"Mom" and "Baby" Items I Recommend

These aren't anything mind blowing, but for those following after me, I thought I should share these little tidbits to all the moms and potential moms around:

1-The nursing pads from the hospital are far superior to anything you can find in the store. However, the hospital doesn't sell them. Boo! To save anyone the trouble of looking through trial and error, just go straight to the NUK nursing pads by GERBER. They are pretty good. Shun the nursing pads made by playtex. They feel like sandpaper and don't hold a teaspoon of liquid.

2- Never buy Pamper's diapers. They are absolutely fabulous, but absolutely too expensive for a dead-broke couple with a new baby! Once you have used them, everything else will just seem terrible. Start out with the cheap diapers from Costco that you have to buy in pallets. That is what you can afford and will end up buying anyway.

3-Wait for Costco to send out a coupon for their diapers and wipes and then load up. Makes a cheap item even cheaper!

4-Purchase a fabulous diaper wipes holder. We have one from Huggies that I LOVE:) It has a button pop-open top and then a soft plastic opening that seperates the wipes as you pull them up. You don't have to use two hands to get a handle on your wipes.

5-If trying to get your baby to take a bottle, try the "Breastflow" bottle from The First Years. They have these cool bottle nipples that mimic a real breast. Stratton took one without questioning it and didn't have any trouble switching back to me. It is nice to know that if I can't be there, someone else can feed him.

6-Night time nursing bras are wwwaaayyy too expensive for what you are really getting. Just buy a really soft sports bra in a couple sizes up. Much cheaper and they will do the same job.

7-To me, Baby Magic lotion is the smell of babies. I don't really like Johnson's or other brands because they just don't smell like a sweet little baby.

8-Desitin "Creamy" doesn't work on diaper rash. I don't know why, but you have to use the Original Paste. Better yet, don't buy Desitin. Buy Boudreoux's Butt Paste. It smells better, is easier to use, and I think it works much faster.

9-Infant Gas Drops. Love them!

10-Anything that makes having a baby and being a mom a little easier. Being a mom is tough. Don't be scared or feel guilty using the things that might make your stress level come down a tiny bit. Hate breastfeeding and resent your child every time it cries to be fed? Maybe you should just switch to formula. Cracked nipples? Use a nipple shield until they heal. Stressed out and depressed? Get a prozac prescription. Baby won't stop crying? Shake it. JUST KIDDING! Oh my word....I shouldn't even write that. So bad......

But seriously, don't let others guilt you into doing something that you don't want to do. It's your baby, you are the mom, and ultimately you should make the decisions.

And really, when they are all grown up, the other kids aren't going to know if your baby used a nipple shield, pacifier, or was (GASP) fed a formula bottle instead of a breast.

Halloween Horrors!

Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday! As such, I decided that I should really decorate to the fullest extent of my abilites and checkbook:) Now I don't really have any natural crafty ability, so I have to turn to the internet and magazines for inspiration.....and this pretty much means copying everything that Martha Stewart has ever done! Yay!

So this is what I found, liked, and tried to duplicate:

This one failed miserably.
I spent 3 days layering paper-mache onto a carefully sculpted balloon. After drying fully, per the directions, I pop the balloon and watch as my creation shrivels up into a unrecognizeable lump. LAME!!! I am now looking for a different way to make my lighted skull....


I took Christmas flowers and spray painted them black and gray. They look pretty creepy and awesome.


I've been collecting bottles for the last year and printed out creepy labels for them. These in the picture are specifically for drink bottles, but my labels are for things like petrified butterflies and snake serum.


I used an old Heber J. Grant book to make my witch's spell book. Ryan thought that it might be a small sin to use a church book like that. Ha ha!


Made a few window covering like this....

Stole a mirror from a lady's cart at the D.I. and then painted it black. Still waiting for Ryan to bring me a few screws from work so I can hang it in our front room.

And finally I printed off Halloween related words or pictures ("Dracula," "13," "The Witching Hour," etc) and put them up in all our personal picture frames.

I'm so excited to be almost ready for Halloween! There are still a few things that I want to do, but I feel pretty good about what I have accomplished so far!

Now I just need ya'll to stop by to visit and see all my decorations!

People Like Screaming Kids, Right?

Stratton is now 4 weeks old! Can you believe it? Time is flying....

Few little updates about him:
He is doing really good with his weight gain. I was worried that the nipple shields I have to use would hinder his ability to eat and grow, but I weighed him today and he is sitting at exactly 11 lbs so he is doing just fine in the chunky department. We have also decided that since he is growing so good that I probably don't have to get up 3 times each night to feed him. We are going to try and cut back to once a night and see how that goes. Any tips?
He cries a lot during the day. Our usual day schedule is something like this:
Stratton cries, so I feed him.
Stratton settles down during feeding.
After eating, he starts to cry because he needs to burp. I can't EVER get him to burp. It doesn't matter what position we are in, he will not burp!
We change his diaper while he is crying and then rock him for a little while to get him to stop crying.
He falls asleep and I put him down while I go do a few household chores.
Sleeps for about 20 minutes and starts to cry again.
He cries more because he has gas/has to poop.
And then we start all over again. It really makes the days really long! I also feel bad because I don't get anything done during the day. I'm really accomplishing something to make the bed and maybe do the dishes or something. It is terrible. I feel like such a slacker.
However, he is really good at night. After eating he goes right back to sleep. I hope I haven't just jinxed myself.
Anyway......

He really likes riding in the car and his stroller. It must be the vibrations and such. On one hand I am grateful that he is good in his carseat, but on the other hand I hope I'm not creating one of those kids that won't go to sleep unless they are moving. Yikes!
We have a photo session scheduled for Monday. I decided to cut his hair before we had his pictures taken. I'm glad I did. It was getting pretty long and nasty. Especially in the back.
Now a few updates about mommy:

I'm still healing and that isn't any fun. I really want to get back to exercising but that isn't going to be happening for a while still.

Speaking of exercising.....I really need to finish losing the baby weight. I do want to get back to my pre-pregnancy size for vanity reasons, but I also need to lose it for practical reasons too! I don't have any clothes to wear! All of my maternity clothes were summer items like capris and layering tanks with short sleeve shirts. I can still wear these clothes, but I don't want to freeze to death! I literally have 1 pair of pants that I can wear, and they aren't even jeans so people are going to notice when I wear the same pair of green cargo pants everyday. And I am too cheap to buy interim clothing.

I got all the way through pregnancy without any stretchmarks on my stomach! Yay! I had a little tiny one show up about a week ago, but it is really light and about 3/4 of an inch long, so I'm thinking when it fades I won't even be able to remember where it is.
However, my boobs didn't get so lucky. They have a ton of stretchmarks now. I'm not too worried. I mostly just didn't want them on my stomach:)

My feet have finally returned to their normal size! I am still thinking that I should get new heels. Just for fun:)

I think most days I'm doing really well with all the adjustments. However, every once in awhile things get a little overwhelming. Yesterday was one of those days.
I'd been up with him a few different times at night. I don't usually mind, but when he wakes me up and then only eats for about 2 seconds before falling asleep, I get really frustrated. This frustration will grow exponetially if he poops or pee's on me while I am changing his diaper. He pooped on me once and pee'd on my twice. I was ticked. During the day things didn't get much better. It pretty much was non-stop screaming and eating all day. I am in a ton of pain with feedings lately. We are weaning him off the nipple shields and he has the tendency to jerk back after he has latched on and pretty much rip my nipple right off my body. Oh! Did I mention that becoming a mother has given me the tendency to scream profanities throughout the day? Feeding time is pretty bad. Moving on with the story.....
So we were doing this all day. I hadn't gotten anything done and I was tired and sore from holding him and feeding him. 3 o'clock rolled around and I was calling my mother. I let her know that I was ready for Stratton to go to Grandma's house without me. She came and picked him up at 5 o'clock. I got feeling pretty bad around 5:30. Typical.
And then we did it all over again today. Only it was his Aunt Katie that saved me today. I know that I am going to have to deal with it and I'm not doing myself any favors by passing him off onto family members when we have a rough day, but it seemed like the thing to do these past couple days. I will do better tomorrow.

That is pretty much it. I'm needing to go to bed now. Ryan is gone to a Scout camp and I am thinking that Stratton and I will have a little sleep over in Mom and Dad's bed tonight. How do you guys feel about co-sleeping with your babies (we don't have a bassinet. We just went straight to a crib....)? Any thoughts pro? Any thoughts con?

And here's to hoping that he only wakes up once tonight!

Nothing According to Plan

I kind of had a birth plan.....kind of. I remember the nurse at our birthing class told us that she literally cringes every time a pregnant mom comes into the hospital in labor and hands her a birth plan. She said it is an automatic jinx on their labor and delivery. Now I am not a particularly suspicious person, but I decided that I would not write down my birth plan. I was approaching it with the thought that I would have "birthing wishes" and just hoped that they would come true. Boy, was I wrong.

This was how I envisioned my labor and delivery going down:

I wake up on the weekend and around mid-morning, I start having contractions. I wait around getting things done until it is time to go to the hospital. I am showered, well fed, and have my hair and makeup done when arriving. My contractions are effective, but not overly painful. I can deal. After approximately 8 hours of labor and no epidural, I am completely dilated and ready to push. Fast forward 20 minutes and we have our beautiful baby boy via a natural birth.

The end.

This is how it really went:

On Thursday the 15th, Ryan and I came home from my parents house. We had decided to have a little party get-together with his brother and his wife on Saturday night to watch the BYU vs. U of U football game and were teasing that Stratton (our baby) couldn't come that weekend because it would mess up our entire plan. We get ready for bed and I lay down. And then I wet myself.

Or did I???

After much contemplation and debating, Ryan convinces me that my water has broken with a slow trickle and that we are going to have the baby soon. I don't want to go to the hospital because it is about 10:30 pm and I'm not even having contractions. Deferring to my judgement, Ryan and I go to bed. We then wake up at about 6 am and have breakfast. I'm still not wanting to go to the hospital, but this time I defer to Ryan's judgement and we decided to go in.

They take me back and take a swab to determine if my water really has broken or if I have lost control of my bladder. I would have felt so dumb if I had just wet myself! The lab comes back and it really is my water that has broken. Now this is a little interesting fact: Only about 10-15% of women actually have their amniotic fluids break on its own. Of that small percentage, only about 10% do not experience contractions with their fluids breaking. I am one of those 10% of the 10-15% of women. Crazy eh?

So they started me on pitocin at 9:30 am. Hour after hour passes while they slowly dial up the dose. I also had tested positive for Strep B so they had to give me antibiotics for that. I hated that part. The antibiotics made my mouth taste like metal. Gross.

At this point I am doing great. I keep thinking with each contraction, "Really? This is it? These contractions are a cake walk. I could keep this up all day....."

However, at about 3 pm, it was like I hit a wall. All of a sudden the contractions went from uncomfortable cramps to mind-boggling, breath stealing, body shaking pains. AND they were coupling contractions so instead of getting a contraction that lasted about a minute and then went back down to normal, I would have 2 contractions with 1 immediately following the other and they would last for about 2-3 minutes each. It was insane. Suddenly my thoughts of having a natural birth without an epidural flew right out the window. I asked for an epidural at about 3:30. I was then told that the anesthesiologist had just left but he was expected back in about 30-45 minutes. I seriously thought I might die before he returned. However, since I am typing this, I obviously survived. The anesthesiologist finally arrived and quickly gave me the epidural. I think he gave me a bit too much though because it completely knocked out all feeling from about my rib cage down to my toes. My legs would randomly flop off the bed and I wouldn't even know. I felt nothing.

After getting the epidural, Stratton's heart rate dropped and wouldn't come back up, so they took me off the pitocin and waited to see if my contractions would continue on their own. His heart rate recovered and although my contractions slowed down drastically, they continued, so we just started playing the waiting game.

At about 5 pm I convince my family that they should order pizza and that it is no big deal if they want to eat it in my room! I think I'm masochistic. Around 7 o'clock the smell of pizza has really started to get to me and I decide that I want to eat just a little piece of crust. While the nurses weren't looking my sister Katie was able to sneak me a couple bites. I was in heaven. However, later while I was pushing, I got really sick feeling and had to throw up. It was pretty awesome cuz as I am hurling into this little bucket, I'm frantically looking for pizza crust chunks and hoping that the nurse can't see them and get upset at me! Ha ha! Turns out it wasn't the last time I would throw up that evening...I know I threw up once after Stratton was born and I might have even thrown up one more time between. I can't remember. It was all a blur.
                                                                             
Okay...back to birthing.....
Finally at about 9:45 pm I was dilated to a 10 and the nurse told me that I was ready to push.

*Just a side note about my nurse*
She was fabulous. Absolutely loved her. She was very nice, patient, encouraging, and I actually felt like she knew what she was talking about. :)

It is now a little past 10 pm I am instructed to start pushing. Do ya'll remember that epidural that I mentioned earlier and how it knocked out all feeling from the ribcage on down? Well.....it made it very difficult to push when I couldn't even feel anything! I had think little spot right under my left rib the would kind of tingle when I was about to have a contraction. I'd tell the nurse and then she would look at the monitor and tell me to push when the contraction got going. Then the little nurse would tell me if I was actually pushing or if I was just holding my breath for nothing. It was quite difficult to be imagining what pushing would feel like if I COULD feel and then trying to do it. I think my lack of feeling really contributed to our long pushing time.

After about an hour of pushing with no results, the doctor decided that he needed to use the forecepts. Stratton was coming out face up (it works better if they are face down) and his head was kind of getting stuck on my pelvis bones, so the doctor wanted to help me out. I was pretty excited when he told me this. I'm totally thinking, "Bring it on! I push a little and the doctor pulls and we are going to have this kid here in no time!" That was before I saw the actual forecepts! Those suckers are pretty scary. I have no idea how they get them to fit inside of a person along with a baby and all the fun tubes that are already up there. So he gets the forecepts around Stratton's head and starts to pull with my contractions. I would have died if I didn't have the epidural at this point. I couldn't feel my contractions, but I could feel those forecepts!

So....the Doc pulled and pulled and I pushed and pushed, but the little pig just wouldn't come out. Sadly, the forecepts weren't doing much. Stratton was stuck pretty good and I was wearing out. At 11:30 the doctor turned to his nurse and said, "I'm going to take the forecepts out because they just aren't helping anything. We will give her 2 more contractions to push through and if he doesn't move with either of those, we are going to have to go back to the drawing board." I knew that this meant a c-section and I really didn't want that! Fear is a great motivator. I started to pray. I don't know why I hadn't done this before. I'm thinking that my pushing time might have only lasted a few minutes if I would have prayed first, but now I guess we will never know. So I'm praying and they take the forecepts out and tell me to start pushing and Stratton finally started to move!!! I was so excited! Fast forward 10 minutes and our little guy had arrived!

He was so funny when he came out. He never even cried, just did 3 little disgusted whimpers and then relaxed. I also was amazed that he knew the sound of my voice. The entire time that he was being cleaned up, he was looking past the nurses and just listening to me talk. So stinking adorable!

Ummm....what else can I tell you about our little hospital stay?

Here is an overshare: between the forecepts, Stratton's big head, and having him come face up instead of face down, I tore quite a bit. It took the doctor almost an hour to get all my internal and external tears stitched up. Sad, sad, sad.
Anyway....

His nasty little forecept bruise

Me back when I still though contractions were fun

My favorite picture of the night. I love that he is pouting and looking right at Ryan. I imagine he was thinking something like, "What the heck Dad!? That wasn't fun!"

Our baby!

We named him Stratton Ryan Stubbs. He was born on September 16th at 11:40 pm.

He weighed 8 lbs 6 oz and was 21 inches long