October!!

October is one of my favorite months!

I forgot to update about returning to work and the wedding I was in!!!

Work is the best of both evils. I love being productive and influencing students lives, and I love my co-workers and job... But it is hard missing my baby. And getting harder and harder. I'm hoping one day soon it will be s breeze... But until then I will push on. It is good for Allie to be around other kiddos/adults also.

And the wedding I was in was beautiful!!! We had a bridal shower.. Showgirl themed- zebra and hot pink, with a chocolate fountain of course. And the bachlorette party was a blast! We went to Bailey's Chocolate Bar, and Maggie O'brians (sp?). Let's just say I didn't get home until about 4am :). The reversal dinner was super yummy! We had our rehearsal at the church, and dinner at Stephaninas Italian restaurant. The day of the wedding was a long day FULL of fun as well! We met a little before 7 at the hair salon, a limo bus picked us up about 10, and we went to the Arch to take pictures, as well as Jimmy Johns for lunch. The ceremony was beautiful! And we danced the night away at the reception! Thank you Jen and Rob for making me such an important part of your special day!!!! Hope you have an amazing time in Vegas and good luck on your half marathon across the Hoover Dam!!

More posts???

I've been trying to find a way to update my blog more frequently... And I think I have found it!!!

Today 10-29-2011 is one year to the date that I found out I was pregnant!! Wow how my life has changed since then....

Allie 13 days shy of being 4 months old (she is 16 weeks though). Recently she has been smiling and even giggling! She will roll over from her back to belly... But not the opposite way yet. She found her toes... And then her toes found her mouth :) she continues to enjoy standing (with support of course) and is a pretty happy girl! I think we are super lucky when it comes to having a baby... Allie has been so good! I hope our luck continues.

Oh and how can I forget her "talking"!! She will just talk up a storm! She will talk herself to sleep, talk as soon as she wakes up... And all the time in between! Just wait until she starts asking questions!! If she is anything like her mother we are in BIG trouble!!

I'm trying to make sure Allie has a lot of experiences throughout her life. She has been to festivals, sat in a pumpkin, played the drums with daddy, been to BBQ's, try's to pet the cat, hangs out with lots of other little ones at the babysitters, and goes shopping with mom a lot... Probably too much. I'm hoping these little things help to make her a well rounded little person.

Well duty calls and she will be waking up any minute!!!

Until next time!!!

Another update!

I wish I was able to get over here more often :( I feel like I always have so many things I want to share!

Allie had her first doctors appointment (2 months) and she weighted 12 pounds!!! She is such a super cute little chubby baby girl! Nursing is a breeze now, and she is a good eater (as if you couldn't tell by her weight :) ) She eats about every 4-5 hours about 5 times a day, and sleeps from about 9pm-4am. Her head control is just awesome, she is smiling and cooing a TON! It is so crazy to see her develop so quickly!! We just love her.

This is my final week home before I head back to work part time. We have found a great sitter to watch her, she is highly recommended and very professional. I still need to get my work bag together and make sure I have clothes to wear :) Speaking of clothes- I have a pair of pre-pregnancy jeans that FIT!! WOO HOOO!!! Most of my tops are a little short though...Hopefully over time they will fit again (OR- I can just go get a new wardrobe ;) )

I am also the Matron of Honor in my BFF's wedding at the end of October and I bought a dress 6 weeks after I had Allie, and now it has to be taken in A LOT (well 2 inches- I like to think that is ALOT :)) I could re-order a smaller size, but then they would still have some alterations to make, so they are just going to alter the size I have now.

Well that's all I have time for now! Allie is up! Until next time...

8 weeks!

Wow! Allison is 8 weeks old today. We are working at figuring out cloth diapers and sleep (patterns/schedules).

We started BumGenius 4.0 cloth diapers and I love them! They are super cute, and WAY easier than even I thought. I just like to think about the money we will save :$

Sleeping on the other hand...Allie has slept GREAT! Probably TOO good to be truthful. Currently she is sleeping between 6-8 hours at night, and takes about 3-4 naps a day. However the breakdown occurs during her naps- I am working on putting her in her crib for at least 1 nap a day. Today she made it 30 min, it was successful, but she got really upset so I am holding her for the rest of the nap. I probably shouldn't, but I'm a pushover and I don't want to make her upset.

At night while she is fast asleep I am being a crazy mom and sleeping in the bed next to her (in her room) making sure she is still breathing. So...I am working at getting back into my own bed with my husband. Saturday night was the first time we put her down and went to sleep together in another bedroom (we have a video monitor). I'm not going to lie I cried, and physically felt sick to my stomach. I made it about 4.5 hours before having to get up (I always get up at least once because she goes so long between feedings). So at that time I decided to go ahead and stay in her room. I'm taking baby steps...but it is better than nothing (right?)

Lets fast forward to Sunday. I commented to Scott that I/we did pretty well the previous night, He thought it was rough (for me mostly) and all I really brought to the bed was terror and anxiety ;)

I have hope that things will continue to get easier and better...next will be to get her in her crib instead of the rock n' play :)

As far as Allie's development she is good at holding her neck up independently. Her hair, eye lashes, and eye brows are growing. She is smiling more and more and continues to roll from side to side (started at week 2), but it is getting quicker! I can only imagine she will be rolling over before we know it!

Until next time =)

Almost 7 weeks old!!

Tomorrow my baby girl will be 7 weeks old. It has been a HUGE learning experience these past few weeks. We have gone though 100's of diapers/wipes/feedings/tears and pictures :)

Allison is able to lift her head side to side and hold it in mid-line when on her tummy for about 15-20 seconds. She is visually tracking side to side, up and down, in diagnols, and we are working on circles. She will fixate on things she likes for a LONG time (lights & TV =/) She will pat at things that are hanging above her- she does better when they are on the left or right vs. middle (more difficult). She continues to enjoy working her sides independently and has not brought them together, but has found her mouth. She is SMILING, and cooing a ton! And also squawking/yelling at us instead of crying all the time- it is kind of nice :) She also likes to be upright so she can look around. I'm sure there are more things she is doing, but I can't think of them at this time.

To date I have continued to nurse on demand- every 3-8ish hours. I had to feed Allie a bottle one morning (we had 2 men over working on our house) and it was one of the most awkward things I have done in my entire life. I have grown to enjoy nursing my baby, it is our special bonding time when she is quiet and I can soothe her. But I have to say it is probably one of the most DIFFICULT things I have done in my entire life. (and I thought getting my Masters degree was difficult!) Nursing your baby is supposed to be "natural", and it is a LOT of work for such a "natural" experience. I am learning that a lot of people are weirded out by breastfeeding mothers, and I do not flaunt it, I am just have a hard time figuring out where I can go and feed my own child without people being upset. Hopefully over time things will only get better, until then I am open to all ideas/suggestions/advice so I can feed my baby outside of our home.

Sleeping is another thing that changes dramatically when you have a baby. I have to say I think I have a pretty good "sleeper". Once she is swaddled and put down in her rock n' play (bassinet) she will usually sleep for 4-8 hours (depending on how tired she is, and when she last ate). I am sleeping in her room, we left a full size guest bed in there, and I can nurse her and put her right back down. However convenient it is so sleep right next to the baby and feed her quickly and put her back down I would like to join my husband in our bed soon. We are moving the baby to her crib- currently she is taking 1 nap a day in her crib, but she likes to sleep on her tummy (so we have a video monitor) and I do not feel comfortable putting her down like that over night.

And finally we will talk about body shape/clothes :) My maternity clothes all fall off of me (with the exception of a couple of t-shirts bought at the very beginning of my pregnancy), most of the pre-pregnancy tops are too short (nursing mothers are well endowed), and the bottoms are just totally wrong. I have lost all my baby weight- I thank nursing to that- but my body is a TOTALLY different shape, with all different kinds of marks ;) I went shopping this past weekend and realized I had not bought regular clothes in over a year!!! I got some great deals, and a few new tops/jeans for now. Enough to get me through until more of my clothes fit better. (But really I am not opposed to a whole new wardrobe- my husband might be though ;) )

Well off to do something productive while the baby has her afternoon nap :) My hope is that once I fall into more of a routine with the baby I will have a little more me time to blog a few more times :) Until then.....

My body....

Let's face it, I had a baby. I did not have the "perfect" body before trying to get pregnant and it only got worst while "trying". But I am strong, healthy, and I grew a human inside of me! Well I sure do have the stretch marks to show..and YES as soon as I got pregnant I used lotion/cocoa butter DAILY to AVOID these marks- but I am pretty sure they are hereditary (thanks mom :) ). I am about 3 weeks out from having my beautiful daughter and 9 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight (I was at the doctor's 1 week ago). But it is so hard to look at your body after having a baby and find yourself beautiful. So here is a little quote someone shared with me to shine light on this topic:

"A mark for every breath you took, every blink, every sleepy yawn. One for every time you sucked your thumb, waved hello, closed your eyes and slept in the most perfect darkness. One for every time you had the hiccups. One for every dream you dreamed within me. It isn't very pretty anymore. Some may even think it ugly. That's OK. It was your home. It's where I first grew to love you, where I lay my hand as I dreamed about who you were and who you would be. It held you until my arms could, and for that, I will always find something beautiful in it."

My Birth Story

OMG I can not believe it! How the time has flown these past 2(ish weeks). On Sunday July 10th, my husband and I were enjoying dinner at my parents house- one final dinner before Baby "L" was to make an arrival. We got home and got some things cleaned up and packed for the hospital, and then my husband had to go into work to reset the computer servers so his co-workers could work on Monday- and he was not going to be there because obviously we were going to have a baby! He did not get home until 11:30pm, so we tried to get as much sleep as possible before getting up at 5:30am to go in to have a baby.

We arrived at the hospital at 6:45 am for my induction, and it took a while to get all the paperwork, meds ordered, and changed into hospital gear. My IV was started at 9:30am, and since I have such horrible veins they had to put it in my wrist- which kind of hurt, and I occluded it a couple of times when using/bending my wrist...oh well. After that we kind of hung out all day, we played battle ship 5 stars on our Iphones, and I enjoyed an orange popsicle. We kept our parents informed of my "progress" or LACK OF I should say. We had a visitor stop by the room (he works at the hospital) and shortly after he left my husband went to get dinner (about 4 PM). Well as I was sitting there trying to relax and listen to my baby's heart beat I heard a little pop, and then had an intense contraction. I called the nurse in and YUP, my water had ruptured on it's own. I texted Scott and told him my water broke but not to hurry back, because it was not like I was having the baby right then or anything.

After my water broke it was like I had entered a WHOLE NEW WORLD! WOW, talk about a contraction. I had to ask how to breath through them, and by 6PM I was hurting so bad I was either going to break down or I needed an epidural. So we called in the anesthesiologist, and oh what relief! My goal was to make it to 7cm dilated before I got my epidural, and to my surprise when I was checked after the epidural took over I was 1-1/2 cm...GREAT! Over the next 5 hours I progressed slowly, my family came to visit, and I basically just hung out and waited for my baby to make his/her arrival. Well my family left after I was checked to be only 5 cm...and they predicted it would be at least another 5 hours to progress then another few to labor/push. In a matter of an hour after them leaving I noted a wet/dripping feeling and we called in my awesome nurse. She said that happens when the you have cervical change, so things must be going well. She was not going to check me, but saw the baby's heart rate was irregular and difficult to keep on the monitor. With in about 2 minutes her and another nurse both noted that I was 10 cm and ready to go. They put an internal monitor on the baby, administered O2 to me, and turned off all my IV's. I was not sure what was going on, but that will get your blood pumping! The told me the baby may have the cord wrapped around his/her neck, and that was the reason for all the rush.

I stabilized and so did the baby after about an hour, then they let me "labor down"- they turned back on the IV's and let the baby do his/her own thing and travel down into the birth canal. Around midnight I began pushing, I didn't realize that you only push with each contraction, so there is quite a bit of down time. My nurse said I was a good pusher, and all I knew was that there was a LOT of pressure and I wanted my baby out and safe! My OB arrived for the delivery at about 1am, and Allison Claire was born at 1:33am! She had the cord wrapped around her neck so Scott did not get to cut the cord, and I have NO idea who said "IT'S A GIRL". (those were 2 things I REALLY wanted Scott to do) but our baby girl is beautiful! She did not cry right away, and that was scary- but the nurses worked quickly to get her crying. Her 1 min. Apgar score was 8/10 and her 5 min Apgar score was 9/10 because of her color. But now she is a beautiful peachy pink =)

After delivering our baby girl, Scott surprised me with a "push present!!" It is a beautiful light pink pearl necklace! (from the Shane Co.) We had gotten a beautiful pearl on out honeymoon in Maui, but I lose all my good jewelry and of course I misplaced it. So this is a pearl necklace to remember the amazing day we brought our beautiful baby girl into this world...What a great husband I have, I am truly a lucky girl.

The rest of the stay at the hospital was AMAZING, I can not say enough good things about the staff that was there to help and answer questions (OH SO MANY QUESTIONS) We have been home since Thursday July 14, 2011 and been inside because of this CRAZY heat wave. I am working on nursing, and things are going fairly well. Scott is just an AMAZING dad I have been so lucky to have him home with us for the past 2 weeks. I'm not going to know what to do when he goes back to work ='( We are learning how to care for and play with our little girl. We have had lots of great visitors, and been trying to stay on top of sleep (a little at least). Scott has probably gotten a little more than me, but I am nursing so that is to be expected.

We have come to learn google is a GREAT resource for baby related questions, and driving with our little one in the car is terrifying. But what can you do, we are learning and loving our baby girl. And I will be the first to admit- motherly instinct is NOT always right....I TOTALLY thought we were going to have a boy!!! So good job all you friends/family out there who guessed correctly, I SURE did have my doubts.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULY 12, 2011 TO MY BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL ALLISON CLAIRE!!!!