First up:  Sleeping   The thing we were most afraid for was the sleeping part of babies.  We were prepared for the worst, and luckily, it hasn’t been that bad.  ::knocking on every wood surface I can find right now::

1.  Our glider is amazing.  I don’t know how we would have survived without it.  We rock Dayton until he’s 70% asleep or so and then put him down so he falls the rest of the way asleep.  The glider has already logged quite a few hours of feeding, napping, and book reading.  The cushion is nice and firm and has held up great so far.

2.  We got the Motorola video monitor.  Initially, we weren’t sure what we would want in a monitor — audio only, wifi compatible or a video.  Ultimately, we decided to go with the video monitor.  I am so glad we did.  Dayton makes a lot of noise when he sleeps and it’s great to be able to hit a button and see if he’s actually awake or just talking in his sleep.  Most of the time, he’s just talkin’.  It saves us from waking him up when he’s not actually awake and gives him a chance to put himself back to sleep between REM cycles.  It was also great to have the video capabilities during early weeks (he slept in our room for the pediatrician recommended 2 weeks and then it was off to his room) so we could make sure he was still breathing  This monitor was super easy to use, and I can operate while 89% asleep.

3.  The Miracle Blanket.  Dayton loves to be swaddled.  Early on, we used the Aden + Anais swaddle blankets.  We brought one to the hospital and it was great how tight we could get it…then baby boy started gaining some weight and muscle and he could bust out of  every swaddle we put him in.  One particularly fussy night, we decided to give the Miracle Blanket a try, it worked like a charm and we got a great night of sleep.  He can’t get out of it and sleeps so well in it.  I really wish we had used it sooner (I picked it up at a baby consignment store for the bargain price of $2.50) since it had been sitting in the closet for a good month before he was born.  Live and learn, and swaddle tight.

4.  His wubba nub.  I was first introduced to the Wubba Nub by my bff, Melissa, when we were on our Minneapolis shopping weekend last summer.  I thought they were cute, but at $15.00 for a pacifier, I wasn’t sure it was worth the expense for cute.  Then I had a baby…then I wasn’t able to get the hang of nursing my baby (story on that to come) and after his bottle he needed to suck.  We introduced the pacifier which was great, except he could spit that thing half way across the room and it only took 2 nights of trying to retrieve lost paci’s in the dark for me to get a Wubba Nub.  He has 3 now, which is great, he’ll always have one while the others are in the wash.  They don’t go on the floor very easy and he’s able to maneuver it himself since he can hold on to the soft stuffed animal.  The only thing I wish is that they detached from the pacifier.  Oh well, they are still well worth it.  We are Wubba Nub believers in this household!

Next up:  The Milk
Dayton and I could never got on the same page with nursing.  We tried, and during a particularly grueling day, as tears ran from my eyes all over his little head while he tried to eat, I realized something — I wanted my baby to get the benefits of breastmilk.  I didn’t want my baby to have his mom terrified of him waking up to eat on a daily basis.  So with that, we threw in the nursing towel and I started exclusively pumping.  With that, there have been several things I couldn’t have lived without.

1.  The PumpEase-  I spent my first 11 weeks at home holding the pumpers while I pumped.  I tried some hands free nursing bras (looking at you Medela) but nothing really worked.  Some I couldn’t get to fit, some didn’t hold the pumpers secure, and others were just itchy.  I was going to give making one a try, but I couldn’t find a sports bra that closed in the front and I didn’t have the mental capacity to make one that closed in the front.  Finally, the week before I went back to work, I read about the PumpEase and decided to give it a try.  Oh my goodness, I don’t know why I didn’t research this one more sooner.  The PumpEase is super comfortable, made of a lycra type material, very adjustable, and holds the ol’ pumpers secure.  If you’re going to be doing even a little bit of pumping, I highly recommend the PumpEase!

2.  The Hygeia Enjoye LBI –  I started my pumping journey with the Medela Pump-In-Style.  It was my cousin’s and I was happy to not have to shell out the dinero for a new pump.  Well, since I became an exclusive pumper, that thing was getting quite the workout.  Overall – I don’t really have any complaints, but as time went on, my body adjusted to the preset cycles of the Pump In Style and my milk supply was taking a hit.  I decided to do a bit of research and discovered that my insurance would  now cover a pump.  It’s been a debacle, once it’s sorted out, I’ll do a post all about it, but meanwhile, a good friend lent me her Hygeia.  It has gentler suction and customizable speed/suction settings.  Plus the fact that it has an internal battery is icing on the cake!  No more being stuck by an outlet!

3. Pacifier wipes-  I know you are probably thinking that this has nothing to do with milk, but a lot of times I have to pump where I don’t have readily available access to warm water and soap or a fridge to store my pumpers until the next session.  Pacifier wipes are great, I can quickly disinfect and have them ready to go.  I originally bought Medela pump cleaning wipes, but for half the cost, pacifier wipes do the same thing.

4. Dr. Brown’s Bottles – Everyone has their own bottle preference.  We settled on Dr. Brown’s.  As we were transitioning Dayton to bottles, we found that most bottles he could suck down incredibly fast (part of the reason we were not nursing compatible, kid was like a vacuum).  Dr. Brown’s were the only bottles we tried that slowed him down so he didn’t spit up.  We have about 10 bottles in rotation right now, and throw ‘em in the dishwasher on sanitize so all the pieces haven’t been to annoying.

5.  Dr. Brown’s Bottle Warmer –  This bottle warmer is awesome, easy to use,  and always heats the milk to a consistent temperature.  We’re lucky because Dayton is a good eater and will eat his bottle even if it’s refrigerator cold.  We’ve found though that he coughs less while he’s eating it if the milk is at least room temperature.  We’ve also found he sleeps GREAT if we bump the bottle warmer up past room temperature into warm milk.

6.  Munchkin High Capacity Bottle Drying Rack-  With all the bottle washing, we found ourselves needing a better drying rack solution than the dish drying rack.  Much to my dismay, the “Boon’s grass” that we originally tried didn’t cut it.  There wasn’t enough space and the air couldn’t circulate underneath so everything took forever to dry.  The double decker drying rack has been awesome.  All the bottles, parts, and pumps fit on the drying rack, and it circulates air well enough to dry everything.  It’s no where near as cute on the counter, but in this case, function over looks hands down.

Baby Entertainment.
I know this category will change quite a bit as Dayton gets older, so I thought it’d be fun to look at the most useful 0-3.

1.  Oball rattle-  Dayton got one of these as a gift from our friends Becky & Stu.  He loves it!  He can get his little fingers in all the holes and it’s easy for him to grip.  Bonus – it cleans up great in the dishwasher.

2. Rainforest Activity Gym-  I mentioned this in my thrifting post earlier.  Dayton loves the lights, sounds, and toys to bat at.  It’s good for at least 30 minutes of hands free mom time, so bonus there

3.  Ergo Performance Carrier- This was lighter weight than the traditional cotton ergo so baby and us don’t get as hot.  I loved the bright green color.  We also got the infant insert for it so this is the only carrier we used from 4 days old.  He loves it and it’s definitely given him a very strong neck.  The only downside?  He falls asleep in it every time so we can only wear him if we’re ready for him to nap.  Definitely a great way to get stuff done though!

4.  Sophie – He loves to suck on this Sophie and it has spots for both of his hands which he loves.  I’m guessing Sophie will only get more mileage as we get closer to the teeth!

Last up?  Diapering.
We are disposable diaper people.  I like the concept of cloth, but we couldn’t find many daycares that would do cloth diapers and the ones that would just toss ‘em all into one big bag.  I just couldn’t get psyched up to pick up Dayton at the end of a long work day and have to deal with a sack of dirty diapers.  That said, we have had to try a bit to find our perfect diaper/wipes combo.

1.  Pampers Swaddlers — LOVE these diapers.  The only thing we don’t love, they are definitely the most expensive of the disposable diaper options.  We haven’t had a single leak problem with these and generally, they don’t blow out.

2.  Luvs — These are a recent discovery for us, but so far, they seem to work really well.  They are about half the price of Pampers, so I see a switch in our future

3.  Butt Paste — Dayton hasn’t had too much diaper rash, but when he does, Butt Paste takes care of it lickety split.  Highly recommend.

4.  We use Huggies Natural Care wipes.  Dayton has my sensitive skin, and they don’t irritate him.  Plus the wipe is a little thicker so generally one gets the job done.  We just buy the refills and keep using the same container.

So there you have it, our 0-3 month must haves.  We’re approaching his 4 month birthday, so I’ll be back in a few months with our 3-6 month items!

What were your baby must haves for the first few months?  Anything I didn’t list?  I love baby stuff

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Good news friends, the longest, most painful 2 months of my life are hopefully behind me.

I hadn’t felt great since delivering Dayton…for the first 6 weeks, I figured it was just recovery from labor.  Then, at my 6 week check-up, I still didn’t feel back to normal, but my doctor assured me I would be soon…and I did, for a week or so I felt like I was on the way to being my normal self.  I even reactivated my gym membership and did a wonderfully energizing yoga session…I came home from yoga, ran around the house getting a bunch of things done, danced in the living room with Dayton in the Ergo, life was good.

My mother and father in law were planning to come spend New Years with us since we didn’t get to see them at Christmas.  We were going to have Christmas dinner, open gifts and spend time with their newest grandson.  We had also planned Dayton’s baptism for the following weekend.  I had realized earlier in the day that the baptism gown we were hoping Dayton could wear (the same one my sister wore), was too small.  I decided to run to the mall quick to see if I could find an alternative outfit for him.  As I talked to my mom on the phone and walked through the mall, I noticed a pain in my back.  I dismissed it as a random post labor pain and kept going.  By the time I reached JCPenny’s, the pain was radiating from my back down the front of my left leg.  It was intense and I had to hang up the phone with my mom so I could concentrate on breathing through the pain.  I wasn’t sure what was wrong, but somehow, I made it back through the mall and out to my car.

Once I sat down, the pain intensified.  I gave Steve a quick call and he came to pick me up.  Since it was the afternoon on New Year’s day, I decided the pain was bad enough I at least wanted to get seen at Urgent Care.  They diagnosed me with sciatic nerve pain (no surprise since I had that during most of my pregnancy) and gave me a shot of pain medication and sent me on my way.  I headed straight home to bed, and slept the pain medicine off.  Once I woke up, the pain was back.  Again, having never had a baby before, I was sure that I was probably out of alignment from pushing and once I got back in, I would be okay.  I made myself an appointment for a massage and the guy did a great job working out the ball of muscles that was the knot on my siatic nerve.  I was able to walk and felt relief for the first time in days.

Sadly, it was short lived.  I waited it out for another 3-4 days, not moving from bed.  Since Dayton was still home with me, having not started daycare yet, I set up everything I would need to care for a baby in our bed.  All I can say is good thing it was a king size bed!  Finally, after a week, I set up an appointment with my family doctor.  She gave me a checkup and determined I was out of wack and prescribed physical therapy.

I went to my first PT session, they worked and worked on my back, got everything back in place, gave me some exercises and had me plan to come in 3 times a week for a month.  I was diligent in what I was told to do, but wasn’t getting any better.  2 weeks into therapy, I still had to spend the entire day in bed and couldn’t carry Dayton without significant pain.  Then, the weekend we were supposed to have his baptism, it somehow got worse.  I went to my therapy appointment that Friday in so much pain I had to stop the car to throw up on the .5 mile drive to therapy.  They weren’t able to get me any relief and I left there as bad as when I came in.  I decided I needed to get to urgent care for some immediate relief.  They gave me another shot and it did nothing to abate the pain.

I came home, laid on the floor and cried and cried.  I wasn’t sure what was wrong, I was shaking and throwing up from the pain and I had spiked a fever of 102.  Thinking maybe I had caught the stomach flu (which was running rampant at the same time I was having my pain), I made another appointment with the family doctor.  She tested me and I didn’t have the flu, she also took several blood samples and determined I didn’t have: a thyroid problem, elevated white blood cell count (which would indicate an infection), or a bladder infection.  I stopped PT at this point because it wasn’t doing anything to help.

I started taking 800 mg Motrin 3x a day to help keep the swelling down and it seemed to be helping.  I had no energy, but I could at least get out of bed.  It still hurt to lift Dayton, and I was scared I wasn’t going to be able to start back to work.  I got him started at daycare and got myself back to work and made it through my first week and a half back with persistent soreness, but at least I wasn’t in bed.  I slept as much as I possibly could, any free second I had, and prayed my energy would return.

Steve had to go to California on a work trip and I was incredibly nervous about how I was going to make it with Dayton by myself.  Sure enough, my pain was back, I pushed through, was able to play with Dayton on the floor until bed time, then feed him and excruciatingly get him in his crib.  I sat on the kitchen floor loading his bottles in the dishwasher for the next day of daycare and then found myself throwing up and shaking once again.  Scared, I got myself up to bed with plenty of water and slept.  He must have known momma wasn’t feeling well because he slept from 8 p.m. until 5:50 a.m.  Thank you sweet baby boy.

I woke up without back pain, but a weird pressure in my abdomen.  It hurt less than the back pain though, so I decided that was good enough, got him to daycare and took myself to work.  The pain escalated throughout the day at work, and by the end of the work day, every step I took was excruciating.  Once again, managed to get Dayton taken care of and in bed.  I went to sleep the second he was asleep and woke up at 11 p.m. when Steve got home.  As soon as I woke up, I knew something was wrong.  Everything hurt and it felt so different than before.  The pain in my abdomen was so sharp I could barely breathe.  I tried to go back to sleep, but realized that wasn’t going to happen.  My pain was too much to ignore.

Grateful Steve was home, I got myself into the car and managed to drive at a snail’s pace to the emergency room.  I checked myself in and they came to see me right away.  I told them a brief version of the saga of the past month and a half and they got me an IV with some pain meds to get me comfortable.  We assessed the pain scale, I said that if we recalibrated it so that a 1 was labor, I was at a 9.  Yes, it hurt worse than giving birth.  The doctor came in and ordered a few tests — ultrasound and a CT scan to figure out if there was anything wrong.

Several hours later, the tests were done and the results were back.  While somewhat inconclusive due to what I am assuming was a sleepy ultrasound tech, they determine something was wrong with my left ovary.  They admitted me to the hospital and my OB/GYN was on her way to check me out.  The date?  February 14th.  So, New Year’s Day in Urgent Care, Valentine’s Day in the ER/Hospital.  2013 Holidays were off to a smashing start.

Steve came up and sat with me (and brought me flowers, smart smart husband) until my doctor arrived.  She said I had a 6 cm cyst on my left ovary, and while I would need surgery, it was not an emergency and I should make an appointment for the following week for a consultation.  Grateful to finally have a cause to my pain, but not grateful to have to wait longer for resolution, I somehow made it to our appointment.  She set me up for surgery and talked through the procedure.  She was going to try to just do a laprascopy and get it out so my recovery time would be minimal.

I was set up for surgery yesterday, February 28th.  Having never had surgery before, and generally being terrified of needles, I was scared to death.  I was scared I’d react to the anesthesia and I had dreams that they opened me up and couldn’t find anything.  Surgery day arrived, some tears were shed, and eventually I was on my way back to the Operating Room.  I woke up in recovery and the nurse filled me in — they got in with the scope and discovered that my appendix was abnormally long, it had somehow (no one has a hypothesis on how this even occurred) stretched from it’s usual location across my body and wrapped itself around my left Fallopian tube 3 times.  My doctor had to call a general surgeon to come in and remove the appendix.  He was able to get it out and told my doctor in the nearly 40 years he had been in the medical field, he had never seen an appendix do that before, nor had he ever seen one as long as mine.

Appendix cleared, they could see what they were working with.  What was originally projected as a 6 cm dermoid cyst, turned out to be much much bigger than they were expecting.  Instead it was a dermoid cyst somewhere between a softball and a grapefruit size.  My doctor told Steve that she was going to try her best to get it out without having to open me up, but wasn’t sure it could be done.  I won’t go into detail, but she did it!  I was able to come home last night and sleep in my own bed, though I was down an appendix, left ovary, and left Fallopian tube.

I am in shock how much better I feel.  I am sore from surgery, but it seems like a cake walk compared to the last 2 months.  My energy is back, my mood has improved and I feel like I will actually be back to myself very soon.  No one has any idea how/when all of that happened inside me, nothing showed up on any of my ultrasounds with Dayton, and I had never had a single problem before.  Very strange and I have never heard, “I’ve never seen that before” more times in a day in my life.  I am so thankful for excellent medical care and even more excellent health insurance.

So here concludes what I’ve been doing for the last 2 months…And if you made it this far through the story, lesson learned…3.5 months of excruciating, worse than child birth pain after having a baby.  So fun posts to come now that I am on the mend…including a Dayton update because he’s a few days shy of 4 months old!!  I can’t believe it!

Obviously, this was something I was PUMPED to do.  Sadly, the weekend got away from us, so we headed out last night to see what we could find.

Dayton’s ready to roll, and he’s got $20.00 in his pocket! (Don’t mind the spitup…ha!)

Our store of choice — Thrift World.

We wandered around, no purpose in mind…and stumbled on some awesome shoes with Velcro…

Sadly, they weren’t my size so I couldn’t rock ‘em like Macklemore.

You had a broken keyboard?  I bought a broken keyboard… (not really, but hey, at this point, we were having fun with the song).

Anyway, we didn’t find a darn thing.  I’m not surprised because that’s usually my luck whenever I go to the thrift store to try to find something.  This post is very boring though if we end there, so I thought we’d take a little shopping trip around our house and catalog some of my unsung, recent, thrifting finds.

First up – a Fisher-Price Stride to Ride Walker.  I know Dayton won’t be walking for awhile, but for $1.00 at the Goodwill, I couldn’t pass it up.

Next up in the “bought it for a buck” category –

This adorable Fisher Price tool bench has fold out legs for serious working, or it can fold up and be easily transported like a toolbox.  It has most of its pieces, and I’ve found several listings on ebay to fill in the missing tools.  Once he’s big enough to really enjoy it, I expect this will be a big hit…especially when dad’s busy working with tools as well

We aren’t good at buying Dayton age appropriate gifts.  Case in point –

He’s a few summers off from bike riding, but this bike is in awesome shape and was $2.50!

What little boy doesn’t need building blocks?  and bonus– this bag of megablocks was only $1.50.  Ran ‘em through the dishwasher on the sanitize cycle and we’re in business!

And last, but certainly not least, we picked up the FisherPrice Jungle Activity Gym for $6.00.  I have NO idea how we existed without it, it’s easily Dayton’s favorite thing in our entire house.

(The tiny waffle blocks were another thrifting score — $5.00 for an entire tub of them!)

So there you have it, $17.00 worth of thrifted baby goods.   Want to see what other people thrifted?  Check out the link party here.  Anybody else participate??  Find anything awesome??

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It was a dark and stormy night….no really, it was.  But before we get to that part of the story, we have to back up to Friday, November 2nd.  We had our last OB appointment.  I was at 4 cm’s already and my doctor was positive I’d be going into labor over the weekend.  She stripped my membranes and sent me on my way.  Steve went back to work and I was having contractions so I headed home.  Things seemed to be moving along and I was excited.  Steve got home and we decided to go to the mall and walk to try to get things moving.  I really wanted to Build-A-Bear with Steve for our baby boy and since I was having contractions, it was going to be too late pretty soon.

We stuffed our little bear, picked out some clothes for him and then filled out his birth certificate.  We had 3 potential names for Dayton…Dayton was our top choice, 2nd choice is still a secret and then the 3rd choice name was Emmett.  After some deep conversation in Build-A-Bear, we decided Emmett didn’t flow with our last name, so we named the bear Emmett instead.

Emmett waiting in Dayton’s crib.

I did not give birth in Build-A-Bear so we kept walking.  Obviously, Dairy Queen caught my eye.

Seriously, I still cannot believe how giant my stomach got.  Delicious nummy blizzard, but alas, I also did not give birth to Dayton in the food court.

We decided to head home.  To pass the time, I showered and decided to do my hair.

Fast forward several hours, I was still having contractions.  It was late, so we got all bundled up to do more walking around the neighborhood.  The dogs were confused, what were we doing walking at 2 am??  I was also confused…why are the teenagers of the neighborhood driving around at 2 am??  Does no one have curfew anymore?

And then around 3 a.m….it happened.  My water broke you ask yourself?  false.  Contractions just stopped.  They were at 6 minutes apart before they up and stopped without warning.

I went to bed hoping that they would start again, but alas, I woke up on Due Date Day (Saturday) and there was still a babe in my womb.  I promptly decided that due dates are the worst invention ever, because that was the longest.day.of.my.life.  Next time I have a baby, I am automatically adding a week to the date.  Anyway, since I didn’t lie to myself this time, I’ll fast forward to 11 p.m. Due Date Day, contractions started again.  I got up, showered, wandered the house and 5 hours later… they stopped.

Sunday I woke up “in a mood”.  I was really REALLY over being pregnant, I couldn’t possibly prepare any more and I just wanted to meet our son already!!  So I spent the day roping Steve into weird chores — we washed all of our hard wood floors, worked on our bedroom, napped, watched some movies and then at 5:40 p.m, we left the house to go to church.

As we were walking up the stairs to church, it happened.  A minute long REALLY REALLY intense contraction.  The first thought in my head — oh, this is the part everyone kept telling me about how I would know when the contractions were real.  The second thought?  I’m not sure I can make it through church.  My third thought?  What if these are fake again.  After standing outside for a few minutes, and having another contraction, we made our way back to the car.  We pulled in our driveway and I had progressed to 4 minute contractions.  We went inside and got our stuff put together.

Well…Steve put our stuff together (more on what I packed soon), I hung on to my “birthing ball” (aka yoga ball) and breathed.  After what was probably only 15 minutes, but felt like 8 years (did I mention I have a patience problem), we were ready and headed to the hospital.  It was cold, dark, and rainy and we got checked in around 7 pm.

As I walked from the ER to the labor floor, I had to stop for a contraction.  3 minutes apart.  We got to the labor floor to check in.  Does anyone know why they have to ask you so many questions as you stand there contracting?  I grunted, tossed my insurance card and ID on the desk and made Steve do the writing.  Paperwork settled, we headed to the delivery room and I changed into my hospital gown, climbed into bed and the nurse checked me.  I hadn’t changed from 4 cm, but my doctor told them to keep me anyway (you are supposed to be 5 cm’s before you can stay).  I loved my OB extra at this point.

Now, I had went through baby prep class and I was convinced my “go to” laboring strategy would be to walk.  I was on the fence of the “epidural vs. no epidural” club and was doing okay with the pain at this point, so the nurse waited to run my IV. I was cordless and wandered the deserted delivery floor.  I guess a rainy Sunday in November is not a hopping night for babies to get born…

I lasted exactly 15 minutes out walking before shuffling my way back to bed.  You see, I’m married to an engineer and the best way for him to help me through contractions was when he could see the monitor to tell me they were coming.  Trust me when I say we were all better off with me in bed, hooked up to the monitors and Steve talking me through it.

Why can’t hospital gowns be cuter???

Things escalated once I got situated in bed and while I didn’t have an opinion on pain medicine going into the hospital (I HATE needles in any capacity), I’m also super queasy and hate anything blood related.  Around 10 — I got an IV and some pain medicine.  I can’t remember the name, but it was effective for an hour.  It wore off around 11 and I got a second dose.  At 12 a.m., my water broke.  All by itself!!  It was a super weird feeling, accompanied by me nicely asking Steve (ha! but this is my story so I’ll tell it how I remember it.  I’m guessing it probably sounded more like a crazy person barking an order) to push the nurse button so she could check it out.

She confirmed my water had broken and I also had made it to 7 cms dilated.  I had one last dose of pain meds in my IV at 12:30 (contractions after your water break hurt a LOT) but they did NOTHING and by 1:30 a.m, the anesthesiologist was in my room prepping me for the epidural.  I was super nervous (needle + spinal column= yeeks!), but it was very smooth and he did a great job of talking me through it and I truly didn’t feel a thing.

What they didn’t mention about an epidural in birth class or in any of the books/videos I saw??  Once you have an epidural — you can go to sleep!  So I did.  Zonked out by 2 a.m.  The nurse came in and periodically checked me (and no I didn’t wake up more than to peek an eyeball at her and go back to sleep) and at 6 a.m., I was at 10 cm and ready to start pushing!  I pushed for an hour or so and my doctor stopped by.  She checked me and had me change positions since I wasn’t making much progress in getting Baby Boy out.  She said she had to go check some other patients and would be back soon.  I pushed another 2 hours when my doctor came back.  She gave me the options — either we were going to have to use a vacuum assist or have a c-section, but she couldn’t let me continue to push since we were at 3 hours.

Now — I didn’t have a “birth plan” and I had talked with her about my views on birth plans (as a summary — I think it’s too much of a potential let down to try to plan out something that I have no control over.  My birth plan was:  get baby boy here safely and both of us be healthy afterwards.  Some people are good with birth plans, ya know, whatever floats your boat!).  We talked about what she thought the best option would be and she said she was pretty sure we could get him out with a few good pushes and the vacuum assist.  So that’s what we did.

Here’s where things get a little scary…but don’t worry, you already know the ending.  Spoiler — it ends with a baby.

My doctor got ready to go and we were ready for a push.  She got the vacuum apparatus in position, the contraction came, I pushed and….the vacuum popped off.  I didn’t know that 1) they could pop off and 2)what would happen if they popped off.  I know I let out a scream, because I ripped (yep, felt it) and it made an AWFUL noise when it popped off and it startled me.  Next, things were a bit of a blur, Steve got  a little pale, and within seconds there were 5 additional nurses in my room holding my legs, giving me oxygen and telling me to breathe.  I had no idea what was happening, but I overheard the nurse call the anesthesiologist and line him up for an emergency C-section.

My doctor told me it was okay, and we were going to try again.  I pushed and pushed and…the vacuum popped off again.  Again, I wasn’t sure what was going on, but from Steve’s face, I knew things were going to need to happen fast.  A couple deep breaths, big pushes and baby boy made his way out.  I still have no idea how that happened.  Seriously, no idea.  I think she may have scrapped the vacuum and just pulled him out.  But regardless, he came out screaming.  Apparently I had an abnormally long umbilical cord and it was wrapped around his neck and feet.  I guess when the vacuum popped off the first time, his vitals took a big hit and Steve saw the monitor.  The look on Steve’s face was when he saw the monitor and the influx of nurses was to standby in case he took a turn for the worse.

Since we had to use the vacuum assist, Dayton had to go over and get checked out by the baby nurse before I could hold him.  Again, such a blur.  Steve and I were both in shock.  He headed across the room to meet Dayton and take some pictures to bring over and show me.  After some deliberation, we decided his name was definitely Dayton.  His initial Apgar was a 9 and the 5 minute Apgar was also a 9.  Baby Boy was alive, kicking, and strong.  His little cries were so strange and exciting to hear, I kinda hadn’t thought the day would ever come.

Eventually — after some cleaning up for baby and some stitches for me, I got to see my son.  I hadn’t cried up until then but holding that sweet tiny baby on my chest brought the tears.  He was so alert after birth, I couldn’t stop looking at him.  We nursed, recovered, and made our way up to the normal baby floor.

It was so surreal, and still kind of is.  My biggest fear when I learned I was pregnant was the fact that I was going to have to somehow get that baby out into the world.  I’m proud that I did it, I didn’t pass out, and baby boy is here, adorable and healthy.  Success all around.  I am in shock that it’s already been 9 weeks since he was born!

So there you have it, how Dayton made his way into the world

Our first picture together…I’m still in disbelief that I actually gave birth to a tiny human.  Anybody else birthing humans lately?  Preparing to? Surprised I managed to write 90 words in my sleepy stupor?  Me too.

As a recap, when we moved in, the light over our dining table looked like this:

Gorgeous light…this light drove me crazy every.single.day.  I thought of ways I could give it a makeover, but at the end of the day, I just hated it.  After (months) of grumbling, Steve thought he’d show me, took down the lamp and put up a single electrician’s bulb.  Joke’s on him, it bothered me way less than the offending light and so for the next 11 months, we had this beautiful light fixture in our kitchen.

We are decor trend setters over here in Omaha…feel free to copy our style.  Anyway, once Melissa picked a date and time for the baby shower, I decided we could class it up for company and deal with the light situation.  We searched and searched and tried several different light fixtures and couldn’t find anything that we liked that gave us enough light and looked good.  In the middle of our search (and Steve hanging and taking down multiple light fixtures) we discovered that it was actually wired for a fan.  We decided that might be the way to go.  We settled on this fan from Hunter and waited until one of Menard’s famous 11% back sales.

Installed it and SUCCESS!  It was enough to persuade me that the single bulb in the ceiling was SO 2011.

There you have it.  No more hole in the ceiling and we now have some top notch air circulation in our living room/kitchen.  Hot dang, we’re moving up in the world!

Want to see?  I hope so, I’m too excited to show you to keep typing about it.

View from the door… We got new blinds for in here, they were a great deal.  Real wood and on clearance at Lowe’s for $50.00.  We made some awesome curtains — blue zebra with a room darkening liner behind them to ensure optimal sleeping conditions.

I need some more art for over the changing table.  So far, it’s my bubble wrap art and a small whiteboard.  The dresser was a craigslist score for $10.00 that Steve gave a makeover too and we scored the changing table top at Nebraska Furniture Mart in the clearance center for $40.00 (normally $210.00 — who the heck would pay that just for a changing table top I’m not sure, but ya know…side note).  My mom and I made the changing pad cover during our weekend of sewing.  The orange lamp is from Ikea.

The glider is from Babies R Us.  You might recognize Ellie got her orange makeover.  I found the garden stool at Kirklands.  It was originally white, but I gave it a makeover so it would fit my nursery scheme.  I used the color “Eden” by, who else?  Rustoleum.  The blanket was a Home Goods find, and I also got some wall planters from Kirklands awhile back.  Some orange paint and I have handy, by the glider book (or whatever else I want to have handy) storage!

I need some stuff on the wall over the crib, but haven’t found anything that’s tripped my trigger yet, so it’ll stay blank for now.

The bouncer/rocker is hanging out for now, but I’m guessing this will move all over the house as we need it.  More orange planter storage on the wall for toys, and eventually I want to make some big comfy floor pillows so Baby P will have a little reading corner!

And a peek into Baby P’s closet.  I wrapped the shelves with wrapping paper to give ‘em a little color and got the blue storage bins at Target.  His clothes are organized in sections by size, with plenty of room to grow.

There are still a lot of little touches I would like to incorporate, but for now, I’m very happy with how it turned out.  This mama bird is happy to sit on her little nest and take it all in.  We’re ready for you Baby!!!  Come check out your cozy new room

Awhile back, I had pinned a link to a Football Blanket that was minky fleece on the front and football team fabric on the back.  Momma K decided that would be easy enough to make, and now Baby P has his very own Husker football blanket!

Here is a horrible picture of me opening it…

And a slightly less horrible picture with me, the grandparents to be, and Baby’s new blanket!  It’s so soft and cuddly and the cotton on the back makes it a perfect all purpose blanket.  I know it’s destined to be one of his favorites!

Want to make your own?  This tutorial seemed pretty darn good.  Quick, easy, and AWESOME baby gift, should you be needing inspiration for one of those

Without further ado…Shower #2!  My sister was so sweet to plan me a shower in Sioux Falls so I could celebrate with my family as well.  She was very top secret about her planning, I mean, how would you ever plan a shower without pinning a single thing??  I have no idea, but she did!

We kept the invite list small and man did we have fun!!!

First up?  The food of course  We had delicious fruit, bars, baby cupcakes (normal cupcakes with chocolate chips for eyes and pacifiers in their mouths), and Whoopie Pies.  All was delicious, but my favorite?  The blue “bathtub” punch she whipped up, I can’t even tell you how many cups I drank…Baby P was on a sugar high!  Recipe is adapted from here to be lactose free.

I also realized in the pre-shower prep that Steve and I don’t have very many pictures together…so we rectified that before him and my dad took off.

36 weeks, proud daddy  (You may notice he’s sporting a goatee…don’t ask… haha)

Once our guests arrived, we got to work.  Our first “game” — freezer meal prep!  This was seriously a genius idea if I do say so myself.  I picked out 7 recipes ahead of time that sounded good to me and my mom prepared the ingredients ahead of shower time (browned hamburger, boiled noodles, etc).  I did my best to pick recipes that used overlapping ingredients to make prep time easier.  Come shower day, there were 7 stations set up to prepare anything from Taco Soup to Lasagna.  Shower attendees split up into teams (2-3 people or so a team) and got to work.   Since it is just Steve and I, we put all the recipes in smaller containers — so 2 meals per recipe.  All in all, we put together 15 meals and it only took about 15 minutes!

My mom had pre-printed slips to tape onto the meals with cooking directions.  My Aunt Tammy and I ended up with too much baked spaghetti for two tins, so we went for a 3rd!

My mom had cleared space in the deep freeze, so we put everything in there and when my parents come down to visit Baby for the first time, they are going to bring us the precious cargo.  All in all, it was really fun, I’m REALLY pumped up at having food to eat, and Steve’s excited to not have to figure out what to cook for a few weeks.  Shower game win.

After that, it was time for presents.  Little sister had one more game up her sleeve, she passed out some BINGO cards to everyone and we filled in our cards with 25 different baby gifts.  As I would open things, people would place their stickers in the spaces to get BINGO.  She had prizes for the first 3 people to get BINGO.  There was a lot of strategizing going on and it was a great way to spice up present time.

I made more awesome present opening faces…like this one…while talking about what a white noise machine does and how it’s going to fulfill all my dreams for a good sleeper of a baby

All in all, it was a great time and I felt so blessed by such fantastic friends and family members.  I’m a lucky girl and Baby P is going to be so lucky to join such a large, loud, loving family.

Consider me showered!!!  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you everyone

And yes, as a side note, I’m way behind with blogging, we’ve been going like gangbusters over here trying to get some misc. things done before Baby arrives.  We’re wrapping the nursery up (just in time, right?) so updates coming soon!