Sunday, March 22, 2009

2 Months



Ace, at 2 months you are:

*Sleeping so well at night! You go to bed around 9pm and then you don't get up until around 2am. Sometimes you will even wait until 4-5am to wake me up! Thank you, sweet baby. Momma really appreciates this! And when you do wake up to eat, you quickly go back to sleep. You are up in the morning around 8 am, and you're ready to go!
*You do not sleep so well during the day. I can usually get you to take a nap around 2-3 in the afternoon. Other than that, it is just a little cat nap here or there. And you want to be held a ton. It is a little stressful sometimes, because I have lots to do around the house and with your big brother. But I know this too shall pass, and I need to take in all your sweet, chubby, "babyness" while I can.
*You think it is so funny when I squeeze your cheeks. I can always get a smile that way.
*Your big brother is head over heals in love with you. You light up when he talks to you. I can already see your friendship and love for each other blossoming. What a blessing!
*You love to eat. You start smacking when we sit down in the rocker that you usually nurse in.
*You HATE to have a wet or dirty diaper. I cannot blame you.
*We just love you to pieces. Our little family of four has really seemed to just settle in so easily. What a precious little man you are!



Monday, March 16, 2009

To my sons

Before you were conceived I wanted you
Before you were born I loved you
Before you were here an hour I would die for you
This is the miracle of life.
-Maureen Hawkins



(Jackson at 3 months)


(Ace at 2 months)

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

WFMW: Breastfeeding Tips!!!



Since I have a newborn, half of my day is spent with a little boy attached to me. Breastfeeding is what I do, thus it is what I write. I had such a hard time with breastfeeding my firstborn, but with a lot of great advice and hard work, my new baby and I are successfully breastfeeding! Here are a few tips that have really helped me out the past few weeks!

SARAH'S BREASTFEEDING 101
-My sister clued me in on this little tip! Eat oatmeal, simple as that. I eat a bowl of old fashioned oats every morning. I can tell that my milk supply is down a little when I don't eat the oatmeal. Apparently the oat grain is known as a galactagogue, which promotes lactation.
-This one is a little more difficult, but I try to pump after my son has finished eating. Of course this doesn't happen every time because, hello, I have a newborn to deal with. Pumping isn't the most convenient thing to do. But usually Ace falls asleep right after his first feeding and will allow me to lay him down. I also pump after my husband gets home while he watches the kids. Of course this helps with production because you are emptying the breast, which stimulates more milk to be made.
-I have been taking herbal supplements that have helped my milk production tremendously. 3 times a day I take 3 tablets each of Milk Thistle & Fenugreek. It is a lot of pills, but I just take them at meal times. Again, I can tell a difference in my supply when I don't take the supplements. The lactation consultant advised me to take these and I have had no adverse effects at all. But of course, talk to your doctor before you take them.
-Chill out. For real, chill out. I had such a hard time breastfeeding my first son because I was so freaked out about everything. I eventually gave up and bottle fed him after about 4 weeks. I've learned with Ace that most issues with breastfeeding can be worked out. Talk to a lactation consultant, your doctor or midwife, or just a woman who has been successful with breastfeeding. Ace was in the NICU and was primarily bottle/ tube fed for the first 5 days of his life. Of course, he was used to a bottle by the time we got him home. But thank goodness, we stuck with it and now he is a champ at breastfeeding. I try not to sweat the small stuff when it comes to feeding my baby. Ace still gets about 2-3 formula bottles or expressed milk bottles a day. A lot of the women who are very stringent about breastfeeding would say this is a huge no-no. As long as my baby is healthy and happy, I'm doing my job.
-Stop being so danged modest! With my first born, I would never try to feed him in front of others in effort to not show my boobs to the steady stream of visitors we had for the first few weeks of his life. With Ace, I've just had to make myself get over it. If my baby is hungry, I'm the one who can feed him. If people don't want to see the girls, they can go to another room. Of course I try to be as modest as I can be, but I won't let it get in the way of feeding my little man.
-Drink water, water, and more water. And eat. You can't expect to make food if you're not taking it in!


I hope these few tips help out with anyone who is venturing into the wonderful world of breastfeeding. It has NOT been easy. But it is so worth it! Check out other WFMW tips at www.wearethatfamily.com!


Sunday, March 8, 2009

Oh yeah, I have this thing called a blog.

Ye Old Blog needs a little dusting off. Any readers left out there? Not that there were that many to start with, but anywho.

So... what's new with y'all?

Me? Oh I've just birthed a new human into this world. Not much.

For real guys, life has happened and this blog has been knocked way down on the priority list. I've missed my little interweb community though. And I'm going to try to get back in a little at a time. I think I can handle one to two short little posts a week. So, to start off, I'm going to try to get y'all up to speed on what has been going on around our home. Please note that the following are in chronological order.

-I was laid off from my little part time job in October. Although it was a scary time, it has worked out really beautifully for my family. Being home is exactly where I'm supposed to be right now.

-Jackson turned 3 in November. 3 stinking years old. Where has my baby gone? 3 is proving to be an interesting age. Jackson is fun, smart, sensitive, playful, kind, and helpful. His cognitive/ motor skills are simply amazing. But 3 is quite the sassy age as well! I sometimes think Jackson is 3 going on 13. But he is such a joy. Here he is at his school birthday party. Precious!
-December was a great month. We had such a wonderful Christmas. It was so fun and laid back. Exactly what this girl needed. We took it all in, knowing it would be our last Christmas as a family of three.
-Our New Year's celebration was relatively laid back. We went out to eat at the Kani House with some of our dear friends and then came back home for dessert and fireworks. My pregnant self was in bed by 10pm. But fun was had by all. Here is Jack all bundled up to watch the firework show.-Of course, January held a pretty big event for us. Our sweet Bennett "Ace" was born on January 22. The condensed birth story is as follows:

I went in for my week 39 appointment suspecting that my water was leaking. My midwife checked me and told me I was 4cm dilated, but no, my water was not leaking. She stripped my membranes, telling me that labor was soon. She thought I would be back at the hospital within hours to have the baby. My mom and I went to the mall to walk and try get some contractions started. No dice. I can't tell you how disappointed I was when I went to bed that night. I know it wasn't going to happen, but I just felt like I was going to be pregnant forever! The next morning I woke up and decided to go walk some more with Kyle. While we were at the mall, I just started feeling lousy. I was freezing cold, and just had zero energy. We came home and I tried to get some rest. I took my temperature and had a very low grade fever. I called the midwives office and they told me to come in and they would get me checked out. I saw a different midwife an d she decided that yes, my water was acutally leaking and that I needed to get to the hospital ASAP so they could start IV antibiotics and get my labor started. Even though I felt horrible, I was so glad that our baby was on his way. The entire labor I had a high fever and my bloodpressure was dangerously low. I recently read on another blog that you have to walk very close to death to bring a new baby into this world, and I think that is so true. Even though there were issues during labor, it was relatively easy. I had my epidural at around 7 centimeters, and pushed for about 45 minutes and Mr. Bennett "Ace" Van Nus arrived on January 22 at 1:29 in the morning. He was beautiful and a very healthy 8lbs 15.5oz.

Ace was put on antibiotics shortly after birth to try to prevent infection, since I was feverish when he was born. Unfortunately, he did get an infection that caused him to be in the NICU for several days. His breathing was very rapid and shallow, so they wanted to watch him very closely.They determined his infection stemmed from my water leaking for a long period of time before he was born. But finally, after 5 days, we were able to bring our little man home. God was so faithful to us during this time, and poured His grace and love out on us. I truly do feel we are divinely favored.


-February... was I around in February? It really does just seem like a huge fog. We were all adjusting to our new life and to the lack of sleep. February pretty much consisted of: breastfeeding, some doctor's appointments, laundry, breastfeeding, burping, afternoon naps... you get the point. Here's some sweet pictures from that crazy month!


(end photo taken by Heartstrings Photography. So gorgeous!!!)

-March has been wonderful so far. I hope I don't jinx myself by saying this, but we finally seem to be falling into our new pattern of life. Ace is sleeping very long stretches at night. He eats on a schedule. And he is taking a great morning and afternoon nap every day. Generally, he is a very happy baby. Jackson is an AMAZING big brother. He helps me with anything he can, and he adores his little brother. I have seen no real signs of jealousy at all.

So, stick with me here. I have some new pictures to upload from my camera, so you should be seeing them very soon. I hope you are all doing well!!!