daphne’s home birth: a photo tour

Posted in pregnancy by ElaineMarie

ok, so it’s a dimly lit photo tour. we’ll call it ambiance. or love aura. whatevs…

i’d like to highlight some of the things i loved about birthing our baby girl at home, in our own bed, with these few snaps from my phone. lucky you, nothing graphic will be shown as i was too busy with the actual birthing. i was able to capture one last maternity shot when labor was just getting started.

there was so much i was thankful for about being in our own space for laboring and birthing. i want to write a little bit more about the experience and process but i think that is for another time.

so we’ll flash forward to the immediate postpartum which, for us, seems to be bursting with benefits:

^ the first being that we were given time and respect. our space and experience were honored. i have several photos of daphne just looking around the world for the longest time. it was all so peaceful and serene. at least for us. daphne has a bit of a what-the-heck-just-happened-to-me look going on.

^ all daphne’s measurements and exams were done in our bed, by our side.

^mike got to be the one to give daphne her first “bath” which was just a washcloth rubdown

and we all got to hang out in various stages of undress holding miss Daphne:

^and darla held daphne for the first time. darla’s thoughts on the experience: “she doesn’t smell very good.”

^home birth meant my parents could come and be with us and the lack of visiting hours has lead to lots of bonding time for everyone, which works well for our family.

photo 1628E9FD-3167-4BC3-AC4B-F9A4C3F0B46B-34741-00000C15AC86D24A_zps82a04fcf.jpg

and mostly we just sit around and stare at daphne josephine, completely comfortable and settled in to her home surroundings from minute one.

our home birth = a home filled with love. a birth filled with love.

24Jul2014

bump day

Posted in pregnancy by ElaineMarie

i know, you thought bump day updates were over didn’t you?

well, i’m just still very much in love and in like with this midsection that has grown two people now. maybe i’ll just keep bump day up forever…hmmmmm….

no, BUT, maybe this is a start to something along the lines of the 4th Trimester Bodies Project. we’ll see.

it’s my first bump day post-birth and things are looking very similar to 5 months pregnant. i don’t really mind carrying around the extra pooch for a bit. i think it would be too much of a change and a loss to go straight back to a pre-baby body. i’d like this little reminder to stick around for a while.

and yes, those are the tops of the adult diapers i’ve been rocking since daphne’s birth. i’m not ashamed to admit that i’ve been quite comfortably not hating this decision. ladies expecting babies, do yourself a favor and just give in to the adult diaper for your initial postpartum period. trust me.

22Jul2014

I’m a magician

Posted in love and happiness, pregnancy by ElaineMarie

Because I turned this

into this….

Daphne Josephine is now a member of the Wrucker crew, living on the outside of my body and looking pretty cute while doing so.

we’re healthy, happy and well-cared for. i’m now enjoying all the baby snuggles and fun time after pains, along with those lovely, humbling things like starting a new breastfeeding relationship and relearning how to pass a newborn back and forth. sheesh.

life is a trip, man.

{ps. glad i had the where-with-all to snap one last maternity shot at the beginning of my labor, before things really took off}

17Jul2014

bump day

Posted in pregnancy by ElaineMarie

late bump day post today. did you think i had the baby???……………

nooooooooo.

that would be so silly. and boring.

having babies is for boring people. growing them forever is the latest hipster trend!!!!

16Jul2014

pregnancy and body image

Posted in love and happiness, pregnancy by ElaineMarie

dear baby,

i wrote this post a year ago, roughly. and now i want to write a quite different post.

i want to write a post in gratitude, rejoicing in the confidence being pregnant has brought back to me about my body. i don’t really recognize that person, or that voice from that post a year ago. who wrote that? certainly not this lady! because this lady says: i can wear whatever the hell i want and i look good while i’m at it.

being pregnant makes me feel so feminine and powerful and in control of my body. i know that is not the case for some but fortunately it is for me.

we’ve spent much of these last weeks of pregnancy poolside and i’ve drawn upon that confidence about my body in a way that i’m sure i wouldn’t have last year. my legs aren’t shaved. who cares? my suits don’t fit quite right. whatevs! i’m huge and have fatty thighs and spider veins. not a big deal!

if anyone has had a problem with it, it really has been no cause for concern of mine. i’m guessing that if anyone has been unsettled by my appearance they’ve just kept their opinion to themselves which is exactly where negative thoughts can be kept: to their owner, poisoning his/her own mind.

which brings up another positive for me; now that i am back in a mental place where i love and revere my body, i look more favorably upon others as well. i see a beauty there that was lost to me for a while. and really, i mostly don’t find it any of my business to have an opinion about another person’s body and physique.

it is so freeing and nice. the world is a much nicer place when you love yourself and feel positive about the person you are. it’s just nice.

and i’m thankful to you, baby, and this pregnancy for bringing me back to this place. it’s regrettable that i drifted away from here for some time but i’m glad to be back now.

{universe, please help me hold on to it this time.}

because i’m sure i will have you soon, {right?} and drop some weight and become able to reach my legs again for shaving and what not but from here on out those personal appearance things will be for me and will not be about avoiding negative thoughts from others.

15Jul2014

avoiding maternity clothes

Posted in pregnancy by ElaineMarie

friends, romans, countrymen,

i think it may be time to put Avoiding Maternity Clothes to rest. at this point, i’m avoiding all clothes not just maternity items. and i think it’s safe to say i’m not going to run out and purchase my first pair of maternity jeans here in the final days.

sooooo…I DID IT!!

2 pregnancies. 0 maternity pants purchased. 1,000,000,000 awesome pregnancy points earned!

just kidding. in the end it doesn’t really matter but i think i’ll get a post out sometime in the future as to why exactly i am against the maternity clothes.

what i have to share today was actually purchased with postpartum in mind, specifically night-time nursing. i’ve been getting back into visiting our local thrift store and found a couple cheap, vintage options that i love and feel are working just fine here at the end of pregnancy as well:

^^^ this is NOT a maternity nightgown, just a muumuu some dear, large lady left behind. to me it feels like the perfect, roomy nightgown ^^^

^^^ and this caught my eye because there may be a slight chance my grandmother had this exact same sleep set. look at that sleeve detailing and those fabric buttons! when mike saw this on me he was like “what the actual hell is going on with you.” ^^^

and he’s right. i’ve entered into this phase of my life where i look at silk sleep sets and think “hey, that would look great on me.” and i don’t think i’m wrong. it does look great on me. and it is not my fault that there is a lack of front buttons on reasonably priced women’s sleepwear for my age demographic!

so, that’s a wrap on avoiding maternity clothes. thanks for following along! soon we will be back to our regularly scheduled bad fashion choices. soon. i hope.

10Jul2014

bump day

Posted in pregnancy by ElaineMarie

that bump. how that bump made us jump.

here’s some advice. do not write a post jokingly calling your unborn child a jerk-baby because your unborn jerk-baby will get on the internet and read it and then give you the in utero what for.

we had a last-minute ultra sound last night after this little person gave us all a scare of a 40-week breech flip.

the good news: baby is not, in fact, breech but in lovely position.

more good news: we got to see him/her as a family which was nice since mike and darla weren’t present for my last ultrasound.

the ambiguous news: u/s info shows i may have a little more time growing this person than previously thought. maybe not. it’s all devil-science-magic anyway! but i’m wrapping my head around the fact that we may be hanging tight for a while. maybe not. ooh the excitement…the thrill of the wait…the anticipation…the stretching skin!!!!

the bad news: i’ve now called my jerk-baby a jerk-baby 3 {er…4} more times so i’m sure to experience some additional wild times from this kiddo here at the end in retribution. it’s ok, i deserve it.

9Jul2014

pregnancy eats

Posted in pregnancy, yum yum eat good by ElaineMarie

pregnancy eats this week consists of spicy chorizo tacos because you’ve heard that spicy things kick-start labor, right?

it was worth a shot.

so this taco dinner was in celebration of two things: my due date and my momma sending us taco funds.

see….

^^^ look at how cute she is labeling it and all ^^^

well, the due date came and went and baby and i are still a We. but i’m ok with that. i’ve chilled out a little bit about getting this person here. the smudging session helped change my energy towards the process both emotionally and mentally. plus, once it became apparent that little one wasn’t going to make an entrance on July 7th, the most sacred day of the year, then i kinda relaxed.

you see, July 7th is Fred Savage’s birthday. i have to confess i did not treat fred’s birthday with the respect it deserves this year. i was so caught up in my own disappointment of having a non-savage baby that i didn’t feel like celebrating the greatest american that has ever lived. and that was selfish and wrong.

dear fred,
i’m sorry i missed your birthday this year. fred fest WILL happen for 2015. promises, promises. and i’m sorry my jerk-baby wouldn’t come out of me on your birthday.
love,
elaine

so since we rolled on past the 7th it didn’t seem like such a big deal to keep on going past the 8th. but mike and i decided it was nice to celebrate the due date anyway, just because. it’s an accomplishment to grow a human for this long, friends. my hope is more ladies will start seeing it that way instead of an affliction to carry your little person past dates. even though, i get it. i’m much more physically miserable with this pregnancy than my previous, and i’m one of the lucky ones with very little complications. so i understand the ladies that have 9 mos of misery and are ready to be done. but the hardships of an older body kinda make me even more proud to carry this person onwards until the universe sees fit to bring him/her this side of my pelvis. it just felt like something to be celebrated instead of bemoaning.

plus, these dates are so fluid. it’s a window. and honestly, i am NOT a charter so my dates for calculating were ballpark figures anyway. so this person will truly be here when they are supposed to. i’m relaxed. i’m cool. i burn incense and wear fringe shirts now so i can handle this…

and also, it was an excuse for tacos.

BUT i would like to make an announcement that two things will be happening from now on:

1} i will be watching episodes of the wonder years nightly until this babe arrives in repentance for my treatment of fred’s day.

2} i will not be answering any questions/texts/emails/fb messages about whether or not i’ve had this baby. this blog revolves almost completely around my over sharing and need for attention. once i have this baby, trust me, you’ll all know about it!!!

8Jul2014

preparing a space for baby

Posted in pregnancy by ElaineMarie

one of the fun things we did this past weekend was cleanse our room and labor space. darla helped me sage our bedroom and fill the space with good energy for labor. when i asked her about what she thought of during her turns to hold the smudge stick she said “how much i’m going to love my baby brother or sister.”

that’ll do, sis.

like i said in this post, it’s not really about whether or not it works, it’s the ceremony of it. it was one more thing i could do to let the universe know i’m ready. it was something to do to feel spiritually connected to this space. it was another way to bring my daughter into the folds of this process. one more way to feel connected and welcoming to this new being.

so, space has now been cleared and cleansed for this new person.

back to waiting…

8Jul2014

avoiding maternity clothes

Posted in pregnancy by ElaineMarie

how
i did
avoiding
maternity
clothes this week…

only one addition to the regular rotation. but it was a fun addition, a funky addition. it’s an addition that needs some recognition. fringing this t-shirt is what i spent my precious alone time doing. yep. fringe is an important accessory to me. and this t-shirt is getting me excited for rocking my postpartum mom bod for the rest of the summer. mid-drifts aren’t just for baby bumps anymore! stretch marks and blown out belly buttons will be on display soon, too!

darla came home to me wearing this and had instant fringe envy. don’t worry, we fixed her up with a style of her own. keep a look out for a post in which she dons her own fringey tee in just a bit.

seriously, wish and magical think me into postpartum clothes by next week. please. thanks!

momjeanz

Category Archives: pregnancy

daphne’s home birth: a photo tour

bump day

I’m a magician

bump day

pregnancy and body image

avoiding maternity clothes

bump day

pregnancy eats

preparing a space for baby

avoiding maternity clothes