10 Ways to Hold Your Baby

In an effort to promote awareness for all the babies' daddies out there I have created the following instructional tutorial complete with pictorial demonstrations on different ways to hold your own human responsibility.

1. The Standard One Arm Hip Hold

An easy hold that keeps your arm feeling energized while distributing baby's weight across your own orthopedic structure.

2. The Football Hold
Secure infant while stiff-arming any unwanted well wishers. 

3. The Puppy Hold

Grasp firmly by the scruff of the onesie and lift with mammalian maternal care.  

4. The Two Arm Rock-A-Bye

Effective hold for rocking baby to sleep.  Recommended when patience for crying is wearing thin.

 

5. The Chest to Chest

Constant victory chest pump for engendering such a champ.

6. The Reverse Cradle

All the benefits of the Two Arm Rock-A-Bye with the added perk of full baby vision which decreases fussiness. 

7. The Pride Rock Presentation

Sure way to impress admiring onlookers.  Great after blessings.

8. The Front Facing Chair Lift

Secure hold that satisfies baby's curiosity and protects holder from erratic kicking.

9. The He Just Spit Up; Hold Away from Your Shirt Hold

Maximizes distance between regurgitated curdling milk from your own button up.  Gives holder time to think of an appropriate clean up solution. 

10. The He Smells Bad Requesting Assistance Hold

When you can't do it on your own hold baby away from person until you can call for back up. Sometimes you need a tag team clean up crew.  

Levi Clarke Shepherd

A new era has begun for Nathan and I. We have recently entered the realm of Parenthood. Here is how it all began...

Thursday July 25, 2013
Around 1 in the morning:
I woke up very uncomfortable having early labor pains. I didn't want to bother Nathan so I just tried to find a comfortable position to sleep in. I drifted in and out of sleep for the next few hours. After a while I realized that I was indeed in labor, so I got my ipod and started to listen to my hypnobabies tracks in hope that I would become more comfortable.

4 am:
Nathan woke up and found me in bathroom trying to deal with my pressure waves (contractions.) For the next few hours I continued to listen to my hypnobabies tracks and Nathan timed my contractions.

7 am:
After Nathan had diligently timed my contractions I was having contractions every five minutes, so we decided to head to the hospital. When we got to the hospital they checked to see how dilated I was. I was only at 2 1/2 cm and after staying at the hospital for an hour I only progressed to 3 cm. The hospital decided that they weren't going to admit me. So Nathan and I headed home.

I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon having contractions and trying to get comfortable.

3 pm:
Nathan decided that it was safe for him to go to his class. I meanwhile was still having contractions.

4 pm:
I called my mom and had her come over because I was bored and I felt more comfortable when someone was with me. My mom started timing my contractions and they were about three minutes apart.

6 pm:
Nathan decided to leave his class early and he stopped by Zupas to get me some food. This was the last thing I ate for many hours.

7 pm:
We made our way back to the hospital. After they checked me I had progressed to 5 cm! At this point they said that I could stay. After getting comfortable in our room Nathan and I decided to walk the halls. That didn't last very long because I wasn't very comfortable walking.

The next few hours I spent having contractions, trying to get comfortable, and eating popsicles.

12 am:
At this point I had only progressed to 6 cm and my water hadn't broken yet. My doctor wanted to break my water to speed things up. I was very hesitant for this to happen because I knew once my water broke my contractions would become more intense. Even though I had been preparing to have a natural birth using hypnobabies techniques I was very uncomfortable. I was having a hard time relaxing and my contractions felt more like pain then pressure. I told the nurses my concerns and they began talking to me about my pain management options. They said that I could have a drug that would take the edge off of the contractions, get and epidural, or have both. I opted to get both! Can I just say that the epidural is heaven sent. After 24 hours in labor it was the only thing that could help me relax. After the epidural they broke my water and I was able to rest for a couple of hours.

4:30 am:
The nurse came in and told me it was time to start pushing. The first hour of pushing was uneventful. I couldn't really feel anything (which was great) so it made it difficult to push. After a while though the epidural began to wear off and I could feel enough pressure to push.

6:35 am:
The nurse, resident doctor, and I were all wondering when my doctor was going to get to the hospital because Levi was getting very close to coming into the world.

6:45 am:
My doctor finally arrived at the hospital and was very surprised to see how far along I was.

7:04 am:
Levi Clarke Shepherd entered the world! It was such an amazing experience. It is hard to describe the feelings that are involved in child birth. It was a very humbling, and empowering experience. When I was able to hold Levi I couldn't believe that he was mine. He was so perfect! Levi was 6 lbs. 10 oz. and 21 in. long.

Nathan and I feel so blessed to have Levi in our life.