Momma Karla

<!–[if !mso]>st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <![endif]–>I recently saw an ecard (which I can’t find now) of a mommy doing twenty things at one time. Although she looked amazing doing it, it is physically exhausting. I think I’m feeling a little bit like the cartoon character. But it may also be the stress of travel. On Tuesday my family sets out on a three week trip to Switzerland, Italy and Croatia. Although very fun it’s always difficult traveling with a baby. Well, let me rephrase that, it’s the getting to your destination and returning that is the REAL stresser.

Cabo San Luca, Mexico

Swimming in Cabo

Natey’s flight back to Los Angeles from Cabo

“Baby listen to me, we only have a little more to go, you can do it, ready, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten, release.” Even counting now makes me a little tense; taking me back to July 24th, 2012. I had been pushing for almost three hours to no avail. I was starting to feel extremely exhausted and my strength was beginning to waver, but Eric wouldn’t look away from my eyes; my hand was gripped tightly and I could feel him squeezing tighter as he supported my neck to assist in my pushing.

More nurses walked into the delivery room and I sensed something abnormal was happening but my cool was kept as my husband made me focus on him and the beautiful gift we were moments away from receiving. Minutes later, after what felt like years of pushing, the little Zurbrugg was born with eyes wide open and a big wet welcome for nurses. Z and I looked at each other and he said, “we did it baby.” And that we did.

Z never left my sight from the minute I went into labor, coached me through every inhale and exhale, and held me tight through every painful contraction. Once Natey was born, he helped me change diapers and held me as I fed our little gift of God every 15 to 30 minutes the first 72 hours. I was in love with Z before Natey’s arrival, but loved him even more the minute Natey arrived. It was then I knew that Z was not only going to be a phenomenal husband, he was also going to be an amazing father. Z turned out to be my unofficial birthing coach. I guess all our lamaze classes paid off! Especially since Z seemed to be the RN’s favorite, always volunteering us and asking the hard questions!

Although I like to think that I do a good job of thanking my amazing husband for all that he does, I would like to take this wonderful day to say thank you! For the purpose of time, I will only list my top five thank you’s 😉

1. Thank you for always kissing me good bye on your way out
2. Thank you for standing by my side in the middle of the night when Natey is having a difficult night even though you could be sleeping in our warm cozy bed
3. Thank you for working so hard for me and Natey
4. Thank you for your random love calls throughout the day 
5. Thank you for making us the happiest little family 

                                    Happy Father’s Day to all the great father’s and father’s to be! 🙂 

 

I should probably start with explaining my unintended hiatus. I could tell you about the horrible flu Natey and Icaught, the pink eye that attacked my left eye, the ongoing hours of no sleep due to the little white pearls ripping through his tiny gums…but I won’t go through the details now, I will simply apologize for not writing and letting you know of our happenings 🙂

Today was a very special day for us Zurbrugg’s, we dedicated Nathan Alexander Zurbrugg. For those of you who don’t know what that means, a baby dedication is when you ask the Lord to help you raise your baby in the best possible way, thank him for the amazing gift He blessed you with, and ask that you and your partner be given love so your children have a loving home. It’s a big commitment to make, but one that Z and I made with the Lord behind us.

Our families joined in our celebration with homemade lasagna and fresh garlic bread made by me and my husband. Unfortunately I completely forgot to take pictures of it throughout the making (last night) and its delivery (today). I guess it wouldn’t have made a difference since my google+ has decided to stop working so for now our instagram (@confessionsofwmc) will have to do 😦 I will however be posting the recipe soon for you to try, should you wish to. It was pretty simple, didn’t take much time to make and it was delicious    (that’s what everyone said 🙂 ).

After lunch we all packed up and walked down the Seaview hill to set up camp at the beach. It was a very nice day for some sissy time 🙂 We talked weddings and family vacation destinations all while making sure Natey didn’t eat too much sand 😉 Our day came to an end with Natey snuggled up in bed, exhausted from a busy day and mommy and daddy cuddling on the couch, all while blogging and watching The Borgias.

10 days old

Nine months ago today I gave birth to Natey. He completely changed my life in a matter of seconds. I can’t completely explain what it’s like to be a mother but this I will say, it opens your eyes to a world you knew existed but never truly understood. Imagine living your life with an eye patch on your right eye and one day it is lifted. Its removal would give you clarity that you could’ve lived without but are now much happier to have. If you can grasp the idea, you can now imagine what parenthood does to you.

In the past 9 months I have learned many things and given that Natey is turning 9, I will share with you 9 lessons learned.

1. Marriage should come before anything, including your children. It’s simple, if your relationship is not doing well, the children will sense that. 

2. Coconut water will not help in the production of breast milk but it will help the quality of the milk produced.

3. Join some kind of mommy group with your baby, it will help you get out of the house the first couple months of motherhood and answer questions when facing baby issues (the instructors seem to have answers to everything!).

4. Your attitude will affect the baby’s attitude so keep it positive.

5. Check the back of your baby’s head every so often (should they have lots of hair) since a knot may form and you’ll have a very difficult time taking it out if you let too many days go by (screaming baby ).

6. Do not cut your baby’s hair yourself. Period.

7. Do expose your baby to different environments early on if you want them to be comfortable around others.

8. Do not put your baby on a rigid schedule. You’ll be hurting yourself and the baby, not to mention you’ll have little to no flexibility.

9. Have your baby sleep in different places ( crib, your bed, playpen, etc.). It will make your life easier when you’re away from home. The baby will be able to adjust to a new bed fairly quickly and if you can travel with the playpen, even better!

I hope my nine findings come useful to you at some point, be it babysitting or chatting with a parent. They may or may not work for every baby but they definitely worked for our family.

Happy birthday Nathan and thank you for teaching mommy valuable lessons! 🙂  

One day old

Yesterday Natey and I met my girlfriend for lunch and after a very delicious lunch we headed back home in traffic for 40 minutes of mommy singing (nonstop!) You are my Sunshine (it soothes Nathan in any situation), I rushed inside to put my baby to bed as soon as we arrived. While nursing him my eyes watered as I relaxed and caressed him, kissed him, and gently ran my fingers up and down his arms. Never had I imagined how much I was going to be able to love a little person that makes me work harder than I ever have around the clock, smiles when I’m upset (he is getting his bottom teeth and thinks it’s funny to bite my nipple), and purposely throws toys so he can watch me pick them up.

Nursing is such a touchy subject with a lot of moms, they either love it or hate it. I’ve only met a handful of moms that don’t feel one way or another. First of all, it’s quite difficult when you think about it. If you’re exclusively nursing, you can’t go far without your baby (you gotta feed him) or your pump (you gotta keep your freezer nice and full). You can’t wear any of your nice clothes because you will surely leak and stain it (I’ve done it a dozen times!) and or worse, you’ll get weird stares when your boobs go off like faucets and all you can do is put your finger on your nipple, apply pressure and hope it stops (I’ve also been a victim of this). Yes, there are products you can use like reusable organic bamboo pads, or  throw away pads, but one day you’ll be so tired you forget to put them on and BAMM! it happens. It’s all pretty funny now, and kinda sad it still happens to me, but I love it.

Not surprising, I’ve become way more relaxed as Natey and I spend more and more time together. I no longer panic at his first cough, I don’t stay up looking at the monitor to make sure he is still breathing at night, and I don’t run at the first sound of his cry. He knows I’ll come when he really needs me and I’m more than happy to supply milk, hugs and kisses as I know one day he will probably be too ‘old’ to kiss his momma. I love nursing. It’s the time I allot to Natey and no one else. Our one on one time. And although he thinks he is getting mommy time, I’m actually the lucky one that gets to nourish my baby all day and all night 🙂

Good night.

Follow me at confessionsofawmc! Xo

These are a few of the words that come to mind when I think of my mother but two of them stand out more than most, STRONG and FAITH. My mother is the only woman I know that can make me angry with her brutal honesty one second and lift my spirits the next by adding two words. She has an incredible way of making you believe in something that you very well may think will never take place, and then to your surprise it happens. Her response, of course, is to look at you as if you were crazy ever to doubt.

I have so many wonderful memories of my childhood with my mother and I have always considered myself one of her best friends. Our relationship has not been perfect but who has a best friend they never fight with! She has been there for every major happening and for every disaster I have gotten myself into, and in most cases she even predicted some of them but allowed me the space to make my own discoveries.

I have always known my mother was a strong woman but recently, her strength has left me speechless.

My mother was detected with breast cancer in 2002, right around the time I was packing my bags, heading to Berkeley. I was devastated. I couldn’t breath. My whole world was turned upside down. But my mother made it through with God as her primary physician. Since then she changed her diet and limits herself to organic healthy eating 99% of the time. She made a change that most people couldn’t do and she made it over night.

Today we experienced a moment of strength. She needed me as much as I needed her and although all I wanted to do was take her by her hand and say ‘ mom, we don’t have to do this’, I looked at her in reassurance that we would be done soon and we were both going to be fine. I felt hollow inside and if I could’ve ran out, I would have ran and ran and ran until I collapsed in exhaustion but when she looked at me, she saw nothing but a strong facial expression that said lets move forward.

Today my mother gave me a gift. A gift of faith. I don’t know how spiritual you are but the bible has a reference to a mustard seed. It says if only our faith was the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains! I don’t know if you have ever seen a mustard seed, but it’s incredibly small. When my mom talks to me about things that seem nearly impossible, I believe otherwise because her faith does not waver. My mother has favor and I can’t wait to see what the exciting new plans are for her life.

I love you Mami!