We had some playtime upon arriving at the cabin. We figured letting Everly stretch out on the bed would be a nice change from being cramped in the carseat all day. E had fun playing as you can see in the above photos.

We learned that an increase in humidity impacts a baby’s bottom. Poor Everly got kind of rashy while we were in Tennessee so we put a potty pad (left over from the birth kit) under her and let her go naked for a bit. She liked being free but was also startling much more without clothes on. The fresh air and sunlight did help with the rash though.

The checkup went well and Pamela was very excited to spend time with Everly as you can see. You can read more about how the checkup went in this post.

We had a great time on our trip, it was a time for us to reflect on Everly’s birth and we also made some good memories while we were there.

The post Wordless Wednesday: E's 6 week checkup with our midwife appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Nobody can ever really make you understand just how much your life changes once you have a baby! I am not gonna lie, we are so looking forward to when our free time increases a bit once she’s older. Right now the constant need to be held is rough on us.

Finding the time to feed and care for ourselves is verging on impossible with little 7 week old Everly. That comes with the territory though, that’s what we’ve been told at least…

We had a good 6 week checkup with our midwife at The Farm this past weekend. We stayed in the cabin that Everly was born in, it was so cozy and quiet. We relaxed a bit but things weren’t quite as leisurely as we had expected.

Turns out little E doesn’t like being away from home right now. She was extremely overstimulated and had a pretty hard time going down for naps and sleeping at night. We even brought her beloved swing that she falls asleep in at night but the different surroundings left her acting uneasy and unable to relax, even in the swing.

Pamela examined us and said we were both very healthy and doing great. E got weighed and she was too big for the baby scale (almost 11lbs). She’s also gained 2 inches in length since birth so her growth is great which means breastfeeding is going great too.

My 4th degree tear repair was done very well according to Pamela. She was very impressed with how nicely the stitches healed up and she says my pelvic floor is very firm and all back together. By 3 weeks postpartum my bleeding had stopped and the tenderness of the stitches was gone, that is apparently remarkable healing for such a bad tear.

All in all things are on track following labor and delivery, we are glad to hear this. I still can’t believe we are parents though. Staying in the cabin and looking at the spot there on the floor where I delivered E is surreal.

Our midwife was telling me that she’s been sharing my birth experience with all her students too. She thinks it was pretty great how I was “in a trance” and so relaxed during labor and transition. She tells everyone how calm Everly’s birth was and keeps complementing me on it.

I still can’t grasp it all, I know I had a baby but it still hasn’t sunk in how truly huge and amazing that fact is.

Anyway, now we are home and getting back in to the swing of things. E seems much more relaxed and comfortable now that we are back too. She slept great last night and we had band rehearsal today which went well. Tomorrow E and I will have a day off to relax and get caught up on some stuff before another busy day on Thursday. Fun, fun!

The post Been new parents for 7 weeks now… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

We read that tired babies are fussy and can often seem gassy or colicky when all they actually need is to sleep more. We’ve learned this the hard way.

We bought Gripe Water, Mylicon gas drops, we made catnip & lemon balm tea for her, gave her digestive enzymes and basically tried everything to cure what seemed like tummy pain that caused her to fuss and cry inconsolably.

Turns out she was awake way more than she probably should be and she was getting so overstimulated and overtired that getting her to relax for sleep was practically impossible by the end of the night.

When we headed home with her everyone was all “babies will tell you what they need when they need it”. I nursed on demand, let her sleep when she wanted to, changed her when she screamed. All that resulted in was a fussy, rashy, unhappy baby that would sleep right through the night and fuss all day.

Once we figured out that babies typically shouldn’t be awake for more than about 2 hours at a time it was easy to see what the problem was…

She was getting overly tired and overtired babies only have more issues going to sleep which is probably why E would only doze off in my arms but would not fully sleep or let us lay her down for a nap. The whole time we were thinking she was fussing and crying in pain, it was just exhaustion though.

We committed a baby signals interpretation fail! Poor E.

Now we have made a few changes to help Everly with falling asleep and staying asleep per our reading.

Things like keeping our bedroom dark, changing her and feeding her in the dark when sleep should follow and building a bed time routine have helped. Also, we are having to swaddle her and also place her in the swing to get her to initially fall asleep at night.

The good news is she is actually napping during the day these days which in turn makes her easier to get back to sleep thought the day and night. A well rested baby fights sleep much less and isn’t as fussy. It is amazing and kind of “duh” all at the same time. This revelation is all thanks to reading, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child

Some parenting books have been very helpful reading material, I’ll admit there is quite a bit of conflicting info out there though. We were lucky enough to find some helpful stuff this time. If you’ve got a parenting book you love please let us know @laurensnellings from twitter recommended the above mentioned book to me and boy are we glad she did.

The post Missing the signs of my overtired baby… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Homebirth is not for every woman and every pregnancy which is why there needs to be adequate laws and regulations in place to protect women and midwives (like there are in Tennessee). Homebirth should be an acceptable and viable option for most but thanks to one sided stories, scare tactics and profit driven laws it is not. This is sad and maddening to me.

Another thing that is wearing on my nerves is breastfeeding ignorance. Everly is just over a month old and we are exclusively breastfeeding. We haven’t introduced the bottle or a pacifier because we don’t want to cause “nipple confusion” and disrupt the working breastfeeding relationship (you are supposed to wait until 6-8 weeks). For some reason people who hardly know me can’t wrap their minds around this and it is annoying me. (If you are reading this, it’s not about you I promise!)

Sure bottles and pacifiers would be more convenient but they aren’t best for E at this time (in my mind) and I’ve chosen to commit to breastfeeding, why can’t people understand and respect this? Plus she wont have anything to do with them anyway.

Speaking of respect, my ex-doctors office (remember the bad OBGYN?) sold my info to formula companies without my consent. I’ve been receiving formula vouchers like crazy and I’ve got free formula coming out my ears now!

Sure, free stuff is nice but not when you wont use it and the only reason they are giving it is to get you to mess up with breastfeeding and to get you hooked on their products. It is like they are tempting you to give up on breastfeeding. And don’t even get me started on how little support exists for breastfeeding moms…

Can you tell I am running on major lack of sleep? I am all irritable and full of complaints today.

The post People just don't get it sometimes… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

E shot more poop around this morning while I was changing her. Every time she does it I just can’t help but laugh. Now I am washing a blanket from the bed and scrubbing some orange poo spots on the carpet when I get a few free moments.

*drinks some cold grape powerade*

Ah, yes! The powerade. So I lived in hot, miserable, Phoenix, AZ for 22 years of my life. 100+ degree temperatures were the norm and I wasn’t the best at staying hydrated. I was like a camel, didn’t have to drink much water, didn’t sweat too much and could just keep going and going in those hot temps.

Now that we’ve moved to a more humid area my body isn’t so resilient! Actually back in Flagstaff I would get some dehydration headaches every now and then thanks to the altitude and the wind (drys you out quicker).

Anyway, while I was in Tennessee waiting for labor to start I began to get pretty dehydrated and swelly. My midwife informed me that the humidity takes more out of you than just water (which I’ve never experienced before). She urged me to get some electrolyte drinks and I argued that I drink more than enough water now and I shouldn’t be dehydrated.

Well the drinks totally did the trick for my swelling and got me all geared up for labor! I guess humidity can really suck the electrolytes out of you as opposed to the dry Arizona heat I am used to, go figure.

Now that I’ve been home for a month with my babe my appetite is going back to normal. I am eating and drinking most anything I want now that I’m not limited by the pregnancy. I am sure I am not drinking enough water now but recently despite my increase in water intake I’ve been plagued with killer headaches that last several days.

N had an amazing idea, we should drink some powerade to see if the headaches go away… So we stocked up and they are working on the head pain, it is crazy what a difference the humidity makes…

Of course there is the other ear piercing, head pain causing fun -> poor crying E.

She’s having another fussy spurt. It began yesterday evening, it was nice for N to get to experience it since they only seem to happen when E and I are home alone and he only sees her “angel” side. LOL.

She’s just not sleeping very deeply, she’ll fuss and scream off and on. About every 10-15 min or so. They aren’t the “I need something, the world is ending” crys. They are more whiney like “I am uncomfortable and so tired but can’t sleep”.

Doesn’t matter what we do she still dozes off for like 10-15 min then wakes up shrieking and will doze right back off again. It’s hard to endure because we want to comfort her but nothing works. She can get quite worked up too which just causes her more discomfort.

She has some really good days where she’s happy and not screaming or fussing, then she has those other really bad days. Today is another bad one, unfortunately.

So I am drinking my powerade and taking some tylenol while I try to calm and comfort her as much as possible, poor thing.

We did have some fun with E over the weekend too, I’ll share more about that in my upcoming Less-words Wednesday post though. Stay tuned.

The post Headaches, electrolytes and fussy babes. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.