Summer 2011 Highlights

It has been a fun summer! Last summer we were enjoying a colicky baby and this summer we are enjoying a happy fun loving toddler. So yea, this summer has been much more fun! Plus, we get to go out and do fun things together as a family without worrying about our newborn overheating. This will be more of a bullet point recap to our summer, and I will try to go in order.

Over Memorial Day weekend we had her second 1st bday party in O'Fallon with my family. We had an outdoor pool party at Mimi's and the weather was perfect for it! Here she is enjoying her naturally sweetened sugar free cake! Yummy!

While in O'Fallon I did a lot of bird watching. These robins built a nest at my mom's and I got to watch them all week long. I loved it! It reminded me of when my baby was a newborn and she would root and open her mouth and look like a baby bird. Mamas and babies of any species are so neat to watch after you have your own. They flew off the day after I left.

Baby Girl with her Uncles Memorial Day weekend

My happy girl enjoying some spaghetti! One of her favorite meals!

At Memphis Pizza Cafe with daddy for Father's Day!

Father's Day 2011! That daddy sure does love his little girl!

Playing in her kiddy pool at Grammy's and Papa John's! This girl loves water!

A visit from my good friend Rachelle! So great to see her!

About to go on a date for my birthday. I turned 28 this year. Grammy watched the baby while my husband and I went to one of our favorite Italian restuarants, and of course Muddy's for dessert.

Over 4th of July weekend we went to Marion to see my second family and my bestest friend in the world, Annie Leigh. She has three kiddos that are soooo precious. Our kids had fun playing together and it was great to catch up. Thanks to her parents for hosting all of us! An extra bonus is that Baby Girl had just started walking on July 1st so they all got to see it!

Playing with Papa John. He was gone most of the summer working for FEMA and it is so great to have him home to play with Baby Girl!

Mimi came to visit in July and we went to the zoo. We love the giraffes so of course we went to see them. And this was the first time we had been to the zoo since she had been walking so she and I played in the "geysers" at Teton Trek. She loved it!

We ended the summer with a family trip to Oregon for a family reunion, which will be another post. That about wraps up our summer! It was a great one!



First Birthday Party, Healthy but not so Green

Baby Girl enjoying her naturally sweetened 1st birthday cake. I wanted to make sure we didn't give her sugar on her birthday just because that was the thing to do, because we don't give her sugar any other time. Yes, I am a little bit of a health nut mama. The cake was really yummy though and you can find the recipe here. We did the sugar free applesauce and banana cake. And for icing we did cream cheese and 100% pure maple syrup.

Eating dinner! Turkey dogs, watermelon, and banana! Yum!

Some of the decorations. A 12 month photo frame, her giraffe (for our Safari theme) and some photo albums of her newborn session and her one year session. I took her one year session and they turned out great!

Some of the decor. I wish I would have been thinking more eco-friendly with the decor. Most of it was paper so I suppose that is good, but there was a good bit of plastic too. We did use all of it again a few weeks later and we saved it in case we want to use it for the next girl. Hopefully I can get in tune with my inner craftiness and make my own decorations next time! We got the decorations from First Wishes and it was a Pink Safari theme!

Our baby girl blowing out the candles on the adult cake from Whole Foods. That whole sheet cake was around $35! What a deal and oh so yummy with great ingredients!

Having fun playing with her cake!

Opening up gifts! We are trying to start a tradition of having people donate to a couple of different organizations instead of bringing gifts. This year we chose Life Choices of Memphis and Young Lives (youngLife ministry to teen moms), and a few people chose to donate. We still got a lot of toys that we are very thankful for as well. In the future I think asking people to bring tangible things to donate may go over better. I hope as she gets older she will want to continue doing this. We will do our best to encourage this! Her life is a gift from God and I hope she will desire to bless others with her life as we celebrate her birthday every year.

Her adorable safari outfit that her Mimi made her. That is a hat that goes with it too, but it was a cool overcast May day so we were inside most of the time. Isn't she cute?

Our family of three on baby girl's bday!

Happy Birthday baby girl! We had so much fun celebrating with you! Huge thanks to Papa John and Grammy for letting us use their house! And thanks to all the family and friends that came to help celebrate!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl! You are One Year Old!

Dearest Baby Girl,

I cannot believe you are one year old today. This year has gone by way too fast. Your daddy and I love you so much and cherish every day with you. I would have never thought I would have loved being a mommy as much as I do. I look forward to loving you and playing with you and nursing you and rocking you every day! You are such a joy! It hasn't always been easy though. When you were born you were pretty fussy because of colic and acid reflux and it was really hard to be a mommy during those first few months. But I learned so much about God and how He parents us, and I hope I became a lot more like Jesus during those months. My prayer for you is that you would see God through me in the way I parent you. I hope that I model Jesus to you in the way I treat you and treat others. I know I will never be perfect at this, but this is what I strive for. I pray that you would know God and love God and love others. I pray that you would make disciples of all nations. That is simply what I desire for you and I believe that sums it up. This year has been filled with joys and struggles and I have mostly just figured it out day by day as I have depended on Jesus to guide me. I look forward to many more days and years with you. I love you so much!

Love,
Your Mommy

Photos by www.anabsphotography.com

Memphis Misfit Mama's home birth story. One year ago today...

My firstborn, baby girl's birth story.  I cannot believe it has been a whole year!

 One year ago today (May 13th, 2010) I was in labor with my sweet baby girl, although I didn't know she was a girl at the time. We decided to do a homebirth and you can read all about that decision here.

First of all, I had been praying that God would allow me to labor during the day and that I could labor and birth in the labor tub. And of course, that the baby and I were healthy and well. He granted all my prayers and I give Him all the glory. Only His strength got me through the labor and birth, and it was a delight to depend on Him to guide me through this labor. He is my Creator and created me to birth, along with all women. It was fabulous to labor and birth in our home. I thank God for a great labor and birth and healthy baby girl.  

A day before I went into labor my midwife came to my house for my appointment and to check me. I knew that whether or not I was dilated or effaced had no indication as to when I would go into labor but I was curious, so I was checked for the first time at almost 40 weeks. I don't remember what I was when she checked me but there wasn't much going on and I assumed it would be awhile. But I knew that my body could switch into gear at any moment as well so I just tried to trust the Lord on the timing and do all I could to get labor going. (I had been taking some herbs for weeks, walking every day, among other natural labor inducing activities ;)

My labor may have begun early in the morning on May 13th, as I woke up around 6am with cramping, but I passed it off as Braxton Hicks. But something told me the day was getting close regardless, so I got up early and walked the dogs, hoping to move the baby down and get things going. (I had been trying to walk about 2-3 miles every day) I went to teach ESL class at 8:30am, and around 9 I noticed rhythmic cramping, but still didn't know for sure if it was labor. I continued to teach class through these early contractions now even knowing if I was actually in labor. I arrived home around 10:45am, and at 11am I called my midwife while taking a bath.  The contractions were about 5 or 6 minutes apart but hardly painful at all and only lasting about 30 seconds each. She told me to keep her posted, and I laid down to rest. 

I put on a movie and continued to keep track of contractions, still thinking it may be Braxton Hicks because they weren't very painful at all. Around 1pm they started getting more intense, and I called Ben to tell him to come straight home from work as quickly as possible when he got off at 2pm just in case I was in labor. When he got home, he helped me time contractions and we decided to call the midwife again around 3:30pm because they were about 4-5 minutes apart and getting stronger. She told me to take a shower and see if they stopped...they did not. They got more consistent and stronger. I had now begun to have to use breathing techniques through some of them. I asked Ben to make me some french toast and he called the midwife to tell her to come on over. 

I ate french toast between contractions and started drinking a lot of juice.(one huge advantage to birthing at home) I labored leaning my head on the ottoman for much of the time, while I waited for the pool to fill up. The midwife and doula arrived around 5pm or so.Once the tub was ready, I was in it almost constantly, with bathroom breaks. It was probably around 5:30pm or so when I got in the tub. At this point the contractions were about 3 minutes apart and stayed this way for what seemed like forever, although looking back it all went very quickly. I preferred laboring on hands and knees mostly, or leaning over the tub. 

Ben was with me every step of the way, encouraging me and helping me stay calm, giving me water to drink and keeping my temperature comfortable. It was so sweet to have that time just Ben and I. My midwife and doula hung out in the living room and gave us our time and allowed me to do my thing and trust my body. She would come in from time to time to monitor the baby for a couple of contractions and check on us. From this point, I basically just breathed through contractions and rested in between. The pain was very manageable as long as I kept focused on my breathing and not the pain. Ben would touch my face to give me another feeling to focus on besides contractions. There were only a few contractions that were really painful, but most all were very manageable. There were times during the painful ones where I thought to myself "I can't do this" and I would just try to think about the Lord and the strength He would give me. I am thankful I was birthing at home because during those few really bad contractions I am afraid I would have given in and got meds had I been in a hospital. (although I was probably too far dilated for that at this point) We had worship music playing the entire time and it was so great to hear it and at times to hear others singing along to some of the songs. At one point I heard some worship songs that are some of my favorites and it gave me extra strength to persevere. We had the lights low the whole time and candles going so it was such a relaxing atmosphere. (I should add that my mom had arrived by this point and was also a great source of encouragement)

Around 11:00pm I was beginning to feel the urge to push, and then around 11:30pm I couldn't stop from pushing. I had just gotten out of the tub to try to rest before I began pushing because I was so tired and felt I couldn't do it anymore. The midwife was about to check me when all of a sudden I just HAD to get back in the water because I was in so much pain and felt I had to push. (So I was never once checked during my whole birth. We just trusted my body to do its thing). I had hoped to push and deliver on hands and knees but the baby's heart rate dropped in this position so I had to change to sitting. I pushed in the sitting squatting position the whole time, resting in between in the warmth of the birthing tub, with my sweet husband right behind me encouraging me. At one point, they kept telling me they could see my bag of waters bulging and as soon as it broke the head would be right behind. This was definitely encouraging, but I had no idea how much longer the pushing would take. One of the midwives said, "we might have a baby by midnight" and I thought, "no way". Once the bag broke they began telling me they could see the baby's head and that gave me tons of encouragement. When she was crowing it was really painful. Fortunately she was only there for about one or two pushing contractions, but that was probably the worst pain. They put the mirror down there so I could see, but all I could do was keep my eyes closed and focus through the contractions. Finally (I say finally but it was really after only 45 minutes of pushing) around 12:11am on May 14th I pushed out her head. She had the cord wrapped around her a few times but the midwives quickly took care of that, I gave one final push, and out she came...into the water and into my arms at 12:13am May 14th, 2010. She was wide awake and so calm...just staring intently into my eyes.(This moment was well worth going natural. A non-medicated baby is SO alert and I was as well of course) We waited for the cord to stop pulsing before cutting that and getting out of the water.

Finally someone reminded Ben to look and see what the baby was...and he announced "It's a Girl". I was soooo happy. I had a feeling it was a girl and would have been so surprised to get a boy. She was just beautiful. She nursed  not long after she was born and was able to have lots of skin to skin contact with both Ben and myself. (I delivered the placenta about 45 minutes after she was born but will spare those details) Everyone left the room after she was born so we could have time alone with her to nurse and decide on a name. After a couple of hours they weighed her and all that jazz. She was 6lbs, 13 ounces and 20.25 long.

My mom and brother Jordan were there to see the delivery, as well as Ben's mom. Soon after she was born my grandparents and aunt Dawn arrived. We were so blessed to be able to have as much family there as we wanted. 

The next day my dad, step mom, step brother, and brother Erik came, along with Ben's dad. We had a birthday party for her Friday night. :) 

It is so great to be a mom and to have this precious baby. It is such a sweet experience and it was wonderful to experience this with my precious husband. I highly recommend a home birth to anyone who is low-risk and wants to go natural. It was a beautiful experience that I will cherish forever.

I thank God for the little miracle. I can't believe that just a year ago she was inside of me. What a miracle pregnancy and childbirth are. All designed by our loving Creator.