The best posts have pictures

I know that the above is true, and for the first three months, I probably ought to post at least onepicture of Daniel per week so all of his aunts and uncles along with his maternal grandparents can keep track of what he looks like but honestly, that entails dowloading pictures off my camera once a week. At this point, I am completely swamped and exhausted, (Did I think I was tired with seminary before the baby was born???) and I can't seem to think straight let alone make it to places on time. Also, I start teaching two online courses for an online school on Monday. With setting them up, I'm not sure when I'll get sleep. At least I will have fun in the process, right?


Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. . .

Having had the chance

Now that the baby is exactly two weeks old, I have had the chance to try out my wraps with him. I have to say that I LOVE them. I love them bunches. I have tried out both the woven wrap and the knit wrap, and they both have their pros and cons. I with the little baby, I like the stretchy wrap better, but I think that as he gets bigger, I will like the woven one better. I like the cradle hold in the woven one better than the cradle hold in the stretchy one because as I keep wearing it, he starts to fall in the stretchy one, but with the hug hold, I like the stretchy one better mostly because once he is in, it's easier to move him around and nurse him. I have successfully fed him in the wrap while walking through a restaraunt, and you couldn't tell. I'm VERY excited. So, for nursing and the versatility, I highly recommend the wrap out of all of the different types of baby carriers that I have tried. However, for the ease of putting it on and the versatility, I still vote for the Mei Tai. But for the ease of taking it with you and for the speed of putting it on and the speed of putting in the child, I recommend a tube sling. So, mostly, for the next little while, I will use the wrap. I think that when the baby gets older though, I'm going to put him in the Mei Tai more. It's easier to put the baby on my back. Right now, I'm worried about putting him on my back in the wrap. I think that I could do it in the Mei Tai. However, since my Mei Tai is in storage, I won't be using it until Daniel is about six or seven months old. I'm really missing it. :( But I do love the wraps. They make life so much easier. I do like the tube sling too, mostly for the cradle hold. One big drawback to the wrap is that it's so big! It's harder to fold up and put in the diaper bag. (Five yards is a LOT of fabric.) Another drawback to the wrap is that I can't hold the baby and tie it on to begin with at the same time. It's easy to do both with a tube sling, and it is hard but possible with the Mei Tai. So there you go, after a good chance to try out all three different styles, I have come to the conclusion that good baby carriers are necessities, and it's a HUGE blessing to have more than one style.

Sewing Instructions:

For instructions on an easy way to make a Tube Sling: See Here.

For instructions on how to sew a wonderful Mei Tai style carrier, see Here.

To make a wrap, just go buy five and half yards of fabric, cut it lengthwise down the middle, and then, depending on the type of fabric, either zigzag, serge, or hem around the edges. If you have a serger, feel free to serge around the edges of any type of fabric. If you want to buy a wrap, I highly recommend the Moby Wrap.

I do want to put an informational bullet in here about ring slings. These slings are the most versatile slings around because they are so easy to change the way you wear them in the middle. Also, they don't have nearly as much fabric as a wrap, but they tend to work like a mix between a tube sling and a wrap. However, I can't in good conscience recommend them because many of the companies who make them have been recalled because the rings have broken where the ring comes together on itself. I have been to scared to try one out, but I have seen how they work, and they are really an ingenious invention. There is a company that makes wring slings that I have not heard of a recall from. If you want to try out a ring sling, I recommend this company mostly because the local La Leche League sells them, and they are pretty picky about their choices. So if you want to buy a ring sling, I recommend a Maya Wrap. Also, their fabrics are lovely. So if you are in the market for a baby carrier for yourself or some new mom you know, try these out!

Coming Home

Our house is a whole new world after coming home from the hospital with Daniel than it was before we came. I think that I'm feeling it a whole bunch more this time because I am minus my mother this time. With each of my other children, my mama was there when I came home from the hospital, and maybe she buffered some of the hardships for me and my children. This time though, it's just my little family--my husband, me, and my three children. I have noticed that since we've been home, it seems like our life is all about relationships. I guess that I pictured that we would have to form a new relationship with the new baby, but at the same time, I am realizing how much it changes the relationships we have all formed.

I'm seeing that as Jackie and Ben form a relationship with the baby and as I take care of the baby, it also changes the relationship I have with them. They love the baby, but at the same time, it's hard for them because it's one more person to share my lap, and Daniel needs my lap more often than he doesn't. Daniel is a very happy baby, but he loves to be held all the time. I'm starting to get him to stay sleeping for short periods of time when I put him down, but there are more times than not that I can't. I am working to hold the other kids more when I don't have Daniel, and for Jackie, that is working out. My relationship with her has changed more though because I rely on her more. I know that she's only four, but being four, she can do so many things. She is so happy to go get me a diaper, and she's so happy to find the wipes. She's happy to go get Ben's hand and bring him back out of the bathroom while I'm feeding Daniel. She loves to help, and I find myself relying on her more and more to be helpful. I'm so grateful for her. Ben seems to be having the hardest time. He's much more clingy. Today, he needed to climb onto my lap and just watch TV, and then he really needed to be held while I was trying to pour him some milk for breakfast. He's having a hard time with Daniel, but Ben loves Daniel, and he is soft with him.

I love my little family, and I'm so grateful for the chance to have this peaceful spirit in my home. Here are a couple of pictures from when we came home from the hospital.

Getting ready to go home and waiting to be discharged.

Getting ready to come home from the hospital

On our way out of the hospital


Ben and Jackie building their relationships with baby Daniel, and how Daddy's relationships with all three of them are growing.

Introducing!!!!

Drum Roll Please. . . Now, if you aren't patting your hands on your computer table or lap, please do so now. Introducing Daniel Ammon. 8 lbs 2 oz, 19.9 inches long, born Jan. 7, 2009 at 2:57 am! Here are some pictures of my new cute little guy. I got some really great ones with Jackie holding him, too, but Ben doesn't really want anything to do with him, so we'll see how that goes. Happy looking!

In the Hospital

So, this is part one of my birth story for this little guy. Right now, it is 11:55 pm on January 6, and I have an epidural, cathetar, and IV inserted. I also have some internal monitors because had a C-section with Jackie.

I am, however, very comfortable, and I'm thinking of going to sleep, but I just wanted to get the story down up to this point first, and then we should have some pretty exciting news in a couple of hours. I think that I'll wait until a slow time tomorrow though before I write about anything interesting. . . Like the baby's details.

This morning, I went in for a routine OB appointment with the midwife, and I had been having a lot of lower back pain and contractions. I got in, and I was dilated to 4 cm. I was stoked because at my previous appointment, I had only been at a 1. I asked her if she would strip my membranes, and she did, and by the time I got home two hours later, I had had four pretty strong contractions. I started working to make sure that I had my bags packed and an overnight bag packed for the kids. I also got the carseat figured out and installed. Mostly, I just worked to get everything ready to take to the hospital. Around 4 this afternoon (after a trip to Wal-mart because I realized that ALL of my receiving blankets and my little head rest thing that goes into the carseat to keep the baby's head stable were in the storage unit.) I went to go get Rob from work. We came back home and loaded the bags I had packed into the car, then we drove to the town with the hospital. We decided to eat a good dinner first before going into the Dr, and I'm glad we did. I would have been starving by now. Then, we drove to the hospital and waited an hour for Triage to get a bed to be able to check me out.

The midwife came in, and said, "How are we doing?" The baby and I were fine, but the contractions that had been coming at 9 minute intervals suddenly stopped once I hit the triage bed. CRAZY! When the midwife checked me though, she said that I was dilated to a 5 1/2, and they admitted me to the hospital. They gave me some Penicilin because at the first of my pregnancy, I had a positive Group B Strep test. Then, they put me in the bed and broke my water. They broke my water around 10:30. If the pattern for Ben follows, I should have a baby by 2 am.

YIPEE!!!

How do I look?

Several people have asked me how I look pregnant and how big I am. Since I'm thinking this is about as big as I'm going to get, I had Rob take a picture of me, and I am posting it for your viewing curiousity. Since this is another picture of me, again, Mom, this one's for you!

This much fun for $3.50?

This is the all time best Burger King toy we've ever gotten. It provided more than an hour of outside fun yesterday. Yes, people, where we live, on January 2, it was 75 degrees outside yesterday afternoon. So, it was the perfect time to be playing outside. I was going to post a video of the fun, but I can't make it work, so you'll just have to do with the pictures.

This one is of Ben right after he shot his off. I love his expression!

Robert helping Ben wind up. Again, look at Ben's face!

Jackie standing on the back porch because then it has further to fall.

This one's for you mom. You are always wanting to see pictures of me, too, so Happy New Year!

Nesting, restless, and sleepless

I should have written this post at 4:30 am just before I decided to take a bath and a shower to try to relax, but I didn't so I'm writing it now because, I am feeling just as restless tonight. Last night, around 8:00, I fell alseep only to wake up at 10:00 to help put Ben back to sleep. Once Ben went to sleep, I couldn't. I put all of the new baby's (probably going to name him Daniel) clothes in his new little plastic set of drawers and got my suitcase packed to go to the hospital. My lower back just hurt and my stomach felt tight. I was having quite a few Braxton Hicks, but they weren't horrible. I just couldn't relax. So finally, after cleaning and reading and reading and reading some more, at 4:30, I decided to take a bath to try to relax. Then, I took a shower, and Jackie came into the bathroom and said, "Keep it down, Mom, I'm trying to sleep!" Once I got out of the shower, I went to lay on the floor by Jackie, so she could go back to sleep, and I finally fell asleep about 5:15. So, I got to sleep last night from 8-10 and from 5:15-8. . . I'm feeling very restless again tonight. What should I do if I can't fall asleep again?

The crazy thing about blogging

I thought of so many great posts to write just before and throughout Christmas. However, because of the beauty of the season, I wanted to be hanging out with the kiddos instead of hanging out on my computer. So, the truth about blogging seems to be that when we have lots to blog about, that's when we're not at the computer doing it. When I have tons of time to blog, I can't seem to think of the interesting things. I am hoping that sometime this week, I will sit down and write several posts and schedule them to post on different days. So in the end, I really hope to get some of the interesting stuff blogged about.

On a happier note, Happy New Year! It is now 2009!