Baby | HoneyBear Lane

Weigh-In Wednesday #6

February 15, 2012 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 38 Comments

Did I weigh myself this week? Yes. Did I do Weight Watchers this week? No. Did I lose weight? Um…yes. Weird.

So I’m finding that I’m SLOWLY losing weight no matter what I do. I follow all my points to a T and I lose a pound. Then I throw caution into the wind and eat like a pig and lose a pound. Huh.

On another note, I’m having milk supply problems. After I weaned her from the shield, my supply got better and I didn’t have to supplement anymore. But no matter what I did, I never really made much milk in the evening, for her last feeding before bed. So I would try to give her a bottle. But suddenly my fastidious baby turns up her nose at bottles. The same baby who drank bottles just fine a month ago. And even still she will take a bottle in the middle of the night. So I nurse her anyway so she can comfort herself but I always worry that she is still hungry.

But now my milk starts dwindling in the early afternoon. Thanks to my advisory board (also known as the Honeybear Lane Facebook Page) I am now taking Fenugreek and Mother’s Milk herbal tea. I’ve only taken it for a day, so I’m hoping it helps. For those of you who have taken these supplements, how long does it take for them to start working? And how much does it really help?

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Filed Under: baby, breastfeeding, weight loss Tagged With: baby, motherhood, Weight Loss

Five Lovely Baby Quilts

February 10, 2012 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 8 Comments

I worked on a new quilt pattern this week and I was pushing that sucker ferociously through my sewing machine in my attempts to geterdun. But my baby likes to nap these days for approximately 20 minutes at a time and fuss for the whole time she’s awake, so I didn’t get it done. I will show it to you next week! In the meantime, here are some cute baby quilts I like…

This one drew me in with the bright bold colors. I love that it uses raw edge fabric and quilted fabric. Plus the argyle pattern is awesome!

If this quilt had letters instead of numbers, my 21-month-old would be all over it. He’s obsessed with the Alphabet! (Did I mention he knows all his letters by sight and sound? He’s a smart cookie.)

Not exactly quilts, per se, but these blankets are so plush and cuddly and I’m sure a nightmare to make (because of that slippery minky.)

I wanna do this for my kids someday. Like maybe when they go off to college…nothing says “Congrats on Becoming a Man” like a quilt with your name on it.

This one is modern and simple. I love the color blocking.

I got more quilts on my Quilts Pinterest Board–check it out for inspiration!

(Click Pics for Image Source)

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Filed Under: baby, quilting Tagged With: baby, quilting, sewing

Make an Easy Apron Skirt

January 31, 2012 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 3 Comments

Here’s a baby outfit I whipped up the other day for a baby shower gift…

There are dozens of baby/kid skirt patterns out there and I’m 100% positive that this is one of them. But I’ve made and sold dozens of skirts, so I’ve learned a thing or two about the process. Read on after the jump.

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Filed Under: baby, learn to sew a skirt, sewing Tagged With: Baby Girl, clothing, sewing, skirt, slider, tutorial

Breastfeeding at Two Months

January 27, 2012 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 25 Comments

Miss E is two months old now. And I’m still breastfeeding! Doesn’t sound like much of an accomplishment but I’ve overcome a lot.

Finger feeding to nipple shield with tube.

Nipple shield with tube to nipple shield with formula squirted in the tip and supplementing.

Nipple shield with formula to Nipple shield alone, still supplementing.

Nipple shield to nothing, no supplementing!

Well to be honest, I have to give her an ounce of supplement in the evening because my milk supply is always just low in the evenings. I’ve had rough spots here and there with some very painful clogged ducts. But overall I feel like a normal breastfeeding mom now. And that is huge!

At six weeks she went from taking an hour to eat to taking 20 minutes. And now she takes less than 10 minutes.

I want to say thank you to all of you who encouraged me or sympathized with me because it HAS gotten easier and it’s SO much better. But it definitely wasn’t easy.

I know that sometimes it just doesn’t work and a mom shouldn’t feel guilty for doing her job, which is just to keep that baby fed. But having been in the position of feeling like a failure/judged for giving my baby formula, I feel like this is preferable. And now that I can do it without any props, it’s so much easier than worrying about going out and running out of formula or whatever. And it’s free (you can’t beat that!) And I feel more part of the ‘club.’

When I had a C section with my first baby, I felt so left out when moms started sharing their labor stories. I didn’t go into labor, I barely remembered the birth. And after I had my second vaginally, I finally had something to share. It feels like that now with breastfeeding. I have something to contribute. I can sit in the Mother’s Lounge at church with all the other nursing moms and chat about our crazy lives. I can ask my friends my questions about it. And I can act all cool about nursing like it aint no thang. Oh yeah!

But seriously thank you, my friends. I read and try to respond to all your comments. They give me so much encouragement.

And now that she’s getting older, I have found some time here and there to start sewing again. I got some fun tutorials coming up!!

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Filed Under: baby, breastfeeding Tagged With: baby, motherhood

To Have a Baby. Or Not.

January 23, 2012 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 19 Comments

Have you ever seen a mom who is toting around what seems like a million kids, all who are whining/crying about something? And maybe you said to yourself, “Wow–why don’t people wait a little longer to have another child?!” Because clearly this mom is in over her head. Clearly she is not doing a good job because her kids are unhappy. And obviously you would do much better. Your child would NEVER scream in a store. Or run away from you. Or pee in the corner.

Or how about the opposite scenario: A young couple has been married for six or seven years. “Why don’t they have any kids? Are they just so into their careers that they don’t want to bother with kids?” a person might think to themselves. Maybe that couple has been trying to have kids for years and years and haven’t been able to. Or maybe they were pregnant but miscarried. What if they are trying to adopt?

Everyone has or doesn’t have kids in their own timing for their own reasons.

And the reason might simply be “Because God told me to.”

That’s the reason Miss E is here so soon. I was dead-set on not having another baby while my husband was in school. I was so overwhelmed with my two energetic boys I just didn’t think there was any way I could survive. I would look at those moms who kept having kids 18 months apart and wondered how on earth they could do it (I still think that, btw.)

I had dreams about a baby girl. And as months went by, I just kept feeling so strong like I needed to have another baby soon. And here we are, folks.

There are sometimes pitiable moments of hiding in the bathroom and wondering what possessed me to even want kids in the first place. Often these days I long for the days of just going out to eat or a movie without a babysitter. At the store I am a traveling circus, juggling a newborn and a toddler who likes to run away while my three year old begs for everything sugary in sight. But not one day goes by when I don’t thank the Lord for my miraculous little girl. The love that I have for this little baby pushes all those thoughts out the door. For all my children.

And when they say that motherhood is the toughest job you will ever do, that’s true. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

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Filed Under: baby, Motherhood, Uncategorized Tagged With: baby, motherhood, slider

Life With Three Kids

January 12, 2012 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 9 Comments

Life With Three Kids…(a few thoughts)

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Life with Three Kids is…not always picture perfect…

But filled with lots of funny and memorable moments.

Life with Three Kids can be a little tense at times…

But filled with boundless amounts of love and kisses.

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And Life with a new baby is as good as it gets.

Cherish your kids today.
Hug them twice.
Speak words of encouragement.
Tell them, “I love you!”
Get on the floor and just play.
Be their friend as well as their mom.

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Filed Under: baby, blessings, family Tagged With: baby, Family, motherhood, slider

Breastfeeding Miss E

January 6, 2012 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 43 Comments

Can I just title this post “Breastfeeding Sucks?” I mean literally, yuk yuk. But then I’d get the crazy LLL ladies knocking down my door yelling “IT SHOULDN’T HURT IF YOU HAVE A PROPER LATCH!!!!”

Truth be told, breastfeeding doesn’t suck. It’s actually an awesome miraculous thing, that a woman’s body can just magically MAKE food for another human person. But it sure ain’t easy. Breastfeeding is bar none, the hardest part of having a baby. Even if it’s easy for you. Because you have to do it usually about every 2 hours, day and night. And it yes it WILL make you sore. Your little nips will be so tender and sensitive that you have to lube them up with lanolin just to take a shower. And I’m not going to even get into the real pain of clogged milk ducts and mastitis.

Breastfeeding has still been incredibly hard with Little E, but it’s actually working. I had a plan of attack because I knew my problems: My milk takes like a week to really come in and even the colostrum takes about 3-4 days. So I always end up giving my babies bottles in the hospital so they won’t starve. Not this time.

I decided to do those little tiny tubie thingys with formula running through. I tried to tape it to my breast but that was a nightmare since she was barely latching on anyway. So I finger-fed her for a couple days until I relented to using a nipple shield. After my milk came in I still had to use a syringe to put a little formula in the shield to entice her to suck. It took several tries after about a week to get rid of the syringe.

Week 3 I was using solely the nipple shield. But I was going on vacation and didn’t take a breast pump, so my supply was iffy for the next couple of weeks. I got her to nurse without the shield several times but I had to supplement even more afterwards so I realized she wasn’t doing a proper latch still and my supply dropped like a rock. Finally I resumed using the shield and pumped and pumped to get it back up. Then we flew home and I didn’t pump that whole day or barely eat the next day (no food in the house.) So finally, at 6 weeks old, we are reaching normalcy. Which means using a nipple shield.

And truth be told, it’s not that bad. My nips aren’t as sore, I can occasionally walk around the do things while nursing, and I’m basically a pro at using one. I’m tired though. I’ve never had to be up every two hours at night breastfeeding. It’s exhausting and I get so antsy waiting for her to finish. She drinks so slowly when she’s sleepy that it feels like the nighttime feedings last forever. I would love to hear tips or stories from you about nighttime breastfeeding. Seriously.

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Filed Under: baby, breastfeeding, Uncategorized Tagged With: baby, breastfeeding

Part 3: Home At Last

January 5, 2012 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 18 Comments

The first week home with a new baby is unpredictable. It was incredibly difficult with both my boys, but incredibly easy with E. Yes, that’s right–the first week with E was easy. I naively wondered why my mother had thought three was the hardest adjustment. E slept all the time and only woke to eat. Husband was home that whole week mostly and friends brought us dinner nearly every night. I was so grateful that it had been going so well.

But that was short-lived. E was growing older and sleeping less. She was having lots of gas and pooping problems from her immature digestive system and crying a lot. We soon learned that if she wasn’t tended to immediately, she would be screaming bloody murder within seconds. Husband had to go back to school and I was left alone with three little kids. Will decided he was not going to have naps anymore, resulting in a horrible tantrum every evening. Many tears were shed by all of us.

I used to say that things were going pretty well if I hadn’t bawled in the shower. Well, forget getting a shower, I bawled in the living room, the car, the bedroom. Life with three is just hard. I feel like I never knew what motherhood really was until I had three kids. But then again, any number of kids is made much more difficult with a newborn, right?

I couldn’t wait until we left to Utah for Christmas. And the trip was good–we had lots of people to entertain the boys and hold the baby. But one of the hardest parts for me is breastfeeding, which I will write in more detail about later. And I couldn’t wait to get back into the privacy of my own home. No more hiding under a blanket to feed the baby!

Now that I’m back, things are SLOWLY improving. E can sleep in her own bed for at least part of the night which allows me more restful sleep during that time. I would like to transition her out of the bedroom in the hope that she will sleep better not smelling Mom and I will sleep better not hearing her little grunts and cries while she sleeps.

I’m super happy to have my healthy baby girl. Really in love with her. I mean seriously, isn’t she absolutely gorgeous? But of all the stages of babydom, the newborn stage is probably my least favorite. I hate to admit that, since they are still such precious miracles. But it is just hard, hard, hard.

I really appreciate all your comments and suggestions via this blog and my Facebook, really. It’s nice to know I’m not alone!

Read Part 1 Here

Read Part 2 Here