How can I describe the weight of you? Your warm cheek against my chest, limbs relaxed, eyes closed, breathing deep and even. The new baby smell from the top of your head that smells like heavenly bread. Your smiles in your sleep, the way your scrunch your face and stretch, almost waking and the relaxing again into my arms. I watch the soles of your feet touch together. I feel your fingers … [Read more...]
Gwen’s Birth Story: Part I
How Gwen Stellamaris came into the world. If the details of labor and birth gross you out, feel free to stop reading now (I can hear my brother clicking away from this post!). This pregnancy was by far the hardest of my three. The endless weeks of morning sickness, the exhaustion, the acid reflux. I was more than ready to put it behind me and meet my new little daughter. As with Lucy, … [Read more...]
Birth Plan Advice
Today I'm over at MamaAndBabyLove talking about envisioning your dream birth plan. If you're expecting, a good birth plan is a must! Here's a snippet of my post, I hope you, or a friend, can find it helpful: "When we wrote our birth plan for our first baby, my husband and I were surprised to realize how many things we hadn’t thought about before. Who was going to cut the cord? Did we want our … [Read more...]
My Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Experience as a Working Mother
(Unhappy Baby Benjamin. This is seriously what he did most of his first year of life, poor child.) This post could also be titled: Why We Chose Mama and Baby Togetherness the Second Time Around. I've been wanting to tell you about our amazing experience with Ecological Breastfeeding, but I feel like I need to describe our experience with our firstborn's babyhood and why we so desperately wanted … [Read more...]
It’s Holy Week…
...hence the blogging silence. Until Easter, this will have to suffice, dear folk: Daniel and our friend Ted butchered a pig on Monday night. Moral of the story: we will be eating ham on Easter Sunday. My brother will be confirmed in the Catholic Church and receive his first communion on Saturday night. So excited for him! I found out I'm probably allergic to dairy. Blerg. Almond milk … [Read more...]
Crossroads
(Lucy getting a snack before Ellie's wedding, Photo courtesy of Jade Pierce Photography) Well, I feel like I'm at a motherhood crossroads with my sweet baby girl. I've been following the principles of ecological breastfeeding very thoroughly since her birth. I read Sheila Kippley's The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding and Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood which promote mama and … [Read more...]
Why I Hated Breastfeeding (And How That Changed) Part II
In Part I, I described my horrible experience breastfeeding my firstborn and how after four months I gave up. I was stressed out. My baby was stressed out. It wasn’t working. I am so glad to say that round two has been totally different! Part of it must be due to Baby Number Two's easy temperament, but I think other factors are lower stress, and a shift in my attitude and mothering … [Read more...]
Lucy Pneumonia Update
Thanks to everyone whose been praying for Lucy! She seems to be fighting the parainfluenza bug and the bronchial pneumonia really well. No fever so far, praise God. And she's been sleeping upright in her bouncer to help her breathing. I wasn't sure if we were going to get any sleep last night since she was sniffly and since she's used to sleeping in bed right next to me and would have to … [Read more...]
Tomorrow You’re THREE!
Oh, Benjamin, my little paleontologist, Tomorrow you will wake up and you will have turned the venerable age of THREE. The twos that I have loved so much will be over. I loved the day when you turned two. And I loved your First Birthday, too. So many gifts of grace you have brought to our lives. The Blessed John Paul II wrote that the enemy of true love is selfishness. Being your … [Read more...]
Our Bright Star
Our Lucy. Her name means light, pure, bright. And we named her after St. Lucy, a courageous virgin martyr. One virtue that I am perpetually lacking is courage and I pray that my precious one will be brave for Our Lord like St. Lucy. We were on the fence about her middle name for a long while after we were dead set on "Lucy" as her first name. Then, while reading Lord of the Rings for the … [Read more...]
