Hunny we left the kids!

After starting a new business, two weeks into it, I needed a vacation! So my husband and I took a well deserved, once in a lifetime, all-expense paid trip to Puerto Rico. While my two weeks of beginning a new company weren't exactly demanding a vacation, the year it took to get my family where we are today was stressful enough to push most marriages over the edge! Here is a quick glimpse of our year in 2011.

January, we found out we were expecting our second child. February, my car was stolen from our driveway. March, my three year old had outpatient surgery. May, we were told Lee's company was closing his location in Melbourne, Fl and they didn't know what was going to happen to his job. June we spent in a dark fog unsure of what our future held. July, the company I worked for announced a major merger with another company, luckily Lee's employer found him temporary work BUT all the way in West Palm Beach, Fl. He began traveling immediately Monday - Friday. August, they officially offered him a permanent position in West Palm. September, we welcomed the newest addition to our family (while I was living in Melbourne and he was working in West Palm). October, the house hunt began in West Palm, and in December we moved and rented out our home in Melbourne.

With a year like that when the company Lee works for offered us an all expense paid trip to Puerto Rico for a week I had to look at what my marriage needed and make a very difficult decision. Should I stay or should I go? I had a 6 month old baby I'd never been away from for more than a couple hours, and a now 4 year old that I hadn't been away from in quite a long time. I will not lie to you, there were a couple nights I stayed up crying at the thought of leaving my kids to go away for a week. I knew Brice would be fine, because my parents were coming to stay with them and he LOVES his Grand mommy and Poppa. But Parker is so young, he doesn't know my parents like Brice does. I'm his mommy, all he really knows, and he looks to me for stability, comfort, and FOOD! That's right, I left town for a week while breastfeeding. The thought of not being there when he needed me broke my heart, but I also knew my husband needed me. We'd spent most the year apart and under extreme stress, so we needed this time together.

Now I needed to figure out how to make this week the least stressful for Parker that I could, obviously keeping him on breast milk was a huge part of that! I pumped for 3 months, ultimately storing over 250 oz of breast milk in my freezer. It was not easy but I was able to estimate how much he was consuming per day and multiply that by 6. I needed roughly 240 oz. Again I was only estimating because its hard to know how much your baby really is consuming. Fortunately I was fairly accurate as I returned with one whole day of milk still in the freezer! For any nursing moms looking to travel I have a few words of advice. Don't burry your head in the sand, it takes a lot of work to pump that much milk. The sooner you start to build your supply the better. If you can pump enough for what you think your baby will need to survive one day, find a supportive friend who's willing to test the waters with you, and have them spend the day with your little one feeding them the pumped milk while you pump every feeding. This will end up giving you the best idea of how much they are consuming and your friend can let you know how they respond to being bottle fed.

Now that I had Parker taken care of, the question became how do I survive and continue my milk supply? "Pump, Pump, Pump, get it, get it..." I needed a schedule so I didn't lose track of time in the sun and end up going too long between pump sessions. A schedule, along with a supportive husband who knew what "I've gotta go" meant really got me through that week. The first day of flying was tough. Another note for future travels is to pack batteries for a battery operated pump! Because I didn't have batteries for a pump, I could not express my milk for the plane ride. Little did I know the journey had just begun. After we landed we had to take a 1 hour bus ride to the resort, and may I add the bus we had was in dire need of repair! It sounded like we lost the transmission somewhere along the way. When we got to the resort I thought, "finally we are here, I'll be in my room in no time!" I was in so much pain that it hurt to breathe! I kept telling my husband: "You better get me to the room NOW!" I could just see us running into one of his co-workers or worse his boss and having them trying to hug me! The very thought made me want to cry in pain! Again, 'silly me', we still had to check in with the resort and then with his company's hospitality desk before getting our room. Finally the lady says, "Ok your room number is 1324. Oh you'll love your room, you're staying at the Marina, it's beautiful!" (I'm thinking shut up and tell me where to go) "All you have to do is walk down this hall, past the Casino, take the elevator to the last floor, take the walk way down to the funicular (what the HELL is a funicular, but I dont ask as I don't have time for a response), get off the funicular go to the next elevator, go up 3 floors and look for room number 1324!" Really, really it was the furthest possible room away, and all I wanted was a hot shower and to pump!!!!! By the way, our room was beautiful (see the photo of our view below). And a funicular is basically a tram like buggy that takes you down the side of a very steep cliff. But once we arrived I set times each day that I'd go down to the room and pump for 20 minutes or so. Traveling was tricky with the milk, and I'd advise always contacting your airline directly on how to travel with frozen breast milk. For my flight, I was able to check a cooler that I boxed up in order to get the milk home safely. The milk began to thaw so I had to use it within the first few days home, but I could always pump more for future storage.

I'm happy to report we had an amazing vacation and both boys did great with my parents! Parker required a little more attention during the night than I think my parents anticipated, but they were amazing. They walked & cuddled the little guy as much as he needed to soothe him off to sleep. When I got home he came right to me, looking to eat as though I'd never been away; that made me cry tears of joy. There is nothing as sweet as your baby wanting to be in your arms after a long time away!!

Here are a couple photos from Puerto Rico!

Lee & me in Puerto Rico

El Conquistador, the resort we visited

The View from our Room!

Black & Yellow Belly Cast

Can you believe that there is another Tadhg!? I absolutely LOVE our son's name, but the spelling took some time to fall in love with swallow. I never imagined someone else would love the name as much as I do, that they would subject their child to that consonant nightmare. GH... no HG UGH. Well there is, and I had the privilege to make his Mama's belly cast and be present at his birth as his Mama's doula. What a beautiful birth it was!
It is such an amazing experience to create a belly cast for a woman. Something she can look at, and remember the miracle of life growing within. While you're pregnant, it feels like an eternity, but afterwards at least for me, I begin to forget. Looking at my belly cast, brings back those memories of little baby feet nudging around and those hiccups.

I must say when we discussed decorating her cast and she mentioned the colors black and yellow, big bumble bees popped into my head and I thought "how!?" I love challenges. I love brainstorming and waiting for that creativity inside to take off, well maybe I don't LOVE that part, but I love waking up in the middle of the night with that inspirational image and then I am off. I am happy to say, as difficult as it is to accept your own work when you are a perfectionist, I am really pleased with how this turned out and when it left my hands, there was a bit of emptiness in my home. Every time I deliver a cast to a client, it reminds me of that feeling shortly after giving birth; you aren't mentally past just being pregnant and there is this empty womb feeling, but there is this amazing new being to share with the world and fill your heart with love. I spend many hours creating these casts, I become attached to every curve, detail, and parts that make each unique to that woman and moment in their pregnancy, and then when I have taken it through every step, I let them go and hope they will be cherished and loved.

Belly Cast as Photo Prop

When I was pregnant with my second son Tadhg, I made two belly casts, one was full torso to decorate and finish and the other one was of my pregnant belly only to use as a photo prop. Now if only I had had Alaina in my life then, these photos would've turned out even better, but I think my Mom did an amazing job taking photos and setting up a pseudo studio in my home.

We then used the photo of Tadhg in the cast as part of our baby announcements that we made.

We ordered the supplies from here. We printed out the announcement on velum paper and then slid the photograph underneath between the velum paper and the handmade seeded flower paper. The flower paper was Larkspur, July's birth flower.

Hey Locals contact us today to schedule your belly cast and newborn photos!

561-267-7064

blossomingbeginnings@gmail.com

Newbie

Hello friends, family, and followers! Go easy on me, it's my first blog and I'm not really sure what I'm doing. I wanted to write today to introduce myself to those who don't know me, and share why I wanted to be apart of Blossoming Beginnings.

I have just recently moved to Boynton Beach and I'm so happy to be blessed with the ability to stay at home with my two boys! Personally, I have worked since I was 16 years old and the thought of not having a "job" is very intimidating. That being said I wouldn't trade a moment of this time for all the money in the world. I have two amazing boys, Brice 4 years old and Parker 6 months. They are the center of my world. Six years ago I married my high school sweetheart, and he's my absolute best friend. Don't get me wrong we have our hard times, but at the end of the day we make each other laugh, have respect for each other, and love with all we have.

My boys!

Why join Blossoming Beginnings with my new friend and creative genius Megan? Well I had nothing better to do... No seriously, while expecting my first born I took a Birthing From Within class. It truly opened my eyes to what an amazing experience child birth can be and helped me understand so much about this big taboo called labor. After my first birth I've always had a special place in my heart to share my "story" (future post) and help other mommies embrace their adventure too! Photography and capturing special moments in time is also a passion of mine. I was a junior in high school when I was given my first real camera and I simply fell in love with being behind the lens. So when Megan came to me with an awesome idea to combine our passions, I jumped at the opportunity!

I look forward to future post and watching our company grow!

Exciting News.....

New and exciting news.... Blossoming Beginnings is officially an LLC. I would also like to introduce Alaina, my new business partner. We will continue to provide our clients with doula services, yoga instruction, and belly casting In addition we will be venturing into the realm of photography focusing on maternity, birth, newborn, and family photography as well as selling handmade items on ETSY to satisfy our creative outlet and help fund the donated services we provide to our community.

Click here to check out our ETSY shop.

We will also be posting to our blog much more frequently about the projects we are working on, birth, breastfeeding, motherhood, and anything else 2 women with 4 boys between us can conjure up.

For those of you who have been following me from the beginning, I appreciate your support and hope you all will continue to watch us blossom!!