Sarah from Foxy's Domestic Side {The Mommylogues Series}

I'm so happy to have Sarah guesting today! One of my favorite things is hearing about birth stories and Sarah is sharing both of her experiences. I am in awe of natural (no medical-intervention) births so this was amazing to read!

Hello Work It Mommy readers! Thank you Whitney for having me today for participating in the Mommylogue Series. I am a mom of 2, a boy (Baby Fox - 5.5) and a girl (Mini Fox - 3 weeks shy of 3).

I was thinking about what I wanted to write about and decided to write about both of my birth experiences. My first one was typical; I went into early labor about 11am on Christmas Eve, and then labored through the night. I knew that I wanted to labor on my own for as long as possible because I knew once I got the epidural I would be bed ridden. I lasted until about 4:30am and the pain was too much so I asked for the epidural and was at 7cm. Phew, just in time, after 7cm, they don't give epidurals at our hospital. After the epidural it seemed to speed up my labor as I was at a 10 around 6:30am and ready to push. But Baby Fox had other plans, his heart rate was all over the place so I was really only "allowed" to push every 2-3 contractions to get his heart rate back up. Baby Fox was born at 7:19am on Christmas Day. I know, I never in a million years thought I would have a Christmas Baby. Our due date was early January, so it never crossed my mind I would go into labor early.

First selfie as a family of 3

Mini Fox...wow, Mini Fox was like a tornado. We had put Baby Fox to bed about 8:50pm, and I had my first contraction while I was putting him to bed. I kissed him goodnight and went downstairs to watch some TV. Mr. asked if I wanted him to start timing the contractions, I told not yet...then about 15 minutes later I was like, maybe we should start timing them. About 9:45, he says I think we should head to the hospital, I was like I just started, it took forever with Baby Fox, let's just wait. He said well I'm going to call your parents to have them come over. I told him I wanted to take a shower while we waited. So off to the shower I went, while in the shower, probably the warm water in hindsight, I was having so many contractions it took a good 30 minutes to take what usually takes me 10 minutes. Of course I was wearing this really super ugly nail polish (Baby Fox wanted me to paint my nails orange, but I didn't want all of my pictures to have orange nail polish). Mr. said we don't have time for that, let's just get going. Just then my parents showed up and I had a contraction at the top of the stairs, and then another one at the bottom. My parents were certain I was going to have the baby at the bottom of the stairs. Luckily our hospital is only 12 minutes away, but man those were a painful 12 minutes, the contractions were now 2 minutes apart. I was getting no relief. We got to the hospital ER (since you have to enter through there because it's now about 10:40pm), and they take one look at me and said sign here, here and here and we'll fill it out later, get her upstairs! We get there and I tell them my contractions are about 2 minutes apart, but I'm talking normal and smiling, I'm sure they didn't believe us. They tell me to change into the gown and get in bed and they'll come and check me. As soon as I change and I am about to get on the bed (literally, one leg on the bed and one leg on the floor) my water breaks. I tell Mr. I either just peed myself or my water broke. Mr. calls in a nurse and she takes one look at it and says yep your water just broke, they change the sheets and clean up and I get in bed. I tell them I want the epidural right away, so can they give me the IV fluid. They check me and I'm at 7cm. The nurse gets the IV in me and I am having contractions on top of each other. Just as she finishes, the other nurse says let me check you again, and she does and I'm now at 10cm, no wonder I was in so much pain! In about 10 minutes I went from a 7 to a 10! I ask, so does this mean no epidural?...insert sad face here. There are people running around everywhere, I'm screaming in pain...and I just need to push, the nurse says, stop pushing there isn't a doctor here yet. So I wait through one contraction, the doctor runs in and catches Mini Fox, 2 contractions later. Wow, I just did that with no drugs?! Say what?! That was NOT my birth plan!

See the orange nail polish?

I think all of this is to say, that no matter what your birth plan is, how you have your baby, whether it be with drugs, without drugs, through a C-section, you are still a mother and you love your child no matter what! 

Thanks for having me, Whitney. I just love talking and hearing about birth stories. Have you told yours yet? Link it down below so I can read it!

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Archives:

My Journey to Motherhood {Introduction to The Mommylogues Series}

Amanda from Tickled Pink

Elizabeth from Chasin' Mason

Beth from Our Pretty Little Girls

Stephanie from Wife Mommy Me

Courtney of Sweet Turtle Soup

Danielle from Sparkles and Lattes

Aubrey of Aubrey Zaruba

Sarah from Seeing All Sides

Jess from Scott Family of Maine

Meghan of The Adventure Starts Here

Liz from Ellie and Addie

Desiree from Macke Monologues

Amy of keepin' up with the Smiths

Jess of Secrets of a Stay At Home Mom

Sweetie Pie Organics Review + Giveaway

When it comes to food I become a bit manic. The majority of the food we eat is organic and quite a bit of that is locally grown/sourced. Putting real and healthful foods into my and my kids bodies is one of my top priorities and I take pride in that.

But for as much good stuff that I buy and make there is not as many great snack products on the market for toddlers. You can only eat so many puffed corn or dry cereal foods before getting bored, am I right?!

They do just about anything to get their hands on some yummy snacks.

Especially now that we are getting into a busy season of life, I needed to find convenient, healthy snacks that my girls liked that would keep them happy and occupied during car rides or in between meals.

Just look at that happy face!

Well, I'm happy to report I have found that snack! Enter Sweetie Pie Organics. Makers of organic, healthy snacks just for toddlers. Real foods made snackable! (I swear I should be in marketing ;)

source

Both Brielana and Kinsey love the beets and apple tiny wafers and the freeze-dried mixes. Shoot, I like them myself! You can really taste the fruits and vegetables in each snack. Sweetie Pie also makes lactation smoothies (tastes like pear, super yummy) for all you nursing mamas. You can purchase Sweetie Pie Organics on their website, through Amazon and at local chains such as Whole Foods Market and (surprisingly) Albertsons.

And now you have the chance to try Sweetie Pie Organic Tiny Wafers for yourself, er, your child! Just enter the Rafflecopter below! Giveaway is open to US residents only and runs from Wednesday, August 17th through Wednesday, August 24th. Winner will be announced Wednesday, August 24th via email. Good luck! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Linking up here.

   

   

Geocaching {Summer Lovin}

I'm a little embarrassed how late I am in sharing this post seeing as it happened over three weeks ago(!!!) Life, right?

On this particular day, Kinsey, Brielana and I were playing at the park when Kinsey mentioned she "wanted to go on an adventure" and I instantly thought about geocaching. I've been wanting to do it since Sara shared it and I finally got over being lazy and signed up. It took me several minutes to get a feel for the site/App (I'm so s-l-o-w when it comes to feeling comfortable using new things, anyone else?) but once I did...

Boom! Two different caches right in our backyard! Now I will say that if I had just gone my own way, it would have taken maybe 10 minutes, but Kinsey wanted to do it properly, so we followed the route A-L-L the way around the neighborhood, got a good 30 minute little walk in and then discovered the cache on a trail we walk regularly.

I mean I've lived in this neighborhood practically all my life and have walked these trails countless times and it was only because of geocaching that we discovered this "hidden world". This particular one has been here for two years! And you can bet we walk by it now and sneak a peek to see if anyone new has signed the ledger :)

I also want to point out how illicit I felt digging my hand into that tree knot, pulling out a pill bottle and then unwrapping the plastic baggie keeping the log dry; so much creepiness.

On a beginner's high we decided to tackle the other cache at the Frog Pond just further down the street and I'll be hanged it didn't take me a good twenties minutes to realize I couldn't find this one because 1) it was dinner time and I was losing my cool and 2) I was hot.

A few days later we took my mom to the Frog Pond and I was at it again. Well, this time I noticed a posted warning about not "leaving anything behind on government property" and I'm fairly certain that cache is history :( 

Onward to the next cache!

shadow puppets/popsicles/Brielana's birthday/Summer Birthday Exchange/S'mores popcorn

Linking up here.

   

   

First day of Kindergarten // Back to School 2016

I just got all the feels making a new "Elementary school" label for this post. Sigh. 

Well, it's happened. That First Day of Kindergarten has come and gone. Kinsey has been in school exactly 8 days (weird, right?! She started on a Wednesday and was sick last Monday, but more on that later.) My little girl is not so little anymore.

Interview printable here.

To prepare for this monumental occasion I had the first week's worth of school clothes picked out and lunches packed the night before. To say I went crazy and labeled everything is not an understatement. These Label Daddy labels are awesome! They come in all different sizes (these are the large) are customizable and can be laminated for extra protection. You can get yourself some labels and save 20% off using this code: USFAMILY20 at checkout. Good prep is thee only way, amen?!

water bottle // Label Daddy labels

Kinsey is attending the elementary school that I, Brian, my brother and my mom went to so the fact that the family tradition lives on completely tickles me. Being back on the campus brings back so many fond memories and I'm just so excited Kinsey will get to experience them for herself!

cardigan // booties 

For the most part she loves school (we are all still adjusting to those early morning wake-up calls.) She talks about making three new friends (though she only remembers two of their names haha), we all like her teacher and she absolutely loves the playground and recess. What I wasn't thrilled about was all the germs and those got us after only three days. THREE days. We may have set some sort of record with that. But I know everyone appreciated us keeping her home and not spreading them around.

The transition period has gone more smoothly than I had anticipated, praise hands. We are looking forward to a fantastic year: "Soaring high with Falcon pride!"

Linking up with Liz, Meghan and Stephanie.