Beach day (video)

Ever have those days that just feel like its all “go, go, go!” and you just keep going until you feel like you haven’t seen each other all week?

Last  week was definitely one of those. So Hubster surprised us by loading up the car and taking us to the coast for a day.

We sat down sometime just before the start of the New Year and discussed making a small change to our schedules. We both love trips, camping, and adventuring, but we were having a hard time fitting it in sometimes. In many ways we are very much a broke college couple 😀 So figuring something that lets us go exploring but not cost a lot is a big win-win. We decided to try to do something no matter how big or small once a month and one family outing once a week. (even if its just to the store together)

Its always nice to get away and reconnect. Plus, the beach has been a special place for us. It was also Bro-Bro’s first beach trip. He doesn’t like wind in his face, and of course, it was windy haha.

 

And of course no beach trip would be complete for us without, a trip to one of those local seaside candy shoppes and Mo’s for a fresh bowl of chowder!

And by the way- Molasses taffy is AHmazing!

 

I love these little adventures with my family, watching the kids playing in the sand, the heart to hearts Hubster and I share as the kids snooze in the back seat.

If you are interested in seeing a little clip I made of the day you can check it out on my youtube channel here: ~click here for video~

Thanks for stopping by!

Families, traditions, and holidays

“Oh oh oh oh oh! Try everything!”

Home Free’s cover of the song from Zooptopia pumps through my speakers for the countless time this week. I’m pretty sure I sing this in my sleep now.
My hot morning coffee is about to become my cold afternoon coffee. Maybe if I stick an ice cube in I could convince myself I wanted iced coffee all along.
I still have Christmas decorations that need put away and a tent we got as a present hiding under my coffee table because I haven’t wanted to go out in the cold to reorganize our storage closet. But thats really the only evidence left from Christmas.
So that means it’s the perfect time to discuss holidays right?

“Uh, Kimberly? It’s almost February.”

I know, I know, but there was actually a reason for why I wanted to post about these all together. This year we did something new. Let me explain…

Holidays are synonymous with family for me. I grew up with only 2 sibling but lots of cousins that we are very close with. We had noisy, loud holiday dinners with lots of food. And I loved them! As we all grew up and grew larger in numbers things changed, but it was still one large family gathering. Then I married the Hubster and my family grew even bigger, and it is so awesome.

Balancing holidays did become a little bit harder though. And as we had kids, it became even harder. Some of family members involve a lot of driving to go see, some are close by, and we tried so hard to be at as many different holiday gatherings as we could.

We loved it but, want to know a secret?

It all became a little exhausting. Now, I am not saying seeing the family isn’t worth the effort. I don’t believe that at all! I love our loud noisy families and will continue to enjoy going over there even if it means coming home wiped out. Its fun being in the midst of chaos, seeing people you maybe haven’t seen in a while, reliving old family traditions.

It was the old traditions that got us thinking though. We are our own little family, and our kids are (hopefully) going to have fond memories of our holidays we spent together. The thing was, we didn’t really have any just our little family traditions. We were so worried family would miss out having the kids at their parties we kind of put our own little holidays to the side. And again, there is nothing wrong with the kids going to all their grandparent’s for Christmas, but we were missing out on making memories with our kids.

We sat down and did a lot of discussing. We didn’t want to just stop going to family, but we knew we needed to make a change. We decide to make this a low key year. Specifically, we chose to stay home and have our own Thanksgiving dinner just us this year. We had never, in the 4 years we had been married, had our own Thanksgiving. This was something that bothered the Hubster and so, we told family as they invited us to dinner, “Thank you but this year we’re staying home.”

I’m not going to lie, it did feel a little weird and we might have come across as a bit selfish, but guys, it was absolutely wonderful! All of our favourite dishes were on the menu, I roasted my first turkey, Little Man helped me make pie, and when dinner ran a bit late we just spent more time together playing with the kids and dancing to music. I might have also snap chatted my sister, who was having her first Thanksgiving with her new Hubby.

 

 

Next year we will be back at family’s for Thanksgiving dinner and we will love that too. It might be a year or two before we do a private Thanksgiving again, but we will do it again. Thanksgiving- heck, any holiday really- is about being together with family. But, in our case at least, we kind of forgot that once you get married you become your own family. And that little family is just as important to have memories and moments for too.

Which is also what led us to declare Christmas Day as officially “ours”. Meaning, quite simply that unless we are going to church, Christmas will be spent at home, just us. Oh yes, there will still be plenty of time before and after that we will go to the Papas and Nana’s and Gigi’s to celebrate with them. But this gives us one day to set up our traditions and spend time together.

The boy’s ‘First Christmas’ ornaments

A rare, but well loved, pre-Christmas snow

Christmas morning

our traditional Christmas dinner- SUSHi!

As I mentioned at the beginning, I come from a big family. Family is very important to me and will continue to be, but I am learning that there is nothing wrong with setting aside time for your little family, to create brand new traditions (like our traditional Christmas dinner of homemade sushi), to take a little breather if you need it. If you are newly married, or maybe you’re going to have your first holiday season with your kid, by all means go to Great Grandpa Fred’s and to your husband’s parents, go make memories with old family as a new family. But don’t forget to make a little time in there for you guys too. Make traditions with your husband that are different from what you did as kids, pass on things you guys used to do to your kids so they can have those memories too. Celebrate with all the family and celebrate with just your family. 🙂

 

 

And my coffee is officially cold now 😛

 

New year, new blog?

Over the next couple of week I hope to get the blog updated with photos and stories from the holidays. And Ari and I will be uploading more ipsy videos, never you fear! But the pensiveness that falls on me at the end of an old year and the start of a new got me thinking.
I started this blog for one reason, for me. That sounds super selfish but it is true. It gives me a place to post my photos, give you my opinions, and even show off my amateur chef skills. Yes, I have dreamed that perhaps the blog would take off in such a way I could make a little extra income for my family, but at the very core of it, I knew I needed to want to do this even if it just stayed in a virtual corner somewhere. I have enjoyed doing this so much, and I have some fun ideas for 2017, but I realized something was missing. Something I had unintentionally left off.

Openness and honesty.

No, I am not saying I have been lying to you guys and making up stories to fill my pages in with. If you look at my old post though you might notice I tend to skip and glaze over anything negative. There are a few reason I haven’t really shared them before:

a) Let’s be honest, they aren’t always fun to talk about
b) I am aware that there are people that have had it a lot worse.
Which leads to…
c) I don’t want people to think I am searching for sympathy or trying to play the victim.
And finally..
d) I try to find the positive spin in everything that goes “bad”. So, it is only natural that it is the positive stuff I choose to share with you.

I have been very blessed in my life and I enjoyed sharing that, and will continue to share the good time with you all, but my life isn’t peaches and cream. I don’t want someone reading this blog to think I am some sort of mystical unicorn mom blogger. Because I am not!

My house is almost never fully clean, I burn many a meal or forget to start a meal in time, my kids have meltdowns and tempers, my husband and I don’t always agree, etc…
Life is hard and there are struggles. BUT, it those difficulties have brought us to where we are now. There is nothing wrong with  wanting you to see the good times, to celebrate them (and yes, they will still be the main focus of my stories) but I also want to be able to open up and share the hard stuff to.

So as the blog continues into the new year and I continue to share with you all, I can only hope that there is a new level of openness and realness shared with you all 🙂

Happy 2017 everyone! Here to an adventurous new year!

 

Pink Hair | Ipsy Review (Oct)

I have always wanted to do something crazy with my hair.

But between work place dress code and just plain chickening out, I never have. Now if you follow me on Instagram this is all old news to you. However, just in case you missed it….

Before

After!

I HAVE PINK HAIR! 😀

Rose gold if we are being trendy.

It all started because of Pinterest. Pinterest Made me do it. Okay, not really. It did give me the idea for the colour though. I was scrolling through my feed when I saw a lady with this gorgeous pinky colour they call antique rose. It got me started thinking about dying my hair. It wasn’t too long before I had a entire board filled with different pinks, and rosy colors. But at that point it was just a board of ideas. I wasn’t sure if I was actually going to do it this time.

I should add, I have never dyed my hair before. Soooo, not only was doing such a drastic colour a bit intimidating, the process of dying my hair was too!

But I really really wanted to do it this time. Even if it looked terrible and I had to chop it all off, I wanted to try just once.

So, I sat down and showed the Hubster my Pinterest board and talked about the cost. He was very un-shocked about it (very anticlimactic response to it all, the stinker) but he agreed I should do it. His Sister’s wedding was coming up in a few months and we were both in the wedding party. There was NO way I was doing this before the wedding, and Bro-Bro was due only a couple of weeks after the wedding, so we decided to hold off until later this year.

When the day finally came everything went really smoothly. I had to bring the boys but they behaved so well. (And my hairdresser is so amazing! Not only at doing my hair, but she is completely okay with Little Man playing in the studio, so long as its not busy.) My hair is normally quite the monster, but it took the bleach and hair dye so well we joked it must have secretly wanted to be pink its whole life.

I love how it looks so much I’m trying to figure out if I can afford to keep this up for the long run. Its been almost four weeks and its still pink. Faded yes, but still pink. I can either refresh the pink or let it fade and do a different colour. Maybe I’ll do platinum blonde next!!

This experience has woken up my inner Katy Perry. I want ALL the hair colors now!!

We have the newest Ipsy review posted, so you can go check out how the colour looks in action. And, you know, check out our review too… 😛

~Click here for video!~

Thanks for stopping by! If you have any great ideas for a new hair colour let me know, you just might see it.

Pumpkin patch and Zoo (pic heavy)

In the spirit of catching the blog up I’m sharing the photos from the birthday celebrations for Little Man.

Hard to believe he is three now! It does NOT feel like its been long enough. Its so much fun to see him growing up and becoming more little kid and less toddler/baby. Though, I’m not going to lie, looking through old photos I sometimes really miss his baby stages.

But more then anything I’ve loved seeing him step up into the role of big brother. He handled Bro-Bro coming into our lives so much better then we imagined. Yes, we have still had some meltdowns and adjustments to make (and we’ve had to explain why its not okay to perch on top of our little brother, haha), but he loves his little bro so much and enjoys helping however he can with him.

So for his third birthday we decided to of go the big party and keep things mellow (a theme you will see throughout the holiday season this year.) We went to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins and then, later that week, we met up with Aunty Ani and checked out the zoo!

 

The pumpkin patch

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We have one patch that we have gone to every year since we have been married, save one I think. Its a big patch on a little island not too far from town. The pumpkins are a bit more expensive then say a supermarket, but they make up for it in the experience. train rides, hayrides, petting zoos, and pumpkin cannons. The pumpkin cannon are probably our favourite.

The plan had been to meet up with family at the patch but, we got stuck in a massive line waiting for the ferry. So after waiting for 30 minutes to finally cross the river, we showed up in time to say ‘Hi, bye!” to everyone before they left. One quick train ride with the cousins was managed to be squeaked in which was nice.

A quick bite to eat (Can you say pulled pork nachos? Ohhh yeah!) and then we hopped on a tractor ride down to the patch. Where, of course, Bro-Bro proceeded to spit up all over my entire right side. Way to look glamorous huh? 😛

In the end we found two pumpkins, got completely covered in mud (and spit up) and had a great time!

 

The Zoo

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Next it was on to the zoo! Now this didn’t go quite like planned either. We ended up getting a late start. Which on the good side meant it wasn’t really that crowded, but we ended up staying right up to closing and we weren’t able to see everything. Just means we have to go back sooner 😉

 

about halfway through we realized the zoo was going to close in 5 minutes. We also realized we hadn’t seen anybody in a good 10 minutes. We had the whole place to ourselves pretty much. Let me tell you, a slightly deserted zoo is a bit eery feeling! We kept making jurassic park jokes on our way out, haha!

 

Unfortunately, due to the near deserted state of the zoo, all the restaurants were closed. So we headed into town to attempt to find somewhere to eat. And after a few wrong turns and several google map searches we finally chose Pizzicato

 

I scarfed my food down before I even thought about taking a photo, but guys, it was soo good! Definitely somewhere we would go to again. I recommend their panini with caesar salad. Those croutons! Everything was cooked well, and the ingredients tasted nice and fresh. My only complaint would be there wasn’t a ton of seating space, but the food made up for the campiness of everyone plus a car seat carrier.

If you’re still with us after all the photos, thanks for stopping by! Also, I noticed a lack of food posts by me recently, so let me know what kind of recipes you would like to see and I will see about remedying the food gap.

 

Ipsy review (sept) – Video

Hey guys! Guess what we finally got posted! Its super way behind, but we did it and its here now 🙂 Hopefully, you have as much fun watching it as we had making it.

~Click here for the video~

I know its kind of annoying to have to click through for the video, and I’m sorry. It costs me extra to have it post here in blog. I might do it one day but, for now, it makes more sense fiscally to just link straight to my youtube.

I’m also hoping to get a few more things posted and update on the blog here in the next couple days. Trying to be all caught up before Thanksgiving. We decided this year to stay home with the boys and have our own little family Thanksgiving. Which means this year all of the cooking is on me, should make for some fun adventures 😉

The Tale of Two Camps – pic heavy

Quick update: Here on the blog I use nicknames for both my husband and the boys. Its just a personal preference of mine as the boys are too small to really have a say on whether or not they want to have a big presence on here or if they want their real names being used all the time. My oldest has gone by ‘Little Man’ since day one and our newest addition was going by ‘Baby E’. However, as he gets older the baby part will eventually not fit, so we are going with a new nickname that Little Man came up with, ‘Bro Bro’

And with that we now return to our regularly scheduled program…

Camping. I love it! Even as a youngster, camping has always been something I enjoy. The outdoors, the fresh air, what’1s not to love? And its been fun going from tag-a-long camper with my parents, to planning camping trips (and meals) as a wife, to introducing it to my kids. Now we took Little Man on his first camping trip when he was pretty young and Bro-Bro has been no exception.

I’ve been told by some people that we are crazy for taking our newborn camping, or that they are impressed that we survived. And in many ways I don’t blame them, camping with a infant is not easy but it is doable. And in the long run I think it can be pretty helpful. We never take them before their two weeks appointment at the bare minimum. Though we waited until both boys were at least a month old before any of our camp trips. (There is so much adjustment in those first couple weeks adding anything on top of that, for us at least, is overwhelming.) The benefit of going when they are so little is, as they get older, it isn’t a huge adjustment for them or for you. They’ve done it before so you both can feel like old hands at it.

Taking a baby camping involves a lot of new things to pack (and a lot more to pack then you probably ever have before lol. More on that in a later post) for them and for mommy and daddy. BUT- they aren’t old enough to run off or worry about them falling into the fire. So, in a way, it give you a chance to adjust to the new camping member before you have to worry about where they’ve disappeared to, or what they are up to. Maybe it is just me, but I feel more prepared for camping with my toddler because I got used to camping with him when he was just a wee babe in arms.

Now, for our adventures!

Camp #1 – Detroit Lake

This was our first of our ‘camping with two’ adventures. We met up with Hubster’s sister and her hubby at Detroit Lake. A beautiful reservoir with a large campground and fishing access that both Hubster and I had been to before but never together (it had also been several years since either one of us had gone back) Not to mention, while a bit of a drive, it was still close enough to home if Bro-Bro didn’t handle it well we could go back relatively easy.

And both the boys did a great job! They behaved quite well. What didn’t behave however was the weather. What was supposed to be 70’s,  with mild sprinkling on the last day, turned into a mini monsoon! Thankfully I packed lots of layers though somehow both mine and Hubster’s rain coats got left behind, Eek!

We showed up late Friday night, set up, ate dinner and headed off to bed after a long fireside chat. No rain yet, but by the next morning it was becoming obvious we were going to need to set up tarps and keep the fire stoked all day.

trying to keep the eating area/ kitchen dry

this is how bloggers help set up the tarps

Little man also got his first try of a real honest to goodness, camp roasted s’more.

First bites

Helping carry more firewood

Needless to say- they were a huge hit! And he truly could have cared less about the rain. he had a great time playing in the dirt mud and splashing through the puddles as we huddled under shelter and played phase 10 and watch as our campground tried to flood. The guys did attempt to go out on the boat and do some fishing, but as the rain storm got even stronger that was soon abandoned.

at least someone was warm

We also opted to head in to town and eat dinner there for a little warmth. The place may have looked like a bit of a dive, but the food was amazing! Hubster has deemed it his favourite pizza ever.

The guys snuck out super early the next morning and went to fish under the bridge. (They only caught one fish and had to let it go) Us girls stayed back with the kids and slept in, but even though it had finally stopped raining everything was soggy. Not to mention our tent floor had leaked during the night and soaked Hubster’s last pair of pants. He was, quite understandably, a bit cranky and miserable. So we voted that instead of trying to cook breakfast at the campground, we would retreat to Hubster’s sister’s place. It was closer then our house and we were able to cook up giant breakfast burritos and hot coffee and get everyone in a happier mood. Mini monsoon or not, we really did have a good time and the boys did great. On to the next adventure!

Camp #2 – South Twin Lake

This was the campground I remember going to the most as a kid. We used to go every year for my dad’s birthday. Eventually through the years though that tapered off, but my dad started taking about wanting to revive it. Only this time we’d rent out one of the big cabins for the whole family to stay in.

The main lodge/restaurant

Most of the family was able to come for this inaugural trip. My little sister (who is temporarily out of state with work/school stuffs) was able to get the time off to come but, sadly, our older sister wasn’t 😦

The cabin’s were quite comfy and rustically charming. They kept us all warm and dry (which since it ended up snowing one day, I am very grateful for!) and it was nice being able to cook big meals for everyone in a real, albeit small, kitchen.

cocoa

let it snow

And guys! We caught so many fish! We estimated somewhere between 45-50 total from everyone, all three days. We only kept a few, but everyone there caught a least one fish. (except the boys who weren’t quite old enough to fish, though Little Man helped Papa row the boat)

admiring the catch

Oh, and speaking of boats, Little Man got his first ride in Papa’s boat. He looked adorable in his lifejacket (or boat-coat as he calls them) It squished his pudgy cheeks even bigger! LOL

He was really nervous at first and I thought he was going to freak out as the boat started rocking a bit, but he settled down and was soon trying to take the oars and do his own thing. He also keeps asking to wear his ‘boat-coat’ now that we are back home.

“I’m coming Papa!”

s’mores

And we had s’mores again, but these were no ordinary s’mores. No sir! I gourmet-ed them up. Firstly (and I still can’t believe this) I found marshmallows that were actually safe for my family. If you remember a few posts back I mentioned my family suffers from a plethora of food allergies. Among them- Corn. Which has made marshmallows a no-go for quite some time as they are almost all made with corn syrup and corn starch. But I found a brand that is gluten/corn free and is sold in local stores!  Dandies not only are safe for the family, but they are so much better then a basic marshmallow. Which truthfully I don’t like the normal ones, but the dandies I could eat straight from the bag all day everyday. They are probably the only kind of marshmallow I will buy ever again.

We also used the ghirardelli squares in the mint, caramel, and dark chocolate flavors. Fancy flavors plus they are already the perfect s’more size. Holy s’mores Batman! These had to be the best s’more ever! Try it if you don’t believe me 😉

I also got head down to the lake and take lots of early morning foggy photos. I love this time of year and foggy mornings are just the best way to start a Autumn day.

This is probably my favourite photo I got

It was a great way to wrap up our camping trips for the year. We didn’t put in for tags so no hunting this year. Thats a little bit of a rougher, more rugged camping experience and one we knew would be a bit too much with a two month old.

What places did you go camping this year? Or is there somewhere you’ve always wanted to go?

I hope you had fun looking through the photos and I really hope you let me know if you try ghirardellis s’mores and dandies marshmallows. Also we need a name for these- I’m thinking s’mores ultimate?

Ipsy review – video

If you follow me on Instagram you probably saw my post a little over a week ago, telling you something exciting was coming. Something in the form of a collaboration with my sister-in-law, and fellow blogger, Ari. You can check her out at her blog, Life as a Koellmann, and you really should! She is an amazing woman and her blog has some pretty awesome tips for anyone who might be looking and prepping for getting married. As well as some photos from her recent trip to Hawaii to help with any rainy day blues you might be suffering. (Though personally I’m really really excited about Autumn!)

Anyway, back to the collab… It took a little longer then expected but I finally finished it so I can share it with you. Guys, we did our very first video! If you couldn’t tell I’m pretty excited. I’ve never done anything like this before, but we had a ton of fun! (and had to take several different takes. Between the boys and our laughing we had plenty of material for a blooper reel) Editing was a little harder then I thought. Huge props to the people that posts these on a fairly regular, if not everyday, basis. How you do it I do not know!

In our video we reviewed our Ipsy glam bag products from August. What’s Ipsy you ask? It is a sample subscription service for makeup. Its $10 a month for the bags and each bag comes with around 5 samples of different makeup/hair product/skin care products. All picked to match the preferences you set when you sign up and set up your account. They ask you everything from hair and eye colour to what makeup trends you tend to follow when wearing makeup. It really is a cool idea and, if like me you struggle with buying new products you haven’t been able to test before, its a great way to dip your toe into all the countless different brands and products out there in the retail world. And value-wise what you get inside your bag every month can equal $30 so you are getting your monies worth which is always a nice pro. (And you get reusable bags you can use for traveling of for giving gifts)

Yes, I know its almost October, but we wanted to use our products for a minimum of a week before posting the video. And I just had a baby and she just recently got married so, needless to say, our schedule was pretty tight. Oh, and both the boys make cameos in the video. We had to film in the middle of the week and slightly short notice, so we had to try to keep them entertained AND quiet while filming. Which was rather amusing as I’m sure you can imagine. In fact if you listen really closely you can here ‘Dinotrux’ playing in the background for little man and baby grunts coming from baby E. We actually had a small hassle trying to film too. In order to get good lighting we pulled the dining room table into the living room and set the camera up on my lamp (which also decided to randomly break while we were moving it) We started out on my camera, but it didn’t want to cooperate with the laptop, which we were using as our screen to make sure we stayed centered. Unbeknown to us until after filming the entire first take, the camera had slowly slipped down through out the clip. By the end of the video you couldn’t see us at all because the lens was pointed directly at the table top! So we reset with Ari’s camera and filmed it all over again. In the end we got it, through misbehaving cameras, spit up incidents, numerous takes, and almost burning dinner we finally prevailed!

I wasn’t able to upload the video directly to my blog at this time but here is the link:

~Click here for the video!~

All in all it was fun way to try new things, and being able to offer reviews on the different products is a fun way to branch out and do something new (the video) as well as gives me something I have to post at least once a month (yay for regularity)

I hope you check out out video, and come back for the next months. And please, feel free to comment with any tips or tricks you have for the next video. This is all very new as I am sure you can tell! 😀

 

 

Family fair time outing

Hey there! I’m back to posting. Last time I was on here I was packing the last of my stuff into a hospital bag and waiting for Baby E’s arrival. Well, he took his sweet time (Went over due date and had to be induced) but he is here and now I get to announce the name behind the initial.

Baby E = Ethan!

(Now that he is here I’m probably going to switch the blog nicknames for the boys, but I’m still working on that. I’ll get back to your guys.)

He was born about two weeks ago and he has been growing, sleeping (he is currently snuggled up beside me as I write this), and making us all smile. Little man is absolutely loving his little ‘brudder’ and is constantly covering him in hugs and kisses.

And we’ve all really enjoyed the past two weeks of family bonding, but we’ve been feeling a bit cooped up and the Hubster decided to surprise us today and take everyone on a family adventure. Baby E’s first big outing!

But since it was his first big outing we knew we had to keep it fairly close to home, and it just so happened the State Fair was going on this week. Still a bit of a drive but no where as long as some of the other options we were considering. Plus, Little Man got to see all the farm animals. which pretty much made his day.

 

It was a bit toasty but we had a such a great time. Stopped for ice cream, Little man and Hubster rode the merry-go-round, and Baby E slept the whole time.

 

I had to take a photo of the chicken coop for my mother. She sings a happy chicken song to her chickens, and she would own this chicken coop in a heartbeat. 🙂

Also, there was a tank full of salmon, and while we were admiring them, I overheard someone telling his family that if you let salmon grow for long enough they turn into sturgeon. o_0 Haha! I don’t think thats how it works.

 

Such a great day and felt so nice to get out of the houses. Now that Baby E is here we are hoping to have more adventures and more blog posts. Obviously there is still a lot to on our plates and lots of sleep to catch up on, but keep tuning in! Thanks for stopping by 🙂

What to expect when you’re prepping

Its getting so close now! We will soon be welcoming Baby E into the world and holding him in our arms. I can’t wait to see him and his brother interact for the first time. No matter what else is going on, the last few weeks can fly by and drag at a snail’s pace all at the same time, and it always feels like there is something else you need to do. Something else you need to remember. As I finish getting myself packed and ready I thought I would share a few thoughts and share what I am packing in my hospital bag, etc.

First and foremost:

Breathe….. This is my second kid, and while I feel more prepared for this one, it is still an overwhelming and nerve racking time. Search any pregnancy prep ideas and you will have hundreds of different lists. What to pack, what NOT to pack, and what you have to do for labor. There are a lot of good tips in those articles, but they’re also not you. What works for one person won’t always work for you and that is ok.

How did you pick your doctor? For Baby E this was an easy answer, we just went with the same doctor that delivered Kyler. However for the first round I had no idea where to look. I hadn’t been living in the area for very long, only about a year. My former doctor was 3 hrs away and I will admit I had been horrible and hadn’t found a primary care doctor yet. And there was a LOT of prenatal and birth care options in the area. Hopefully, unlike me, you already have a primary care office so I suggest starting there. See who they recommend, and which hospitals they work with. We added me to my husband’s doctor’s office and they gave us a nice list of suggested centers and hospitals.

The next thing to decide was what kind of labor we wanted. Obviously if you want a home birth you will be looking at different care then someone that wants to go to the hospital. Finding a OBGYN/midwife that works with your preferred labor plan is a big must. Yes, a lot of things can change when labor actually starts, but if you and your provider agree on a lot of the same ideas you won’t have to fight for what you need, and you will have a much more pleasant experience for your monthly/weekly check ups.

For us we knew we wanted to do a birth center. We wanted the convenience of the hospital care if something went wrong, but the privacy a center offers. Once we had all that figure out narrowing in on our doctor was easy, and I have been very happy with her (obviously, since we are going back for round two)

Also many midwiferies, birth centers, and hospitals offer tours. Take them. Learn what you can about the area, the staff, parking, and which entrances (if any) close at certain times.  And ask any questions you have, no matter how silly you might think they are.

Birth plan?

Haha, seriously though its true! I do believe making one is a good idea, but also don’t expect the baby or your body to follow the plan. I feel the biggest reason to make a birth plan is to get you, your spouse, and your care provider on the same page.

Keep it simple. Again this is pretty much to get everyone on the same page so when you go into labor you aren’t trying to field questions at the same time. It also allows your provider to know the basics of what you’re wanting (Epidural vs none, who you want in the room, if you plan to breastfeed or not, etc) and allows you to focus on the actual labor. Depending on where you go they might have an actual birth plan print out for you to fill out, which is a great option.

Also when you are making your birth plan just remind yourself this is best case scenario and if things change thats okay. Whats important is that you and baby are healthy. With little man the plan was to go drug free if possible, but after 20+ hrs of labor and minimal progress I was given pitocin to help speed things up. I ended up laboring for an other several hours and never reached a full dilation when my doctor announced we needed to get him out. Did it go like we had wanted? No, but in the end I got to hold my happy, healthy, little bundle of chubs and that was what mattered.

Epidural or not? This is something everyone will have an opinion on, with tons of research to back up why you should or shouldn’t. Here is the thing, I know many women that had babies with and many women that had babies without one. What works for one woman, or one pregnancy, doesn’t guarantee its what will work for you. I’m going to say that a lot. It really should be pregnancy’s motto. Just like how everyone will experience pregnancy differently, labor and what you need/want will vary based on each person.

Go ahead and do your research, talk to your care provider, talk to family or friends and decide whats going to be best for you. You know you’ll need one? Then go for it. Want to try without? Do it. (Quick note here though: If you decide to go without an epidural but want it as plan b, make sure your doctor and spouse know this! I know a lady who originally didn’t want one. Then part way through delivery she changed her mind. However, she and her husband had discussed the fact she wasn’t going to get one. So he kept her from getting one. He thought he was helping her stick to her plan, but needless to say next time they went in he knew, if she asked for one she wanted it.)

What ever you choose, know you have made a good choice. I still have no idea why people feel they need to make other women feel inferior for their differences in labor. You are a super woman however you choose to it!

Same goes for C-sections. Remember the unofficial pregnancy motto? However you have your kid, in the end your are still a mother. There is no right or wrong way. And if anyone tries to make you feel you didn’t do it “right” just look at your kid and smile. You know the truth, you did it and you did how you needed to. There is no shame in getting a c-section and you’re not less of a mom for needing one. Even if it feels like things are spinning out of control, or you end up with everything going exactly opposite of how you hoped, you still did it and that is that. Please don’t ever feel you “didn’t do it right” or have to still earn something because you had a c-section vs vaginal birth. You have a kid. You’re a mommy. You earned it.

What about hospital bags? What do I pack? Ask what your care provider provides. Also ask yourself what you really need. There are the obvious basics (some of which is provided for you) and I am a firm believer of not bringing a bunch of stuff you don’t need with you. You’re not going to want to deal with a bunch of stuff on your way to the hospital nor will you want a bunch of bags to tote out to the car with the baby.

Here are a few of the items my birth center provide:
-Diapers for baby
-Postpartum care (padsicles, those glorious mesh panties, etc)
-Water bottle
-Daddy snack pack and meal card
-baby cap and blanket/swaddle 

(They also provided little hotel sized shampoos and soaps, but my hair is such a monster I struggle with using anyone else shampoos.)

Since all that is provided I have left them out of our bags to save space. Here is a photo of what I have packed for us. Please forgive the blurry photo. I snapped this on my phone while trying to head out the door for my Dr’s appointment.

What is pictured:
-Change of clothes for me, Hubster, Little Man, and going home outfit for Baby E
-Pajamas for the guys
-Maternity bras
-Toys, and snacks for Little Man
-Pull-ups and wipes
-Snacks for me and Hubster
-Spare change for vending machine
-Wallet with insurance cards and ID
-Toiletries
-Skin care and basic make-up

Whats not pictured:
– Cellphones/chargers
-Little Man’s favourite stuffed animal and blanket in case he has to spend the night somewhere besides home
-Car seat

 

We did pack a bit more this time around. Some of it due to having three people instead of two, and some of it just stuff I wished I had last time. Just trying to keep things to the basics. If for some reason we have to stay longer Hubster can always head back to our place and grab some stuff. So just like the birth plan we try to keep things as simple as possible.

 

Padsicles?? Mesh panties? Yup, and they are as glamorous as they sound. Trust me though, you will be very grateful for them. I won’t go into too much detail about them here just because you can find them all over Google and Pinterest. Just don’t feel bad about taking what they have to offer home with you. They are there for a reason and they want you to take them.

 

How have you prepared Little Man? This is my first time prepping a kid for a future sibling and I am no expert. We’ve talked to him about “baby brudder” and he has a few baby cousins which he has been able to interact with and hold. Thankfully he really seems to love babies, even rubbing their backs and trying got comfort them when they’re crying.

We know we will still have meltdowns to face, but he does seem pretty excited about the prospect of having his own baby to bring home. (We will see how long that lasts, ha!) Hubster and I have also discussed plans on one of us taking him, without Baby E, for diaper runs and such. Not long trips, no, but they will give him alone time with either mommy and daddy. We also plan on using his love of helping and getting him involved with the baby where ever we can.

During the actual labor we have plans for him to stay with either his Auntie and Uncle or Nana and Papa. All people he has stayed for long periods of time before, which will help ease any anxiety that mommy and daddy aren’t there. As much as possible we are just trying to maintain his routine. For his sanity and ours.

Do you have any labor tips? Just like the padsicles there are a lot of birth and delivery stories out there. Reading them can give you a lot of insight to what you could expect. They are chalk full of lots of different points of view and tips.

Otherwise I’d say the biggest tip I haven’t seen talked about to much is the shakes. Not the ‘oh I have a baby!’ kind either. I’m talking you getting a case of the shivers. Right after taking Little Man over to be weighed and measured I started shaking uncontrollably. They piled me up with blankets and told me I was okay, but after all the complications I had I admit I was sure something was wrong with me. My nurses assured me it was completely normal, and once I settled down and my brain was a bit clearer I realized how normal it was. I mean after all your body is going through a lot, it only makes sense you’d have side effects from the hormonal changes. It was just something I had not even considered beforehand and in the midst of labor brain fog it freaked me out. Consider this your heads up so you don’t have to freak out like I did. 😛

Final tips? Do your research and be confident in the choices you, and your provider have made. Every person, pregnancy, and delivery is different (told you I’d say it a lot) In the end what matters is you and your baby is safe and healthy.

Also there is no shame in stocking up on paper plates for afterwards. Having one less chore to worry about is huge. And who wants to wash dishes when there is a baby to snuggle 😉

Whew! This is my longest post yet! Thanks for sticking with me. Let me know what you think and feel free to post any other tips you’d add or what else you’d include in your bag. Thanks!