Ginger Ryan's Birth Story

     I guess it would be fitting to finally sit down and write Ginger's birth story during Mother's Day weekend.  My baby girl has already settled into some sort of routine so I am finding more time to myself these days.  So finally, as she nears the two month mark, here is Ginger's birth.

     Everyone said the second time was easier, but as I was nearing the due date of my second daughter I was more anxious than ever.  I was not only excited to meet her, but I was not sleeping much at all.  I could only fall asleep for an hour or so at a time, then I would have to change positions, pee, walk around, cry, anything but sleep.  It was dreadful.  I actually dreaded the evenings because I new I'd have to try to go to bed soon, and I knew it would be a long night of little sleep and lots of panic.  I'm not sure why I was so panicked.  The first time around I had no idea what to expect, but this time I did.  I also knew I would be taking care of an infant AND a toddler this time.  Yikes.
     At my 35 week doctor appointment I was measuring at 39 weeks.  Double Yikes.  I knew she was going to be big but this was a lot bigger than Juniper was measuring at this stage (my first was 8lbs 12oz).  My doctor scheduled an ultrasound to check size, which confirmed that she was already 8+lbs and I still had 5 weeks to go.  We decided that it would be best to induce at 39 weeks unless she came early.  I tried everything I could do go into labor on my own, but no luck.  On the Friday morning of St.Patrick's Day, Ryan and I headed to the hospital to check in and start the induction.  I went into labor on my own with Juniper, so this was all new to me.  I didn't sleep at all the night before because I was so excited and nervous.
     We arrived and checked in at the Anderson-Lucchetti Women's and Children Center in Downtown Sacramento at 8am.  They immediately  took me to my birthing room and got me all hooked up to the Fetal Monitor and heart rate, IV, all that crap.  I was given Misoprostol (to kick start labor) at 9am.  The contraction monitor started detecting contractions at 10am, but I could not feel them yet.  Waiting, waiting, waiting.  At 1:30pm I was given my second dose of Misoprostol.  Contractions began to get stronger through out the day.  Slowly stronger and stronger but I was trying my best to breath through them and let my body do it's thing.  This was very different the second time around.  I knew I needed to breath and focus and remain calm.  Last time I was panicked, and trying to fight the contractions.  At 11pm (yes, pm) I was at 3.5cm.  I was hoping for a larger number but whatever.  At this point it was getting pretty hard to manage the contractions on my own and I requested a 'walking epidural'.  Basically an epidural that doesn't completely numb your legs, and you can still get up and pee.  I felt like it was getting close to time, so my parents stayed at the hospital, even though they had Juniper.  Ryan and Juniper tried to sleep in a reclining chair but it wasn't working to well.  I finally told my dad he should take Juniper home and they should get some sleep.  Mom stayed just in case.  Ryan and my mom tried to sleep in the chairs as I dozed in and out through contractions and check ins from the nurses.  At 2:30am I was 5.5cm. and got another walking epidural.  I finally got some sleep and woke up at 5:30am to find I was at 7cm and 90% effaced.  I was so excited I'd made so much progress, I was also in more pain and it was time to switch to the full epidural.
     Around 6am the monitors had shown some signs of the baby in distress and I was instructed to lay on my side and had to have the oxygen mask.  I was also starting to get nauseous (sign of baby coming soon), and for some reason some really bad heartburn.  That was a bad combo.  my contractions had slowed a bit because of the epidural so they gave me pitocin to speed things along.   Finally, at 9am I was fully dilated to 10cm.  Let me stop right here and tell you that when talking birth, 10 centimeters is NOT 10 centimeters.  It is the size of a bagel.  A BAGEL!  i asked the nurse why it was referred to in centimeters but she did not have the answer for me.  This was also much different the second time around.  I still wasn't feeling an overwhelming need to push.  I felt contractions, but that was about it.  We decided to wait a bit and let her get as low as possible on her own before we started pushing.  We decided we would wait until 10am to push.
     It was 10am March 18th, and I was very ready to deliver this baby.  My mom held one leg and the nurse held the other, while Ryan (who was sick with a fever, but still there when i needed him most) stood next to me and prepared for another few hours of pushing.  The nurse had me do two practice pushes while we waited for the Doctor to come in.  The nurse said I was doing great and that the baby had dark hair.  WHAT!?  YOU CAN SEE HER HAIR!?  With Juniper it took 2 full hours of pushing to get to this point.  At 10:10am the doctor was still not here yet so the nurse said to just do another push while we wait.  As I pushed for the third time, the nurse gently held her hand up and calmly said, "OK, stop pushing".  The Doctor arrived, quickly got ready and in place, and with my next push my baby girl was out and screaming on my chest.  She was slightly purple, slimy, and beautiful.  I was so happy to see her I wept.  This again was very different than my first delivery.  I was done in 15 minutes and I was crying out of pure joy to see her face (not because I was so glad all the pain of pushing was over like with Juniper, and because I was still in pain as they were removing my placenta...sorry gross but true), everything else after was also a breeze.  At this point we had still not picked a name for our new girl, we wanted to see her before we settled on one of the two that we liked.  We got settled in the recovery room, and as I held my beautiful girl I just knew her name was Ginger.  Ryan liked it as well and we decided to go with Ryan's first name as a middle name.  Ginger Ryan was here, I was a Mother of two beautiful girls, we were healthy and happy and I am thankful for every bit of it.
     On a side note, I must take a moment and thank every single nurse out there.  You are the true super heroes.  Through both of my labor and deliveries, I had amazing nurses by my side.  They not only monitor that little life inside of me, as well as my life, they also do all the things no one speaks of and barely acknowledges.  Thank you for cleaning the blood off the toilet seat, thank you for cleaning me 'down there' when I could barely manage to bend down, thank you for holding me while I get a giant needle inserted into my back and letting me squeeze your hand when they accidentally hit bone (ooouuuccchhhhh!).  Thank you for acknowledging that I am doing an amazing job while a huge contraction rushes through my uterus, thank you for the extra pillows, and putting my slippers on for me, and for that amazing juice/sprite mixture you gave me right after birth.  Seriously, these people do it all...because they love helping people, and they deserve so much more appreciation for it.  Thank you to all the nurses at the Anderson-Lucchetti Women and Children's Center, as well as the once was Sacramento Sutter Memorial Hospital, couldn't have done it without you.

     Overall, a great experience and a pretty great birth.  I am so lucky to have an amazing boyfriend who was by my side for the entire 24 hours of labor, and beyond.  Thank you to my parents who took Juniper for 3 nights while we were in the hospital, and who waited through hours of labor to meet their new granddaughter.  I couldn't have done it without all of you as well.  Thanks for reading, now back to cleaning some spit up and changing diapers (smile).

Get The Eff Out...

     For the past month or so I have been slowly preparing for the annual family camping trip.  My Mom and Dad, my Brother and his wife and their two boys, and Ryan and I go every summer.  It took me a few months to decide whether or not Ryan and I would be attending this year since we had Juniper.  I just wasn't sure if I was ready for all that with an 8-month-old.  After going back and forth with it, I decided I didn't want to miss out on the family time and made the decision to go camping.
     The months leading up to camping I spent scouring Pinterest for tips on how to camp with a baby, and shopping on Amazon for all baby camping necessities.  I bought a fold up rocking chair for the tent, a battery powered fan for nap time, a collapsible play yard for out door play, and started to mentally prepare myself for everything that could go wrong.  I was also very excited to introduce Juniper to the great outdoors and to spend time with family.
   On Wednesday we packed up the car and set out for our 2 hour car ride to Calaveras Big Trees State Park in Arnold, California.  We tried to plan the drive during Juniper's usual nap time.  This was Juniper about 15 minutes into the drive,

     Despite the bumpy start, we arrived at the park around 1pm and started to set up.  My parents were already there so all we really had to do was set up our tent and things.  That went fairly smooth except for the blazing sun.  Sacramento was a high of 108 that day, and Calaveras was a bit cooler at 97 degrees.  Hot.  After we set up we tried to sit and relax for a bit but kept having to move our chairs to a shady area every 10 minutes as the sun moved over head.  We also spent that time swatting away tiny flies that kept trying to land on our eyeballs or in our ears.  Fun times.  Dinner time came and we started to make our meals.  That's when the swarm of Yellow jackets emerged.  About 20-30 of them started flying around the table and cooking area trying to score some food.  It made eating near impossible.  After dinner, we were finally able to enjoy some cooler weather and shade, and mosquitos!  My highly reviewed natural bug repellent by Burt's bees did not work for me.  I ended up with about 5 bites right off the bat.  Luckily Juniper did not get any.  I guess I was a better option for them.
     Despite the heat and bugs, Juniper was doing great.  She loved playing in the play yard I bought and it was nice to be able to put her down and her not be covered in filth or eating weird things.

     She went down for naps pretty easily, and for bed as well, and the first night she only woke up in the middle of the night once before waking up for the day around 6am.  She slept the first half in her pack-n-play and the second half with us.
     Day 2 went pretty much like Day 1.  Most of the day we spent at the site waiting for my brother and his family to arrive, but finally we were so sick of the flies and wasps we decided to head into town for a break.  My brother and his family drove in just as we drove out, but that was fine because it gave them time to set up and get unpacked.  We got back to the campsite and hung out for a bit, then started dinner.  Yep.  More Yellow jackets.  We bought a trap at the store but it did nothing.  While we were trying to eat, my 1 1/2-year-old Nephew Anthony accidentally got one of those little #@$%ers in his mouth and it stung him on the lip.  Poor kid.  Anthony was fine after a little love and Tylenol, but his Mother and Grandma were pretty traumatized.  No matter how many wasps we killed, there were about 15 more to take its place.  I love nature and all, but at this point I told Ryan that I felt like Nature was saying, "get the eff out".  We went to bed and Juniper woke up about every two hours that night.  Not to mention it started to rain around 3am.  Everything we left out was soaked the next morning.  Her toys, our shoes, and our chairs were all wet.  It wasn't too bad, just another FU from nature.  That's when I made the decision that we would be heading home that day.  I love spending time with my family, but everything was just to difficult and exhausting and the bugs were out of control this year.  It made it more stressful than fun and we were done.  Despite all that Juniper was still doing awesome.  I was so worried about how she would do, and I ended up being the one with all the issues.  Go figure.  Having a baby is hard, and camping with one is even harder.  I also brought up the idea of renting cabins next time.  I'm just too old for this "roughin' it" shit.
     There were good times, sure, but it's really just not worth all that work.  I go camping to have fun and relax and enjoy my family and I wasn't able to do much of that.

     After a stop off for a milkshake and a two hour drive (and a quick stop at the Dog Washing place) we arrived home and even Junebug was happy to be home.

     

I Have Changed.

     Everyone tells you how much your life will change after having a baby, and it will.  You will get less sleep, you will have VERY little time to yourself, you will be more in love with your child then you ever thought possible.  For me all the above is true, with the addition of some other changes I was never expecting.  Here is how I changed as a person after having a child.

     I like other babies.  Don't take this the wrong way, I never disliked other babies, I was just not interested.  I didn't want to hold your baby, I didn't want to talk to your baby, and I wasn't interested in what your baby was up to.  The other day I stopped a complete stranger in the Grocery Store to not only see there baby, but ask her how old she was, what her name was, what milestones she has reached, and what foods she was eating.  I am officially all about babies.  I think it's mostly to compare to my own baby, but still, it's new and it's weird.  This does not, however, apply to children over the age of 2.  I am still not interested in your toddler or 6-year-old.  Also, children of friends and family do not apply, I am always interested in what they do :)

     You will listen to my labor story, and you will like it.  Every single chance I get, I will tell you my story of labor and delivery.  I will wait for an opening and I will start from my mild cramping and go all the way to my 2 hours of pushing.  That's right 2 hours.  I pushed a human out of me and I want the world to know how painful, awful, gross, amazing, and beautiful it was.  I am not only proud, but I am thankful that I was able to experience such a wonderful part of life.  I don't care if your not interested, I'm going to tell you anyway.

     Emotions.  So many emotions.  I cry A LOT now.  I cry for every commercial that features any sort of mother/child bond or father/child bond.  This includes animals as well.  A mother Polar Bear helping her baby swim for the first time, I mean come on.  I cry during sad songs.  I cry over some things I see on Facebook.  Sometimes I just get emotional thinking about her growing up and I hug her and cry.  I cry when I'm exhausted.  I cry when I'm overwhelmed.  Every thing involving a child I apply to my own life and I cry.  Rest assured I am not depressed, I am very happy and thankful for what I have, so thankful I'm tearing up right now.  It has gotten better since birth, but I'm still much more emotional than I ever was before baby.

     I am always aware of my breasts.  This only applies because I am breastfeeding, I assume, and was much worse in the first few months after giving birth.  Are they hard? Are they soft?  Are they leaking? Are they out?  It's a constant awareness of what I barely paid attention to before.

     Google.  I have never Googled so many things in my life until I had a baby.  I've never counted but I'm sure in the first few months of her life I Googled at least 10 times a day.  I just checked my last few searches and they are as follows:
Chicco baby carrier
Baby fell and hit head
When to start regular food for baby
How to tell if baby is teething
Baby hair bows
     I swear I probably looked up every thing she did after she was born to see if it was 'normal'.  What did parents do before Google??

     TV?  What's that?  I watched a lot of TV before baby.  Now, it takes me 3 days to watch one episode of The Bachelorette.  This is kind of a blessing.  I've swapped cable for Hulu, watch only a select few of the shows I watched before, and spend most of my time with the cutest baby in the world.  Not mad about it.

     My job.  I never really expected this one to be that different after the baby.  I've been doing it for almost 5 years now, and I'm pretty good at it.  I was wrong.  Ever since I went back to work I've been dropping the ball left and right.  It's like my brain can only handle so much information, and is now overloaded with baby stuff that work stuff is getting forgotten too easily.  I have since come to the conclusion that I need a "work brain" and a "home brain".  When I am at work, all baby and home stuff needs to be put aside so that I can solely concentrate on what I need to do while I am at work.  Then once I get home, work stuff needs to be forgotten now that I need to focus on family.  It's a tough system to work out but I'm starting to get the hang of it.  I also didn't expect to get treated differently once I returned to work.  Or maybe the problem is that I did expect to get treated differently now.  Management has had no pity for the "new mom brain", which I guess is no surprise but for some reason I was under the assumption they would cut me some slack.  No slack has been cut.  In fact, I was even given a hard time for taking my first Mother's Day off, by another Mother if you could believe it.  I guess every one has a job to do, and their job is making sure mine gets done.  Like I said, I'm getting back into the swing of things but it takes time.  Just a warning that not every job is going to be OK with that.

     Friend time.  Yes, this one is kind of an obvious one.  I was expecting to get less friend time, but I guess I wasn't expecting how drastic it was going to be.  This is in no way any one's fault, it's just hard to find time, especially if your friends also have children.  Between nap times, feeding times, sick times, errand times, and my own exhaustion it's next to impossible to find time to hang out with other adults.  Everything needs to be planned in advance, or if it's just dinner it needs to happen by 5pm so we can get the baby home and in bed by 7pm or 8pm.  Not to mention drinking is pretty much not an option for me as I am still breastfeeding and she usually has a ton before bed.  So yes, I miss my friends.  I miss just hanging out without getting distracted a million times by my little bundle of cuteness.  I miss having a glass of wine or a beer whenever I please.  I miss going to lunch on a whim.  I miss my bestie time.

      Shopping.  Shopping for me, that is.  I can't remember the last time I bought myself clothes.  Actually I can, it was right after Juniper was born and I bought a bunch of nursing tops because it's impossible to wear anything else.  My closet is full of clothes and I only wear about 5 different outfits.  If I can't nurse her in it, I don't leave the house in it.  Forget about jewelry as well.  This doesn't mean I don't shop anymore, though.  I am pretty much addicted to buying cute baby girl clothes.  Lately I've been scouring the Internet for baby hair bows.  You'd be surprised the varieties that are available.  You'd think this change in shopping would bother me a little, but it really doesn't.  I don't miss trying on clothes, or searching discount racks for yet another top i will only wear once.  I am actually planning on getting rid of most is what is in my closet and keeping a few staple pieces that I can interchange with each other.  I can still be fashionable without buying new stuff all the time, and sticking to classic pieces.  Plus, I totally get my shopping fix buying baby clothes.  What is even more fun is that my boyfriend enjoys it too.  It's actually pretty cute watching him pick out little girl clothes for his daughter.

     Things are definitely different for me now that I have a baby.  All the things I expected to change have, along with this list that sort of took me by surprise.  It is still surreal to me that I have a daughter and that I am a mother.  I wonder if it will always be like that.  I am still very much myself in many ways, and I love all the ways that I am different now as well.  I am overwhelmed by how much I love that little girl.  I have changed, but I have changed for the better and now that she is here I don't know how I managed with out her.
    

Juniper's Birth Story...

     As a pregnant woman, about to give birth any day, I found myself obsessed with reading the labor and delivery stories of other women.  I would scour the Internet when I was up late and couldn't sleep (which was often) in search of every story I could find.  I'm pretty sure I read every labor story the Internet had to offer.  Not only was I interested in how it would all go for myself, as I had never done this before, but they were actually pretty interesting.  There were some similarities, but overall the stories were so different that it was amazing.  Every single one starting a different way and every single woman's experience different.  I couldn't wait to experience my story and I couldn't wait to share Juniper's story, so here it is. 

Juniper's Birth Story

     I had my 39th week doctor appointment on June 6th.  Still no baby.  I was hoping the Doctor would be able to speed things along but I would have had to have been dilated some in order for that to happen, and I was not.  I was 80% effaced, which meant she was low and ready, but no labor yet.  Since it was close to my due date of November 9th, and there was not much progress since my last visit (I'd had zero cramping) the Doctor scheduled a C-section for two weeks later just in case she hadn't come by then.  All I could think was 'Oh man I hope she comes before then!'.  I did read in some other labor stories that the Doctor visit can sometimes get things moving, so I was hoping when I got home that I would feel something.
     Sure enough, late that evening I started to have mild cramping.  This was the first cramping I'd had since I'd been pregnant so I was very excited.  They got progressively more intense, and I tried timing them but they were so all over the place it was really hard to do.  I woke Ryan up around 1am and asked him what I should do.  We decided to wait a little longer, so I lay in bed with him as he rubbed my back through contractions.  They were starting to hurt pretty bad and I was sure this was it so off to the hospital we went.  We checked in at about 2am, and the Doctor said I was .5 cm. dilated.  That's POINT FIVE.  I couldn't believe all of this pain and for POINT FIVE CENTIMETERS.  I can't even see that on a ruler!  They gave me some medication for the pain and sent me home.  Looking back now, even though I made sure the pain medication was safe for the baby, I would have refused this.  I was not thinking clearly and wish that I wouldn't have taken it.  It didn't bother the baby, but I don't think it was necessary.
     I slept most of that Friday, and by early evening the contractions were back (probably the pain medication wearing off).  At 10pm November 7th, I was in so much pain I could barely stand or talk through the contractions.  They felt like they kept coming one right after the other.  I was barely able to relax before another began.  They were like menstrual cramps X 100.  I don't know what I was feeling the night before, because THIS, THIS was labor.  I didn't want to rush to the hospital and be sent home again so I lay with Ryan in bed again, box of tissues next to me and my head buried in his chest.  I cried through every contraction they hurt so bad.  Finally, by 11pm I could not stand it any longer and we drove to the hospital.  I didn't want to call any family yet because of what happened the night before so we checked in to triage and waited for the Doctor to check my progress.  ONE CENTIMETER.  ONE!  My head was buried in Ryan's chest, hands clenched around his, breathing rapidly through another contraction all for ONE!  I was NOT going home.  There was no way I was going to be sent home when I was in this much pain.  Luckily the Doctor said she would check again in an hour and if I was at 2 by then they would admit me.  My sister-in-law, Jessica, popped in for a visit since she was working just upstairs in the NICU, but I barely remember this because I was trying not to cry.  An hour later I was just barely a 2 so I was admitted at 6am on November 8th.  Yes,  6 hours in triage.
     Once I was admitted I begged for the epidural but they made me wait a little longer.  Ryan called my family to let them know that I was admitted but that they still had a while.  Around 7am I was given the epidural and OH MAN what a difference.  I was in the best mood ever after that!  My parents arrived around 8am, which was right around the time my contractions STOPPED.  Yep, they just stopped.  Like, I wasn't in the middle of labor or anything.  Apparently the epidural can do that sometimes.  Since I was already given the epidural and admitted we decided to move forth, and induce to get my contractions going again.  They came back slowly and the nurse was sure that this was going to take a while.  The epidural was wearing off (they stopped it so that my contractions would come back) and the pain was starting again.  I was not so sure it would take long, but the nurse said my family should go home and come back around 4pm.  FOUR!?
     Once the epidural wore off, my contractions were back with a vengeance and I was in unbearable pain again.  They gave me another epidural (or opened the flow of meds again, not really sure how all that works).  This was at about 10am.  The nurse checked me again and I was dilated 7cm.  SEVEN! in one hour I went from 2 to 7!  The nurse was pretty shocked, but I knew it was going to happen soon.  I told Ryan to call my parents and tell them to come back.  I was clenching Ryan's hand through every contraction, as he coached me through it and reminded me to breathe slowly (I really did need to be reminded as I would have sort of frantic, and panicky breathing every time a contraction would come).  The Nurse wanted me to practice 'pushing through the pain' during contractions, which meant I was to push like I was delivering.  At one point while I was doing this I was so sure that the baby was about to come out that I made Ryan call the nurse back in.  The baby was not about to come out, but man it felt like she was RIGHT THERE.  So weird.  At 11am I was dilated to 10cm, which is go time, but I had to wait to push because my mom was not there yet and she was supposed to be in the room with me while I delivered.  Ryan has a weak stomach and we weren't sure if he was going to be able to stay with me so it was very important that my mom was there too so that I wouldn't be alone.  They starting bringing in all the tools and tables and getting me ready which was really scary.  It was finally time and I felt like it was too soon.  All the waiting and then it was all happening so fast.
     Finally, at 11:30am my parents arrived and my mom and Ryan were both by my side.  They made me lay flat with my legs in the air which I thought was weird (that's not how its done in the movies, after all) and I immediately felt like I was going to hurl.  Luckily I did not. I was given the go ahead to start pushing and through every contraction I gave three long, strong, mighty pushes.  The epidural had kicked back in at this point and my legs were Jell-O.  I had absolutely NO control over them.  Ryan had to hold one, and my mom had to hold the other.  After every session of pushing (I would push every few minutes or so), i was sure that when the Doctor came in she would tell me that I was so close and that this was it, but she didn't.  I just kept pushing.  And pushing.  And pushing.  I also had to be given oxygen in between pushes because the baby was in distress, so i had this mask strapped to my face which was driving me CRAZY!  I just wanted to take deep breaths and that thing was all up in my face.  They wouldn't let me have any water either, even though I was thirstier than I had ever been in my life.  I kept having to remind myself this was all for Juniper, and power through.  My mom had this little sponge on a stick that she would dip in water and swab my dry mouth with in between pushing and it felt like heaven.  It was seriously the best thing ever.  Sometimes she would say if I didn't push real hard for the next contractions she wouldn't give it to me and I swear I almost punched her in the neck.  Don't mess with a woman giving birth!  Finally at 1:30pm the Doctor said that she was almost there and that I had to give it everything I had.  Meanwhile, I think every employee in the freaking hospital came in to watch me give birth to my child.  Strangers huddled around me yelling my name and cheering me on.  If I hadn't been in the middle of pushing a human out of my body I would have told them to get the F out.  The Doctor said they were concerned that the umbilical cord might be around her neck so I had to get her head out so that they could better assess.  With the thought of my baby in danger I gave it everything I had.  A few pushes later and her head was out.  Let me just stop right here and say, that moment when the baby is part way out and you still have more pushing to do is probably THE WORST pain I have ever felt in my entire life.  That next push I pushed so hard I screamed (I was pretty quiet up until now), I just wanted that pain to STOP.  That did it, and I heard Juniper's cry for the first time.  They cleaned her up and I started crying.  Not just because I heard my baby but because IT WAS FINALLY OVER.  I was just so overcome with relief that I cried and cried.  They plopped her down on my chest, and that moment that I saw her face, her eyes, her hair! so much hair!  That moment was the best moment of my life.  She was perfect and I was a mother.  I kept looking up at Ryan in disbelief.
     I thought it was over, but it wasn't.  The Doctor had to manually remove my placenta because it wouldn't detach.  WTF.  I thought it was over!  Also VERY painful, but I had an adorable daughter to stare at during that so that helped.  After I was stitched and cleaned up, Ryan and I enjoyed our new family.  I have to say he was amazing through the entire thing.  Not only did he not have to leave, but he stood by my side and cheered me on the whole time.  I can honestly say I would not have been able to do it without him.  Juniper latched right on to my breast and began breast feeding with ease which was a huge relief.  Little did I know the second night there she would be latched the ENTIRE night with brief breaks.  Man alive!  My nipples were not prepared!  We went home two days later and began our life as a family of three.  Juniper is 6-months-old now and words can't express how in love with her we are.  She makes me smile everyday, even when she keeps me up all night and cries for what seems like no reason.  I am a mother, and she is my daughter and my life will forever be about her story.

Home Alone.

   The Boyfriend took a quick trip to Nashville leaving me HOME ALONE with the two-month-old.  I've been alone with her before, obviously, but not for that long of a span at once.  Surprisingly, I wasn't too freaked out.  We've recently been trying to get her to take a bottle to no avail, and I thought this would be a good chance for me to try without stressing The Boyfriend out too much.  It's been a very frustrating time for both of us, especially him.  I always have the boob to fall back on, but he does not.  She took the bottle the day before he left, finally, so I thought it would be really easy.  Here is what most of Friday looked like:

 

Needless to say, she did not take the bottle.

I scheduled some visitors to keep me company while The Boyfriend was gone.  My parents were over on Saturday to help me pack (more on that later), well my mom helped me pack.  My dad did this:

Which was more than fine with me, we got a lot done :)  The boyfriend is home now and even though it wasn't too bad while he was gone, it is much better having him here.  I commend you single parents out there, I really don't know how you do it.  I can't imagine how I would have handled it if I had to go to work or leave the house for any reason.  I usually remember everything for baby but forget everything else I need, i.e. purse, keys, phone, wallet.  It's better with help!