Our Babe: 3 Months

This month, Camille:

• is pushing up her chest during tummy time.
• rolls over from her tummy to her back.
• found her feet (and toes).
• pulls herself up to sitting position while holding onto hands.
• pulls herself up to standing position, too.
• is making lots of dinosaur noises.
• loves assisted jumping.
• loves the song "She'll be coming 'round the mountain".

Princess Diana the fish.

While I was earning my Masters in Education, I worked as a nanny for a few families in the Madison area.  This past Thursday, I packed up Camille and we spent the day with some of the little ones I cared for.  Now, the kids are 5, 2, and 1 (when I started caring for them they were just 3 and 5 months, and their youngest wasn't even on the way yet!), and they are fully of personality.

The two oldest little ladies just got fish as their first pets.  Earlier on in the day, I asked the 2 year old what she named her fish.  Like most two year olds, she said their names of her three fish were Nemo, Dori, and Nemo.  "Two Nemo's?" I said.  "Yeah, two Nemo's!" she replied.

Later on in the day I asked the five year old what the names of the fish were.  She said their names were Nemo, Dori, and Princess Diana.

I don't know how they know of Princess Diana, but it cracked me up.

Our babe: 2 months

This month, Camille:

• is holding her head up like a champ.
• She is realizing where sounds are coming from.
• During tummy time, she will lift her head, shoulders, and chest!  She is a freaking beast.  Is it normal for babies to do The Cobra during the second month? It must have been all the prenatal yoga.
• is baring weight on her legs for longer periods of time.
• is cooing, and taking turns cooing with us.  (mostly with Jason.)
• has regular yellow poop again.  (Last month we had a problem with an over-supply of breastmilk, and therefore a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance.  TMI?  oops.)

This month, Jason and yours truly:

• have been sleeping a lot more.  (As in, we wake up once to twice a night, depending on how much baby eats at each feeding.)
• get to shower sometimes.
• have found some time for each other (ie. watched Jurassic Park while Camille was sleeping.)

Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin & The Farm Midwives

There is a new documentary about Ina May Gaskin coming out called "Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin & The Farm Midwives."  For those of you that might not be familiar with Ina May, she is one of the leaders of the midwifery movement today. 
This documentary looks enchanting, and I know Jason and I cannot wait to see it.  Although she has been interviewed and featured in many documentaries on natural and home birth, I'm honestly surprised that there hasn't been a documentary made about her before.  I don't know if my husband, child, and I would have had our beautiful home birth if it hadn't been for Ina May and her knowledge and trust in laboring mothers and the strength their bodies have.

Our babe.

After laboring for 23 hours, Jason and I welcomed our daughter to the world on Monday, July 9th.  Her name is Camille, and I'm fairly certain that she's the most lovely baby I've ever seen.  8 lbs 7 oz, 21 1/4 inches, and perfectly healthy.

With the help of our midwives Debbie and Nichole, we had the natural water birth at home like we had been planning for nine months +.  I'm so happy Camille got to pick her birthday, and come when she was ready.

Still waiting...

This is what almost 42 weeks of pregnancy looks like...in a heatwave.  The worst part of being almost two weeks late in summer, besides sweating all the time, is the swelling of my feet and ankles.  My feet hurt so badly, and my poor toes look like breakfast sausages!

Jason and I have an ultrasound on Friday to make sure the baby isn't under any stress and that she has enough fluid to keep swimming in.  Basically, just to make sure she is healthy.  If we don't have the baby over the weekend, we'll have to go in for another ultrasound on Monday, too.  It will be exciting to see her, but we would rather see her face to face!  Everything looked great at our appointment with our midwife yesterday, but we are still crossing our fingers that she will arrive ASAP!

Crafty Pregtastic.

Have I mentioned that we are still pregnant?  We are.  This baby is so happy in this belly of mine, I'm starting to think she might never want to leave!  But Jason and I both feel that we want her to choose when she is ready as long as everyone is still healthy.  We are planning a homebirth still, but we have a back-up plan in case of an emergency.

I have been listening to the podcast, Pregtastic, to help me throughout my pregnancy.  I've often felt alone since I'm the only pregnant person I know in Madison (let alone the only pregnant person I know in Madison planning a home birth), and although I don't know any of the women on the podcasts, I felt a little like a part of a community.  There is always something interesting discussed, from birth stories and breastfeeding, to prenatal exercise and cloth diapering. 
I love that there are always mom's from different backgrounds and life experiences, and never judgement when discussing any of the topics of the weekly podcasts.  It's so refreshing to get unbiased information to make safe decisions that feel right for my family.
As I've been waiting for baby, I've been listening to a few of the podcast episodes a day as I have been learning to crochet.


Oh yes, you've heard correctly, I'm learning to crochet.  I have always seen myself as being a knitter only.  I used to see crocheting as knitting-lite, and I always saw the rare people who both knit and crochet as unicorns, like they're mythical or something.  Now that I look back on it, maybe I was just afraid that I would not feel comfortable with crocheting.  The challenge of learning a new craft has become the perfect distraction from waiting around for an 11 day late baby!  Now Baby Lamb has more baby booties and hats than she will ever need in her lifetime, but it has sure been keeping me busy, and she will certainly be warm.
While I've been waiting, I've also completed Baby Lamb's quilt.  It's my first completely hand-stitched quilt, and I started it back in February!