"The Mom Stays in the Picture"

I just wanted to pass along this wonderfully written article from another Mom who wrote some words that resonated with me.  Anyone who has had a baby knows that your body goes through some crazy changes during pregnancy.  It has been difficult at times for me to look in the mirror to discover my body changed so much in order to bring our daughter in to this world.  I am not ashamed of how I look, but I am hard on myself when my postpartum pictures are concerned.  No longer will I be because I know how much I treasure the few pictures I have of my family growing up.  I want that for my daughter as well.  Thank you, Allison Tate, for writing such a beautiful article!

Read Allison's article here:

The Mom Stays in the Picture

P.S.  Grab some tissues before you read this one!

Mom Art

More Mothering Artwork

Sometimes we just need a reminder.  I may not have as many years or children under my belt as so many other ladies out there, but I do need the words that it takes time.  Before our daughter it was so easy to be selfish with my time.  Now to give it all up, in the quest to find what works best for us here, in our home, is a rather humbling experience.  Even at 6.5 months old our little girl has taught us the importance of taking our time, moving slowly and above all patience - like we had never needed before now.

What are the virtues your little one has helped you to find again and again?

All's Well that Ends Well

I feel that it has been way over do to write my next post.  The past week and a half has been quite tiring on this end and I would like to explain.  I'd also like to say that I hope to never have such a long time away again for such a reason.

My Husband is in the Navy.  His current job is quite exciting  - he's a Hovercraft Craftmaster!  He flies hovercrafts.  He spends his days at his command either flying, providing maintenance to his craft or doing boring paperwork.  He is a very physically fit person and thoroughly enjoys his mornings PTing (physically training).  Last Wednesday while running the obstacle course on base he fell, landing on his rear end.  Normally this type of fall would warrant a little rub on the area and not much else.  However, he fell over 8 feet off of a platform. 

It had been raining (like it does so often in our area) and the course was slippery.  He usually just jumps down from the platform and continues on, but for some reason on this day he decided to be careful.  He tried climbing down and dangling so he'd only drop 2 feet or so.  In the process his hand slipped before he was in position resulting in him falling and landing on his bum.  He stayed put for a minute, got up, checked for tingling/pain/numbness, felt nothing out of the ordinary so continued on the course. 

Later in the day he was sore.  Sore enough that he actually went to see someone about it.  In typical Navy remedy fashion they gave him some Ibuprofen for the discomfort.  But the doctor felt it was a serious enough incident to take some x-rays.  Thank goodness!  It turns out he really did do some damage to his back (not his booty).  The next step was to head over to the hospital for a CT scan.  After lots of waiting in the emergency room (because that's how the military healthcare works) he finally got to see a doctor who...ordered more x-rays. Again, the doctor was concerned enough that he said my Hubby needed a CT scan (Duh!  That is why he was there in the first place!!).  Well, those results came back and it turns out that he had a compression fracture in his T12 vertebrae.  It was serious enough that the doctor admitted him immediately, put him in back brace and told him he'd be there at least overnight.

As you can imagine Hubby was less than thrilled at this whole occurrence. Fast forward to the following morning.  I pack up the baby and head over to see our wounded man.  After a few more doctor visits, a consultation with a prosthetic technician, and some not-so-good hospital lunch food my Husband was released on the terms that:

1.) he was getting a custom brace made and should be in it on Monday (Labor Day).

2.) he had to be back Tuesday for more x-rays to see if the brace was helping.

3.) he had to leave the brace on whenever up and moving or lay down without it all weekend.  No out and about.  No lifting anything heavier than a gallon of milk (which our daughter is).  No bending, twisting, working out, etc.  No driving.

4.) he was scheduled for surgery on Tuesday if the brace was not doing what it needed to be.  The surgery would fuse together 5 of his vertebrae (T10-L2) permanently.  He would lose about 10-15% of his mobility due to this surgery and most likely have pain in the area later in life.

After a very long, tiring, and boring weekend we all headed back in for the follow-up.  We got the most amazing news!  He didn't need surgery!  The doctor was very happy with how the brace has been supporting him and feels that if he heals how his back is currently holding he would be able to live a very active life.  Then came the bad news.  No working for 30 days (minimum).  No driving.  No lifting. 

It has been hard on my Hubby because he is usually so active.  The brace is uncomfortable, keeping him in a strange position and itchy.  And he wants to be doing much, much more with our daughter. 

It has been frustrating for my daughter and I because we have become accustomed to him interacting with us both more often than he is capable of right now.  Plus, I'm whooped from 100% baby time! 

We are looking at the positives of the situation and focusing on his improving status.  We are very thankful that the outcome wasn't more serious (because it could have been so much worse).  I am impressed with the level of care he received at the naval hospital.  It was unexpected and is apparent that they had concern for my Husband's welfare.  There have been a few emotions surrounding this incident, and I'm sure more will come as he heals (he could be in the brace for 3 months or longer which means the same limitations apply).  I am just so very thankful that he is o.k..

Have you had scary medical moments in your or your loved one's life?

Half a year already!

My oh my how time does fly!!

Six months ago today we went out looking for a clock.  My husband and I realized how much we really just needed to have one in the living room.  One of those fancy looking, hang on the wall as art types of clock.  We drove around to a few places and cruised the typical big stores in hopes of finding something either of us liked.  By the end of the trip we were tired, hungry and empty handed.  We had lunch at a great place called Red Robin (anyone else a fan??).  Then it was back home to relax and put my swollen feet up!

I was sitting on the couch (playing Bejeweled, which is so not normal for us) when I had some tightening across my belly - the time was 4:45 pm.  I didn't think anything of it because I had Braxton Hicks contractions in the past.  Well, the longer I sat there the more I had.  I still didn't think much of it, but told the Hubby just so he knew what was going on.  My good friend Jen called to have a friendly chat during which I realized I couldn't talk through the contractions.  I knew this was an indicator that things were progressing so I did what any smart woman would do.  I called my Mom.  She, of course, told me to call the doctor, but I was hesitant because the contractions were not regular (6-12 minutes apart) and lasted less than a minute.  I didn't want to end up in the hospital just to be sent home, so I figured we'd wait.  Not too long after I was really feeling some pressure during the contractions.  I called the doctor.  The nurse I spoke with was concerned because I had gone in to early labor at 24 weeks and insisted I get to the hospital as soon as possible.

Well, we had other ideas.  The bag was not packed (I was only 36 weeks).  The swing was not put together.  We had no clothes ready for the baby when she came home.  My husband set to work putting the swing together while I packed the bag and did some laundry between contractions.  We had literally only been busy about 30 minutes when we put our shoes on to walk out of the door.  I had to stop twice walking to the truck.  The Bradley Birthing classes we attended had taught us that about the time you NEED to be going to the vehicle is when you least want to be going to the vehicle.  This was very true in my case.  The thought of sitting in that confined space was not at all appealing to me.  We realized that the contractions had sped up to every 3 minutes and were lasting about a minute each.  They were intense, but nothing I couldn't handle.  My Husband started making the necessary phone calls to our parents letting them know we were headed in to the hospital.  The ride was 20 minutes though it felt like an hour and a half.  I kept yelling at him to drive faster because I did not want to have the baby in the truck!

We got to the hospital, signed in and were shown to our room.  The nurse was great and asked questions about our preferences.  We were easy:

-No drugs.
-No pacifier.
-No formula.
-I didn't want to know numbers (like centimeters dilated or length of time between contractions) because I tend to focus on numbers and did not want to do that here since those numbers can slow down or speed up without notice or reason.
-Dad would be with baby if she needed to leave Mom
-We wanted to wait to cut the cord.

Other than that, nothing major.  We just basically wanted to know what was going on. The nurse checked, said that the baby was coming and went to call the doctor.  We had only been there about 15 minutes!  I couldn't believe they were already calling.  The nurse came back to check on us and ended up staying in our room.  We joked that it was so she could catch the baby if need be.  She didn't see it as a joke, more like a possibility.  Soon our doctor walked in the room.  Checked things out herself then told the second nurse to go ahead and set things up.  She put on the awesome Doctor Cape, a smile and asked if we were ready to do this :)

Four sets of pushes later we were holding our daughter!  The time was 10:38 pm.  We were fortunate our birth plan was able to be carried out according to our wishes.  I can say first hand that it wasn't too bad going through labor and delivery without any medications.  I had the amazing support of my Husband, a wonderful staff of nurses and our awesome doctor!!  Plus, I have a lot of faith in the idea that our bodies are made to have babies no medications necessary.  ***TMI ALERT***There was some serious pain for me afterwards though while the doctor was stitching my woman parts back together.

Holding that little 5 pound 7 ounce baby girl I was in awe!  I couldn't believe after 9 months I was finally able to see her, touch her and snuggle her.  I couldn't believe our daughter was in our arms and lives from that moment forward.

It has now been six months since that amazing experience.  I am sitting her now, with my feet up, remembering all of the sweet - and tiring - moments we have had up to this point.  We have both learned so much about our baby as well as what it takes to take care of a little one.  It is life changing and not for the faint of heart!  You learn very quickly what priorities actually are and how to properly go about getting them done.  You also learn that the love you feel for that teeny bundle of joy is more different than any love you've ever felt before.

Please, share your story with me!  What were your thoughts and feelings during labor and delivery?

Java, joe, espresso...

Many years ago, during my first couple years in college, I started having some stomach troubles.  No matter what I ate (and you could imagine how healthy I was eating as a college student living on my own) my stomach did not feel well afterwards.  Finally I had to go see someone to help figure out what the issue was.  It ended up being that I was lactose intolerant, but that was discovered after many, many tests and tracking my diet (after all of the tests).  The news wasn't exactly shocking because there are plenty of people who cannot properly digest cow's milk.  However, it did impact my eating habits quite a bit at the time.   

During the process of elimination my doctor asked a number of questions about daily intake of certain foods or beverages.  He was a little surprised that I really didn't drink pop - and still don't very often.  He was extremely shocked at how many ounces of coffee I was drinking in a day.  He was determined that the cause of all of my issues was the amount of caffeine I consumed daily.  So, through a long and awful withdrawal process, I cut out the coffee.  All of it.  Since then I rarely drink the stuff because of the effects it now has on me.  (Of course, after I found out that wasn't the issue I was pretty bummed, but decided to not start up again since I was feeling better.)

Well, due to all of this moving business and having to be top notch taking care of the babe I had a hankering and caved when we got to Panera for breakfast.  I ordered the smallest cup I could get.  Drank about 1/4 of the cup.  Then operated in hyper-drive the rest of the day and well in to the evening! 

Now you could say that it's great to know coffee will boost me like that so on days that I'm really dragging I can take a few swigs and feel wide awake for hours on end.  Or you could wonder, like I do, about the effect of drinking so much that it really doesn't keep you awake anymore. 

I learned through a very wise woman (whom I'll rave about in future posts) that an apple has more good for you boosters in it than any other food or drink you could consume.  I experimented with this for a couple months before I gave in to agreement.  That saying "An Apple a day keeps the doctor away" had to come from somewhere!  There is also something to be said for the power of mint.  Try rubbing some mint on your palms and taking a whiff of them when you feel drowsy.  Does it perk you up?  I know it works for me!  (Mint also has many, many other great benefits.  Look for them in upcoming posts!)

What do you do to energize or stay awake on days that you are tired?  Is caffeine a regular part of your day?  Have you tried other sources to help you energize?  If so, will you share them please?