I cannot believe it has been four weeks since Kade was born- time is already flying by and we are cherishing this newborn phase.. for the second time around! Kade is laying beside me as we write this and I could seriously just stare at him all day long.

Many of you have been asking about our birth story, and what better place to share it.

Lets go way back to November 5th, we had an ultrasound that morning to check on baby Kade. He had been dropping in percentile growth the few weeks before hand and my weight wasn’t going up + my belly size seemed to get smaller so they were worried he may not be growing properly inside. So this ultrasound on November 5th was either going to be the day they induced me or sent me home to wait! Thank goodness baby was growing just fine and they estimated him being around 5.7 pounds at the time.

It’s quite crazy how everything happened leading up to the birth, and soo similar to my first birth story with Ayla. It was November 11th, first thing in the morning I woke up and had a light cramping feeling in my tummy. I knew what to expect this time around because my first pregnancy - my contractions were unbearable to the point I was in tears. This time when I woke it was such a light cramping I decided to take a warm bath. Later that day we went out grocery shopping as a family and came back to relax and watch movies by the fire. Kalims parents stopped in because my cramps were getting a little worse and I decided to start tracking my contractions with an app (6pm). My mother in law thought lets get your hospital bags & Ayla sleepover bag ready just in case. So everyone left and I went to take a little nap upstairs (7:45pm ish) only minutes later my contraction app told me it was time to go to the hospital. I have a very high pain tolerance and I honestly would of stayed home if it weren’t for the app!

So, we take Ayla to her grandparents house and head to the hospital to get told my cervix was still closed! They wanted to monitor baby with a non stress test, and by the time that ended my contractions were really hurting and I was given a shot of gravol/morphine … OUCH. They asked me to walk around for an hour, and it would either kickstart labour or it would slow things down and they would send me home. I lasted 5 minutes on my feet and had to lay down. The pain was BAD. I was crying in pain at this point and poor Kalim was trying to help calm me but nothing was working. The nurse came in and checked me out again, I was now 3cm dilated. She said okay this Dr on call is great and will give you epidural now. So we transferred over to the delivery room, got me into the bed, tried to find my veins in my hand to get everything hooked up and epidural happening… I was in major, MAJOR pain. I yelled “He’s coming NOW”, The nurse checked my cervix, I was 10cm dilated. As you can probably already guess, no epidural was given. Nurses, doctors, everyone started flying into the room and sure enough I pushed for 3 minutes (total labour -12 minutes) and at 10:38pm on November 11th, 2019 Kade Lincoln Menzel was here!

It was not how I expected this second birth to go AT ALL! WOW! It was pain that I can’t even explain.. and now to this day writing this it’s like you almost forget all the pain. I just look over to Kade and am so happy he is here and healthy.

Kalim and Kade a few hours after giving birth!

This was taken around 10am the day Kade was born!

The best feeling in the world! Holding someone you just grew inside you for 9 months.

If you only saw me 5 minutes before this picture was taken! I was screaming bloody murder!!

All the pain…. you were worth it little man! You’re so loved!

KADE LINCOLN MENZEL 5LBS 5OZS

During the next few days, I did take things slowly but I could feel that my body was bouncing back quicker then with my first pregnancy and I swear it’s from no epidural! Yes I still wore an adult diaper, and huge pads sorry if TMI… but I want to be as real as possible. I finally stopped bleeding only a few days ago. Hallelujah.

Now for feedings, I am breastfeeding and am very thankful that it is going well. I was able to breastfeed for 11 months with Ayla! From the very first day, Kade latched very well and I haven’t had any problems with feeding. Unfortunately pumping isn’t for me, I tried with Ayla and I just couldn’t get much from it so we will give formula only when I have to leave so my mom and Kalim can feed him.

As for fitness/ nutrition I’m just fully enjoying these 6 weeks of healing and resting to be with my babies and then I can’t wait to start my fitness journey and tone my body with the help of @RIPPEDTOSHREDZ - (WWW.RIPPEDTOSHREDZFITNESS.COM). If you’re looking for help with fitness and nutrition definitely check out our world-wide online fitness coaching company we help people of all sorts, ask any questions and ill be happy to help!

If you’re still reading this… Thank you for being here!