Category Archives: Monthly Updates

Month One with Donovan

Baby's First Month \ Graceful Mommy

Can you believe it??! Donovan is one month old. This month has been amazing, although way too fast in my opinion. Since I haven’t shared his birth story yet, I’ll share a little bit here!

Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy

Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy

Donovan was super cozy in the womb. I was in my 40th week and the doctor decided we should induce. So, the night of December 29th, we packed our hospital bags, dropped Gracie off at her Grammas + Grandpa’s and headed to the hospital. We got there around 9pm. They didn’t give me the Cytotec (medicine used to get the cervix ready) until midnight. The nurse said she would come back in 4 hours to give the next dose and that we should get some sleep. We actually did sleep for a couple hours. I was having contractions but they weren’t that painful yet.

Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy

Around 5 am (an hour after the nurse was supposed to come in to give the next dose), the nurse comes in to check on me. She said she couldn’t give me the next dose because I was contracting too often! At this point, the contractions started to hurt. I didn’t get an epidural with Gracie + I loved it, so I wanted to try the same with Donovan.

Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy

Around 6 am, I was in A LOT of pain. The contractions were SO different than Gracie. The nurse gave me some medicine (not the epidural but I forget what it was called). And I was able to relax for an hour or so. When the nurse came back in I was back in a lot of pain so I asked for the epidural. Things were moving SO fast. The anesthesiologist came in around 7:30 am to do the epidural and at this point I was 9cm dialated. By the time he actually got the epidural in, I was 10cm dilated and we were all just waiting for the doctor. Once the doctor came, Donovan was like SOOO READY. And so was I! I probably pushed 3 times and he was here! The doctor and nurses could not believe how big he was. When they finally weighed him and said he was 10 lbs I  was SHOCKED! Gracie was only 7lbs 10oz. Insane. He was perfect.

Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy

Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy

Okay, whew! There’s the birth story for those asking! It was a beautiful birth, worth every ounce of pain.

Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy

Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy

Our first month with Donovan has been amazing.

Gracie is the best sister. She has been SO gentle, so loving, and so curious about Donovan. I was totally not expecting that, but she really is doing great! One thing we’re trying to do is lots of fun activities with her and have her help with Donovan when she wants to.

Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy

Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy

Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy

Baby's First Month \ Graceful Mommy

Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy

Height/Weight

11 lbs 5 oz. // 23.5 inches

Baby's First Month \ Graceful Mommy

Routine 

We’ve been waking up around 9-10 ish – which is awesome. Donovan still loves to sleep a lot. He really is an awesome baby. Very calm, self soothes, eats a lot. As far as routines go, he likes to eat, be awake for a bit, then sleep. We try to keep Gracie busy with painting, parks, lots of running around, helping with baby, etc. She sometimes will do her afternoon nap, and sometimes will skip it.
Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy
Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy
Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy

Sleeping

Donovan sleeps great! Lots of naps during the day, and at night he wakes up around 1-2 times. It’s crazy. I think because of his weight, he is a way better sleeper than Gracie.
Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy
Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy
Eating/Feeding
Donovan is a champ at breastfeeding. He eats around every 3 hours and we’ve had no problems this time around with breastfeeding. With Gracie, I had all sorts of problems in the beginning, including mastitis. I think this time around it’s WAYYY easier cause I know what I’m doing, lol!
Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy

Sizes

Donovan fit in newborn clothes for about 3 days LOL. He now wears 3 month clothes + fills them out really well! Craziness!

Milestones

As far as milestones go, Donovan had his first doctors visit + went out for the first time (it was his Aunt’s white coat ceremony). We also took a mini road trip to Marco Island for the weekend! He had his first bath, and we took him to his first farmer’s market!
Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy
Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy
Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy

How I feel

I feel great + so blessed! I was so nervous about the transition between one to two kids, and honestly I am pretty shocked at how smooth it went. I think a lot of it has to do with my husband being home this month. That has been a HUGE help and made the transition so great. I can’t believe I’m a mom to two KIDS.
Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy
Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy Baby's First Month \\ Graceful Mommy
Follow along on Instagram: @gracefulmommy
Baby's First Month \ Graceful Mommy

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A Giant Pregnancy Decision

This post is sponsored by CBR®

I am 18 weeks pregnant with baby #2 and SO excited! This pregnancy has been a lot different than Gracie’s. When I was pregnant with Gracie I was OBSESSED with every step of pregnancy. I had 5 different apps that told me the different sizes she was- a pea, a grape, a plum. I read blog posts after blog posts from other moms pregnant with their babies at the same time. I was obsessed LOL. With baby #2, it’s different. I honestly do not have the time or energy to look at those apps.

Don’t get me wrong, I am SO excited for baby #2. WAY EXCITED. I just find myself dreaming about the future, rather than focusing on the day-to-day of the pregnancy. This pregnancy is flying by. I’m more excited about when baby comes, than what fruit baby is. Ya know? Anyways, what I have been thinking about is labor with this baby. With Gracie, I had an all natural labor- which was awesome. I find myself thinking about my birth plan this time around. Will I try it all natural again (I think so!), will baby #2 come faster?! (Gracie came fast!), will I have back pain like I did with Gracie? All these things are what I like to think about.

Cord Blood Banking with Graceful Mommy

And one thing that keeps coming up is cord blood banking. When I had Gracie, I only heard about cord blood banking one time- at the doctors. This pregnancy, I’m hearing about it all over the place and it’s really made me sit down and consider it! It’s actually Cord Blood Awareness month so I thought I’d share a bit about what I’m learning in my research!

Cord Blood Banking with Graceful Mommy

So what is cord blood banking?

When a baby is born, they have a small amount of blood leftover in their umbilical cord. This blood + tissue contains very powerful stem cells. These stem cells are currently  used to transplant medicine to regenerate deathly blood + immune systems. These stem cels can actually be used to help treat 80 known diseases + disorders including various cancers, and blood, immune, and metabolic disorders

It’s like a body’s personal repair kit.

Cord Blood Banking with Graceful Mommy

One crazy thing I’ve learned in my research is that while baby’s cord blood cells are a perfect match for baby, it can actually be used to help other member of the family like siblings or parents! That’s super neat.

Every parent wants to make the world a better place for their children and CBR is here to help make that happen. CBR is dedicated to advancing the real life clinical applications of newborn stem cells. CBR’s commitment to parents and their babies is to provide the best service and quality in the collection, processing, and storage of newborn stem cells, so that families are confident entrusting their precious cells to our care. CBR represents a window into the future, through which families can see the amazing potential of these cells to promote healthier lives.

Cord Blood Banking with Graceful Mommy

July is Cord Blood Awareness Month + after reading and seeing things about cord blood banking over + over, I am really considering this for baby #2. This is such an important decision, not one to be taken lightly. If you did Cord Blood Banking with your newborn, I’d love to hear about it!

Cord Blood Banking with Graceful Mommy

If you are pregnant and want to register online – go with CBR at cordblood.com. A collection kit will be sent to you or in some cases, can be picked up from your doctor’s office.

18 Month Baby Update

18 Month Old Baby Update!

Happy New Year! It’s also a special day because Gracie turns 18 months old today! Time flies, and Gracie is growing so much. I wanted to share a bit of an update with you :).

18 Month Old Baby Update!
18 Month Old Baby Update! 18 Month Old Baby Update!
Talking

Oh my goodness, Gracie talks A LOT. And I love it. I would give you a list of words she says, but I would run out of space. She says everything now. She can almost form sentences too, but they are short. Like “all done, mommy” or “bye bye bath time”. She loves to say hi and bye to everything. She tells you what she wants whether its milk, or crackers, or peas, or oatmeal, or her blanket. She will let you know LOL. I love hearing her voice. It’s probably my favorite thing about her at this age. I love when I ask her a question and she actually answers me. So funny! I’m going to try to make a video soon of her talking so you can hear all the crazy things she says.

Gracie also sings songs now, too. It’s adorable.

18 Month Old Baby Update!

18 Month Old Baby Update!

Eating 

Gracie is a great eater. She eats mostly everything you put in front of her. She’s not the biggest fan of meat, but if its ground turkey or chicken, she MIGHT like it. She loves grilled cheese, oatmeal, yogurt, strawberries and watermelon, cherrios, black beans, Jimmy Johns sandwiches LOL, eggs, okay… see she likes everything. When she’s all done eating she says “all done” and then will throw every piece on the floor.

18 Month Old Baby Update!

18 Month Old Baby Update!

Sleeping 

Gracie has been doing much better with sleeping. She takes one nap a day around 11-1. And then goes to bed around 8:30-9:00pm. She usually wakes up around 8 in the morning. When we were in New York she stayed up until like midnight and then got up around 10:30am. She is so flexible with her schedule. She kinda just goes with the flow. We received an amazing mattress from Washabelle. It’s a washable twin size mattress. It’s on the floor in her room and she LOVESSSSSS it. She calls it her “big girl bed”. And she sleeps awesome on it. She does roll off it sometimes, but we have some floor pillows and rugs all around it so she just either keeps sleeping or will find her way back to her bed. It’s been a lifesaver for us because it was getting hard to sleep with her in our bed. And she hated the crib. So it’s a win-win!

18 Month Old Baby Update!

18 Month Old Baby Update!

Playing

Gracie got tons of new toys for Christmas. Her favorites right now are her new baby doll with the stroller, her tiny little ponies, this popper walker-thingy, and her new books. She does have an imagination and I watch her as she talks with her toys and makes up games with them. It’s fun to watch! She also loves having her friends come over to play. We love playdates! We also love walking across the street to the big park. And she loves playing with mommy’s swiffer!

18 Month Old Baby Update! 18 Month Old Baby Update!

18 Month Old Baby Update!

18 Month Old Baby Update!

I love being Gracie’s mommy! Every day is so fun with our little girl. It has been amazing to watch her grow and change and learn new things every day.