Stealing these fun prompts from Em For Marvelous. Although 2020 was really hard for many reasons, there were also so many good things to come of it too. I’ve learned a lot and we welcomed a baby to our family this year! I couldn’t close out the year without recapping the good!

Best adventure/travel/trip: I believe we only went on one this year but our Ocean City vacation was honestly so sweet. I booked it when I was still pregnant knowing Riley would only be a couple months old and knew that it could either end up being the best or worst decision and it ended up being the absolute best. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, transitioning to two babies was so much easier for us than 0-1, and the vacation was just a celebration of that. We had a really fun time, even during a pandemic.

Best book: I would say either The Girl on the Train or Where the Crawdads Sing. I enjoyed both of them a lot.

Best movie:

In January before all of the craziness hit, we went to see Frozen 2 in theaters for Shaney’s 2nd birthday and it was the most fun thing. The movie was really good and Shane loved the experience of being in the movie theater. It was such a special time and I will forever cherish those memories.

Best TV show: Although I enjoyed many TV shows this year, I think the one that brought me the most comfort was Gilmore Girls. This year there was so much unknown and unsettling and Gilmore Girls is just the perfect lighthearted show that brought me a lot of peace this year.

Best album or song: Yes I Will by Vertical Worship. It also brought me a lot of comfort in the midst of a lot of unknown.

Best follow on Instagram: Oh boy, there are so many people I enjoy following. I would say Logan Hahn. I only found her page towards the end of the year but hers really stands out to me because although controversial, I find a lot of value in the information she shares. I also really enjoyed following Rachel Allene too.

Best kiddo milestone: Shane becoming a big brother! He has done so well and loves his brother so much!

Best faith grower: Breastfeeding my second baby. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go this time around and I really tried to hold my hands and heart open to any possibility, but God really showed up and things went really well for us. It taught me a lot about how God does care about our desires and really does answer prayers.

Best beauty purchase: Burt’s Bees renewal line. I haven’t tried many different kinds of face care lines so I can’t exactly say that this one is my favorite but I did really enjoy having a skin care routine. It’s been something I’ve wanted to start for a while so it was fun to finally do so.

Best family memory: Bringing Riley home from the hospital really stands out in my mind. Shaney was so excited to meet him and it was the sweetest time.

Best habit you created: Finally figuring out how to budget and stick to it – all thanks to Marissa!

Favorite blog post written: The blog really took a hit this year and I have not published many blog posts at all. Something I’m hoping to change next year! But my favorite is definitely Riley’s Birth Story. ♥️

Best new recipe: One would have to be The Pioneer Woman’s Chicken Noodle Soup recipe. We’ve really been loving it especially Shane, which is a miracle because he has become sooo picky. Also, this recipe for pizza dough. We don’t buy frozen pizza at all anymore because this is just so much better and cheaper.

Best life or mom hack: Forever and always: waking up before my kids. While there was a big portion of the year that I wasn’t doing this because of having a newborn, I’m still sticking it here because when I am able to do it, it really makes such a difference on what I can get done for the day.

Best mama moment: Not exactly a moment but somewhere along the way I’ve really made a big change on the amount of mom guilt I’ve allowed in my life. It’s made such a difference in my mental health and how much I’m able to enjoy my kids.

Best home improvement: Moving the washer and dryer upstairs! No more having to go to the basement to do the laundry!!

Best little luxury you’ve enjoyed: Dark chocolate with almonds before bed every night!

Today I thought I would finally share my birth story with Riley. (Now that he’s almost 3 months ha!) Leading up to it I was nervous because the hospital stay after having Shane was somewhat traumatic. To be honest I feel weird saying that because nothing actually traumatic happened, but it just was a very hard time for me.

My birth story with Riley was exactly the opposite. We prayed every day that labor, delivery, and breastfeeding Riley would go well and God answered those prayers and then some! Here’s what happened:

39 Week Appointment

On Wednesday July 8th, I went in for my 39 week checkup and was 2 cm dilated. My doctor did a membrane sweep, which so surprisingly didn’t hurt at all. When I was checked at the end of my pregnancy with Shane, it was incredibly painful. This time was so different though. I had a little spotting right after and a little bit of bloody show later that night.

I thought because of all of that I would go into labor within the next 24 hours but I didn’t. The next few days were pretty mellow. I was having some contractions on and off but nothing intense or rhythmic. Every night though a few would wake me up in the middle of the night because of the intensity. I knew it wouldn’t be too much longer before baby decided to make his appearance.

A Few Days Later

On Saturday night (July 11th) I had intense contractions that woke me up almost exactly on the hour all night. I finally got out of bed around 5 in the morning thinking it could be the last little bit of time I get alone for a while. The contractions ended up stopping around 6am though. Then a few hours later I had more bloody show. The rest of the day I had a few contractions but nothing consistent.

Later That Night

On July 12th, later that same day around 5pm I started having a little more consistent contractions again about every 10-15 mins. I wasn’t sure if it was real or not though. I started cleaning and getting things together in case we needed to go to the hospital. As I was moving around they started getting closer together and stronger. I was in denial for a little bit that it was really happening, but eventually realized they were really starting to really hurt so I called the on call doctor.

I called and the only male doctor was on call (which was the doctor I didn’t want lol) but he told me I could come in. I left the house around 8:30pm. When we left I was scared I wasn’t actually in labor. Once we were driving though the contractions were about every 5 mins and were very painful so I started not to worry about that so much, ha.

At The Hospital

We got to the hospital and I was 6cm! I was surprised I was so far along. I was scared about being that far because I knew I wanted an epidural and was scared it was going to get too painful before I was able to get one.

They started me on fluids so they could get me the epidural. Because I was delivering during the pandemic, they tested me for COVID-19. They actually never told me my results but because of that I assume they were negative lol.

As things were progressing, the contractions did get incredibly painful. I was in so much pain by the time I got the epidural around 10:30.

I remember thinking how crazy everything seemed and how different things were going than when I had Shane. After I got my epidural with Shane, the nurses turned the lights out and told me to get some rest. This time they stayed in the room and started prepping everything for the baby to be born, saying he might come before midnight.

This was super exciting! I wasn’t expecting things to go that quickly because things were much slower with Shane.

Fully Dilated

Around 11:30-12am I was fully dilated but the nurse said that he was still up high so she wanted me to wait a little bit for him to come down before pushing. She said that if I felt a lot of pressure to call her.

Another hour or so went by and the nurse still said he was still up high but she wanted me to try some practice pushes. We did maybe 3-4 rounds of pushes and they said they could see his head so they told me to stop and called the doctor…

Surprise!

But it was too late! When they told me to stop pushing I could feel his head was right there. He basically decided to come when he wanted and sort of just fell out! There were a lot of nurses in the room at that point sort of freaking out a bit. One nurse stepped up and delivered the baby though! Then right after the doctor walked through the door.

He came in and delivered the placenta and that was that. It was kind of funny how he ended up being on call since he was the last doctor I wanted but then didn’t even end up delivering the baby, lol.

The Start of Breastfeeding

Everything went so smoothly during labor and delivery, we were so incredibly thankful. After delivery, Riley latched on so well and I was amazed that it didn’t hurt!

This was probably the biggest difference between Shane and Riley. Shane had a stage 4 tongue and lip tie, as well as cheek ties, which made breastfeeding excruciating right from the start. When Riley latched on and didn’t hurt, I was almost in tears because I was so happy.

The Rest of the Hospital Stay

The rest of the hospital stay went so smoothly. Riley nursed really well. I was able to walk around and was not in very much pain at all and I even got some sleep. This was not at all how it went with Shane so I was literally on cloud 9. I was so thankful.

Because of giving birth during the pandemic I wasn’t allowed to have visitors. This actually made for a really peaceful hospital stay. We were able to rest and really bond with Riley.

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So that’s my birth story of my second son! We are so thankful for him and for how smoothly bringing him into the world went. He has fit perfectly into our family and his big brother loves him just as much as we do! ❤️