Letter to a new mom

I stole this off of a blog that I read
She has really cute ideas, so check out her blog sometime
Thrifty Decor Chick

Open letter to a new Momma

Today we celebrated the upcoming birth of a new baby boy. The mom-to-be is one of my last friends to have their first child, and there is something so incredibly special about that. Something so special you just don't get when you are pregnant with that first baby. You wonder why everyone has constant big goofy smiles, fluffing all over you and can't keep your hands off your belly. :)

And then you have that baby. And you know.

So Momma B., this is what I hope you remember over the next few weeks:

For at least the new two years, probably more, you will have very little control over your life. It starts with labor -- you can't plan it (I know, it killed me too!), you can't tell that little one how or when to come, and you can't control how the labor will go. All you can do is relax, let go, breathe, and realize you have to give it up to the people that know best...the nurses, your doctor, God.

After the baby is here, you will have zero control over your life because that itty bitty patootie will rule. your. world. You will feel exhaustion like you've never known. You will want to give your right arm for a few straight hours of sleep. You will have to plan to leave the house well ahead of time. And when you do leave the house, it will be 30 minutes later than you had planned.

Speaking of sleep, even the best sleepers (ours slept through at FIVE weeks) will drive you absolutely mad at times. They will sleep three hours at a time for a few nights...sleep for six one night...you will get on your knees thanking God...and then that next night they will will wake up every two. It is a bit maddening. There are also nights when they just don't want to sleep, thank you very much. They would rather just lay there staring at you, thank you again.

Because of this, there may be times you will look at your child at 3 a.m., begging him to PLEASE JUST GO TO SLEEP. You may not even like him much at those moments. YES -- I said it, there are times you just are not nuts about them for being itty bitty and helpless and ruling your world (at 3 a.m. nonetheless).

And then that moment passes, and in the middle of the night, you will look at your baby's sweet eyes in the dark, rub his tiny head and you may just cry because you are so incredibly blessed to have this child. To be rocking this child at 3 a.m. You will realize there is no place you would rather be, ever.

You will be overwhelmed at how people love your baby. Yes, you know your friends love you. But you will realize you didn't have a clue how much they love you until you see the way they love your child. You will realize how much you mean to the people around you, because of the way they love your baby. It will overwhelm you, the love you will feel in those first weeks.

A few weeks after that sweet bubby is born, you will start needing a little somethin'. Just a little -- a little something in return for all that feeding, loving, feeding, smooching. And then. THEN, your child will smile at you. YOUR CHILD. He will smile at you like you are the sun and the moon and the stars and it will be one of the best moments of your entire life.

You will spend the rest of your days trying to get your child to smile at you like that again.

One of the biggest changes I noticed after our son was born was the new "weight" of being a Mom. It's the best way I can explain it. It's like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, in a good way. You now have a life to look after, and that is a really big deal. Sometimes that weight is really noticeable. You will feel it all the time -- but mostly when you leave the baby with Daddy for an hour. Or with Grandma for an evening so you can go out with friends.

From the day that baby is born, you are ALWAYS, ALWAYS thinking about them, worrying about them, wondering about them. You may not realize it, but it's always there. That weight lessens as they get older, but it's only because you get used to it. You are now a Mommy, and that comes with so much wonderful responsibility.

Your life is about to change for the better. You will never be the same. You will come back and read this a few months from now and have a whole new appreciation for these words. And when someone you love has their first baby, you will try to express to them the crazy, indescribable love they are about to feel, and you won't be able to put it into words for them either.

You are about to meet the love of your life, and I am so happy for you.

3 weeks old!

My little man is 3 weeks old!

And this is hands down my fave pic of the week!

Due date!

yesterday was my due date, and Garrett was 17 days old! We took up Brandt's parent's offer to babysit, and got to go out to dinner and a movie (Inglorious Basterds... good!)

here's our family pic :)

and on a side note, Saturday I was packing up maternity clothes and tried on a pair of my pre-pregnancy jeans. And they fit! YAY! A little snug, so I will leave out some of my maternity stuff, but I'm happy to know I'm on my way!

Garrett meets Mama Hazel

Saturday Garrett met his Great-Great-Grandmother!

How incredibly lucky is our little man? I only have one set of grandparents, and he is blessed with 2 sets, 3 sets of great grandparents, a great-great grandmother, and a great-great grandfather!

2 week pic

better late than never!
Here's Garrett's 2 week pic:

and on Friday, he had his 2 week checkup

birth: 2 weeks:
weight: 7lbs 9oz 8lbs 5oz
length: 18 3/4 in 20 1/4 in

did I mention I <3 my in-laws?

It has come to my attention that I didn't include a picture of them in my 2 week update. Maybe b/c my beautiful mother in law doesn't like her picture taken? I don't have one of the two of them with Garrett, but I do have these :)

They love Garrett so very much, and I know he loves them too!
And my parents rock too... we love them too!

2 weeks old!

I'm trying to get back in the habit of writing on here more, especially since I know everyone wants to see more baby pictures!

Today, Garrett is two weeks old. So here are my favorite pics from the past 2 weeks :)

right after he was born

little man

with Aunt Jen

late night in the hospital

right after we got home

second pic at home

still a few years away from this

proud grandparents

my fave pic of us

snuggling with me

first time in his swing!

bright eyes

Uncle Luke

I have a tongue!

sleeping like a big man

with his hard working daddy

we dont watch much tv. we tend to stare at him :)

cuddling with me again

nap time with daddy

staring contest

I know its alot, but hey, he's my baby, and this is my blog :)

slings...

my sister got me an awesome sling at my shower, and i finally learned how to use it! but i think garrett is just too little for it :(

so yesterday, i went and got a different one, one that he can lay down in.

but he looks a little smushed, you think?

is this how he is supposed to be?? he fell asleep instantly and slept for over an hour. i kept telling myself, its roomier than where he was two weeks ago!

walk in the park

last friday we decided to take the little man to the park! we went walking while brandt went running. it wasn't his first outing... we went to the dr on monday and to target on wednesday already :)

already asleep right after we get out of the car. great for when we were at target, but we wouldn't have minded him being awake for the ride.

buffalo?! at the park? brandt knew they were there, but i was surprised!


buffalo. the light one there is a baby! he (?) was cute!


garrett with the buffalo. of course, he didn't know...


picture while walking/sleeping

that carseat was hot! here he is cooling off in the ac while we were waiting on brandt to finish up lol

that was fun! and since walking is about the only thing i can do for exercise, i'm sure we will be going back often. hopefully with the dogs!

Its a boy!

I've been a bad blogger... but I have an excuse! I've been busy with my adorable son!

People keep asking, so here's my birth story. Don't worry, its watered down, so no blood and gore and gross stuff. Just happy, fuzzy, babies-are-a-joy type stuff :)

Wed night/Thurs am I woke up at 12:40 with a contraction. I had been having cramps and stuff and was so worried I wouldn't know the difference, but somehow I did. So I fell back asleep, and kept waking up with them. They were about 15 to 20 minutes apart, so I didn't wake Brandt up. About 4 though, I did, and told him I was going to take a shower. My aunt had told me that was a good way to find out if they were real contractions or not, if they weren't, a hot shower would stop them. He was up impatiently waiting for me to get done, and we sorta ate breakfast and about 6 started timing them, but they felt different, once again. Right away they were about 5 minutes apart, a minute or so long. This varied of course, some were 3 minutes apart, some 8. But they got more regular. We went for a walk around the block too, b/c we read that they should be consistent regardless of activity.

About 9 (so 3 hrs of timing) we decided to just go. By this point we had loaded up the car seat, gotten all our stuff together, and were ready. We had bags packed, but then a list of things to add, like laptop, phone chargers, etc. So we just decided to go up there and risk getting sent home. But I was starting to be in pain when they would come, so we figured we had held off long enough.

So we got up there and walked up to the nurse's station and I felt like an idiot, "hi, I think I'm in labor!" They put us in a labor & delivery room. The nurse was super concerned though since we were still 2 1/2 weeks early. They put the monitors on my belly and she was like, you are def in labor! She called my Dr a few times, but she really felt strongly that I shouldn't be having him already. I was still only 2cm dilated, and my dr wanted to start me on pitocin to get things going. Nurse, on the other hand, handed me a big jug of water and told us to go walk and we would hopefully chase the contractions away. That was depressing, if he was ready to be born, we wanted to do it! Not go home!
But after the walk, they were getting stronger, so they went ahead and put in an iv for the pitocin. It wasn't till then that we got to call our family, they suggested us waiting to find out for sure if they were going to keep me or not. I guess this was around noon. Then the nurse acknowledged that things were moving along pretty quick, and that I would be having this baby before her shift ended! As against the early birth as she was, she was a great nurse, we really liked her. She also had them give me some demerol to dull the pain until I could get the epidural.

*from here on out everything blurred together and stuff, so I hope it all makes sense*

So I guess it was around 1 or so, maybe closer to 2, the demerol made me feel soooo tired and way woozie. I know I was slurring my words, but no pain! It was just to tide me over till the anesthesiologist could come in. They told Brandt I would be out for at least 2 hours, so he should go get some lunch. He went down to the cafeteria and swears he was only gone 15 minutes, and when he got back I was already 7cm and writhing in pain! I had about 3 contractions that made me (somehow, I didn't think it was possible) curl up into a ball and I couldn't even open my eyes! Then I got the epi and all was well. No clue what time this was. It was good though, she said I had the "perfect epidural" b/c I could move my legs and wiggle my toes, everything, But I was for sure having contractions like crazy, according to the monitors! My Dr also broke my water then, but I couldn't feel anything or tell that anything happened.

My parents came in, his did too, and I think my sis was there. Brandt said something about getting some rest, and everyone just stood there and were like, Ok. Uhhh no, that was your cue to leave people! Then I said I was nauseous and they handed me a bucket thing and I started the throw up. Thankfully, that got everyone out of the room. I hadn't eaten anything in forever, but they said it was from the meds. The nurse said something about the 8cm sickness, not sure what that was about. So they checked me and were like, its time to push!

The bed was a "break away bed" so the end of it dropped down or came off or something. My dr was like, Ok, are you ready? And then told Brandt (Mr not going past my elbow) to grab my leg and hold my ankle. The nurse was on the other side, and poor Brandt could see everything haha.

I started pushing at 4:05 they said, and he was born at 5:24. So not much more than an hour. I could feel the contractions towards the end, but it wasn't too bad. But no way I could have done it without the epi!!!

When he was born, the Dr held him up and said, "ok mom, what do we have?" so I got to say "its a boy!"

Garrett sounded like he was congested, they ended up taking him pretty soon to the nursery. He wasn't warm enough and he had mucus built up in his airway or something. He's fine though, we just had to wait longer than we had liked to see him. I think it was almost 9:30 before they brought him to our room. I got moved close to 7 or so, maybe 8, to a postpartum room, thats where the family was waiting (with Chick fil a!)

Thats pretty much it! Here's the first pic of our little man :)
(he's gonna hate this pic when he's older)



(i love the flat ponytail in this one lol)

This is my all time fave

my last dr's appt!!

This morning was my last appointment! yay!

I got there, and they take my blood pressure right away. The nurse told me that it was high, which is really odd for me, its normally on the low side of normal. But no worries, they would double check it at the end of my appt. I was standing when they took it, so I thought maybe that had something to do with it?

Then the doctor comes in, and she mentioned it being high, and said she wants to use it as an excuse to move the induction date up.

*side note*
My doctor in convinced that we are having a big baby, and she wants me to be able to deliver it normally, but she think I will end up needing a c-section. Either way, she will let me try and labor first. So the longer we wait, the bigger the baby gets, the higher my chances of a c-section are. But inductions seem to be frowned upon, at least when they are just a convenience, not for a medical reason (baby is in trouble, mom is in trouble, etc) so she couldn't schedule one for more than a week before my due date.

So the rest of the appt goes well, things are pretty much the same as last week (dilation, effacement, etc) but a little "roomier" she said. So then we take the bp again, and its lower, but she wants to send me to the hospital to have it monitored.

I have never been in a hospital before :( I mean, I've visited people, but I've never been admitted or sat on a bed, etc. So I have a mini freak out session on the way to the car, but was over it by the time I got in. The doctor didn't think I would have to stay, just be there till my bp went down.

So off to the hospital we go (thank goodness Brandt has these new days off!) and I am put in a room (not a labor & delivery room) and they put the monitors on my belly to keep track of the baby's heart beat and mine, as well as the bp cuff, that goes off every 10 minutes.

After a little over 2 hours of this (man that bed was uncomfortable! and I now know to bring my own comfy pillow!) the nurse brought in my discharge papers and told us we could go! Labs all came back normal, and my bp was normal the entire time. It all just seemed so odd, but whatever. Doctor knows best, right?

Sooooo I have an induction scheduled for next Wed (Aug 12th) if nothing happens sooner. And now I know a little more of what to expect. And my dr is on call this weekend, so thats comforting, if the baby decides to come a little early!

And that's all I got!
Erin - bring your own pillow!!!