The Pink Shoelaces

Midwest Mama – Farmer's Wife – ICU/ER nurse – small business owner – blogger

The Friedman Fam Update – October 2022

Gannon and I are having a work day here while Anders takes a nap. I’m working on this blog post and my little artist is doodling and cutting away next to me. He’s been OBSESSED with arts and crafts and drawing and coloring! If you can’t tell, we think Gannon will be a leftie.

I think that this is a good snap shot of life right now: I’ve got all the hydration to help with breastfeeding, there is my diaper/breastfeeding toolkit in the corner behind my lap top, Gannon is coloring away, and I’ve got my protein/fat breakfast snack as I’m prioritizing my nutrition right now!

Harvest is in full swing around here and has been for about a week now. I was very nervous about harvest season because I’d have the boys and a newborn to take care of essentially by myself but Craig has been SO HELPFUL about helping out where and when he can.

Anders is mostly breastfeeding so he’s really not able to help at night and I want him to get good sleep for the long days in the combine. However, Craig does get up early with the boys (around 6:30 am) and gets them on the bus so I can sleep in with Anders. As soon as he gets home around 8 pm he takes over the diaper changes and is my personal “runner” if I need something. He also took both boys in the combine with him on Sunday for a few hours which was SO helpful so I could get caught up on Etsy orders. 

I took the boys to a local Fall fest and they had so much fun. They colored pumpkins, played games, played at the park, and got too much candy! The event was free will donation and was so nice, we will definitely go again next year if they hold it again! 

Anders has been perfect, he is the chillest baby ever, he STILL hasn’t cried and he’s almost 2 weeks old now! I mean it! He gets kind of “grunty” and restless when he’s hungry but this kid doesn’t cry AT ALL. We have been struggling with jaundice which is pretty normal for babies, especially because he was born 3.5 weeks early. We’ve had regular weight checks and bilirubin checks at the doctor. I’ve been working on frequent feedings and making sure he gets plenty of sunlight to help him process the build up of billrubin in his system. 

I’ve set myself a deadline to place an order of new designs by WEDNESDAY this week so hopefully you’ll be seeing new quilting and cross stitch designs coming soon to the Etsy shop! I’ve been helping mom some with her social media/youtube channel a bit. We went to a business conference together last week and it was GREAT! We got so many new ideas and so much inspiration. We took Anders with and he was perfect as per usual. He didn’t make a peep in the 10 hour day!

That’s all I have for now, I’ve got so many ideas for blog posts I hope I can sit down and actually type them out soon! Thanks for reading! Thanks to everyone who has bought me a coffee lately! That’s so so sweet of you and inspires me to keep writing!

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MANIC MONDAY!

When we had Anders, we thought “This will be great! The boys will be in school so it will be just me and Anders all day on my maternity leave!” Well, that plan greatly relies on the boys ACTUALLY being in school.

Monday began EARLY and by early, I mean at 12:03 am when Carver came into our bedroom with a fever of 101 and complaining of a sore throat and headache. I was so bummed, Carver and Gannon has been all over baby Anders all weekend and I went into a tiny panic mode. So Carver was going to be home from school.

Gannon had one of his follow ups with a urology specialist. We’ve had this appointment scheduled for over a year of course not knowing that I would have a 5 day old at the time. The appointment is in an outreach clinic much closer to our house than Iowa City so it was a double whammy – the appointment was non-negotiable and wasn’t going to be cancelled.

So we scrambled, my mom was supposed to watch my sister’s kids but Kelli (thank you Kelli!) was able to find someone else so mom could watch a sick Carver and Anders while I took Gannon to his specialist appointment (about an hour there and back).

Yesterday’s events would NOT have been possible without my new portable hands free breast pump – Elvie Stride. I would pump in the car and then have a fresh bottle ready for Anders whenever we got to where we were going.

We got back home and I was going to take Gannon back to school when the MELTDOWN began. We’ve had a lot of excitement since Anders has been born so nap time has been off schedule and he’s having a bit of a hard time adjusting to the big change here at home. He did NOT want to go to school and for how grumpy he was, I decided a nap would benefit him more than an afternoon of preschool. So now I’ve got all three boys at home with me for the day.

We head home and I get everyone (including myself) laid down for a nap until we had to wake up and get Carver and Anders to the doctor and Gannon back to my mom’s. Carver needed a strep throat swab, Anders needed a weight check and a jaundice check. So up North we went.

Anders is such a chill baby, I have to set alarms to wake him up at night to feed him. He was born a tiny bit early so he’s needed some time adjusting to life which has meant he’s lost a little weight and his billirubin is a little high too. Carver got swabbed and Anders got his weight check. We had a long wait in lab to get his billirubin drawn but Carver was a champion brother and kept a very close eye on him the whole time.

We had a few pick up orders before we headed home. Craig didn’t end up starting in the field yesterday (still just a tiny bit wet) so he was home earlier than expected and we snarfed down some leftovers before crashing into bed.

In conclusion, Anders is doing okay with his weight and jaundice, he will need a recheck on Thursday. Gannon’s appointment went well and we are CLEARED from urology! We won’t have to see them again unless there’s an issue. Carver’s fever miraculously disappeared and his strep throat was negative. So while it was a crazy day of doctors appointments, we are all on the up and up.

Today is much better, I’m typing this at 11 am and I’ve hardly left my bedroom other than to get the boys on the bus at 7 am. Anders and I have been snoozing, relaxing, watching TV, sorting out the budget, and writing this blog post. This is more the ideal maternity leave I was dreaming of. I’ve also found I can type out a blog post while he rests on my chest. It’s pure bliss.

I wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who has “bought me a coffee” the past week, I’m super excited to use the funds to purchase a ticket to a local business conference mom and I are going to!

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The Pink Shoelaces is a blog about raising boys, life as a nurse, and everything in between! (buymeacoffee.com)

How did we choose the name Anders Allen?

I’m typing this blog post at about 37 weeks pregnant. We’ve been set on this baby name since I was about 16 weeks pregnant. I’ve got a whole note in my phone saved with all the baby names I had picked out and I haven’t looked at it since about April when we agreed on Anders Alexander Friedman.

Anders has a few pronunciations but we are going with and-ers instead of the original Scandinavian pronunciation of ahhnd-ers.

It’s very important that to us that the names we pick for our children have some kind of meaning or that they are named after someone in our family. Anders was the name of my great – grandfather who moved to America from Sweden in the early 1900s. Anders is my mom’s – dad’s – father’s name. When he came to America he changed his name from Anders to Andrew for a more “Americanized” name.

Carver and Gannon were both almost named Andrew, I really love the name so Andrew was again, in the running until we came across Anders.

Alexander is Craig’s middle name which was not a family name when it was given to him. We wondered for awhile if Anders Alexander was too rhymey but after we’ve been saying it now for 6 months or so it really feels right. I think it has a good ring to it.

*NOTE* I’m coming back to edit this post now after he’s born. We were in the hospital after he was born and we had never really discussed a different middle name until Craig said “Let’s name him Anders Allen instead.” Craig was holding him, looking at him, and said he wanted him to be named after my Dad “because there isn’t a day that goes by I don’t miss him.” So Anders Allen Friedman it is.

My Dad’s middle name was Allen, my brother Karl’s middle name is Allan. That’s a funny story too! My mom just had delivered Karl and they were discussing names. They decided on Karl and Dad couldn’t remember if his middle name was spelled ALLAN or ALLEN but was pretty sure it was ALLAN. Well, he was wrong so Karl is named after my Dad, just with the wrong spelling as Karl ALLAN. I ha to consult our sibling’s group chat to make sure I wasn’t making the same mistake although we also think the world of my brother Karl.

We are a family who often uses middle names. Carver John is my Carver Johnny Jumper Boy. When he’s at baseball games and he’s up to bat, I’ll yell from the stands, “Come on Johnny!” so he knows who is cheering for him. Gannon introduces himself as “Gannon Jofus Friedman” (Gannon Joseph Friedman) or his preschool teacher just informed us that he asks that his classmates call him “Ganjo” which is has been his nick-name since he was born. Gannon LOVES that he is named after his Grandma Joey.

We’ve been pretty open about the name we’ve chosen, it’s not a secret we’ve been keeping. My brother Karl says he’s going to call him DERZZ!!! We will see what other nicknames arise for him over time.

So if you’re reading this, we have had the baby and that’s the name we decided on! I hope I can publish this post soon, I’m pretty over being pregnant right now.

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The Pink Shoelaces is a blog about raising boys, life as a nurse, and everything in between! (buymeacoffee.com)

Anders Allen Friedman – 09/21/2022

We have some very exciting news to share!

Anders was born on Wednesday at 2138. I was able to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) following a TOLAC (trial of labor after cesarean). It was the most magical experience I’ve ever had, I seriously can’t wait to share his birth story with you.

My recovery has been AMAZING. Anders is the CHILLEST baby we’ve ever met. As I’m typing this he is 4 days old and we still have not heard him cry, not when he had his circumcision, not when he had his bath, not even through all the blood sugar checks, not one single cry. He has a more serious squawk when he’s getting hungry and that’s how we know he needs to eat.

The boys are totally in love with him, maybe too much love. Gannon is definitely a little naughtier and Carver is much more mature overnight. Craig has been the most amazing teammate and Dad. I fall in love with him a little bit more every time we welcome another kiddo. We are all on cloud nine over here.

Huge shout out to my mom for keeping Carver and Gannon while we were in the hospital, this includes making sure they are all dressed up for their homecoming days! It’s been a crazy month ya’ll. I can’t wait to tell you more, but for now I’ll leave this here:

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The Pink Shoelaces is a blog about raising boys, life as a nurse, and everything in between! (buymeacoffee.com)

False Alarm

First of all, still no baby.

My OBGYN wants me to have this baby before 38 weeks because he’s getting too big for me to attempt a VBAC. So we’ve been doing all the things to try and induce labor.

Last weekend, contractions started. I started timing them with my app and several times it said “Go to the hospital!” They were getting mildly uncomfortable but I kept asking myself, is this really it? We live an hour away from the hospital I’m delivering at…could I risk it and wait it out another hour at home? I’m a third time mom AND attempting a VBAC, my provider said to have a very low threshold for heading to the hospital. I called and the OB nurses confirmed I should come in and get checked.

We loaded up the car, dropped the boys off at my mom’s (where they were totally spoiled by a lego night with Uncle Karl) and made the trek. In the car on the way there, I was glad we were going because initially, things were getting more and more painful. But as we got closer to the hospital, the still painful contractions were farther apart and fewer.

By the time we got to OB I wondered if we should have come at all. I did have several contractions on the monitor but contractions don’t really count if you’re not dilating. I went from a 2 to a 4 and then stalled out. We walked the halls, I did all the stretching, I bounced on a ball, and there was nothing. I even did like a “labor inducing” exercise video which was totally for nothing and my legs are SO SO SORE!

The nurses and midwife were so awesome, they didn’t make me feel silly at all for coming in. In fact, they were still debating whether they should keep me overnight or not when we were finally released around 11 pm. Contractions continued and have continued on and off for days now. I consider myself in what is called “prodromal labor.” It’s not false labor because I really am having real contractions, it just isn’t progressing. I pretty much have TERRIBLE period cramps day and night for days now.

I’m not as uncomfortable as I was when I was this close to having Carver and Gannon, I definitely attribute that to the fact I stayed within the recommended weight gain range. Granted I ain’t as good as I once was but I’m still power washing the garage and going on walks with mom. It’s still easy for me to get out of and move around in bed. Physically, I feel pretty good. Mentally? Oh I’m TOTALLY over being pregnant ya’ll.

So here’s possibly the last bump shot you’ll get from me for this pregnancy! I’ll keep ya’ll posted on how things go!

Check out my latest posts:

Want to support The Pink Shoelaces? You could “Buy Me a Coffee” here:

The Pink Shoelaces is a blog about raising boys, life as a nurse, and everything in between! (buymeacoffee.com)