Our Plagiocephaly Journey

I am so excited to be able to finally write this post! As many of you know, Addie graduated from her cranial remolding helmet last month. We are very pleased with the results and are so happy with our decision to helmet. I wanted to write this post first and foremost as a resource for other parents who are on the fence about whether or not to helmet their child due to a head shape abnormality. Second, I wanted to share our story with family and friends so they can understand why we chose to helmet Addie and so they can see the end results!

In 1994, the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development initiated the “Back to Sleep” campaign which encourages parents to always place their infants/babies to sleep on their backs to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Since the campaign’s launch, the rate of SIDS has declined more than 50%. As new parents (and me being a strict rule follower by heart), we were adamant about applying this practice with Addie. Any parent will tell you there is nothing more terrifying than the possibility of SIDS. It is frustrating that they do not yet know what causes SIDS. I pray that they find the cause soon! I will be honest that I let this consume me more than I should have during Addie’s first year. (Hmmm…I see another blog post for another day about fully entrusting your children to God…)

So, every time we put Addie to sleep, on her back she went. Since babies skulls are still soft, their heads are easily molded. And since we were putting Addie to sleep on her back, there was a lot of pressure on the back of her head. One of the things that every pediatrician recommends is “tummy time” for your baby for at least 30 minutes a day. This helps them develop their neck and back muscles but also keeps them off the back of their head. Addie did NOT like tummy time. She cried and cried and cried every time we did it. (I have learned that for the next baby, I will persist through tummy time even if he/she screams their head off.) So with the combination of sleeping on her back, hating tummy time, AND spending time in the car seat, infant bouncy seat, and her Rock n’ Play, we noticed Addie’s head really starting to flatten and have a funny looking shape at around 4 months or so. Addie also favored turning her head to one side (which may have been a result of torticollis which is a fancy word for tight neck muscles) so not only was the back of her head flattening (brachycephaly), but so was one side (plagiocephaly) which was causing her head shape to be asymmetrical and very odd looking. If left alone, there was a possibility that it would cause facial abnormalities.

We mentioned our observation of Addie’s head to our pediatrician and she gave us the option to see a neurosurgeon to assess whether Addie would be a candidate for a cranial remolding helmet. There is some debate in the medical community as to whether or not cranial remolding helmets actually work. (I will tell you, my own personal opinion based on our experience is that they absolutely do work.) Our pediatrician said that usually by age 2, a baby’s head will have rounded out on its own. The dilemma we were faced with though was the big “what if”. What if Addie’s head doesn’t round out on its own? Will she have to live with a funny shaped head and potentially get made fun of and have self-esteem issues later in life?

We had a visit with a pediatric neurosurgeon who took a look at Addie’s head and had measurements done. Addie had what was considered moderate plagiocephaly (her cranial vault asymmetry was 11.6 mm) – she was borderline severe (which is anything >12 mm). The doctor noted that her right ear had started to push forward. So based on all of that, he definitely recommended the helmet for Addie. We were also told there was a risk of things getting worse if we didn’t intervene.

So that doctor’s visit certainly was not a happy one for us. As we were trying to make the best decision for Addie, I scoured the internet looking for other people’s stories who chose not to do the helmet because I honestly did not want to put Addie in one. My reasons were as follows:

People will stare at her and think something is wrong with her and I will be uncomfortable taking her out in public.
Having her in a helmet will make it difficult to nurse and snuggle.
For a huge chunk of the first year of her life she will have to wear it and most photographs of her will include a stupid helmet.
It will be a pain to maintain.
We live in Florida and it will be sooooo hot for Addie.

If you didn’t catch it already, four out of the five reasons above were completely selfish reasons. I was so focused on not wanting to helmet Addie because of how it would affect me and my feelings. Deep down we knew it was the right thing to do for her. The fact of the matter is that Addie would not remember the helmet. While 4-6 months seemed like an eternity – it really is a blink of an eye compared to the rest of her life. And the biggest positive of all is that we would not EVER have to deal with regret.

That is one thing that I found over and over again for those parents who didn’t helmet – they regretted not doing it. There were some who were ok with their decision even though their child’s head never rounded our perfectly, but the majority wished they had.

If you are reading this right now and you’re on the fence about helmeting your child – I want to encourage you to go ahead and do it if it is an option for your child. You only have a small window of opportunity to do the helmet – and once it’s gone, it’s gone. The things that I was afraid of or thought would be just horrible really weren’t that bad.

It didn’t take long at all for us to get used to putting the helmet on and taking it off.
We took lots of pictures and videos during Addie’s helmet free hour every day.
It is not hard to get into a helmet routine. Since we had to bathe Addie and wash her hair every day, we chose to set our time at 5:00 pm each day to give her her bath and have her helmet free hour. We took turns bathing her each day. Whoever was not bathing her would take a few minutes to clean the helmet with alcohol and a cloth. Walgreens sells alcohol in a spray bottle which makes cleaning the helmet a breeze!

*A little shameless personal plug – we used Beautycounter’s All-over Baby wash to wash her hair – it is ultra gentle, and free of harmful chemicals! Click on the photo below if you want to purchase from me as I am a Beautycounter consultant! 😉

All-Over Baby Wash by Beautycounter

When we went out in public, some people would look at Addie – but they never awkwardly stared at her for long periods of time. Many people (and even kids) would actually kindly ask us why she had the helmet. I actually loved when people did this as it gave us a chance to share her story and help spread awareness. A lot of people assume that the helmet was to protect her head from bumping into things. (This is definitely an added bonus!) Never once was anyone rude.
Nursing was not as bad as I thought it would be, and I just made sure to nurse and snuggle her during her helmet free hour.
While Addie did have to wear the helmet during Florida summer (which is the worst!) she never seemed to mind it. Her head would be soaked in sweat, but it never made her fuss or cry. She actually never minded the helmet from the start. We thought for sure she would cry when we first put it on, but it was like nothing changed.
Addie looked so stinking cute in her helmet – and even more so when I added velcro bows to it. Unfortunately, I was only able to use those for the first couple months because she got smart and would pull them off. I bought my bows from Averysbows on Etsy. I highly recommend her shop! (*As of this moment, it looks like she is taking a short break from her shop but will be back.)
The best thing of all is that throughout her time in the helmet, we could slowly see progress. We could tell the helmet was definitely working and that brought a ton of reassurance that we made the right choice.

There are a few different companies that make cranial remolding helmets. In our area, we were referred to West Coast Brace & Limb who uses the STARband helmets. At Addie’s first visit, her head was scanned with a laser scanner (which only took a few seconds) in order to get her starting head measurements. As mentioned before, her cranial vault asymmetry was at 11.6. Her cephalic ratio (which is the width divided by the length of her head) was 94.9%. Normal cephalic ratio is between 75-90%. A normal head is longer than it is wider – Addie’s head had a more boxy shape where the back was flat and when looking from the front her head looked a bit wider than normal.

There were two options we could choose for her helmet, one was the thicker foam style that most people are familiar with. These have a hard foam on the inside that is shaved away in areas that need shaping as your child’s head grows. While it seems like it would be more comfortable for your child, it does not provide any “cushion” and the thickness of the helmet may actually make it a bit more difficult for your child to adjust. The other option, which was recommended over the foam one was the clear helmet. This had many benefits over the foam – it was significantly thinner and not as bulky, because it was clear you could see if there were any pressure points or areas of concern that were getting irritated, it can be molded much easier with heat, and it stinks less and is WAY easier to clean. We were sold – definitely go with clear if you have that option. You can still put stickers/bows on it and decorate it if you wish.

Addie wore the helmet for just shy of 6 months. Her cranial vault asymmetry improved significantly coming all the way down to a 3.9 (where normal range is a 6). Her cephalic ratio only went down to 92.4%, but we were ok with it. We asked if those numbers would improve any further if we kept the helmet on, but our orthotist said we would have to keep it on for months longer with the possibility of only a very slight improvement that we probably wouldn’t be able to notice. This was mainly because Addie is a year old and this is when the skull really begins to harden and there isn’t a whole lot of room for significant remolding. So with that, we all agreed it was time for Addie to be DONE!

The red outline is the shape of her head when she first got the helmet on. Notice how uneven the diagonal is – much shorter on the right back side. The blue outline shows her final measurements – see how that right side as well as the front kind of “popped out” which is what we were after!

These are her actual measurements for all the nerds out there like me!

We are so thankful for this helmet journey but are glad it is over. Thank you to our awesome orthotist, Amanda, and everyone at West Coast Brace & Limb. And THANK YOU to all our friends and family who have been so encouraging to us and supportive of our decision. If you’re reading this (whether I know you or not), and you are about to start a helmet journey of your own, I would love to answer any questions that you may have or provide any support or encouragement that you may need!

I am so glad we can wear pigtails with bows now! 🙂

And now for the part that you all have been waiting for haha! Here are Addie’s before and after photos!

Notice her ears are crooked and her right ear is higher than the left.

This isn’t the best straight on photo, but just wanted to include it so you can see that her head looks pretty normal to me!

Do you see how lopsided and oddly shaped her head is here? Notice the back right side is pushed in which made everything shift into an oblique shape. The word plagiocephaly literally translates as “oblique head”, derived from the Greek meaning of plagio “oblique” and cephale “head”.

What an improvement! We are soooo happy!

Donut Themed 1st Birthday Party!

*This post contains affiliate links.

Wow, this past week and a half was stressful and chaotic to say the least. Hurricane Irma blew through our state last Monday. Our area was supposed to get a direct hit by a Category 4 Hurricane, but by the grace of God it was only a Cat 1 when it got to us AND the eye shifted to the east of us. Of course I don’t wish that on anyone or any area, but I am thankful that our county was spared from the worst of it. Thankfully, we did not have any damage to our home and the clean up only involved a rake. We were without power though for about a week and had to toss everything in our fridge, but we were able to stay with my parents who had power and AC!

The days and moments leading up to the hurricane were so incredibly stressful for everyone in our area (and state for that matter). There were gas shortages, food and water shortages, and supply shortages – especially plywood. Everyone was faced with the decision to either stay and ride out the storm, or evacuate to safety. The challenge with leaving is that EVERYONE else leaves at the same time and you get gridlocked on the interstates and risk running out of gas – the gas stations also run out of gas too! We spent all week preparing our home, boarding up our windows, gathering hurricane supplies, and figuring out the best plan for our family. We decided to stay and ride out the storm at our church. We felt very safe there and actually could not hear the storm at all since we were in an interior room with several floors above us.

Amidst all this hurricane madness, Adelaide turned one year old! We were not going to let this stupid storm prevent us from celebrating her birthday. So on the Friday before the storm, our families gathered at our home for Addie’s donut party! We wanted to keep everything simple from the start, so we only invited family. (I used an app called HobNob to create her invitation which was sent via text message. I highly recommend it!) Our house is very small, and this worked out perfectly. We also just served donuts, ice cream, and coffee.

Addie LOVED the attention – especially when eating her smash cake. I had all these intentions of making a healthy smash cake, but with everything going on I just ended up making a boxed funfetti cake with white icing (that I dyed pink) into the shape of a donut using one of my grandmother’s jello molds! Ha! It was perfect and Addie really was only interested in the icing anyways.

Her decorations mostly came from Oriental Trading and Target.
Her party dress is from remiegirl.com – Remie Ruffle in Mint Chip.
The donuts were from Jupiter Donut Co. in Palm Harbor, FL and the donut holes were from Dunkin.

And for birthday presents, we also didn’t want to go overboard. While family gave her several items, Kyle and I gifted her the following:

*The following are affiliate links which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase using one of these links.

1. 3 Books, with our favorite being Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
2. Skip Hop Explore Egg Shaker Trio
3. Wooden Peg Puzzle
4. Little Tykes swing

We had such a wonderful time celebrating our sweet Adelaide Anne. It was definitely a birthday to remember and I’m thankful that Hurricane Irma didn’t spoil our fun!

To my sweet Adelaide Anne

My dear Adelaide Anne,

As I am writing this, you are sleeping quietly in your crib in your sweet little nursery, safe and sound. Tonight (like every night), after reading our books with Daddy, we sang our favorite songs, Jesus Loves Me and There’s Something About that Name, and then in your crib you went. But before I laid you down, I gave you a million extra kisses because this was the last night you’d go to sleep as a baby whose age is marked in months. Tomorrow you will be one, and I simply cannot believe it.

Everyone always says how fast babies grow up, but I didn’t really grasp the truth of that until you came into this beautiful, crazy world. It seems like yesterday that Kyle and I were sitting with you in your nursery, incredibly sleep deprived, having a very lengthy debate of whether or not to swaddle you or if you should just be in a onesie to sleep in. (We quickly learned that you didn’t like to be swaddled – always breaking those arms free!) We had no clue what we were doing and we were terrified we were going to do something wrong. Oh the struggles we thought we’d never get through from nursing and projectile spitting up to you never sleeping through the night (you still wake up at least once – more snuggles for momma though – I’ll take it!), it’s amazing to see how far you’ve come and how far we have come as parents.

I thank God for you, Addie Anne. Our lives are filled with more joy, more laughter, and more love because of you. We prayed so fervently for you for a very long time. The waiting and not knowing if I’d ever get pregnant was so hard, but the wait was SO worth it, baby girl. Thank you for making me a mommy, and thank you for challenging me every day to be the best mom for you. I love you and can’t wait to celebrate YOU tomorrow.

Love,

Your Mama

XOXO

Easy Two Ingredient Homemade Wipes

*Links in post are NOT affiliates – just wanted to share what I like/found helpful.

For the first several months of my daughter’s life, she basically had a diaper rash that just wouldn’t go away. We kept her lathered with diaper cream at every diaper change, but the rash remained. And let me tell you, we tried SEVERAL different types of diaper creams (even one recommended by our pediatrician called ILEX that cost $20+ on Amazon but was the only one that seemed to help). After talking to a friend who was having the same trouble with her newborn son, she told me she switched the wipes she was using and it solved their problem!

Up until that point, I had been using Huggie’s Natural Care baby wipes because I thought they would be gentle on Addie’s skin since they were supposedly designed for sensitive skin. It never really dawned on me that the wipes could be the cause of her rash (DUH, Leigh Anna)!! I guess I had so many things going on in my brain as a new mom, that this just didn’t register. Thank you, Alisa!

I decided to try out the Babyganics brand of baby wipes, and MUCH to my surprise they worked like magic! I was ecstatic that our diaper rash woes were over – but then I got to thinking, since it was the ingredients/chemicals in the wipes that were causing the problem, why not try to save some money by making my own chemical free wipes. I had never tried making them before because I liked the convenience of just buying wipes and being done with it, but since I now needed to purchase more expensive wipes to keep my daughter safe, it was worth a try in order to save money.

I hopped on Pinterest and searched for homemade wipes recipes. Yes, there are a lot out there, even though the concept is pretty much the same. A lot of the recipes involve ingredients like essential oils (which I don’t have). I decided to try out this recipe I found from thehealthyginger.com .

Her recipe calls for coconut oil and essential oils. For my first batch I followed her recipe, but used Dr. Bronner’s Lavender Castile Soap instead since I didn’t have any essential oils. That was a mistake because the lavender irritated my daughter’s skin. So I say, stick with unscented.

For my second batch, I was curious if I could keep it SUPER simple and just add the soap – no oils. I found that the wipes worked perfectly that way for us – so that is how I now make them.

So a BIG thanks to thehealthyginger.com ! Since the recipe is not mine, I am not going to post all the details of it on my blog. Please go visit her website at the link provided for the full recipe.

Below is a step by step of my process using just the soap and water.

*Please note, since there aren’t a bunch of chemicals to preserve these wipes for a longer shelf life, it is best to make only one batch at at time as the wipes can mold. I use a batch in about 1 to 1.5 weeks and they do fine.

You really need to use Bounty paper towels (not the jumbo size). I tried using Sam’s Club brand, and they didn’t hold up or grip as well.

Cut in half using a sharp knife. I started with a serrated knife, but it made a mess so I switched to a regular large sharp knife.

This is the only part that annoys me ha! – pulling out the cardboard.

This size of Bounty paper towels fits PERFECTLY in these IKEA storage containers But you can also use an old wipe container or a big ziplock baggie.

Boil your distilled or purified water and measure out 1 1/2 cups.

This multipurpose soap is awesome and lasts a LONG time. I know you can get it from Whole Foods, health food stores, or online.

Measure 1/2 teaspoon of soap and pour into water.

Pull your wipes from the middle. And that’s it! Easy peasy.

P.S.

I know I’m not the only one who finds it incredibly frustrating and maddening that there are so many chemicals in products that we think are safe for us and our children. That’s one of the main reasons I recently joined Beautycounter.

Adelaide’s Birth Story

I’ve been wanting to write about the birth of our sweet baby girl, but as you can imagine – I’ve been a tad bit busy lately. ha! Addie is sleeping now, so I wanted to take advantage of this small window of time to document her birth.

On Wednesday, September 7th, I had a suspicion that my water was leaking. Since I’ve never been pregnant before, I didn’t really know for sure. Apparently, only about 15% of women’s water breaks before they go into labor – so the likelihood of this happening was rather small. I already had a regular appointment set up that afternoon for my 38 week check up. I called my OB’s office and was told to just keep my regular appointment. Kyle and I went in for my appointment and after a couple of tests was told that it wasn’t my water leaking and that there was no visible progress of labor – so I was sent home. We had brought all of our packed bags and supplies just in case they told us that we needed to go to the hospital – but it turned out we didn’t need it.

I felt a bit baffled because I knew something was going on, but I went about my day. Kyle and I went to Wednesday night church activities (choir and youth). All was well – until late that evening/early in the morning. I don’t think we went to bed until around midnight, but I continued to have symptoms of what I thought for SURE was my water leaking. It was even more evident than earlier in the day. After some freaking out (LOL) and Kyle urging me to call the midwife – I finally made the call. After describing what was happening, the midwife told me to come on in to labor and delivery so they could run some more tests.

Thankfully our bags were ready to go – so at about 2:00 am we headed down to Morton Plant. I ate a banana in the car because I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat once I got there. I was admitted at around 2:20ish. Tests were run and within minutes they confirmed that YES my water had broken!!!! I knew it! So at that point we weren’t going back home – we were gonna have our baby girl!! It was a crazy feeling. I started getting a little bit anxious but it didn’t last long, thankfully. Once I was all checked in, they moved us to a labor and delivery room where I was hooked up on monitors to show the progress of my contractions and little one’s heart rate. Kyle had a rather nice couch bed to sleep on – although neither of us did much sleeping. I was having contractions, but they weren’t progressing as quickly as they wanted so they put me on Pitocin which speeds up contractions. Since my water had broken, it is typical that they want you to deliver the baby within 24 hours to prevent infection – so that is why I was on Pitocin. Labor was going rather smoothly. I could feel contractions every five minutes or so and they really weren’t too bad. By 7:30 in the morning, the midwife on call came by to check and see if I had made any progress – by that time I was 3 centimeters dilated. It was encouraging to hear! I continued laboring and used some techniques I learned about in our birthing class – like using the birthing ball and standing up/walking around during contractions. I didn’t have an epidural yet, so I was able to eat liquids. I had a delicious Italian ice and some apple juice. It was amazing!

I fully anticipated getting an epidural. I definitely admire all women who have unmedicated births. I went into this with the mindset that I would go as long as I could without the epidural – but was totally ok getting one when I really needed it. The nurse on duty during the majority of my labor (Patti – she was amazing!) kept checking in on me to see if I wanted the epidural yet. Things were certainly getting more intense as the day went on, but I kept pressing on. The main reason is that I was told that if I got the epidural too soon that it can potentially stall labor. I also heard that it could “wear off” (in reality your body just gets used to it) and I didn’t want that to happen! It was my plan to wait until my next check to see how far along I was and then I’d make the decision at that point. Well, several hours went by since the 7:30 am check and the midwife hadn’t come back to check on my progress. Kyle asked the nurse that afternoon when I was going to be checked again, and the nurse said they were waiting for me to tell them when I wanted the epidural. Once I got the epidural they would then do the check. I was unaware of this LOL! Things had really gotten intense – the nurse had cranked the Pitocin up and the contractions were about a minute apart and very intense. I couldn’t talk through them and was really gripping the fire out of Kyle’s hands! At that point I finally decided it was time and I was actually worried that I had gone too long. It probably took the anesthesiologist 30 minutes to arrive. He had an assistant with him who was talking to me and having me sign all these forms before I could get the epidural. It was quite humorous because I did not listen to a word she said nor did I have any idea what I was signing. My signature looked like a third grader learning cursive for the first time! The pain was so intense at that point!

A lot of people say that the epidural hurts more than labor – but I beg to differ. It was just a little prick to numb the area and a little bit of pressure. I am not afraid of needles though, so I’m sure that helped. It was a little nerve wracking since there can be risks involved. Kyle told me after the fact that he was most nervous watching me get the epidural. But thankfully all went smoothly and relief came very quickly. I am amazed that I was able to sit still during contractions while he gave me the epidural! Once the epidural kicked in, the midwife came and checked me to see how far along I was. It turned out that I had made it all the way to 10 centimeters!! I couldn’t believe it! Since I had the epidural at that point, they let me “labor down” for about an hour and half. They took the Pitocin levels way down and let my body contract on it’s own. I will say that it was incredibly weird for me to not really be able to feel my legs. They were numb but I was still able to move them – but didn’t really know I was moving them. That part freaked me out the most. The nurse and midwife told me to try and get some rest, but there were a couple of areas where the epidural was not working and it made it hard to actually sleep. The nurse kept pumping me with more of the epidural, but it wasn’t really working in this one spot on my left side. So about an hour and a half went by and the pain wasn’t going away, so the nurse said she was just going to check with the midwife to see if I could go ahead and start pushing since I was already far enough along.

Soon the midwife came and it was showtime! Kyle was on one side and the nurse was on the other – they helped me with the pushing. I will say that I had so much of the epidural that I literally couldn’t feel anything. I honestly didn’t even know I was pushing. It was so bizarre. I will say that pushing took the most energy out of me. At one point the nurse put an oxygen mask on me in between pushing, and I thought it was because I was about to pass out or something. It was very nice and comforting. I soon found out that she was giving the oxygen to me so that it could get to our baby because apparently SHE needed it! LOL! Things regulated and the nurse said that I didn’t need the oxygen anymore – but I asked if I could still have it for myself because it helped keep me calm in between pushes. It was basically a placebo effect – but I didn’t care. It took me about an hour and half of pushing before our sweet baby girl arrived. One of the coolest things is that the midwife let Kyle help pull her out a little bit – and then the midwife told me “reach out your hands and get your baby!” and I was like “WHAT?!” and she said it again. I was totally not expecting that, but I basically pulled her out and placed her on my chest. It was crazy and amazing and I totally cried – especially when she started crying. It was so incredible. She was officially born at 6:48 pm on September 8th, 2016!

Kyle was such a huge support the entire time. He was the only one in the delivery room which is how I wanted it. The whole experience felt so laid back and non stressful. Once Addie was born there were several nurses there running all their routine tests on her. For the first several minutes, Addie just stayed on top of me (they call it skin to skin – which is very good for the baby) while they did a lot of the testing. Our sweet girl was healthy and doing great! She weighed 7 lbs 13 oz and was 21 inches long. She came out with a full head of dark brown hair! The hospital does not give newborns baths until 12 hours after they are born because babies are born with vernix that is a protective coating on their skin and has benefits outside the womb. I will say it was so sweet when the nurse did give her a bath the next day though!

Later that evening our families came in the delivery room to meet our sweet girl! They were only allowed to see her for a few minutes because we had to get transferred to a Mom and Baby room and their hours were more strict for visitors. It was awesome because my brother Joey and his new wife Yulia were visiting from Ukraine and were supposed to leave before her due date. It was an answer to prayer that they got to meet her before they left! During this time I also was able to eat a meal! I was soooooo hungry as you can imagine. I had chicken tenders and fries from the hospital cafeteria and they were AMAZING!

We were later transferred to a different room that evening which is where we spent the next two nights. The bed for Kyle in this room was so uncomfortable but he was a trooper. I had a nice comfy bed, but unfortunately I was a bit sore from delivery and was pretty uncomfortable the whole time we were there. I did manage to get a shower the next day which was so nice. Our parents came by the next day to visit a bit longer. My sister also visited. She got to witness Kyle changing one of Addie’s poopy diapers. That little girl sure let him have it! She kept pooping and peeing while he was trying to change her. It was hilarious. Kyle entered the world of Dadhood quite naturally and wonderfully – he was confident holding her, changing her diapers and clothes, and just tending to her needs. I fell more in love with him as I watched him be Daddy to our little girl. I am so thankful for his help and know that I could not do any of this without him!

Our entire experience at Morton Plant was incredible. The nursing staff were ALL amazing! We felt so very well taken care of! Kyle and I both were born at Morton Plant, so it was special that our daughter was also born here. I am so thankful for how everything went and I praise God for his goodness and that he took care of us like he always does. I will forever be thankful to him for this precious gift!

There are a million little details that I could still write about – but I think I’ve recapped more than enough! Here are some photos that capture our time at the hospital.

Here we are heading to labor and delivery at 2:30 in the morning!

This is it!

Not the most flattering angle! ha!

Kyle trying to catch some zzz’s in the “Comfy” bed

Me watching my contractions on the monitor

Apple juice – yum!

Aren’t those hospital gowns so flattering!

Here I am on the labor ball – this thing was actually pretty awesome. I look so big because the hospital gown is wrapped around the ball LOL!

Italian ice – it was delicious!

Welcome to the world little one!

It’s amazing how their little heads squish to make their entrance into the world. Don’t worry, she has a beautiful head – it’s not cone shaped! haha!

Fresh outta the womb!

Daddy’s first time holding you!

I look awful here – but I did just go through several hours of labor and I was hungry! The midwife took this of me! HA!

Skin to skin with daddy!

Daddy changing her diaper!

Getting her first bath!

Look at all that dark hair! Love it!

Snuggly baby!

Aunt Libby came to visit!

My turn! 🙂

Adelaide’s Nursery

Kyle and I had a blast putting together our sweet baby girl’s nursery. We turned what was our “office/2nd guest room” into her nursery. Here is what it looked like before

We always wanted to change out the floors in this room. Having a baby was the perfect time to make the change! We got a great deal on some carpet ($0.99 per square foot!). We also liked the color that we had already painted this room when we moved in – which is a light sage/minty green. We decided to keep the color and do an accent wall.

We found the perfect pink for the accent wall!

Dad and Nick helping remove the quarter round so that we could install the carpet.

Our pretty new carpet!

One word – IKEA

I found a similar accent wall on pinterest and wanted to incorporate that in her room. I couldn’t imagine doing this on all four walls! It was very time consuming!

All done!

The rocking chair was Kyle’s grandmother’s. We gave it a fresh coat of white paint. My mom gave us the pillow and recovered the antique stool that we found at Marquette’s salvage.

Don’t worry – we know not to have anything in the baby’s crib! She hasn’t started sleeping here yet so her stuffed animals are doing the job for now. 🙂

Bunnies! ❤

This letter was an Etsy purchase – I added the frame to give it more dimension.

Kyle would sometimes go lay down in her room and read. It was the sweetest thing ever!

And there you have it! I feel very proud of how it turned out!

Bumpity Bump

Throughout my pregnancy I have taken the ever so popular weekly bump photo, but did not post them anywhere online until now. We kept pretty much everything about this pregnancy off of facebook and social media. It was a personal choice and we are happy we did it. It seems to have made the arrival of our sweet little girl more special. Also, I remember the feeling I had when all my friends and acquaintances were announcing their pregnancies and Kyle and I were struggling to get pregnant. Of course we were always happy for our friends, but I had a hard time seeing other people get to experience what we so desperately hoped and prayed for. To be honest, I didn’t really want to be that person for someone else who may be struggling to get pregnant. But now that she our sweet girl is here we have not refrained from sharing her with the social media world. 😉

I will write about her arrival in a separate post. Just wanted to finally get these posted!

Baby Shower #2 and #3

Well, believe it or not I am 2 weeks away from my due date!! I would definitely say at this point I am ready for our sweet baby girl to arrive! I went for my 37 week appointment this past Friday but have not made any progress. I think she is just nice and comfy and doesn’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon! I’m ok with that though because I hear it is better for the baby’s development to stay in the womb until at least 39 weeks. I have not been sleeping great the past week. I mean I haven’t slept through the night since I found out I was pregnant due to the constant need to pee, but the past week I have been fighting a head cold which has made it very difficult to breathe. I have not taken any medicine this entire pregnancy, which I am so thankful for because it means that I haven’t had a need to! But I may be at the point that I need to take something because I certainly don’t want to be in labor with a head cold. It will be hard enough to breathe as it is! ha!

Last month I had two more baby showers. One was thrown by my sister, Libby, and sister-in-law, Jessica. Libby had it at her house and it was a Dr. Seuss theme. It was SOOOOOO CUTE! All of my girlfriends came to this shower. Jessica made a diaper cake and everyone had to guess how many diapers is took to make it. Libby made some delicious food including green eggs and ham sandwiches. 🙂 My mom had painted an adorable Dr. Seuss themed chair and helped with some of the decorations. To go along with the theme, everyone also brought me a book instead of a card – so now our baby girl has a good library established. hehe! I had a lot of fun and was thankful to be able to celebrate with sweet friends.

The ladies at my work also threw me a shower. I was only able to get a few photos on my phone as someone else was in charge of taking pictures. I have hard copies of photos from that shower, but only a few to share here. I felt very loved! My newest sister-in-law, Yuliia, was here from Ukraine (she and my brother just got married and have been visiting with us the past month) and she was able to attend this shower. I was so glad she could come along with my mom and of course the ladies I work with. We had it at my co-worker’s beautiful home – Jennifer Uppercue. I think my favorite thing may have been my donut cake! 🙂

I am incredibly grateful for all the people in my life who took time to celebrate our sweet baby girl’s upcoming arrival. Kyle and I were blessed with many items that we need to get life started with a newborn! We are so thankful.

Sorry there are so few of the shower from the ladies I work with! At least you can see the delicious treats we had! haha!

Baby Shower #1

On July 23rd I went to my first baby shower which was graciously thrown by some long time family friends, Christy Childress, Laura Center, Amy Boudreau, and Lori Smith. Several of my old teachers from Skycrest as well as friends of my mom and Marsha came. My aunt, sister, sister-in-law, and niece were also there. It was such a lovely time! It was a beach theme and everything was decorated adorably! We had a delicious brunch, gathered around for a very sweet and thoughtful devotional given by Laura, played a game where everyone had to writ
e down 24 things that they thought should be in a diaper bag and then Amy had an actual diaper bag full of items to see who got the most right. Then the guests played bingo as I opened shower gifts. They were given a bingo card that they had to fill in with gifts they thought I would receive. It was a very clever game and made it more funfor those watching as I opened gifts. I felt very loved by all who came. Kyle and I received many items that will be so helpful to us when our little girl arrives. Thank you to all who came!

Here are a few photos from the day. I was a bit distracted and didn’t get a whole lot! Oops!

32 Weeks…When did that happen?!

I’ve been meaning to update, but I just haven’t gotten around to it with all the craziness of work and preparing for our sweet baby girl’s arrival. A lot has happened since the last time I posted.
The last post was related to our 20 week ultrasound, and as of the date of this post, I am 32 weeks and 2 days! In that time frame a lot has happened!

-I can’t remember exactly when, but I started feeling her kick (and knew for sure it was kicks and not gas) somewhere between 19 and 21 weeks. I think it has been my most favorite part of this pregnancy. At this point, she is really moving a lot and I can feel her little feet or arms moving across my belly. I can even see her move through my belly. I’ve tried to capture a video of it, but she always seems to know when I start recording and decides to stop! Hopefully I will catch it before she gets to squished in my belly to move around!

-I feel her hiccups. She gets them a lot, which is no surprise since her momma gets them all the time! It’s the cutest little repetitive thump. I feel them on my left side below my belly button, so I’m hoping that means she is in the head down position. They say babies can still move all around in the womb at this point, but I seem to always feel them in the same place, so perhaps she is already settled. Only time will tell!

– I’ve gained about 20-22 pounds depending on what time of day I weigh ;-). I know that it is silly, but I will be honest in saying that this part is a little difficult for me as I’ve never gained weight like this before. Kyle reminds me daily that I am beautiful and that I don’t look at all as big as I feel, but it’s still hard to believe sometimes! He is so patient and loving towards me, I am so grateful for him! The good news is that my weight gain is right on target with the recommended total weight gain which for me is between 25-35 pounds. I have to keep that in perspective – and that the weight I have gained is important for a healthy baby girl!

– Within the past few weeks I’ve noticed that my hips hurt really bad at night when sleeping. It actually wakes me up often and I have to switch sides constantly throughout the night. I have been told that it is because the pregnancy hormones are causing muscles and ligaments to relax in preparation for birth and as a result it can cause pain. As I take a step back and look at how this pregnancy has gone, I am thankful that this has been the worst of my symptoms so far!

-For all pregnancies, doctors require you to take a 1 hour glucose screening test to help determine whether or not you may be at risk for gestational diabetes. This test is designed to see if your body can efficiently process sugar in your blood, as sometimes pregnancy hormones can cause insulin resistance or the inability to produce enough. At around 27 weeks I took the test which consisted of me drinking a sugary orange flavored drink (which really wasn’t bad at all and kind of tasty!), waiting one hour, and then having my blood drawn. Unfortunately, I got my test results (while on vacation!) and found out that I had failed the 1 hour glucose screening by 19 points over the normal range. I was discouraged because I really didn’t want to have diabetes (who on earth does?!) but I knew that if I did have it, it wasn’t because of anything I did or didn’t do (from what I have been told, you can’t get gestational diabetes from your diet). When I got home from vacation, I went back for the three hour glucose test where I had to fast the night before, have my blood drawn when I arrived at the lab, then drink an even higher dose of sugary drink (this time it was fruit punch!), then have my blood drawn again, then for three hours had my blood drawn every hour. Kyle was the best husband ever and came with me to both the 1 hour and 3 hour glucose test. Thankfully, we got to have our own little room to wait in for those three hours. I watched HGTV while he read. The good news is that I found out a few days later that I passed the 3 hour glucose test with flying colors! All my numbers were well within normal range – which meant that I did NOT have gestational diabetes. This momma was very happy! I think I may have even celebrated with a donut! haha!

-VACATION! Speaking of vacation, Kyle and I took the opportunity for one last vacation before our baby girl arrives. They call this a “babymoon” nowadays. 🙂 I took a week off of work (Kyle was already on summer vacation since he works for a school and gets the awesome perk of summer vacay!), and we headed on down to Sanibel Island and stayed at the Tarpon Tale Inn. It is the cutest little cottage. We had stayed there before a couple years ago and loved it so much then that we wanted to go back. We were originally going to go down to the Keys as that is where we went on our honeymoon and haven’t been back since, but the Zika Virus (transmitted by mosquitos and can cause birth defects in unborn babies) was becoming more and more of a possible risk in the Miami-Dade/South Florida region. So we decided to keep things a little closer to home. We had an incredibly relaxing time. We would go to the beach in the morning (because the afternoon was just too hot!) I would read while sitting under the umbrella and Kyle would go fishing. 🙂 We ate at some delicious restaurants, took long naps, shopped, went for walks and bike rides with the complementary bikes that our inn provided. It was perfect! While it is going to certainly be an adjustment, we really can’t wait for our sweet baby to get here. Kyle and I several times have talked about how we are so thankful that we have had 7 years of just the two of us. We have made so many special memories and have grown strong in our love for one another during these childless years, but are looking forward to our new life as a family of 3!

– I celebrated my 29th birthday in July! Kyle was so sweet and threw a little birthday party for me with our friends – the Whites and Phillips. They came over for pizza and cake (that Kyle made all on his own, funfetti cake with chocolate frosting! It was delicious). We also had a lovely day in Hyde Park/Tampa where we ate a delicious breakfast at Daily Eats (the cutest diner), shopped around Hyde Park (they have a Pottery Barn Kids where I got a couple of sheets for baby girl’s crib and a mobile holder!) We then went to one of our favorite coffee shops – Buddy Brew – and just relaxed there for a good bit while sipping on some delicious drinks and enjoying a yummy cookie! 🙂 It was just how I wanted to spend my birthday. We also celebrated the day after with my family. My mom always throws us a little party where we have a birthday table theme. This year mine was a princess party. ha! I can’t wait to throw our little girl parties like my mom has done all these years for us kids.

-I had my first baby shower which I will write about in a separate post. This one was for my mom’s and Marsha’s friends. It was just so lovely and I am so appreciative for everyone who came.

-We finished our last birthing class tonight! I feel much more prepared for labor and delivery and am very glad we attended a class. I may write a bit more on this later.

-Last weekend, Kyle and I went to Old Navy so I could buy some more maternity pants (my regular pants are pretty tight at this point!). While I was looking for myself I told him to go find something for our baby to wear. He picked out the sweetest little dress and another outfit on his own and was just so proud. He told me later when we got home as he was looking at his purchases…”boy, I am in trouble!” hehe! This little girl already has him wrapped around her tiny baby pinki finger! I just love seeing how much he loves her even before she is born.

I think this about sums up most of what has happened during the last 12 weeks! Only 8 more weeks to go! So crazy to think about – but we are certainly excited!

Stay tuned for more updates (hopefully I’ll get them in before the baby arrives! haha!)