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Just a quick update. Had a little girl on monday and very easy and successful VBAC. It was a long day but a great experience and I am so happy I went for it. I can't believe we have two kids (two girls). Just got home today and it is so nice to be home with her and just start the whole journey over again.

We need to create a newborn breastfeeding thread b/c holy cow I forgot how hard it is!

Maybe we can start a PP thread soon. Congrats to all the May-June-very early July babies and mamas!

@shortcake: congrats!!! It is so surreal having two girls, so exciting! I 100% agree about the breastfeeding the second time around, we are having LOTS of issues and LO just turned 5 weeks today. I felt like we were turning a corner over the weekend, but yesterday and today have been awful.

@littleveesmommy
As several others have mentioned, I think the membrane sweep is what finally pushed me over the edge into regular contractions. Within 24 hours, labor started.
Like Babybruins, I was concerned about my other little one and spending a good amount of time with her before the birth so she wouldn't feel neglected. I think I was finally able to let that go, resting assured that she was in good hands with her daddy and grandparents while I would be gone at the hospital. (She did splendidly, by the way. :)) A mental block can definitely keep you from fully going into labor. (And it's not necessarily easy to remove it!)
I also drank the pregnancy (red raspberry leaf) tea several times a day in the week leading up to labor, which can only help as it strengthens your uterus for labor -- if it doesn't help you get going, it definitely helps during!

Hoping it happens soon for you!!

@littleveesmommy: will they break your water? that's how they started my contractions and it was immediate from there. I started monday at 3.5 and after they broke my water I progressed to a 5 in 3 hours.

@littleveesmommy: I am pretty sure you have to be admitted to the hospital for them to break your water, but you should definitely ask if they are willing. My OB did a sweep and stretch twice the week before and it most likely helped, but I was at a 3.5 for about a week and no further progress until the water was broken. If you have any questions about the vbac, please feel free to PM me. Good luck!

@spaniellove: How are you and J doing? Hoping your DH is with you this long weekend and you get a little bit of a break!

@babybruins - With my husband here the past two weeks, things were manageable but he went back to work yesterday and things got exponentially more difficult here as well.

Although my husband is here in the evenings, he is often doing work on his Masters at that time.
I'm going to start using my K'tan wrap with the baby to see if that will help me still have two hands to care for the toddler with bathing, feeding and such. The toddler still insists on someone sitting with her to fall asleep which has been the most difficult for me because usually at that time baby wants to be fed and comforted, so is making noises while I try to sit with the toddler. Of course, this keeps the toddler awake longer. (It normally takes about an hour for her to fall asleep….wish we could solve that one either without parental assistance or help her find a way to fall asleep sooner!)

We definitely do meal planning and are resorting to really easy meals (translated = frozen or crock pot) over the next few weeks. I would normally do a weekly grocery run after making my plan and list for the week. My husband is helping out a bit more right now with this. He took us all to the grocery on Sunday to get us ready for the week. (You could also just send a list with someone to run that errand.) It's really helpful to have it all laid out ahead of time and supplies on hand.

Hardest thing is definitely the bedtime and nighttime routine. We actually have a pretty sleeper on our hands with the infant, but our toddler has regressed big time. She loves being with people. It took us a long time to get her in her own bed and then in her own room, and now that the baby is with us, I think she is a bit jealous. She's been waking up several times throughout the night and insisting someone either accompany her back to bed to fall asleep or staying with us (not a great situation given we have a queen and three people already in there!). Her sleeping was so bad last week that she made herself sick and now we don't want to push it with her to the point of crying and make it worse for her. It's been very frustrating.

@BabyBruins: My first night alone will be tomorrow...I'm not looking forward to it, but better get used to it since it'll be my reality 3 nights a week from now on (DH travels for work). I think the only way through it until DS is old enough to have a routine with a set bedtime (where I put him to bed first), is to have him in the baby carrier while I bathe DD and go through her bedtime routine. Only problem is I can't place her in bed like I normally would, but I have done the nap routine this way a few times and I just set her in bed and asked her to lie down. It worked and she didn't seem to mind that I didn't lie her down like I usually would.
DS LOVES to be in the baby carrier and pretty much doesn't want to sleep anywhere else during the day, so I think think is the only way I can keep him quiet while getting DD to bed. Thankfully, he does sleep in his bassinet at night...
Anyway, I'll tell you how it goes after tomorrow!
As for the meals - I meal plan, generally I put together my grocery list on Friday and we all go shopping on Saturday, or I go alone if we're in a rush. I have changed my usual plan to allow for more leftovers from the nights I have help to cover the nights that I'm alone. But since there are going to be 3 nights a week soon, I don't think we can eat the same things quite that many times in one week. So, I think I will need to cook at least one night when I'm alone and I will need to plan something very quick and that can be prepped on Sunday so that it's just throwing together pre-prepped ingredients.

@LaurelMae: @Chastenet: I lost it tonight, I feel like a horrible mom and wife. I'm relying way too much on tv, but it's been the only thing that even comes close to making the evenings bearable.
I feel like I should be "getting it" by now. Not knowing little j's schedule is messing with me and I'm still lacking confidence in my milk supply. I have tried wearing him in the evening, but the ergo is too hot, I can't get him in my ring sling correctly and I need to get my ktan back from leaving it at a friend's party.
I just feel like such a failure right now. We had such an easy schedule when it was just J. I feel like that is so far away now.

@Chastenet: thank you, I needed to hear this. The last 2 days have been better and I try to focus on just getting 1 thing done. I wore j today while I cleaned out my dresser and it worked really well.
I hope you are having a good day!

Hi ladies!!! Very late to announce but baby sister finally joined us on July 4th - meet Aven Elise! We are getting used to life with two and its so hectic!!! Will try to write more later but I did end up getting my VBAC.

Thinking of you ladies!

@littleveesmommy: Loving your pretty little baby! And LOVE her name.

@spaniellove: I'm going well! Baby Jem is great! The first few weeks were pretty rough with breastfeeding and sleep etc but everything is going well now!

I lost my voice two days after the birth though and still don't have it back! It's been 6 weeks now and it's killllling me!

Anyway I wanted to share something great we have found..! Our baby wan't sleeping much and wasn't napping in the day, I thought he had reflux or something because he was pretty crazy and cried a lot. Turned our he was reaallly overtired!!! Everyone says how baby's don't sleep much etc so I had no idea!

I hate taking advice from people about how to do things with Jem but my mum found this thing called sleep sense and we tried it and it's amazing!!!!

We've been doing it for two days now and he's sleeping sooo much! All night with only one waking and he's having about 3 naps a day, one that's usually about 3 hours long! It's so weird to have some spare time now It teaches the baby to get to sleep on their own without being rocked etc.

Here is the link for any of you who are interested - We just bought the $30 package where you get an ebook - it's done the trick so far! yay for sleep!!!!

http://sleepsense.net/

@spaniellove: I know, it's terrible! It's been 6 weeks since I lost it now I had a CT scan yesterday and am going to find out the results in a couple of hours.. fingers crossed it's all clear!

I think it's so easy not to think about sleep because we are being such GOOD mums and there is just too much going on. I was the same.. I didn't really think about how much sleep he was getting and kept trying to entertain him when he was upset but the poor little thing just wanted to sleep!

Because everyone says that baby's don't sleep and kept warning us to get all the sleep we could because we wouldn't be getting any once he arrived, I thought it was totally normal! But turned out he was totally sleep deprived. When I was looking back at the pics I had taken over the past few weeks he looks so tired, I felt sooo bad and guilty that I hadn't realised I actually burst into tears I was just doing my best but it's hard not to beat yourself up about it!

How is your little one doing? I think our boys were born on the same day yeh?! 4th June?

Things are going well here. The little dude is 12 weeks 3 days now. I seemed to have misplaced my phone, so I will get a current picture of him up later.

I go back to work after labor day so my current obsessions revolve around scheduling and breastfeeding.

I've been trying to get the little dude on a schedule of some sort, but I'm just not sure I'm a schedule kind of person. I go in with such good intentions but I just can't seems to live by it. Luckily he is a great night sleeper, but naps are another story. Maybe it's developmental and there is nothing I can do about it, but I keep thinking if I actually stuck around the house and to the schedule he'd take better naps. Any advice?

Breastfeeding has been going pretty well, but I'm just not sure I'm cut out for it for the long haul. My original goal has always been to make it to a year. We got past the I'm the first 4 or 5 weeks of latch issues and sore nipples. (Side note: I'm the first one of my friends to have a baby and I'm a little afraid to tell them about how much your nipples can hurt for fear of scaring them off breastfeeding their kids when the time comes lol!) And since then things have gone pretty smoothly. But lately he seems to be getting more and more distracted and agitated when he's at the breast. I'm not sure how much milk he's actually getting. He goes 3 (sometimes 3-4) hours between feedings so I guess he's not hungry... But sometimes I think it would be easier to be doing formula and KNOW how much food he's getting. I guess we'll see what happens when I go back to work and start pumping, I think I will let whatever happens happen at that point. If I pump enough, we'll continue breastfeeding, if I don't, I'll supplement to make up for the difference. I don't know if I have it in me to really fight the supply battle if I don't pump enough.

I'm almost done with my birth story (how can something be so wordy for such a short experience!?). Maybe we can get a separate thread going for anyone else who has written one?

@MsBadger: thanks for jump starting the thread! It has been a super busy but wonderful time for me, but I'd love to reconnect with the June mamas, especially since I'm heading back to work Monday and expect I'll need some moral support in the transition

E is growing so fast - he's already doubled his birthweight. He is a wonderful, easygoing kid and has been a decent sleeper until a few days ago. He slept through the night for the first time (yay!) and subsequently decided to not nap and not fall asleep at night and resume his night wakings. Like everything I'm sure it's a phase.

I was hoping to get into some kind of schedule but with the non-napping and revived cluster feeding (is this normal? He's 11.5 weeks) that went out the window. Hoping I am able to pump enough to meet demand - maybe once my boobs are further away he won't want to eat so often?

I'd love to hear updates from other June moms - it is really nice to have a group with similar age LOs for support, especially as an FTM!

@MsBadger Thanks for reviving this thread!

I know all us June mamas have been busy these past few months!

Glad I'm not the only one with a non-schedule schedule. I start back to work after Labor Day also and even though this is my second foray into day care I still have anxiety and worries. Will I have to get up at 5am just to get out the door?? How will I be able to leave her?? Do I fit into any of my work clothes??

Luckily I've been able to EBF this time around (not the case with DS) which was tough to say the least in the first few weeks (ditto on the nipples, OUCH!) but we've gotten the hang of it! It does add to the worry about being away from DD for 8 hours a day. She's not great about taking a bottle, but we're working on it. I have been able to build a decent freezer stash, so that's good.

I did reach out to my place of work about getting on the lactation schedule and they are booked solid all day with pumping mamas! They told me to check back at the end of this month but I have a feeling there aren't going to be any time slots that open up in the next week (let alone my ideal time slots) My HR dept is aware of it so hoping they can work with me on some sort of alternative. I really don't want to have to pump in my car!!!

DD really is a joy and I feel like I'm enjoying the newborn stage SO much more than the first time around, although it seems to be flying by twice as fast. Two is an adjustment for sure and DS had a rough time with the transition (we all did) the first couple weeks, but now that we've worked through that it really is amazing to see how sweet he is with her. Melts my heart!

Hope everyone else is soaking up these precious moments with their babes!

@MsBadger: Thank you for getting the thread going again!

We've been busy with doctors' appointments...J still has reflux that gets better and worse so we're hoping to get in to see a GI specialist soon. And he's getting his first set of hearing aids in two weeks! They asked what color molds I wanted (the part that goes in the ear) and I chose neon yellow. Supposedly they get remade pretty often in the beginning so I can choose polka dots, stripes, anything!

We were struggling a lot with his naps for a while until I realized that the first nap was super important and he needs to be back to sleep within an hour of waking up.

I can't be the only one around here struggling with PPD?

Good morning!! Good to hear from some other June mommas
Things are going well here and the normal newborn "groundhog days" are in full force (eat, figure out what to do while awake, try to nap/sleep, repeat)! Seriously, DS is doing great and we are all adjusting to trying to manage 2 under 2.
The biggest struggle is trying manage both kiddos and still feel like DH and I can have some time to ourselves and have time to get everything else done around the house, work, etc.
DS is only 8 weeks so he's still not on a great schedule as far as wake up time and I'm trying to figure out what time this needs to happen so I can get DD up, fed, ready for school and then DS ready also (not to mention me ready for work, etc). I still have a couple of weeks to figure it out so that is my "project" until I head back to work. We are super fortunate to have a great sleeper in our DD so that does help some. The hard part is she is only 17 months so she is still very dependent on help from us. I think I just need some extra hands!!

How's the weather where everyone is right now? It's super hot here so I'm feeling a bit claustrophobic...can't wait until fall and for it to cool down a little. It's so hard to want to be outside with the LOs when it's 95 degrees out.

I hope everyone has a great day today!