. And although he can't yet enjoy these delicious cupcakes (he seemed to love on his carrots today though) I hope he appreciates the traditions that we are creating with him. I remember growing up, being three, four, five years old and loving when I could say I was a half a year older! Always in a rush to grow up when we're young... so I thought it'd be fun to make it a fun day where we could bake cupcakes, maybe pick a special toy and have family time just celebrating him and his life. Every step of the way. If you want to snag my recipe for my white cake mix that is gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free and soy-free you can click here. It's SCRUMPTIOUS. For the frosting I used Miss Jones organic vanilla frosting and dye-free sprinkles by Indian Tree. This month has really been a favorite with him so far. His little personality is bursting out and he makes me smile bigger and love harder than I ever thought imaginable. He's weighing in at just over 18 lbs and his chubby cheeks and chunky thighs are EVERYTHING. He is loving and cuddly and ADORES his daddy. I know they will be best pals. He laughs and it's the best sound this side of heaven and he smiles and talks with his eyes. A trait that made me fall in love with his daddy. His sandy blonde hair and hazel eyes goes to show we really couldn't have guessed how he'd turn out (we thought it'd be dark features all the way from daddy) and listening to him "read" his little books is probably the cutest thing ever. My little smarty. We love every new milestone, month and experience with our sweet little Grey.
Do you have a favorite tradition you've implemented with your littles?
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I've learned the road to motherhood can be a bit bumpy. Learning schedules (or throwing them out the window because baby's change weekly), raising a tiny human on little sleep and making sure you give them optimal nutrition to keep them healthy are all areas in which I feel we are constantly trying to navigate with little guidance and much instinct.
I remember that one of my first thoughts when Grey was born was how I was so excited to breastfeed him right away. When they handed that tiny, pink, wrinkly babe and he latched on like it was the most natural and beautiful thing in the world, my heart soared. However, there were circumstances with health issues in the hospital, with both him and I, that called for more nutrition, and more volume, than what I could give him. My instincts as a mother quickly shifted to making sure he got the nutrients he needed to help him thrive. All mom guilt aside, I had to do what was best to feed my baby under the new circumstances we faced.
If you've been following the blog for a while you will know I am a MAJOR advocate for organic living and consuming whole foods with no or minimal artificial ingredients or processing and I knew I wanted to hold fast to the same standards for our new little babe.
Having heard of and having researched their infant snacks and food line, I knew that Plum Organics® was, and is, America's number one organic baby food brand. I was ecstatic to learn they also made formula. Their organic infant formula adds no corn syrup solids, which was a huge plus for me. And since lactose is the most abundant carbohydrate found in breast milk, their carbohydrate source is from cow’s milk lactose only. In addition, the milk they use is from cows not treated with the hormone rBST**. I also love that they respect a woman's desire to breastfeed during those crucial, early days and I adored their understanding outlook on it. It made me feel good, and assured, that what I was giving my baby was a product that was created by parents just like me. As an organic food company, we’ve always admired nature’s complex, built-in, and beautiful way of nourishing baby. We believe breast is best. But we’re also a team of parents that know first hand that life – and parenting – isn’t always perfect. Because life happens, our goal was to design an organic formula we can feel good about feeding our babies and yours. - Plum Organics
In addition to their Grow Well® Infant Formula being organic, it is also non-GMO and contains essential DHA and ARA. They believe that formula is food and should be treated with the same care we'd give ourselves and the rest of our family members when seeking an organic diet and lifestyle.
The formula can be found at Safeway and Albertsons nationwide and for those of you wanting to make the switch, I've included a coupon for you all below.
For more on Plum Organics and their full range of products:
**No significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST-treated cows.
How do you ensure your family reaches their nutritional goals? I'd also love to talk to fellow mamas about your breastfeeding and formula journeys! Leave it in the comments below and let's connect. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't yet made your way through the 4 episodes of Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life, this post will be filled with spoilers. But seriously, how have you not binged it multiple times like the rest of us? To be kind, I waited until January in case anyone needed to catch up. For those of you that don't know me yet, Gilmore Girls is in my top two favorite television shows ever Friends and Gilmore Girls. I have memorbilia. I've been to Stars Hollow and Luke's Diner on the Warner Brothers set and much of my pregnancy was spent in bed binge watching the series. My new years resolution for 2017 even revolves around the famed "Friday Night Dinners" concept. And I did that to my baby for his 5 month photo shoot. :) Good thing he loves me oh so very much. He's almost sitting up alone for longer than 30 seconds, he's rolling EVERYWHERE. He wants our food OH SO MUCH (but we are waiting until months) - naps are better, night sleep is very broken most nights, he talks so much, his laugh is infectious and is the BEST SOUND IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. He loves his toys, being out of the house exploring and playing with his hands and feet. He is just the light of our lives. Our little nugget. On to the recap... First off, I have to say, overall - it was a mix of warm fuzzies and dissapointment. That was until "Fall". Then I felt like the cast was back into their groove and we were back home with them again. To bad it happened so late in the game. As you know, the four-part series visited Lorelai, Rory and the gang nearly 10 years after we watched Rory graduate Yale, turn down Logan's proposal and after Luke and Lorelai FINALLY got back together. When the revival was announced over a year ago, the countdown begun for us to see where our favorite small town folks would pick up. So, onto the good, the bad and the ugly. Ending with the good, as I always love to save the best for last. The Bad:
The Ugly:
The Good - and what redeemed the show:
Final Recap: While I'm glad they did it, it was different than I think a lot of us expected to be. But as stated above, I loved so much of it and really do hope they continue the series after a cliffhanger like that one. I know some see it as the "perfect" way to wrap it up and leave Rory as the "next Lorelai" with her single motherhood-ness and all. But I would really like some of the strings tied up and I'd love to spend as much time in Stars Hollow as we can. Because who doesn't love small town charm, familiar faces and of course, all the Luke's Coffee we can get our hands on? OK, grab a cup of coffee and a danish and let me know what you loved or loathed about the revival? So if you've read Part One and Part Two of Grey's birth story you would have read that I was in labor for 26 hours and pushed for 4 hours. We had a completely medication, intervention free natural labor and birth that was not without it's complications. Within moments of Grey being born I started losing a lot of blood. My uterus had worked so hard, too hard, and I had to be administered many medications to get my bleeding under control. I was also in a great deal of pain, having also torn in multiple places, and skin to skin wasn't what I had always imagined it to be. I had to ask Mr. Charming to take him from my chest. 26 hours of natural labor to feel connected, euphoric, and that endorphin rush was elusive. I felt robbed of that moment, and it took me a long time to accept what had happened. What had gone wrong. I wanted to feel empowered, strong, and I know now that I am. But it messed with my mind a lot, that had I done that, birthed him naturally in the exact way that I did, anywhere but in a hospital, I probably would have died. And that shook me to my core. In the days following his birth I had to have a double blood transfusion because of the blood loss and I will be honest and say fear totally stepped in at that point. But with MUCH prayer, an AMAZING nursing staff, a competent doctor and my beautiful husband and baby to distract me, I got through it. Praise Jesus yet again. And again and again. And in everything, always. Following the traumatic experience I endured, our little one became severely jaundiced and had to be put under lights for 18 hours. They brought him to me to nurse every three hours though, so I got my cuddles in and Mr. Charming walked to check on him often. While he was in the nursery the hospital treated the hubs and I to a filet mignon dinner with sparkling cider to celebrate and we stayed up well into the night talking and having our last date night before we'd go home as a family of three! We stayed in the hospital an extra day to watch both mine and Grey's recovery and then we got to pack up to take our babes home! He is a dream. Our son, our moon and our stars and we now see why God's timing is perfect. If it wasn't at this time, it wouldn't be Grey, and we can't picture our little one being anyone but him. Our mini Mr. Charming. Our little love. Our rainbow. For information on our doula and her company, visit: http://lovebugdoula.com/ I usually don't quote other people's work often in this space, however, as a new mom I've been hearing so much advice from friends, family, doctors and Google on how to take care of this new little nugget of mine. And while most of the advice is solicited (seriously, I'm calling everyone about everything and settling in with my new mom tribe to know I am not alone in this journey of new motherhood) some of it is not. And while I know it's coming from the very best place, it makes it hard to know what's right, what's wrong and what is just one persons experience or opinion. Then I came across this entry below from a book published in 2002 and it spoke to me. Like "I could have written this myself!" kind of speaking to me. It was as if I wrote it based on how I feel about being a "pacifier" to my newborn son and I couldn't have written it better, so I decided to include it below. This is a topic that most women, both mothers and non-mothers have given their opinions on. The Human Pacifier Credit: Lu Hanessian From NEW BEGINNINGS, Vol. 19 No. 1, January-February 2002, p. 14 I'm sitting in the rocker with my son in the blue light of dawn. We've been at this a few weeks now, getting to know each other after nine months of anticipation. I am searching for feedback; a sign that I'm doing right by him, getting closer to figuring out what ails him when he seems so inconsolable. I would love to hear your feedback. New mamas - when our babes feel safest with us, there is nothing wrong in giving them security, love and the closeness that can only be achieved by allowing them to soothe themselves on us. I am completely devoted to being that person for my precious son, especially during this "fourth trimester". My son who arrived into a big, scary world that he has yet to know how to navigate. I am all he knows, I am home to him. And I pray that through his life, I will always be home to him. That in my presence he would feel safe, secure and oh so very loved. Our Little Man is 4 weeks old today, and technically one month old on Monday, since he was born August 5th. And I love him with all of my being. So much so it aches. I can't believe the miracle we prayed so long and hard for is in our arms. And he is wonderful and perfect. Motherhood is definitely rocking my world in amazing, beautiful, wonderful and challenging ways. This adventure is like nothing else I've ever experienced and I am humbled everyday. My ability to love harder, deeper and selflessly also grows with each passing day with this new little love of my life. Sometimes motherhood feels so lonely, at the same time so fitting. It's like he's so brand new to us, but at the same time he feels like he's been our family forever. Mr. Charming's work was beyond amazing and he was able to be at home for a lot of the time during our first two weeks home as I healed and we adjusted. Four weeks in, I am learning how to be on a newborns schedule, and as I spoke of being humbled daily, I have learned that in the days when all I've done is snuggled my son, fed him many times over and bathed only one of us (that would be him, haha) that I can be OK with that in this season of my life. Which I'll admit has been really hard for me. I've felt guilt over not performing well as a wife. I've felt guilt over not blogging and Instagramming. I see so many other new moms in my circles already on outings with their newborns Snapchatting and blog posting and I've had to pray and let go of comparing. I'm not them. And I needn't be. I need to adjust to motherhood at my own pace and possibly when Little Man starts napping again (for the past few days he's found it fun to nap no more than 20 min spurts, which means "sleep when they sleep" doesn't exist for me right now) I can be more productive. But in these moments, instead of being frustrated or feeling guilty, I consistently strive to turn that into feeling blessed that I can relish in more time singing with him, enjoy his snuggles when the only place he will sleep is on my chest and be thankful that he's at an age where he needs me more than anything else in this world. I know those moments are so fleeting. He is growing like crazy, and at his Naturopathic Ped appointment he weighed in at 9 lbs 14 oz! We had to supplement on formula for a while, which I wasn't crazy about, but it was for the health of the babes from him being so jaundice in the hospital and I was just given the green light to start breastfeeding exclusively since he's gaining so well and has grown almost 2 full inches!
He has also hit all the 4 week milestones and has even reached 2 of the 8 week milestones AND a 3 month milestone! Proud of my little over achiever. #NaturalBirthMama. His baby book also arrived today from Land Of Nod (can you say OBSESSED with that store?) and I can't wait to start filling out all of his little moments. I am praying for all of you other new mamas out there. Those of you that are sitting in the darkness, nursing your little humans, praying over them while also praying for sleep. I pray that you will find your tribe of mamas, and that I too, will find mine. And may I continue to look to God and be thankful for this season. This chapter, where we are at right now and kiss my little blessing a million times over. If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen the arrival of our little man! And due to my complicated birth story {coming soon}, it has taken me a little while to get his arrival post posted. After nearly 10 months [and three years] of prayers and anticipation, Little One has arrived. He is our amazing little BOY and we couldn't be more thrilled! Born on August 5th, weighing in at almost 8 lbs, he is a perfect bundle of squishy cheeks, a button nose and so much baby goodness to love. We are so beyond thankful that God chose us to be his mommy and daddy and we are currently adjusting to life as a new little family of three. Continued from Part One... Once in a delivery room we continued in our pattern set by our doula. Three contractions on the ball, three in the bed, three standing (those sucked the most), three on the toilet and walk around, repeat. My room had a shower though and I will tell you, when my labor progressed to 8, 9 centimeters that shower was a GOD SEND. Hot water felt SO good. I must take a moment to speak about my labor in general. I grew up an anxious person. I grew up fearing the day I'd have to give birth. Before marrying Mr. Charming I actually had decided I wouldn't birth children. That the pain looked to great for "someone like me" and I'd just adopt. Then I married my other half. And I wanted, more than anything, to see the beautiful babies we could make together and God put it in our hearts to make a baby together. And while we were on the long journey to finally meeting our rainbow baby, I prayed. I prayed that God would be with me EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. That he would hold me fiercly and tightly and not let go. That I could know His peace in birth the way I knew His peace during our first loss and He didn't let me down. Because He is God. I had affirmations and Bible verses play on a screen during my entire labor, Christian songs I had downloaded that speak of strength, purpose in pain, God's love and of motherhood played in the hospital room, our doula and Mr. Charming spoke love and affirmations to me the entire time and my sister recited bible verses over me in labor. It was pure beauty and I can say, with all the gratefulness in my heart, that I felt God's immense peace THE ENTIRE TIME. From the moment I felt my first contraction until I was holding our son in my arms, I wasn't anxious once. I never felt an ounce of fear. I never felt I couldn't do it. Was it painful? The most painful thing I've ever endured. Was it hard? Yes. Really hard. I said a couple of times "Guys, not sure I'm still cool with this" haha, I even did joke a couple of times. Maybe not toward the very end, haha. But yes, of course it was hard and intense and I wasn't sure I'd want to do it again in those moments. But He got me through it. Using my amazing birth team and being in that room with us the entire time, He showed me a strength I never knew could come from within me. And it was because I called upon HIS strength and not my own, to birth my son into this world. And, it was just beautiful. Fast forward HOURS. I stayed between 7 and 8 centimeters from 3pm until 1am on August 5th. Yep, guys. That was not awesome. But I didn't want intervention and baby's heart rate was PERFECT the entire time (praise Jesus!) so there wasn't a medical need for anything else to move us forward but time itself and so we kept working hard. At around 12 we came to the conclusion, along with my amazing nurse and doctor, that the baby was stuck on my pelvic bone (not a shock to me with how messed up I've been down there from an old dance injury) and that it would take a lot of work for me to birth him naturally at this point. I was determined. I was determined not to have drugs. I was determined not to have surgery. For him. For myself too. But mostly for him. at 1 AM I had reached almost ten centimeters and at 2:27 I was able to start pushing! What I thought was the short light at the end of the tunnel ended up being another lengthy part of the process and it took me four hours to push little man out into the world. At 5 am, and beyond exhausted, I wanted to be done. My doctor actually had a flight to catch and said we could administer Pitocin as my contractions had slowed and become weaker due to my uterus being so worn out. I knew I DIDN'T want drugs and in my exhausted haze I actually told her I'd rather have an episiotomy and the use of the vacuum. My doula and husband suggested of those two options to take the Pitocin. Seeing this exchange my doctor stepped out of the room and cancelled her flight (which I didn't know until much later, she is an angel) and said we were going to do this the natural way. No drugs, no cutting, just hard work. So I pushed. And pushed. And pushed. And at 6:13 our baby Grey was born. Mr. Charming looked at him and cried and I fell deeper in love with my husband in that moment. A big beautiful love. Beyond anything I could have fathomed. And then I held him. Our little miracle. Our wonder of wonders and I just couldn't believe the beauty I saw in him. Unfortunately, due to what my body had to endure, complications arose immediately following his birth, read Part Three to understand why it's taken me many months to finally write our story. And of course to see many more photos of this cutie. It's taken me a little longer to write this story than I planned. And much longer than most bloggers take to write their little one's birth stories. There were reasons, physical and mental, that went into the reasoning behind that. Reasons that will be touched on here. But I feel my heart is ready to share the story about how our little man entered this world early one summer morning. At 35 weeks we met with our doula to come up with a game plan of how the day would go if I was able to go into labor on my own. This was something I was praying HARD for as I didn't want to be induced if little man decided to take his time arriving. My goal was to have a medication-free, intervention-free birth at the local hospital. My OB was great throughout my whole pregnancy and knows my healthy crunchy mama way and supported this plan from the get-go. We had spoken about how when I went into early labor, that I was to eat and shower and sleep if I could. That I could work on the computer and take a walk. Basically a plan to maintain normalcy until active labor started. At that time we were to call her and she would come over and try to keep me at home until we hit transition so we could make our way to the hospital. Our hospital is across the street so I trusted her with this plan. However, God, my body and little man had a different plan to how things would progress. At around 2 am on August 4th I started getting contractions. Hard and three minutes apart. I had been a little uncomfortable the day before, but not with anything I would have thought to call contractions or early labor. Just sme braxton hicks tightening and a little mucous lost but nothing major. I thought for sure he'd be staying in until 41 or 42 weeks based on my symptoms thus far. I was totally wrong. After over an hour of these contractions, still coming hard and 3 minutes apart (to which my contraction app kept saying in ALL CAPS - GO TO THE HOSPITAL - I thought surely I had a ton of time because this must be early labor still, I JUST STARTED. Haha. At around 3:30AM I had Mr. Charming call our doula because things were getting REAL folks. She had him put me on the phone and she told me to try to lay down (ha) and that when things got to the point where I couldn't really talk anymore to get into a warm bath and that she would head over. By 6am it was painful beyond wanting to speak so I got into the tub and by 7:30 am she was by my side, along with my hubs. I met our doula, Ashley Wain of Lovebug Doula, at a local event just two months prior and I firmly believe God led us straight to her. She has such a warm personality, amazing heart and I will say this a million times in our story, we couldn't have done it, I couldn't have gotten through this the way that I did without first and foremost God, her and my husband as a rock star birth team. I labored with her and Mr. Charming until noon or so, when I decided I may want to head to the hospital. The contractions were STILL coming 3 minutes apart, however, it didn't feel much different than it had all night. Ashley had me walk the stairs (that suuuuuuuuucked, but probably helped the baby move down) and I labored in bed, then on the toilet, back in the bathtub, on the yoga ball, being held by both Mr. Charming and Ashley and we kept up this rotation to help progress my labor. Having struggled with pelvic floor issues for years, Ashley thought that that may be a reason to my stalling labor and why I was in a strange pattern so she called a pelvic floor therapist who makes house calls. At 1pm an amazing pelvic floor therapist was at the house to work on my sacrum, pelvic floor and hips to try to open me a little more to encourage baby. While it was super awesome painful, I was excited to see if it would help. I also asked her to guess my dilation and she guessed a 2. A 2. I wanted to cry. I also felt like something telling me to go to the hospital. We did one more round of bed, toilet, yoga ball contractions and then Mr. Charming got me, and our hospital bags, into the car and zoomed us to the hospital by 2:30 PM on August 4th. Ashley wheeled me to labor and delivery while Mr. Charming parked the car. We arrived and got checked-in (not before I snapped at some family members who were there to see someone else having a baby because I was in total pain, STILL sorry by the way.)
Once we got to triage (with me still disappointed that I was only dilated 2) I was checked and it turns out I had gotten to 6 or 7 at home! With me being that far along they sent me straight to a delivery room, as we thought surely the baby would be making an appearance soon! Again. We were so wrong. Haha. Read More and Watch Us Welcome Baby In Part Two Our sweet Baby P, These days are surreal. It seems as if this experience has almost flown by, yet at the same time we waited so very long to get here. So many nights I felt there was something missing in our little family. And while you're daddy makes me feel so complete, we knew three years ago that we wanted you to be a part of all of this with us. And now, as he has lovingly built you a cradle, painted your walls and assembled your furniture - and as I lovingly washed and folded all of your little clothes, shopped for your first necessities and carried you with me for nine months, we get ready to meet you and we can't wait. Deciding not to find out your sex wasn't something we chose at the last moment. We talked about it for years. How this, you, would be one of our lifes greatest surprises, if not the greatest and it was an easy decision to make to wait. As your due date rapidly approaches, more and more I wonder who you are. Are you a mini-me or a mini Mr. Charming? What, and who, do you look like. How much hair will you have? How will it feel when you look at me for the first time? Will you fall as hard in love with us as we already have with you? You are a special miracle, little one. And I hope you feel that and hold on to that for all of your days. You were wished for, prayed for and waited on. We were so blessed by God the day we found out you chose us to be your mom and dad, and we have been blessed every day since. Our little Rainbow Baby. Well hello, little baby. Your eyes have never seen the sun. I want you to know, little baby. That we are the lucky ones..." Making your room was a labor of love and I hope you love your space. I hope you feel comforted here. Loved here. And at home. Knowing ahead of time we wouldn't be finding out your gender, we opted for a palette of soft greys and white. Once we meet you, we have plans to infuse some beautiful colors based on whether you're our little adventurous man or our dainty little girl. The crib we chose, we chose a long time ago. We thought it was beautiful and wanted to build the room around it. I loved the Ash Grey wood and your dad and I have a great story about the work that went into finding your nursery recliner that had to be the right color, style and comfort level for many nights awake with you. The dresser was perfect with plenty of room to store all of your adorable baby things - though it took your dad 5 hours to assemble it because I insisted on getting it at IKEA and it came unassembled in hundreds of pieces. When you get older and the dresser moves to your big kid room, make sure to tell your dad how much you love it. Because he did work really hard on it, haha. Your big, loving and wonderful extended family gifted you with so many beautiful things for your nursery. From the softest blankets and stuffed animals to art work and picture frames that you will see throughout your room. I think some of the little details will come to be my favorite parts. Just as all of your little details. your miraculous little details, will be my favorite parts. We love you and we can't wait to meet you. - Love, Your mom & dad |
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