Tag Archives: sleeping

My Finds Friday – Sleep

Posted on September 7 by Jillian416 • 2 Comments

Sorry this is a day late… The Doodah Household has been trying to fight the stomach virus.

This week’s My Finds Friday is brought to you by sleep.

I’m tired, really really tired this week. I don’t really have a reason for why I am so sleepy, but it has been a tough week working to keep myself awake. My sleep hasn’t changed, I’m still going to bed around 10 or 10:30 and getting up at 4:45, but getting myself up and keeping myself awake has been a constant struggle. Just one of those weeks, I suppose.

This week’s finds:

I’m always trying to find ways of fitting more into my day and always remark to myself that if I didn’t have to sleep I’d have 7 more hours each day. Unfortunately, that is not a possibility but it does seem like there are ways to get less sleep and still feel energized. This article on Daily Mail about sleeping better by sleeping less, is really interesting and has given me some food for thought. It is an older article, came out in January of this year, but I’m still thinking of trying some of what they’ve suggested.
Monica from Run Eat Repeat has a great giveaway going on for a Moving Comfort Sprint Tee and Sprint Tech Skort. New workout clothes are always so motivating, check out her giveaway and enter to win.
HelpGuide.org offers some really great tips on getting a better nights sleep.
I found a couple new blogs this week, one of them is called The Happy Type, and I’m seriously in love with it! So many positive and uplifting articles, which is just what I need right now. Crystal recently posted a receipt for an Orange Banana Smoothie, it sounds amazing! I cannot wait to give it a try.
Another new, AWESOME, positive find is The Nectar Collective. I was doing a Google search and Melyssa’s blog came up as a top result in that search, sadly I cannot remember what I was specifically looking for, I just know that her blog is fantastic. It is beautiful to look at, her posts are always upbeat and positive and she seems to have this amazing sense of community and helping others. I’m so thrilled that I found her and that I get to share her blog with you. Please stop on over and give her some love!

I hope that you’ll visit one or all of the sites above. I take great care in choosing who I feature each week and find each article, blog or post very valuable and motivational.

Your turn!

What great websites or finds have you found this week?

What advice do you have to make the most out of sleep?

Filed Under: My Finds Friday

Emmett’s Birth Story (Part 7)

Posted on October 14 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

My migraine was gone and I was ready to hold my little boy. It still took the nursery about 15 minutes to bring him to me and I was beyond anxious to just hold and touch him. Remember, up until this point I had not touched my baby because I’d had a c-section.

If you are breastfeeding it is recommended that you allow your baby to feed within 2 hours of his life because studies show that newborns who have early contact with their mothers learn to latch on more efficiently than babies who are separated from their mothers in the hour or two following birth. This is also a time when the baby will be in a state of quiet alertness, the optimal behavior state for interaction with you. Her eyes are wide open, she is attentive and is looking for another set of eyes – and for the breast. (source)

I had decided that I would be breastfeeding Emmett so it was important that he and I be able to have some skin-to-skin contact within that two hour window to allow him to learn to latch. Seamus and I were concerned we’d fall outside of this time frame because of my c-section but the hospital did a fantastic job of ensuring he got to me well within that time.

For any soon-to-be moms out there, I want to recommend that you ask the hospital to hold off on bathing your baby (if you’re planning to breastfeed) until after he’s fed for the first time. Once they’ve done that, they will set him under the heated lamps to bring his body temperature back up, which takes a lot of time, this is time away from you and your breast. This is a critical time and not one that your baby needs to be spending under heated lamps, your skin against his will warm him plenty.

When they brought him into the room and handed him over to me, my breath caught in my throat. It hit me, he was mine and no one else would ever be his mother. It was such a moving experience that just thinking about it now brings tears to my eyes.

We immediately had our skin to skin contact and worked on his latching skills. It actually went quite well, I needed assistance but Emmett was still alert and ready to nurse

If you’re breastfeeding, after the baby’s birth, all modesty goes out the window, you have nurses and lactation consultants grabbing your boob, showing you how to hold it and then placing it in the baby’s mouth, there’s just no time to be shy. I’d heard this ahead of time but I still figured I’d be slightly uncomfortable with it but truthfully, I wasn’t. I knew what they were doing was teaching me how to feed my baby the perfect food. And in the end, their advice was all VERY helpful!

After we’d had about a half hour with him, they took him back to the nursery. I was still in the labor and delivery unit and needed to be moved to my private room in the Mothers and Baby Unit. So they took Emmett back to get a bath and a few more tests, one being a blood glucose test. He was born with low blood sugar so they had to test it every few hours to see whether it was increasing.

When we got to our new room, the nurse came in and introduced herself and explained some important information to us. After she’d done all that she took my temperature and blood pressure, helped change the pad on the bed and assisted me in putting a pad on myself. If you’ve never had a baby, let me say that the bleeding you experience after a baby is far worse than any period you can even imagine, it’s gross but necessary.

Eventually they brought our baby back to us, we were “rooming in” with the baby. This is something new that the hospitals are suggesting to parents and I was fully on-board. Instead of the baby staying in the nursery, he stays with you (morning and night) so that you can adjust to sleeping together and so that you’re there to feed him as he needs. I’m very glad we did this, I don’t think I’d have wanted my baby down the hall away from me.

Time started to blur together because I was so exhausted. If you remember I hadn’t slept more than an hour or two combined the previous night and I’d just gone through surgery. I needed to rest but I was still riding on the high of my brand new boy.

In case you missed them; Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6.

Filed Under: Emmett, Family

Two Month Appointment

Posted on September 26 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

Today was Emmett’s two month appointment and I have been anxious about it for about a week. At the two month appointment babies who are being vaccinated get a big chunk of them at this visit, this was the case for Emmett.

I’m pretty good at handling Emmett crying EXCEPT for when he’s in pain. His “pain cry” just cuts right through me. I’ve only heard it once or twice but they’ve stuck with me. Once happened when we were still in the hospital when they were pricking his foot for his blood sugar tests and once when I picked him up and must have lifted him funny, but I know that cry from any other cry.

I kept joking around saying that I was the one who needed to be drugged because I was so stressed about watching him get the shots and screaming out in pain. I was assured by so many that he and I would be fine but I still was worried.

At the two month appointment they also take the baby’s weight, length and do a regular check-up. Emmett is right on average with most things but is above average for weight, he falls into the 78th percentile. He’s a chunker and I’m A-OK with this! He received two shots, DTaP (Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertusis and Polio/Hib (Haemophilus influenza type b) and one oral vaccine which was for the Rotavirus. He took the oral vaccine like a champ but really, all they do is dump some liquid into the baby’s mouth and get them to swallow it, those are the easy ones. The first shot he had no reaction to, it was in and done so quickly but the second one (I’m not sure which was which because the nurse didn’t specify in which order she was doing them) he SCREAMED and I teared up! Thankfully it was the last shot, Seamus was able to quickly pick him up and give him some love.

On the advice of a few friends, I nursed him before we left the doctor’s appointment. It had the desired effect, he calmed right down and as soon as we were in the car and drove away, he was asleep. Eventually we gave him some baby Tylenol because he started screaming in pain but overall he’s still been in a pretty good mood. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.

He’s done quite a bit of dozing this afternoon and evening.

He is a very stretchy and grunty boy!!

What were your reactions when your kids had their two month shots?

Filed Under: Family