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This cartoon is soooo hilarious and accurate.

Did you hire anyone to assist you after your birth? Which did you find the MOST helpful? Did you hire them for subsequent births, or only the first?
It is so funny how many “THINGS” we think we need with the first baby, then we actually give birth and find out what we reallllly need. Haha!

Diapers. Milk. Sling. Clothes. and HELP!

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*happy babywearing*
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Today is International Day of the Midwife, so we should not let that go by without some fanfare!!!

The PAXmommies have been so lucky and so blessed to have some of the best midwives around!!!

Thank you for looking after our families so well!

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*happy babywearing*

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Get your kegel in gear with PAXbaby’s SmartBall Challenge!

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http://shop.paxbaby.com/smartballs/

30 days of work to achieve a strong kegel! Keep it up after the challenge and you will be amazed at how awesome you feel!

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PAXbaby‘s SmartBall Challenge! Each day in January 2015, PAXmommy Jillian will help you get on the great habit of using your SmartBalls to strenthen your Kegel muscle! By the end of the 31 days, you can expect to feel stronger, have better bladder control, and be able to say I TOOK PAXBABY’S SMARTBALL CHALLENGE!!!

#1 – Get your SmartBalls out of the packaging and wash with warm water and gentle soap. Let them air dry to get ready for Day #2! The hardest part is getting started, so let’s START!

Day #2 – Lather up your SmartBalls with your favorite personal oil and insert them, leaving the pull string out of your body. After a few moments, pull the string to remove! Wash again and air dry! That’s it; easy!!!

Day #3 – Insert your Smart Balls as previously described but this time, set a timer for 5 minutes. During these 5 minutes, just stand or walk around. Don’t try to clench, but let the Smart Balls sit within your body; get comfortable with how they gently move within you! I’m not going to remind you each day to wash and dry your SmartBalls so don’t forget on your own!

Day #3 – Today during your 5 minutes, walk and stand and add in a little sitting. See how your body reacts naturally to your movements.

Day #4 – Repeat Day #3.

Day #5 -Today is Day #5 of PAXbaby’s SmartBall Challenge and we are going to celebrate by inserting your SmartBalls and instead of letting gravity do the hard work, fight against that pull, and kegel kegel kegel during your 5 minutes. Try to kegel at least 5 times during this time!

Day #6 -Insert your SmartBalls and instead of letting gravity do the hard work, fight against that pull, and kegel kegel kegel during your 5 minutes again. Try to kegel at least 5 times during this time holding to the count of 10 each time!

Day #7 -Repeat Day #6.

Day #8 -Insert your SmartBalls and instead of letting gravity do the hard work, fight against that pull, and kegel kegel kegel during your 5 minutes again. Try to kegel at least 10 times during this time holding to the count of 10 each time! This time, do a few squats while exercising your Kegel muscle and feel how much strength your body has. If you find that you don’t have much strength, do a repeat later in the day.

Day #9 -Repeat Day #8. It’s crucial at this point that you do a repeat later in the day if you are unable to hold the kegel for 10 seconds! Please don’t pass over this important step!

Day #10 – Today we up the ante! Keep your SmartBalls in for 10 minutes while doing a variety of activities – standing, sitting, and squatting!! Try to get 20 awesome clenches in and count to 10 while holding the kegel!

Day #11 – Repeat Day #10!

Day #12 – PAXbaby’s SmartBall Challenge BIG day! Since your goal is to have more control over your bladder, you are going to test and see how your kegel is doing! Today, instead of using your SmartBalls, you are going to practice starting and stopping your pee as you urinate. Crazy talk, I know, but as you let your kegel release, you will be able to feel how much power you have! Can you stop your pee multiple times? Does it come to a trickle or does it fully stop? Take notes if you want, and remember to drink lots of water to give yourself multiple times to practice!

Day #13 – Keep your SmartBalls in for 10 minutes while doing a variety of activities – standing, sitting, and squatting!! Try to get 20 awesome clenches in and count to 10 while holding the kegel!

Day #14 – Repeat Day #13!

Day #15 – Repeat Day #13!

Day #16 – Repeat Day #13!

Day #17 – Repeat Day #12 and gauge whether your control has improved! Can you completely halt your pee? Does it take a LOT of effort or is it pretty easy???

Day #18 – Keep your SmartBalls in for 10 minutes while doing a variety of activities – standing, sitting, and squatting!! Try to get 20 awesome clenches in and count to 10 while holding the kegel! Keep up the good work!

Day #19 – Repeat Day #18!

Day #20 – Repeat Day #18!

Day #21 – Repeat Day #18!

Day #22 – Let’s celebrate with a SNEEZE! Choose your most effective way to stimulate your olfactory senses and SNEEZE! Hopefully you have been practicing so much and so hard that your kegel will know JUST what to do! But if not, here’s a reminder : clench and squeeze as you sneeze to avoid having wet pants!!!

Day #23 – How did you do yesterday with the SNEEZE challenge? If you did awesome, enjoy a day off! If you need a repeat, try again!

Day #24 – There’s not much time left in PAXbaby’s SmartBall Challenge! Let’s get back to our kegels : 10 minutes, 20 kegels, 10 seconds each, and… GO!

Day #25 – 10 minutes, 20 kegels, 10 seconds each, again! Is this easy for you now? Can you reach the goal of 20 kegels easily? How about 30?

Day #26 – Here’s a question for you! If you set a timer for 1 minute and do quick kegels with your SmartBalls in, how many can you do? Now, remove your SmartBalls and set the timer again! Can you do more or less with the SmartBalls in????

Day #27 – Need to practice again? Let’s do this! Stay active for 10 minutes! 20 kegels should be an easy goal by now; can you do 30? Whoa, what about 40???

Day #28 – Keep going strong. PAXbaby’s SmartBall Challenge is almost over but not quite yet! Repeat Day #27!

Day #29 – It’s PEE day! Can you bring your pee to an absolute stop today? 1 time? How about 5 times? Stop and release, stop and release! Your kegel can do this; you’ve been practicing!!!

Day #30 – In 2 days, I won’t be reminding you to kegel, but you will need to remember on your own! What can you do to keep practicing? Will you set an alarm on your phone? Will you ask someone to remind you? Will you leave your SmartBalls under your pillow??? Today did you practice? Because look, I didn’t remind you!!!!

Day #31 – The struggle has been real, but with PAXbaby’s SmartBall Challenge of January 2015, you are on your way to a tighter, stronger year! Keep those SmartBalls handy; please use them every other day starting today for just a few minutes to remind your kegel who’s boss! Good luck & thank you for taking the Challenge with me!

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*** Awesome hints about your SmartBalls*
No time is too short to practice! Got 5 minutes? Pop em in!

No time is too long to practice! If you are enjoying how the SmartBalls feel, keep em in! A few hours maximum!
You can pee with your SmartBalls in! Remember, these bad boys are inserted into your vagina; your pee comes out your urethra! Different holes for different purposes!

Keep your SmartBalls clean!

SmartBalls love coconut oil; it reminds them of sunbathing in Hawaii! But if you have a difference lubricant preference, just double check that it is appropriate for silicone products!

And one last though, have fun with your SmartBalls!

They can be very useful in many different ways!

Don’t have Smartballs?
Get some and begin the challenge!

http://shop.paxbaby.com/smartballs/

*** Please refer to your midwife or doctor’s advice before starting to use SmartBalls or following a birth. The PAXmoms are not medical professionals, just helpful moms who want your kegel to grow nice ‘n strong!***

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*happy babywearing*

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The post PAXbaby’s SmartBall Challenge 2015!!! appeared first on PAXbaby.

Happy birthday to our Rose & also happy National Adoption Day 2013!

Our special girl is nine years old today, and such a blessing to our family!  To help us celebrate, I thought that you might like to read her story and enjoy the perfect timing of our life!

3 months into my second pregnancy, PAXdaddy was at a funeral for the mom of a little boy in the elementary class that he was co-teaching that year. Another mom approached him and asked if we were still interested in adopting at some point… He answered YES! however we are currently pregnant… She said, you never know, maybe the due dates would match, and we could have “twins!!” We arranged that she would bring the potential birthmom to our house the next day to interview us!

I was so nervous, sure that 12 month old Baby #1 would do something embarrassing, sure that I would say something silly, sure that this was a pie in the sky dream to have 2 babies join our family together!  When our friend introduced us to Rose’s birthmom, I met an angel!  Her eyes were kind, her smile was HUGE, and her heart was golden!  I so wanted to help her and be able to keep the baby safe, especially when it was revealed that our due dates were a mere 10 days apart!  Rose’s birth mom is exactly my age, but unmarried, and she told us that she was “unwilling to submit her baby to the backlash that happens in her native Aztec culture to a baby born out of wedlock…” She chose to share her baby with a family who would love & cherish the child, and keep that child from the life destined in her own village in Mexico where the child would be treated, she said, like a “slave.”  Although we didn’t speak ANY Spanish at the time and she didn’t speak any English, Rose’s birthmom returned the next day after interviewing 2 other families saying that she had chosen our family to love her baby forever!! She just gushed (in Spanish to our friend who translated) about how helpful and sweet PAXdaddy was with me and also with our oldest child. This was so unlike the men that she had known in her life, and she also valued highly the fact that I would be able to breastfeed the baby!!!

Rose’s birthmom moved into our little guest house and lived with our family for the last 6 months of both of our pregnancies!!!  As we each got bigger and bigger, we planned to use the same midwives and each prayed for safe home births!!!   A bilingual family counselor acted as a translator at her midwife appointments, and came weekly to help work out any issues we needed help with and to also help plan the babies’ births.   At 20 weeks, PAXdaddy and his two pregnant ladies went to have gender ultrasounds to reveal what we already suspected, that both babies were girls!  The fact that not only would the babies be “twins” but that they’d be “girly twins” caused the two mommies a lot of excitement and smiles!!!! PAXdaddy and I decorated the nursery in yellow and white with vintage baby decorations even though we were still cosleeping with Eli and planned to bedshare with the girls as well.  As we nested and planned, we couldn’t help but feel sad that Rose’s birthmom didn’t have these things to look forward to, but during counseling, she assured us that “the baby had never been hers, but had only been waiting for us!”

10 days before her due date, on November 1, Baby #2 decided that the HUGE Mexican feast that Rose’s birthmom had prepared for us to celebrate the Day of the Dead was just too spicy for her, and it was time to evacuate!!!   Baby Lucy was born in our bedroom after 2 hours of labor, and helped me to prepare my milk supply for TWO babies!!!  3 weeks later on November 23, Rose’s birthmom let us know that it was time for our second daughter to be born,  and our midwives returned to help deliver Baby Rose.  I remember Rose’s birth so very clearly that often I confuse the girls’ stories; they are so intertwined in my mind!  The baby was born into our midwife’s hands and set into my arms.  I couldn’t believe that I was so lucky to have not just one baby girl, but TWO!!!  I gave Baby Rose my breast and she latched right on; she knew who her mommy was.  Seeing the baby girls together the first time made me cry; seeing PAXdaddy holding his newest baby girl made me cry; my life was so overwhelmingly amazing – it made me cry.

Breastfeeding proved easier with the girls than it had been with my first baby, but part of that was luck and part was sheer willpower on my part to make it work out perfectly!  My midwives and I decided to keep things the most organized each; baby girl should have their own breast, and actually, my tandem nursing experience has been my easiest breastfeeding success so far!  Eli was still so young that most of the girls’ first 7 months ish were spent sitting on our favorite rocking chair, rocking and reading and feeding the babies!  It took me a long time to get in the groove, but once the girls were sleeping through the night and moved into their decorated nursery at that 7 month mark, I had enough energy to take my herd of babies out to the park on my own which we did every day.  Routine became my best friend since PAXdaddy was working that year from before the babies woke up til after they went to bed.  Weekends were pure family time with hikes, and reading time, and trips to the beach.

Eli doesn’t even remember life before the girls, and they thought he was great entertainment!  He was a bit of a bully as a two year old, so the girls were never left alone with him which is one of the reasons I’m so grateful that I had learned to babywear with my first baby!  I often wore one girl in a ring sling and carried the other on my opposite hip in my arm or in a secondary sling.  Eli was still keen on being worn as well, and I used a framed hiking backpack while pushing the girls in a tandem stroller to help exercise off the baby weight! By the time the girls were 14 months, they had weaned me at 13 months, and were very bonded as sisters.  When we decided to get pregnant again, the jump from having 3 to 4 children seemed so much less daunting because really, once you have experienced life with 3 under 2, you can do anything!!!!

Rose’s birthmom was Baby #4’s first visitor after his homebirth, she has come to each of the childrens’ birthday parties, and blessed us with her company on many occasions over the years until the summer of 2010 when she told us that she was preparing to return to Mexico to become a MIDWIFE!!! She says she wants to help other women in the same way that our midwives had helped her!!  I am so happy that the children have this wonderful, caring, sweet, amazing woman in their lives.  They call her Tia, which means Auntie in Spanish, and have many fond memories of her!!!  Bless her, and her beautiful heart that gave us another child to love and gave to Rose the gift of life!

*happy babywearing*

PAX

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