Babies, Child #1: Micah, Child #2: Quentin, Family Life, Ireland, Labor, Parenting, Travel

Feeling Grateful

July 6, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard Leave a comment

Ah… some peace and quiet! I fell in love all over again. Despite the prodromal labor, this is much easier the second time around! It may have been the amazing midwife I had but labor was relatively low impact compared to my first (and I thought I had a good first birth)! This time labor was only 40 minutes (18 min pushing), no tearing and I was home in 6 hours. I’m recovering really fast and I feel good. I’m super grateful for my Ireland birth experience. Although US maternity care is fine… they just do things a little different in Ireland!

Babies, Child #2: Quentin, Family Life, Ireland, Parenting, Travel

Baby Announcement

Image July 5, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard 3 Comments

Child #1: Micah, Family Life, Parenting, Toddlers

Playing with Pipe Cleaners

July 1, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard Leave a comment

We got a box of pipe cleaners at the Euro Shop. Micah had a lot of fun with them! It was a great way to past our time while waiting for the baby to come.

We made a spider and reenacted “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”.

“Out came the sun and dried up all the rain!”

“And the Itsy Bitsy Spider went up the spout again!”

Child #1: Micah, Family Life, Parenting, Toddlers

Things to do with 21 Month Old Toddler

June 28, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard Leave a comment

Micah is a brilliant little child. He is 21 months old. He can:

Count from 1 to 6 skip to 9 then 10
Knows, says, sings, and recognizes all the ABCs (Struggles with W… he thinks it’s M)
Match colors
Match shapes
Knows his basic shapes: Triangle, Square, Star, Circle, Moon, Heart
Knows his colors: Green, Blue, Purple, Orange, Yellow, Red
Knows animals and animal sounds: Cow, Pig, Duck, Sheep, Dog, Cat, Elephant, Giraffe, Penguin, Fish, Lion, Tiger, Bear… oh my! The list goes on.
Loves to read pictures in his book (example: A – Apple, B – Ball…)
He loves to point out letters and numbers where ever we go!
He loves to count his toy cars
He loves to sign to songs: Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbean, Nephi’s Courage, Wise Man/Foolish Man, I love to see the Temple, Open Shut Them, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes… are just a few of his favorites.
He knows the difference between a: fire truck, race car, ambulance, bus, train, tractor, van
He can make different noises for “car sounds”: Beep Beep! Boom! Vroom! Zoom!
He can spend an hour organizing things

Micah has always done well to routines and he is really good with verbal prompts:

Are you hungry?
Are you tired?
It’s nap time, close your eyes and go to sleep.
It’s night night time
It’s still night night time (for the odd times he wakes up in the night)
Close the door
Go back to your room
Clean up your toys
Do you want water?
Do you want to read a book?
Say “Bye Bye” to ______ (We say bye bye to everything)
Dada has to go “Bye Bye”
Can you say Hi?
Fold your arms
It’s time to pray

Lately, I’ve realized that Micah needs to be playing, stimulated, or learning every minute of the day. Whenever he gets bored then he starts throwing a tantrum. He needs more than just play time with toys. I recently felt inspired to add structure into his daily routine by making his play time into learning time. I try hard to make sure Micah never gets bored. It has worked so well! Here are some ideas I’ve come up with:

Singing Time
Story Time
Homemade Car Mat
Matching Colors with his toys
I spy games
Name the object game
Homemade ABC flashcards
Homemade Shape Matching
Homemade Puzzles
Water Play Time
Cooking Time
Laundry Time
Cleaning Time
Building Blocks
Counting Toys
Youtube Time
Scripture Study Time
Snack Time (Creative Snacks)
Library
Park
Playing with Balls
Building Forts
Zoo

I will alternate activities throughout the day and week. It has worked so well that Micah wants his own free time. The last few days he has been going into his room for 30 to 45 minutes and he’ll close his door to play with his toys by himself. I didn’t know what to do with myself! I thought he was making trouble but really he just wanted time to himself. 🙂

What do you do with your toddlers?

Child #1: Micah, Parenting, Toddlers

Homemade Car Mat

June 28, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard 1 Comment

I bought these cars from the Euro shop:

I made Micah a car mat with paper, permanent marker, tape and crayons:

I added a section so he could sort his cars by color and count them:

Micah loves this simple car mat! He can play with it for an hour!

Now you can make one for your toddler!

Child #2: Quentin, Labor, Parenting, Pregnancy

Prodromal Labor aka. Continuous Pre-Labor

June 27, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard 4 Comments

For the fans of the Bradley Method, they tell you not to go into the hospital until your contractions are so strong that you can’t smile for the camera. Well, that works most of the time but what if you’ve been having contractions for 2 weeks and 2 days!?! I’m not crying because the contractions hurt, I’m crying cause I’m so emotionally strained from Prodromal Labor.

My first baby was a textbook baby. Everything that happened during pregnancy and labor was described exactly in all pregnancy textbooks. Labor started in the morning at 38 weeks of the pregnancy, I had contractions ~8 minutes apart for most of the day. Throughout the day, the contractions progressed to be stronger lasting about 50 to 60 seconds and coming every 5 minutes. I had a “show” in the afternoon and was emotionally nesting throughout the day. Well, being my first baby… I had no idea I was in labor at all! It was so easy… there was no way I could be in labor. So I took a shower and tried to go to sleep. My water broke (well… trickled) at around 10 pm and my contractions took off. We were only 5 minutes from the hospital but by the time I got there I was 6 cm dilated and I was having contractions 1 min long every 2 minutes. Transition occurred shortly after being on a birthing ball and the baby came out nicely with mother-directed pushing (pushing was indeed my favorite part!) Yes, easy… well as easy as labor can be!

I would used to always tell people, oh labor is easy. It’s only one day… it comes and then it goes and *pow* you have a baby! Surely, this saying was going to come back to bite me.

At 38 weeks for this second pregnancy, contractions started 3 minutes apart lasting about 60 seconds. It went on for 3 hours so I called up my midwife and asked “when do I come in?” She said “you’re not in labor yet.” Oh… of course, I’m not in labor… I can still smile for the camera. She told me to call back if they get stronger. These contractions went on and did get stronger throughout the day. So I called up my husband to come home from work by 4 pm. By the time he got home and everything slowed down. It was bed time so I needed to sleep anyways. How disappointing!! I thought for sure I was going to have a baby because it was going exactly like how the first baby happened.

Well, to my surprised this went on for 1 week! The contractions would go on day/night coming every 5 to 10 minutes for hours on end. The contractions ranged from mild to strong but not “intense”. Finally, after 1 week the contractions got stronger. I thought for sure these were it. I called someone to come get my toddler but by the time my first child left everything slowed down and the midwife told me to go to bed. How disappointing!!

I thought I was making it up in my head. I couldn’t believe that my contractions were starting and stopping. I went into the hospital anyways only to find out that I’m 2 cm dilated. What is going on with my body?! I went home and the contractions went on and off for the next week. I had a “show” 1.5 weeks ago but still nothing has happened.

Finally, I found something useful online as I desperately search for something that would make sense of what is going on with my body. Prodromal labor!!!

Prodromal labor is pre-labor that goes on and off for hours, days, or weeks! That’s it. It made so much sense… well kinda. At least it gave me hope and I now know that there’s nothing wrong with my body. It’s just having a long warm-up.

The hardest part of prodromal labor is my emotional state. I get a rush of hormones throughout the day that makes me really emotional. I’m always on the edge and anything could make me cry! Good news, I’ve learned to deal with it better the last few days. I stopped timing my contractions and can even ignore my contractions. 🙂 Even though my baby is now “over-due”, I feel peace and love as I search the scriptures, receive priesthood blessings, be grateful, watch the missionary broadcast, do my Hypnobabies scripts, spend time with my toddler, serve others and pass time by reading other women’s prodromal labor stories. Everything will turn out just fine! My body knows exactly what to do and I’m going to let it do it’s thing.

Great reads about prodromal labor:

http://wafflesandcereal.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/prodromal-labor/

http://belladolcebirths.blogspot.ie/2012/01/prodromal-labor-what-is-it.html

http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/990201/what-you-need-to-know-about-prodromal-labor

Read my happy ending to Prodromal Labor:

https://hubbardscupboard2010.com/2013/07/11/having-a-baby-is-not-scary/

Child #1: Micah, Family Life, Ireland, Travel

Father’s Day Video

June 16, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard Leave a comment

Child #1: Micah, Children, Family Life, Ireland, Landscape, Photography, Travel

Glendalough 2

June 12, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard 4 Comments

Went with our Brazilian and Romanian friends to Glendalough in Wicklow last week. We’ve already been once but we loved it so much that we had to go again (first Glendalough trip post)! We love hiking the Glendalough trails and having a picnic. It was such a nice day to be out at the lake too! I love the sun… I think it was the first time I felt like I should’ve put on some sunscreen.