Food Before One Is Just For Fun

"Food before one is just for fun"....I feel like that's the response I get anytime I ask Eli's pediatrician questions about eating solids.  I love her view on the topic because I feel like so many people out there believe that babies need to start on solids earlier and earlier.  When in fact, breastmilk and/or formula is all they need for at least the first 6 months of their life.  Did you know that breastmilk and formula has 20 calories in every ounce?  Did you know that breastmilk provides all the necessary fats, vitamins and calories a baby needs in order to thrive in those first months...along with antibodies to protect them from certain illnesses?

If you've ever looked at the nutrition label on a box of rice cereal, you will see there isn't much nutrition in it.  So why feed a four month old rice cereal?  I truly believe that it's a myth that it will help them sleep through the night.  Eli slept through the night at 10 weeks old and continues to sleep 12 hours a night.  He weighs 19lb and 11oz at 6 months old, none of which can be contributed to eating solids.  

I did a lot of reading before feeding solids to Elijah.  Pediatricians recommend feeding solids between 4-6 months of age, but from what I've read, their bodies aren't even developed enough to digest these solids until they are 6 months old.  The funny thing is, we tried solids at 5 months and Elijah wanted nothing to do with them.  Now that he is 6 months, he eats like a champ (and poops like one too, ick!).

I'm not writing this to say that you're wrong for feeding a baby solids before 6 months.  I believe that you have the rest of your life to make sure your child is eating, why stress over making sure they eat solids?  View it as a learning activity to explore different tastes and textures, to learn how we eat at the dinner table.  Don't worry if they miss a "solids" meal, but make sure they're still getting all their milk because as the doctor says: "eating before one is just for fun".

My sweet, happy and healthy 6 month old!

Our Birth Story...Half a year later The End

It's nearly impossible to sleep in a hospital after giving birth.  You're beyond exhausted and just want to sleep, but there's someone coming in to check on you all the time.  Add the fact that I was overly anxious about what was happening to me and I was going on 48 hours without sleep.

As soon as Dustin woke up, I knew I wanted to go see my baby.  So, we got the wheelchair and Dustin wheeled me down to the nursery.  It felt strange having to ring a doorbell to see my baby.  The upside was that he was the best off baby in that nursery.  There were parents there, who would be returning to that nursery for weeks; I knew Elijah wouldn't be there that long.  This is one of my favorite pictures from that morning.

Wide awake!

 Upon returning to my room, my nurse came by to tell me that the doctor on call would be coming by to examine me; she thought something more had to be done about my situation and soon.  My stomach sunk; I thought I would wake up and everything would be better.  Finally, the doctor came into my room and presented me with my only option: surgery.  They would need to go in and get the placenta out in order to prevent further bleeding.  I felt like I was going to throw up.  I'm sure any woman wouldn't want to have surgery after just giving birth.  The doctor told me to pray about it, but really, I had no choice.  

Anyway, without going into much detail, I ended up passing the placenta naturally, shortly after speaking to the doctor.  You should have seen the look on the nurses' faces when I told them what happened.  One of the nurses told me that in the 30 years of working in labor/delivery/postpartum care, she had NEVER seen something like that happen. (I'm so happy I could give her that experience..haha).  It was a complete turning point; my bleeding slowed down and I felt 100 times better!

We ended up getting kicked out of the hospital late Saturday night.  Leaving the hospital without your baby is one of the most depressing things ever.  You go in thinking that you're going to have your baby and walk out a day or two later with your baby in hand.  

I never imagined that Elijah's birth story would be so dramatic.  But, I've come to accept that it was what it was and both he and I were in excellent hands the entire time.  It's my hope that if we are blessed with another child, I will get that opportunity to have a "normal", uneventful pregnancy and birth.  But, he was and is completely worth every minute of it.....

Elijah's baptism, July 14, 2012

 

Our Birth Story..Half a year later! Part 2

I never was scared of the pain of childbirth.  When you have a miscarriage, you know that the result of the pain is only greater pain because you have lost something that is so important to you.  When you go through the pain of childbirth, you know that the end result is a beautiful baby, so it's completely worth it. 

In the week leading up to my induction, I developed this irrational fear of bleeding to death.  Once again, don't ever leave a 40.5 week pregnant lady with  a computer and LOTS of time to kill...I probably googled every possible thing that could go wrong during childbirth.  No, I didn't bleed to death, but other complications did arise, which gave me a good scare and made Dustin and I look at each other and say "maybe this will be our only child" (I can't say we agree with that statement anymore).

At about 12:30pm, my nurse came in and said it was finally time to start pushing.  She warned me not to get too excited because most first time Moms push for at least 2 hours.  I guess I was the exception...not only did I push for 2 hours, I continued to push for 3 hours and 15 minutes.  I was exhausted.  I had nothing left in me.  Having a drill sargent for a nurse didn't help much either.  Dustin can attest to this; she was all business.  No cracking jokes, no laughter...let's just get this baby out.

 She finally called my doctor into the room.  I wasn't making any progress; I feared a c-section.  I looked at my doctor, said I couldn't push any longer and that she needed to get this baby out of me.  I didn't even hesitate when she asked if she could use the vacuum.  Then, 3 good pushes later , Elijah came into the world (at 3:46pm) with his arm up above his head and his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck three times!  Did I mention that half of the nicu staff was in the delivery room with us at this point?!  Talk about scary.  Dustin distinctly remembers one of the nurses counting aloud as they unwrapped the cord from Elijah's neck; I never heard it.   I no longer think that I wasn't strong enough to get him out, but rather, he was stuck.

I didn't get to hold Elijah right away because they had to make sure he was ok. Dustin immediately got some pictures.

8lb, 8oz, 22 inches long!

 As for me, they couldn't get my placenta to come out.  I felt like my worst nightmare about childbirth was about to come true.  I'll spare you the details, but my doctor tried to remove it herself, piece by piece.  She thought she had gotten it all out, but later we find out that quite a bit was still in there.

Overall, Elijah was a healthy guy, but his low blood sugar was a concern.  Of course, we tried to get him to eat, but couldn't get his numbers up.  The rest of the night was a blur. They eventually moved us to a regular room.  Susie, Roger and Ross came and sang Happy Birthday to Elijah.  

Elijah's first cake!

 I don't even remember them taking Elijah to the nicu.  I remember calling my Mom and telling her that he was in the nicu and that they couldn't get my bleeding to stop, but I don't remember them taking him away.  Now that I look back, it was probably better that way.  They were concerned about his blood sugar and my bleeding.  

They decided to hook me back up to pitocin (oh joy!), hoping that it would start contractions again.  They also gave me a bazillion shots.  I remember the nurse coming into the room for about the 100th time, and she said "one more shot"...Dustin and I both thought she was kidding.  This was all in an effort to get my placenta out and restrict the bleeding.  Each time they came in, they also would push on my stomach, hoping to make the rest of the placenta come out.  I kid you not, this hurt worse than giving birth.  It was now about 9pm, Eli was in the nursery and I could barely keep my eyes open. 

 

Our Birth Story..Half a year later! Part 1

When you have your first child and have no idea what to expect, you kinda make up a story in your head about how you think your child is going to be born.  I really wanted one of those labors where I would wake up in the middle of the night and say "Dustin, I think it's time to go to the hospital", or "Dustin, I think my water just broke".  And then I would imagine Dustin driving us to the  hospital (about a 30 min. drive), driving 10mph under the speed limit and me making him pull the car over so I could drive.  In fact, I told him that I would be driving myself to the hospital...and I did, but under different circumstances.

I have to start out by saying that I am so grateful Elijah was born in summer.  I was done with school and I was able to hide out in my house for the final weeks of my pregnancy.  In fact, I was so sick of hearing peoples' comments about my size, that I didn't leave the house for the last two weeks of my pregnancy (except to go to the doctor).  I spent much of my time sleeping and wishing I would wake up with contractions.

At our 40 week appointment, our doctor gave us the eviction notice.  She was going to be on call the following Wednesday, so if we wanted to have her deliver Elijah, it would be best for us to schedule our induction for that day.  I hoped and prayed he would come before then.  In the mean time, I researched every bit of information about inductions and pitocin.  I think I may have told Dustin to hide my computer at one point because I would continue to freak myself out.

Heading to the hospital!

One day short of 41 weeks, I was induced.  Elijah was not coming out on his own, and he proved that during birth also.  We were told to arrive at the hospital by 8pm;  I don't even remember what we did all day.  I think I baked brownies for the neighbors?  Around 5pm, we packed up the car and headed to our "final" dinner at Beyond Bread.  The silence in the air felt like we were headed to a funeral.  We then headed to Roger and Susie's house, where we sat and twiddled our thumbs until heading to the hospital. Susie took one final picture of us; I still can't believe how HUGE I was!

41 Weeks, huge and swollen.  And yes, there is only one baby in there!

 Of course, I fulfilled my promise and drove myself to the hospital!  : )

Susie ended up coming with to help us carry our things into the hospital and check in.  A word of warning to all fathers/future fathers: When your wife is about to be induced, please just sign the registration papers and proceed to your room.  Dustin stood at the desk and asked what seemed like a million financial questions; he had the poor lady printing off pages and pages of financial paperwork.  Susie and I finally had to convince him to figure it all out later.

We finally got into our room. I slipped into my stylish hospital gown, answered a bunch of questions and got hooked up to my IV of pitocin.  I must admit that pitocin is not nearly as bad as what google will tell you.  I guess it all depends on your pain tolerance.  A few hours into my induction, my contractions were a minute apart and a minute long, but quite tolerable.  

I'm not sure what time my water broke, but I'll never forget that loud popping sound.  Dustin was laying on the couch across the room and he heard it.  The nurse was shocked at how much amniotic fluid I had in me...maybe that explains why my belly was SO huge (I swear I didn't eat THAT much during pregnancy).

The rest of the night was a blur.  Dustin slept for a little while; I stared at the monitor, watching my contractions and keeping a constant eye on Elijah's heartbeat.  Around 9:30am, my nurse came to check on me.  I was already 9cm, but Elijah was still sitting pretty high.  She decided that we would ride it out for a little while.  Dustin and I got busy texting our family that we were almost ready to push.  Little did we know that Elijah wouldn't be born for another 6 hours!

They only offered me a popsicle right before pushing...if I had known I was allowed to eat popsicles, I would have asked for one much earlier!

 

Teething

I wasn't dreading teething, but I always wondered how Elijah would react to the pain of it.  My mom will tell you that all four of us were very content, happy babies until we started teething; that kind of scared me.  Surprisingly, getting teeth has been pretty uneventful for this little one.

Teeth!

 It's hard to get a good picture because they're not all the way through.  The tooth on the right (our right) is about half way through, the tooth on the left is just breaking through (I can feel the ridges). 
 
We've had the occasional bouts of crying and tugging at the ears, but nothing that we're losing copious amounts of sleep over.  Usually a patting of the back, teething tablets or Mr. Crinkles can solve the issue.

Mr. Crinkles

He LOVES this little lizard!  It's a teething toy and is definitely preferred over anything else.  I've tried getting those gel things cold in the fridge and Eli doesn't like to put them in his mouth.  I'm still trying to figure out how to wash this little guy.

All in all, teething hasn't been too bad and I love seeing Elijah with teeth!  Time is flying by!

The Four Gift Rule

Awhile back, I came across the Four Gift Rule on pinterest.  I thought it was a great idea, so we're incorporating it into our Christmas traditions this year (and hopefully for many years to come).

The Four Gift Rule is: Something to wear, something to read, something you want, something you need.  It makes me sick to see people give their children gobs of gifts, just to give them gobs of gifts.  I also think it sends the wrong message about Christmas.  I could go on and on about how Black Friday shopping makes me disgusted, but I will stop there.  Agree or disagree, it's just my opinion!

So, here are the four gifts Eli will be receiving from us Christmas morning or before:

Something to wear: His Christmas outfit!  Still need to find some black pants and dress socks for him.  I know he's getting a bunch of clothes from Grandma and Grandpa "2", so he doesn't need anything else!

Matching Daddy!

 Something to read:

The Night Before Christmas

 Want: Eli got this as an early Christmas present, so he's been playing in it for a little while now.

Fisher Price Jumperoo

Need: He'll be getting new socks and long sleeve, white onsies.  Not really sure if this counts as a "need", but he'll be getting his baby's First Christmas ornament also...

                                                       

St. Nick

The stocking was hung...

By morning, there were a few special treats for Elijah: a Christmas shirt and some yummy treats that he'll be able to eat once he's a few weeks older.  He also had some gifts from Grandma and Grandpa "2".

So intrigued...

A new book from Grandma and Grandpa!

Wait, I want to read it again!

An ornament and a bow for my head!

 

 

 

Lilly

Meet Lilly...

Lilly

I don't know if other people name their plants, but I do!  Our tiny lemon tree has 27 lemons on it; 15 of which, I picked today!

Our harvest!

My helper, or helpers, if you count Mr. Monkey

 Not too sure what to do with all these lemons, but I used two of them today to make delicious lemon bars!  Any other ideas?...besides the usual lemonade?  I stuffed all the peelings down the garbage disposal, hoping to make it smell better.  I'll have to research some new recipes this weekend!

The BEST lemon bars EVER!

 

 

All Ours

When Eli was in the nicu and after I had been released from the hospital, Dustin and I would go back "home" (roger and susie's) and just stare at pictures of Elijah.  I still catch myself doing the same thing, after he has gone to bed for the night.  I still can't believe this little cutie is ours!  Despite the rough day we had because of a missed morning nap (yes, it throws off the WHOLE day!), I managed to get a few cute pictures!

I also realized that he's looking so much older!  It's almost as if it's happened over night!