What I Eat

This is what I eat in a normal day. I have been trying to keep my calorie intake high so I can keep my milk supply up. Usually we have some type of protein for dinner like chicken.

Breakfast: 

A Trader Joes cinnamon bun with a cup of illy coffee.

Snack:

I had a Peanut Butter Luna Bar with a big bottle of Smart Water.

Lunch: 

Half a Chicken Salad sandwich with a side of fruit and fries (not pictured more water)

Dessert:

Mini chocolate milkshake

Snack: 

Banana 

Dinner: 

A slice of pizza

Depending on how early we have dinner I might have one more snack before bed. 

Postpartum: Month One

I cannot believe I am already writing my one month update. Then again it is hard to remember a time before Trent. As for me, my recovery is going great. I don't feel like I had major surgery four weeks ago. Overall I am feeling great physically and mentally although, I am exhausted!

 Fitness:

Is absolutely non existent until my postpartum appointment on March 11th. Even then, I probably won't be doing much. I don't really have any "baby weight" to lose since I am 100lbs which is just three pounds away from my pre pregnancy weight. I feel like my body needs those few pounds for breastfeeding so I am not trying to loose them anytime soon.

Eating:

I snack all day long on anything and everything. Usually these are my go to's:

Luna bars, bananas, almonds, cereal, candy, popsicles, oatmeal, sandwiches, pretzels and peanut butter.

I am exhausted and definitely overwhelmed at times, but life is also just really, really great right now. We are loving being a new family of FIVE!

 Growing Baby:

We will get Trent's official stats on Friday but on his newborn scale at home says he is about 8lbs 8oz. We think he will be about 9lbs at his one month check up which is up 3 lbs since birth! 

• Clothes: He can squeeze into some newborns sleepers but the days are numbered.  We put him in mainly 0-3 month size onesies at this point.
• Diapers: Still newborn but they are getting tight so we are going to switch him to size 1. 

Breastfeeding:

Breastfeeding takes up most of my day (and night)! Trent likes to eat every 1.5-2 hours during the day and every 2.5-3 hours during the night.  The longest stretch he has gone to date is 4 hours. I have been pumping once in the morning so I have a big freezer stash. Matt and I have not introduced the bottle yet but we might soon, in hopes to get one long stretch of sleep at night. Hopefully he takes it! 

Sleeping:

Trent is not the best sleeper though his schedule is becoming a little more predictable. He usually nurses at night around these times: 8pm, 10pm, 12am, 2am, 5am. Luckily he goes right back to sleep after each feeding, even though he gets up very often.  After his 5am/6am feeding he stays up for 45min- an hour, then he naps until he is hungry again. He has another awake period around 4pm-5pm when I am trying to get dinner ready, but usually he just looks around being adorable. 

Personality:

I am pretty sure we have another "mamas boy" on our hands. He loves being held which is mostly my fault since I held him a lot his first two weeks home. Trent sleeps best on my chest which makes it impossible to get any house work done. I occasionally wrap him in my solly wrap to sweep or make lunch for the boys if he is being fussy then usually he falls right to sleep. 

One heck of a Daddy: 

 A lot of people tell me they don't know how I do it. Well the answer is simple... I have an amazing husband who loves being a Daddy! Matt has been my cheerleader, my support, my best friend, my rock since the day I met him. I couldn't do what I do without his constant help. When he gets home from work he takes over, cleans up from dinner, entertains the boys, changes numerous diapers and does not forget to tell me I am beautiful and I am a great Mommy every single day!

Brothers:

Since Trent was born Landon has been very in love with his littlest brother and requests to kiss and hold him multiple times an hour a day. Oliver is very much interested  in Trent too, but not nearly to the extent Landon is. He really doesn't like when Trent cries. Oliver gets this nervous look on his face and says "done, done" ha ha I wish was that easy Oliver...

First Times:

Trent's first snow

Trent's first Valentine's day

The day Trent turned 4 weeks old my older sister Elise came home to meet him!

I feel so blessed to be the mother to three beautiful little boys-- they warm my heart everyday. I can't wait to watch them grow up together and be there for each other. For now, I hope time slows down a little because they are growing up too fast!

One Month Facts:

Weight: 8lbs 8oz?
Height: 21 inches

Umbilical cord: Fell off on day 11
Clothing Size: Newborn, 0-3 Month
Eye Color: Blue
Hair: Thick, light brown and stick straight
Dislikes: Being changed, being hungry for more than 0.5 seconds, being woken up by his brothers screaming, tummy time
Likes: Sleeping on chests, eating, boppy lounger pillow, swinging

Two Weeks Old

Today was Trent's two week doctors appointment. He weighed 7lbs. 3oz. which is a whole pound up from his birth weight! Usually by the babies two week appointment the doctor wants them to be back up to their birth weight.

Breastfeeding 
It was big relief for us to know breastfeeding is going so well since he has been gaining weight so nicely! Also, this week, I got hit with a pretty horrible case of mastitis. Battling that while taking care of three boys has been challenging, though the medicine is starting to kick in thank goodness! I have tried to add in one pump session a day depending on how Trent's been nursing, which means I have started a good freezer stash. Maybe soon, we will introduce the bottle and Matt can feed him it at night before bed.

Schedule
As for feedings, I pretty much just feed Trent on demand which kind of makes it hard to get out of the house. Feedings seem to range from every 1 1/2 to 2 hours during the day and every 2 to 4 hours at night. Trent has started having more awake periods during the day, usually lasting for 30-45 minutes three or so times when he coos and looks around wide eyed. Now that he has some alert moments its nice to see his personality show.

Brothers
Landon and Oliver are still very much in love with their little brother though they seem to be getting a little less interested in him. Which is good because for the first week or so they hovered over him and smothered him a little too much with kisses and hugs.

Trent is quickly filling in his newborn clothes that two weeks ago were huge on him. Whenever we do get out, I always get comments about how much hair our little boy has! I knew he would have some but not quite this much.

Matt went back to work last week. Of course he had to go back to work eventually, but that still doesn't make it easy. We miss him all day and I know he misses us too.

Daddy getting in his cuddle time

Side Note: 
Today was going to be Trent's birthday! We feel blessed to have been able to spend these two extra weeks with our little boy.

Two Week Facts:

Weight: 7lbs 3 oz
Height: 20 inches
Clothing Size: Newborn
Eye Color: Blue/Grey
Hair: Thick, light brown and stick straight
Dislikes: Being changed, being hungry for more than a minute, being woken up by his brothers screaming
Likes: Sleeping on chests, swaddle (sometimes), MAM pacifiers (sometimes), warm bath, eating

Post Baby: One Week

I really debated whether or not I wanted to do a post on this for a number of reasons, but decided to go ahead with it. I loved seeing how my body changed week by week during my pregnancy and I don't want to regret not recording the little things during my recovery that I don't want to forget. I will not be doing weekly updates on my postpartum recovery, but will do a week one, month one and month two, possibly a month three as well as an update on baby Trent.

Postpartum:

I gained a total of 18 pounds during my pregnancy. Two days later when we arrived home from the hospital, I had lost 10 of those pounds, bring my weight down to 105lbs. Today at one week postpartum my weight is 104lbs. I had a repeat c-section which means absolutely no exercise for the first six weeks. We live in a four level townhouse, so I really try my best to limit the times I need to go up and down the stairs.  I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband, who has taken over all the household chores and most importantly taken full time care of our boys. Matt has not let me do any housework. I have been resting and nursing on the couch all day while he makes all of our meals. I hadn't even changed Trent's diaper until yesterday!

Here is a comparison of my last weekly pregnancy picture and my one week postpartum picture taken today.

My c-section cut is very swollen, it will be a few weeks until that area goes down.

Brothers:

Many friends and family have asked me how the boys are handling having their brother home. To be honest, much better than we could have imagined! Landon has taken his oldest brother role to a whole new level always wanting to help Mommy and Daddy by getting diapers and kissing baby Trent every chance he gets. Oliver was a little distant at first, but anytime he comes over to Trent he is extremely gentle and sweet.

Breastfeeding:

Since I got pregnant I was determined to nurse. With both Landon and Oliver, they went to the NICU right after delivery and were fed formula through a bottle. Once my milk came in they had nipple confusion so I had no to choice but to pump and either Matt or I had to give them the breast milk through a bottle. It was very hard, so I only did it for a few months. Luckily that didn't happen this time and I was able to nurse Trent right after I got to recovery. He latched right away and has done awesome figuring out how breastfeeding works with me, which is such a relief. I forgot how hungry it makes you. I eat all day... literally all day I snack.

First Doctors Appointment: 

We had Trent's first doctors appointment when he was four days old, he weighed 5lbs 13oz. The doctor told us four days after birth he will be the lowest weight and she is pleased he has not lost much. He got his first shot and took it like a champ. We go back in two weeks for another checkup.

Sleep: 

Like most newborns Trent sleeps all the time it is a special treat when he shows us his beautiful baby blue eyes a few times a day. He wakes up about every 1.5 to 2 hours during the day to eat and nighttime isn't too different, maybe every 2 to 3 hours. Though Thursday night he blessed us with a four hour stretch!

Newborn Photoshoot:

Yesterday when Trent was six days old, we had our newborn/family photoshoot done at our house. It was done by a local photographer I found online named Rebecca Danzenbaker (http://www.rebeccadanzenbaker.com) she was such a joy to work with and had the most patience I have ever seen and really took her time to make every picture perfect. I snapped a few pictures behind her while she was working her magic. I cannot wait to see the final product I know they will look gorgeous.

Happy one week birthday baby boy!

Trent's Birth Story

     On Saturday January 25th, 2014, Matt and I took the boys to see the movie Frozen. We were excited to take them out and do something fun with them since we knew it was one of our last weekends as a family of four. The movie was so cute and we had a great time eating too much popcorn! During the movie, I had a few Braxton hicks contractions but they were sporadic. And at this point in my pregnancy (36 weeks, 4 days) I knew it was common to have a lot of them. After we got lunch, we came home, it was around 12:30pm when Matt and I put Landon and Oliver down for their afternoon nap.  I decided to take a shower and lay down. Once I was laying down, I realized my practice contractions (braxton hicks) were a little more painful than usual.That is when I realized the contractions were coming every 15 to 20 minutes I timed them for an hour before calling my OBGYN. The doctor on call was one I had never met but she knew from my file that with my last pregnancy I went into labor naturally early. Because of this, she wanted me to come to the hospital to get checked and monitored. I called my Mom and asked her to come over with my dad to watch the boys until we get home. I was convinced I was just being overly cautious and we would be back home in a few hours. Matt still insisted on us packing everything in the car, just in case.

       My Mom arrived around 3:10pm and by then I was contracting every 10-15 minutes and I also noticed Trent had dropped. The whole top half of my belly was empty and I was full on waddling around. We said bye to the boys and told them they might be staying at Grandma and Grandpa's house tonight, but we will see them tomorrow and off we went! I was starting to be in a lot of pain in the car and kept asking Matt to just get us there and don't talk to me. Poor Matt rushed us to the hospital in a speedy 18 minutes, when usually it would take us 25-30 minutes. We parked and quickly went up to the 3rd floor to register and get hooked up to the monitor. Once hooked up the contractions started showing up right away and that is when I knew today was going to be the day we welcomed our third son. By the time we met our Doctor they were coming every 3 to 4 minutes. She checked my cervix (which was closed but soft and short on Tuesday) and now was 4 centimeters. Our doctor said today is the day and he is ready to come. I was very scared he would be going to the NICU, like our last two did because he was so early. She reassured me that just because Oliver went at 37 weeks (because he inhaled fluid during delivery) does not mean Trent will. She could not have been more caring or reassuring! Over the next hour we were signing forms and meeting all the friendly nurses and doctors that would be in the room during the surgery. At 5:30pm while talking to one of the nurses my water broke! I had always wondered what that would feel like just a few minutes before it happened I was actually telling Matt I was disappointed that I was not going to experience it.

     After my water broke I said bye to Matt and was wheeled to the OR. I got my spinal and a few minutes later Matt showed up by my side. I remembered the feeling from my last two csections... the tingling and warmth slowly going up your legs then your stomach, it never gets less scary. It felt like it took a while for the doctor to reach Trent because of all the scar tissue. But when she finally reached him at 6:11pm the nurses said he was screaming before the Doctor had even gotten him out all the way and he kept crying the whole time he got examined and scored an awesome 9/9 on his Apgar Score! Being only 36 weeks and 4 days they had to keep a close eye on him while I got stitched up but he was perfect and didn't have to go to the NICU and went with us to recovery and stayed with Matt and I in our room the whole day and half we stayed at the hospital. It was the best experience I could have asked for even though it wasn't with the doctor I had originally wanted or the date I expected, it was one of the best days of my life and we couldn't be happier that he is here already and so healthy. Trent is the sweetest, most patient, content baby and he is the perfect addition to our family! Now we are just adjusting to having a newborn again and focusing on recovering. Thank you for all the congratulations!  I will do a postpartum update soon.

Birth Announcement... Coming Soon!

Mommy and Baby are happy and healthy recovering in the hospital.  Baby Trent Parker was born last night at 6:11 PM and weighed 6 pounds, 3 ounces.  The details of our journey and how we got there will be posted as my weekly Wednesday update!