corbin

I love EVERYTHING about childbirth. I know that's weird, but it's so true. ♥

40 weeks pregnant with Corbin

I love the excitement of finding out I am pregnant.
I love the journey through those 9 long months.
I love the way my body changes to accommodate my growing child.
I love preparing for a new baby.
I love labor.
And I love delivery.

What I love the most is that brand new baby and everything that comes along with it. So maybe the truth is, I just love being a Mom.

Since my oldest son just turned 4, I have been reflecting a lot on his birth and our relationship as mother and child. Totally normal, right?

After Corbin was born, I decided I never wanted to have a childbirth experience like his again. Don't get me wrong, nothing bad happened, but nothing really wonderful happened either. I was 6 days "overdue" and I was induced with Pitocin. I had the Epidural. I got to do some fun knees-up-to-my-ears pushing after being stuck in a hospital bed for almost 24 hours.

Good times...

Don't I look comfy?

Once my sweet baby was born, he was immediately taken over to the warming bed. I didn't get to see him for 15 minutes, at best. It was later explained that he had a nuchal cord x2, which means the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck two times. Why did they take him away from me for so long seeing as though the cord "problem" was fixed as soon as he was crowning? Oh, that's right! They needed to weigh him and measure him and wipe him down and... you get my point. That other stuff should have come secondary to Corbin being with me.

Waiting to meet Mommy

I was still in the hospital bed; feet still in the stirrups. I was delivering the placenta and talking with my OB/GYN. Everyone else was over by the baby. Not me. Once I finally laid my eyes on that beautiful boy, I knew in my heart that I would make it up to him. We will be close, Little Man. I promise.

19 minutes after his birth, I meet Corbin

Even though Corbin's birth was not ideal as far as mother-child bonding goes, we did bond. Over time we bonded through breastfeeding and babywearing. We bonded as a family by bed-sharing.

Today, at 4 years old, Corbin is a wonderful child. He is sweet and thoughtful and he always tells me he loves me. I could not have asked for a better son, and I am so thankful that we have a special relationship despite his rough entrance into the world.

I've said it before and I will say it a million times, he really is my shining star.
♥

this is what i love

I'm a knitter.

I ♥ to knit.

How did I become a knitter, you ask?

Sit down, my friends, and I will tell you my story.

For the first 18 months of Corbin's life, I was a stay-at-home-mom (also known as a SAHM). I devoted all my time to my son. He was very high-maintenance and I fell into a parenting style that felt right for both of us. I breastfed him, I frequently held him in a sling/wrap/carrier to soothe him, and he even slept in the same bed with my husband and I (gasp!).

Yes, my family and friends thought I was weird. I should let him cry, I should put him down, I should force him to sleep in his own bed, I should teach him to take a bottle so he doesn't depend on me. I heard it all, and I ignored it all.

One morning I decided to get out of the house and found a local La Leche League meeting. This meeting was being held at a freestanding birth center in Sarasota and I was curious to see what it would be like. Sure, I breastfed my kid, but I was unsure about attending a meeting just for the sole purpose of talking about making milk.

Once I arrived, I felt comfortable. I felt like the birthing center was somewhere I wanted to be. The people were so nice and accepting of me. And best of all, they were EXACTLY like me in terms of how they parent their children. Nobody judged me or offered me unwanted advice. They encouraged my parenting style and taught me so much more.

Soon after that meeting, I was deep in the interwebs learning all about the thing I had been doing all along... Attachment Parenting. It felt awesome to know how many people out there were just like I was. Within a couple months I discovered another commonality amongst APers, cloth diapering!

Corbin was 13 months old when we started using cloth diapers. I educated myself and found a community of people who also cloth diapered. This website allowed me to buy a variety of items for a low price and helped me discover which type of cloth diaper worked best for Corbin and for me.

You could say that CDing became a hobby of mine. I connected with a group of girls who were into the same brand of diaper that I was and found myself chatting with them daily. Just like the LLL meeting I went to a couple months before, I felt accepted. These girls were just like me!

After months of chatter with my online friends, I realized how damn crafty most of them were. I was chatting with knitters, sewers, spinners, and dyers. I was chatting with photographers and magazine writers. What was my craft? Nothing. What did I do for fun? Buy cloth diapers.

Oh, the shame.

My husband encouraged me to get a new hobby; one that didn't involve the buy/sell/trade of poop catchers (AKA cloth diapers). So I went to the craft store and bought a How-to-Crochet kit. Why I picked crochet, I will never know. I tried for days on end just to get the dang yarn on the hook. It was pretty much an epic fail.

I was still chatting daily with my girls online and they encouraged me to try knitting. I believe it was my husband who bought me my first knitting needles and yarn. Like I said, he was desperate for me to find a new hobby... It was a success! I fell in love. I finally had a hobby.

My husband was glad I was no longer buying diapers. Instead, I was knitting pants and covers to go over Corbin's cloth diapers. It felt good to be crafty.

When everything is said and done, I admittedly spend way too much money on yarn. Way more than I could have spent on poop catchers. But after all...

this is what I love.