Keegan's Video of Firsts

Baby Gear and Products Part I

So I am by no means an expert on any of this, but with this being our first child I was unsure of what I would need and what would work for us when it came to baby "stuff".  There is so much of it out there too!  I wanted to put together a post on exactly what we have found helpful and perhaps it may be of some assistance to a new mother out there! :)

Eddie Bauer Surefit Infant Carrier

First off - the car seat.  This is definitely something I love.  It is bigger than others, but it does have a weight capacity of 35 pounds.  It was very easy to "install" in the car and I also love that I can take the fabric off the carrier and run it through the washing machine.  

I did not buy those strap covers because I did not see the need for them.

Keegan has not seem to suffer without them either...;)

I DID buy this guy and we still have it inserted in the carrier:

{Eddie Bauer Sport Airflow Head Support}

We had tried something originally like this

Which did not work for us at all.  Neither one of the layers were big enough.

It just seemed to push Keegan's head forward. 

Maybe we just have a big headed child...;)

Since we do alot of driving, having this mirror that attaches to a head

rest has been really nice as well.  We enjoy being able to see Keegan while we are 

driving.  The other day we were getting a kick out of him grunting and trying

to reach his feet... :)

Along with car "things" is this diaper station to go that snaps around

the headrest.  I was unsure if I would actually use this, but we have quite alot.

I like that it has pockets where I can keep diapers and wipes.

Our most recent baby purchase was this stroller (Eddie Bauer Portage Stroller), 

which I absolutely love!!

You may be thinking, "What's so special about that??"

This stroller doubles as a standard stroller as well as one that holds a baby car seat.  

See below::

We can just snap our carseat into it which I absolutely love!  

We have something similar to this that we had picked up from a garage sale:

It is great and we used it, however it was such a pain to pack into our car.

After we stuffed it in the trunk there wouldn't be room for anything else; and it was sooo heavy and bulky.  Since this stroller was so large and inconvenient we picked up a small

umbrella stroller, but the only problem with that was that Keegan  is not quite big enough for it.  When we saw the Eddie Bauer Portage Stroller we knew it was exactly what we were looking for since it was so compact (like an umbrella stroller), but it could also hold his carrier.

Definitely would give it very high ratings!

The next two items are things we use ALL the time.

This was given to us as a gift and has been used since the day we brought Keegan

home from the hospital.  We bring this with us to the grandparents' house; it is 

light weight, vibrates, and plays music.  Keegan sits in while we eat dinner, he watches

me do laundry in it, and I can bring it with me room to room wherever I may be.

I am already dreading the day when he outgrows it.

We also knew we wanted a swing, but all the ones we liked were quite expensive.

The Lord blessed us one day when we "happened" upon a garage sale and found

a swing in excellent condition for just $20.  We looked it up on Amazon and realized

we were getting quite a deal.  Keegan loves this swing, and even though it is not 

very mobile, I can't imagine not having it.  It is a permanent piece of furniture in our

living room right now... :)

{Fisher Price Cradle Swing}

Nursery furniture:::

Now when it comes to baby cribs, after looking online and shopping around,

we decided that having a fancy crib was not important to us.  I looked around on Amazon and

ended up with this one.  It was budget friendly, easy to put together, and looks great!

{Stork Craft Mission Ridge Fixed Side Convertible Crib}

I love shopping on Amazon, especially when combined with a Prime

membership!  I have bought several items on there and would highly

recommend double checking prices because many times they have the exact same

item that the stores carry but much cheaper!

(By the way, it enough space underneath to store a couple

of rubbermaids which hold extra diapers and wipes)

Because Keegan moves around so  much in his sleep, and after

finding him a few times with his head up against the railing, I decided it was time
to get a crib bumper.  I opted with this breathable mesh one that may not be as 

pretty as some others, but I wanted him to be able to breath through it should he

smash his face up against it.

{Target Breathable Mesh Crib Bumper}

My favorite furniture piece in Keegan's nursery is the glider and ottoman

that my parents bought me for my birthday:

Stork craft Tuscany Glider and Ottoman

We ended up just refinishing our old dresser and using as a changing table

which you can see on my nursery reveal post here

We bought the changing pad from Amazon

{Summer Infant Contoured Changing Pad}

And then I bought a cover of choice from Babies R Us.

All in all much cheaper than buying a changing table!

Stay tuned for a follow up post on useful baby apps

and health products we have used!

Keegan's Birth Story

Since, Keegan is going to be twelve weeks on Thursday, 

I thought I would finally get around to writing down his birth story...

Being a first time parent, I was a little nervous as to how everything would play out.

Would my water break in the grocery store, while I was sleeping,

or even worse during church?

Would I know if I was having contractions?

Would living an hour from the hospital mean I would give birth in the car?

Would I know what I was doing when it came time to birth him?

I had done everything I could think of to prepare.

I am one of those overly prepared people and I had made a week by week

schedule of things I needed to do before baby came once the third trimester hit.

By the time week 37 came around, I had a dozen freezer meals prepared,

had washed all his clothes, packed our bags and his,

put together nurse gifts, bought Jack a new Daddy gift, and even

packed a lunch of hospital snacks.

I was..."prepared"

On Wednesday, April 23rd, we had a doctor appointment scheduled.

We always made our appointments for Wednesdays, since we were 

in the area for church anyways.  This Wednesday in particular was

in the middle of our church's annual hosting of Revival Fire's Conference.

That morning I awoke around 7 and noticed while using

the bathroom what seemed to be a small trickle of water.

It was almost unnoticeable and I thought it might be my imagination.

I did what I always did when I had a weird pregnancy question...

I googled it; only to discover a multitude of answer bringing me to the

same conclusion - every pregnancy is different.

Over the next two hours, I kept feeling the need to use the

bathroom every 15 minutes.

I told myself that if my water had truly broke there would have been

a gushing of water and contractions would have started by now and
I was feeling absolutely nothing.  As a matter of fact, I felt great!

When I noticed a trickle of water while using the bathroom

a second time around 10:30, I decided I should put a call 

in to my Dr and let her decide if it this was anything.

They bumped my appointment up to 1:00 and said to come in just to be

on the safe side.  Inside, my mind was whirling and I was thinking,
Could this be it?
Was I going to have the baby early? 

We threw our bags in the car and tried not to get too excited.

I mean,  after all, didn't babies come in the middle of the night? 

Everyone also had warned that my first one would come late and

my due date was May 12th...I wasn't "supposed" to have an April baby...

We got to the Dr and after checking me out, she told me I was 4cm

dilated and that it did not appear as if my water was broken but

she would run a test just to be sure...

She left the room.

Jack and I looked at each other, just a bit disappointed.

However, we knew the baby would come when it was time.

A couple of minutes later, the Dr walked back in...

Well, Nicole you can go down to labor and delivery

and get checked in...your water HAS broken,
she said in her Indian accent.

Jack and I looked at her in shock...

We were going to be having this baby tonight!
I remember wanting to skip, hop, and jump,
yet feeling slightly  nervous inside.
We were going to meet Keegan very soon!!

Well, we got checked into our room,
and I remember looking at the clock - it was 2:00 pm on April 23rd.

The hours progressed and the nurses monitored me and the baby,

as we waited for contractions, and I felt nothing.

My Dr had me get started on pitocin, but just 2ml at a time, in hopes

that it would stimulate natural contractions.

The hours went by, and I still was not dilated any more than a 4, 

and contractions had not started.

Besides being uncomfortable and starving (I hadn't eaten anything besides

a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before leaving for the hospital),

I was in no pain.

That night, I did not sleep at all, and come morning

I was exhausted and hungry and wondering when Keegan was going to come.

By this point they had slowly progressed my pitocin level up to 

the full 30ml, and the contractions were so faint and not at all painful

Hey, this isn't so bad...

 I thought.

My Dr, arrived early on April 24th, scratching her head, saying,

You have a stubborn baby, Nicole...

Since I still was not dilated past a 5, she decided to see

if perhaps there was an additional water sac that was 

being blocked by the baby's head.

Sure enough, when the Dr went in (with that large-plastic-

knitting-needle-looking-thing), Keegan's head was blocking

my water sac, hence just the small trickling the day before.

As soon as my water was broken, the contractions started.
No longer did I wonder what a contraction felt like,
no longer did I need to look at the monitor to know
when a contraction was hitting.  I was sure feeling these ones!

By 11:00am, I had been up 28 hours and hadn't eaten in 23 hours,
and the contractions were coming fast and hard.
When I went in to the hospital, I was of the mind set that if I needed
an epidural I would get one. 

At the moment, I knew that I needed one!

The pain relief was instantaneous for me, and I was even

able to nap for a couple of hours, which my body needed.

My parents arrived around 2:00 and at that time

I was dilated to an 8.  My nurse told me as soon as I was a 9, 

that they would prep for the delivery and I would start pushing.

He was almost here, and I couldn't wait to meet him.

At 2:30pm, I felt as though Keegan was going to "fall out"

and I asked the nurse to check and see if I was dilated to a 9,

she did and I was.

I want to insert here, how very thankful I am for my Dr.

I had never been "in love" with her through all my appointments, 

but during delivery she proved to be just what I needed - a strong coach.

After the second push, my Dr said,

Oh, boy he has got a head of hair!

At that moment, it was all I could do not to burst

out in tears, knowing I was so close to holding him in my arms.

However, I blinked them back and focused on pushing.

After about the 4th really good push, I heard the most beautiful sound.

The sound of my baby crying.

The tears were streaming down my face as they instantly

put him skin to skin with me.  His little cry stopped as he laid

his head on my chest and I knew in that moment that my life 

had forever been changed.

Keegan Joseph was born on April 24th, at 3:12pm, weighing 7lb, 11oz, and measuring

21inches.  He was so tiny and so perfect.

One of the first things I noticed were his tiny little lips.

They were so kissable.

And then there were his long fingers and teeny tiny toes.

Dear Keegan,

For so long we had been dreaming about this moment, and it was  finally here.

The best way to describe it, was surreal.

Daddy and I studied you, taking in your tiny details.

He's perfect, your Daddy said.

And you were; absolutely perfect in every way.

I know that I will never forget that moment.

All those months of growing you.

First a mustard seed, then a pea, a lemon

an eggplant, a watermelon...

I was so nervous.

And I still am.

Growing you from the inside was the easy part

Now your Daddy and I get to raise you.

Our life has changed in more ways then I realized.

We are all growing together and learning to be a family.

My heart just brims with happiness when I sit and watch you sleep.

I look down at your eyelashes,

I stroke your skin,

and kiss each of your tiny fingers and toes.

I want to keep you just like this forever.

I love you with all my heart, Keegan Joseph,

and I always will.

Love,

Your Mommy

Nursery Reveal

We have had so much fun working on Keegan's nursery

 over the last several months.  We enjoyed finding new things

little by little - always for such great deals, 

repainting frames and dressers, and then creating our own custom

pieces whether it was by computer, wood, paint, or cricut machine.

And here we are with just 3 1/2 weeks to spare and I am so in love

with this little space that will be our baby's room.

I apologize in advance for the picture overload, but I just really,

really love it and I had to share... :)

Now to fully appreciate the finished product above, I wanted to take

you through the stages of this room prior to it being the nursery...

Before Jack and I were married this was how the room looked.

 Once we were married the room slowly started to be transformed

into this...

I really wish we had taken a picture of our bedroom prior to 

converting it to the nursery but alas we did not.

We were going to leave this room the master bedroom, but after

converting Jack's office into "the nursery" we decided we wanted

to switch bedrooms.  You can see a video of that transformation HERE.

The first thing we did to the nursery was repaint it in a lighter shade

{Olympic-Sand Dune}

and then Jack painted on the blue stripes.

From there we just added piece by piece as we found deals

or as it was given to us...

 {Curtain material-IKEA made by my mom}

{Book shelves made by Jack costing $10}

{Rocking chair-gift}

 {Dresser-repainted our old wooden one

 {Top drawers taken out and replaced

with 4 canvas totes from Hobby Lobby-$36}

{Knobs replaced-Hobby Lobby $16}

{Our old bedroom mirror repainted}

{Shelf, lampshade, lantern-IKEA}

 {Rocking chair-gift from my parents}

{Blanket-CVS $.99}

{Nautical canvases-gift}

{Nightstand-our old one that we repainted}

{Picture frames-IKEA $20}
{Crochet monkey-gift}

Leaving empty frames around the room for 

baby pictures of course... :)

 The canvas totes are full of burp cloths, receiving blankets,

shoes, socks, and hats...

 And needless to say, Keegan is all set with clothes for quite some time!

 Jack designed this printable for me, 

that I printed and attached to an 8x10 canvas

to give it more depth.

 I love this wall quote!

Looking forward to laying Keegan in this crib...

I hope you enjoyed our nursery reveal, we loved completing each stage, and

were excited to share with our readers!