Emergency Car Kits with Babies

I had a rather well stocked car kit in my car for a number of years.  My dad "found" some milk crates somewhere many years ago, and each of us had one in a car full of automotive fluids and the like.  Before Miss F, I stocked it with food, water, and winter supplies as well.

The car kit ended up in the basement when the stroller took up the entirety of my two door car's small hatchback trunk.  When I bought my new (to me) four door wagon, the kit never made it back in.  Even if I did put it back, we would totally be unprepared for the types of emergencies that accompany a baby.

These are the things that you'll find in our improved car kits:


Shelter
Towels - This one we got from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  At first it was a bit of a joke, but we quickly realized how useful towels are!  The ones we have are extra wide and extra long.  They can be used as a blanket, as a pillow, for absorption, as a sun shade, as a wind break, rolled up to make the car seat level, as a seat cushion, and hundreds of other ways.  We keep three in each car.
Blankets

Clothing
Bathing suits - You never know when they come in handy.  They'll be replaced with snow clothes in the winter.
Onesie
Baby's pants
Baby's sleeper
Hats for all
Shirt for Mama - Miss F uses my shirts rather than dolls to lull herself to sleep.  And it never hurts to have an extra!
Bandanas - Like mini towels, they're infinitely useful.

Food
Trail mix (for adults and older kids)
Puffed kamut (for the baby)
Water bottles

Baby Supplies
Toy car
Diapers
Wipes
Grocery bag
Toilet paper

Automobile Supplies
Motor oil
Antifreeze
Mechanic's gloves
Jack
Tire iron

First Aid Supplies
First aid kit
Chux pad
Latex gloves
Mask

As Miss F gets older (and eventually as we have more children), this list will change.  Is there anything big missing?

Happier Days

Today has been a great day.  It's been the first day since Monday that *B* has been home.  He was amazingly sweet and took Miss F (who gets up at 4 am for the day) and let me sleep from her 6 am feeding to 9 am.  He got to see what it was like to be me for a little while.  He was amazed that it took four hours for him to be able to put her down long enough to use the restroom.

Our nursing problems appear to be fixing themselves.  Well, I don't know if I'd put it that way exactly - both Miss F and I have worked hard at them.  But she seems to be much more content, as am I.  We've even got a very small supply of stored milk in case I need to go somewhere without her or vice versa.

Another amazing find today was a sling for Miss F.  We have a backpack-like carrier, but she hates it.  I couldn't justify spending $50 for a piece of fabric that she may or may not like and be able to fit into for very long.  *B* and I went to the consignment store in town, however, and found a very nice sling for only $15!  While it's pinky and flowery, *B* wore Miss F while we went browsing our local antique shops today with *B*'s sister and her husband.

Tonight was also Miss F's first bath ever:

 While not thrilled, she didn't scream either.  It was a relatively pleasant experience.

 Miss F's froggie towel got her nice and warm and dry.

By the time bathtime was over, Miss F was plum tuckered out!

I love that last picture.  It really does make me smile.  It's the first picture where I really and honestly look at it and see what I've always wanted - a family.

Scariest Realization of Miss F's Life

Yesterday, I had an appointment with a lactation consultant. She came to my house and really helped with the issues we were having.

She was holding Miss F upright and she made a strange discovery: my baby has a HUGE lump between her neck and shoulder. I never saw this thing before! Her chubby chin covers it in most positions. Immediately I thought of permanent disfigurement, or worse, a tumor. We got into the pediatrician an hour later. The lump was non-moveable and very hard.

The pediatrician was really nonchalant. Apparently Miss F broke her collarbone when she was born! She didn't cry when people moved her or pressed on it. But that knot is the bone mending. I've been going over every interaction we had with her trying to make sure that a) I didn't cause it after she was born and b) I didn't unset it by being less than absolutely careful with her. I knew being a parent would be scary and full of bumps and bruises, but I didn't think I had to worry about broken bones this soon!

If you look hard, there's a lump below her neck wrinkle and above the onesie sleeve.

Weight Gain and Weight Loss

When Miss F was born, she weighed 9 lbs 6 oz. When she left the hospital two days later, she weighed 8 lbs 13 oz. Because she was so dehydrated, she weighed only 8 lbs 6 oz at her first check up when she was for days old. But we persevered, and by her second check up at 11 days old, she was 9 lbs 1 oz.
We had her pediatrician appointment yesterday, and at 18 days old, she hadn't gotten back to birth weight. She was 9 lbs 5 oz. She had also spent the previous night and that morning screaming uncontrollably.  She nursed every hour, but wasn't comforted.

At the pediatrician, we tried everything to get that one ounce to get back to birth weight. I nursed her, but she had been cluster feeding so there wasn't much there. Despite having nursed so much, my supply seemed low.  The pediatrician had us give her some formula and she immediately stored screaming, but then she wet a diaper, so the weight gain was negated.

Starting last night, at our pediatrician's recommendation, I've been taking fenugreek pills and drinking mother's milk tea. I have to get in contact with a lactation consultant today.
I really don't want to give Miss F formula, but I'd rather do that than starve her. I'm hopeful that the herbs well help to get me where she needs me to be and that our weight check on Friday will be positive.

*****

Since Miss F's birth, I've lost 31 of the 33 lbs I gained. While I'm very happy that my weight loss from last year is not all lost, I'm definitely in different shape than I was last September. It seems I'll have to learn to exercise, feed, and dress this new body all over again.

I'm not currently dieting because of the effect it could have on my supply, but I am trying to eat healthy foods. It's been difficult this week because my best friend is in town, and we tend to east poorly when she's here. But she leaves Thursday, and it's back to real food at that point. I'm looking forward to getting healthy again and even picking up running if I can manage it.

Montessori Mobiles

For the past week or so, I've been somewhat concerned that we haven't been helping Miss F's development along.  When she wasn't sleeping or nursing, she was staring off at nothing.  We were given, read, and loved "Montessori from the Start" by Paula Polk Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jensen.  In it, they talk about different mobiles to engage the little one.  *B* is pretty good at creating geometric designs, so we created a mobile.  I started to make one piece, and he took over.

 

He even sketched out his designs before drawing them out.  The mobile doesn't look like anything special from our perspective.

But from Miss F's perspective, there are some interesting designs:

It's amazing how much more engaged Miss F is since we put the mobile up.  She stares at the patterns pretty intently, though for relatively short periods of time.  As she grows, I'll make more mobiles according to her development.

I've been reading more blogs about Montessori methods, namely Chasing Cheerios and How We Montessori.  In some respects, I really like them because they demonstrate activities for young children.  In another way, it's difficult because Miss F is so young that there's not much I can do with her.  I feel like I'm neglecting her, though I spend probably a few hours a day with her in my arms without distractions.  But for now, I think that successful nursing, cloth diapering with minimal leakage, sleeping up to four hours at a shot, and what little I can do to keep her occupied will be sufficient for me.

Strange Dreams in Our First Week

We came home from the hospital on a Saturday, and my mom stayed over Saturday and Sunday nights. Since then, I've been having strange dreams or feelings or something.
The first couple of days' dreams were that Miss F was in bed with us instead of her cradle next to the bed. I frantically pat around the bed looking for her and wake *B* up asking if he put her back.
The last two nights I've dreamed that someone else was watching her, had brought her to me to nurse, and I didn't know where she was after I finished. It was kind of like someone passed her off to me, but I didn't know if they took her back before leaving. When I wake up and check the cradle, there she is.
I don't know how much more of these I can handle. They break up the very small chunks of sleep that I do manage to get. I'm thinking that as week two goes on, these things will fade.
Miss F at one week old:

A Rough Start

Miss F is now five days old, and we came home from the hospital Saturday afternoon.  While we had been charting feedings and wet and messy diapers, we hadn't looked at the trends.  On Saturday afternoon, Miss F became a bit fussy and it was a struggle to nurse her. 

By Sunday, she refused to nurse at all.  When I'd try to nurse her, she'd violently shake her head from side to side.  She wouldn't even try to latch.  She'd scream constantly until she was absolutely hoarse and raspy. Nothing satisfied her, not even the pacifier.  I just bawled because my milk was in and I couldn't feed or soothe my baby.  I couldn't help her at all.  I knew I had milk, but when I held her up, she'd just scream at the breast.  It was one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever had.  To get something into her, I pumped and *B* spoon fed her out of a medicine spoon. 


We ended up taking her to the pediatrician Monday evening.  It turns out she was severely dehydrated (shocker).  She had lost a whole pound since birth.  When he asked, we said she hadn't had a messy diaper in two days.  After going over our records, it turned out it had been three days, and she was only four days old. 

 

We spoon fed her a whole ounce of breast milk (which felt like a ton for such a little girl).  Within the hour, she had a huge blowout of a diaper, and she's had two more since.  She's been demanding to nurse about every two hours now.  She's better than she was, going through her functions mostly as normal, and she's not fussing anymore.  While we started out on a rocky footing, she seems pretty content now.

 Four days old on daddy's lap

Hanging out in her swing at five days old

It's a...

Girl! At 42 weeks and 1 day, I was induced at 8 am. By 1:15 pm I was pushing, and at 2:15 pm she was here!  She was 9 pounds and 6 ounces and 21 inches long. I was able to have her as naturally as possible, with only pitocin. My mom and *B* were by my side the whole time. *B* was an amazing coach.

When we went in for an ultrasound on Tuesday, I could have sworn I accidentally saw boy parts. I was saying that I was 85% sure it was a boy. What a surprise!

Maybe I'm biased, but I think we picked out a gorgeous name for her. Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure yet if I'm comfortable sharing it online. So for the time being, unless I decide otherwise, I think I'll refer to her as Miss F.

We are so blessed that mom, dad, and baby are all happy and healthy! Thank you so much for the prayers and well wishes!!

42 Weeks

Somehow I knew I wasn't going to have this baby on time.  Today, I am 42 weeks pregnant. 

I've been doing non-stress tests (NSTs) twice a week for the last two weeks.  The baby's done well through all of the NSTs.  I've had to have two ultrasounds - one to determine fluid levels and one to determine size.  As of yesterday, this baby was measuring a whopping 10 lbs 6 oz.  And with the second ultrasound, the fluid level almost cut by half.

My doctor in general is pretty easy going about letting the body go through its natural process.  I have had no real contractions at all.  I had about two hours of non-painful, timeable contractions on Saturday, but as soon as I went to sleep, they disappeared.  Given how far along I am, how big the baby is, and the fluid levels, it's just time for this one to come, ready or not.

So tomorrow I'm being induced.  It really isn't what I was hoping for, but I'm still planning on going pain-med free.  We'll see what happens once I actually get to feel a real contraction though.

Thoughts and prayers would be appreciated.

Anticipation

As of tomorrow, I'll be 41 weeks.  It really does feel like this is the longest month of my life.  We had a false alarm very, very early this morning.  I let *B* sleep, but my contractions were strong enough to wake me up.  They stopped right after *B* called out of work for the day, and I ended up sleeping in until 9 am.  I went in for a non-stress test, and throughout the test I was having moderate, irregular contractions.  I'm hoping that this means my body's gearing up for the real deal.  Hurry up, baby, we want to meet you!

First Day on a New Job

Yesterday was my last day as a teacher.  As far as last days go, it was fairly stressful.  A class that I had a very difficult year with in terms of parent interaction was still hanging on.  It was great to teach them because it helped me and them grow. 

But since they're high achievers, their parents would call my boss (or more often my boss's boss) if they had concerns rather than coming to me.  I thought it would be over since it was the end of the school year.  It turns out they were upset about grades they hadn't even seen yet.  So I spent my last few hours, not with coworkers enjoying our time and the end of year brunch, but putting out fires so that I might be able to come back in good standing to teach in the future.

But today is a new day, and it's my first day on a new job. 

I am a home maker, a (soon to be) stay at home mom, a domestic engineer.  It actually feels rather empowering to have the time and resources to dedicate to ensuring my family's health and happiness.  I'm excited that *B* and I won't "need" to eat out as often because we're both exhausted from work/school/second jobs.  I'm excited to be able to plan healthy meals, teach my child and watch the child grow, and to keep my home (somewhat) presentable.

I know that I really have no idea how the next few months will go, but I'm confident that I can pick it up quickly.  But for now, I'm off to start my new job, with a thorough organizing of my workspace as first up on my list.

I'm Ready, But the Baby's Not

As of today I'm 38 weeks and 3 days.  Our nursery is ready, and diapers are prepped.  Our hospital bags are packed and in the car, and car seats are installed.  I've finished my teaching duties, and I'll be out of work as of Wednesday. 

I know that I've still got a week and a half to go, but I'm ready now!  I'm a little nervous about the whole labor process, but I'm itching to get it going.  At every twitch, twinge, and cramp, I wonder is this it?  But it obviously hasn't been.  This is like waiting for Christmas times a million - and I can't even count down for it!

Nursery

I haven't been posting because my camera is practically dead.  I take pictures with my phone, but for some reason the app won't publish my posts correctly.  I'm really hoping this issue resolves itself soon!  But I've gotten this post to go through somehow, so I can show you all pictures of our (soon to be occupied!) nursery :o)

 

 I love this crib.  It converts into a toddler bed, then into a twin bed when they're older.  After we bought it, I read about how it's better for the baby to be on a mattress on the floor, but we're going to use it anyway.

 

 Where we live, crib bumpers are banned.  But we got mesh bumpers so that there's no risk of limbs getting caught.

 

My best friend ever helped me decorate the nursery with pictures of frogs.  I wanted classic, gentleman frogs.  What we came up with was perfect:

The first one on the left here is perfect because it goes so well with the lamp in the room.

I have a thing for frogs in top hats, what can I say?  It works for a boy or a girl.

The band of frogs on the right are my favorite in this grouping.

We repurposed a bookshelf (where you can see that frog lamp).  My BFF and I painted a dresser that *B* had as a kid.

On the other side, we've got a night light, the monitor, and some houseplants.  As we get books for the baby, they'll go on this shelf.

A friend of mine gave us her old glider.  I have a feeling I'll be sleeping in it very soon.  The lights on the wall are fluorescent.  At first it bothered me that they took awhile to get bright, but now I think that'll be a good way to get my eyes to adjust to the light.

These are our cloth diaper inserts.  We registered for FuzziBunz.  My mom, for our baby shower, made diaper cakes.  She ordered WAY too many inserts - 105 to be exact!  She thought they were like gDiapers where you could just pull the inserts out and leave the diaper on the baby.  I haven't figured out what we're going to do with them.  For now, I'm just going to keep them in the closet until we decide what to do.

Scary Day

Okay, so it's been a while since I posted.  Life has been insanely busy. 

On Saturday, *B* and I went to a flower mart that a neighboring town hosts every year.  There's always good food, so we had lunch while we were there.  *B* and I split a virgin pina colada. 

I'm usually pretty picky about what kind of frozen drinks I have.  Slurpees (and pretty much all drinks that come out of the rotating vats like Slurpees) have really messed with my heart in the past.  In college, I went to the ER because I had palpitations for 6 hours after drinking a small diet Pepsi Slurpee.  But I heard the guy using a blender, so I figured he had a bottle of mixer (which has never hurt me in the past).  It occurred to me later when I thought back to the drink stand that the fluid in the drink did come out of one of those vats.

At the end of the drink, my heart went haywire.  It was so erratic that I couldn't get a pulse to read on my heart rate app.  The beats were fast, slow, big, small, and generally crazy.  Of course, then I started freaking out because I was afraid of hurting the baby.  So my pulse and blood pressure increased. 

My heart rate was up for almost an hour and a half.  Thankfully, it came down.  If it had been up for 20 more minutes, I would have had to go to the hospital.  I don't even want to think of what they'd do to me there.  I would imagine they'd recommend induction (which I emphatically don't want).  I've tried doing research over the years about this issue (palpitations and Slurpees) but I haven't found any medical data, only anecdotal evidence.  When I was in college, the cardiologist just shrugged and said "so don't drink them anymore." 

It really worries me that we feed our children these drinks when they can have such drastic health implications.  Any thoughts on what the specific trigger mechanism is for this reaction?

We Have Cloth Diapers!

I'm really paranoid that the baby will come and we don't have anything for him/her.  We figure that if the baby comes soon, we'll need diapers, something to wear, a place for the baby to sleep, and a car seat.  We have three little outfits and a crib without a mattress, and that's it.  So *B* and I bought a pack of prefolds tonight. 

 

A friend let me borrow some newborn covers, so we're started with cloth diapers!  They're in the washer as I type :o)

Preparing for a New Career

This pregnancy is flying by faster than I had expected.  I'm already in my third trimester with a little less than three months to go.  I've finally started showing in the last month or so.  I've always been heavy, so for a long time I didn't look that much different from what I was last year.

I've found that I am more domestic than I used to be.  I've fallen back into the routine of making our bed every morning - flat sheet and all - and I love the way it looks and how I feel when I'm done.  In the mornings, I'll find myself a little behind schedule because I'm washing dishes or putting away laundry.

I'm trying to make foods that we like from scratch.  I just tried whole wheat bagels yesterday from a recipe at Home Joys.  They were okay given that I was a little lax on the timing of things (they were a little chewy for my taste), but I am going to try them again - cinnamon raisin next time.  I made stock and wheat bread without hesitation or fuss, as if it were a normal Saturday afternoon activity.  Come to think of it, it is becoming a normal Saturday activity.

I've started an attempt to make liquid laundry soap.  I can only say started because I grated up the soap and got my borax and washing soda together when I realized that I don't have containers to store it in yet.  As soon as my current laundry soap is used up (any day now), I'll be able to finish off that project.  In that vein, I'm researching cleaning methods, tools to maintain my home, and making lists of things that I'd like to do while I'm home next year.

Where I was unimpressed with our garden last year, I'm taking much more care to get our plants started on time and manage our little sprouts.  Rather than feeling guilty about thinning seedlings, I'm pulling them out without much thought because I know we'll get a better yield when the strong ones have room to thrive.

I am scrutinizing our budget and we are watching where every cent goes.  By the middle of April, if all goes as planned, we will have saved all the money we need to live on next year while I'm at home.  That means that our goal is met in half the time we needed, so I might be able to stay home two years if we can save at the same rate.  I do have a small part time job as well that will help us stretch that money out.

With all of these things that I've been doing over the past few weeks, it hit me just this morning that I'm subconsciously preparing for my new career.  I'm falling into a routine and learning how to take care of my home and family.

Working Out While Pregnant

I know that one of the best ways to have a good labor is to be in shape.  While I'm not quite in the shape I wanted to be when I got pregnant, I'm making the best of it.  I didn't work out at all in the first trimester, but starting January 1, I've been at it at least three times a week. 

In the mornings,  I use the Walk Away the Pounds videos:

 The first DVD I got when I was in college almost 10 years ago.  They still work just fine, but I've seen each version (1 mile, 2 miles, and 3 miles) a million times.

The second I bought last week because I was so bored with the first.  The videos weren't quite fulfilling all of my needs, so I went on a search through netflix and found Crunch's Yoga Mama video:

Right now, my exercise plan is 2-3 miles in the morning before work, and yoga in the evenings when *B* is at school.  While I may not be the sleekest pregnant woman out there, I'm determined to have enough stamina to get through my child's birth.  I just hope that it's not too little, too late.