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Our Breastfeeding Journey

breastfeedingjourneyBefore giving birth, I didn’t fill our home library with baby books (I merely skimmed parts of Babywise), and I only took two classes – one which was very ‘Baby 101’ and another on breastfeeding. I left the hospital, where the latter class was held, slightly traumatized. After watching video on video of women self-expressing (which I didn’t even know you could do), I began to worry about the process. Was it going to hurt? What if I couldn’t produce milk? What if Isla had issues latching?

Well, just a few weeks later, Isla was born on Wednesday, June 4, and the very next day, I knew the answer to my first question – yes, it was going to hurt. Contrary to what the nurse had told us (“It only hurts if you’re doing it wrong!”), I felt agonizing pains shooting through my chest every time Isla latched on. I had arrived at the hospital prepared with Lansinoh Soothies Gel Pads and Lansinoh Lanolin Cream, thinking I’d use both to battle any potential discomfort. It turns out, the initial pain can only be slightly reduced with both of these products (which I do highly recommend). 48 hours after Isla was born, I began dreading breastfeeding, knowing that the pain was so severe. I would hold Sasha or my mom’s hand and squeeze it tightly for the first 60 seconds until the pain would dull slightly. I thought to myself, ‘I would rather be in labor than go through this 7 times a day!’

After arriving home from the hospital, I couldn’t take it any more and broke down crying on the Friday night. My mom is amazing and quickly ran to Walgreens, as she told me about Medela Contact Nipple Shields that she promised would help.  And ohmygosh, did they ever. I honestly think I would have become a strictly pump and bottle feeder had I not discovered the nipple shields. They were life savers.

Four days later, we were busy celebrating Sasha’s birthday with his family at our house at lunchtime. I began to feel feverish and achy, which I worried was the flu. By the time my family arrived for dinner festivities, I had no appetite and felt awful. My mom was staying at our house to help, and she asked to see my boob. When I showed her, she quickly clicked around Google and diagnosed me with mastitis (bright red splotchy patches on my chest made it pretty obvious!). I made an appointment with my ob-gyn the next day, and she confirmed that I had this infection and said there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to breastfeed. Cue me sobbing. Ugly, tired tears. She comforted me and reminded me that being a mom is incredibly difficult and that it would all get easier. She scheduled an appointment with a breast specialist the next day and put me on antibiotics in the meantime.

I went with my mom and Isla to the specialist, and she told me that I didn’t need to get the infection drained (something I had read about on the internet and was petrified). I was just to take two prescriptions for 10 days until the mastitis was completely gone. That was a fun experience, as one medicine was to be taken with food every three hours, and the other was to be taken 1 hour after eating every four hours. To a tired mom, that equation was like rocket science.

Stroller Fitness with Albion (Great Day Houston feature)

Awake-1050PaigeBuddeAileePetrovicStrollerCardioAwake-1054During my pregnancy, I experienced severe round ligament pain and was told by my ob-gyn that I needed to quit running. I was upset, as I wanted to stay active during my pregnancy and was afraid I would gain a lot of unnecessary weight if I couldn’t run. Thankfully, I found DEFINE’s spin classes and continued to do personal training sessions with the most amazing instructor, Mike Bina, until the day before I gave birth. Therefore, a week or so after Isla was born, I felt pretty darn good (remember this post?), as my body will still relatively in-shape from working out. It’s not recommended that you exercise for at least six weeks after delivery (for natural births), and even after that period of time, I was faced with the tough reality: when in the world would I be able to go to the gym? All of a sudden, the years of being a gym rat and workout lover seemed threatened by this adorable bundle of joy who needed my constant attention.

Fortunately, I am now able to leave Isla at the Life Time Fitness day care, but for days when the weather is nice or I don’t want to drive to the gym, I prefer to work out with Isla. Not only do we go running ‘together’ three times a week, I’m also able to work my core, legs, butt and arms with her right beside me in the stroller. My trainer, Mike, put together an amazing set of stroller fitness exercises so that moms can workout with their little ones. There are descriptions next to each exercise below, and I’m showing you some step-by-step photos for some of the tricky ones. These photographs were taken by the ever talented Paige of Awake Photography, who also took our family photos (here and here). There are more photos of Isla and I below all of the workout examples.

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be on Great Day Houston this morning at 9am CST. If you can’t catch it live, you can watch it here later in the day. It’s probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done, but I would be lying if I said I am not nervous! I’m going to be showing some of these exercises alongside my friends, Sara and Kristy (of Seven Graces).

In the photos below, I’m wearing tops and pants from Albion, which is by far my favorite fitness line. Those Antigua leggings are perfect, and the Go Long Crew top is so comfortable. I feel so fancy wearing both! In honor of this stroller fitness post, Albion is offering the winner a $100 gift card. The giveaway will end on Friday, March 13th at 11:59pm. Good luck!

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Pretty Floral Tea Party for Isla

I was totally spoiled by my sister and best friend this weekend – they threw me the most gorgeous tea party shower for little Miss Isla. It was held at our house, as many of our closest friends still had never seen the house since we re-did it last year (pictures herehere and here). I had such a great time talking to everyone – I love parties! McKenzie and Karine did such an incredible job planning and executing on their plans – how pretty is this floral tea party? The flowers are seriously to-die for. I want them to be in our house at all times!

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Our dining room table transformed into a gorgeous feast

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Pretty macaroons from Sweet

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A proper English tea time (and of course, some champagne!)

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Homemade tea goodies

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McKenzie, Brittany and Karine – these ladies are too good to me

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Spoiling little Miss Isla

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Gorgeous desserts

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Contest to see who could draw the best baby on-top of their head – so funny!

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The aftermath of flowers – I hope these never die!

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Little onesie notes for Isla (cut out by McKenzie!)

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All cleaned up!

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Belle was very excited when her dad got home from class!


Gorgeous flowers by Jess Hamilton

Cupcakes, truffles and macaroons from Sweet

Vegan cupcakes from Crave

Isla banner from Etsy

My dress from Hatch Collection

Decorations by McKenzie, Karine and my Mum

Miss Ellery Grey

I was in Washington, DC this weekend with my Mum for a calligraphy workshop (post to come this week – see sample at the bottom of this post!), and as soon as I touched down in Houston, Sasha and I made plans to meet one of our best friend’s little baby girl, Ellery Grey. She was born on February 19 – the day after my birthday! Ellery is so cute, and I cannot wait for her and Isla to be best friends. Yesterday was my 100-days-left marker, so I’m in the double digits now. I hope the next 99 days fly by.

Isn’t Ellery adorable? I plan on taking a million pictures of her, just like I have with little Pierson.DSC_0358

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I love this one – sleeping peacefully in her daddy’s arms!

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This is what Matt and Sasha’s future looks like – and also a glimpse at their gorgeously decorated Restoration Hardware house

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I landed from the airport and went straight to meet Ellery – stopping briefly to practice my new calligraphy skills for her gift label! We got her the monogrammed stroller blanket from Baby and Child – it’s so soft!

I need to practice more calligraphy, but loving it so far.