First Mommy Mondays

When I thought about Mother's Day coming up and with my blog being called Crafty Mommy Diva, I wanted to do posts about being a mom too. I'm still so new at being a mom that I thought what a great way to get ideas, support and share joys with other moms. To honor Mother's Day this year, I've started my first Mommy Mondays.

You can leave a comment or you can leave a link to your very own Mommy Monday post. (I'll be getting a Mommy Mondays button in the near future.)
Share what you did for Mother's Day: for your own mom, MILs, or for you.
I called both my mom and MIL. Still working on making some photo books for them, but still need pictures.
For me, my husband gave me a card which our son also wrote in (he's 17 mo.) He helped take care of our sick son. He watched our son so I could teach in church. I received some chocolates at church too.
Simple acts of appreciation mean so much.

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Then to participate in Mama M's last day of her Mother's Day Mania, I'm writing a letter to my 17 mo. old son. (ended Sunday - Mother's Day)


Dear James,

Where to begin? I hope you know how much I love you! You are my first and only child right now. This is my 2nd Mother's Day. Thank you so much for sleeping this year because last year  you did not sleep well at all making mommy very sad. This year you decided to get sick on Saturday night with a 102.6 temperature. You were fine and then you started shaking/shivering at the store. By the time we came back home, you were terribly hot! Couldn't find any of our thermometers, so Daddy was nice enough to buy this cool one that changed colors. Green-normal, Yellow-slight temp., Red-bad temp! Well you were easily in the red. You ate very little, but you easily laid out by the TV with me and fell asleep in and out.

Then you had trouble staying asleep so we moved you back to your crib where you slept a couple hours and then woke up. Daddy was so nice to put you back to sleep so I could still sleep. Thankfully you stayed asleep until about 8am, but with nice yucky green boogers covering your one nostril. Cleaned you up and had breakfast. You actually played and made it through sacrament meeting at church. Daddy took you home, so Mommy could teach Primary. You apparently missed me during the last half hour of church because you dragged around my purple coat. Now you're asleep again getting all the rest you can so we can talk on the phone to your Uncle Conner who is serving a mission in Mexico.

Today could have been a lot tougher if you were younger, but you sure have taught me a lot especially since last Mother's Day. Being a mother is hard work, way harder than being a teacher or day care provider. I thought I knew it all since I worked in day care and became a teacher, but being a mom is a full-time job 24/7. I also learned that it definitely is the best job in the world. I love being your mom. I love watching you grow. You have learned so many things so fast: sitting up at 5 months, crawling at 6 months, walking at 10 months, etc. Now you're learning to say so many words and you're climbing all the time. Climbing into your high chair has been pretty helpful though =D. Pretty soon you'll be talking all the time, asking me why about everything. You'll learn to read and write. You'll go to school. Get baptized. Make friends, drive, date, graduate high school, go on a mission, get married, graduate college and have kids of your own. It will go by way too fast I'm sure.

I hope your dad and I can teach you the Gospel, to pray, read your scriptures, go to church, have a testimony, remember Jesus, and choose the right. I hope I can teach you (since your dad won't be very good this) how to dance, how to treat a woman: be a gentleman, remember the little things, to go on dates (not just hang out). Now your dad and I can both teach you about sports especially basketball, but other sports too like soccer, volleyball and any others that interest you. You're already trying to dribble a basketball so I'm sure it will be so fun to play together as a family. Hopefully we can both remember all the school subjects too so we can help you learn about math, science, social studies, history, geography, spelling and more.

I hope you always remember how much your dad and I love you. Your grandparents love you. Your uncles love you (hopefully they will get some aunts to love you too). All of your family loves you. Most importantly your Heavenly Parents and Jesus love you. Always remember that you are a child of God.

With all my love,
Mom

Mother's Day Mania at Mama M's Little Life - Birth Stories

Thursday: Birth stories!! I know I've done it before...but, honestly...I can't get enough birth stories! I'm gonna do this particular birth story on my oldest...since he made me a mama for the very first time! This is an easy one...so many people already have birth stories written, just link up that post!


TOOK This pretty much straight off my family blog - added  a few things to help you understand better....I loved re-reading this.

After Mike dropped off BIL, Derek at 11:45pm Saturday, November 29, 2008, we had about an hour together then my water broke at 12:47am, Sunday November 30, while we were lying on the bed watching National Treasure. (My husband was still in college and so was his brother. Since we had non-school housing, BIL stayed with us the whole Thanksgiving Break- Now that I look back on that; I'm annoyed Mike and I only had an hour of alone time...the last time we were alone to spend quality time together was before Thanksgiving Break - probably more so annoyed that my husband played computer games with his brother most of the week)

Picture taken earlier that day-little did we know...

Anyway continuing on....My water breaking felt almost like a contraction but just on my left side. It did feel like a pop and then suddenly it felt like I wet the bed...not a lot came out, but by the time we went out to the car....a lot came out and I was dripping, at least I was outside. The whole time Mike was like are you sure we have to go to the hospital you're not having any contractions. I told him yes either my contractions had to be close enough or my water had to break. After your water breaks, you have about 24 hours to get the baby out. He was probably surprised since baby wasn't due until December 12th. I had a feeling he'd be coming early.

So we go to the hospital and get admitted. First they have to check me out and make sure my water really did break. They have a little test strip that turns bright blue when your water is broken...yup my water did break! Then she checked to see how dilated I was...not a fan of this. I was dilated to a 3 which surprised me because on Friday I was only a 1 at the doctor's office. I hadn't had very many contractions since that time either. From that point, my water never stop coming out in sporadic times. I thought it would all come out at once, but I got some here and some there. I felt bad when water came out as I was switching rooms.

First room: checking if my water broke
Man I'm huge! HORRIBLE PIC (I had gained 42 pounds)

The nurse suggested walking around to start more contractions...didn't work...probably because my feet hurt too much since I didn't have my nice slippers with me yet. Mike thought it would be fun to take my picture with an IV. He said it reminded him of old people.

Man was I really that big! FREAK

At 6am, the next nurse said they would be starting me on Pitocin to get my contractions going more. I was nervous about this because friends had said that labor is harder when they do this and I really wanted to do this without pain meds. Well it definitely got harder! The nurse said people have still gone without the epidural with Pitocin. I think I reached level 5 on the Pitocin. The nurse said I kept doing well with breathing. By this point though Mike had fallen asleep which did not help. I tried calling for him, but that didn't work. My breathing started turning into "he he ahhhhh!" or "he he owwwww!" I had to yell out. Finally Mike woke up and I asked the nurse to try the birthing ball. Since it seemed that my contractions were easier standing up. If my legs weren't so weak, I would have tried doing it standing up. The birthing ball helped some, with Mike rubbing my back and me leaning my head against him, but boy it was still hard. By 9am they checked me again and I was only at a 4! I was like give me the epidural, no way would I make it to a 10 without it. The doctor and nurse said "Good girl"

Before epidural

The epidural took forever to get...about 30 minutes before they arrived. The nurse tried to get me some other medicine to put with my IV until then but that took long too! When the epidural guy came, he had me sit up (all the videos I'd seen had women lying on their side). Sitting up was hard! Then I had 2 contractions while he was doing the epidural. Mike held onto me and I held on to Mike so I wouldn't shake or jump with the contraction. The epidural guy said I had a lot of blood vessels back there so I better not move. Scary!



Me after the epidural. It was so amazing that I could actually take a nap and not have to go to the bathroom for 2-3 hours....this was very nice especially since I haven't experienced that in several months while being pregnant. I thought I had to go to the bathroom, but the nurse said that those were the contractions. I was like really; I hardly felt them.

At about 10:30am or so the nurse checked me again for dilation and I was at an 8 (I was amazed that I was already at an 8...I guess I really needed the epidural to relax) so she had me wake up and start pushing as I reached a 10. 4 pushes for 10 seconds each, during each contraction. It was hard to feel the contractions at first but eventually I could. Mike and the nurse would each hold a leg and I would push...didn't hurt at all. The baby would move down but then move back up. The nurse was a little worried because during each contraction the baby's heart rate would go down so she gave me an oxygen mask. That was interesting. Since she couldn't see him crowning, we tried me pushing on my side...that was supposed to help the baby's heart rate too. She left Mike to hold my leg with each contraction. This was the part that was the hardest for Mike because it was the grossest part. I felt so bad, but I had no idea what was happening until Mike told me. The doctor came in around 12:30pm and said that the baby was far down enough to get him out, but he would have to use a vacuum. I didn't really want him to do that but oh well. A couple more pushes and the doctor yelled at me to stop because I was about to tear. He said he would cut me instead so I'm like okay. Mike coudn't see him cut but he saw the scissors. I was like whatever because I couldn't feel anything. Then suddenly James was out like that at 12:58pm. I was awed that very moment, how could that come out of me?

So I guess I was in labor for about 6 hours, just counting after they gave me Pitocin.
The doctor handed Mike the scissors to cut the umbilical cord... I watch Mike to see what he would do because he said he didn't want to cut the cord. Mike did cut and I heard him telling his brother Jacob and our friend Ryan several days later that it was pretty cool, but it was hard to cut...you couldn't just make one cut. He told our friends Ryan and Megan that Ryan should cut the cord because it was a pretty cool experience.

While I was holding James, the doctor stitched me up. Mike said he used a needle shaped like a fishing hook. Then the doctor just pulled the placenta out which I thought was weird. I thought I would have to push that out. Oh well whatever. Then the nurse pushed down on my stomach, that kinda hurt and I'm guessing that pushed out more blood.


James weighed 6 lbs. 6 oz. and was 21 inches long. His head was 13 cm round. I overheard them saying his APGAR scores were 8 and 9. I was like that's it, only 6 lbs! I worried then that I really had gained too much weight!


James getting his first bath. I loved hearing his cry. It was so cute!



Love at first sight. Amazing feeling!


Mike didn't want to hold him yet, but the nurses just handed him over so he had no choice. I loved seeing Mike hold James the best! That's probably the moment I got really teary-eyed.



All cute and cozy. I swaddled him myself. I've definitely gotten better at it. Isn't he precious?


*In case you're wondering what I look like now. Check out some of my Fashionable Fridays posts. I've learned how to hide the baby belly some.

Mother's Day Mania at Mama M's - Whoopsie Wednesday

Wednesday: Whoopsie Wednesday! Let's kick this off with a little support therapy! Nearly every mom I know, had a "whoopsie" with at least one (all?) of their kiddos...falling off the bed, bonking a little head going around the corner, a bent toe in a shoe...I've heard so many stories! And, I know we ALL feel horrible about those times, so let's share 'em!



Almost didn't want to participate in this one because the first story that came into my mind makes me feel like a horrible mother, but maybe I can get advice from you guys.

We were staying a friend's house who had lots of stairs. Our house has 2 mini half stairs. My almost 16 mo. old son at the time went slowly up the stairs and I waited for him at the top. He stopped at the midway landing and I told him to keep coming, but then he started to lose his balance. I started running down the stairs, but it was too late he fell down half a flight of stairs. My heart was pounding so badly and didn't want to stop. He cried for a few moments, but went right back up the stairs. I figured he must have been okay since he didn't cry long. Am I horrible mom?! I still feel horrible about it. I should have stayed closer to him. He's really great at climbing stairs and we practiced all day climbing down those stairs since he doesn't know how to climb down stairs since we don't have any big ones to practice on at our house. Should I have had him checked out? I'm paranoid now that he's messed up his brain or something.
How old would you wait until you trusted your child with stairs without supervision?