Teeth

SILVER HAS TWO TEETH COMING IN!!!  Oh. my. gosh.  Couldn't even believe it when I discovered them.  She's also been sitting up quite well for several weeks now.  She has the occasional fall over, but for the most part, she's got it!

Silver's First Work of Art

My Mom's Support Group had the best Christmas Party.  We decked the room out in plastic sheeting (just like on Dexter!) and Silver got to do her first ever art project - we finger painted!

Silver was just about five months when we painted, so I was a little nervous since she's sticking EVERYTHING in her mouth.  But we were careful, and one of the mommies found the coolest paint ever (made from fruits and veggies!), Eco-Paint, from Pottery Barn Kids.

It's a powder paint handmade with flour, cornstarch, seaweed, natural and organic fruit, plant and vegetable extracts from beets, spinach, paprika, carrots, purple sweet potato, red cabbage, blueberries and tomatoes.

The babies had the BEST time.  They were quite precious.  And I've gotta say, I'm glad Silver's not crawling yet... It would have made this project a whole lot messier for me!  :)

Silver's First Work of Art!

Our painting buddies

Canvas for Chris at Birth Matters

Baby friends and mommy friends

Silver Rolls Over

SILVER ROLLED OVER FOR THE FIRST TIME TODAY!!!  From front to back.  I couldn't believe it!  Took this picture right after she did it.  The, I put her back on her tummy to see if she could do it again, and she did!

And yes, she's wearing a halloween onesie at the end of November... Don't judge.  It still fits!  :)

Cereal. Or... Not.

The munchkin's four month checkup went really well.  Doc says she's super strong and will probably be an early crawler!  She weighs 15 pounds, 14 ounces (95-97 percentile!) and is 25 inches (75-90 percentile!). She's a healthy, growing girl who's showing us new things she's learning everyday!

Doc also said we can start silver on 'solids' now starting with rice cereal.  But... we're not going to be participating in that.  Rice cereal is just not necessary for breastfed babies.  There is little to no nutritional value, with the exception of iron, which generally causes constipation.  It's like empty calories, and since Silver's obviously growing quite well, we're skipping the rice cereal and waiting for something of more value.

While I'm at it, I'll go ahead and take a second to introduce what we will be doing with Silver, which I'm very excited about: Baby Led Weaning!!!

Baby Led Weaning means offering your baby (age appropriate) foods that are soft-cooked and sometimes cut or mashed into small easily manageable pieces. You then offer the food to your baby to eat, and then, this is the important part - your baby does the rest.  In short, Baby Led Weaning is skipping thin and runny purées and not feeding your baby with a spoon – it's where you rely on your baby to self-regulate and lead the way.

I am very excited about this!  It's cool for lots of reasons.  We will be starting when Silver starts giving me some signs - sitting up on her own (without tripod-ing it), getting some teeth, getting her hand/eye coordination down to where she can get objects to her mouth...

It's funny how many people have already freaked out because we're waiting to do food - maybe even until Silver is one, who knows, we're playing it by ear folks.  But, the good news is, I'm a huge researcher and am not going into this uneducated.  Baby led weaning makes tons of sense!  And it's how people did things before technology took over, which makes me love it all the more.

Here are the top ten benefits, according to Gill Rapley, the author of the book Baby-led Weaning.

It’s enjoyable!

• BLW babies look forward to eating; they enjoy learning about different foods and doing things for themselves
• Playing an active part in mealtimes and being in control of what to eat, how much to eat and how fast to eat it make eating more enjoyable; the opposite can make mealtimes miserable
• Being able to watch their child learn about food, without any pressure to ‘get her to eat’, means that mealtimes can be enjoyable for parents too

It’s natural

• Babies follow their instincts to eat when they’re ready – just like any other baby animal
• BLW uses the skills that all healthy babies are developing in the second half of their first year to help them to explore food at their own pace
• BLW allows babies to follow their instincts to use their hands and their mouths to find out about all sorts of objects, including food

Learning to enjoy and trust food

• With spoon-feeding all the tastes are puréed into one; BLW babies can discover different tastes and begin to learn how to recognise foods they like
• BLW babies are keen to try new foods; they rarely become ‘picky’ eaters or suspicious of food as toddlers – probably because they are allowed to use their instincts to decide what to eat and what to leave
• Enjoying a broad range of food is good for babies’ long-term nutrition as well as their enjoyment of eating

Learning to eat

• BLW babies learn to manage different shapes and textures of food from the very beginning, so they quickly become skilled at dealing with a broad range of foods
• Handling food himself and then putting it in his mouth helps a baby to work out how to manage foods of different sizes, shapes and textures
• BLW babies learn how to move food around inside their mouths and how much they can safely put in; they tend to bite off small pieces to chew, whereas older babies who have been spoon fed often over-stuff their mouths when they are first allowed to feed themselves
• Learning to chew effectively makes it more likely that babies will get all the nutrients they need – and it helps digestion too
• Practising chewing as soon as they are ready helps babies to develop the facial muscles that will be needed as they learn to talk

Learning about their world

• For babies, play is essential to learning; they learn about concepts such as less and more, size, shape, weight, texture and gravity just by ‘playing’ with their food
• Because all their senses (sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste) are involved when they feed themselves, babies discover how to relate all these things together for a better understanding of the world around them

Reaching potential

• BLW babies practise hand-eye coordination every time they use their fingers to take food to their mouths
• Gripping foods of different sizes and textures several times a day improves babies’ dexterity
• Allowing babies to do things for themselves helps them to learn and gives them confidence in their own abilities and judgement

Being part of family meals

• Being included in family mealtimes, eating the same food and joining in the social time is fun for babies
• Babies copy mealtime behaviour, so they naturally move on to using cutlery and adopt the table manners expected in their family
• BLW babies learn about how different foods are eaten, how to share, wait their turn and how to make conversation
• Sharing mealtimes has a positive impact on family relationships, social skills, language development and healthy eating

Developing healthy eating habits

• Allowing babies to choose what to eat from a range of nutritious foods, to eat at their own pace, and to decide when they’ve had enough helps them to develop natural appetite control. This may be an important part of preventing food conflicts and obesity when they are older
• Because they are involved in shared, healthy meals from the beginning, BLW babies are less likely to choose unhealthy foods when they are older (or to need separate ‘kids’ food’) and are therefore more likely to be better nourished, long term

Easier, less complicated meals

• Puréeing food is time-consuming and fiddly, and can be expensive. With BLW, it just isn’t necessary. Provided the parents’ diet is healthy, they can easily adapt their meals for their baby
• Eating out is easier too. BLW babies are used to eating round the table with adults and they enjoy ‘grown-up’ food – so families aren’t limited to restaurants with a ‘kids’ menu’
• With BLW everyone eats together; the grown-ups don’t have to spoon-feed the baby while their own dinner goes cold and everyone is part of what’s going on

No mealtime battles

• When there is no pressure on babies to eat, there is no opportunity for mealtimes to become a battleground, so problems such as food refusal and food phobias are much less likely
• BLW respects babies’ decisions about what to eat (or not to eat) and when to stop eating, so there is no need for games (“Here comes the train!”) to try to fool a baby into accepting food she doesn’t want or to ‘trick’ toddlers into eating healthily
• The whole family can enjoy stress-free meals together, meaning relaxed parents and happy children

It's the Little Things

Today we hit the polls!  Silver came with us in the Moby.  Love the Moby!   On the way home from voting, T.J. and I noticed some noise coming from the back seat... Silver has figured out how to pull the little creatures that are on her car seat!  We couldn't believe it.  She just kept pulling them over and over again, like she has been doing it forever.  It may not seem like much to most, but it's cool seeing her get smarter and smarter all the time.

Sweet Sleeper

Oh my gosh.  Silver has become the cutest sleeper ever.  She 'talks' herself to sleep.  I am doing something I didn't think I would do though... we've become pretty reliant on the swing.  And by "pretty reliant" I mean it's mandatory and God bless the person that invented it.  :)  Silver is not such a fan of going to sleep and this really seems to be working for us right now.  And, since a mama can only handle so much, the swing it is!

OU/Texas

Went to OU/Texas this weekend!  And of course we kicked some butt!


Here are some pics, not all our from this past weekend, more like just a collaboration of a bunch of cute OU pics that have needed to get posted.

Disney on Ice

Oh my munchkin.  She's getting so big!  Silver has been very into her hands this past week.   She looks at them, and holds them, and tries to eat them!  Well no, not eat them, but she sure does cram as much of them into her mouth as she can.  We went to Disney on Ice for the first time this week with my mom, Silver's Maui.  It has been a tradition of my mom and mine for several years and we were so excited to get to pass the tradition on to Silver!  She LOVED it.  Maybe even almost as my mom and I enjoyed being there with her.  :)  And... we of course dressed her up, because we just couldn't help it!  We've been looking at all of the cute little girls in costumes for years and just couldn't let Silver show up not looking super fabulous!  She wore a Tinkerbell costume and looked absolutely precious.  We sat in the first row and Tinkerbell even skated by and blew a kiss at Silver - how perfect was that?!  I'm not even kidding.  It's like it was meant to be.  She was very bright eyed and into all of the movement.  Needed a bit of a nap before intermission... but definitely enjoyed the majority of the show!  :)

Like Mama, Like Daughter

Silver is 7 weeks old!  She has discovered my hair and grabs it sometimes.  And she LOVES the outdoors.  It  calms her down so much.  Her Maui discovered it for the first time and it is so true!  She's just like her mama.  And her Maui.  Nature is good.  It just is.  For lots of reasons.

Silver's First Doctor Visit

Today was our first time to go to the doctor, for Silver's two week checkup.  She was poked and prodded and moved around, yet no tears!  She's my happy, easy going baby.  And she's already gained over a pound!  She now weighs 9 pounds, 5 ounces and is in the 75th percentile.  And she's longer too!  21 1/2 inches - the 90th percentile!  A healthy, growing girl.

First Birthday Party to Attend

We went to our first social event tonight - a birthday party!  It was for our friend Kyler and Silver did very well.

Newborn Pictures

Silver had her newborn pictures done today with Angel Porch.  Silver was a little bit fussy for a while - she sure does let us know when we're doing something she doesn't like!   I was afraid we weren't going to get any good pictures because the photo shoot was totally not going at all how I had it planned in my head...  We thought it would be a good idea to have Silver sleep in the car on the way there, but then she was wide awake and wondering what we were trying to do to her for the majority of the pictures.  And totally ticked!  Ah... well.  I'm sure I just need to start letting go of things like that now.  :)  But she did somehow manage to not leave any poopies on the floor (or me!) when we did the pictures with her diaper off.  That's something!  Good job, Little Miss!

Cloth Diapers

Today is Silver's first day to be in cloth diapers (we had to wait for the meconium to pass before we could use them)!  We are absolutely loving them.  And T.J. was so cute when he put Silver into her first diaper.  It was lime green - to match the outfit he picked out for her!  :)  She was so adorable, and even more so because she was dressed with love!

It took us a little bit to get on board with cloth.  From what we had researched at first it sounded like such a hassle and mess that neither of us thought we could handle...  But it's not going to be so difficult after all!  A friend referred us to The Changing Table, an amazing new cloth diapering company here in Oklahoma.  They had a great cloth diaper crash course meeting we attended, where we learned using cloth is a lot easier than we thought it would be!


People always want to know, 'what do you do with the poop?' (That's what we were worried about too!)  For breastfed babies, the poop is water soluble so you just throw it into the washer as is and it goes away.  Then, when Silver starts eating solids someday, they have rice paper liners that you just flush.  No way could I be shaking out some diapers in the toilet and dunking them or spraying them and all that... Well, maybe I could if I had to, but I'm really looking forward to the rice paper.  :)


We're very excited to have Silver in cloth.  Better for her butt (no chemicals), better for our wallets, and better for the planet!  A win win win.  :)


AND God is so good, we're getting almost all of our diapers for free.  Well, no not really free, but they are a newer company that was in need of a logo and some other products, so I designed them some things, and we're doing a trade!  What a huge blessing!!!  Here's what the final logo looked like.  And we definitely recommend them - they're great girls!

Silver's First Bath

Today Silver had her first bath.  We got off to a very funny start... First I changed her diaper, then she decided she needed to go again.  So daddy changed her diaper.  Shortly thereafter we put her in the bath and she went AGAIN!  It was all over the tub!  And all over her!  We didn't know what to do... It was a very funny mess.  We got both her and the bathtub cleaned up and then got her back into place.  She really didn't like it the second time around (because now the tub was wet).  And I don't blame her!  It was cold and bright and it made me sad to see how pitiful she looked...  But she smells so pretty!  And her hair is so soft!  :)  We did have a mommy/daddy fail though and got her umbilical cord wet... The first of many fails to come I'm sure. But, we got it good with alcohol when we were done. 

Silver's First Playdate

Today was Silver's first playdate!  Bethany came over with Silver's best friend, Tylee (she's three weeks older).  They were so cute!  And they somehow actually managed to be on the same schedule!  They came over and they were both hungry so we fed them.  Then they fell asleep together.  Then, they woke up and we them on a blanket so we could get some pics of them "playing" together.  They were both facing each other and squirming around and it was just precious.  Then they both fell asleep again!  They have so much in common!  :)

Welcome Home!

My mom put the most awesome sign in our front yard for when we got home!  It was such a cool surprise.

July 4th, 2010 - Silver's Birth Story

People used to look at me like I was crazy when I told them the plan was to have a natural, drug free childbirth. That, or they would just kind of small and nod, as if to say, "yeah, okay... we'll see how that turns out." But, I was determined to have it be so!  My mom did it naturally with my brother and me and I knew I was capable of doing it as well.  After all, people have been doing it for hundreds of years!  Pain is relative and I never really dwelled on the thought of birth and simply believed it was a natural process that would just eventually play out.

As our due date approached, however, anxiety began to mount. When I was about 8 months along, we watched the documentary 'The Business of Being Born.' The film reveals that 'there is much to distrust behind hospital doors... Should most births should be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potential medical emergency?'  I've never been one to like hospitals, or even doctors, whom I generally distrust for that matter, and this documentary pretty much made hospitals out to be the devil...

Welcome our search for a doula. A doula is a “trained and experienced professional who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during and just after birth.” Basically, their main focus is on you and your comfort - they work as your advocate, consultant, and coach throughout the entire birth process.

We were referred to the company Birth Matters from a friend.  There we learned about all of the support a doula could provide, decided it was exactly what we needed, and met with doula Joy Moore.  After our first interview with her, we knew she was the one!  We loved her!  But were our childbirth classes enough?  The ones that our doctor's office provided seemed too extremely basic.  As in, they expected you to get the epidural (what 90% of women do), or end up with a c-section, and that's just how it would be.  We didn't even really do any pain management techniques!  After talking to Joy, we decided we would take a second round of childbirth classes at Birth Matters.  After all, knowledge is power.  That's when we met Chris Cleary, the owner.  She was incredible!  We learned a million times more than we had in our previous classes and felt so much more in control of the situation.  Our resolves were strengthened with further knowledge of why we wanted to have and should have a natural childbirth.  We were ready.  

And then our due date came and went...

Ten days post due, on July 4, 2010, I woke up with contractions at about three o'clock in the morning.  I wasn't sure if they were real, "go time", contractions or not, so I decided to wait a little bit before waking up T.J. We were supposed to go help with a Fourth of July cookout that afternoon at church, but God had something else planned for us!  I got our childbirth book out and re-read about the early signs of labor and at about three thirty, I decided that yes, it was time to wake up T.J.  This was it!  We had been waiting and waiting (Silver's due date was June 24), and it was finally go time!

We waited through some more contractions and eventually started timing them.  At 3:48 in the morning we decided it really was for sure "go time" so we called our doula, Joy (we didn't want to wake her so early if it was false or very early labor!)

T.J. started cleaning the house up a bit and making sure our hospital bags were ready to go while I took and shower and waited through some more contractions.  Then T.J. posted on Facebook, "I have a feeling that I will really get to know the movie "Born on the 4th of July" pretty well over time. Rhiannon woke me up 20 min ago and put the iPhone in my hand to start officially measuring contractions."

-Sunday at 3:57am via Facebook for iPhone

At 4:22 in the morning, my mom called T.J.  I thought she must have had ESP!  She couldn't sleep and had gotten on Facebook and seen T.J.'s post.  She wanted to know what the plan was, but I told her it would be a long time before Silver would get here and she should try to get some more sleep. Yeah, right!  She was way too excited.  She said to just keep her updated on what was going on and to let her know when we were going to the hospital.

At 5:20, Joy arrived at our house to help us. We timed some contractions and knew that we had a while to wait, so she suggested we watch a movie.  I picked the Goonies because it's so funny and our copy was new and needed to be seen!  :)  We watched the movie and I walked through some contractions and also used a birth ball to help get through some of the contractions. After the movie was over, the contractions started getting really strong. We were going to put on another movie, Willy Wonka (apparently I was in need of some feel good, happy, kid movies!), but by then, the contractions were so intense, we just worked through them in silence.  T.J. and Joy were so incredibly awesome!  Joy helped T.J. to be the best birth coach on the planet!  They had such a great system down.  My lower back was where I was feeling all of the labor, so they took turns putting pressure on it to make it feel better.  Joy suggested different positions to try.  I spent most of my time in the living room leaning against the wall or against the couch with their hands on my back.  It made such a huge difference; the pain was much more bearable.  They would switch every once in a while because I'm sure their hands got tired.  They both kept telling me what a great job I was doing, and I was starting to wonder if I could go all the way without any pain medicine because it was getting to be pretty difficult.  I could definitely see why people would opt for the epidural.  I had no idea how dilated I was or how much further I had to go... What if I was only at a 3?!

Around 9:15 am, we wondered if it was finally time to go to the hospital. My contractions were close together and getting stronger.  I didn't know for sure if we should go yet or not because we wanted to spend as little time as possible at the hospital, but I was also getting a little anxious because I was starting to feel like I wanted to push...  So, we packed up and hit the road!

We made it to the hospital and got checked in (thank goodness we had pre-admitted because by this point I could hardly talk and was bent over the counter while the admin nurse foolishly asked why we were there...). We got to triage where the nurses tried to see how dilated I was but 'couldn't be sure' so they went to get another nurse, Nikki.  She came in and examined me and said, "Yeah, she's about a nine or ten!"  I couldn't believe it! I sighed, "God is good!" I had made it through the hardest part (transition) while being at home which is exactly what we had hoped to do!  It was wonderful!  And such a relief.  It was just too good to be true.  I really believe that God won't give you more than you can handle.

We still had a little ways to go though, so I rested and labored some more while on a birth ball at the hospital. T.J. was so wonderful - he really was the best birth coach that ever was.  He fed me ice chips, held a fan to my face to keep me cool, and kept telling me what a great job I was doing.  After getting some rest, it was finally time to start pushing.

T.J. went out into the hall for a second to update our moms that everything was going well.  While he was out there he heard a popping noise and heard me say I was sorry.  He thought I knocked something over. But, no!  My water had broken while I was pushing!  And, it accidentally got all over poor nurse Nikki... Oh my gosh, I felt terrible!  But she was actually excited because it meant we had made some great progress!  That's someone who really loves what they do.  :)

I pushed and pushed while T.J. kept counting to ten over and over again.  That wasn't in our birth plan, but the on-call doctor was trying to rush us (more on that later).  After a little while, Nurse Nikki said that she could see some hair! Oh my gosh!  T.J. and I were both bald when we were born.  I couldn't believe it.  Silver was almost here... and she had hair!  Nikki asked me if I wanted a mirror and I said, yes, thank you.  I do!  That wasn't part of our original birth plan either, but I wanted to see her hair too.  I was glad we got the mirror because it really helped me know how much further I had to go.

And then after a bit more pushing, at 1:25 pm, she was here!  Silver Elizabeth weighed in at 8 pounds, 2 ounces.  Such a healthy girl!  And she was 19 1/4 inches long.

Labor is love... Looking back on everything I know we were so incredibly blessed to have such a healthy pregnancy and delivery.  And I so love and appreciate that Silver's birth was drug and intervention free, exactly how we desired it to be. Was it difficult?  Yes!  Did it hurt?  Of course!  But I would certainly do it all over again.  Thank you God!!!

Back to the on-call doctor... Well, we will definitely be going with a midwife next time.  The doctor was absolutely terrible, and I am so glad we had nurse Nikki there with us.  She was incredible and very much supported our desire to have a natural birth, whereas the doctor just didn't seem to have the patience for it, or the fact that I wasn't laying still in bed with the heart monitor on Silver.  The good news is, after he came in and was incredibly rude to Joy and tried scaring us into getting the process to move along more quickly, Nikki, who did not like the doctor either, did not call him back in until Silver's head was pretty much out!  Which was great, because he really caused some unneeded stress.  Rest assured that I handled it in typical Rhiannon style and wrote a formal letter of complaint to all the doctors in his practice.

Super Charge Me Cookies

A friend referred me to this recipe and these cookies are AMAZING.

SUPER CHARGE ME COOKIES

I substituted rolled oats for the quick oats and omitted the salt.  Also, instead of the chocolate chips I substituted sesame seeds and I also substituted sunflower butter instead of using peanut butter (Silver's not supposed to have that yet).

1 cup quick oats
2/3 cup spelt flour
1/4 tsp (rounded) sea salt
1/4 – 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 –1/3 cup raisins or chopped dried fruit
3–4 tbsp carob or chocolate chips (optional; or use more dried fruit, nuts, or seeds)
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup flax meal (not flax seed)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
3 tbsp almond butter (may use cashew, peanut, hemp seed butter)
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tbsp organic canola oil

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). In a bowl, combine oats, flour, salt, cinnamon, coconut, raisins, and carob or chocolate chips, sift in baking powder, and stir until well combined. In a separate bowl, combine flax meal, syrup, almond butter, and vanilla and stir until well combined. Stir in oil. Add wet mixture to dry, and stir until just well combined (do not overmix). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spoon batter onto baking sheet evenly space apart, and lightly flatten. Bake for 13 minutes (no longer, or they will dry out). Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 1 minute (no longer), then transfer to a cooling rack.

Recipe © copyright Dreena Burton (eat, drink & be vegan)

One other thing I did was substitute agave nectar for the maple syrup (to make them a little less sweet - don't want the munchkin getting a sweet tooth too soon...), but I've recently learned it's not as healthy as I thought it was (You can read about it here).  Next time I'll be going with date syrup.