My Brown Eyed Girl

(about a week before she was born)

My Brown Eyed Girl

Three years ago today, it was a beautiful, sunny Saturday.  I woke up, felt a bit strange, but not too bad.  Went on over to my Mom's house for my normal Saturday routine.....eating breakfast with them and then cleaning their house.  I had my boys with me, Joey and Jake.  I kept having contractions, but thought they might have been Braxton Hicks.  As the morning progressed, they became stronger.  But, I was in no rush to get to the hospital, so I just kept cleaning and every so often would have to stop, bend over and breathe....then I just cleaned some more.  Finally, I decided I should be heading home.  I left my little Jake (age 21 months) with Mimi and Gramps.  And I asked Joey (age 15) to drive me home.  I had never let him drive me anywhere up until that point....he had his learners permit.  He was pretty excited that I let him drive.  I called my doula, Autumn, before leaving Mom's and asked her to meet me at the house.  (A doula is a birth assistant.) She seemed to think I was still doing pretty good.  I remember having to stop and get gas for the car....seemed like it took forever.  Got home, rushed around to pack my bag and gather baby things.  Autumn arrived, Lee was ready to go!  He was afraid I'd have the baby at home!! (I would have loved a home birth.)  I wanted to go upstairs and take pictures....I have beautiful pictures of me from the day I gave birth to my son.  Unfortunately, I couldn't handle the contractions too well at this point, so no pictures.  Autumn tried to check and see how dilated I was, but she couldn't tell....I thought she just didn't want to tell me that I was like a 3 or 4.  When we arrived at the hospital and they had me in triage, the nurse yelled for the doctor to come check me.....she said I "sounded like a 7".  I was actually at 8 cms!!  woohoo!  I was sooooo excited.  But, when I had Jake I was a 7 when I arrived and didn't have him for 5 hours.  So I was thinking I still had awhile.  Well, things began to move pretty quickly, they got me to a room and before you knew it....we became proud parents of our beautiful Julz Alaina.  Total time at the hospital until she arrived: 20 mins!!  Awesome delivery!  2/23/08 @ 3:36pm, 7lbs12oz. Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet girl.  

February 23, 2008

With big bro, Joey.  February 23, 2008

Giving sis her first present. February 23, 2008

I love this pic!!  February 25, 2008

Julz is a beautiful little girl with big brown eyes and light brown hair.  She loves all things girly....baby dolls, Barbies, Littlest Pet Shop, My Little Pony, etc.....but, she also enjoys playing cars, trucks, trains, monsters, etc.....she does have brothers!  She makes me smile every day.  She loves to color.  She can fold laundry almost as good as me.  She is potty trained!!  She loves us all, and has the best giggle in the world when we tickle her.  She likes zebras and pigs.  She is a people pleaser.....except when she is being Miss Independent and trying to get her way!  She does have a bit of a stubborn streak at times! 

~{{She makes our family complete.}}~

December 2010

My big 3 yr old!!

My Boy

January 23, 2007, from an older blog

 

My little boy is 8 months old, it is so hard to believe how fast time goes by.  Time flies when you are having fun is so true.  Well, okay, colic wasn't fun, but most everything else has been.  Sometimes I wish things would just slow down a little bit.  He is just so cute, all the different phases he goes through.  Like I never thought he'd get how to crawl, and now he is standing up by himself and "cruising" the furniture.  Last night and today he started to stand on his own from a sitting position.  Before he would just let go of furniture or something like that.  Now he can actually stand all by himself, it is just so cool!  Babies are amazing.  Think of how hard it is to learn something new and how long it takes sometimes to learn something new...and then consider all the things that a baby learns in the first year of life!  Amazing!  I am blessed to have such a fun, healthy, happy baby.   I could just spend the whole day playing with him and not doing anything else.  He is just so much fun to be around and so much fun to watch.  Tonight he fed himself peas, it was so cute, of course he was a mess, but it was cute!  And to think these little things would have excited me??  Wow!  Oh, and today I was looking at pictures of  him the day he was born and I can't believe how much he has grown!  I'm a proud mom, can you tell?!

Childbirth, breastfeeding, etc.

March 22, 2008, from an older blog

I educated myself quite a bit when I was pregnant, I had a doula (birth assistant), Degra, who helped me to learn about how natural the process of childbirth is, my husband and I attended childbirth classes and we went on to have a completely unmedicated pregnancy and delivery.  I had a wonderful team supporting me...my husband and my doula, as well as a great delivery nurse, she was very supportive of natural childbirth.  My doctor unfortunately was out of town and the doctor that delivered my son (I found out later), has a very high incidence of encouraging his patients to have epidurals as well as having lots of c-sections. My lactation consultant said his is the King of Interventions.  And my doctor was amazed that I had a natural childbirth with him there! It is amazing to me what a woman’s body is capable of.  And it makes me sad when women don’t educate themselves and just believe everything the doctors say.  I know that doctors are smart, but doctors are also in too much of a hurry.  When it comes to childbirth the doctors would prefer for you to lay in a bed medicated and quiet.  And if things don’t progress as quickly as they would like they give c-sections.  Don’t get me wrong, I know there are circumstances that warrant c-sections, and I know they can save lives.  But, I also believe that there are more c-sections done than needed.  If you are induced, if you have an epidural, if you don’t stand up for yourself, etc., these things can lead to c-sections.  Anyone interested in more info should look up ICAN (The International Cesarean Awareness Network) I also think that breastfeeding is best.  I  breastfed my son exclusively for six months before starting any solids, then we continued on until about 15 months.  It was wonderful.  I really enjoyed the closeness that I got to enjoy with my son.  I didn’t enjoy pumping when I was at work, but it was a small price to pay for him to have the best, healthy start to life.  For more info and support I recommend Le Leche League, I started attending meetings before my son was born.  It is great to have a support group before you get started, that way you can ask all of your questions.  There are many great books out about pregnancy, childbirth and breatsfeeding...if you are pregnant...you should be reading them!  And BabyZone website is an awesome place if you are pregnant or a parent!