Thursday, March 28, 2013

Nora is ONE Month Old!

Today is also Chris and I's 7th anniversary, so it is a special day today.

I cannot believe that the last month has flown by so quickly. Where did it go? Nora is such a sweet baby.  She still seems to cry a lot on and off but it has gotten much better and we seem to be getting a decent routine down throughout the day.

We nurse on demand. She is a strong sucker and loves to suck on her hands if she can (since she was born.) She has not yet had a bottle and I'm not sure if we will do that for a while. I pump about 2 oz. every morning and have been freezing them in 5 oz. bags for later on if we need them sometime. I have not bothered seeing a lactation consultant this time around like I did with Graydon. I am just trying to be more relaxed with nursing and going with the flow. She seems to be getting big and has a lot of wet and dirty diapers so she must be getting what she needs!
She is still wearing newborn sizes. My favorite outfits are her Little Dear pink sleeper outfit, her teal striped monkey sleeper, the bright polka dot cupcake sleeper, and all of the outfits that have hearts on them that she had got around Valentine's Day before she was born.
We are using size 1 diapers. They are a bit too big but I refuse to buy more newborn size which she will just have blowouts in anyways. 
She is starting to smile a bit.
She sleeps great at night. She usually falls asleep around 11 to midnight and will sleep until 6 AM, it has been AWESOME. She usually starts out in the Arms Reach cosleeper right next to me but sometimes we end up cosleeping in the bed and fall asleep while she is nursing. It's the easiest way to get her to fall back asleep in the middle of the night.
She is a huge cuddler and sleeps well if I am holding her (or someone else too) but she seems to prefer her Mama! She is letting Chris hold her more often now. The only way I can get her to sleep for a decent period of time is swaddling her and putting her in the bouncy chair with a paci while it vibrates.
We are using MAM pacifiers occasionally and she is getting a bit better at keeping it in her mouth.
This past month we had her first St. Patrick's Day. Graydon was a big ill so we stayed home and did not do anything too special. We did get cute pictures though!
She is starting to coo a bit more.
She is starting to hold her head up a little bit, but definitely not as strong as Graydon was at this age.
We haven't really put it her on tummy at yet because she was spitting up so much for a while. I have cut most of the dairy out of my diet so I think that is helping.
I am guessing she weighs over 9 lbs. now since at 2 weeks she weighed 8 lbs. 12 oz. and was 21 inches long. 
She has a couple of little pimples here and there but does not have baby acne near as bad as Graydon did at 1 month!
She seems to hate her car seat right now but I think it will get better. Usually once we start driving she is OK.
She has only had a couple of bathes but seems to love them instantly. It seems she really likes being in the water, and it is adorable having her take a bath with Graydon.
Her umbilical cord had some issues at first but it is pretty much totally healed now.
When people comment on her they usually tell us what a beautiful baby she is. I know we are biased, but we agree! She is very sweet.  We also get a lot of comments about how she has a pretty name.

I am sort of sad that a month has went by already. I do not want her to get big too fast.  I just want to enjoy my sweet tiny baby.  I need to remember that when I am trying to do too many things around the house. It is hard to keep up with everything though, with having a toddler running around as well. The days fly by and there never seems to be enough hours to get things done, even though I am home all day, it is crazy! Trying to enjoy my time as much as possible though.

Pictures to come later.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Some of my fav pics lately












Professional Hospital Pics

Here are a few of my fav professional hospital pics...








Our Hospital Pics

Here are some of my fav pics from the hospital!
















Things so far...

...have been interesting. It is nice staying and at but also hard. Especially having a newborn.

Nora has been super fussy this past week, and I have had a cold. She wants to be on me, held by me, near me and constantly eating pretty much all the time. I am fine with this but it makes it hard when I need to show Graydon attention and she will not stop crying. Today has been good so far. I am trying to cut out my dairy. We do not drink milk, but it is still in my creamer, and I tend to eat cheese in almost every meal somehow in some form or another. I also loooove chocolate and ice cream, so just trying to not snack on those things.  Also used some gas drops last night and she slept for FIVE house. Booyah...going to try that again tonight!!  Otherwise she is a beautiful, lovely, silly face making, squishly little monkey baby. I love her chubby cheeks and her long toes. She totally has my feet. :)  I also think that she looks A LOT like me when I was a baby. She has a much smaller, more petite little nose than what Gray had when we was born, but they also look very similar, especially when she was first born. When she came out we were like "she's a girl version of Graydon when he was born!" It has been a lot of fun noticing their differences and similarities.  Currently she is nursing about every 1-2 hours. I just nurse her on demand whenever she is rooting and things are going good so far. I really want to be able to nurse a lot longer this time especially since I am home. Nora sleeps next to our bed in an Arms Reach Cosleeper that my sister borrowed me for the time being and it has been really helpful. She starts out in that most nights and then always seems to end up sleeping next to me at some point after like 3-4 AM. We get a lot more sleep that way and it works out well. Newborn size is still fitting her the best but I can tell that she will soon be fitting into the 0-3 month size better. It is still a little big on her but that is OK.  At her first peds appointment at 4 days old, she has gained 2 oz. back so the doctor was happy with that. At her 2 week appt. she weighed 8 lbs. 12 oz. and was 21 inches long, along with 14 inche head circumference so she is growing great! We will do her first Hep B shot at her 2 month appointment.

Graydon on the other hand has been SUCH a handful. I am sure that part of it is jealousy, and the other part of it is him just being a stubborn, independent, little stinker of a two and half year old. He ignores us a lot, refuses to listen sometimes, says NO, says I CAN'T, wants to do things by himself which is great unless we are sort of in a hurry, which seems to be always these days.  If we tell him not to do something or to stop he tests us in every way. He is so sweet one second and being frustrating the next. Needless to say we are trying to be consistent and he has seen a lot of timeouts these days. We want to give him love but he also needs consistence and needs to know that our threats are not hollow. Fortunately he is great with Nora for the most part. He hasn't tried to hurt her (although I don't leave him alone in a room with her just in case) and is very sweet with her. He is still getting used to the fact that she has her own things, and that they are not also his in some cases. He is quick to notice if she isn't in the room and wants to know where she is. He also is very aware of what she is doing or if she is eating etc. Right now he thinks that she eats from my belly (he doesn't know they are called boobs or breasts, which is fine with us for now. I don't really want him running around saying that Nora eats from Mommy's breasts etc.)  He also knows that she drinks "baby's milk". It is really cute and sweet.  He usually demands about once a day: "I want to hold my baby sister!" or "I want to hold Nora now!"  I will usually let him unless I am in the middle of a feeding or she is sleeping.  He is doing really well too, and the doctor also checked him over when we went to Nora's 2 week appt.  It was sort of his very 6 month belated 2 year well baby check up. He is currently 30 lbs. 2 oz. and 3 ft. 2 inches tall. He is vocab is amazing and he speaks in full sentences so the doctor thought that was great.

I am doing my best to balance my time, and try to keep up on stuff around the house without getting too down on myself if something doesn't get done. I figured that out quickly last week that I'm not going to get everything done every single day, especially with Nora being so fussy.  I know as she gets older things will get easier and we will fall into more of a routine. I am also hoping that Graydon starts listening a little better so that will helps things flow better throughout the day as well. I need to also start doing some things to help him stay more preoccupied. He cannot just keep watching TV all day long, but for right now I'm letting it happen because I'm feeding Nora almost constantly. I know the last couple of days I have gotten frustrated quite a bit with all of Nora's crying and Graydon's constant whining and disobeying, but I am trying to have a good attitude and be more patient. I keep reminding myself that Graydon is only 2 and Nora will only be a newborn for so long, and I want to enjoy that! Graydon has also been throwing up on and off the past couple of days so that has made things challenging as well.

Well I think that is all for now. I definitely miss my coworkers, getting out every day and having the adult interaction. Honestly I am thankful for the internet, for texting and for FACEBOOK, lol. Also for my friends who have visited etc.

I should also note that I am thankful for my husband Chris, who is one of the hardest workers I know and I am very blessed to be able to stay at home and raise our children. I pray that God gives me the strength, patience and knowledge to raise them in the best way possible. I just want to try and do the best that I possibly can!

Birth Story

Well, I ended up having to be induced. Part of me still cannot believe it! According to my cycle I was 6 days overdue, but according to what my OB had changed my EDD to, I was 11 days overdue and they were not letting me go past the weekend.  I just still am in a little disbelief that I went even more overdue than I did with Graydon (3 days overdue)!

So on the morning of Feb. 28, we left our house at about 5:45 AM and headed to the hospital, which is thankfully only like 5 miles away. I had barely slept the night before..I was way too anxious and nervous.  I got up at like 4 AM to shower, get ready and finish packing last minute odds and ends along with making sure I ate a good breakfast since I had no clue when I could eat again. From 6-7 we checked in, got into our room, went over details, asked a lot of questions and got stuff set up. I got my IV. I was pretty emotional, and scared. I just did NOT want to have a c-section.  The nurse was very reassuring and helped calm my nerves.  At 7 AM my nurse Megan came in and she was with me the rest of the time, and was pretty awesome. My friend Kelli had actually called there the night before and had her assigned to me which I thought was really  nice of her. She just wanted to make sure I had an amazing nurse and I was thankful!

At 7 they started the Pitocin drip and I was still around 3 cm (barely.) They were hardly giving me any fluids (per my request because I didn't want to get super puffy and didn't know if I'd want the epidural or not). They uped it about every 30 min. It took like 2 hours for me to really even start feeling anything it seemed like. The contractions just were not that bad and seemed tolerable still at that point. The nurse gave me credit because she said that a lot of women start freaking out once they feel any pain at all and want the epi like right away. But, they "needed me to be feeling uncomfortable. It is supposed to hurt." I was like uhhh ok. Between like 10-10:30 is when it started getting worse. The nurse checked me at some point and I was only at 4 cm. which frustrated me. I felt like I wasn't going anywhere but she assured me my body was doing what it was supposed to, but I was thanking God that Nora's heart rate stayed stable the entire time. She was such a trooper. The contractions were every 1-3 min. apart and lasted around a minute each time. They honestly were not that bad but the fact that they were so close together made it a bit hard.

I talked with my nurse again around 11 and told her I thought that I might want the epi soon but I wasn't sure what to do since I was only 4 cm and I felt like that was just too soon but I didn't want to accidentally wait too long. She said, well let's make a goal. Try to make it until noon and then the Doctor will get here and check you and most likely break your water. By 11:15 I told Chris it was really starting to bother me and I didn't want to wait much longer and regret it, and then not have it when she broke my water. At 11:30 I called for my nurse and the other nurse told me it would be a few minutes. Well, she never came. At noon she walked in with my OB and apparently they had never told her I called that I had called. At this point I was starting to get super anxious, in tons of pain and definitely wanted the epidural. The contractions were around 1 minute apart, and just not a natural progression of pain like a normal labor is. I can definitely understand why people end up getting an epidural when on pitocin, it just is NOT natural!

My OB checked me and I was still 4 cm ( in my head I was like HOW is that possible??!!!! I was in sooo much pain at this point.) She broke my water and my pain level went from like a 6 to a 100 in less than a minute. The contractions were still one minute apart, lasting around minute but I felt like I was in transition with every contraction. I don't know how I did it. It was awful. It was SO incredibly painful, I thought I was going to die, lol. It was like once the water was broke and the pressure of the baby moving down...it was just really intense.  I ended up having to deal with the pain for about half an hour until the anesthesiologist finally got there to do the epidural. He got the epi in right away (oh and I forgot to mention that they got almost 2 bags a fluid in me super quick so my BP didn't drop before he did the epi) and he also gave me some sort of local once he put it in and the effect was almost immediate. It was smooth sailing from there on out and thank goodness my blood pressure never dropped and I didn't have any other side effects. My body took it all really well.

My nurse Megan checked me again sometime right before 1:30 and was like wow...you are already 5-6 cm. I was like WOOOO HOOO!!! Finally, some progression. After that they got me some jello and I just hung out. The epi wasn't going through the best on my right side so they gave me some fentanyl. I swear it made me feel a little buzzed. I told the other nurse that but she was like No...that is probably just from the epi, except I never felt it until they gave me that. Anyways, I was still feeling stuff on my right side but it was tolerable so I honestly didn't even care, I wasn't in pain and was feeling pretty good.  The nurse ended up saying that I was probably feeling that pain because I was almost ready to have a baby. She checked me again at like 1:37 and she was like you are 8 cms...I need to go get your doctor! I texted our photographer right away that if she wanted to make it for the birth that she would need to leave work immediately because I would probably end up pushing soon. I was so excited!!  Unfortunately she didn't make it in time but we still got a ton of awesome pictures in the delivery room afterward.

My nurse came back a few minutes later, and I told her I was feeling pressure.  She checked me again and said I was completel! My OB came in shortly after and I started pushing a little before 2 pm, pushed for like 15 min. and had her at 2:08.

Once they broke my water and I got the epi, things went fast. It only took like 1.5 hrs for me to go from 4-10 cm. I only had like one little tear. It was awesome! I was just so happy because Nora's HR never dropped with the pit, my BP never dropped from the epi, I barely tore, I only had to push for 15 minutes, and I didn't hemorrhage this time like I did last time with Graydon. The only negative side effect was after it was all said and done I was itchy from all the drugs for like 12 hours, but it was bearable.

We stayed in our room for a couple of hours before we could be transported. My epi wore off pretty quick and I was able to walk shortly after the birth. They ended up having to cath me once to drain my bladder because it was still numb but that was all. We got to our room sometime around 4:30-5:00.  My good friend/family/coworker Nancy was our first visitor and first person to hold Nora. She got me a beautiful Willow Tree figurine that I love and a balloon. That night we were also visited by our friends/family Mike and Lyn. They brought Nora a cute little outfit. 

That night was too bad, and Nora slept in the nursery except when she needed to eat. She kept spitting up and I was too scared to try to sleep with that happening, so I was more comfortable with her being monitored while we slept. The next day was a busy one with lots of visitors. Chris's parents and Aunt came, our friends Jason and Andrea, my sister Megan and her girls, and that night my friend Jessica. When Chris's family came they brought Graydon with them and he was finally able to meet his "baby sister". He was sooo sweet and we got some really great pictures of him holding her, it was adorable!

That night was a little rougher and true to what the lactation consultant warned us would happen, she wanted to eat literally like every hour, trying to raise my supply for her growing stomach.  The next morning (Saturday) we headed home about 10:00 AM.  That day we sort of just chilled out, I took a nap and that after Mike and Lyn visited us again, and brought some amazing food. That evening our friends Paul and Naomi stopped over with more food. The next day (Sunday) Chris's family came over again and brought Graydon home. We ended up going out to eat at The Outback that afternoon.

Ok, that is all for this post! :)

Introducing....

Nora Anne O.
February 28, 2013
2:08 pm
8 lbs. 9 oz.
20 inches long

Head (not totally full) of beautiful dark hair and perfect in every way. We are so in love!