Newborn Recommendations

It's hard to believe that my little man is already 3 weeks old! Soon he will no longer be considered a newborn. Sad day for this mommy's heart! I've been asked several times about what products I would recommend for newborns, and here they are:

Aden and Anais Swaddle Blankets. These are a must have for all newborns. As a pediatric nurse, I consider myself a professional "swaddler". Oden sleeps so much better when he's swaddled and these blankets make it so easy to do. O also does better when his daddy swaddles him. Somehow, Nate always gets it just "right". You can get these blankets at Target or Gap. Love the Gap prints!







Soothies/Wubba Nubba. We tried every pacifier we could find before I decided to revert back to my pediatric roots and try a Soothie. These are the paci's we use in the hospital, and I have never had a baby turn one down. Of course, Oden loved it! So we invested in some Soothies and then I found the Wubba Nubba on Amazon. It's great for helping to keep the paci in. Love it!

California Baby Products. I love, love, love these products! They are all natural and smell so wonderful. My favorite products are the calming lavender/tea tree oil body wash and the calming diaper spray. I also have the sunscreen and bug spray, but we haven't used them yet. You can find these gems at Target!

Baby Swing. This has been a life saver for us. Baby O loves to be in his swing! We swaddle him up, strap him in and let him sleep away. Definitely would recommend it for a newborn. Baby swings can be expensive, check on Craigslist and consignment sales like Rhea Lana. That's where we got ours.

Boppy & My Breastfriend pillow. I love these pillows! They are great for propping your baby up and for feeding time. The boppy tends to "wander" away when feeding, so I prefer the breastfriend pillow during feeding time. It straps to you and has great back support!

Sound machine. We have this sound machine from Target by Homemedics. It is wonderful for putting your baby to sleep! It plays several sounds including rain, heartbeat, ocean and lullabies. You can place the sounds on a timer or let them run continuously. There is also a projection system with several different discs to put stuff on the wall! That's probably my favorite part, although little man can't see that far yet :)

Itzbeen timer. I managed to stumble on one of these at RheaLana and I immediately scooped it up for us. It is perfect for sleep deprived parents to keep track of all the important things your baby is doing! The timer has 4 separate timers, and can count time between events or you can set it to go off at certain times. It is backlit for nighttime feedings and has an optional flashlight at the top. It also has a Left/Right switch at the bottom for breast feeding moms. Extremely helpful when you can't remember which side to start on! You can get these at Babies R Us or download a similar app on your iphone/ipad.

Milk Band. Again, these bands are great for breast feeding moms. You can keep track of how long your baby is feeding and which side to start on. They look like the rubber bands that you wear for a "cause" and come in all kinds of awesome colors. They can be purchased at milkbands.com








The two books I would recommend for a newborn are :

Happiest Baby on the Block. Now, I haven't read this book all the way through. But I would swear by his soothing techniques! If nothing else, look up the 5 S's for soothing a crying baby. They work every. single. time.

BabyWise. There's a lot of controversy about placing your newborn on scheduled feedings, I know. However, this book was recommended to me by several moms and I am already in love with it. I have read, reread and reread this book so many times. I have pages and pages of notes and handouts from it. Baby O is on a consistent 3 hour schedule and sleeps beautifully (most of the time). He also is starting to transition himself off of nighttime feedings. If you want to help schedule your baby's feed/wake/sleep cycle, this is the book I would recommend to do it!

Birth Story

We went for our 37/38 wk appt on Monday (5/7) and had our first official "check" to see how progressed I was. Absolutely nothing was happening. So we were settling in for a long wait and expecting a Memorial Day baby. Also, my doctor was leaving town for a little while, so I wanted to hold off labor/delivery until she came back.

That entire week, I felt very tired but continued to work and see patients. Friday, I overworked a little bit, saw a lot of patients and was exhausted by the end of the day. Saturday, we drove an hour to watch my mom graduate and then Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day. Sunday night, I was completely exhausted, but counted it up as a long weekend.

I woke up off and on throughout the night just feeling "odd", but I felt like it was all pregnancy related. I really wasn't in active labor, this was all the "early stages" in my mind.

I finally woke up again at 5:30am, and felt some pretty regular contractions. I also thought my "water" may have broken. I got in the shower and worked through some contractions and they just kept coming. So I decided to start timing them before freaking out. Nate downloaded the Contraction app on my phone and started timing at 5-7 mins apart. I was set for an appointment with my doctor's partner later that day, so we decided to get ready and we would call when they opened to see if we could come in early to be checked.

We let our families know that we might be laboring, but nothing too intense, no need to worry or start heading to the hospital.

We called the office at 8:30a, talked to the nurses, and they told us to go on over to L&D to get "checked" since I was having contractions that close together. They were also concerned since my water may have broken. 

We loaded up our car (with help from our sweet neighbor), told the family we were headed in, but to wait until we knew this was the "real deal" before coming.

By this time, contractions were every 3-5 mins and getting pretty intense. But I was breathing through them and rocking back and forth to help with labor. We did the classic drive to the hospital: flashers on, 85mph.....for the entire 1.5hr drive. It was an experience! By this time, I told my mom to go ahead and start driving towards the hospital (she was 2 hours away).

We got to the hospital and checked in. I shared my story with the nurse, got a "tub room" to labor in and we started the admission/lab work process. It took a little while to get a positive reading, but we finally determined that my water had broken and my nurse checked me for the first time. I didn't expect to be very progressed considering my last check, but I came out with a good 4-5cm at that point. She started my IV (the scariest part of labor for me), drew labs, put me on the monitor and then checked me again, just to see how well my contractions were progressing me. I was at a 6 by then.

I started laboring pretty intensely with contractions every 2-4mins at that point. Every hour the nurse checked me I dilated an additional cm. By 2:30pm, I had reached an 8. My husband, my best friend Chastity and my mom were helping me work through my contractions with counter pressure, fans, ice, lip gloss application and just encouraging me by helping me breathe and count through each contractions.

The pain was pretty excruciating by the time I was at an 8 and I was completely exhausted. So I asked the nurse for half a dose of Stadol. This helped tremendously and within the next hour I was at a 9 and was able to sleep between contractions. I then decided to take the second half dose of the Stadol.

The next 3 hours were the longest & hardest. I stayed at a 9 the entire 3 hours. Finally, around 5:45 they called the in the doctor. Our doctor was still on vacation, but her partner came in to deliver and I couldn't have asked for a better replacement.

At this point, I couldn't have any more IV meds. I told myself "theres only one way out of this" & so I went to work. I pushed every 2-3 minutes for roughly an hour. I quickly learned the difference between pushing the right way & the wrong way. Who knew there was a difference?

At 6:44pm I made my last big push & our son, Oden James Smith, entered the world & went straight into my arms. It was an incredible experience. Oden stayed in my arms for an entire hour following delivery. I was able to feed him and we loved on him while they finished delivering and cleaning us up.

Giving birth was the most incredible experience of my life. I couldn't be more happy with our birth experience and would do it all again in a heartbeat!!

37/38 weeks

How far along? 37/38 weeks

Total weight gain: 27 pounds

Maternity clothes? All maternity at this point

Stretch marks? Keep the Palmer’s coming

Sleep: Very little at this point

Best moment this week: Baby ultrasound! Loved seeing our sweet boy again!!!

Miss Anything? Everything about my “normal” body

Movement: Little man has settled down as he’s getting ready to come into the world

Food cravings: Really nothing right now. Food in general makes me sick

Anything making you queasy or sick: Everything, especially Mexican. Talk about killing a girl’s dream.

Gender: Boy

Labor Signs: I’ve got regular contractions, but no other changes at this point.

Symptoms: everything hurts. I’m pretty sure that’s normal for now

Belly Button in or out? Actually in. How did that happen?

Wedding rings on or off? Off

Happy or Moody most of the time: Tired describes my general attitude  

Looking forward to: Having this baby!! But according to my doctor, we are still a few weeks away from that happening.