Links to Amazon are affiliate links.
I know all of you know by now but I wanted to officially introduce our sweet baby girl to the blog world :) Brittlynn Avery Parker (Britt for short, but so far we are saying Brittlynn as it seems more natural) Born on Tuesday 12-6-2011 at 5:20 PM Weight: 7lb 13 oz Length: 20 1/2 inches I WILL be blogging the birth story soon! To hold you over until then, you can view the pictures our wonderfully talented friend (and Kye's teacher!), Autumn, took in the delivery room for us. They are AMAZING and totally made me cry my first tears since Brittlynn arrived! Can't wait to hear what everyone thinks! https://picasaweb.google.com/AutumnBlessingsPhotography/20111206?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIia_oa69oL83AE&feat=directlink #
Soooo...I'm about 99% sure I'm in labor! I mean I still have my doubts but with contractions coming around 10 min or less and lasting 1 min or longer, I think that means it's time. Plus I had my bloody show so it MUST be time right?!?! Went to dr appt this morning...Teresa was super sweet and checked me and I was -1 station, 90% effaced, and 4 cm dilated !!! I asked her to strip me but she didn't. She talked to me a LOT about inducing me on Thur since that's her day on call. We ended the session with a LONG prayer which I thought was beyond awesome of her!!! I debated about getting induced but decided I want it to be on God's time...not on her time, or anyone elses. Went to Chickfila and got Kye from Mrs. Charlotte. Ran to Dollar Store to get Kye's gift for the kids name he drew for his school Christmas party and started contracting there. Still went to swim lessons and started having regular contractions that didn't go away when I would move. Bradl...
We have done a lot of work in preparation for this baby's arrival! We also did a lot before Kye was born...but this time around we kinda waited till the end to do it all. Something about a second pregnancy, having a toddler, and just not feeling rushed! I originally wanted everything completed by my birthday (Nov 1st) then it got pushed back until I was full term (Nov 11th) then until Thanksgiving. As long as it was all done by Thanksgiving I was good...and it was!!! Yay! Here are just SOME of the things we did in getting ready to welcome our newest addition...we also did a TON of stuff to get the house completely DONE but that's really more house related and not-so-much to do with the baby (the baby coming was a good deadline though since a lot of people will be coming over and we wanted them to see our completed home vision when they come!). As Kye grew out of his baby items we took them all apart (especially took batteries out...you know to ALWAYS remove batteries bef...
The way Zach and I decided our holiday schedule it worked out where every Thanksgiving we spend with my family. Mom's side of the family does a BIG get-together every other year (the odd years the brothers spend with their wives families). Thankfully, this year was the "off" year. Since I was too far along pregnant to travel I would have hated to miss the big family gathering!!! We knew we'd all just stay local this year (a first for us!!!) and Mom decided to host it at her house. We were SUPER excited that two of my aunts decided to come celebrate with us :) Since I was a few days shy of 38 weeks pregnant we were busy busy getting everything done, hoping I'd go into labor that weekend with Stacy on call (obviously, that didn't happen). We spent the day prior to Thanksgiving working on stuff then hardcore cleaned the house on Thanksgiving morning (since Blitzen still isn't here I'm thinking the house could use another deep cleaning here soon). Aroun...
As all of you know, I breastfed Kye exclusively for 10 months (and had enough milk frozen to last him until a little over 11 months old). I was not a natural when it came to breastfeeding. I had just about every issue you can have! I'm VERY proud of myself for never giving up as I feel very passionately about the importance of breast milk for my babies! Since I've been through it all before you'd think I'd be a "pro" right? While I'm hopeful it'll come easier this time around, Zach thought it was important for us to take the Breastfeeding Basics course at the hospital again. I'm SO glad we did as we learned some new tips that I wish I'd remembered the first time. My goal this time is to make breastfeeding priority #1 from birth and to establish a positive experience from the start. When you're a first time mom things are crazy and it's hard to really focus on it the way you need to. Here are the notes I took from the first time ar...
