Nursery Reveal

Better late than never right? Bud turned 2 months last week, but considering he has only slept for about 2 hours in here our gorgeous nursery hasn't gotten a ton of use. Well the glider has, but not the crib.

I chose all of our fabrics before we knew the gender but could have made it all work had Bud been a girl. I didn't want any type of theme - no baseball, puppies, or licensed anything. I just went with colors and patterns I liked and couldn't be happier with the end result!

The 360 view:







Here are some of the details and where I found things (no affiliate links here):



Yes, I know the cords and the ceramic birds will need to go soon. For now I like to look at them (the birds, not the cords).




Crib is DaVinci Rivington and I bought from Target (we put felt things on the bottom of the legs because it marked up our new floor)

Side Table from Target

Orange mirrors are from Ikea and the little animals are from my baby shower

The burlap banner is his name and was also made at one of my baby showers

The Texas wooden canvas I made using Baby Rabies' tutorial - I used an all white wood canvas

Crib Skirt tutorial can be found here

Crib Rail Cover tutorial can be found here

The quilt was also made from the same fabric collection by my mother in law.



Dresser is from Ikea as are the teal organizers (we have them in the drawers as well)

The changing pad cover tutorial can be found here



The three prints were purchased from Etsy:

Hot Air Balloon
3 Little Birds
ABCs



The chair is my love but was such a pain to find. It glides and fully reclines and is sooooo comfy. It's sold under about 20 different names. I bought mine from Bambi Baby.

The blanket on the back of the chair was a wedding gift from friends and the heart has our names and wedding date on it.

The curtains we made, but there's no tutorial.

Rug is from Momeni and can be found here or from other online rug retailers.



This growth chart was a gift at my never blogged about Blogger Baby Shower and is by Oopsy Baby. It's canvas and adorable and happened to match my nursery perfectly.



Our house has 3 of these gorgeous plantation shutters. I eventually want to build a toy chest in this area. We'll also put closet doors on this closet. The doors were broken when we purchased the home.



Both closets are mainly storage, but I'm working on a play mat out of matching fabric to put onto the floor of this one to turn it into a little reading nook. I'll post a tutorial and link back whenever I eventually do it. We're not going to put doors on this one.

Overall I absolutely LOVE how the nursery turned out. I wanted something that was serene and comfy and that me and baby boy would enjoy spending a lot of time in. I think it's bright and cheery without being overwhelming.

Two Months Old!

Bud,

You're two months old!



I waited to write this because you had your two month appointment today and I wanted to include all your stats from your visit. Then you were just a busy and active boy all weekend and it's delayed this post a little bit more.

I can't believe how much you have changed in just a month. You weigh just shy of 13 pounds, 12 pounds 15 ounces to be exact. You've also grown a whole 4 inches since birth and are now 24 inches long. Everyone comments that you look so tiny when they see you but I think you're getting to be a little chunk-a-munk. I think it's because you're just so long.

You really did start to fill out this month and are starting to get little fat rolls. You have grown out of all your newborn clothes and I had to pack them all up. You're also mostly out of your 0-3s and have moved into 3-6 month clothes. We also moved you up to size 2 diapers.



You really started to smile this month too. I joke that we get the best smiles when we're at Target, but really I get them from you all the time. We start most mornings with what I call happy baby time. You just like to giggle, coo, and grin during that time. You love it when I tickle your face with my hair. You've even looked at it a few times and let out a little yell just so that I'll tickle you again. You also love to get kisses. You've started to mimic some of our facial expressions and kisses is one of them. You don't know how to do it, but will just open your mouth when we go to kiss you. It's the cutest thing. You've also started sticking your tongue out at us when we do it to you. It's just a tiny movement, but you've got the general idea. You will also blow spit bubbles like nobody's business. I tell everyone that it's your new trick.



You have gotten a lot better at your head and neck control. You can hold your head up for longer periods of time and when we hold you. You still bobble here and there though and have given me a few good headbutts. You are still the world's biggest wiggle worm. You wiggle wiggle wiggle just all the time. Sometimes all the wiggling gets to you because you don't know how to control it. We still keep you swaddled at night because of it and whenever I can tell you're getting overwhelmed. You have discovered that you have feet, hands were last month. You have figured out that you can hit or kick things but it's more accidental rather than purposeful. You get so proud of yourself when you are able to hit something though.

I can't believe how fast time has gone. I'm still having some health things that may keep me out of work longer. We're still not for sure on it, but I wouldn't mind one bit getting to spend more time with you. If not I go back to work in just 3 weeks and that is 3 weeks too soon! I never thought I'd enjoy staying home with you as much as I do, but I just love seeing you grow and change everyday.

Love you Bud.

Postpartum Recovery

I've had this post written in my head for awhile, but have been waiting for my 6 week follow up appointment with my midwife to do so. Really it was at almost 8 weeks and happened last week. I just had to go back due to some pain I'm still having, and tomorrow I meet with one of the OBs in the practice. The pain seems localized, but she's going to try to pinpoint it and then will give me a steroid shot. Yes. A shot. Up my hoo-ha. Ow doesn't begin to cover it. If that solves it then we're good. If not then we'll have to do further testing. It seems to be located near my pelvic bone in an area that went under a lot of manipulation both during delivery and when they we shoving my lady parts back into place.

I won't lie that recovery for me has been hard. I mean, having your uterus fall out as part of delivery is really not easy, but had I just had a normal delivery I still had a 3rd degree tear to deal with. Here are a few things I tried to do to make things easier once I got home. It's not just about prepping for the baby, you need to prep for yourself.

Before we left the hospital I forgot to ask for another dose of pain medicine. We had to move rooms on our last morning (they were renovating some of the rooms) and then we thought we were going to be home a lot earlier than planned, and I just kind of forgot. If you're in pain - don't forget! We dropped my prescriptions off on the way home and then John left again to go pick them up. I was pretty much dying by that time though so don't make my mistake.

If you've been prescribed pain medications or if you're even just taking ibuprofen be sure to keep yourself medicated. Don't try to be a hero. You've got enough to deal with that first week and shouldn't be in any type of pain while you're trying to deal with it. For me this included taking meds in the middle of the night while feeding Bud.

Take all the free stuff they send home with you. I stayed in labor and delivery overnight and took everything with me from there to the postpartum floor. I had a room stocked with everything I had taken with me so I pretty much had double. I also asked for extras of the mesh undies, tucks pads, and the dermoplast. I know some people HATE the mesh undies and the hospital pads, but I loved them. I wanted to cry when my stash of hospital pads ran out and I won't lie that I washed those mesh undies to extend their life.

The first thing I did when I got home was to make a station in the bathroom for myself. I had a stack of pads always ready to go, tucks pads, peri bottle, and dermoplast set up on the back of the toilet.



I had also bought pads beforehand. If there's something specific you need get it beforehand. You don't want to have to sit there on the phone with your husband having him describe the different pad options to you. I will say that my favorite pads were these overnight pads by Kotex. They were just about as long as the hospital ones. I've since graduated down to their regular long maxis but those overnight ones were perfect for the early days.

I set up my closet with easily accessible comfy clothing. For me this was shorts, tanks, nursing bras, and yoga pants.



My wonderful mesh panties also lived over there and I bought a huge pack of cheapie cotton undies that I didn't care about messing up beforehand as well.

I knew I'd be spending a big part of my day in bed so I made sure I had everything I needed nearby.



The teal box contained all my nursing supplies:
Bamboobies nursing pads - I LOVE THESE
Earth Mamma Nipple Butter - another all natural love and their baby lotion smells WONDERFUL. We also use their diaper rash cream.
Nursing cover - which I've never actually used, but bought in case visitors were coming by in the early days
Lilypadz - I don't use these as much, but love that I don't have to wear a nursing bra with these. Sometimes it feels nice to not have to wear a bra. They make my boobs look a little misshapen, but I think it has to do with the size of my boobs and I'm still in stretchy bras. I'm sure if I wore them with a more structured bra you wouldn't notice.
Water bottle - I'm always thirsty and it's important to keep up with your water intake when breastfeeding
Ipad, phone, and chargers
Kleenex, glasses (for me at least) and lotion - you'll need it with all the hand washing you'll be doing.
On the bottom of my night stand I have a book - I've never had time to read
and my breast pump - I've got an Ameda Purely Yours Ultra and so far it works great. We'll see how it does when I get back to work
I also have a hands free pumping bra - another favorite
Not pictured is a pen and note pad. This was so handy for the early days when I was scheduling mine and Bud's appointments and following up with insurance

Bud sleeps in a bassinet by our bed. Ours has a little shelf on the bottom that I've stocked with everything I need for him:



Swaddle Blankets - We were gifted 3 sets of Aden & Anise swaddles and I LOVE THEM. They are seriously the perfect size. Bud pretty much lived in nothing by one of these blankets and a diaper the first two weeks of his life.
Also down here are the flannel blankets I made, a few outfits, plenty of burp cloths, and an extra sleeve of diapers.
We also have two little trash cans nearby and take the trash out daily.

The middle of the bed we made into our changing station. Who wants to search around for diapers and wipes in the middle of the night? (Napping baby not included - don't ask how he got his feet free. Usually it's a hand.)



We have a little container with diapers, a package of wipes, a burp cloth or two, an extra pacifier (one is usually in the bassinet or on my night stand), and the remote - another thing you don't want to have to search for.

Bud is also napping on a waterproof bassinet sheet. One is obviously in the bassinet, but the extra is great for naps. You never have to worry about spit up, pee, or poop on your sheets. Well, you worry less than you would without it.

In those early days Bud would sometimes be up for hours at a time during the night or was just really fussy so we spent a lot of time in the nursery.



As big of a pain it was to find and eventually get that glider, it's probably my favorite baby purchase. It fully reclines and I've slept in it numerous times. I keep a blanket on it for when I get chilly.

I keep a few things nearby for when I'm stuck on the recliner for hours.



I had originally planned on putting a larger lamp in here, but have this little touch lamp that has three different lighting settings. It's SOOOO helpful and I love just having it on the dimmest setting.
Alarm clock - or really any clock. I don't use the alarm part, but it's easy to keep track of time, and feeding lengths when I'm in here. Plus in the early days I was never really hands free so I couldn't check the time on my phone.
Burp cloths - no explanation needed
My Breast Friend Pillow - I was given this by a friend and it's what I used in my early nursing days. It makes it so much easier to nurse and I still prefer it when I'm sitting. In bed I prefer to use my Boppy.
The top drawer of the dresser is full of diapers and the changing pad is right there for any late night diaper changes.

Obviously having lots of help is also great. John and I really wanted it to just be the three of us that first week. My mom came down the second week while John went back to work, and then he was home again the 3rd week. Around 5 weeks Bud wasn't sleeping and my mom came down again. John also took another week off somewhere in there. The more you can spread out your help the better. Don't turn help away - even if it's just to do a load of laundry or wash dishes for you. Also don't be afraid to ask for help! You will need it and you won't be failing at anything for asking or accepting.

Also, none of those links are affiliate links. I've tried and love all products mentioned.

DIY Adjustable Crib Skirt

This is the last project and then I can finally do a full on nursery reveal. We also sewed curtains, but I have about two pictures of the process and none of the measurements. We did line them so they're thicker and don't let as much sun in and each panel is the full width of the fabric - I think it was 44 inches.

When we made the crib skirt, I wanted something that I could adjust as the mattress moved down. We sewed three individual pieces and sewed ribbons into the top seam so that we could adjust it.

First off you'll want to measure your crib. My short sides were 27 inches and the long side was 49. With the mattress at the highest setting it measured 19 inches long. We had 1/2 inch seam allowances on the top and each side, and a 3 inch allowance on the bottom. You want a larger seam on the bottom so that the skirt sits pretty.

Pin and sew your seam allowances except for the top.



Place pins where you want your ribbons to go on the top piece. We took the piece to the crib so we could place them where the rungs would let us. To make it easy we placed the two short pieces together so we didn't have to measure twice.



Then just tie your pieces to the outer portion of the crib rail.



Mine did have a little bar that we had to work around, but we just tied around it and it still lays flat.





Now as you move the mattress down, just move the ties back as you go so the skirt doesn't bunch on the ground.

Breastfeeding Update

Breastfeeding for us started off rough. You can find my previous post here.

I want to thank everyone for their support from that post. I wrote that at probably my most hormonal and I knew I was a hot mess at the time. I wanted to capture everything we were going through at that time, hormones and all, so I'm glad I have that post to go back to.

Right now breastfeeding is going fantastic. We have improved our latch and Bud is a champion eater. He can knock out a feeding in about 6 minutes flat. Here are a few things that we did to help our current success:

My nipples were so beat up that I stopped breastfeeding and started pumping and exclusively bottle feeding. He was only 8 days old at the time so my supply was still all over the place. To establish a good supply I pumped at every feeding. It really helped having my mom and John around to help me during this time. Pumping isn't fun, especially when your beat up, it's the middle of the night, you just had a baby 8 days ago, I could go on. I think this helped to make the supply I have - which is really an oversupply. Poor kiddo can sometimes pop off coughing my let down can be so great.

We had thrush. I received antibiotics while in the hospital. While I don't usually have a problem with taking antibiotics, I received some pretty heavy duty ones. This is one of the reasons why my nipples were in the state they were in. The lactation consultant that I spoke to suggested both Bud and I start probiotics and I did a vinegar wash on my nipples after each feeding. We kept this up for 2 weeks and are now free and clear.

I sought help. Our pediatrician, my midwives, the lactation consultants, and friends and family were all so supportive during this time. Breastfeeding is HARD. It requires support. This one I cannot stress enough. If you're having a hard time, get help, and keep getting help. If one route isn't working, try another. We're lucky that all our sources were fantastic, but I know many that didn't get the same help. Keep trying.

I lowered my expectations. I walked into one of the lactation appointments and said, "I just want to not be trapped under a baby all day and I want to be able to feed him when we're out." Bud was around 2 weeks old at this time and the LC said to me, "Honey. You're setting your expectations way to high for this point in time." You have NO IDEA how much I needed to hear that. That was the one thing the books and the classes never said to me. The first two weeks SUCK. You're sore. You are trapped under a baby for what seems like 24 hours a day. You're basically topless the whole time. You want nothing more than a tiny bit of normalcy and you can't get it. THAT is what needs to be in the books and said in the classes. Instead I got a lot of, "look at all these holds! You'll be a master at each!" "It won't hurt with the right latch!" For someone like me that set my expectations crazy high when that is NOT the reality. Can you eventually get there? Maybe, but certainly not 8 days in. I want to hug that LC every day for giving me that bit of advice.

Bud still gets the occasional bottle because I do need a break every now and then. Plus it lets John feed Bud and get to bond with him. The LCs did go over bottle feeding with us. Whether that has helped with him being able to go back onto the boob with no problem I don't know. He went from nothing but bottles for just over a week, to almost all breastfeeding like it was no big deal. He gets maybe 2 bottles a week now. When we do feed him with a bottle - especially in those early days we draw it out to be as long as a breastfeeding session would be. We'll pull back on the bottle, we don't just let him suck it down. So far, that's worked for us.

I also do weight checks with him to set my mind at ease. He was feeding so fast I wanted to make sure he was getting enough. Many Lactation Centers will let you go in without an appointment for a weight check. I just go in, weigh him, feed him, and then weigh him again. It just showed me he's a little power eater. I don't mind because at the longest he'll feed about 10 minutes. Not everyone is that lucky, but it does help make the 4 am feedings a little easier or when we're out and about.

I've always heard of all the ups and downs of breastfeeding, but experiencing them, especially when you're a hormonal mess, is hard. Making the decision to feed him expressed milk was hard. Anytime we were out I wanted to shout, "It's breast milk in there!" Just trying to search for information about exclusively pumping was a challenge. KellyMom is such a fantastic site for breastfeeding in general and this link and this one had great info on EPing.

Finally if you're in San Antonio I cannot speak highly enough about the LCs at the Methodist Women's Center. They were referred to me by my pediatrician. It's a free service. They were such a great help in person and would also call to follow up. Another great plus, especially if like me you're plus size in the chest department they have the full line of Bravado nursing bras in stock. I've also found them to be less expensive than I've seen online because they often have them on sale. Trying to find a larger sized nursing bra, that I could actually try on in person, was pretty much impossible. For some reason San Antonio doesn't feel the need to have a specialty bra store. Plus the LCs were able to recommend a bra that would work best for early on and one that would work better later. Definitely check them out if only for that reason!

Holiday Ole Market Sneak Peek

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Last night I was able to go to the Sneak Peek of the Junior League's Holiday Ole Market.



Shopping days are:

Thursday, October 3: 12 pm - 10 pm
Friday, October 4: 10 am - 9 pm
Saturday, October 5: 9 am - 5 pm

Strollers are allowed every day and parking is FREE! To get tickets head over to the Junior League website.

Here are a few things that are in store for you at this year's market:





I can't believe I didn't go back to get that teal and brown scarf!



There are little cookie mixes in these balls.







How cute are these teddy bear fish tanks?





Meals in a jiffy. These would make an awesome shower present.







I snagged one of these plates. They grate garlic, ginger, chocolate, you name it and doesn't grate your fingers!





and finally if you need something to wrap all the amazing gifts you just bought there is even some really cute wrapping paper!



If you get a chance go check out the Holiday Ole Market! All of the proceeds go to the over 60 organizations that the Junior League supports.