Year One...CHECK!

Friday, July 20, 2012

We're back from our semi-impromptu vacation to Wisconsin to see family at Big Laura & Steve's wedding. What a whirlwind trip that was! I saw old college friends their babies & kiddos and got to spend some QT with my Midwest family. It went by way too quickly (like it always does!).


The day after we returned I had one, yes, just one tiny day to prepare for Laura's big 1st birthday! Being I'm a rookie-mommy, I invited over 50 people to Laura's birthday...what the heck was I thinking??? The only way the whole day was pulled off was because of my husband's high patience level with me & my dear friend, Stephanie's help. All in all, the day was a blast. We had so much fun celebrating our little blessing & the past year as well as toasting many brewskis to the fact that Matt & I survived year one of parenthood without losing our minds (well, the jury's still out there) & without forgetting our daughter somewhere!


Now that we've entered toddlerhood with a fully mobile, practically running Laura-love, I have very little down time. I've wanted to write Laura's birth story for a while but...she's always finding something to get into and I'm coming up with more and more creative barricades! So, while she's sleeping (and surely by sleeping, I mean running circles in her crib while singing away) & thanks to Britt for reminding me, here's Laura's birth-day story!


After what seemed like the longest Thursday ever, Laura Elisabeth Visaggio, was born at 5:37pm. I had been having contractions since midnight that day (absolutely not a single one before then). We went to the hospital around 5 am when my contractions were lasting over a minute and were 3 minutes apart. I thought for sure we were on the fast track to seeing our little girl...I was fairly wrong. After walking around the maternity wing at Cape Coral Hospital for more than 2 hours, we were sent home. The on-call doctor said that I wasn't going to be in active labor that day and I should go home and rest since I'd been up all night. She said if my contractions felt more painful I should come back. I was devastated. I thought for sure I'd be having Laura that day. 


Well, by the time I got to the parking lot my contractions were much worse but we just went home, assuming they knew what they were talking about. I laid in bed trying to sleep but my contractions remained steady and even and progressively getting harder. I tried laying on my side to sleep...nada. I tried sitting on my yoga ball....nada (truthfully, that was the worst idea known to mankind...SO FREAKING PAINFUL...I wanted to stab the yoga ball). I tried to take a bath thinking that would calm me down and help me rest....nada. I was trying to talk to my dear friend, Jenni, while laboring in the tub and I couldn't even carry on conversation. It was then that she simply said, "Katie, go back to the hospital. You're definitely in active labor now." 

She was right. We went back with the same bracelet they had given me 3 hours before and I was at a 5. (I probably would have had an unplanned homebirth with how naive and at the same time, stubborn I was that day.) At that point I knew I'd be running the show. I told the nurse as soon as they got me into my room that I wanted an epidural. I was so tired that I just wanted to sleep. I was convinced that I wouldn't be able to rest before the big push without one...and as educated as I was then, I wouldn't have made a different choice. They tried to argue with me that I was only at 5 and I should try to wait...I had choice words for them...and then the anesthesiologist came in. Oh, what an angel that man was! As soon as the epidural was in around noon, I took a nice, long four hour nap! I woke up around 4pm with the urge to push. The nurse thought I was nuts considering I had been virtually comatose just a moment before that. She checked and I was an 8. She put the required catheter in and holy moly, did my contractions come back strong! (I'm pretty sure my epidural only numbed my right side because I was feeling loads of wicked stuff on the left!) I told her again that I wanted to push so she appeased me with an eye roll & a check...yuppers, I was at 10! We woke up Matt (yup, he was still snoozing on the couch) and I started pushing around 4:45p. After a 45 minutes of pushing, the 2 nurses & Dr. Krauss told me to take a break and that I didn't need to push for a while as there were two other mothers they were convinced would birth their babes before me. Honestly, my first thought was "like hell, they're seeing their babies first!" And without anyone holding my legs up I began to push even harder. They didn't like that too much but it must have done some good because Dr. Krauss was yelling for me to stop so she could give me an episiotomy quick (proven by the slice on the top of Laura's precious little noggin after birth!). With three more heave-ho pushes, she was out! When they put her on my tummy I could hardly believe she was actually there, out in the world with us. It was one of the single most amazing moments of my life.






Sadly, (and now I know so much better that this will NEVER happen with our future babes) they took her off of me straight away and put her in the warmer. We were told in birthing class that this would only happen if something was wrong. I was supposed to have skin to skin contact immediately as that is the single best way to warm a newborn up. I frantically sent Matt over to the warmer while I was being stitched up to hold her hand. I simply remember shouting "Hold her hand! She's scared!" and asking over and over again what was wrong. Thankfully, absolutely nothing was wrong. They simply wanted to get her cleaned up & tests finished so they could make it to the other two birthing moms. They made me leave her in the warmer for over a half hour after they were finished. To this day that makes me so sad. I should've been holding her. 







But, before my heart sinks too low thinking about that, I will fast forward to the moments when we really got to hold her. BEST. MOMENTS. EVER. It seemed almost like time slowed instantly. All the rush & worry of the day and minutes right after birth were washed away the moment that I got to actually hold her. She was so gorgeous and healthy and incredible. God definitely blessed Matt & I beyond measure with this little one. 


There are definitely things I would change if I could go back. I would've been more assertive. I would've trusted my Mommy instincts more. I would have taken more pictures...or at least a family of 3 picture right away, for goodness' sake! But, I won't complain. I had it easy for the most part. We were given a beautiful, healthy, precious gift from God on July 7, 2011 that would forever change us.



I've been told by more people than I'd like to admit that becoming a mother that day has made me much softer & gentler woman. I like to think that side was always there but Laura just gave me a good enough reason to let it out ;) She is amazing. I marvel at her every single day. She's so smart & sassy, snuggly & independent all at the same time. She is turning into quite a rock star toddler. Her personality is enormous & I absolutely adore it. We've overcome quite a bit in her first year of life and for that I am eternally grateful to our good God for watching over us. He never let more happen than we could handle with His perfect help. She's challenged me to grow and change in ways I never thought possible. I'm so very thankful that God allows me to be Laura's mommy. As I was rocking her to sleep tonight it hit me as it has before...I get to be her mom. July 7, 2011 was one of the best, blessing-filled days of my life. 


My dear Laura, I love you so much! Your first year was incredible. Never forget that Jesus loves you & always watches over you. He will guard & keep you every day. Love you always, Mommy 

Crunchy Stuff Part Two: Baby-Led Weaning!

Thursday, June 28, 2012


For the next segment of my Crunchy series, I asked my good friend and go-to mommy for all things healthy, eco-friendly & green, Allison, writer of the blog Funny Shade of Green (definitely one of my favorite blogs to read. Go follow it. Seriously, you will thank me!) to share her love of Baby-Led Weaning. 


Allison is mommy to Goose, who is one month to the day younger than little Miss LL. I asked Allison to write all about her experience with BLW because Goose is an absolute pro at it (See here!) A HUGE thank you to Allison (& Goose!) for taking time to share about this healthy way of introducing food to little ones!


BABY-LED WEANING

I’m a first-time mother of a now 11 month old baby and right behind fostering an unwavering relationship with God, my biggest goal in raising my daughter is to help her build a healthy relationship with food.  I want her to know the difference between real food and artificial simulations of food.  I want her to appreciate the harvest God provides us and be willing to try new flavors.  I want her to be free of preventable diseases that are brought on by poor food choices.  In essence, I want her to love good food. 


ENTER:  Baby-Led Weaning by Rapley and Murkett.


WHAT IS IT?
Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) is a book that outlines a method of introducing a wide variety of whole, unprocessed foods to your child as early as six months old and letting her be in control of how and when to eat it.  As the title implies, the BABY LEADS.  This means that a six month old baby can begin picking up and gumming on pieces of food, cut into safe sizes. Instead of force-spooning purees into her mouth, she can hold a piece of food in her own hand and bring it to her own mouth at her own pace.  The book argues that this method of weaning expands baby’s palette, creates a sense of bonding with the parents, builds confidence in eating and reduces the likelihood of choking.


Is this a revolutionary concept?  Certainly not.  Parents have been sharing food with their babies throughout history.  In some cultures, the mother pre-chews foods before placing chunks into her baby’s mouth (check out the Alicia Silverstone video on Youtube for more on that method).  It has only been in developed countries over the last century that babies have been fed purees as a weaning method.  Coincidently (or not) it is also in developed countries over the last century that huge populations are living with very warped relationships with food, relying on pharmaceuticals to keep their bodies together while they drink chemical-laden sodas and eat mechanically processed fast food.  Are purees entirely to blame? No, of course not.   But pureed weaning certainly hasn’t helped kids build positive relationships with good food.    


WHAT’S WRONG WITH PUREES?
There’s nothing wrong with pureeing food.  Some veggies, like carrots, are a choke hazard for little mouths if left raw.  So it makes perfect sense to steam and puree carrots for your baby to eat.  But here is a list more thoroughly explained in the book for why you shouldn’t serve only purees at every meal for your 6-12 month old: 

  • Store-bought purees are lower in nutritional value than fresh produce because it has been heavily processed at high temperatures.
  • Store-bought purees have limited flavor variety, offering only the lowest common denominator flavors like peas, apple and green beans which can inhibit a child’s willingness to explore new flavors later.  When is the last time you saw a radish puree in a Gerber jar?
  • Spooning purees into the baby’s mouth takes the eating controls away from the baby, a skill that must be learned later when the baby may actually be at a greater choking risk (I’ll explain in a second).
  • Whether you buy or make purees, baby is eating something different from the rest of the family.  Baby learns through mimicking parents, so it makes most sense for parents to share foods with her, rather than eating one food while serving something entirely different to her.

WHAT ABOUT CHOKING?
When I feed my baby publicly, the most frequently asked question I receive is, “aren’t you worried that she is going to choke?”  Not really.  And here’s why:  As the BLW book explains, babies are born with a gag reflex that is near the tip of the tongue, a great distance from the choke zone of the throat.  As the baby gets older, the gag reflex travels back on the tongue until it eventually settles way down the throat IN the choke zone.  By introducing solids earlier (6 months), rather than later (12 months), baby can learn to manipulate foods in her mouth while the gag reflex is way up front, providing a huge safety margin between the gag reflex and the actual choke zone.  When babies are introduced to solids later in their development, that distance between the gag reflex and the choke zone is much narrower so foods are more likely to get lodged and become a danger. 
   
WHAT DOES A BLW MEAL LOOK LIKE?
The beauty of a BLW meal is that if you are preparing healthy foods for yourself, you don’t have to do much to alter it for baby.   This makes meal prep actually much easier and cheaper than buying or making specially prepared purees for baby.   The big rules: 

  1. Stick to whole, real foods from the produce, bakery, meat and dairy shelves at the store. Skip the processed dry goods in the middle.  That’s where all the crap ingredients lurk. 
  2. Avoid processed sugars and sodium.  Not only are both bad for your baby because it taxes their little systems to process them, but this is your best opportunity to teach your child how to appreciate foods that have not been compromised by cheap flavoring.  Humans are conditioned to LOVE sugar and salt.  You don’t need to teach your baby to enjoy it.  She’ll taste it one day and get hooked.  But try to delay that day as long as possible so she can build a strong relationship with whole foods first so she doesn’t rely on either salt or sugar to “flavor” her foods.

The bulk of the book explains best first foods and how to actually administer them.  I won’t get into it here.  I will say that for us, we started out with a variety of softer foods (banana, avocado, peaches, cheese, etc.) and progressed into more advanced foods like what she ate for dinner last night: a bowl of brown rice with tofu and steamed vegetables with frozen blueberries (halved) for dessert. 

WHAT I’VE TAKEN FROM THE EXPERIENCE: 
I bought this book because I want my daughter to have a wide, adventurous palette that discerns real foods from artificial.  Baby-Led Weaning has helped greatly in this endeavor by giving me the confidence as a parent to introduce new foods to her while her taste buds are still developing.   An unintended consequence of reading this book is that it changed my own relationship with food.  BLW made me acutely aware that my actions have lasting consequence in my baby.  She eats what I eat.  She shares my bowl.  She watches my reaction to trying new foods.  She trusts my food decisions.    The book made me realize that my baby’s food decisions are not based solely on the foods I place before her, but also in those I place before myself.   And we’re both the better for it.
  



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