Big-Girl Bed

Around the same time that we got Evie her shoes, Todd put together her toddler bed. My problem is that I don't get around to taking pictures of things until well after they take place. I'm trying to get better, though!
Anyway, I decorated her bed with the sheets, blanket, and quilt that my mom made for her before they came last week for Ella's baby blessing. I decided to get pictures of both Evie's toddler bed and Ella's cradle. The fabric on both beds is the same Jungle Babies theme that I love so much and have been using since Evie was born.

I still can't believe that Evie is big enough to sleep in a toddler bed!

At the head of her bed is her beloved stuffed giraffe.

A full-length shot of the whole bed.

This used to be Evie's tummy-time quilt, but now it lives on her bed, guarded by her stuffed lion.

Evie's bed in all its big-girl glory!

Remember the cradle? Here it is, all decked out for Ella!

A full-length shot of the cradle, featuring Ella's very own fuzzy blankie.

You can see here how the girls' beds are arranged. Our bedroom is on the other side of that orange wall.

At the head of the cradle is Ella's elephant that my mom got to match Evie's giraffe.

For the most part, Evie has been pretty good at staying in her bed. Right at first, she fell out a couple of times, so I keep my body pillow tucked under her bed and we pull it out at bedtime so she has something soft to land on if she falls out again. She's also discovered how to climb out, and we've had a few power struggles trying to get her to stay in her bed when she wants to get out and play. Overall, though, Evie is excited about being a big girl and likes her big-girl bed!

IUD

Success! For the entirety of our marriage, we've been bouncing from one form of birth control to another, trying to find the one that worked best for us. When we were still engaged at BYU, I went to the doctor for my premarital checkup. Because I get aura migraines, the nurse gave me a prescription for Camila, a progesterone-only pill, and told me to start taking it so it would already be in my system by the time we got married. After only a week on the pills, though, Todd and I agreed that this was not the form for us because I was a total grouch the entire time I took them, and not just because it was stressful planning a wedding virtually by myself. Todd went on his band trip to Korea/Japan, and I went back to the doctor. I begged him to let me have the estrogen pills, but he refused because it might increase my risk of stroke. I asked him how much the rates increased, but he didn't know. When I told him that it was my choice and that I was willing to take the risk, he told me to call Todd and ask his opinion. I informed him that a) Todd was on the other side of the world and b) it wasn't Todd's decision because it was MY body and, even though Todd was going to be my husband, he was still only my fiance and had no legal right to make my medical decisions for me. Despite all of that, the doctor held firm, and I walked home frustrated. When I complained to Todd about the doctor's attitude, he sweetly told me that, no, it wasn't his choice, but he would prefer if I found another way because he loved me and didn't want to risk losing me to a stroke. I looked at the list the doctor gave me, and read off the choices to him. Then I saw one I hadn't noticed before: Depo-Provera, a progesterone-only shot that is effective for 3 months at a time. We agreed that this sounded promising, and I called the doctor. He said he didn't usually prescribe it, but it was better than the pill, so he would leave the prescription at the pharmacy for me. I picked it up and got the shot in my bum on July1st, the day before Linds and Matt's wedding. I was one of their bridesmaids, so I had to stand during the whole wedding, and my rear was very sore. Fortunately, the soreness went away before our own wedding 3 weeks later. We stayed on the shot for the first 6 months of our marriage, during which Linds gave me my second dose. For that entire time, instead of the regular cycle I had for 8 years, I had nothing, which really freaked me out. This caused me to do a little more research and I found some pretty scary information about the shot's effects on fertility, bone density, and menstrual regularity. When we decided not to renew our prescription so we could start our family, I had to just wait for the hormones to drain out of my system. For another 3 months, I had nothing, but then it became apparent just how much the shot had screwed me up. I finally started again in March but to my horror I still wasn't regular. My cycles were sporadic but frequent: every other week or so. Entirely unpredictable. We had no idea when, or even if, I was ovulating, which makes planning a baby a bit more than difficult. Right after we went to another doctor to see if she could help us figure out what was going on, we found out we were expecting Evie! After she was born, Todd and I looked into other forms of birth control, because I swore I was never going back to the shot. We knew we were wanting to try for another baby later that year, so our birth control had to be short-term, and we already knew I couldn't do estrogen-based birth control because of my migraines. We decided just to go with condoms, which weren't particularly fun, until we felt the time was right to have our next baby. Right on schedule, we got pregnant with Elizabeth! After her birth, Todd and I did some more research. We knew that even though I was planning on breastfeeding exclusively for the first 6 months, we didn't want to trust breastfeeding alone because as someone I know put it, "That's how you get surprise babies!" We're planning on waiting a couple of years before trying for our next baby, so we didn't want to be stuck with condoms for 2 years. The estrogen-based birth control was still out. The progesterone-only contraceptives weren't working too well for us either. We actually have medical insurance now, so we looked at Paragard, the hormone-free copper IUD that is effective for 10 years. It seemed to have all the answers for us! I called the doctor's office for my 8 week postpartum appointment, and told them in advance that I wanted the IUD so they could have it ready for me when I arrived. Then the nurse told me that my doctor didn't usually insert an IUD during the postpartum appointment, but preferred to have his patients wait until 12 weeks postpartum. I am SO TIRED of having doctors tell me what I can and cannot do with my body! Birth control should be MY choice; they can advise me, but it should ultimately be up to me. Right? I talked to Todd, and we looked online to see what the recommendation was. Every medical website we looked at said that 6 weeks postpartum was fine, and we were already past that. We agreed that if our doctor really stuck to his guns and refused to give me the IUD, we would go to Planned Parenthood and have them do it for us. I went to my appointment and talked to my doctor in person. He explained that he preferred to wait so that the risk of perforation would decrease. However, when he saw that I was serious, he said that since I'd already had 2 babies, my risk of perforation was lower anyway and that he would do it for me. Yay! He had me come back today and he had everything ready for me. He had to use little pincers to open the cervix, and that HURT. But just when I thought I couldn't handle it anymore without fidgeting or screaming, he was done, and it was in place. He told me that I would probably spot for a day or two and maybe feel a little crampy; he also recommended, even though it was effective immediately, that we wait for a couple of days just to give my body a chance to adjust to having the IUD in place and to stop hurting, which is actually fine with me! I'm also supposed to go back in about a month for an ultrasound to make sure that it hasn't shifted and/or perforated. I am feeling a little crampy and am spotting just a little bit, but it's already better than it was, and I'm feeling happy and confident that we've finally found the right birth control method for us!

Ella's Baby Blessing

Lots of people came to see us for Ella's baby blessing this month! Her blessing was on Sunday, August 19th, so we had people trickling in for almost the whole week before. Matt and Linds arrived with their girls on Monday, August 13th, and stayed with Scott and Jillian. The six of us have all been close friends for about four years now, so it was so much fun spending the week together, renewing our friendship and introducing the miniature members of what we all hope to be a lifelong bond. The three big girls (Big?! They're all under the age of 2 1/2!) loved playing together while the adults talked and shared stories and yummy food.

I think this looks like an AT&T commercial!

Linds and I had our little girlies, and Jillian is expecting their little boy next month, so we totaled 11 1/2 people: 6 adults and 5 1/2 little kids. Even with the extra parent, we still sometimes felt out-numbered, but overall, we had a great time. We all went to the zoo, and to the playground, and on Friday night we all went to Scott and Jillian's apartment for really yummy steaks.
That day, the 17th, my parents were driving over from Idaho, so after dinner, Todd and I took the girls over to my parents' hotel room so they could meet their newest granddaughter. Evie was super shy around my parents, especially my dad, but Elizabeth just snuggled right into their arms.

Then, very abruptly, Ella was awake and looking around at everyone with her huge eyes!

The next day, Saturday, everyone who was in town was invited over for a barbecue at John and Margot's house. Todd and I brought the meat, and we served hamburgers and beer brats. Mom loved holding Ella, and she got several cute shots of her sleeping contentedly on her lap.

Evie still wasn't quite warmed up to her Granddad by this point.

Actually, Evie wasn't really warmed up to ANYbody. She was crying on my lap a couple of minutes after this was taken.

Sunday morning was not as fun for me. We were planning on hosting a baked potato luncheon at our house after Sacrament Meeting, so I was running around desperately trying to get us all ready for church and trying to get the potatoes into the oven so they could bake while we were gone. We got to church with only a few minutes to spare, and I only had a couple of minutes to nurse Ella before they called her name, and Todd took her out of my arms and up to the front of the chapel. This time around, most of our priesthood circle consisted of men on Todd's side: Todd, my dad, his dad, his brother Scott, our brother-in-law John, and Matt. Mom and I wrote down the blessing as well as we were able, and Mom took a couple of pictures of Elizabeth in her blessing outfit. The dress was the same one Evie wore, but we got Ella her very own pair of little white satin slippers and matching headband.

Mom realized that the fluorescent lights were making the settings on her camera act funny, so she adjusted them for the last couple of pictures she took. Elizabeth was never as jaundiced as Evie was, and was never as orange as the first couple of pictures make her look. I, myself, was planning on taking family pictures with Ella in her blessing dress when we got home; but just before I was able to, she exploded all over her dress, so I had to hurry and throw it in the washer before it stained. Thus, there are no "family" pictures, but rather random pictures of various family members.

Elizabeth decided that she was starving...

...even though I felt like I'd JUST fed her.

Linds let me borrow her Boppy to feed Ella, and I decided: I WANT ONE!

We were so glad Matt and Linds came, and that Matt was able to be in the circle. We were afraid he wouldn't be able to because of his arm.

Clockwise: John, his son Collin, Mariah and Alyssa, their mom Jenette (Todd's sister), and John's other son Kevin.

This is Linds's cutie-patootie, Todd's mom and dad, and Collin.

We were sad to discover that my parents needed to get back to Idaho a day earlier than we'd expected, so they left Monday morning (today). Matt and Linds were leaving this morning, too, so we all had breakfast together at IHOP.

Granddad, Nonna, Ella, Mommy, Daddy, and Evie.

Our girls and the Hopes' girls. Someone needed to hold Elizabeth, so it's me, Ella, Evie, Lily, and Emma.

A nice couple walking in offered to get a picture of all of us. Bottom row: Me holding Ella, Evie, Anya, Lily, and Emma. Top row: Todd, my dad, my mom, Jillian, Linds, and Matt. Scott had to work, so he wasn't there.

We were sad watching everyone drive away, but I had lots of fun this weekend spending time with beloved family and friends! Thanks for sharing our baby's special day with us!!

Evie's New Shoes

About a month ago, we finally got Evie some new shoes. It's taken me this long to finally get pictures of them, but here they are!

Evie loves them. She picked them out and now she loves to put on her "sparkee" shoes. We don't have to be going anywhere; she is more than happy to wear them around the house. It did take her a day or so to relearn how to walk while wearing shoes, though. It was sort of funny watching her clomp around in them until she got the hang of it. She tripped and fell down several times, but she was always good about getting right back up and trying again. Long live Evie and her sparkee shoes!



Rock-a-Bye

I have a new rocking chair! Well, it's new to me anyway. I've wanted a glider ever since I was pregnant with Evie, so Todd was saving up to get me one for our anniversary/Christmas/my birthday. The ones that we sell where I work are between $250 and $400, so he was planning on spending about $300-$350 on one, and almost had all the money he needed for it. Then yesterday, on our way to church, we passed an estate sale. Todd pointed out that they had a rocker. Unfortunately, he was giving a talk in sacrament meeting and couldn't be late for church, so we couldn't stop and take a look at the glider. I told him that maybe it would still be there after church, but he said he doubted it. Well, on our way home, I kept my eyes peeled, and it was still there! So we stopped and tried it out. It was comfortable and glided smoothly, with none of the squeaks and hiccups that my friends' chairs and some of the ones that we sell do! Then the miracle happened. The man selling the furniture came over and told us that he would give us the entire set--glider and ottoman--for $35! That's right: thirty-five dollars! He was sad to have to sell it, but they were moving to New York, and simply didn't have the room for it. Todd and I conferred for all of one minute, and then he went to the bank to pull out some cash while I stayed behind to guard my precious find. Todd called Margot to see if she would lend us the use of her van so we could get it home, and voila! I am the proud owner of a wonderful, comfortable glider that only cost me 1/10th the price of a store-bought one! Now I can rock my sweet babies to sleep or read stories to them in MY CHAIR!
(P.S. Evie has been playing with the ottoman almost nonstop since then. She thinks it's great fun to rock it back and forth, over and over, and try to climb on!)

Got Milk?

I DO! Remember this post? It was all about my experience (or lack thereof) with nursing Evie, and towards the end of it, I said, "at least now we know where we went wrong, and we can do it better next time. We've learned from our experiences with Evie, and I'll hopefully be better able to nurse my next baby the way I so desperately wanted to with her." Well, exactly one year later, I'm writing this post to say I DID IT! I've been exclusively nursing Ella for over 4 weeks now, and we're still going strong! She's been steadily gaining weight, and within the first week of bringing her home, I even had over 25 ounces of breastmilk stored in the freezer!
A couple of posts ago, I told the story of our hospital stay and the situation with the doctor trying to get me to feed Elizabeth formula. I'm still so thankful that we followed our instincts because now I can say that we started out on the right path from Day One, as opposed to my experience with Evie. Actually, my negative experience with Evie has helped this time around, because I'm now much more fiercely determined to succeed with nursing. For example, while I was still in the hospital, the lactation consultant came in to see how I was doing and was very friendly. She answered all of the questions that I had and never condescended to me. I asked for advice about potential use of galactogogues like fenugreek if I needed them, and she gave me helpful information and dosage instructions. She even offered to come in and observe my next feeding if I wanted to make sure I was doing it right. I thanked her, but never called her back in. I figured that I was doing fairly well on my own and, even if I didn't have "perfect" technique, it was working fine. Rather than stress myself out with someone watching and potentially screw myself up in the process, I decided to just relax and let the milk flow in a way that felt natural to me. Besides, my body had muscle memory from the final lessons with Evie, so what felt natural was actually fairly close to the "right" way anyway. My thought is, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Despite maybe not having the perfect technique, I never hurt nearly as bad as I did with Evie. At the beginning of each feeding, I would have to curl my toes and hold my breath for a couple of minutes until the pain went away, but that was only because my body was relearning how to use muscles it hadn't used in over a year, and was "priming the pump" so to speak. Even that initial pain went away within about a week or so. Now, I can just pop Elizabeth on and off with no problem. And it's working! I have so many emotions in my heart right now that are threatening to spill over into my eyes: triumph, pride, joy, love, and gratitude. I have been so blessed with such a beautiful little girl, and I am so thankful for the ability I have to feed and nurture her!

Mommy's Miracle Drug

Well, I have found the perfect medicine to cure all of my ills; say hello to my bottle of Percocet! It's made up of acetaminophen with oxycodone, so it's basically super Tylenol. That being said, I would like to make it clear that I would never abuse a prescription narcotic by taking it routinely for minor issues. However, it fixes everything that is ever really wrong with me. Migraine? Check. Postpartum pain? Check. Gallbladder attacks? Check. Stuffy nose? Eh, I'm okay just taking Sudafed.

I've suffered from migraines since I was in my early teens, and they always follow the same pattern. My first sign that one is about to strike is an out-of-body feeling. I'll look at my hands and suddenly feel like they don't belong to me, and that my body isn't really attached anymore. I start slurring words and/or having trouble thinking of specific words that I'm trying to say. Then, I start seeing flashing lights in highlighter colors (hot pink, lime green, and neon yellow) that start in the lower right corner of my vision and slowly take over until I can't see anything else anymore, and my balance is impaired. That cues the horrible pain that lives behind my left supra-orbital process (eye/eyebrow bone). In the past couple of years, the last three fingers on my left hand have started going numb and tingly, and sometimes the left side of my face and lips does too. Honestly, that scared me to death the first time it happened. I was pregnant with Evie and thought I was having a stroke. I cried to Todd that I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to hold my baby. It turns out, though, that numbness is actually pretty common in "aura migraines" like mine. While I was pregnant with Evie, I had a few really debilitating migraines during the first trimester, and then I didn't have another one until I was pregnant with Ella. Once I hit the second trimester, the migraines stopped, and I was confident that I would follow the pattern I set with Evie and be able to enjoy the rest of my pregnancy headache-free. I even thought to myself that maybe I wouldn't have another migraine for a couple more years until we have another baby. Then, in the middle of my third trimester, I got another one. I felt a little betrayed by my body. It was sort of funny, because while I was lying in bed, my OB/GYN's nurse called to reschedule that week's appointment. I told her that was fine, and then told her about my headache. Since I was pregnant, there wasn't much I could take for pain relief, and I asked for her advice. She got concerned, and asked about my symptoms. When I described them, she told me she would talk to my doctor and call me back. A little while later, she called to tell me that my doctor had prescribed acetaminophen with codeine--Percocet's little brother. When Todd got home, I sent him to fill my prescription, and once I took my pills, I started feeling better. I was very careful to use only what I needed so that if I had anymore headaches, I would still have medicine available, and at my appointment, I thanked my doctor for helping me find a form of pain relief that was safe for my baby.

When my girls were born, I was prescribed Percocet to help relieve any postpartum pain. With Evie, I healed quickly, but was still quite sore when I went home, and was sad that I was only sent home with 10 pills. With Ella, I healed even more quickly, and didn't need as many pain pills as I did with Evie; I mostly only hurt while I was nursing, because Ella's suckling helped tighten my uterus back to its original size, and I wanted pills to help with the cramping. This time around, I was sent home with 30 pills, and I'm still hoarding them, too. I noticed that the composition was very similar to my migraine medicine, so I asked the nurse about them. She told me that codeine is just a milder form of oxycodone, so all of my pain pills are very similar, and almost interchangeable. I keep them separate, but I figure that once my codeine pills are gone, I can use some of my leftover Percocet to relieve any migraines I may have, and will probably have even better and more immediate relief from the pain. And since they prescribed it to a nursing mother, I'm sure that even the stronger Percocet is still safer for me to take during any future pregnancies than aspirin is.

Last year, when I had all my gallbladder issues and ended up in the emergency room, the doctor did a whole bunch of tests on me, but all he did to actually help me with the pain was to give me a Percocet and send me home with a prescription (which I never filled). It sure worked, though! Of course, I've also figured out how to minimize my attacks, so they don't happen very often anymore. I don't really like spicy food anyway, so it's easy to avoid it. I learned that most pizza was fine for me to eat, but specific brands (Papa John's and Little Ceasars) would set me off. However, I don't really like either of those brands anyway, so it was no big deal. If I do wake up in the middle of the night with a gallbladder attack coming on, I take some Tylenol, go to the bathroom, and, if absolutely necessary, throw up whatever was making my belly hurt. Most attacks are little, and they go away within an hour, but I'm a little concerned because I started having them soon after Evie was born, and now that Ella is a few weeks old, I feel like I'm due for some more severe attacks soon. If my gallbladder flares up again this time around, though, and nothing else works to kill the excruciating pain, I'm willing to take one of my precious pills because I know it'll work, and it's what the doctor would give me anyway. Hooray for the modern medicinal miracle that is Percocet!