Newborn photos

We had some newborn photos taken the day before Ford turned 2 weeks old. Im kind of obsessed with them.

Stanford is the sweetest baby right now, he does everything you'd expect, mostly eat/sleep/poop. He absolutely loves the bath and has the cutest grunts and noises. He is a HUNGRY kid. We have been doing a mix of bottle and breastfeeding and he always CHUGS it.

We've been surprised at how fast the day with a newborn goes. There are only a couple things a newborn needs but those needs take up a lot of time! Im so glad travis got two weeks off for paternity leave, it helped us get in a groove and figure this new little guy out! I do wish it had been longer though!

Sleep was a little rough the first two and a half weeks but I decided to take an online newborn sleep class and since then we've got at least one 4-5 hour stretch at night every night and he takes 2-3 hour naps after he eats almost every time so feeling like a winner over here right now!

Im amazed at how much I love him already!

Stanford James Sievers

We had joked all pregnancy that Stanford was going to come on the 29th because that was a day before I qualified for 100% 12 week maternity benefits and fmla. 

My water broke while I was asleep just after 1 am on the 29th. The huge gush of water was totally unexpected since I had been told less than 10% of women’s water break before they go into the hospital and even less than that have it rupture all at once like mine did. I woke up and calmly said to Travis, “hey babe, I think my water broke” Travis sprang in to action getting together everything we needed for the hospital as I aimlessly wandered around not really being able to focus. After about 30 mins we were in the car on the way to the hospital.

I felt my first twinge of a contraction and thought, "okay that wasn’t that bad." We went to the wrong entrance at first and the security person was less than helpful. Cue walking back to the car. We drove around and found the right entrance and Travis dropped me off to look for a parking spot. I ran to the bathroom because I was leaking everywhere. I dried off a bit and walked out and he was frantically looking around and looked so relieved when he saw me. We took the elevator up to labor and delivery and they brought me back to a room to be checked. 

I was starting to have more regular and painful contractions at this point. The nurse checked me and I was at a 4! They thought my fluid looked a little strange so they had to send a sample to the lab to be tested to be sure my water had broken. It took another half hour to confirm that it had indeed and we were checked in. 

I was having contractions about 2 min apart and was struggling to get through them. The nurse kept telling me, "I’m going to need you to keep it together sis!" while they took blood, hooked me up to an iv, etc. once these items were taken care of she paged the anesthesiologist who informed her he would be up in a bit. Her answer was no, she’s dying come now. I was crying and writhing at this point every time a contraction hit. 

When the doctor came up finally I was sooo ready for the epidural (another 30 ish mins). I’ve always been terrified of needles but I have never been more calm and collected. Handled the two contractions he was working around like a champ since I knew I would have some relief soon! 

Once the epidural kicked in I was totally fine! The next 6 ish hours we just talked and tried to rest while I was periodically checked. At the beginning the nurse was a little concerned that Stanford’s heart rate was dropping after each contraction had finished. But after a while he was able to stabilize and all was well. 

I finally stalled at a 9, and we used some pillows over and hour and half to open up my hips and help me go the rest of the way! The nurse called my doctor and she was on her way when I started practicing pushing. I was so lucky to be able to have my actual doctor deliver him! 

After 1.5 hours of pushing the doctor suggested using a vacuum to get him out. Unknowing to me she tried it and it didn’t work at all, so while I thought the vacuum was helping get him out I really pushed him that final distance. The relief I felt on that final push and holding him in my arms is like nothing I’ve ever felt. Holy makeral had I been ready to be done. I just looked between him and Travis is complete disbelief that it was over, this was my baby and we were parents! My doctor stitched me up without me even noticing. I just held my baby!

It took a long time to stitch me up, I tore in 4 places. We stayed in labor and delivery for a couple hours learning to breastfeed and waiting for our room to be ready. My family had been waiting for about 6 hours in the waiting room and some of them had had to leave before they could come see us. It was so fun to have them all in our room after and see how much they immediately loved him! 

Also, in a turn of events I got fmla and 11 weeks at 100% so I only missed out on one week of 100% paid maternity leave!

We love Ford so much!

Stanfords Nursery

I love simple design and love gray and white so this nursery is perfect for me! I love the clean feeling because of that! Basically, it looks like the rest of my house haha devoid of color! Can you tell I am obsessed with my mobile? It's my favorite! The only thing that I am going to change is the lamp on the dresser, that was just one I had laying around from a couple years ago! I love the way it turned out!

37 weeks, we are ready!

On Friday I hit 37 weeks and that is still mind-blowing to me. At this point we can basically have a baby at anytime!

Ive spent the last couple weeks having baby showers, taking things back that we have too much of, washing new baby clothes and making sure we have everything we could possibly need. I finally feel like I have everything ready so we will not be frantic if he happens to come early. The Car seat base is installed, the hospital bags are packed, I have emergency diapers stashed everywhere hahaa.

Im still feeling pretty good at this point so definitely not feeling like he needs to come right now. He can wait!

My sister took maternity photos for us a couple weeks ago and they turned out so great, she is a master!

I can but also cant wait to meet our sweet little boy!

Travel tips Iceland

It already been a year since my mom sister and I went to Iceland for a fun girls trip! Iceland was a very unique place to visit and a lot of people are thinking about going now that regular flight deals have been popping up so I thought it might be helpful to include some things we learned along the way.

#1 Iceland is expensive

Prepare yourself for how expensive Iceland is.  I had read up about this beforehand but was still shocked to see price tags. Food at the grocery store is two to three times what it is where I live and eating out is even more. We thought we'd save all this money going to the grocery store and it was still sticker shock! Definitely bring snacks from home if you can and buy at least breakfast food at the grocery store to cut down on costs.

We rented a tiny little flat in Reykjavik for $125 a night. It had one bedroom with a queen bed and a futon in the living room. The kitchen was barely a kitchen and the size of the bathroom was TEENY, but it did the job for home base and we basically just slept there anyways. We were within walking distance of most of the good stops in the city too which was a plus!

As a bonus most of the things you go to see in Iceland are completely free! Thanks Nature!

#2 You will see more if you don't home base in Reykjavik

One thing I would do over if I go back is to not home base in Reykjavik. I am sure we did save money doing this but it was frustrating to drive 4 hours outside of the city and realize we have to drive 4 hours back every time. I definitely would stay in places along the way ( I didn't price this out so don't really know how much added cost there would be).

On the plus side you have a lot more food options if you do stay in Reykjavik!

#3 Prioritize what you want to see

Iceland is a small country, but odds are you aren't taking 2 weeks to see it and the natural beauty is pretty spread out. Prioritize your top 5 things you have to see and keep in mind other stops if you have time. We were in Iceland for 4 days and still did not get to see everything we wanted to. One day specifically the weather had it in for us and we had to cut things short.

Here were the major things we saw:

In Reykjavik- Church, City, walk down to the coast, Solfar sculpture
Blue lagoon (must get tickets in advance)
Seljalandsfoss
Skogafoss
Gulfoss
Gysir (Id personally skip this especially if youve been to old faithful)
Stop to take pics with icelandic horses on the side of the road
Dyrholaey Arch
The black sand beach
Grotta lighthouse (to see the northern lights)
Bingvellir State Park

I would also add in that the Fjaðrárgljúfur is a must see and I'm so sad we didn't get to it! (Guess I have to go back!)

#4 If you are going anytime near the winter, you will likely hit some crazy weather

We got incredibly lucky with winter on our trip. The snow/ice was mostly gone so the roads were not bad for driving and we even got to see the northern lights because the clouds cooperated one night.

We had one day that shook us when it came to driving (my mom and I switched off driving during the trip). It was Hailing like crazy and super windy and naturally the thing we wanted to see was off the beaten track and had a windy dirt road up a cliff. It was scary and my mom and I about died from the stress of it. We made it, but just needed to go home and sleep after because it was overwhelming.

#5 You will need a rental car

Iceland is small, but its all natural beauty that you'll want to go out and see, which means you will be road tripping unless you do some type of group tour bus thing. The road trip is quite enjoyable with the changes in landscape and beauty surrounding you. But you will be in the car for long periods of time, so keep that in mind!

Rental cars are expensive in Iceland, like everything else. I would not even consider a car without 4 wheel drive if you want to see everything. A lot of the sites on off on dirt roads and especially outside of the summer months weather can change on you in a matter of minutes.

Keep in mind that most ticketing in Iceland is electronic and you might not know you have tickets until you get home from your trip! Obey the speed limits so you dont get caught up in a hefty bill to end your trip. Speed limits on Icelands highways are quite a bit lower than in the US, but most roads are only 2 lanes and with crazy weather changes and such it makes sense.

Check out our Iceland video here.