A Blog About Green Livin' and Raisin' Chicks in Arizona

Lil’ Peanut is finally fitting in her cloth diapers. (Her FuzziBunz one’s fit, the SunBaby’s are still a little large around the leg-gussets…)  I’m guessing she’s appx 8 pounds right now.

They’re bulky but they are fitting once I made the correct adjustments on the leg bands. Sadly, I think they may have fit her before too but I kept using the Sunbaby ones to try on her and forgot about the Fuzzibunz ones… That’s okay, at least we’re started!

So one thing of note… her newborn onesies are definitely not going to fit over the padded diapers, so I’ll be moving up to her 0-3 month clothes which are quite a bit longer and wider, and also will be looking for just shirts (non-onesies).

We’ve got to hook up the diaper sprayer as well, and I’ve got to decide if I’m going to do a dry pail or wet pail.

Let the laundry begin!!!

Thank Goodness for Sister-In-Laws!

I actually have 2, Courtney and Heather, both are fantastic Sis-in-laws, but this post goes out to Courtney for saving my sanity last night.

Going on Day 5 of being a new mom, I find myself either smiling insanely or crying insanely. Mostly tears of joy but occasionally tears of frustration from sleep deprivation.

Last night, Lilly was incredibly fussy and just did not want to be out of my arms.  I was beyond exhausted and while she slept soundly and happily as long as I was holding her, I found myself drifting off and then jerking myself awake out of fear she’d slide right off me and fall.

That’s when I remembered that I had the Moby Wrap still sitting in the closet, something my sister-in-law Courtney, writer/blogger of  Crunchy Beach Mama told me is one baby essential that no mom should go without. She was 100% correct.

I wasn’t sure if I should get one, I’m a big mama and I figured from all the cute pics of mama’s toting their kids around, that moby wraps were more fitting for, well, more in-shape mamas.  Courtney assured me that there was plenty of fabric and get one anyway. (By the way, she was right, more than enough!)

Lilly screamed while I had to figure out how to use it (problem solved pulling up a youtube video of it, ha!). Once I had her snuggled safely in, she instantly settled and sighed one of those cute adorable baby sighs that says “Thanks Mama, I’m okay now”… Phew!

I nestled into the couch, propped my feet up. Lilly was out in 30 seconds of settling in… I cat napped here and there, I still woke up but it wasn’t that jerking feeling of fear, but just to make sure that she was okay. It also made it so that I could get up easily and move about the house. It’s a little odd feeling at first but the wrap really does a great job of keeping them secure.

The warmth of her against me, and not worrying about her falling/sliding off was so incredibly relaxing, and it was a wonderful bonding experience.

Considering she slept on me like that for about 4 hours, I would say it made her one happy camper too.

Tonight she’s back to being passed out happily on her own and I’m free to move about and clean (and blog), but I’m telling you, that wrap made all the difference last night when there was just no way to settle her nerves.

So many thanks going out to Courtney for her advice, as usual. If you have  a chance, pop over to CrunchyBeachMama.com

or you can follow her on FaceBook at:

http://www.facebook.com/crunchybeachmama

She writes a lot about not only ways of living a natural green life with children but she does a TON of product reviews for various products that make being a mom easier (and tons of fun giveaways too!)

She amazes me all the time!

Yay, I'm Here! Time to sleep ZZZzzzzzz

So I’m taking a few minutes to post while my baby girl is out cold and share my somewhat weird labor experience.

On September 1st, Lilly Anne joined our world at 12:36am.

I was sent to the hospital for inducement on Monday at 3pm however my body was being completely stubborn and just refused to respond to the inducement techniques. (12 hour plug first with no response, then 3 doses 4 hours apart of pill, which got me to a 1cm, and then the foley balloon dilation.)

I had them epi me about an hour after the foley balloon was done. I handled the insertion like a champ but got hit with the pain about an hour into it and my blood pressure went through the roof and I kinda went delusional. Things weren’t right, it felt like I was outside of my body looking at everything from eyes in the back of my head. That was the ONLY bad experience I had though, and they got the epi in for me right away and I was right as rain within 15-20 minutes.)

Sometime Wednesday evening I finally got to 4cm dilated and they broke my water. That’s when my body finally ramped up and said “Oh! Okay, I get it now”. I dilated from 4 to 9cm by 11:30pm.  After a few more exams, just after midnight, the nurse said “Okay, let’s do a test push and see how this goes before I get the doctor.”

So, I get ready to go, start to push and they start yelling at me to stop!

Lilly was a little more anxious to join the world than we had anticipated.

The nurses ran and got my doctor, we waited for the next contraction and they had me push and she crowned… wait for next contraction 2 minutes later, push and out she came. Holy… Cow…

So, all in all, other than about 48 hours of being really annoyed, the rest was amazing.

Both Ray and I (and my doctor) had expected hours, not MINUTES of pushing. Ray had this look on his face like “What.. the hell… just happened….”

Then she was safe and in my arms… and I couldn’t be happier. Tired, but happy.