Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Thrive Market

I don't know if y'all are using Thrive Market yet, but if you haven’t looked into it, you totally should! If you eat lots of organic, Paleo, gluten-free, vegan, Whole 30, etc., I HIGHLY recommend it. Actually, there are a TON of other products beyond food too, but the savings are big enough just in that department that it made it super worth it for us. (Everything from diapers to toothpaste, bedding, eye care, tea, cleaning supplies, and more.) Basically they’re able to offer you a huge discount (25-50%) by eliminating the middle man, which makes healthier eating more affordable. Probably the number one issue I hear when talking to people about beginning a health journey is that “it’s too expensive,” so I love that Thrive’s mission.

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This is an example of the savings…

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A friend told me about it years ago, and I am seriously KICKING myself for not starting sooner!! I don't know why I put it off for so long! There are tons of staples that we are saving big time on from ordering here (baking ingredients, oils, nut butters, condiments, snacks for the boys, etc.) & it's saving me time at the grocery store. (Starting to use Amazon Fresh too for grocery delivery. 3 boys under 3 + the grocery store just don’t mix.) I saved $132 on my first order alone, got free shipping, and based on that single order they estimated I will save $1580 a year.

On my second order I saved $90 and got to enjoy the free shipping again. They also email you when they have specials, so I’ve snagged some free bone broth and olive oil with each order.

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Here’s what’s even cooler. For each friend that becomes a member, Thrive donates a membership to a low-income family through our Thrive Gives initiative.

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If you think you might be interested, you can get a 30 day free trial to decide if you want to commit.  You can cancel ANY time, you’ll get free shipping on the first few orders, and it shows you what you’d pay in the grocery store vs. how much you’ll save by ordering through Thrive Market. The actual membership is only $59.95/year.

Here was my first order. It was packaged very efficiently too.

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If you want to do the free trial or look into it to see if you might be interested, you can check it out here.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

Beau’s Newborn Photos

We are so thankful for Brittany, AKA the baby whisperer. She has photographed all three of our babies and she does such a beautiful job. She is so loving, patient, & gentle with them! Love watching her work.

I was so excited to get them back and love how they turned out. I was especially impressed she was able to get a good one with the bigger boys. They don’t always cooperate when it comes time for pictures.

Look at this sweetness!

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We’ll just call these family shots “bribery.” Typically not our parenting style, but an ice cream is a small price to pay to get some decent smiles from some active little guys!

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My heart could seriously burst! LOVE this sweet picture of my little loves. #butlerbros

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Butler, Party of 5

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Proud daddio!!

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And another sweet mama’s boy.

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Sweet Beau, you are SO precious and SO loved!!

Beau’s 3rd & 4th Weeks

3 weeks old on Thursday, March 16th and 4 weeks old on Thursday, March 23rd.

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Weight/Height: He weighed 9 lbs & 8 oz and was 21” at his check up on March 17th (3 weeks + 1 day).

Health: I noticed some a white film on his tongue, and I wasn’t sure if it was thrush or milk. I brought it up to the pediatrician and we took a good look at it at his appointment. It didn’t scrape off easily, so he said it was thrush but thankfully just a small case since it was only on his tongue and pretty light. He gave me a prescription in case it got worse, but told me I could try some natural things first if I wanted. Since then I’ve amped up my probiotics BIG time, started drinking Kefir & eating fermented foods, trying to cut out sugar, and using a high quality infant probiotic for the baby. (I wash my hands, get some of the powder on my finger, and put it in his mouth before he nurses.) It has cleared up more already, so hopefully that will take care of it. It hasn’t affected him nursing at all, hasn’t spread, and I haven’t noticed any issues with myself either.

Other than that, very healthy and we are thankful!

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Sleep: Beau is an awesome sleeper so far. Very thankful for that! We are still swaddling, have the room dark, have a box fan going and play music. He typically sleeps upstairs in the pack n play that’s in our room (I have a video monitor on him and keep the Snuza on too), but sometimes he sleeps in his bouncie chair downstairs. He sleeps pretty soundly and will give me 3-4 hour stretches at night.

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Nursing: Nursing is going great. He hit a growth spurt around 4 weeks and is eating all.the.time. Right now he cluster feeds starting around 9:45ish and I seriously feel like he eats/falls asleep/eats some more for like 2 hours! Other than that I feel like he is much faster. He’s a good burper too.

I pumped for the first time on Tuesday (March 21st) and had mom give him a bottle while I went to the grocery store. She said he did well with it. Since then I’ve given him a bottle two more times, but only want to do it when it’s absolutely necessary. I have pumped a few times after feedings and frozen the milk (I get about 5 oz total each time), but don’t have enough room in our freezer to pump too much.

One time I think I overfed him and he puked a lot. Jase was in the bed with me and Jon when it happened, and he kept talking about it the next day. He said “Baby Beau throwed up all over mom’s belly and it made me so sad. It was everywhere and very bad.”

What Beau is up to: He has a strong neck/head & everyone comments that he is very alert. He loves to be held (of course). He started smiling this week and being able to focus more. Since he was born a week late, he is having a “leap” according to Wonder Weeks app. I thought he might be my first baby to not have baby acne, but he started developing a little this week. His hair has a reddish tint and his skin is very red when he cries.

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Post-Partum: He is sleeping great, but I’m still having a little bit of a tough time. I am also still rockin some night sweats & it is gross. I’ve never really been one to be a stinky sweater, but I think because I haven’t been eating as clean that it smells worse than normal, so I wash the sheets multiple times to week. Blah! My hair looks like poo- I really need to get it done again. But I like the way my skin looks! Yay!

I am still about 13-14 lbs from pre-pregnancy weight. It’s not coming off as fast this time for sure, but I have not been eating quite as good as I normally do. Time to clean it up a little! I am not diggin this little belly I have.

Big Brothers Jase & Kade: The boys are both SO sweet with Beau. Jase says all the time that he loves Baby Beau so much. He likes to rub his head, asks to hold him sometimes (but it only lasts for like 30 seconds), sing to him, and let me know when he’s crying (“Hey Mom, the baby’s crying for you.”) He always says “look Mom, he’s looking at me! He loves me so much.” Beau smiles the BIGGEST for Jase.

Kade always says “Awwwww” when he sees him and very gently pets him on his head. He can also say “Baby Beau” and is so sweet with him.

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Thoughts: Sweet Baby Beau, you are such a precious blessing and we are so thankful to have you as part of our family. You are so, so very sweet & bring all of us such joy. You are such a content little guy and we are enjoying watching you grow already! Can’t wait to see more of your sweet little personality develop. I am so thankful to be your Mama! You are a treasure and going to be a mighty man for the Lord.

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Monday, March 20, 2017

Hospital Stay & Beau’s First and Second Week

I’ve been meaning to get this post out sooner while everything was fresh, but every time I go to blog at night I decide it’s probably smarter to just go to bed.

Here is Beau’s birth story.

Hospital Stay: He was born at 10:12 pm, so it was after 1 am by the time we got everything all settled & “in bed” for the night. Beau cried a good bit and wanted me to hold him & nurse him  most of the night that first night, so I didn’t really get any sleep that first night. It took him a few minutes to figure out how to latch each time, but once he got it we were good. This may sound silly, but when praying specifically for all of our boys’ demeanor before they were born – we have prayed that they would be happy babies, would eat well and sleep well, and wouldn’t cry much. Jon said “Oh boy, do we have our first cryer?” Ha! I told him no, he was just getting adjusted to being in the world and it was probably a long day for him too. Sure enough he hasn’t cried much since then. Sweet baby!

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Jenny took great care of us through the night & tried to let us rest as much as possible, but came in to check our vitals every few hours. I was sad she didn’t say bye before she left, but she was probably trying to let us sleep. The next morning at shift change we met our new nurse Stephanie, and she was phenomenal too. Very knowledgeable.

The charge nurse took his measurements for us. She was such a sweetheart. He definitely had big hands & feet. 7 lbs & 13 oz at 10 days late…so definitely not as big of a guy as we would have expected. (Especially judging from the torpedo!)

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Mom brought the boys around 10 that next morning and they met their brother for the first time. It was SO sweet!! I wish we got a picture of the three of them and a family picture, but we were busy loving on the boys (I missed them so much! and I could tell they missed me too.) and didn’t think about it. Jase and Kade opened their gifts from Baby Beau and had a blast playing with the puzzles & games. They did Beau’s hearing test while the boys were there and he rocked it. (Jonathan keeps saying he has awesome hearing.)

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Mom said when they left that Jase said in the elevator “I love Baby Beau so much!” Melt my heart.

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Si was another nurse, and she came in to give him his first bath around lunch time. Jonathan helped her and snapped some pics for me while I took a shower. (I seriously could NOT figure that stinkin shower out! Too fancy for me I guess.) I felt like a new woman afterwards. Beau didn’t love getting the bath because he does NOT like to be cold. He tee teed twice while she was bathing him. He smelled SO good after his bath.

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The pediatrician came by after his bath. She mentioned that he had Erythema toxicum, the same newborn rash baby Kade had. (It’s from my hormones- and there isn’t anything you can do about it.) Other than that, she said he looked perfect!

My dad came by a little while later, and then Laura, Brian, Braylon, & Mayson came to visit.

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About that time the charge nurse came in and asked us if we minded moving downstairs to the overflow area because they were so full. I didn’t really mind except that it meant we were on a floor with patients recovering from various surgeries. It was very loud on that floor. Jimmy, Jade, and Baby Kayton got there a few minutes before we started packing up and so did Tammie, Zach & Morgen, so they all helped us get downstairs. They tried to get me to ride in a wheelchair but I asked to walk and the nurse said I was the first mama she’d ever seen walk. It felt good to be up and moving around.

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Mom & Dad came back by later that evening with the boys and brought Jonathan some dinner. He had a pretty bad headache coming on at this point. Both of the boys were getting tired too, so we kept it short.

The hospital was so swamped that they didn’t have time to do his circumcision that day, so we knew we wouldn’t be able to leave till the next day sometime. We all fell asleep right around 10 pm (finally!), but that was right at 24 hours so as soon as we were all asleep they came in about that time to do his 24 hr tests. They did his heart and PKU test that night. She had to poke him twice because she couldn’t get enough blood from his heel the first time.  He screamed the whole time. (I should have asked to hold and nurse him. I think I did with the other boys.) Everything came back great on all the tests. Baby Beau started cluster feeding through the night (so we didn’t get much sleep that night either), and the next morning Stephanie reminded me they do that when your milk is coming in.

Jonathan’s headache started turning into a migraine (I’m sure from lack of sleep, a LONG & emotionally exhausting day the day before, and probably somewhat dehydrated), so the next morning I walked upstairs with the baby for his circumcision while Jonathan went to get some headache medicine & ginger ale.

They wanted to watch Beau for an hour after the circ before they’d let us go home. They did it around 10 am. When Stephanie came to check on him, Jonathan had just got done saying that it looked really, really bad and then Stephanie checked on it and said it looked great. He said “I guess that’s the difference between a rookie and a pro’s perspective,” and she said, “Nah, that’s just probably the difference between a man and a woman’s perspective.” I died laughing! I know this probably sounds crazy, but I have a really hard time changing those first few diapers because the circumcision care makes me feel a little light headed and funny. I can and do take care of it obviously, but I don’t handle and kind of blood, cuts or wound care very well. (I know I’m going to have to get over it with 3 boys.)

Jonathan’s head finally started feeling better when we were working on getting discharged, but I knew he wouldn’t be in the mood for “going home” pictures. We went through everything with our nurse, packed our bags, and headed home around lunch time. We realized we didn’t have the infant insert for his car seat, so we used receiving blankets rolled up.

We live less than 5 minutes from the hospital. We were SO thankful to be home & start our journey as a Party of 5!!

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Weight: Beau was 7 lbs and 13 oz when he was born. We stayed in the hospital for 2 nights (since he was born at 10:12 and they don’t really like you to leave at night…plus they couldn’t do his circ till the next day) and he was down to 7 lbs & 9 oz when we left. He had his first check up with the pediatrician the following Thursday morning (right at 1 week) and weighed 8 lbs and 7 oz, so he was back to birth weight and beyond.

Health: He has the same newborn rash Kade had called . It is from my hormones and will go away. (Went away right around the 2 weeks mark.) Other than that he’s super healthy and we are so very thankful!

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When they originally measured him at the hospital they said he was 20”. At his checkup, they said he was 21 3/4” long. So, he’s somewhere in between there!

His diapers changed from the meconium to a greenish color on the 4th day, and by the 6th day it was the seedy yellow diapers.

His belly button clamp came off the morning of his first checkup (1 week old). Dr. G said that is a little early for breastfed babies. He has the same little birthmark on the back of his neck that Kade had, and a mark on his forehead (in a shape of a V) like Kade had too. His faded and I’m sure Beau’s will too.

He’s very alert when he’s awake.

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Sleep: He’s sleeping pretty well. He even gave me a 5-6 hour stretch one night! We’ll take it! So far he’s sleeping pretty well for 3(ish) hour stretches. Sometimes shorter, sometimes a little longer. I feel like he sleeps better (more soundly) during the day, but that could just be because I’m busy and don’t notice every little sound like I do with him right next to my bed. So far he likes to be swaddled.

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Nursing: Nursing is going really well. I am thankful to not be sore anymore! He has a shallow latch like Jase had, so that led to some soreness for the first few days. I was engorged for a few days, but thankfully it wasn’t as painful as it was the first time.  He nurses for about 30 minutes. He burps like a CHAMP. TONS and tons of wet/poop diapers, so I don’t even keep track anymore. I feel like he nurses quicker than the other guys at first (or at least stays awake better). I always offer both breasts, but sometimes he only eats off one side and then I’ll just start on the other side for the next feeding. He started emptying them after about a week. I’m leaking milk everywhere and didn’t have any nursing pads till the other day when I ordered some off Amazon. I don’t know why I thought I could get by without them, but the other day I took the boys to story time at the library and my shirt was SOAKED. So embarrassing. Thankfully it dried up quickly.

What Beau is up to: Beau loved his bath. Grammy & Jase helped.

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He’s doing great with tummy time. Sometimes I forget to do it, but I try to have him do it for 10-15 minutes once or twice a day. Check out that strong neck- My strong boy!

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He looks so much like his brothers, but more like Jase did as a baby.

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He gets very red when he cries and seems to have a little bit of a red tint to his hair. His big bros both LOVE him and they are so sweet with him. They love to rub his head. Jase sings to him and said to his Grammy “Mom feeds baby Beau out of her body and it’s disgustin.” Hahah!!

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Visitors: Grammy & Granddaddy, Jade, Will, Papa, Baby Kayton, Laura, Brian, Braylon, Mayson, Tammie, Morgen, Zachery, Carsyn, Megan, Lea,

PostPartum: Thankfully I feel REALLY good and this has hands down been the best recovery yet. I used some Post-partum sitz bath (made with essential oils) bags in the bath to help with healing. I have had minimal bleeding, no problem going to the bathroom, and physically I feel great. I haven’t been getting a ton of sleep because I’m having a little bit of a hard time sleeping. Not so much because of the baby- I just can’t sleep. It’s hard to explain. I have also started having the crazy night sweats. Whew- didn’t miss that!

My first couple of days I went up and down the stairs WAY too much since I felt fine, so I tried to back off the next couple days after reading that even though it may not affect me now, it’s not a great idea to go up and down the stairs a lot because of the more long-term effects. It said that everything is still loose from having a baby, and the specific muscles you use going up and down stairs put a lot of pressure on those muscles, which could lead to issues (such as uternine prolapse) down the road. That was tough because the laundry room, all bedrooms, and closet/bathrooms are all upstairs, but we made it work.

Jonathan went back to work on finishing the house the Monday after the baby was born, so I was super thankful my mom came over every day for about 2 weeks to help me with the bigger boys. (I’m not supposed to lift anything heavier than the baby for a little while. Kade weighs about 26 lbs and still likes to be held, plus needs help getting in and out of his bed at nap time and bed time.)

I have had a really tough time eating raw veggies & salads like normal, so I’m eating too much “comfort” food & hope I can get back to more normal (for us) eating soon. I have been eating a lot of fruit- specifically oranges.

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Baby Gear: swaddle, gowns, Pampers, Ava Anderson baby wash and lotion, Snuza, bouncie chair

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Thoughts: Sweet baby Beau, you are SO very precious!! Such a sweet, sweet baby. We are ALL over the moon with you being here. You are so loved! I am so proud to be your mom and you are an answered prayer. Can’t wait to watch you grow!

My heart could just burst with joy.

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