Nashville Wife

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Baby Girl’s Birth Story Part 1

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A week before the delivery, Baby’s movements suddenly became frantic. This was concerning to me because until that point, she had been very calm. My provider scheduled an ultrasound to rule out any complications. Everything looked great, which was reassuring. Her size was estimated to be seven pounds, with a 10% margin of error.

As I did with my second son, I had started eating about five dried dates per day at 36 weeks. Besides containing folate, Vitamin K, and iron, dates are thought to reduce the length of labor and decrease the need for induction. This claim might sound a little hokey, but it is actually backed up by multiple studies and is something that doctors and midwives have started recommending to patients. Also at the suggestion of my provider, I started drinking red raspberry leaf tea just before 38 weeks. And a few days before my scheduled induction, I did quite a bit of exercising (lunges, deep squats, stairs, and walking).

On the morning of the induction, we left the house at 4:30am. The registration process was very quick, and we only waited a few minutes before the nurse came to take us to a room. We have delivered all of our babies at the same hospital, so it felt very familiar.

For the first time, the IV process was not smooth, likely because I wasn’t well hydrated. I was so focused on eating a healthy snack and getting out the door that I hadn’t thought to drink much. The nurses were all very kind and felt terrible that it went so badly. After the first attempt, the nurse told me that it was her first failed IV attempt in three months. Apparently she is known throughout the labor and delivery ward for her IV success streak.

She tried again in the other arm and also didn’t get it, so she brought in a different nurse. On her way out, she said, “I’m so sorry. Feel free to hate me.” I told her that she didn’t need to feel bad–I understand that things like that can happen. They had me chug some water and then brought in another nurse. Thankfully, the IV went in.

The induction process started with a mild drug, with the idea that Pitocin would be started four hours later. Within an hour, I was feeling strong, painful contractions. I ordered breakfast from the kitchen and was very much looking forward to eating bacon, but they were struggling that morning, and it never showed up. The nurse was surprised by the slow service and called the kitchen multiple times to remind them, and she kept me well stocked with high protein snacks. I eventually had Mr. Handsome walk down to the cafeteria to buy bacon, but by that time, the breakfast hours were over, and the kitchen was closed to prepare for lunch.

By the time the first four hours were up, my contractions were coming in waves at a rate of about two minutes apart and were very painful.

A Rustic Baby Shelf

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With the new baby on the way, I decided I needed a new shelf for the nursery. I thought it would be neat to have a shelf made from wood off our own property. A couple years ago, we had to take down two dead trees that were at risk of falling on our house. Mr. Handsome used a chainsaw and an Alaskan chainsaw mill to rough cut some of the logs into boards. It was a huge project that took hours. I decided to ask him to use one of these rustic pieces of wood to make my shelf, and he happily obliged.

My dad had given him an old-fashioned hand plane that he used to smooth out the wood. It was oak, which is a really dense wood, so it took a lot of elbow grease to get the job done. He purposely left it just a little rough to give it a rough-sawn appearance. We ordered the brackets on Amazon to create the modern floating shelf look. What do you think?

Baby #3 is a…

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We announced our pregnancy in September and were touched by all the well wishes we received from our loyal readers. Now it’s time to reveal the gender! Will we have three boys, or will our two boys get a baby sister?

Just like with our second baby, I really truly didn’t have a preference on boy versus girl. Most people assumed I wanted a girl, but when they would ask which I preferred, I would smile and say, “Having a daughter would be wonderful, but having three sons would be just as wonderful.”

We wanted to tell our boys the news before we told anyone else. Mr. Handsome was able to accompany me to the ultrasound while my mom watched our kids. To turn it into a little date, we stopped by a deli after the appointment. (My sandwich wasn’t deli meat, of course.) Then we took care of a couple errands at the bank and grocery store (don’t tell us we don’t know how to plan a romantic outing and topped it all off with coffee (shared, so this pregnant mama didn’t consume too much caffeine). On the way home, we picked up gender reveal cupcakes from a local bakery.

Littlest Buddy doesn’t yet understand the concept of being a big brother, but Little Buddy was very eager for us to come back and share the news. When he bit into his cupcake and saw pink filling, he was thrilled!

Early Childhood Sports

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One of my readers asked if we plan to involve our children in sports. The short answer is yes, but I’ll go ahead and share a longer explanation.

Mr. Handsome and I both played sports as kids. I did a couple seasons of soccer, of which I don’t remember much–other than that my team names were the Purple Dragons and the Bumblebees. Soccer wasn’t for me, so I began what ended up being many years of group tennis lessons, eventually leading to tournaments and team experience. I also took five years of karate, most of that being two nights a week. My dad took my brother and I downhill skiing many times per winter from the time I was little until I started college. And I had a couple years in high school of intensive badminton competition.

Mr. Handsome played soccer, baseball, and basketball at various points in childhood, as well as two years of high school football and four years of high school basketball. He also took tennis lessons, which worked out great because the two of us are well matched. Both his parents and my parents did a great job at easing us into sports and helping us be well-rounded.

Little Buddy, who will be five in a few months, is currently in the middle of his first season of sports. We chose soccer, and he loves it. We have thoroughly enjoyed watching him interact with his teammates and seeing how proud he is when he scores goals.

That being said, Mr. Handsome and I have decided that we want to be purposeful in what extracurricular activities we sign our young children up for. We want to make sure we don’t fill their schedules too full and prevent them from having time to “just be kids.” Little Buddy already gets a lot of regular social interaction with friends his age, so we aren’t worried about that.

From social media and talking to other moms, I’ve learned that a lot of parents feel pressured into involving their kids as young as age four in multiple sports per season, which means two nights a week of practices and a full day of games on Saturdays. For most young children, I think that kind of schedule has the potential of being stressful and overwhelming and could eventually result in burnout.

I continuously remind myself that Little Buddy will only be “little” for so long and that there will be plenty of years for him to be involved in sports. That being said, we also see the value in giving him some exposure to team sports at this age, as long as he is having fun and we aren’t filling his schedule too full. Aside from organized soccer, we have both enjoyed introducing him to other sports and outdoor activities. As I write this post, he is outside with one of his grandmas throwing a frisbee.

What are your thoughts on early childhood sports? There are now wrong answers because every kid is different.

Boodadas and Strawdeedas

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Littlest Buddy, who is approaching two years old, is doing great at learning to talk. He can string together phrases of two or three words and is constantly trying to repeat what we say. It’s always funny to hear what he comes up with when he attempts to pronounce words, especially difficult ones.

Two of his favorite words are “boodada” (blueberry) and “strawdeeda” (strawberry), and he has recently started saying “happy birt-day.” Instead of milk, he says “mooka.”. That one has been a mainstay for about four months at this point, even though I think he could say it correctly if he wanted to.

When I tell him, “say milk,” he responds with “mooka,” and if I prompt him again, he gives me a goofy smile and shouts, “MOO-KA!” with even more enunciation. I always have to chuckle because I can tell he’s trying to be funny. He seems to enjoy making people laugh, just like his daddy. The picture at the top of this post illustrates this perfectly, as it shows Littlest Buddy with a pair of Little Buddy’s stretchy pajama pants on his head. Wearing big brother’s pants like a hat is something that he came up with on his own, and he just loves that it makes us laugh. We, of course, supervise to make sure that he doesn’t pull them over his face or wrap them around his neck.

What are some funny pronunciations of words that you have heard from the young children in your life, or funny things they have done to make others laugh?

No More Training Wheels for Little Buddy

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Two months ago, Little Buddy–who is four-and-a-half–surprised us by reaching a big milestone much earlier than we had expected. While we were at someone’s house, he walked over to a two-wheeler bike, sat on it, and rode it. Just like that. No running behind him holding the seat. No coaxing him to keep trying. He just did it.

Until that point, he had been riding a traditional bike with training wheels some of the time but had been spending more time on a balance bike that a friend gave us. I really think that the balance bike is what helped him develop the balance and coordination that he needed to be able to ride without training wheels.

He was so proud of himself, and we were proud, too. When we got home, he begged us to remove his training wheels, so we did, and he has been practicing ever since.

Sweets for Littles

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Happy Friday! I hope all my readers have had a good week. Those of you in the United States and Canada, how did you celebrate 4th of July and Canada Day?

Many of you know that Littlest Buddy is 18 months old. His teeth have been slow to come in, but now that he has about eight, he is able to eat more mature foods. I thought of a discussion question that I would be interested to hear your thoughts on. When do you think babies should start having sweets?

With Little Buddy, we didn’t give any sweets but fruit until age two. Our plan is to do the same things with Littlest Buddy. So far, he has had an animal cracker by mistake, but other than that we have been able to stick to our goal.

What are your opinions on the topic?

Littlest Buddy the Talker

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Littlest Buddy is 16 months old and in a very busy stage. If you put him down in public, you’d better be ready to go after him, because he wants to go everywhere and do everything. He didn’t start walking until a couple months ago, but now that he has perfected that skill, he wants to utilize it.

In mid-March, he started taking off in his talking, as well. At the beginning of March, he barely said anything, except for a specific babble word he had chosen for milk or water, as well as the occasional “da” for yes. At four years old, Little Buddy is a great talker, so I started praying that the two of them would be able to communicate so they would have an easier time playing together.

Soon after that, I remembered that I had given Little Buddy a high quality liquid fish oil for infants at that age, so I bought a bottle and started putting it in Littlest Buddy’s oatmeal. I know it sounds silly, but there are a lot of reviews online from parents who said that fish oil helped improve their child’s language skills. Regardless of whether it helps much in that area, it’s a healthy supplement and one that a lot of doctors recommend.

Within a week of starting to pray and beginning the fish oil, Littlest Buddy’s language skills began to explode. He was suddenly interested in repeating words we said, when he hadn’t been before. Now six weeks later, he says all kinds of things. The other day, he brought me his blanket, and said, “hold it, hold it.” I took it from him, and he grabbed his toy screwdriver and started pretending to screw into the blanket, sound effects and all. I couldn’t help but laugh. Every time he learns a new word, I smile and thank God for answering my prayers. 

Why Can’t Daddy Just Make More Money?

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A couple months ago in the dead of summer, we were running late and dying of thirst, so in a moment of weakness, we stopped at a gas station and bought a couple bottles of water. Now, every time we drive by a gas station, Little Buddy wants to stop and get water. We haven’t stopped again, but he still keeps asking. He is a very persistent little boy with an incredible memory.

Last week, we were driving home from Bible study, and Little Buddy asked if we could stop for water at a gas station. I (Mr. Handsome) told him we weren’t going to pass any gas stations, which I honestly believed to be the truth. Little Buddy responded, “Yes we will, Daddy, the big one.” I responded with full confidence that there were no gas stations on our route.

Well, about two minutes later we passed a gas station. Little Buddy exclaimed, “Look Daddy, it’s the big one. They have good water there.” 

I decided to use this as a teaching moment, and I told him that water costs money at gas stations but that if we waited just a few minutes, we could have water for free at home. I figured it’s never too young to start teaching financial principles, so I explained, “We only have a certain amount of money. Wouldn’t you rather spend it on toys?” He thought about it and then sighed in defeat, saying, “I guess I would rather spend it on toys.”

I was so proud of myself and my son in that moment. I had taught him about scarcity, delayed gratification, and basic economics, and I had let him come to his own decision. But as I was basking in my moment of achievement as a parent, Little Buddy leaned forward and said, “Wait! Can’t Daddy just go to work and make more money?”

If only it was that easy, I thought to myself. 

5 Strollers?

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How many strollers is too many? A few weeks ago, we became the owners of a 5th stroller. I ended up selling one soon after, so now we only have 4. Mr. Handsome says it’s excessive, but each one has a very specific use, and I use all of them frequently. I might buy one or two more, but I’ll explain that later. Hear me out, and then let me know your thoughts.

When Little Buddy was born, we received a brand new travel system as a gift. It came with an infant car seat and a stroller that the car seat can click into. It’s a great stroller because it reclines all the way back for a baby but can hold an older child up to 50 pounds. That is the stroller I keep in my car for Littlest Buddy.

When Little Buddy was a newborn, I scored a gently used jogging stroller for $40 that would have cost me $170 new. The owners were moving and just wanted it gone, so they gave me an incredible deal. It’s made of metal and very solid, and it also fits my infant car seat. It has an adjustable five-point harness and reclines, so it can fit a small baby or a larger toddler. I have used that thing regularly for walks ever since Little Buddy was tiny. And I still use it all the time.

A few years ago, I received a free compact stroller (a $70 value) that was brand new. It’s barely bigger than an umbrella stroller when it’s folded, but it’s so much more versatile because it has a full harness and can recline back (although not as much as my other strollers, so it can’t be used for a tiny infant). It can accommodate a four-month-old baby through about 40 pounds. Little Buddy has almost outgrown it, but it was our primary car stroller for a couple years.

Before Littlest Buddy was born, I realized I needed to have a double stroller on hand, but I wasn’t in the mood to spend time shopping. I also didn’t want to pay full price because I knew it wouldn’t be long before Little Buddy would outgrow it and it would become useless to us. So I went to a used children’s store and bought the first smaller double stroller I saw. I needed something fairly compact because I knew I would have numerous postpartum doctor’s appointments to lug both kids to. It cost $70, which I didn’t love. But it was $180 new, so I suppose it was still a decent deal. It was great for the first three months of Littlest Buddy’s life, but the one feature I didn’t love was that it didn’t fit the car seat easily. It also barely fit Little Buddy.

I sold that stroller for $60 the other day because a friend graciously gave us their double stroller. It is still small as far as double strollers go, but it fits Little Buddy well, and it holds the car seat better. It was $180 new. I tried to pay her for it, but she said it was a gift that they no longer needed because their kids are older, so she didn’t want any money for it.

So now we have four strollers. I have entertained the idea of a double jogger, if I can find one for a decent price that will fit Little Buddy, as he is quite tall. I don’t want to spend more than $80 for it, so I’m waiting around for a good deal. I know it sounds crazy to buy one, but I think it would help me be more active, which is always a win.

I also might grab a $40 umbrella stroller. That way, when we so somewhere that we can’t take the double but need both kids to be in strollers, we will have two compact ones.

So that’s my story. Even when we owned all 5 strollers, they were worth about $800 new, and I had only paid $130. And now that I sold the 5th, we are down to 4 strollers for $50. Not too bad. Go ahead and share your thoughts on strollers.