Christmas Time Is Here

The last few days sure have been a whirlwind. But, oh how exciting it has been watching everyone come together as a family. We kicked off our Christmas season a few weeks ago when Brian surprised me with tickets to the ballet to see the "Nutcracker". It was absolutely magical seeing it for the first time. I have decided to become a ballerina when I grow up.

Christmas eve was just a special. We headed into the city that afternoon for our church's Christmas eve service.  It was a brilliant message and a great reminder of what this holiday is truly about. 

My family rolled in that evening, bringing gifts upon gifts for Brady.  I absolutely loved the winter Gamecock house slippers. Christmas morning was equally as fun. I am positive that Brady knew something was up. He was wide awake and ready to go an hour earlier than normal! My sister and her family, along with my brother arrived mid-day. 

His favorite gift was the seahorse toy. It has a really pretty glow to it and plays a soft lullaby. It is also a perfect shape for him to snuggle with. During his nap he usually passes right out. However, today I caught him playing with it in his crib!  

After opening gifts with the Rabon family, we walked over to Brian's parent's house to do Christmas with the Andersons. We had a wonderful breakfast and opened presents. Brady had his first candycane and was basking in all of the attention he was getting! 

 

After naps and playing with all of our new toys the Andersons hosted both sides of the family at their new house. Amazing food and gracious company made the night so special as both families spent time together. 

Of course no Christmas is complete without a White Elephant gift exchange. We headed back over to our house for dessert and cocktails. This Christmas Sangria was the bee's knees. I am thinking we may just start having it year round.

Of course one more Christmas must have: a father-daughter fur vest picture. My dad couldn't understand why fur vests were the "it" item this year. He decided by wearing one for most the ENTIRE party he would enlighten himself. Sadly, he was mistaken as Steven Tyler most of the night and was still clueless at the end. 

It sincerely was another awesome Christmas with family. We are already planning out our New Year's Eve and can't wait to celebrate 6 months with our little Brady. So from our family to yours, Merry Christmas one last time! 

The Bradley Method

I met Megan and her husband a few years ago at wedding. They are such a fun couple. She is a teacher so you know homegirl and I have a ton in common. Her birth story is such an excellent example of how being informed can help you make the best decision for you and your baby. She planned on using the Bradley Method, but was also prepared to be flexible if needed. Good thing, to! 

Charlie and  I had been married for 4 ½ years when we began talking about starting a family.  Our 5 year anniversary was in August and we decided we would like to get pregnant sometime between August and November.  I’m a teacher so we thought it would be the perfect plan since I would be pregnant for the entire school year then have the baby at the end of the year and have the entire summer.  We began talking about when we thought we should start trying in February 2014.  What we didn’t know was that I was already pregnant!  I found out I was pregnant in March after taking 4 pregnancy tests…I was convinced the first 2 had to be wrong; they weren’t.  My entire pregnancy was picture perfect.  I felt great the entire time, was rarely tired, never sick and had no stretch marks. 

Charlie and I decided we wanted to take the 12 week Bradley course for natural childbirth.  I always knew I wanted to have a natural childbirth despite not being opposed to epidurals or pain medicine.  I can totally understand the need for an epidural.  The reason I wanted to have a natural, un-medicated childbirth was for my own sake.  I didn’t want to go through life and say I never even tried.  If it was more than I could bare then I would know next time but I wanted to do everything I could to at least try it un-medicated.  Everyone tells you that you can somewhat know what to expect in pregnancy and labor based on how your own mother’s.  Knowing that with my older brother my mom’s plan went from a natural childbirth (yes, my mom took Bradley too) to an emergency C-section, guided our decision to go to a hospital rather than a birthing center for our first baby.

We went for our maternity pictures Sunday, October 19^th, attended our last Bradley class Monday, October 20^th and I sat down to make a final “get ready for baby” to-do list on Tuesday.  I had been feeling great but feeling very pregnant and with 2 more weeks to go.  At my 36 week prenatal appointment I was ½ cm dilated and 50% effaced and measuring 1 week ahead of schedule so I knew to expect the baby to come early.  Wednesday morning I woke up not feeling myself.  I had menstrual-like cramps and just felt crappy overall.  I was in the middle of completing my report cards and holding 1^st quarter conferences so feeling “off” kind of sent me in to a little bit of a panic mode.  I had felt so good up to that morning, I knew something might be happening.  I had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions consistently for months now and they were usually pretty strong.  I took advantage of it by practicing breathing and relaxing through a contraction.  The difference was on Wednesday, every time I had a Braxton hicks I would feel a sharp pain.  My maternity sub came in that day to observe and I introduced her to the class (thankfully) and also let her know that the baby might come early so be prepared to be called in.  After school that day I stayed late to finish report cards and leave a few notes just in case I didn’t come in the next day.  I then went to Target to buy a nursing cami, as well as stopped at the local fire department to have the new car seat checked. 

Later that night I was talking to a friend on the phone and she reassured me the cramps were normal and her baby came a week after she had them.  That put me at ease knowing I probably would have a week but I need to finish my to-do list…oh and pack!  I arrived home around 7:45pm and sat down to eat some dinner.  Right as I took a bite of my garlic toast I felt and heard a pop, then felt a gush.  I rushed to the bathroom to experience what felt like a never ending pee to discover my water had broken and instead of a week, I had an hour and a half.  This was at 8:15pm. 

I called Charlie into the bathroom and told him what was going on but still felt very unsure about the whole thing.  My water broke so now what?  I headed upstairs to pack my bag and that’s when the contractions started.  I had fully prepared to relax through contraction pain in my stomach or my back.  I was not expecting to feel the sensation in my hips!  My contractions were never painful but instead felt like an intense ache.  The only position that was really comfortable was to bend over the bed and sway my hips.  After a few minutes Charlie came up to check on me and ended up packing for me.  Every time I had a contraction, water would gush out and to save our brand new carpet I had to just stand over a pile of folded towels.  At this point my contractions were around 7-10 minutes apart and were lasting 60-90 seconds.  I managed to get on the bed with the laptop and send out a few emails to notify my principal, class and sub that I would not be there tomorrow and that I would be canceling my remaining conferences.  We had previously decided that we would labor at home until my contractions were consistently 3-4 minutes apart and lasting 75-90 seconds long. So, I decided to get into a relaxing position on the bed and turn on the music I had prepared and continue laboring at home.

I set the laptop down and moved onto my side and turned on the relaxing music.  As soon as the next contraction started I quickly realized lying on my side was NOT going to work and my “relaxing” music sounded like a screeching bird (even though it was a waterfall).  The Bradley course provided me with a bag full of tricks for how to relax while laboring so I started to try out different things. 

At 10:30 I was having a difficult time relaxing through the contractions because of where I was feeling them.  I decided to take a warm bath.  My contractions were consistent so I knew the bath wouldn’t slow things down.  Unfortunately, the bath did not help relax me and by the time I got out of the tub my contractions were lasting around 1 ½ -2 minutes and were roughly 5 minutes apart.  I managed to make it to the bed to lay down on some towels to continue laboring.  I apparently fell asleep after that and would wake up for a contraction and fall back asleep.  Charlie prepped the car and came to bed at some point to rest.  At around 11:45 I woke us both up by grunting loudly with a fairly strong contraction.  I thought I would have control over any noises that I would make during labor…you don’t!  Charlie told me to tell him when the contraction stopped and it never did.  At this point my contractions were double peaking.  Charlie came around to my side of the bed and decided it was time to go to the hospital and tried getting me out of the bed.  At midnight my body started pushing.  Again, you have absolutely no control over this!  I managed to slide out of bed but still bent over because not only were my contractions not really stopping but every few minutes my body would start pushing.  As I look back, I’m sure it was rather comical to see but every time I would squat and push Charlie would try pulling on my pants (remember, I had taken a bath early so I was still undressed).  This was quite a process to get me dressed.  Looking back I should have just grabbed a robe and moved on.  The most humorous thing that I remember is Charlie giving me a pair of flats and I kept saying “no, the blue sandals” and him responding “we don’t have time to be picky!”  I finally got downstairs and in the car at around 1:00AM. 

Charlie did a great job driving.  He didn’t speed until we were almost there and he thought he was going to have to pull over to deliver the baby himself. He tried his best to avoid the numerous pot holes on Providence Rd as we headed to Presbyterian Main.  Most of the drive is a little blurry to me except for when a fire truck decided it needed to respond to a call right as we drove past and almost hit us.  When we arrived at the hospital at around 1:25AM my body was still pushing with most of the contractions.  It took a while for me to get upstairs to the labor and delivery floor.  We walked through the doors and started moving towards the nurse’s station to check in when I dropped to a squat and started pushing.  Charlie picked me up and yelled for a nurse.  Several came running and placed me in a wheel chair and rolled me into the nearest triage room.  The nurses kept telling me to relax and stop pushing and were definitely acting like I was dramatizing the situation.  This was until they checked me and I was 10cm!  They immediately went into action mode and stripped me down, placed me in a gown and rolled me down to delivery. 

If I could tell first time moms one thing about the hospital is to expect the fetal monitoring strap to be tight!  I was not expecting this and it was very uncomfortable.  I’ve heard so much about Presbyterian’s quiet and intimate atmosphere.  Unfortunately, if you come in at 10cm and pushing, you end up with all of the lights on and 8 nurses in your room with you.  I began pushing at 1:50am.  The most surprising thing was that I thought I would feel my contractions to know when to push and I couldn’t.  I ended up just pushing when I had rested and felt up to it again.  My final push was at 2:20am and I watched (yes, without a mirror I could see everything happening) the face of my baby girl come out…blue!  Elise had flipped to posterior and wrapped the cord around her neck 4 times.  Unfortunately that meant that the cord was immediately cut and she was given to the nurses to make sure she was breathing and had appropriate responses. After a couple of minutes Elise was 100% fine and Charlie brought her to me.

One particular point that we are glad we stuck to our guns about…not using any medications. I believe that if we had even accepted an epidural that Elise wouldn’t have responded the way she did after she was born. Her cord being wrapped around her neck so many times had kept her from getting enough oxygen during birth and immediately after. Her O2 stats were extremely low and she was a little sluggish to respond at first. After just a couple of minutes though she picked right up and all was well. If she would have had any residual or transferred medications in her body she probably wouldn’t have responded the way she did and been taken to NICU.  Also, being educated and having a definite plan in what you want is key.  If I couldn’t manage anything else, being aware of what was happening was crucial to me.  I didn’t want to put the responsibility on Charlie to be aware of every little thing because I was “zoned out and relaxed.”  Being aware of what was happening prevented several things from happening that I did not want nor need such as an IV and an episiotomy.

I’m really glad that Charlie was involved in the entire birthing experience and attended the Bradley classes with me.  Everything we had learned went completely out the window as soon as I went into labor and I really depended on him to remind me of what we had learned.  Overall it was an exhilarating experience and ended with a beautiful 5lbs, 20.5 inches long baby girl and it only took 6 hours and 5 minutes!  Next baby, I’m going to make sure I’m packed and prepared for it to happen fast.

Merry & Bright at 5 Months

Photo Credits: Kristin Dustman Photography

Holidays with a kid are simply the best! With all of the hustle and bustle I realized that I didn't post Brady's fifth month updates. We don't have any measurements this month due to him not seeing the doctor until next month. (Praying that with the winter weather we are only at the doctor's for his 6 month checkup.)

 Likes:

Solids (He loves almost everything Mama makes.)

Being tickled

Playing peek-a-boo

Bath time

Sticking everything in his mouth

"Kissing" Molly & Guinness

Visiting Mama at the big kid school

Playing the elevator game with Daddy

All of the shiny Christmas lights

Dislikes:

Loud noises

Having to sit by himself

The bumbo 

(He liked it for all of 2 weeks and now he acts like its trying to eat him!)

Bananas

With Christmas right around the corner Brian and I can't wait for 2-3 weeks off with our little man. We are watching him become more and more independent each day! He is trying so hard to sit up by himself in the puj tub. He is eating off of a spoon like a pro; whereas, before he struggled to get the food to stay in his mouth. He is also supporting his head for really long periods of time. I even noticed the other day that I was holding him on my hip without supporting his head. Such a big boy! 

Brady, we can't say enough how much we love you and that crazy curly-headed smile of yours.

Thanksgiving Thankfulness

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my family down in Charleston, SC. I truly love our home in Lake Wylie, but there is just something about the pluff mud and boiled peanuts that call me back each time. Brady's first Thanksgiving was super busy with visiting friends and family that we definitely ran short on naps. (*Note the picture below!)

I scored his "Gobble, Gobble" onesie at an after holiday sale for a whopping $0.97. Also, I am still swooning over his Minnetonka Fringe Boots. They were the perfect addition to his Thanksgiving outfit. Who says baby boys don't have any exciting outfit pieces? 

Thanksgiving dinner was absolutely delicious. It was completed with brown sugar glazed turkey and all the fixins'. My favorite will always and forever be my Mema's mac n cheese recipe. Also, no holiday is complete without lime margaritas in the Rabon household. It ain't just for summertime ya'll. 

We spent the rest of our days getting in the Christmas spirit with family and friends. Brady had multiple babysitting offers so Brian and I got a whopping three date nights out of house, baby-free. 

 

We are back home and getting our own household ready for Christmas. We will be hosting ALOT of family here on the home front. So like the crazy people we are, we un-packed the car and took off to the Christmas tree farm to cut down Brady's first Christmas tree. With all of the holiday planning loaded on top of our ever growing schedules I may just be recruiting some elves soon!  

Beautiful Chaos

I have been looking forward to this week for a while. Five full days off work and five full days with my baby boy! We are heading to Charleston for Thanksgiving and I couldn't wait for time with friends, family and more importantly food! The plan was to clean and pack up while Brian worked half a day. I was going to have a few cuddle sessions with Brady and pick up the house because I hate coming home to a dirty house after being out of town. Before hitting the road we were going to visit with some of our good friends from Houston. Today was going to be perfect! Oh, but today, my friends, has been far from perfect. 

My dear sweet Brady, who sleeps 10-12 hours a night mind you, has been awake since the crack of dawn. From the moment his little body came out of the crib he hasn't been happy. Nothing appealed to him. He simultaneously wanted to suck on the paci while throwing it across the room. All of his favorite spots became  tantrum locales. And he tried to "hulk smash" himself out of the K'tan wrap.  I finally decided that cleaning the house would just have to wait. The pic below is my morning in a snapshot. 

Finally, during a much needed nap for Brady, I was able to start laundry, grab a cup of coffee and mop the kitchen. The bags got packed and it seemed that things were finally moving in the right direction. Brady was quietly playing in his crib after his nap. I went upstairs to change his diaper and here was where the second showing of the Anderson Circus debuted. 

Not even five minutes after getting Brady cleaned up I came downstairs to a monstrosity. The dogs had decided to eat an entire cookie cake that we were going to share with our friends. So much for a freshly mopped floor! This is when I kicked the pan and knife and yelled at them to "just stay down there!" They much obliged. 

At this point in the day I was so done. I decided against nursing Brady. Call me lazy or a bad mom, but I just didn't feel like it. So I popped a drop-in into his formula bottle and went to shake it up. However, I discovered it had a hole in the bottom.  Not sure if it was my angry shaking or karma but it went EVERYWHERE. Brady was the only one that found it funny. 

Today was a day that made me want to pull my hair out. Thankfully the postpartum hair loss is already taking care of that for me. We are now on the road to Charleston with our entire entourage, dogs included. It is days like today that make me question how the hell we got here. But tomorrow when I am laughing at my dad's jokes, eating mom's mac n cheese, and loving on those close to me, I'll be so glad this is my beautiful chaos. 

Brady's First Wishlist

Well I tried to hold off as long as possible, but Christmas is officially here! Poor Thanksgiving is always the middle child when it comes to holidays, but the Andersons just couldn't wait any longer. We  got our tree farm invite in the mail and Brady had his Christmas card photos made today! And with the nippy weather among us it just felt like the right time to pull out the red and green decor and start making plans for Brady's very first Christmas.

All-natural Teether / Plaid Booties / Baby Boy Leggings

Alphablock Board Book / Wooden Rattle / Fox Stuffed Animal

Call me Scrooge, but I really don't want to start loading our house down with toys. (All those experienced parents can go ahead and roll their eyes at me now.) I know that it is going to come in time, but for right now Brian and I are trying to be as minimalistic as possible.That being said I still want to buy a few items that are fun for us to remember his first Christmas by. Many of these items will get used in our day-to-day routine. 

 Teething has hit hard and fast in our house. Brady really likes to chew on more cloth-like items. So the all natural teether from Cwtch Bug Etsy Shop looked liked a perfect stocking stuffer for him. She has a ton of cute patterns, as well as dribble bibs. Definitely check her shop out. We are also going to try a wooden rattle for play since he really loves his other one. Books are a big part of our play time here at home and he will be getting more of those than anything. The AlphaBlock book is adorable and has the cutest di-cuts inside! As for clothing Brady lives in leggings and pjs most of the time. Etsy has a ton of awesome patterns to choose from to. Plus who couldn't help but LOVE these plaid booties on baby. Not to mention they are a steal.  

I know there are lots of items to choose from for the kids' Christmas, but don't forget you can always buy family zoo/museum memberships, classes and date nights versus a tangible item. Experiences are always so much more memorable in the long run. As for our family, we will be doing some serving through church and our favorite charity, Hopematch, this year! Don't forget to be a bringer during this beautiful holiday season! 

Macie & Porter: A Perfect Waterbirth

Macie is a beautiful example of a strong wife and hard-working mama. She and her husband made a leap of faith by moving all the way from their home state of Maine to North Carolina. She has an unwavering strength and commitment to her family. So it came as no surprise to me that her birth story revealed the same qualities. If you are considering all-natural birth this is a must-read!

Hey there! My name is Macie. I'm wife to Greg and mom to our sweet baby boy Porter. For as long as I can remember my biggest dream in life was to be a mom. I feel so blessed that God answered my prayers and blessed me with my sweet boy on March 11, 2014. Here is the birth story of Porter David Perreault.

From the moment that we officially started trying to get pregnant I was a research fanatic. I read all of the books. I googled like crazy. I wasn't even pregnant yet but I knew exactly what I did and didn't want for my pregnancy, labor and delivery, and even my "parenting style." (Haha) I guess you could say I'm a planner. It's true. I knew that I wanted to do a 100% natural birth. I am not against epidurals or any other form of modern medicine used during labor and delivery- I just felt that a natural birth was something I really wanted to (and could) do.

It was our seventh month of trying to conceive when we found out that we had earned the new titles we longed for- Mom and Dad. The day that my husband and I found out we were pregnant with our first baby was by far one of the happiest days of my entire life. We had already decided that our baby would be born at Carolina Community Maternity Center in South Carolina. 

I had a very normal pregnancy in most ways. At our 8 week ultrasound I was told that I had placenta previa. I would be lying if I told you that it didn't worry me a little. But I resisted the urge to google it. We asked a few close friends to pray, we prayed, and we didn't speak another word about it. At our 15 week ultrasound the tech told us the problem was completely gone! Thank you Lord for answered prayers! The next nine weeks were smooth sailing for us. The baby measured perfectly, I was gaining enough weight, and every test came back normal. It was such a blessing to be one of those people that loved being pregnant. But at 34 weeks I got the flu. I am talking the REAL flu. I began vomiting and couldn't stop. It got to the point where I couldn't keep an ice chip down. I was so dehydrated. I was crying telling Greg I was just SO thirsty and weak. We tried everything to stop the vomiting, but finally I had to go to the ER. Thank God we went. When we arrived my heart rate was insanely high and the baby's was in the 180s. To make a long story short I went into pre-term labor. I was contracting every four minutes and was 3 cm dilated. I was devastated because this meant I wouldn't be able to have my baby at my birth center because I wasn't full term. Greg prayed over me in the hospital bed and we asked God to please give us four more weeks of pregnancy so we could go with our original birth plan and so that our baby would be bigger and stronger. God answered us with a "yes" again and I was on strict bed rest until I was full term- and I stayed pregnant until the day before my due date! Yay!

March 10th at 1030 p.m. 

We were at a business meeting. I was due two days later and I felt great! I didn't have any signs of labor but I was so ready for the baby to come. We went home and went to bed at about midnight. At 2:30 a.m. on the 11th I woke up with very strong contractions. I knew from the second I woke up that this was the real deal. We timed them and they were three to four minutes apart. I tried to sleep but the contractions were so intense that I couldn't. My plan was to do a large portion of my labor at home so I decided to get in the tub to try to relax. No early stage of labor for this girl! I guess God was making up for all of the relaxing I had gotten while on bedrest. :-) After ten minutes in the tub I started vomiting and shaking. I was already in transition after being in labor for just a couple of short hours. We called my midwife and she told us to get to the birth center ASAP. We packed up and hit the road.

I'll never forget how relaxed I felt when I arrived at the birth center at 6 a.m. It was still dark out, my midwife let us in and we went in to our birthing suite. It was a beautiful relaxing room. The lights were very dim. She already had the tub full of warm water and lavendar essential oils in the diffuser. She checked me and found that I was already almost 8cm dilated. I got in the tub and labored there for the next few hours. My contractions stayed steady. They were consistently 3-4 minutes apart and very intense. We had taken the Bradley method classes and that really helped me. I had worship music playing and just stayed silent for hours while I labored. I would breathe through my contractions then try to rest in between them. I loved how peaceful the birth center was. No beeping machines, no IVs, no nurses checking on me all of the time. I was able to stay relaxed, stay in my head, and focus on not letting the pain overtake me. There were times when I would begin to wonder if I could do it much longer but I never spoke it. Instead I would ask Greg to read our confession cards we had made. I would speak that I could do all things through Christ who gives me strength. My body was made to give birth. Greg continually prayed for me and spoke truth over me. At 12 pm I was finally at 10cm. People say when your body is really ready to push IT will push. This is SO true. There was literally nothing I could do to stop it. Our bodies are so amazing! I pushed for an hour and at 1 pm Porter was born in the water.

It was such an amazing experience all around. I loved being in a birth center as opposed to a hospital. I loved being able to have such a special, intimate birth experience with my husband. I loved the personal relationship that I built with my midwife throughout my whole pregnancy. I loved the way that our sweet baby boy was brought in to this world. I have such fond memories of his birth. And reflecting back on the whole thing I love that I can see the Lord's hand moving over us. Every prayer that he answered. Every nerve that he calmed. Our pregnancy, delivery, and our sweet Porter are all blessings from above!

Halloween Outtakes

Halloween definitely snuck up on us this year.  Between heading back to work and finishing up our master bedroom remodel I didn't plan as much as I thought I would. I did end up putting together a really cute outfit for Brady's first Halloween. I had items around the house that I repurposed to create him a cute little scuba diver outfit. However, when I got home Friday evening Brian had decided to take another route. Cue mad scientist baby and his crazy professor daddy. Oh the joys of being the only girl in the house.

We took it easy the rest of the evening. We had friends come over while we passed out candy, had a few beers and played with the pups. All-in-all it was a pretty low key Halloween.... just how we like it! 

Happy Halloween 2014