New Mom Gear

My baby is seven weeks old and there have been a few baby items I wouldn't want to be without. I thought I'd share them for those of you who have baby showers coming up or are about to become new moms yourselves.

1. Booby Tubes- Great name, huh? These have helped so much with soreness from nursing.

2. Boppy Portable Baby Swing- This was a gift from my mom and Grandma. I thought I needed a full size swing, but now I wouldn't trade the portable one. It is so easy to fold up and take anywhere in the house or to take with me when I go visiting. Prince Charming sleeps in it often when I'm at my friend's house. : ) It means I actually get to eat lunch and watch HGTV. : )

3. The nursing cover I made. It makes breastfeeding in public so easy. I don't have to be housebound at feeding time.

4. My nursing bracelet that Daiquiri made me. It helps me remember what side I need to start on when I nurse. I slide it off and on to the next wrist right before I unhook my bra. The next time I start on that side and slip it on to the other wrist. It is elastic so it slides on and off easily. It is small and neutral so it looks nice with whatever I am wearing. Thanks, Daq!

5. Shannon's flannel burp clothes. They are the perfect size and are cute, too. I made a bunch before my baby was born and I love them.

6. My Breast Friend Nursing Pillow: Terrible name, I know, but works great! This might just be personal preference, but I like this pillow much better than the Boppy one I had for the girls. It has an adjustable belt that buckles around your waste so it doesn't slip around and it positions my baby perfectly for feeding. It is the same price as a Boppy, but is much softer and the outer cover zips off so you can wash it in the wash.

There you have it! These work for me.

To see what is working for other bloggers stop by Works For Me Wednesday at Rocks in my Dryer.

You can see my past WFMW posts here.

** By the way- I'm going to be doing a book club on my Fitness blog using a devotional called Faithfully Fit. If any of you new moms have baby weight to lose and want to support each other and pray for one another, I'd love to have you join me. You can click here to read about it.

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*** HE'S HERE! ***

Daiquiri here. Becky asked me to do a guest post or two for her while she's in the hospital. She knows you all are anxiously awaiting news of the baby...and news, there is! Meet Benjamin Patrick Joseph:



He made his appearance at 3:52 PM today. He weighed 8 lbs, 9 oz and is 21 1/4 inches long. It was a joyful and exciting day. He's perfectly healthy, and mom? Well, his mom is stunning...beautiful, brave, strong...just awesome!


Daddy's proud...and in love already. His son. And little Benjamin looks like him, at least in the chin and mouth. And if the little guy has half his dad's spunk? Watch out world!


His sisters could hardly wait to get their hands on him.

There was quite the lineup of people waiting to meet Benjamin...it was almost comical how we all sat there and just looked at poor Becky!

Jen and I were both thrilled to be able to part of this special day. Jen and Becky have been great friends for years and years. It was a nice coincidence that Jen's hubby happened to be in the hospital having jaw surgery...Jen got to sneak down and visit Becky from time to time :)

Is there anything better than a newborn babe? And this one is particulary sweet and beautiful. I wonder if he'll ever understand just how anticipated he was...how cherished he was before he was even born.

"For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD; I sing for joy at the works of your hands."

Psalm 92:4

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I Finished the Never-Ending Dress! : )

Only 4 days to go! I cannot believe it! I actually thought I might be in labor last night. I even went for a walk through the neighborhood at 1:00 AM, but it was a false alarm or pre-labor or something. Probably just wishful thinking! : )

I'm frantically working through my to-do list hoping to get it all done before Thursday....only 16 items left to check off. : ) (And that doesn't include King Charming's list) Oh the joy of the nesting instinct!

My to-do list included half-done projects I knew would never get done if I didn't finish them before our life became newborn centered. One of those projects was what I have been calling the Never-Ending dress.

Last spring, I was inspired by Amber's sewing project and thought, "I think I can do that!" I found the pattern and promised Princess #2 a twirly party dress for her birthday party...(in April) : )

Well, poor little Princess watched her birthday come and go with no dress. Once I finally finished it, I realized, "I don't know how to hem!" I tried to learn from the Internet, searched for a tutorial somewhere, but I just couldn't figure it out. When my mom came to visit for my baby shower, I made her sit down and teach me. "That's easy!" I thought.
It was an easy stitch, but the twirly party dress had about four yards of fabric around the bottom and hemming it by hand was sloooooowwwwww going. It is so amateur and looks homemade. I really don't think sewing clothes is something you can teach yourself off the Internet. (Mrs. MK I sure wish you could come over and teach me. I could be your sewing apprentice) : )

Amateur or not, it's done, and my little princess is so happy! She woke up Friday morning to her dress done and you can see from the pictures below that she likes it:

When I had her try it on, I said, "It took me so long, I hope it still fits you."

Her response?

"Yeah because it took you two or three or four years to finish it and I'm bigger now!"

Hey! : )

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Did You Notice?

Look at my sidebar ticker....SINGLE DIGITS!!!! : )

Only 9 more days to go. WHOO HOO!!!!!!

I had an OB appointment that went really well, but my cervix needs to do something before next week. I'm absolutely zero dilated and absolutely zero effaced.

I'm determined to do all I can to get things happening. I just got home from an hour walk, I'm drinking Raspberry Leaf Tea, and doing squats. I've also been, uh...enjoying my husband a lot(is that a polite enough way to say it?)

Is there anything I'm missing? Any old wives tales I can try? (Besides castor oil...yuck)

Comment away, dear readers.....

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My CREATIVE Friend

OK...At this point in my blogging career, I'm sure many of you are tired of hearing about my wonderful, talented, and creative friend Daiquiri. But this time she has truly outdone herself. I never knew just how CREATIVE she really is, but boy did she get me good this weekend. : )

Before I focus on the beautiful shower she threw for me and all of the special things she did FOR me that day, I first have to tell you what she did TO me. (You can click here to see her blog post and pictures of the special day. It was so sweet, and I was blessed by my friends' generosity and love)

After a delicious lunch and many, many desserts : ) she had me open my gifts. I thought my friend, Michele, was writing down my gifts so I'd be able to do thank you cards later. She was actually writing down every word that came out of my mouth as I opened the gifts. (You can see her leaning up against the wall in the photo below...she's the one with the smile on her face, trying to hold back laughter)

When I thought we were all done and ready to move on to the next activity, Daiquiri made an announcement:

Before we go on to the next thing I had planned, I wanted to share an old wives tale I've heard about. It is tradition that the phrases an expectant mom utters as she opens her shower gifts are ACTUALLY the words she uttered when her baby was conceived.

"Oh no, I'm in TROUBLE!" I thought as my mind began to count back all of the times I had used words like "cute" "soft" and "tiny"

Then she handed me the list and made me READ IT OUT LOUD in front of my GRANDMA, MY MOM, AND SOME OF THE LADIES FROM THE BIBLE STUDY I LEAD ON MONDAY MORNINGS!!!!!!

Old wives tale my foot! She just made it up! : )

I was beat red, but it was FUNNY. I haven't laughed like that in sooooo long. It was great medicine.

So if you promise you won't be offended, (I'm innocent, remember?) the video of me reading my list is posted below. I hope you can make out what I'm saying through all of my tears and laughter.

(P.S. I didn't want you to see how round and tubby I've gotten, so if you'd kindly imagine me looking like my sidebar picture instead, I'd be grateful) : )

Thank you everyone who was there Saturday for your love. I left the shower with a full heart.

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We Have a Date!!

My OB appointment went so well today. We did a non-stress test and Monster Truck (I'm having a hard time switching to Benjamin now) passed with flying colors. They were a little worried at first because he was so sleepy, but after the nurse put a buzzer on my belly, he woke up and showed off. : )

Guess what?!!! We have an official induction date. It is so bizarre to know this far in advance his birthday, but we are on the books for Thursday, August 14th! When I think of the journey we've been on- all the loss, the roller coaster adoption process, and then this miracle pregnancy- we now know the date we will finally hold our little boy. I'm overwhelmed with joy. I feel like I'm flying around on Cloud Nine today.

Plus, I just have to share with you how charming my King Charming really is. He gave me the gift of a house cleaner for two hours today. I'm heading out the door to have fun with my girlfriend and get to come home to a clean house. Then tomorrow he's taking my car to be cleaned inside and out. I am so spoiled and so grateful. I feel like this nesting thing has become a family affair as we've watched the time ticking closer and closer to THE DAY. : )

I'll have to change my little widget on the sidebar so the countdown days are more accurate.

Thank you for sharing in our joy!

Love,

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Trying To Keep Up With Life

I'm sorry I haven't been updating my blog much lately. It has been such a busy week! All of a sudden, I hit that part of pregnancy where I can't sleep, and I'm moving through my days in slow motion trying to keep up with everything going on.

I have about three weeks and three days before we plan to induce labor. (Around August 15th). The reason we know when I will be induced is because we need to control the timing of my delivery. Every night I give myself a Lovenox shot which is a blood thinner. I need to discontinue those shots 24 hours in advance of labor, and then check into the hospital so they can monitor how the baby is doing without the Lovenox.

Three more weeks feels like forever, but then I look at my to-do list, and it suddenly doesn't seem like that long at all. : )

I can't believe we are so close! Thank you for your prayers and awesome support! I have a doctor visit on Thursday so I'll update you on how Monster Truck is doing.

By the way- did you miss this story about my Little Brother? There is a special announcement at the end.

I'll try to be a more faithful blogger. (writer and reader)

Love,

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Making It Up to Ben

As I was writing the Little Brother Chronicles, I know it appeared I was picking on Ben. : )

(In case you missed it, the Saga of the Moon Boot was the overwhelming favorite.)

After sharing all of those embarrassing moments with you all, I promised I would make it up to him. I promised I had a purpose for it all. : )

So in this last installment of the Little Brother Chronicles, I hope it will be abundantly clear how much I love you, Ben, and how proud I am to be your big sister. : )

There are more funny stories to tell, like the time my mom got a phone call from the local grocery store:

"Sally, this is Carol down at Evans Foods. I was just wondering if you were aware that Ben was down here trying to buy a can of spinach?"

(Mom thought he was playing at his friend, Adam's, house so this was news to her)

"Well, he doesn't have any money on him, but we can credit it to you if you really need the spinach." (Aren't small towns great?)

We later learned he needed spinach to be strong "like Popeye" so going to the grocery store to get it made sense to him. : )


Then there is the disaster he made of my Barbie's wedding! For months I planned Barbie's wedding, saving my allowance to buy the wedding dress and the furniture I needed to set the scene. All I asked Ben to do was walk Ken down the aisle and hold him up during the ceremony. Easy right? But no, Ben made peeing noises and made sure Ken urinated on all of the guests as he walked up the aisle! The ceremony was all down hill after that entrance!


Or, I could tell of the one and only time he tried to beat me up after watching Disney's Last Electric Knight.

But instead of more silly stories, I want to focus on the man he has become.

As we were growing up, Ben was my best buddy. We actually liked each other and had so much fun together. We moved a lot during some critical stages of growing up, and we leaned on each other throughout those times of adjustment.

Having different talents and interests, I'm thankful we were supportive of each other instead of competitive. I loved watching him excel at sports. I never missed a game! When he was pitching, I thought I'd have a heart attack from the stress of it all, but he was really good and it was fun to cheer him on. He was a football star, too. I can still see the game he had five different opponents hanging on him, trying to pull him down, but he wouldn't give up and drug all five in to the end zone with him for a touchdown.

When I was a Senior and Ben was a Freshmen, we were in high school together. Whenever I stopped by my locker, I had to keep an eye out for Ben because he liked to sneak up on me and carry me down the hallway like a sack of potatoes. He was still my younger brother, but he had ceased to be my "little" brother. : )

I'll never forget the day in high school when we sat in a Dairy Queen booth drinking milkshakes and asking each other how we got so lucky to have such a great family life. We've always known we were blessed.

Today, my little brother is a husband, a father, and a successful computer programmer. He married a great girl who became a great mother and wife. I'm just so proud of him and so in love with his kids and his wife, Angie.

He loves Jesus and is raising his kids to love Him, too. He is a man of God. The same kind of man I want my son to be someday.

When I think about a little brother, there is one image that comes to my mind.

I'm such a sentimental sap, I have tears running down my face as I type the end of this post.

I wanted you all to "know" my brother Ben so you would understand when I make this next announcement.

So now the moment you've all been waiting for....(At least Mia has been waiting) : )

Our little Monster Truck has a real name.

From now on, he is Benjamin, in honor of the best brother in the whole universe!

I love you, Ben!

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Organizing Baby Clothes

In my last post, I mentioned how special it has been for me to be preparing for our new baby boy. My friends have been incredibly generous with hand-me-downs, and I'm enjoying hanging up and organizing all of these precious, tiny clothes.

These clothes dividers have been very helpful in keeping all of these tiny outfits organized:

I picked them up at Baby Depot (Burlington Coat Factory) years ago, before my first daughter was born, but when I Googled them tonight, I found a lot of them available online. (Here's an example)

My friends have been SO generous, they've given me clothes in great condition all the way through size 3T. Instead of going into the closet right now and cluttering up Baby's room, all clothes over 6 months are being stored like this:

When Baby outgrows the newborn size, I'll bring in the 6-9 months from the garage and rotate the clothes. The less stuff in his room to keep organized, the happier I am. : ) I like the uncluttered feel/look.

Works for me.....

Here's what's working for other bloggers this week.

If you are new to my blog, thanks for stopping by! You can read my past WFMW posts here. Come back and visit again! : )

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Thank You, Lord

I'm hanging up little, tiny baby boy clothes tonight. What a miracle that is! I never believed I'd be here.

Today at a playdate, my oldest daughter sat on the floor playing with my friend's baby boy. She looked at me and said, "Mommy, our baby is really going to be born this time!"

Yes he is! Thank you, Lord. Thank you for getting us through the pain to this gift.

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Pregnancy Q and A......

(Thanks Aunt Karen!) : )

Q: Should I have a baby after 35?
A: No, 35 children is enough.

Q : I'm two months pregnant now. When will my baby move?
A: With any luck, right after he finishes college.

Q : What is the most reliable method to determine a baby's sex?
A: Childbirth.

Q: My wife is five months pregnant and so moody that sometimes she's borderline irrational.
A: So what's your question?

Q : My childbirth instructor says it's not pain I'll feel during labor, but pressure. Is she right?
A: Yes, in the same way that a tornado might be called an air current.

Q: When is the best time to get an epidural?
A: Right after you find out you're pregnant.

Q : Is there any reason I have to be in the delivery room while my wife is in labor?
A: Not unless the word 'alimony' means anything to you.

Q: Is there anything I should avoid while recovering from childbirth?
A: Yes, pregnancy.

Q : Do I have to have a baby shower?
A: Not if you change the baby's diaper very quickly.

Q : Our baby was born last week. When will my wife begin to feel and act normal again?
A: When the kids are in college. '

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