Good morning! It's Wednesday, so it is time to share another mom's awesome feedback on pregnancy and parenting! Catherine Portera is a sweet friend of mine. Her sister Colleen and I have been close friends for years, and both of these girls are expecting together! How fun is that? Catherine Portera is also the author and founder of The Healthy Lemon. I would encourage you to follow her blog and Facebook page for awesome advice on living and eating with a focus on wellness and cutting out all the junk from your diet. She advises with knowledge, confidence and no judgment, and has been a tremendous help for me! Let's hear more about Catherine, Louise and the newest pregnancy!
Baby’s Full Name & Birth Date?
As in Louise? Louise Claire
Portera. Louise is a family name and “Claire” was just something Will suggested
and I liked. Born Oct. 14, 2012.
After the excitement wore off, how prepared did
you feel to have a baby?
Both times, I have been super
excited to be pregnant, but at the same time, I’m always like, “Whoa. A baby.”
This time it was, “Whoa. Another baby.” Not prepared; you can never been
prepared, but that’s probably one reason God gave us 9 months!
One word to describe my pregnancy is ______.
Amazing. Not just mine, but all of
them. I will always think it’s the coolest thing that women can grow human
beings inside of them. It’s amazing to see what happens to your body~ not all
bad things!~ and all the ways it has to change to sustain another life.
Now that I am a mom, I wish someone would have
told me that ________.
You adjust. Quickly. My first
pregnancy, I heard all kinds of comments about how my life was going to change,
usually warnings about how it would be worse, such as, “You’ll never sleep
again…never read another book…lose all the romance in your marriage…” Sure
there are periods like that, but there are wonderful things to make up for it,
and things are constantly changing. Don’t let people scare you.
What items (beauty, food, medicine) did you
swear by during pregnancy?
Of course, being a wellness coach, I really believe in good
nutrition and avoiding toxins, especially during pregnancy. Even though
cravings and aversions can make it more difficult to stick to a strict diet
(and who wants to when she’s pregnant anyway?), there are always ways to optimize it. Healthy fats (grass-fed butter, pastured eggs, wild-caught fish,
etc.) are really important for baby’s development, so I try to get plenty of
that and avoid stuff like artificial food dyes, preservatives, and other
heavily processed foods.
I really try not to take medicine when pregnant, but I
understand some people may need it. I had to take antibiotics this time for
something, and hated it, but the risk of not taking them was definitely worse
than any risks involved with taking them (they affect not only the flora in
your own gut, but also baby’s). For nausea, I found that ginger or ginger
candies worked really well.
Beauty—anything that makes you feel pretty! I get my hair
done more often when I’m pregnant and probably also wear make-up more often.
Pregnancy doesn’t always make it easy to feel extremely attractive, so splurge
a little on stuff that does. With Louise, I wore my husband’s t- shirts to bed
when I couldn’t fit into mine anymore, but this time, I bought myself some
girlie nightgowns instead. I just cannot spend 5 months in t-shirts,
whale-size, again!
Favorite baby book or magazine (if you read
them).
I did! Babywise was a great resource for me; I read
it while pregnant and then pulled it out many times after she was born to
reread parts. It’s based on the philosophy that the husband-wife relationship
trumps mother-baby, which I agree with, and explains simply how to cultivate
good sleeping and eating habits for baby so that everyone can get sleep and
anticipate the day’s events…aka “scheduling.” It’s also very pro-breastfeeding
and has great tips on how to establish/maintain milk supply and how to know if
your baby’s getting enough (a constant concern for new moms). It worked great
for us—Lu slept 12 hours at night by the time she was 3 months, and I nursed
her successfully for a year and a half without any supplementing.
Maternity clothes tips?
Get in them! As soon as you want. You’ll wonder why you
didn’t wear them sooner. ;)
What was the best advice you received that
helped you in motherhood?
That babies don’t need anything but diapers, a boob, and
something to wear. Someone wrote that in a baby shower book for me, and it took
so much pressure off. Registries can be overwhelming, and there are always
newer/better products coming out, but if it stresses you out, just remember you
can make do just fine with these basics. Even with toys as she got older, I
would remind myself that she doesn’t HAVE to have them…give a crawler a cabinet
with pots, pans, and a spoon, and she’ll have as much fun with that as she
would anything else.
How did you decide the items from which you
registered (research, word of mouth, random)?
My 2 older sisters with 3 children each. I asked them a
million questions. Still do!
· Where did you register?
Target and Restoration
Hardware Baby and Child
What
is your stroller? Do you like it?
I have a BOB jogger, and yes, I
LOVE it. It’s so easy to push and turn that I only used my regular stroller
maybe twice for outings. We jogged a lot with the BOB, but it’s also been great
for the zoo and places like that. In small stores, I didn’t use a stroller
anyway; wraps/carriers are way easier in those places
 |
| image provided by Catherine Portera |
What
is your car seat? Do you like it?
A Graco hand-me-down from my
sister.
Isn’t
a baby bottle a baby bottle or are some better than others?
I have no idea. We only had one
kind (Dr. Brown’s), but I was never the one giving her a bottle.
Favorite
diapers? What the heck is a diaper pail?
Again, no help with this one,
unless you want to use cloth diapers.
Baby
monitors are expensive. What did you choose and why?
I just wanted one that would enable
me to see her, but I didn’t care about it being in color or anything. I picked
out the Vtech Video and Audio Monitor because it has all the necessities but
was less expensive that some fancier ones. My mom says she didn’t even have a
monitor when we were babies—she just listened out for us!
What did you think you would need, but it turns
out you do not?
A jogging stroller AND a regular stroller.
Yes, she was on a schedule as a baby (she’s almost 3 now).
Yes, it was hard in that once you got it down, things changed again (going from
3 naps a day to 2, things like that), but it was easier for me to work on that
than to never know when she was going to be hungry or tired. I knew the best times of day to run errands or leave the house, and when she did get cranky, I
knew why.
Be honest. When did you start getting sleep
again?
Louise slept 6 hours straight at 6 weeks—those first 6
weeks, I was a zombie—and added about an hour a night each week. By 12 weeks,
she slept consistently from 8am-8am; can’t complain!
How did motherhood change you the most?
I know this answer right off the bat. Surprisingly, it
calmed me down. I’m way more flexible now that I used to be, and little things
don’t bother me like they used to. Not that I was very anxious before, but I
always thought I’d be the type of mom to freak out if my child fell down and
bumped his head. Somehow, I’m the one trying to calm everyone else down when
that happens.
What is your favorite part of being a mom?
Watching this little person learn and grow. I mean, of
course, but I don’t know how else to say it. It’s so fun just to see them smile
for the first time, or walk, or start talking, and now it cracks me up to hear
the way Louise’s little thought process works. Even babies at the ripe age of 2
hours old, when they’re your own, are fascinating to watch.
What is the hardest part?
Having to expose your children or teach them about the
darker things in this world. I felt like I was betraying Louise’s perfect
little world when I let her get shots at 2 months—up until then, she’d never
experienced pain. And now she’s learned about “bad people” from her children’s Bible, because there are pictures of men hitting Jesus, and she’s constantly
asking me about them. Prior to that, to her everyone was kind. It’s sad when
you have to crush their innocence.
People seem to have opinions about everything
related to parenting. How do you deal with that?
I read somewhere that the best way to know if your parenting
style is working well for you is to look at the fruit of it. Good parenting
yields good fruit. My sisters and friends who have happy, secure, respectful
children, I’m constantly watching how they parent to try and learn from them. Those who don’t, I just try to politely listen and nod.
I loved reading this feedback. Again, I am so encouraged to hear that yet another mom has had a baby and calmed down as a result. If I do not get this blessed reaction, I will definitely asking Catherine to help calm me down too! I also love the simplicity of a lot of these answers. It helps remind me that babies do not need 500 of the latest and greatest toys because they will innovate and imagine to play with whatever is around them.
What did your kids find to play with that wasn't a gifted toy?
Also, if you would like to contribute to the Wednesday Mom Blog, do not hesitate to reach out to me either via social media or jrssell1@me.com
XoXo
Jordan Peterson (whoooa)
Chic Memphis
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