The Post With No Name

I couldn't think of anything catchy to name this, sorry.   Can I still use baby brain as an excuse???

Well , Mallory is 2 months old now.  Actually 8 weeks and 3 days.  Wow, it is going by fast!  She is a chunky little thing but not too chunky....she is just right.  She has enough heft that she feels solid and feels like you won't break her but still small and squishy and baby-ish.  And let me tell you, I absolutely love it!  I kiss her, and squeeze her, and love on her all day.  Oh, and so does the rest of the family if they can wrangler her from me.  Just like Maddox (and most every baby I suppose) she loves to be close to me and I wear her a lot.  As an avid "baby wearer" I have like 6 different baby wearing devices and I have used all but one of them on a pretty regular basis.  My 2 favorites right now are my trusty Ergo (I actually have 2) and the Baby K'tan.  Right now I like the K'tan because I can wear her in the seated position with her legs out so she is a little less smashed up against me and not jabbing my belly with her little feet.  I get zero complaints from her so for now we keep on keepin' on.  She is still a very easy going gal and cries very little.  She is also a great sleeper so I have great energy for someone with a newborn and preschooler.

When Mallory was about 6 weeks old she did develop some congestion and overall snottiness.  We think it is safe to blame the adorable almost 5 year old boy for bringing it home from his germ infested preschool.  Not that his preschool is unclean but come on, it is a building full of little kids.  I don't even want to think about what that place looks like on a microscopic level.  Anyway, back on track....so she was a getting a cold or something possibly worse and I started using my essential oils on her.  I made some little roll on bottles and would roll a little on her feet when I changed her diaper.  I also put some oils in the diffuser that kill viruses and bacteria like On Guard so that anything in the air would be killed as well.  Breathing it in help keep the rest of the family healthy too.  I was very consistent with this and she never got worse than a little bit of snot.  After about 6 days she was better.  When she was almost better she had her checkup at the doctor and she said her lungs were crystal clear and whatever I was doing to keep doing because she was great.  I was very relieved and once again thankful that I had doTERRA essential oils to help.

I started using doTERRA essential oils in October of 2012 and they have made a huge difference in our lives.  At that time I was pregnant and could take very little to help me if and when I got sick.  Right after I got my first oils I did get sick.  I got a sinus infection, bleh.  Anytime I ever have had a sinus infection in the past I have been sicks for 2 weeks or more, pregnant or not.  This time I looked up how to use doTERRA essential oils for sinus infections and I started using them.  Boom, 2 days later, pregnant mama feels fine.  Seriously?  I thought that was cool but was still skeptical.  I week later I caught something else (I blame the germy kids again :) ) so I started using the oils again, 2-3 days later I'm totally fine.  I could not believe it.  This stuff is very powerful and effective and safe for me while pregnant??? Oh I was a happy gal.

Since then we have been using oils everyday and reaping the benefits.  Even Julie is a believer....she has not jumped in with both feet yet but she uses them too and she is the family skeptic.  After talking to a friend on the phone the other day I realized I need to share my knowledge more.  I know most people think I'm a little nutty, and that is fine, but I am constantly seeing people on Facebook talk about sinus infections, colds, flu, aches/pains, chronic diseases and I feel like I have information and tools that may help, so I should try.  If you are not interested don't read, but if you would like to find out more then stay tuned, I'm going to try to be more diligent about sharing the ways we stay healthy in our family as well as other things.  Also if you are now intrigued and want more info on essential oils let me know and we can chat.  Do a little Googling as well and see what others have to say about doTERRA.  I love to help people learn more and do better so reach out to me. 

Oh and this is important, when I talk about essential oils and what we use I am only talking about doTERRA brand.  doTERRA brand essential oils are as pure as it gets and I would not put any other brand on my sweet babies.

Time for bed, sweet babes are needing my snuggles.

Life with Two

Maddox just loves to kiss on his baby sister.

Mama snuggles

Mallory being a good little sleeper

Mallory was born a little over 2 weeks ago so here is a little bit about how different life is with 2 kids vs 1 in the MusGus house.  So far....not very different!  Mallory is THE perfect baby!  She is easy going and has a very sweet spirit about her.  She cries when she needs to go potty (or if we are too slow, if she is wet) and when she is hungry.  That is pretty much it.  She has had zero tummy/gas issues and pretty much just sleeps.  When she is awake she is very alert and likes to take in her surroundings.  She is also a very good sleeper.  She will let me put her down to sleep (something Maddox never did) and she will sleep a 5 hour stretch in the night so Mama gets some good rest in too.  I still amazed at how good and rested I feel!  Every few days I take a nap but honestly I have not needed them much (I know, shock).  I credit this to my easy to take care of children, eating well, and my amazing new vitamins. (They are from doTERRA and they are called Lifelong Vitality Pack and they rock my world!  If you want more info let me know and I will get it to you).  But really, I am just amazed at what an easy, wonderful baby she has been.  I know it won't be this easy forever but right now I am enjoying every second of it!  My friend Mike told me that boys are harder when they are young and easier as they get older and girls are the opposite.  That seems true in this case.  It also means we never get an "easy" time.  Aaaahhhhhh!  That is OK though, we have our two beautiful, amazing, sweet, smart children so life is good!

First sink bath, she loved it!

I don't even know what to say here...

Welcome to Our World Mallory

Well it begins a few weeks ago with us deciding to finally book a flight for Jamie so she could be here for the birth of our sweet girl.  I have known instinctively that Mallory would come early so we hemmed and hawed over dates and finally decided that Sat Jan 12th thru Thur the 17th should get the job done.
On the Thursday before Jamie was supposed to get here I went to the midwife for my regular (and hopefully last) appointment.  I was dilated to a 3cm and 60% effaced.  Woohoo!  She asked me if I wanted her to, "sweep my membranes to move things along"?  I answered with a boisterous, "hell yes, this baby needs to come out on Sunday"!  Then on Saturday morning I went to acupuncture and asked her to, "make her come out"!  The acupuncturist said it was possible that she would come in the next 24-36 hours and to keep working those pressure points.  And that I did, but Saturday there was no baby.  OK, we can handle this...we decided Sunday was the day we were going to "walk the baby out" so we went to IKEA and the mall and walked and walked and walked.  It was working, I was having fairly regular contractions all day.  Yippee!  Then we went home, ate dinner and rested...no more contractions.  Boo.  I guess Monday is another walking day.
Monday morning I woke up about 6:30am and I'm having contractions, cool.  But Monday is a school day for Maddox and Julie needs to go to work, so all of this is happening already.  By 7am (a mere 30 minutes later) these are coming on kinda strong....like, I have to pause a little and breathe.  So I text the doula and let her know what is going on.  She reminds me I have to time the contractions for an hour before I call the midwife.  Time contractions...check.  So we time for a while and they are like 1 min 50 sec apart and getting stronger.  OK, now I'm thinking, this is it, and now I'm telling Julie she is not going to work,  telling Jamie she needs to get ready to go, trying to get Maddox ready to go to Christina's and get some food in my belly.  All with a mere 1 min 50 sec rest in between these ever strengthening contractions... damn I'm good.
After about 30 minutes I decided to go ahead and call the midwife because I just feel like it was time.  I call, breathe heavily through most of the phone call and get the go ahead to come in.  Alright troops, move your asses!  So while Jamie and Julie are getting ready and having a good ole time (that is what it sounded like to me)  I am leaned over the yoga ball panting and breathing like crazy.
Next up is a 30 min car ride.  Let me tell you, when you contractions are 2 minutes apart, a 30 min car ride seems like damn near forever.  Every bump and turn totally sucked.  I was in the back seat on my hands and knees making poor Jamie rub my back the whole way.  This was getting intense but I was handling it.
By the time we got to the hospital I was in no condition to walk so I jumped on a wheelchair backwards and moaned my way thru the hospital.  I'm sure it had to look like something out of a movie and quite comical but I was totally in the zone and could have cared less. The next stop was triage.  They have to monitor you for 30 minutes to see if you are ready to be admitted.  Um, hello?  Do you hear me?  I'm ready to be admitted!  Despite what I think, they try to wrangle a monitor on me and they make me sit through contractions.  Sit?  Ahh, that was the worst.  Sitting on my butt was the worst ever.  Our midwife Gayle was already there so she came in quickly, checked me and notified us that I was a 7cm and -1 station.  Hell yes, I'm almost there!
So obviously I am ready to go to the real room so they wheel me in there next.  I jump up on the bed and drape my body over the giant yoga ball and just get into the zone.  I remember being pretty vocal (I'm sure I sounded like a crazy hippie lady) but our doula helped me control my breathing so it was more effective when I would get a little off track.  While all this is going on there are nurses running around trying to get things set up, the midwife is trying to get paperwork done to get me admitted and someone is trying (unsuccessfully) to get a monitor on my belly.  I remember people asking lots of questions about my medical history and surprisingly I was able to answer them even though in hindsight I don't think they were asking me, I think they were asking Julie.  But she kinda sucks at remembering that stuff so it is good I was still able to do that.

This is how much monitoring happened.

A few minutes later I just could not avoid it anymore, I had to push and I let whoever waned to listen to me hear it.  The midwife checked me, I was fully dilated and my water broke while she was checking me.  Oops, sorry Gayle!  Someone asked if I wanted to give birth in the tub because if I did I had to get in, it was now or never!  I said "sure, why not" and got in the tub in between a contraction. With the next contraction I pushed and out came a head.  Whoa!!!  Then the contractions kinda stopped for a min.  I remember Julie yelling at me to hold her head and I was like, "no it hurts, I can't reach". I tried to push her out on my own without a contraction but I just could not do it so I just sat for a minute... it was pretty wild.  Then another contraction and boom, baby is out!  I think I was in the tub for maybe 10 minutes. Mallory Jane was born at 10:05 am, a mere 3 1/2 hours after I woke up and before the staff could even get me admitted into the hospital or get a hep lock in my arm!
She was absolutely perfect!  No jaundice, perfectly shaped head, no birthmarks, beautiful color...just perfect!

Those numbers mean 7lb 13oz

They gave the baby to Julie to have some bonding time while I got fixed up and back in bed.  Then we laid there (bed is queen size) and just got to know each other. I felt great and awake and a little euphoric. It was so beautiful. Sweet, calm and non clinical... So different from when Maddox was born.

My favoritist girls!

Hey there, baby that was in my belly!

This birth was absolutely everything that I had wanted and planned, maybe better because I was not expecting a 3 1/2 hour labor...bonus!  Even Julie has said that, although she was skeptical of the doula, midwives, VBAC, water birth, basically everything that I had envisioned, she said that it was awesome!  She loved the whole experience far more than she thought she would and she even said she felt we got cheated on Maddox's birth.  HELLO, I have felt that big time for 4 1/2 years!  I also feel a huge sense of pride as compared to last time.  I feel like I can accomplish anything I want because DAMN I just had a baby in 3 1/2 hours with absolutely no drugs!  I will say that feeling was a little bolstered by all the nurses and midwives saying I was a superstar for my crazy fast birth.  One of the nurses was on her first day and she was in tears that she thought it was so cool.  Then another midwife came to check on me the next morning and she had really proud of me too and was really sad she had not been the midwife on call.  So yes, I'm feeling a little puffed up.  Not to mention I feel pretty awesome physically as well.  I take like one nap a day and have lots of energy and just feel overall great.  Such a difference from when Maddox was born and I literally didn't get off the couch for 2 weeks.  :)
This experience was amazing, empowering, awesome, enlightening , and just all good things.  So I would say to anyone who wants to do a VBAC, do your research and find care providers that are like minded.  It is worth it.

Maddox helping the doctor give the "A-OK"

The Mallory Birth Backstory

Since Mallory's birth was completely 100% different and wonderful compared to the traumatic birth and C section of sweet little Maddox I thought I needed to document it for myself and for others who have had a C section and want to try to avoid one in the future.

A little background on Maddox's birth.  We lived in OK and our OB was going out of the country around my due date.  He gave us the choice of inducing or waiting and having someone we did not know to deliver with.  Being a same sex couple in OK we didn't know how a stranger would be with us so we choose induction.  Mistake #1.  So we were induced on the 28th of May 2008...all day...no action.  That should have been a clue he was not ready but we did not listen.  Started pitocin again on the 29th.  Kept increasing it, finally some action.  I got an epidural bc of course pitocin contractions are way worse than natural ones and finally by like 9pm or so I was ready to push.  I pushed on my back for about 2 1/2 hours and he just would not come out.  I remember feeling like I needed to change position but of course with an epidural I could not.  So buy about 10:30pm I was declared failure to progress and take in for an urgent C section.  I remember feeling more than what I should have when he was being born and after I was so doped up that I saw 2 babies (bc of my blurred vision) and then I passed out for 45 mins and missed out on the beginning of his precious little life.  After the C section my recovery was long and hard.  I slept on the couch for 2 weeks because it was too painful to get into bed and I wound up with an infection in my scar that caused me to have to go to wound care for about 2 months and we think eventually caused the problems with getting pregnant the second time.  (That was a 3 1/2 year journey)  So basically, for the me, a C section was no bueno and definitely not something I wanted to relive once I got pregnant again.

Fast forward 4 years later and we are pregnant again.  I knew I wanted to have a VBAC this time and go as natural as possible but Julie thought I was a little crazy and of course she was worried about safety.  I told her one day that I wanted to have a doula at the birth.  Even though she did not know what one was, she said no, "why do we need someone else there?" I explained they are a labor support person and why I thought we should have one.  She didn't think it was a good idea and told me so,  being crazy emotional I cried and told her how upset I was that she would not hear me out.  She then realized that she may need to rethink her position and she was a little more open minded.  I think the crying sealed the deal for me, even though I did not plan it, but I am not a crier and so she knew I meant business.
I also was going to an OB here in Park Ridge and I was asking them about VBAC's and doulas and they said yes I could have both but would always change the subject and they just seemed kinda dodgy about the issues that were important to me.  As I started to interview doulas I found out that the hospital I was planning to deliver at has a very high C section rate and do not typically work with doulas.  This did not sit well with me and I knew my goal of a VBAC was not going to happen there.  I found out about West Suburban Midwives and dragged Julie there for a consultation.  They were very laid back, non clinical, personable and took the time to really sit and talk with us.  I knew right away this was a better fit for us.  So we switched to the midwives a few months into the pregnancy and hired a doula.  I was feeling like I was stacking the chips in my favor for the birth I wanted.

The actual birth story to come soon.....gotta go feed a sweet baby girl.

Almost Not Pregnant Anymore - Phew

So, I am 38 weeks pregnant now and TOTALLY ready to get this baby out!  Not only are we all super excited to meet her but come on....9 1/2 months pregnant is no picnic.  Are we ready for her?  Yes!  We have everything she needs to live like a place to sleep, a lovely stack of cloth diapers that I made, plenty of cozy clothes and food to eat (my boobies, lol).  Mentally I know we are going to have a baby again but it is just not real until she gets here.  I worry about things like, how will I get enough sleep, will Maddox have jealousy issues, what do errands look like with 2 kids...in the flippin cold in Chicago?  These are the things that are running through my head as the day get closer.  I know it will be fine, I mean geez, this is only our 2nd kid, but it is a big change for me, so you know....

Surprisingly I am not that worried about the actual birth part. With Maddox I had a C section, a rough one at that, with a nasty recovery.  So this time we decided to do as natural as possible so as to relive as little of that trauma as possible.  : ) When I first got pregnant I started with an OB practice and after talking to several people in the practice and women that go there I found out that they are not too "natural birth" friendly and that another C section was probably in my future.  I quickly changed practices to a group of midwives (who are awesome), hired a doula and we will now be in a hospital that has a very low C section rate.  We will be in what they call an Alternative Birthing Center witch is basically a room on the maternity floor that is controlled by the midwives.  We will have a nice big room with a queen size bed (not an awful tiny, uncomfortable hospital bed), fridge, microwave, be allowed to eat some, a large tub with jets for water birth, birth ball, stool, and other things to allow movement during labor.  I will still have a monitor since I am attempting a VBAC but it is wireless so I can move around and even get in the water.  Hello awesome!  If it happens that I will need C section then they just wheel me across the hall and get 'er done.  So baby and I will be perfectly safe and monitored but still allowed to attempt the birth that we want.  Also we hired a great doula that is also a massage therapist so with all these things we have going fo us I am actually very at ease about going into labor.  I hope it goes the way I want although in the end I want baby and I to be healthy so of course that is top priority.

So wish us luck, send us prayers, happy thoughts or what-have- you, because this is happening soon.
Preferably on Jan 12th bc that is the day our BFF Jamie comes to town and she wants to be there for this grand event! 
Any bets on if Mallory will comply?