pregnancy, birth & motherhood
It feels fitting to celebrate this little girl’s 1 month by commemorating her birth story. What a story it is!
Juniper took her time deciding to enter the world and at 40 weeks and 3 days, she made her move. The night of January 6th into 7th will be one I will never, ever forget.
Watch her birth vlog and story here, on our YouTube channel.
Cheers to you, sweet Juniper for a lifetime of keeping us on our toes!
January 8, 2021 we brought Juniper home and officially started our journey as a family of 5.
Brett’s mom was at our home with Winnie (4) and Axel (18 months) while Brett came to pick us up from the hospital, which is thankfully a quick 7 minutes away. Juniper didn’t make a peep in the car until we pulled in the driveway and then she started wailing, so we decided I should go in and greet the kids before Brett brought her in. Their little faces at the window were the sweetest sight! After hugs and hellos, Brett brought Juniper in and they immediately ran over to get a closer look at little sister.
Winnie used the word “cute” about 10,000 times that day! Safe to say she was smitten with little sis. When I put Juniper down in the Moses basket in the living room, she fussed a bit and Winnie immediately went over to gently “shush” her and sing her a song. My mama heart was in a puddle! Even a week later, I’m so proud of how she has handled this transition. Bringing a new baby into our normal routine really rocks the boat, but Winnie hasn’t missed a beat. She enjoys “taking care of baby” and it has given her so much confidence in her role as a big sister and mama’s helper. When we brought Axel home, Winnie was 2 1/2 years old and it was much different since she was used to being the only apple of my eye. This time around, she wants Juniper involved in everything we do! When it is just the 3 of us, Winnie loves to say “Girls club meeting!” She wants her there for bedtime story time, which is a big deal y’all. She loves to sit and chat with Juniper since she gets the most smiles out of her. The sister bond is so sweet to witness.
Axel really surprised me. I thought he would’ve taken the “ignore and deny” route with new baby sister but he has been so engaged, curious and understanding (I mean, as much as an 18 month old can be!). He is well aware of the phrases “gentle” and “soft touch” from handling our cat, Bella so I knew he’d be familiar with those prompts when I needed to use them. He loves to rub her head and point to her facial features, especially the eyes so we did have to revisit the “no poke” policy. He brings me diapers and pacis when needed, so very helpful! Axel loves to be involved, so I try to make him a part of the process. He’s very interested in the breastfeeding aspect and thinks it’s hilarious. He self weaned around 13 months so there doesn’t seem to be any looming jealousy attached to it, thankfully! The biggest hurdle with Axel has been not being able to pick him up, but we are working through it and I’m thankful for all of the help from Brett, my mom and my mother-in-law!
Now, I know we are only a week in so there is still time for hardships but this transition from two to three has been the easiest thus far. I wanted to note a few things I implemented (or didn’t!) to help the transition, these may have helped!
All in all, it has been quite a blissful week as we ALL soak in sweet Juniper. Family of 5, let’s say it again because I can hardly believe it! These are all mine?!
Has anyone else planning to or brought home a new babe recently? Any other little ones? Comment below how they’ve handled the transition and any hardships you’ve encountered or are worried about. Let’s talk it out and support each other!
The hospital bags are packed, we are ready for you baby girl!
Below you’ll find the list of items in our bags for the labor and delivery of our third baby. Due to having a previous cesarean, this will be a hospital birth but I do my best to bring some comforts of home for the stay. You definitely do not need all of these things and I go over that more in depth in the video breakdown. This all fits in a weekender bag and a carry-on sized rolling bag, easy peasy!
Baby
Mama
Labor
Partner/Miscellaneous
If you’re wondering about more background info for some of these items or would like some visuals, check out the video at the top of this post – we’re on YouTube!
On Wednesday June 12, 2019 I had my 40 week appointment at 9am, I went in feeling like I would be pregnant forever and ever. At my request, my midwife performed a cervical check and membrane sweep. I had opted out at every appointment before then because I truly wanted to wait until baby was ready to try and get anything going as far as labor. I was 3 centimeters dilated but my midwife always reminds me that “your cervix is not a crystal ball!”.
I waddled home at 11am and gave everyone the report but prefaced that I didn’t feel like he was coming in the next few days. We definitely had the weekend at least.
Following my appointment, I was randomly crampy throughout the day but nothing substantial. Worked a full day, ate a hearty dinner of grilled kielbasa sandwiches and put Winnie down for what I did not know would be her last night as an only child. *cue tears*
I worked for another few hours since it was Wednesday, mind you! At our company there is a running joke that Wednesdays are “work hard” as a precursor to our Thursday morning staff meetings. I did have a few consistent contractions while putting Winnie down and working but nothing to get excited about.
Around 11pm, I got ready for bed and had a few fairly painful contractions. I had to breathe through them but chalked it up to being fatigued. I tried to go to bed but was restless, my contractions started having a rhythm but at that time I was still not timing them. I then had a couple that I had to concentrate and breathe through, my hypnobirthing practice was key here. Then I started shaking uncontrollably and could not lay still any longer. I got up, chugged a cup of water and took a hot shower to try and slow things down. It was around 1am at this point. I kept contracting in the shower but was no longer shaking so I got out to lay down and start timing them and see what all this fuss was about. As soon as I laid down to time them I couldn’t even get through the first two in a row, I had to get back in the shower to deal with the intensity. After awhile in the shower, I told Brett he needed to call someone to come over and that I felt like we would need to go to the hospital pretty soon. His parents live about 20 minutes away plus both his brother and sister were in town visiting.
Brett called his brother (didn’t answer), called his sister who answered and woke up Brett’s mom and brother. Meanwhile we packed the last minute bag items and I got dressed. My brother-in-law came over super quickly (I think it was around 2am?) and we literally left when he came in, I had one contraction in the kitchen and felt super nauseous so we grabbed some plastic bags just in case. I had another contraction when I got into the car, had two or three on the drive which is about 7 minutes. As I’m looking back at timing, these were all so close together and very intense!
We got into the hospital parking lot and were able to park on the 3rd floor, labor and delivery is on the 4th floor but the walkover path from the parking garage to the hospital is on the 2nd floor. I had a contraction as I got out and threw up afterwards. Glad I brought a plastic bag! I joked that I wished we could order the epidural from the parking lot.
We made the long walk to the labor and delivery floor, I had contractions along the way so it was a slow trek. We got to the check-in desk and I couldn’t even finish the sign-in sheet. I could not talk through contractions at this point. It was about 3am.
The first nurse we encountered had curly hair, was super sweet and very attentive. She was already telling me that I was doing great managing through contractions which was exactly what I needed to hear because by this point, I was having a tough time staying grounded. She asked me to go to the bathroom to empty my bladder and it was so hard to even sit on the toilet. Standing, swaying and vocalizing was the only way I could get through the contractions. We got to the triage room and I couldn’t bring myself to sit down, I asked if she could put my monitors on standing up (bless her!). So she shimmied the monitors on but I had to sit down for a cervical check. It was so uncomfortable to sit, felt almost physically impossible, and the actual check was extremely painful. Hallelujah, I was at 7cm stretched to 8cm already! Brett and I looked at each other in shock, I wanted to cry I was so happy that I was able to stay home and labor on my own so long. The nurse asked about pain management and I asked for an epidural pronto, but I first asked her if I was in active labor. She replied with a resounding “uhhh YES!”.
She took us to our labor room and I was hooked up to fluids while we waited for anesthesia. Contractions were intense and I felt nauseous at the end of each one. The anesthesiologist came in pretty quickly and started preparing, I had a few contractions while sitting on the bed waiting for him to start and with the last one before he actually started – my water broke! It was the weirdest sensation, like a pop and flood of fluid in the middle of a super intense contraction where baby was moving all around. I said “OH, my water just broke!” and the nurses replied with “Awesome!” and grabbed big pads to put under me to catch the fluid and check color. It was clear, good sign! The epidural went in without incident. The anesthesiologist was a senior resident and seemed very calm and precise.
He let me know it would take about 15 minutes to kick in and inside I was panicking because I knew that meant at least 5 more contractions before I felt relief. Little did I know, it wouldn’t kick in until I was complete and ready to push!
At this point, I’m going through the transition phase of labor while laying in bed which was the most difficult part of the whole labor journey. I could cope much better when I could stand, brace myself on something and then sway. Another nurse called in for a check because she said she noticed I was bearing down with the last couple contractions and thought I may be ready to push. She was absolutely right! I couldn’t believe it. It happened so quickly! My epidural still wasn’t working so anesthesiologist came back and said we could wait or he could go in and do it again, but assured me it was perfect placement. I said I did not want another since it was time to push anyway. Axel was still a bit higher up than they’d like though so we waited through a couple contractions and then started trying to get him to move down by doing practice pushes.
At 4am the epidural FINALLY kicked in when I started pushing which I’m sure affected my efficiency but I was so thankful to be able to relax a bit, as weird as that sounds! So the next 2 hours we turned on some music, pushed with each contraction, and chatted with the nurses. It was such a calm and happy environment.
After an hour and a half of pushing, Brett and I started to get a little discouraged but I tried to stay positive. We switched up the music to something more upbeat. I tilted my pelvis in a different way and sat back a little more so I could really curve around the baby to push. With those small adjustments, something changed. I felt A LOT more pressure and the nurse started calling people in, I knew it was getting close but truly couldn’t believe this was happening!
The nurses and doctor started telling me that this was the point of no return, Baby was coming out vaginally. Up until that point, I still had that fear in the back of mind that this could end in another c-section. When they assured me that baby was coming NOW it really gave me motivation. I moved him down more and more with each contraction. They had me cough to “lock” him in place and I felt so much pressure it was unreal. Then with one final push his head came out, then his body and he was immediately put on my chest. He was squishy, wonderful and looked just like Winnie.
To this day, that is still the best moment I’ve ever experienced in my life. 6:16am on June 13, 2019, if I close my eyes I can go right back to that moment and exactly how everything looked, sounded, smelled. I was crying the happiest tears and was so shocked at what had just happened!
My body did it, Axel was here (all 8 pounds 11 ounces!) and we brought him earth-side.
When we found out about baby #3, I was about 5 weeks along which made for a very long wait to the 18 week anatomy scan. Truth be told, I went back and forth on having this be a super early reveal OR a gender surprise delivery (I even had a Sneak Peek test blood draw set up at one point!) but ultimately, by the anatomy scan time we were itching to know – baby brother or sis!
Winnie is a very dedicated big sister, so I knew I wanted to get her involved for the reveal. Brett was staying at home with her and Axel during the ultrasound so I also knew I did not want to find out there in the appointment by myself. I asked the sonographer to assist with the surprise and she was more than willing to help us with the special moment. I brought a card and two stickers to signify boy or girl using characters from Winnie’s favorite movie, Frozen II and had the sonographer place the applicable sticker and seal the envelope.
More importantly at that moment, the anatomy scan went beautifully and baby was growing right on schedule down to the day. My due date was confirmed as January 4th, 2021.
When I got home, Axel was taking a nap so we anxiously awaited his cheerful crib chatter. Then…
IT’S A GIRL!
I had a feeling this one was a girl but kept second guessing my “mom intuition” because I’ve been wrong each time before. My biggest clues were a high heart rate (always in the 180-160s) and my moods were not as “aggressive” as I felt being pregnant with Axel, which I chalked up to the testosterone – HA! Also, my midwife guessed “girl” at my first appointment and Winnie had been talking about a baby sister this whole time. We swear she is part gypsy, my little mystic!
The time has come to step out of the day-to-day chaos and document watching these babies grow. They say the days are long but the years are short. It holds true; here at 11 a.m. bedtime seems very far away but I’m trying to pinpoint when my eldest went from being a bouncing baby to a professional negotiator.
I’m Jaleh, the mama. The other players:
Brett, the husband and fearless leader.
Elowen “Winnie”, our very spirited old soul of a 4 year old.
Axel, the adventurous 1.5 year old who doubles as the sweetest love boat.
A third to complete our trio, a new babe still in utero but set to arrive with the new year.
Bella the elderly feline who surprisingly loves the attention of the babes, a beta fish named Pony, 5 backyard hens and a partridge in a pear tree.
We reside on the coast in the beautiful state of South Carolina and are currently renovating our 1950s ranch style home.
Join us, laugh with us (maybe sometimes at us) and let’s share our day-to-day peaks and valleys. I mean, it’s 2020 – they’re aplenty!
gaggle of snells 