Healthy Tipping Point

Hi, friends!  How are you?  Well, I’m having my first painfully sleepy day.  I am not really complaining because, well, I could’ve been painfully sleepy this whole time!  But Claire is proving to be a pretty great newborn sleeper, capable of a few long stretches at night.  We’re still working to sort out some of that daytime/nighttime reversal stuff; I think it’s as resolved as it can be for her age.  I’m also doing a few things differently with Claire than I did with Henry (swaddling from the start, not being afraid to use the pacifier occasionally, not rushing to pick her up at every single peep);  maybe it’s helping, maybe it’s not. 

Her sleep and eating patterns give me hope, though – it’s like I can already see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I thought I’d share some recent eats and treats.  I’ll be honest; my diet took a total nosedive during the last few months of pregnancy.  I wasn’t great about eating vegetables, and I ate a *LOT* of potato chips and chocolate and desserts (yummmm). I kept on telling myself, “You can clean up your diet when the baby is here!”  So that’s what I’m trying to do. 

I’ve made it a goal to have at least one salad OR one green smoothie with protein a day.  And I’ve been making huge sheets of roasted veggies to have with lunches or dinners.  I’m eating small but frequent meals because I’m pretty much hungry round-the-clock due to breastfeeding.  I keep Larabars and bananas next to my bed for late-night snacks, and I’m trying to nosh on snacks with a good protein/fat combo during the day, like apples and cheese or almonds.  You know – basic healthy food stuff.  I keep reminding myself that the better I eat, the more energy I will have.

… But I’m still finding room for treats.  Can’t eliminate them completely and would never want to!

OMG.  WINE.  When I was about 38 weeks pregnant, I suddenly “remembered” that I WOULD BE ABLE TO DRINK WINE SOON and was so happy.  Claire’s eating and sleeping has been so regular that I can safely savor a glass in the middle of the day – it’s pretty awesome.

Henry and I also made these delicious cupcakes – I have to share the recipe with you!  These cupcakes are Gingerbread Spice with Hot Cocoa Icing.

I used the Candy Cane Lane Tea Cupcakes concept but made the cakes with Gingerbread Spice tea – a straight replacement for the Candy Cane Lane tea.  For the icing, I didn’t add any tea at all but mixed into packets of Swiss Miss hot cocoa (and a touch more water). 

They were gone within the day!  I, for the record, only had two.  Hah.

Claire was born on Tuesday, but her birth story started on Sunday. I woke up with spotting, and some Googling revealed it was probably my bloody show (which I never had with Henry). I always thought a “bloody show” was a one-time, dramatic thing, but mine was slow and light and lasted until Monday afternoon (my due date!), when I had two hours of mild, short contractions. Those contractions went away the moment I got off the couch, so I knew that it wasn’t the real deal, although I suspected it was close.

When I crawled into bed on Monday night, I sent a silent prayer that my contractions wouldn’t pick up through the night. I really wanted a good night’s sleep!  Thankfully, I only had five or six contractions through the night, and although they woke me up each time, I slept peacefully in between.

On Tuesday morning, I slept in, coming downstairs around 8 AM. I helped the Husband and my mom with morning chores, fed Henry breakfast, and started to clean the kitchen. At 10 AM, my contractions came back. When the first few didn’t go away with activity, the Husband said I should start timing them.

The duration and frequency of the contractions confused me. They were far apart, but lasted a whole minute and felt really intense – and I’d only been experiencing them for 45 minutes.  It didn’t really match up with what Bradley Method or my midwives taught me, which was generally to wait to go to the hospital at 5-1-1, when contractions are 5 minutes apart, 1 minute long, and have been like that for at least an hour.

At 11 AM, I left the living room and went into my bedroom to labor in bed in the dark. One of my big goals for this labor was to completely utilize my Bradley Method teachings and totally relax my body through contractions. I breathed deeply and peacefully, relaxed my face, and zoned out through each wave; it really wasn’t so bad when I made an effort to release the rest of my body.  My mom hollered upstairs that she was going to take Henry to the park so we’d have the house to ourselves, and at 11:15, Henry came into my room to ask me, “Where’s my baby sister?” I kid you not!  We didn’t know the sex, but I swear that Henry did!

Mom and Henry left shortly after, and at 11:36, I had my last timed contraction – it was suddenly mind-numbingly intense and lasted 94 seconds. I immediately lost my peaceful cool and found myself in my bathroom, sobbing and moaning so loudly that the Husband SPRINTED upstairs (he was packing the car) to comfort me. I cried, “I NEED to go to the hospital RIGHT NOW. I think I’m in transition already!”  Transition is generally described as the hardest, most intense, most painful part of labor (although not everyone feels it the same way).

Bradley Method teaches women and their coaches that every stage of labor comes with ‘emotional signposts’ (here’s a good explanation of this theory). The emotional signposts for transition is fear, panic, and self-doubt. You’re overwhelmed.  Now, if you’ve read Henry’s birth story, you know that his transition was really hard for me.  So even though I had only been laboring for an hour and a half (it took me at least 7 hours of contractions to transition with Henry), I knew what was happening to me when I completely lost it in the bathroom. It was so instantaneous and intense that it HAD to be transition. The Husband leaped into action at my emotional signposts, helping me downstairs and into the car.

My contractions sped up in the car – they were 2 minutes apart. I gathered myself emotionally as we approached the hospital. When we arrived, we were whisked into triage. My midwife quickly did a cervical check and announced I was at 8 centimeter (you push at 10) – I was floored.  She said, “You better hustle into a delivery room!”

When I got to the room, the Husband immediately filled up the tub so I could labor in the water. I crawled in and experienced a grand total of ONE contraction in the water before I realized that I needed to get out and push (my hospital doesn’t let you push in the tub).  The urge was so overwhelming.

My second big goal of delivery was not to scream too much – I realize this sounds funny! I wasn’t gunning for some crazy silent birth or anything. But when I re-read all my Bradley Method books, I realized that I made WAY too much noise during Henry’s birth. I really think I wasted too much energy yelling, and that it was a huge factor in why I pushed for three hellish hours. So this time, when I started to push, I shut my damn trap and concentrated. I think I only yelled four or five times – I really made an effort to not expel energy through my mouth, and the Husband did an awesome job coaching me through that.

I ended up pushing for an hour, which certainly isn’t fast for a second-time mom. But still, I felt like I was a much more efficient and effective pusher – I asked the nurse and midwife to do a lot of coaching and really tried to follow all their directions every single time, like chin to chest, breathe and exhale, elbows out, knees back.  By the way – serious kudos to my awesome midwife and the amazing hospital nurses.  It took half an hour of pushing to naturally break my waters, which seemed to speed things up.  Towards the very end, I started to talk to the baby aloud – I said, “You will come out on the next contraction. This is it. You are going to be born RIGHT NOW.” It was probably a little funny to observe, but it worked – I felt that we were closer to the end.

Just four and a half hours after the first contraction in my kitchen, the baby’s head came out. Then I felt the shoulders release.  The midwife turned to the Husband and said, “Do you want to deliver the baby?” He gripped under the baby’s shoulders and lifted her out of me – it was amazing (and the nurse told me afterwards that the hospital hardly ever lets the men do that!). He gently pulled, placed her on my stomach, and choked out, “It’s a… GIRL!” My amazing and intuitive son was right!  It was a baby sister.  I felt my heart expand and explode into a million pieces – a sweet little girl for us all to love.

Claire was so alert, looking around with big, dark blue eyes. She stayed on my chest while they stitched me up (I tore along my previous episiotomy scar – boo!), nursed shortly after birth, and never left our room during our two-day hospital stay.  In comparison to how I felt physically after Henry’s grueling birth, I felt relatively great after Claire’s fast one.  If I hadn’t torn, I would’ve felt completely normal three days afterwards.  Such a difference!

When Kristien and I first started dating a decade ago, we fantasized about our future family and decided that, if we ever had a girl, we’d name her Claire Joy.  I truly always felt like Claire ‘existed’ – and now she really does. We feel so blessed to have her in our family.

Related Content:

Henry’s Birth Story, Part I and Part II

Pre-Henry’s Birth Review of the Bradley Method

Post-Henry’s Birth Review of the Bradley Method

Round Two of Our Drug-Free Birth Plan: What We Changed and What We Kept

Things I’ve Learned About Having a Newborn

This is a sponsored post.

Although we don’t live in a climate that guarantees we’ll be stuck indoors all winter, there are definitely more days than not that it’s too cold to venture outside – especially with new baby Claire!  It can be challenging to think of new games and activities for a busy toddler. So I thought I’d share the details of my favorite standbys (and an awesome monthly subscription service called Kiwi Crate), and then you guys can give me some suggestions, too.  Maybe we’ll end up with an amazing list of games and crafts for our little ones to do this winter!

Idea #1: Kiwi Crate Deliveries

I just got to test out a Kiwi Crate delivery, and I already know I’m going to sign up for a subscription. I may get a yearly box for my best friend’s kiddo, too – it would be a wonderful holiday present and way more fun than a toy that she’d get bored with in a month! 

Basically, it’s a monthly subscription service that provides all the materials for a creative, educational series of age-appropriate crafts and games (the boxes are targeted towards 3 – 4 year olds, 4 – 8 year olds, 9 – 14 year olds, and 9 – 16 year olds). The subscription includes free shipping and can be shipped to US and Canadian locations.  Each month, there is a different theme – this month’s 3 – 4 year old box was colors!

The box included materials for three suggested activities – watercolor paint, crayons, colored screens, a color block for a color-seeking game, string and paper triangles to make into a banner, and more.

The paint was, in particular, a huge hit with Henry, who at 2.5 is juuuust getting into the idea of using a paintbrush.  He had SO much fun testing the crafts, which will provide hours of activity.  I LOVE the idea of getting an organized box sent to my house – it’s instant fun!  It’s aweeeesome that I don’t have to plan and shop for new ways for Henry to learn and play; it just shows up at my door.  With a newborn in the house, this is going to be more valuable than ever.

Kiwi Crate plans start at $16.95 a month (and you can do a “sibling ad-on” options so the boxes are “no fight”). If you want to try Kiwi Crate out for yourself (or as a gift – what an awesome present for a kiddo!), click HERE and use the code HTP60 to get 60% off your first crate!!   You can see examples of popular past Kiwi Crates right here – it’s a really cool concept!

Idea #2:  Bathtub Painting

This is especially great if your toddler is a bit young, as normal fingerpainting can get messy fast.  I simply put a diapered Henry in the bathtub and hand him some paint – sometimes, it’s real fingerpaint, and sometimes, as in the photo above, it’s actually ketchup!  Mustard works, too. I love this activity because it’s totally messy fun but very, very easy to clean up. 

Idea #3: Help You Cook

While you can let your toddler ‘help’ you with a lot of baking and cooking, so much of it has to be very closely supervised (like measuring and dumping flour and sugar for cookies). But I’ve found a few cooking activities that don’t require me to be on top of him through the whole process – which is nice because I can multitask washing the dishes or cooking the main part of the meal. He loves to: 1) cut a peeled banana into slices with a butter knife and 2) take pre-chopped potatoes, broccoli, carrots, or other roasting veggie and dip each into a bowl of oil and then place the piece onto a cooking sheet. Also – he’s more willing to eat the vegetables he ‘cooked’ himself.

Click through for 5 more fun ideas!

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Claire is four days old, and the entire family is adjusting to this new and awesome (and exhausting!) version of life.

We spent two nights in the hospital (I can’t wait to share our birth story sometime early next week – spoiler alert: it’s a super short story!) and came home on Thursday afternoon.  Henry and Claire met in the hospital, and I have to say that THAT aspect of having another child has gone so much better than I thought it would.

He’s woken up every morning and after every nap and immediately asked to see her.  He’s fascinated by her poop (“My poop is brown and Claire’s is YELLO!!!”) and likes to hold his feet up to hers to see whose is bigger (he always wins!).  I think we’re still riding a wave of “I’m so happy Mommy and Daddy are back from the hospital!” so we’ll see what happens when we all settle into a more normal routine.  But so far – things are pretty awesome, and I’ll take it while I can!

Claire is still SUPER sleepy.  She’s happy to sleep for long stretches, but most of that has been happening in broad daylight when I’m awake anyway.  Her eyes POP open in the middle of the night, and then it’s harder to settle her.  We’re riding out that classic newborn day-night reversal, which I truly hope stops soon.  The nice (and bittersweet) thing about babies is all phases (whether good or bad!) are so short, so I just keep telling myself that it will be over before I know it. 

Breastfeeding is going pretty well.  We’re facing some of the struggles that I encountered with Henry, but half of the battle has been knowing what the issues will be.  It’s a lot less anxiety-producing the second time around, and dare say that I’m actually enjoying it.  Like the day-night reversal thing, I’m just telling myself to try to get over the initial challenging hump of breastfeeding (short feeds, cracked nipples, falling asleep in the middle, cluster feeding, engorgement <— pretty much got it all!) and that it will eventually get easier.  Fingers crossed!

And last, but not least, I’m recovering well from childbirth.  I’m going to write about this in my birth story, but the difference between 14-odd hours of active labor with an extended pushing period and a very short, fast labor is huuuuuge.  I walked out of the hospital feeling pretty much like my normal self, while after Henry’s birth, I felt (and looked) like I had gotten hit by a truck.  I keep comparing it to completing a Half Ironman v. a casual 5K.  It’s not even on the same field in terms of how your body feels after.  It’s pretty nice to know (and share) that even drug-free childbirth doesn’t have to be this horrible, excruciating process – even though I plan on NEVER doing it again.  Hah!

What else?  Well, my biggest challenge with recovery this time has been forcing myself to rest.  With a toddler in the house, it’s tempting to get back to “normal life” and do Henry’s care, despite having the Husband and my mom here to help.  I ended up pushing myself way too hard yesterday and largely confined myself to the bed today – I don’t want to accidentally make my healing time twice as long. 

Last, but not least, I’ve got my placenta pills!  Both with Henry and Claire, I had my placenta dried and encapsulated by a local company called Wombmart (I can’t recommend them enough). It’s a Traditional Chinese Medicine philosophy to ingest your placenta to ward off PPD, support breastfeeding, and sped recovery, and although the Western science on it is inconclusive, I’ve always thought “Why not?”  It’s kind of strange, but it can’t hurt to try it.  I got a grand total of 129 pills out of my placenta – pretty cool!

So – that’s what we’re up to.  It’s a crazy, but special, time in our household.  <3 <3 <3

Hope all is well with you, too!