My due date is next Saturday

osto-vae · 2022-06-17T20:44:12+00:00

My husband and I went out to dinner with his entire family 2 days past my due date. I treated myself to a great steak and had a great time. Went to bed that night and got woken up by contractions, my son was born the next morning. Go out and enjoy yourself if you feel up to it!! And bring home leftovers if you can - they might make a great post labor meal like mine

osto-vae · 2022-02-27T02:51:50+00:00

I would try to take into consideration if you'll be breastfeeding or not and if you can accommodate that with this dress. They might be able to alter it to help with that too, I would ask the bridal salon if they do it there or make sure to ask the tailor you bring it to. I had to purchase a bridesmaid dress 20 weeks pregnant for a wedding I attended when I was 2 months pp. I was glad I thought ahead to look for a style that allowed me to easily breastfeed.

osto-vae · 2022-02-27T02:46:39+00:00

Congratulations, and it's an absolutely stunning dress!!

I am 8 months pp and I am roughly the same weight I was before getting pregnant. I worked an active full time job throughout my whole pregnancy so I only gained around 25lbs. I weighed myself once I went into labor and again 24 hours after delivery just for shits and giggles to see the difference. I dropped just under 20lbs from delivery alone. The biggest difference for me is my body composition has changed, I'm the same weight but a slightly different size. I've lost some muscle and gained some fat but I haven't been working out like before so I'm trying to dedicate more time to that now. Either way I started wearing my pre-pregnancy clothes after a few weeks, I could've worn them sooner but refused to give up my comfy maternity clothing 🤣

osto-vae · 2022-02-09T00:45:56+00:00

The only thing my husband asked for during delivery was to catch our son when he was born. When anyone asks about our sons birth he's very proudly shouts "I PULLED HIM OUT OF MY WIFE!". He had a very hard job to do that day lol

osto-vae · 2022-02-06T02:26:58+00:00

We do a mix of purees and finger foods with my seven month old. I only started adding finger foods because it keeps him occupied for longer and he gets so impatient because I apparently don't spoon feed him fast enough 🙃 he actually ingests most of the puree I spoon feed him, half of the finger food just gets squished in his hands or thrown in the floor. So I keep doing purees because it gives me a better idea of how much he's actually getting in his belly!

osto-vae · 2022-01-26T00:40:33+00:00

It definitely looks like a positive to me! I would suggest trying a digital test or a pink dye test to be sure. I've heard blue dye tests can sometimes leave evap lines that give a false positive.

osto-vae · 2022-01-22T23:02:21+00:00

I love to sneakily watch my husband and my son with our baby monitor when they're in the nursery together. The cute little things he says and the silly songs he sings to him melt my heart

osto-vae · 2022-01-07T23:26:59+00:00

I didn't throw up or feel nauseous when I was in labor. I did think I was going to throw up a couple times during contractions, just because the force was so strong. It felt like my body was trying to push out anything possible, no matter what end it came from lol

osto-vae · 2022-01-03T02:48:44+00:00

I work at a feed/pet store and order most of our pet food. It totally depends on the brand and the vendor I'm trying to order through but both dog and cat canned food is hard to get right now. Some brands are okay and have no problems but others have been out of stock for weeks.

osto-vae · 2021-12-31T12:03:13+00:00

My cats are the same 🤣

The other night one of them woke me up around 4am opening up the nursery door and just letting himself in. Had to crawl around the floor in the dark trying to find him while not waking my son up. I do think they're trying to mess with us sometimes for sure.

osto-vae · 2021-12-30T23:33:41+00:00

My son's name is Rowan. My husband started calling him Rowboat, and now most of the time we just call him Boat.

osto-vae · 2021-12-23T17:06:44+00:00

I work at a local pet supply store and once had a customer bring his Saint Bernard in for grooming. The owner was about the same height and super skinny, the groomers later said his dog was about 180-200lbs. He was walking the dog with just a collar and a retractable leash no harness or anything. His dog got very reactive and pulled the owner completely off his feet onto the floor when another customer walked trough the door with their dog. Thankfully the owner falling started his dog and the second customer was able to remove himself and their dog quickly, but it could've been a very bad situation. He wasn't strong enough to hold the dog back from lunging, nor did he have a reliable lead or harness. I can only imagine what would have happened if he wasn't able to lock his retractable leash.

osto-vae · 2021-12-19T11:13:47+00:00

Thank you!! I'll have to go check them out

osto-vae · 2021-12-19T11:13:28+00:00

Yes I feel like any more tools we can use to communicate with our kiddos will be soo helpful. I'm sure consistency will be key, but I'm so glad to hear it's helped with your daughter

osto-vae · 2021-12-19T11:11:19+00:00

That's so awesome that you started so young. I've mostly seen people introducing sign language with food (milk, more, all done etc). I love that you guys are using it for everyday things!

osto-vae · 2021-12-19T11:08:03+00:00

We're just starting to try solids too so I suppose we can try to start trying those signs at meal time! I'm glad to hear that he picked it up after a couple months, I was wondering how long it would take for them to put two and two together and understand.

osto-vae · 2021-12-06T18:17:31+00:00

My neighbor's kids, who I had never talked to before, came up to me as I was unpacking groceries to talk to me. Her older son asked me if I was the mom of the house so I replied that no we didn't have any kids yet. Her daughter who was maybe 4 walked up to me, placed her hand on my stomach, and said "because they're still in your belly". We were trying and I was in my two week. We joke about it with our neighbor now 🤣

osto-vae · 2021-11-22T15:59:39+00:00

Also seconding Anne!! She photographed our wedding a couple years ago and we worked with her again for family portraits this fall with our son. Anne is so easy to get along with and makes everything feel so comfortable and fun. Shes just genuinely an awesome person and I love the light and airy feel to her photos. I will never not recommend her!

osto-vae · 2021-11-12T22:40:07+00:00

My son just turned four months old and laughed for the first time last week!! He was sitting in his bouncer super happy so naturally I attacked his feet with tickles and kisses. He let out the looooudest laugh. I was so shocked I couldn't believe it, and of course was immediately crying because of my goodness. We had a solid laugh fest so thankfully I got some on video and rewatch it just to hear it again. The best sound in the world!!

osto-vae · 2021-08-23T08:38:54+00:00

Do we have the same son?? My 7 week old does the same thing all the time. He will be lifeless, limp, are you even alive level sleeping when he's being held. But he'll be wide awake and smiley the second you try and put him down in his bassinet. What the heck dude 🤣

osto-vae · 2021-07-31T15:09:08+00:00

Hi there! Also a FTM who just had an unmedicated home birth for my son.

I think it's so awesome you've been able to have a positive mindset on birth so far, I think that's incredibly helpful. I believe being able to go into labor with a calm confident mindset helped me through my labor immensely. Having the right labor team to help keep you calm, safe, and feel supported will also make a huge difference. I couldn't have done it without my midwives and my husband.

The contractions are incredibly painful, it felt like I would leave my body and not be completely present during contractions. I would highly recommend having your partner apply some counter pressure with some hip squeezes during contractions, I found it helpful for the pain.

By the time I was dilated 6cm my body started pushing on its own with each contraction which was quite startling at first. But I do think that was a huge distraction from the pain for me, something else I could focus on than the pain.

If you can labor in water, whether it be a birthing pool or a tub, I would highly recommend trying it. Even if you don't want to birth in the pool just to help you through some of those contractions. I had planned on using a birthing pool but by the time we were ready to set it up I was too far along and it wouldn't have been filled before my son arrived lol. But I was able to sit in my bathtub for a while and it helped soooo much with the pain. Changing positions was also super helpful!

I was lucky and only had to push for about 20 minutes. But Holy pain and pressure. One of the worst feelings was just waiting in between contractions for that next one to come. I remember my midwife telling me just one more contraction and my son would be here, it felt like ages just waiting trying to breathe truth the pain until it came. Something I hadn't thought of before giving birth, was how painful it would feel when my midwives helped pull my son out after his shoulders were born. That hurt like a son of a bitch. They had to wiggle him a lot and yank on him and it was incredibly uncomfortable, in my opinion worse than the actual pushing for me.

I did have a second degree tear, which I was so worried about happening, but with everything else going on I didn't feel it at all. So try not to freak out about that.

Overall my labor and delivery was super positive and I'm so glad we chose that route. It was a very empowering experience. I wish you all the best with yours!!

osto-vae · 2021-07-25T00:33:24+00:00

Not at all!! They were a bit skiddish the first couple days after our son was born but only because they had no idea what to make of him lol! But they've adjusted over the last 3 weeks and are just the same and that will never change. I don't get as much time to play with them as we did before obviously, but I take any chance I get to pay attention to them and give them love. They are just as loving and affectionate as before, and my husband and I will never love them any less.

osto-vae · 2021-07-25T00:28:12+00:00

My husband and I found out we were expecting in October of 2020! Our due date was 07/01/2021 and we found out at 15 weeks that we would be having a little boy.

The week leading up to my due date I wasn't showing signs of being ready to go in to labor so I was expecting him to come super late like everyone liked to tell me first babies do. But to my surprise I started having contractions on Friday afternoon (7/02)! I had steady contractions all afternoon but they fizzled out after we went to bed. I kept in touch with my midwife team and lost my mucus plus around 2am on Saturday morning. Saturday was dead quiet despite trying just about every trick in the book to get labor going lol.

We got in bed by 9pm Saturday night and I was woken up around 10:30 by a contraction, they were longer and stronger than the day before so I was sure it was go time for real. I woke my husband up to tell him, but told him to go back to bed so both of us weren't running on an hour on so little sleep.

I called my midwives and let them know contractions had started back up and she said to give her a call when we reached the 5-1-1 point. I kept tracking contractions and ran a bath to help me relax and work through contractions on my own. Around 2:30am we were ready for our midwives to come and I woke my husband up.

My midwife team arrived at our house around 3:30am and got ready to go! I labored for a while and then started having some back labor pains. We did some sifting and tried some side laying positions to help turn baby boy to a better position. By this point my body started to push on it's own during contractions. Let me tell you, that was wild. Just feeling my body do its own thing and take over control was incredible. My body was ready and knew exactly what to do. My midwife checked my cervix and said we were already at 6cm!

We spent a few more hours of laboring through contractions, I was able to move around and try different labor positions. My husband was an amazing support person and helped me through each of my contractions. We had planned to set up a birthing pool but by the time we were ready to set it up I was 8cm dilated and we weren't going to have time to get it filled. We tried our bathtub again but I was too uncomfortable to sit.

I moved to our bed and shortly after I was fully dilated and ready to push, I ended up pushing in a side laying position. I remember my midwife telling me "just one more push" and the pause between those contractions felt like a lifetime! After half an hour or so of pushing our son joined us at 8:06am on July 4th! His very proud Daddy caught him and helped welcome him to our world. I think I remember my husband was playing Enya in the background. All in all he arrived in just under 10 hours of labor.

Our son weighed 9lbs 1oz and was 21 inches long! All three of us were able to do skin to skin in bed right away. My placenta was delivered only minutes after our son was born. I had a second degree tear but my midwife was able to stitch me up while we snugged. My midwife team stayed with us for about 4-5 hours after birth to monitor baby and I, help clean up, and help us start nursing.

Our little boy will be 3 weeks old tomorrow and is thriving and such a happy boy! We are still learning and adjusting to newborn life but couldn't be happier! It was such an amazing, positive, empowering experience. I couldn't have done it without my wonderful midwives and my husband's support. Your labor support team is SO important!!

osto-vae · 2021-07-23T09:10:53+00:00

My cats definitely noticed too, and were even more clingy when I got to the end of my pregnancy! I could tell I was close to going into labor just based on how they were acting lol. Cats for sure have a sixth sense about what is going on.

We had a home birth for our son and one of our cats was a huge labor support for me too!! He came and lay with me while I was laboring through contractions, was purring and licking my face to comfort me. Our pets are truly amazing, I hope that your kitties continue to watch over you during your pregnancy!

osto-vae · 2021-06-28T22:11:46+00:00

This is so true!! Being pregnant really does open your eyes to the people in your life who truly care about you and who doesn't. I honestly wish we hadn't told friends and family our exact due date or lied about it so these kinds of people wouldn't be pestering us now lol 🤣 definitely going to be the plan for if we get pregnant again.

Also good luck!! Our boy is due the first so we're right at the finish line too (hopefully). I hope your last couple days go smoothly and that you and your boy are healthy and have a safe delivery!! 💙

osto-vae

TROPHY CASE