Port Discovery Play Date

I love taking Blake out (if you haven't already noticed) during the day to play and explore new places. Keeping his little body moving and his brain train chuggin' is very important to me. If I keep him home, I feel like we do the same things over and over again which is totally fine but I personally don't like being cooped up.

Yesterday, our good friends, Stephanie and Max, invited us out to play at Port Discovery! Port Discovery is a wonderful, three-level play museum located in the heart of Baltimore. The intention is to allow kids to get moving, play and learn all at the same time. It was ranked one of the top 10 Children's Museums in the U.S. by Forbes in 2012! How lucky are we to live so close to it?! :)

At first I thought it would be too crazy for Blake to play there since he's not even walking on his own, but I think he thoroughly enjoyed himself. He fell asleep in the car on the way up so he had his usual 20-30 minute morning nap. I was able to pump and give him a little extra time to sleep after I parked. (Milk-making is my other part time job!) When he woke up, he acted like he knew where we were. He was so happy and giddy and I knew he was ready to play!

Port Discovery had a room just for kids under the age of three so Blake was able to explore without being knocked down. *whew* What a relief for mommy! There was a tumble area, huge peg board, sandbox, reading area, forest jungle gym area, and an interactive play mat. Definitely tons to do!!

After some time in the Tots Trail room, we went to the Water Works room. Port Discovery has raincoats for kids to wear because it's like playing in a mini water park. There are hoses that kids can spray each other with but there is also a separate little area for kids under the age of one. So we put a raincoat on Blake, rolled up his sleeves, and sat him down in the hook-on infant chair. He was able to reach into the water table and play with some toys that were already provided. The water was a little cold but Blake loves the water so his curiosity definitely peaked.

When the kids are finished playing in the water, they hang up their raincoats and stand in front of a huge wall of blowdryer hoses. You push a button and a heat lamp comes on while the air starts drying the kids. Such a fun idea! It got a little crowded so I didn't keep Blake there too long. I ended up just changing his clothes to get him nice and comfy before going back out into the cold.

We spent about two hours there and would totally go back again! Once Blake was strapped in his carseat, he fell asleep. It was almost immediate! We got home and he slept for two more hours! Mommy-jaw-dropping-moment!! :) We had such a great time and we're so glad we got to spend more time with Stephanie and Max. Can't wait to go back again soon!

Review Wednesday: SWAG Booties

Blake reached the stage where pulling off his socks is cool. (He doesn't realize it's not really THAT cool...)

Maybe his socks come off easier because they're getting too small or maybe he just likes his little piggies to breathe. Maybe he doesn't like the feeling of socks at all?

I've been looking for an alternative and found some pricey moccasins and... SWAG booties. The SWAG booties price point definitely won me over! At $28 a pair, it was definitely a fraction of the cost of the other moccasin type, soft-sole infant shoes that I found. There are pairs that are even a little lower than that!

I'm so glad I found trendybaby on Etsy! The SWAG in the name SWAG booties means Slippers With a Grip. So clever!

just a few of the huge selection of trendybaby SWAG booties available

The SWAG booties are super adorable, and soft to the touch. The insides are made of no-pill microchamois fleece and the pair that we purchased had an outer layer of beautiful brown faux leather. It feels so buttery and comfortable. Blake absolutely loves his! He hasn't tried to pull it off once. I'd say it's like a second skin for him!

The best part, unlike the socks he has, is that the booties don't leave red marks around his ankles. They are snug to the fit and elasticized but even after hours of wearing them, not a single mark is to be found. To be honest, I let him wear the booties around the house as slippers just to keep his little toesies warm. They don't have to be just going-out shoes because they really are THAT comfortable!

Blake isn't walking yet, but he is learning to pull himself up so he can stand. The SWAG booties have a no-slip bottom and they're waterproof, too! I actually can't wait to see Blake walk in them!

Blake is 8 1/2 months now and I ordered the 9-12 month size because I knew it would take some time to get here. His foot measures about 4.5 inches from his heel to the tip of his big toe. We could have purchased the 6-9 month size which would have been more fitted but I wanted something with room for him to grow. Babies and their growth spurts!

trendybaby is a one-mom show! Not only does she make these gorgeous SWAG booties, she also offers bibs, carseat covers, and maryjanes. I was able to get in contact with Rachel, the owner and founder of trendybaby, and she really is a wonderful woman. She has four little ones and still manages to find time to please so many other babies and moms that stop by her Etsy shop. trendybaby has been in business for five years, and it doesn't look like she'll be slowing down any time soon. At least, not with such awesome handicraft and design! YOU GO, RACHEL! She's a super mom if I ever knew one! (Not only does she care and provide for four beautiful kids, she was also a cloth diaper addict, attachment parent, deal finder, and breastfeeding mama! I love this woman's values!) ;-)

The Weather Can't Stop Us

It's been a very cold and now rainy Tuesday. I was off from work today so I wanted to take Blake out and play. I could have used the time to stay home and rest or even catch up on some school work and chores around the house. But I like keeping Blake active. We try to stay away from TV as much as possible so I like him to visit places, play, use his senses, experience the outdoors.

I called some mommy friends to see if we could get together at the Westfield Annapolis Mall play place. Blake and I met two of his friends there and we had some mommy time. The play place was pretty packed this morning but I guess it's because other mommies wanted the kids out and about before the rain came.

Blake ended up napping soon after we left the play place so one mommy friend and I ended up doing lunch at La Madeline's. Mmmm mmm delish! I ordered the chicken friand and a French onion soup. I would definitely get it again!

Then it was time for Blake to drink milk so a trip to the Nordstrom mother's lounge was in order. Breastfeeding at it's finest. Comfy couch, beautiful music, and no worrying about people give you stankkkkk looks for feeding your baby. :P Ray LaMontagne's "You are the Best Thing" was playing and it was just such a peaceful moment with my son. I felt a surge of love and satisfaction through my heart.

After he was satisfied, I was able to pull out my breast pump, plug it in, and go to town with it. Lol! 5 oz pumped to save for a little girl in PA. ;)

Our day didn't stop there. After all that, I managed to take him to the MVA and help his dad out by renewing his registration. :) BD's been such a huge help since my parents have been gone so it's the least I could do to help him out.

Blake cooperated the whole time. And I knew he was tired...

Got him back in his carseat and he passed out almost immediately. But we were in the area for Trader Joe's and I've really been wanting to get some goodies from there.

When I took him back out of the car he was still asleep and stayed asleep throughout my whole trip at Trader Joe's. He is such a light sleeper so he must have been really pooped! Grabbed some tasty apple snack sticks, veggies, and other snacks including my most favoritest thing in the world... CHOCOLATE COVERED POTATO CHIPS!! For years, I've been in love with choc covered potato chips and to find out they sell them there was amazing! I've been ordering them online through a potato chip distributor. Now I don't have to wait! Instant satisfaction!

Ok ok enough about the chips... So Blake was still asleep and is STILL sleeping in the car now. Instead of going home, I drove straight to MyGym so he could rest without me taking him out of the car again.

I skipped his MyGym class before so I rescheduled to make it up this afternoon at 4. While he naps, I can blog, catch up on messages and emails, and eat these yummy apple snack sticks! :P

The weather makes me want to nap but sleep can wait... Again. Making the most of my day off with my boy!

It's Time - Part I

It was time to meet my son... or at least, it was about to be time to meet my son.

2:30 am on June 4th, 2012.

I felt a funny type of pressure in my tummy and thought it was time to use the bathroom. I tried. Nothing happened.

I went downstairs to eat something instead. Maybe it was hunger pains? I didn't really feel hungry but why not? It was an excuse to just eat something tasty.

The funny pressure kept coming and going.

Hmmm... this must be how pressure waves feel?!

I called BabyDaddy and woke him up. I told him about the funny feeling and he asked if he needed to come over. I told him I just wanted to give him a heads up but I didn't want to sit in the hospital so I wanted to wait it out. (I had one false alarm and it was no fun waiting in Labor & Delivery so I didn't want to go back unless I absolutely had to.) He started practicing the Hypnobabies scripts and breathing exercises with me over the phone. It helped calm me down and definitely helped calm the pressure wave sensations.

I ended up going back to sleep soon after. But woke up to my phone ringing about an hour later. It was BD. Yes, I still feel it but it's not consistent so I'm going back to sleep. Oops... guess he couldn't go back to sleep after my call to him so he was up worrying.

6:30 am.
I woke up again and tried using the bathroom. (TMI? Well, you're a mommy blog so get used to it.) It worked but I still felt that funny pressure. Back to listening to my Hypnobabies script recordings on my phone.

I'm staying with my parents and my dad woke up to get ready for work. He saw me coming down the stairs and pausing to breathe. He looked at me and said, "Nooooooooooo! Not today! It's not time! Go eat!" Apparently, eating is the solution to everything around here. LOL!

Went downstairs to make some breakfast, feed the pup and let him out for his morning potty break. My mom walked in the kitchen and saw me pausing to breathe again, and her eyes lit up. She knew it was the day! I kept closing my eyes and repeating the Hypnobabies scripts and verses in my head. I was ok. I knew I was going to be ok.

7:30 am.
BD stopped by on his way to work to see how I was feeling. He was prepared to call out and take me to the hospital but I told him to just go to work and I'd call him when it was time.

There was no way I was going to go to the hospital without a memory card for my camera and maybe even some cute slippers. Slippers would be nice, I thought. So...

8:00 am.
I went to Target with my huge belly and my mom. I could still feel the pressure waves but it wasn't bothering me. I just kept breathing through them. No biggie! An older gentleman was following me around the store and finally stopped me to say, "You're going to have the baby here. Were you planning on a Target baby?! I'm going to stay near you just in case!" What a sweet man. My mom and I laughed and I assured him I was fine.

Got my memory card, slippers for the hospital, and a few other things... because you can never leave Target without getting things you don't need. ;-)

Arrived back at my house and took a nap. When I woke up, the pressure waves were closer together. I decided to take a walk and call my doula to tell her the baby was coming soon. She invited me to watch a movie instead of wasting time at the hospital. As I was getting ready, BD came back to the house. He brought lunch and told me to eat and then we started timing the pressure waves.

3 minutes apart. 45 seconds each.

Well...

I finished my lunch, or all that I could actually stomach, and then we took our time getting ready to leave. I called my parents and told them we were going but my dad was confident that we weren't going to meet my son yet. Come to find out, he was in denial because he was extremely nervous for me. His baby was having a baby...

We arrived at the hospital around 4 pm or so. I was 5 centimeters dilated already. Guess I was staying!

...

...

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To Be Continued...

My Experience with Childbirth Hypnosis

I wanted a natural birth. Yes... A natural birth with my first child.

You can't even imagine how many looks of amusement, shock, and are-you-crazies I got.

You see... I hate medicine. I don't take it unless I absolutely need it... Which isn't too often. I honestly believe my body can heal itself (in most situations) and that it knows what to do. I feel like medicine leads to more medicine and that leads to even more medicine.

I looked into support groups and classes that would encourage a natural birth. And then I found birthing hypnosis. I chose Hypnobabies because it was the only childbirth hypnosis class in my area and my doula was familiar with the practice.

(I'll get into my doula search story later.)

So the next step was to talk to Baby Daddy about supporting me in this decision. We have plenty of friends that have given birth and some even experienced issues during birthing. Naturally, he was hesitant. He may have even thought I was crazy but he never said it (at least, not to my face). He was always very supportive of my birthing decisions even if he didn't have the same vision. BUT... He did express that he was nervous for me. When I said I wasn't... He seemed to have accepted it and just went with the flow of things.

Hypnobabies is a practice for childbirth hypnosis. (Get the image of someone standing in front of you with a wrist watch swinging back and forth out of your head... get that thought out now!) It is a self-hypnosis technique that allows a mother to remove any misconceptions or fear about childbirth. You are NEVER under the influence of someone else, so you won't give up your secrets or bank account information. Don't worry! You have total control over yourself and can snap out of the hypnotic state any time you feel the need.

I signed up for a 6 week course, 3 hours a week. I think I was maybe 27-28 weeks along when we started, because I wanted to make sure I had time to accept and practice Hypnobabies before Blake made his appearance. There were three lovely couples in my group and I'm so thankful we were with them through the final stages of my pregnancy! Anyway, we met once a week with a wonderful hypnotherapist. At first it seemed kind of sketchy because it was in her home and she played what I thought were silly scripts. But it turned out to be a wonderful experience because her home gave me a certain level of comfort... like I felt welcomed and relaxed. And the scripts...

Well, the scripts were cheesy. That's pretty much it. She would practice relaxation breathing with us and play background music and nature sounds. I couldn't really focus at first because I kept thinking if it was worth it (and how nuts BD thought it was), but I ended up just going with the flow. Hypnobabies also provides CDs to allow you to continue listening to the scripts at home and a workbook to practice birthing partner scripts. The workbook also gave us information on how our body is just absolutely amazing when it comes to growing a child and giving that baby all that he needs. It was actually pretty cool to see, you know... compared to watching videos on the baby websites and freaking out about how a baby comes out!

I listened to the scripts at home as directed and for the most part, BD helped me with the birthing partner scripts which were supposed to be rehearsed every other day. When he wasn't able to help me, I asked my cousin to record her voice reading the scripts... butttttttt... that didn't work out the way I planned. We couldn't stop giggling because every time she had to read "our baby" it was just weird!

As the weeks went on, still practicing scripts and attending the sessions with our hypnotherapist, I found that I was able to actually sleep through the night. My body and my thoughts were RELAXED! During my second trimester, I started to lose sleep and wake up every two hours. My body felt uncomfortable and my mind was racing with questions and thoughts about when AND HOW my son would be born. But Hypnobabies CHANGED THAT! I think there were maybe two times (during the time we were in Hypnobabies) that I had nervous feelings and started to break down but BD helped relax my thoughts with the birthing partner scripts. We had a few giggled over some of the lines, but overall, it (and he) was very helpful.

To be honest, paying for the childbirth classes with Hypnobabies was totally worth it just for SLEEP itself! SLEEP! MY HUGE PREGNANT @SS NEEDED SLEEP!!! I would complain to BD about my lack of sleep and get mad at him because he was able to sleep a full night... Man... But Hypnobabies finally helped me get my sleep back on track. I even started having a handful of nights where I was in such a deep sleep that I would drool! LOL!

It was such a great experience. All of our Hypnobabies classes were enjoyable because the wonderful mommies (and daddies)! Our hypnotherapist was just awesome! If you're interested in it, check out the Hypnobabies website at www.hypnobabies.com. If you're in Maryland, contact me or leave a comment and I'll share my hypnotherapist's contact information.

I'll save my experience during our birthing time for another day... so stay tuned!

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Don't forget to enter Overtime Mama's Kleynimals GIVEAWAY! Click to visit the post http://overtimemama.blogspot.com/2013/02/kleynimals-giveaway.html and get your entries in before 9:00 am on February 26, 2013!

Kleynimals Giveaway

*super awesome game show theme music playing*

The time has come for Overtime Mama's very first giveaway! You've read how much I... I mean, how much Blake loooooooves his Kleynimals (and if you haven't read it, click here and READ NOW)! Now you can fall in love with Kleynimals!

There are plenty of ways to enter the giveaway and win a set of Kleynimals!

• Like Overtime Mama on Facebook (mandatory)
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All entries must be submitted by 9:00 am EST on Tuesday, February 26th, 2013. The winner will be announced here on the blog. The winner must be able to provide a mailing address. 

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GIVEAWAY ANNOUNCEMENT

We're hosting our very first giveaway!!!!!

The founder and maker of Kleynimals, Kirsten Chapman, read our review on Kleynimals and has offered to team up with Overtime Mama for an awesome giveaway!

We love that Kleynimals was founded by a super mom and is a family-owned company based out of Maryland. Ms. Chapman works with The Providence Center in Anne Arundel County to provide job opportunities to adults with development disabilities. What a great way to stay local! Ms. Chapman, we adore you!

The giveaway will start on Friday, February 22nd, 2013 at 9:00 am EST. Mark your calendars and set your alarms!

You can enter several ways. You can enter via Facebook, Twitter, and just by leaving a comment on this blog! Rafflecopter makes it easy to track all entries and pick a winner at random.

The giveaway will end at 9:00 am EST on Tuesday, February 26th, 2013. The winner will be announced here on the blog so make sure you keep checking back! It could be YOU!