Find Your Happiness

It is hard to believe a year has passed and our Eleanor is a year old! We celebrated her first year of growth with a Farmers' Market theme birthday (see what I did there?). She wasn't a fan of the balloons or getting her hands messy. But once we gave her a fork and she got a taste of the sweet icing, she stopped being sad. I know first birthdays are really for the parents and this was just so much fun. It is also perfect for our only summer baby! I made Georgia sweet tea (think diabetes) and homemade fresh lemonade. The lemonade were definitely labor of love! Makes up for the fact that I didn't make Eleanor's first birthday cake (I did with the older two). And since we had the party at the community center, the kids played in the splash park after. There aren't any picture because we all needed to cool off especially with the high humidity and 90s temperature.  Our sweet baby is not a baby anymore!

In a true St. Louis baby fashion, Eleanor was not going to enter this world without first making a statement. Because just like the two older ones before her, Eleanor arrived on her terms coupled with a few twists in her birth story. From our very first OB visit, I made my desire known to do Trial of Labor after Cesarean ( TOLAC ) and hopefully have a successful Vaginal Birth after Cesarean ( VBAC ) delivery. My case was a bit tricky considering I already had two prior c-sections and was also diagnosed with gestational diabetes ( GDM ) and chronic hypertension ( HTN ). However, Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Sexton, the two OBs we saw regularly at the Naval Hospital in Camp Lejeune, were very supportive as long as: 1. My GDM and HTN stay relatively managed and under control. 2. Eleanor continues to grow and is not in any type of distress. 3. I go into labor on my own. Number 1  was "easy." I was taking medication for my GDM to control my fasting numbers but it was o