38 weeks OUT!

Ian has been out in the world for as long as he was in my belly! I don't refer to his age in weeks. I stopped that a long time ago :) He's 8 1/2 months old.

How.did.this.happen?! I blinked and he was this big.

We haven't been to the pediatrician since 6 months, so I'm not 'official' on his stats, but he weighs about 22 pounds and is 27.5 inches long. He's short and chubby :D 

He's an expert crawler and is getting fast! He pulls up to everything and started cruising last night! 

He's finally outgrowing his hate for his car seat. Boy, is that a relief.

He is still nursing like a champ and shows no signs of stopping. I won't cut him off before he's ready anyway. 

He occasionally enjoys solid food. There's nothing he's tried and not liked. He prefers finger foods to being spoon fed. He's working really hard to master his pincer grasp. It's cute to watch him concentrate on picking up little pieces of food! 

He wakes up at least once or twice a night. I honestly can't tell you how often or how many times for sure because I don't wake up and check the clock. I pull him to me from his bed extender and latch him on and we go back to sleep. I get sleep. He get's sleep. It works for us.

He's a very, very sweet baby. He's silly and playful and serious and smart. He's calm as can be, just like Stella was.

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I still have about 10 pounds of baby weight left to lose. I'm going to blame breastfeeding for making me hang onto the extra fat for baby. I haven't really been doing anything to promote weight loss and I'm not super worried about it. I would really like for all my clothes to fit be again soon, though.

Things have been rough emotionally for me lately. I'm involved in a lot right now: kids, daycare kid, household stuff, school, potentially getting a job. I think I have off a little more than I can chew right now. It'll get better once everything all the scheduling gets smoothed out. 

DIY Babywearing Coat Zip In Insert

This is my very first tutorial for anything so bear with me through it! 

What you need:
- Sewing machine
- 1/2 yard fleece
- 24" jacket zipper (make sure it fits the coat you'll be using)
- 9" unstretched strip 1/4" braided elastic (for head opening)
- 10" unstretched strip 1/4" braided elastic (for bottom)
- Safety pin or elastic threader














Steps:

 Cut fleece with right sides together to your 1/2 yard is 25" long

Pin the short sides and sew across leaving 1/2" unsewn at the beginning and end of each row. Use about a 1/2" seam allowance

Long sides remain open at this point.

Turn work right side out.

Top stitch 1/2" from the seam still leaving 1/2" unsewn at the beginning and end of each row.

Thread elastic now. Pin in place to hold.

Sew in place where you've pinned.

Pin both zippers in place starting at the bottom and working up. 

Fold any extra material under and tuck in at the top once you get there.

. 

Attach zipper foot to your machine and sew zipper on. This can be done without a zipper foot. Just set your needle position all the way to one side

When you get to the end of the 'female' zipper raise your presser foot and push the zipper back so it's out of the way to continue sewing to the end. Back stitch several times at the beginning and ends of the zippers.

 Zip it in and wear all the babies!!

6 weeks old

How is my sweet, precious boy 6 weeks old already?! I'll never stop feeling like he was just born yesterday, but been here a million years.

He's still a very calm baby. He doesn't like to be put down much, and luckily that doesn't bother me. He stays awake quite a bit during the day and he's an alert little fella. His night of sleep starts around 7pm and he wakes up every 3-4 hours until 7 ish. 

He's still nursing incredibly well. It shows in his growth! He weighs 11 pounds and is 22 inches long (20 inches at birth ended up being accurate). He's currently going through another growth spurt and nursing non stop during the day! He's in his 0-3 month clothes and, after the last few come out of the dryer, I'm packing up his newborn cloth diapers ::insert sad face here:: Stella was in newborn diapers until she was almost 12 weeks old (she also wasn't 11 pounds until she was closer to 2.5 months). 

Stella absolutely loves brother. She's an excellent helper and she loves holding him.

Here are some pictures now to catch up :D

Little guy is a happy belly sleeper

Ian with great grandma Sherry & grandpa Ron

3 weeks old in the first onesie he ever wore

First ride on mama's back

Sleepy, smiley boy

Enjoying some naked time outdoors

His perfect little hair swirl

The one picture he's even remotely looked like me! 

1 week old

A week! How has is already been a week since this little guy entered the world? It seems like just yesterday, but a million years ago at the same time. I feel like I've known him all my life. We informally celebrated by having lunch with grandma Shelley yesterday. It was a very lovely day.

2am with a belly full of milk and a dry butt. 

He is an excellent baby. He's very calm and relaxed and everything we could ever ask for. He rarely cries. I know he's hungry because he'll fuss a bit. He doesn't care for having his diaper changed. He nurses about every 2 hours. His latch is beautiful. Night time is going well since he's not a crier. He wakes up between every 2 and 4 hours, nurses, gets a clean diaper and is fine. Sometimes he'll be awake still, but is content to just snuggle me while I go back to sleep. 

I feel like I have so much to say about him, but I can't manage to verbalize any of it. A new baby, a new addition to a family is such a beautiful thing: a gift, a journey, a blessing. I can't begin to describe the feeling of one's own heart growing to make more room for more love for a new person, but it's miraculous. I didn't know how it would be possible to love another baby the way I love Stella. I feared they'd have to share love, but I was absolutely wrong. 

Cloth diapering is going well (Erik's even been helping wash them!). He fits in all his newborn diapers and probably will for quite some time. Sweet pea has the chickenest of chicken legs!

On Monday, Ian had his first pediatrician appointment. He's perfect in every way (of course, I didn't need anyone to tell me that). He had a touch of jaundice and we did a day on the bili blanket. That was no big deal. His numbers were: 19 on Monday, 17 on Tuesday (after the day on the blanket), and 15.4 on Wednesday. He weighed 6 pounds 4 ounces (a very, very acceptable weight loss) and we discovered that he's much shorter than we had though. Sheryl measured him at 20", but at the doctor he was only 18 3/4". He's a shorty like sister. His head circumference is 12.25". He'll go back next Thursday for his 2 week check up. 

Monday, he also visited the chiropractor for the first time. She mentioned that he just had a slight rotation of his spine and got him straightened out. He slept right through his adjustment. Why do babies need chiropractic care?

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1 week post partum

153 pounds (-12)

(my memory card in my camera took a crap the day he was born, so selfies for the blog it'll have to be ::ugh::)

It's funny to look at pictures of me from the past week because from birth to now I get progressively more tired looking. We've been going to be kind of late and waking up with Stella around 7. The sleep I get is pretty good though. 

I think I can finally talk about cravings again. Since Ian's been born I've craved grilled cheese and apples, New York style cheesecake, Olive Garden and plums. I eat just about in the same schedule he does (every 2-3 hours). There simply is no hunger like that of a nursing mom. I try to drink 150 ounces of water a day. 

At my midwife appointment on Tuesday Sheryl said everything looks and feels excellent. My uterus is shrinking back down nicely and my vulva/bottom area looks wonderful. She commented that if another medical professional happened to look down there and I told them I had a baby a week ago they wouldn't believe me. My bleeding is incredibly light. Not even heavy enough to compare to a regular period. 

I felt like my regular self right away after birth, but if I over did it doing anything I could definitely tell. A week later I'm easing back into doing a little more and I still get tired. Erik was an amazing help the first 5 days or so while I was on orders not to do anything. He did everything without being asked and would tell me to go sit down if he caught me up doing anything. As I've jumped back in his help has diminished a little. I definitely still need help and will probably have to nudge him along with gentle reminders from now on. 

My belly is mostly down. It's just kind of wobbly and that's alright with me for now. I'm not worried about it at all. I wondered if I'd notice any new stretch marks after he came out, but I don't seem to have any. All that's there is what I got from Stella. 

I'll try to write my birth story soon.

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy

Ian David

6 pounds 9 ounces 

18.75 inches long 

August 6, 2014 at 10:36 am

He is perfect in every way and we are so incredibly in love it is ridiculous. He's a very calm baby and an excellent nurser already :)

He arrived after a very short, rather loud, but calm labor in our bed at home into my hands. 

38 weeks

38 weeks

165 pounds

I'm sure glad I didn't gain a bunch of weight in the beginning of this pregnancy because I'd be seriously screwed right now! I think what I'm adding now might just be water weight  

I'm finally starting to notice my belly looking different from when I was pregnant with Stella in the last few weeks.

I'm starting to feel done. I'm not quite so full of energy anymore. I have plenty to do what I need to do, but not much extra. 

I woke up no fewer than 6 times to pee last night. I think I woke up about every 2 or 3 hours. (Maybe my body's way of getting ready for feeding baby?)That sucked. With all the layers on our bed it's been pretty uncomfortable. I've been sleeping alright other than waking up to pee. 

I'm still not having much swelling. If we're outside for too long when it's hot I notice it increase, but when I get back in air conditioning it goes down. 

Baby is definitely getting more cramped. It's starting to become a bit painful when he changes positions and gets his butt up in my ribs. Last night we were sitting in bed and he got so squished up in there I was having a hard time taking a breath.

Thursday after I posted about baby dropping, I got curious. I decided to see if I could check my cervix myself. I was certain it would still be posterior and I wouldn't find it. Much to my surprise, it was right there plain as day. I felt and a finger definitely fit in. It was very short (maybe 1 cm deep) and soft. Then, I felt something solid! It was baby's head! Holy crap, there really is a baby in there and he really is going to come out! I don't know how many finger widths are how many centimeters, so I can't even begin to determine that. I'm dying to hear Sheryl's official thoughts on it today. 

I've been having cramping here and there, off and on all weekend. It never gets regular and only happens once or twice throughout the day. I've definitely been trying to encourage this. I've sat on the birth ball a lot. I had to beg Erik to have sex with me Sunday night. Yesterday I was kind of nauseated all day. I was fed and hydrated, but I still just felt like I gagged whenever I ate or thought about food. I had some diarrhea in the morning   I'm never around people so I doubted it was the start of a bug. Things are definitely beginning to happen. I guess the less I have to do when the actual time comes, the better. 

My appointment wasn't until 1 o'clock today! Why did I make it for so late?! It was a pretty uneventful appointment. Sheryl doesn't think I'll make it to 40 weeks. I don't either. I don't think I'll make it to 39. Last week she mentioned stripping my membranes this week, but she didn't mention it today and I didn't bring it up. That's alright. He'll be here soon enough. 

• Blood pressure was good
• Baby is head down
• Dilation: 3
• Effacement: 80%
• Station: -2 

Did he drop??

I rested my hands on my belly and noticed a bigger slope than I'm used to. I'd say he's settling right on in there. I still don't feel any pressure like I hear people talk about. I never really felt the "bowling ball between my legs" feeling with Stella either. I think I made it 4-6 days after dropping before labor started. 

37 weeks vs. 37 weeks 2 days

Maybe he dropped a bit. Maybe he didn't. Maybe he's just snuggling down low today. 

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 Here is when I dropped with Stella. It happened no more than a day before I took my 38 week picture. 

She was born at 38w4d.

((Technically, my dates were always 4 days ahead and she was actually born at 38 weeks exactly. So I dropped between 37w2d and 37w3d))

There is no logical, truth telling sense to any of that. I know every pregnancy is different and each babe comes whenever he's ready. I can ramble to keep my mind occupied, though! Just keep cooking, baby boy :)