YES I am STILL Breastfeeding

Abel's 1st birthday is being celebrated today (He is 2 days into his 2nd year of life)!! I am so excited and sad all at the same time! I am so happy to celebrate birthday after birthday with my little guy and all at the same time want him to stay little. That being said I keep hearing this question... "You're still breastfeeding?"

So for all those wondering out there, Yes I am still breastfeeding. I plan to until he is 2. The funny thing is in our society I may be the minoirty but in the rest of this world I am the majority. It is perfectly normal for our babies to breastfeed until 2. Yes I said it, it is normal.

"Thereafter infants should receive complementary foods with continued breastfeeding up to 2 years of age or beyond." Taken From: http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/exclusive_breastfeeding/en/

Some people don't see any reason for it. So I will tell you a few of my reasons =) 
It helps to prevent breast, uterian and cervical cancer for me. It provides nutrition for Abel. Also why would I give my baby the milk of a different species if I can provide it.

In the second year (12-23 months), 448 mL of breastmilk provides:

• 29% of energy requirements
• 43% of protein requirements
• 36% of calcium requirements
• 75% of vitamin A requirements
• 76% of folate requirements
• 94% of vitamin B12 requirements
• 60% of vitamin C requirements

– Dewey 2001
Taken from: http://kellymom.com/ages/older-infant/ebf-benefits/

I am not taking some crazy stand like the Time magazine asking if you are mom enough. It was simply the choice that is best for our baby. I just hope that the next time a judgement passes in your mom mind when you see a mom breastfeeding considering a few things first. Whenever Abel has been sick breastfeeding comforts him. It also helps to keep him hydrated. I know lots of moms who say their babies won't eat solids at times of being sick but they will breastfeed.

For all of us moms, we all choose different things so just take into consideration that while you probably get asked "Oh.. You didn't breastfeed?" I get asked why the heck I am still doing it ;)

For those mom's unsure of how long to breastfeed consider all the facts and also all the loveliness breastfeeding brings for you and your baby.

Here is a great website for more info as well http://www.lalecheleague.org/nb/nbsepoct07p196.html

Did I mention that I am also rapidly in the middle of planning our wedding!! It has been crazy, the good kinid of course! More to come on this for sure!

Cloth Diapering Momma

We have officially been cloth diapering for well over a week now. I love it more then I ever thought. Lots of mommas have been asking questions so I will do my best to give as much info as I can remember at once =)


First off I ordered my diapers through  http://sunbabydiapers.com/  They take about 20-30 days to arrive. I think I got mine in 2 weeks. There are no taxes and no shipping charges. I only ordered 12 diapers but I plan to order 12 more. While 12 can work I do find myself washing his diapers often. I got everything below for $60!

The Loves:
-They are adorable!
-They are easy to put on my little man when he is twisted and crawling away
-The absorbency is amazing! My little man is breastfeed and his poops are runny and we have not had one accident of the poop coming out.
-I don't feel bad about a diaper that has only been peed in once because I still have the diaper instead of the garbage can.
-The cost of this portion of baby has dropped.
-If we take a diaper off for swimming or bath time and he didn't pee in it I can put it right back on.
-He can wear just a diaper and I feel like he is dressed ;) around the house of course
-The diaper doesn't fall apart.
-When you take the insert out it doubles as a little swimmer!! I love this because Little swimmers are stupid expensive. Cloth diapers work way better! They don't hold a ton of water.

-Did I mention they are adorable.




The getting use to's:
-Changing more often. By this I mean at least every two hours if not sooner. 
-It is hard to tell when the diaper is wet/full (since they don't puff up and get squishy like disposable diapers) I have however figured out a quick trip stick my finger in the side if it feel wet I change him. Of course after I have checked for pooh =)


Here is what they look like.

The not so loves:
-I am using a disposable every night. This can be prevented by either doubling up inserts. One in the pocket and one inside. I choose not to because I have 12 inserts and 12 diapers. 

Cleaning:
-Cold rinse in the sink
-Soak in hot water if needed
-Hot water when washing
-Small amount of detergent
-No fabric softeners or dryer sheets
This website http://www.zany-zebra.com/ has the best advice for caring for diapers as well as all sorts of tips.


I would say we are fairly busy people and we have still been able to manage these. We have the diaper trash bags that we used even with disposables and they work perfect with cloth diapers.


Now that I don't have to worry about holding my baby down to poke a pin in a piece of cloth I have officially become a cloth diapering momma!

New Adventures

Abel is now 8 months! Can you believe it!! I can't "/ Either way being a mom has brought on all kinds of lovely things. My least favorite of all is when people comment about something concerning my parenting. I once saw a shirt that I knew I should of bought that read "My mom doesn't want your advice." I do however love it when I ask for it ;)


This brings me to how I have recently decided to start cloth diapering with Abel. I always use to think Cloth diapers were a piece of cloth that I had to stick pins in to even hold on my baby, which I might add horrified me. Well after some "mom advice" I discovered it was quite the opposite. Have you recently used a search engine to see just how cute cloth diapers are! They are adorable! I also discovered the start up was a little pricy. 


My sister who recently had a baby found a website called sunbabydiapers.com. They are cute and inexpensive. After some research, "mom advice" and of course Daddy input it was decided..... We are now going to be cloth diapering!


I can't wait for them to arrive and I will be sure to share my experience with them. We also just signed up for Bountiful Baskets! Another new adventure I am super excited about. Mike and I have decided we are going to start to eliminate as much meat from our diet and add more fruits and veggies. We finally ordered out first basket today and will receive it on Saturday! 


So here I am adding another thing to my list of unpopular ways to parent my child but hey I much rather have cute diapers, no rashes and more money in the pocket, just saying ;) Until next time.
-DreAnn

My Birth Story

<3 Your first breathe took ours away <3

Most woman make very different choices then what I choose to have... Since I can remember I have always said that I would have my babies at home. Most people may have thought it was only something I said and not something I would ever do. Thanks to my mommy and her being a midwife I have always been very educated about hospital births. That is what lead me to the decision of having a water birth at home.

My birth experience started with each prenatal I had. They lasted anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. While I am super lucky to have my mother as my midwife she is still amazing (and not just because I have to say that).

On Tuesday Oct. 4th at 2:30 am my water broke... I of course thought I had peed myself and actually got up two times thinking I had peed TWICE! The third time though I knew my water broke because it didn't really stop! I woke Mike up by yelling that I needed a towel =)

We decided to call our midwife (mom) and she said to go to sleep until I started having contractions... SLEEP! Hello my water broke doesn't this mean baby soon... Yeah not in this case. 12 hours past and I got maybe another hour or two of sleep.

Finally at 2:30pm contractions started. The contractions were actually quite easy to start with. At this point I was only dilated to a 3. Mike and I went on a few walks around our complex. Around 11:00pm I was pretty tired so our midwife said to go ahead and lay down but that it could possibly slow me down. Needless to say the contractions felt worse and so I was sleeping for about 3-5 minutes between contractions.

I got into the tub to relax some. In between contractions our midwife, my boyfriend (Mike) and I were carrying on a conversation. The contractions were 3 minutes apart and were lasting up to a minute. I ended out of the tub and got checked... I was only at a 3 1/2!!!!

I went from the tub to the birthing tub to the bed all depending on what made me most comfortable. I honestly don't remember what time it was anymore but the contractions were very hard. Mike helped a ton with the pain by pushing in on my hips like our chiropractor had explained to do. I finally was to a 6 and it seemed like it went by really fast after that.

I started to get the urge to push and so when our midwife checked me I was almost to a 10. At 6:08am I was ready to push. My sister Danyl had to rush over. After pushing Abel Cody Hopper was born on Oct. 5th, 2011at 6:34am!

All of the work and pain was well worth it and happiness overwhelmed me as I held my baby boy. The second he came out he started making a sucking noise looking for food. =) We moved from the birthing tub to our bed. I held him the entire time. His cord wasn't cut until it didn't have a pulse anymore. For the first hour he was with me and his daddy. After about an hour he was weighted, measured and checked out. He weighted 8lbs. 4oz. and 20 inches long.

I was in labor for 16 hours and every second was worth it. Not only was it worth it because of my healthy baby boy but also for him to be born into a calm environment in his home and a birth experience that was exactly as I wanted it without interventions and without any medication. I also love that fact that we didn't have to go anywhere to have Abel and bring him back home. It was so nice to already be in our home and have everything we needed.

Thank you mom (our midwife) for being and doing what you do best! You were so supportive and I felt comfortable during everything! Thank you Mr. (Mike) for your love and support. You did everything I asked including pushing on my hips during just about every contraction. I am so glad I got to share this with you! Thank you sis (Danyl) for taking pictures of this unforgettable moment and being so supportive. Most of all Thank you God for blessing us with a beautiful healthy baby boy and for creating my body to have him.

I hope that after women read this they realize that they too can have a baby naturally and that our bodies were made to do it.

Update

Goodness the last time I posted I talked about a Toxic relationship I was once in... Now life sure seems different =) In fact my life has done pretty much a 180....

I am currently 37 1/2 weeks pregnant. I absolutely love being pregnant. Yes I am one of those women... I love watching my belly move and feeling my little guy move around. I loved all the firsts from getting to see him on the ultrasound, the first kick and the first hiccups. I am having a water birth at home. My mom is my midwife and I feel pretty lucky to have such great care! The only thing that scares me is the end of my maternity leave... that means going back to work "/ Unless of course I figure out a brilliant way to use this creative mind of mine!

Micheal Hopper is the love of my life. He is the man that I have prayed about and thought was impossible to find. The funny part of this is that we have known each other since I was 5. I also got an extra bonus with him. His beautiful daughter Bella.

On July 10, 2011 I gave my life to Jesus =) A long journey that surprised lots of people (I was against being baptized for quite sometime even though my belief was there). To read more about this go to http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=da3b85a8deee9f88b5e3e17e9&id=2aed9d071c

We recently got maternity pictures done with JOA Photography. The photographer is a good friend of mine named Jazz. She did an amazing job!

I am officially addicted to a website called pinterest.com. I got most of the ideas for the shoot from there and we are doing the same thing for the newborn pictures. Also the baby shower ideas.

All in all that is a short update of this thing I call life... and did I am mention I am absolutely in love with it!

Love the Way You Lie

Have you ever been in a relationship where you loved the person with all that you had and yet every part of you told you to run and when you got the chance, run like hell? Every piece of me wanted to leave, every piece of me knew I had to leave and yet every piece of me would only get as far as to packing up one box sitting on the kitchen floor and balling my eyes out. Then I would wait, I would wait until he came in and ask me to stay and I would always ask the one question, Do you love me? and the answer was always yes.


You see this question is the reason why I stayed in a 4 and a half year relationship that should of ended after a year and a half. I had to find my bottom though, the last straw that would finally make me go run and never look back. I found it... My brother in law died and the month that followed my bottom became clear. And the first few steps were hard, then I ran and when I ran I never looked back.


The relationship I was in was what I refer to as a "toxic relationship." Now for those of you who know the person I am speaking of I will say this. I have the confidence to know that one day he will be the man that I saw from time to time. It is my belief that every man and every woman know how to be in a relationship. They simply get to find the person that they want to be that for. I wasn't his.


After hearing the recent release of Eminem's new song "Love the Way You Lie" I told myself it was time to write this blog. In fact I have wanted to write a book about Toxic relationships for quite some time now. This is the first step I believe.


Most people who look at others who are in toxic relationships can't even fathom why the people stay together. I always remind those people that what you tolerate, what I will tolerate and what they tolerate are all different. Yet when it comes to that point, the bottom, the person knows and that is when they run like hell.


This won't be the last blog about toxic relationships. I say this because I believe with all that I have, I had to go through this to get to the place I am at today. I have committed to being vulnerable, open and trusting with all of me to one person. Some might even say that I, DreAnn Story am in love...

Life Wouldn't Be The Same

Someone dies…

And usually you think to yourself why?

And always always it comes, gosh I wish I could of told them… this or that. Or even sometimes you talk about all the beautiful things you thought of them and never once actually told them.

I have my whole life at the young age of 24 experienced death. My mom in fact told me that I actually became quite obsessed with it at times. I feel the reason for this is because I have always wanted to understand it, the rhyme or reason why it happens. Usually the reason people come up with, is it has something to do with God. I on the other hand have always felt that there are some reasons besides that, although the one death I experienced a year and a half ago can’t have a good reason in my mind. That was the death of someone I cherished, my brother in law Jeff.

This death was very different for me in every way than I had ever experienced before. Yet the same thing came up for me that has with every death I have ever experienced in my life. People expressing the way they feel about the person yet they never expressed it to the person while they were living. I guess the reason this has come to bug me so recently is because I wonder to myself why it takes someone dying for us to express these things.

There are a lot and I mean a lot of things I have changed in my life since Jeff died a year and a half ago. My very unhealthy and toxic relationship that lasted for 4 ½ years came to an end. I began living life for myself. I developed an even closer relationship with my sister. My family got closer then I ever thought possible. The biggest thing though would be my general outlook on the things that mattered. The small bullshit that I held on to in the past didn’t matter anymore. Living life is all that matters.

So to the reason for this blog… I want to make a commitment to myself and I hope that others will join me as well. I am committing to telling people in my life how much they matter to me and what I truly think of them. I no longer need to wait until their funeral to stand up and speak so highly of them to a box of ashes or a casket. I will tell them how I feel now and how life without them would be. I want them to know just how much I truly cherish them in my life and all the beautiful things I see in them.

Something I must say that reminded me of this even more was a quote (of course) that I saw at a friend’s house…

“The road to a friend’s house is never far.”

I can’t tell you how many times this has been tossed around about living too far and how long of a drive it might be. I say this the 30 minute drive it may take will be worth it each time to know it is time well spent with someone that without them, life just wouldn’t be the same.