Tuesday, May 31, 2011

5 weeks and change!

SIDE NOTE: I'm taking suggestions for a new blog title...I'm not creative...help me!

WOW! Lots to say, going to try and make this quick becuase there is no telling how long she is going to stay asleep. Normally this is her fussy time, but apparently she wants to nap through some of it today (not complaining). She played so much all day and barely napped, I'm assuming that explains the sleep right now. I'm going to bullet point this one.

-She LOVES her fisher price rainforest play mat thing. It's a lifesaver!!

-She is a really good girl about 4/5ths of the day, I'm comfortable with that. By the time she is fussy I have a headache and a back ache so it really doesn't ruin my night at all :)

-She officially coo's!! It's the cutest thing ever. I love that when I'm chatting with her she coo's even more.

-Daddy handles fussy time like it's his job...it kinda is, but still! She has a rough few hours in the evening and Nick, 90% of the time can rescue me and get her to simmer down...it's like watching a magic trick.

-I miss having Grandma here...but I'm adjusting lol.

-I pump 4 times a day, she gets 4oz every 2-3 hours during the day and can stretch about 4-5 at night (usually 7 feedings a day). Bottle feeding for every feeding except the one in the middle of the night. She is too frustrated with the slow flow otherwise (my little heifer).

-I'm supplementing formula this last week for 2 of the feedings. I was having some serious boob issues...ouch. She seems to take to the Similac sensitive (for gassiness and fussiness) really well. I'm learning not to feel guilty about it...don't tell me lactation consultant lol.

-I worked on Saturday, it was fun! I'm working again this thursday and Mimi is watching her. I'm excited to see how she does for her Mimi since she will be watching Nat 2 times a week once I go back to work.

-Our friends Dan and Angela came over Monday. They are expecting in September, it was a lot of baby talk, but I'm glad we have them to share experiences with. Angela might also be helping me out watching Natalie when I go back to work (amazing friend)! Then ill get to return the favor onces her little girl gets here.

-She LOVES the bath, it's so much fun! And she screams bloody murder when you take her out lol. That part is cute too :)

-We are wearing 0-3 month clothes and some 3 month stuff. Newborn outfits aren't long enough anymore.

-We graduated to size 1 diapers. They are huge still, but we are having a lot less "poop up the back" incidents.

-I'm so in love with her. She is changing everyday, it's amazing to watch.

-She sleeps in her crib swaddled at night, and usually goes down between 9-10:30. Wakes up once between 2-4, then sleeps till about 6:30-7:30. I'm more than happy with that. We sometimes like to stay up from 2-4 just to make it interesting, but it's not every night :)

I'm sure I missed a bunch but this way I'm a little on track with an update! We have visitors this weekend...so stoked! I leave you with this photo. I have more but she is waking up so gotta run!



Natalie and Winston just chillin'

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

I’m kidnapping my mom-in-law

Nick’s mom has been hear for the last 10 days and I have decided she cannot leave. She is a huge help, I’m officially scared for when she is gone. Natalie loves her, she has some kind of magic touch that I need to develop before saturday. CRAP! This week is also Nick’s first work trip, so I’m lucky grandma is still here.
Anyway, our little girl is getting so big!! She was 4 weeks old Saturday and i cannot believe how much she has changed just in the last week. We weighed her today and she weighs 9lbs 6oz. Moving right along. This afternoon I have to go through her drawers and start taking out all the newborn clothes. She is too long for a lot of the sleepers, so we will make room for the 3 month old stuff. She holds her head up like a champ, can focus and follow moving objects, and I’m pretty sure she knows how to fake cry for attention lol. 
Last weekend we got to attend an AWESOME wedding in Orlando. We brought grandma with us and Natalie and her spent some quality time together. I was anxiety ridden for the first few hours. Nick took my phone away so I couldn’t bother his mom with  “just checking in” text messages all evening. She did awesome of course. It was great to see all my friends from college!! Brooke and Kevin threw a terrific party (I had no doubts). We all went out afterwards, but I dragged myself home early to feed Nat. My boobs grew to watermelons by 11:30PM so i knew it was time. Jo came back with us sunday and it’s been so fun having her here. She painted us AMAZING artwork for Natalie’s room. It matches her bedding! We also got a FANTABULOUS piece of artwork from our sister-in-law Dana! It’s so cute, it has a baby giraffe and elephant on it. Such talent we have around us! I can’t wait till Nick gets home to put everything up (pictures will come).
Sleeping has been getting a bit better. On a great night I’m only up once between 10-7. But usually its still twice a night, I’m getting used to it. Thank god for spark and tylenol for the exhaustion headaches. She still has her fussy times during the day, but I can’t complain. She has been so alert and active during the day now!! It’s so much more fun to get to chat with her, watch her look around, and play :)
She eats like a heifer lol. Still 8 times a day and 4oz of pumped milk when she gets a bottle. I have a feeling by next week I will be washing all the bigger bottles. She even gets mad when we take food away to burp her. It’s cute lol. 
Jo has been a trooper! She almost changed a diaper today. If I have anything to do with it she will get a good poop one before she leaves. 
I can’t stop kissing her cheeks!! It’s still about 50/50 on who she looks like. It changes daily, I see Nick from the nose up. She definitely has my lips. We have our fingers crossed for blue eyes! It’s pretty amazing how this little person has our features! So in love :)

We finally got all the pictures back from the photographer. Nick wants to do some editing before we post them but here is a sneak peak. 


Here is a recent photo from today, just hanging out in her bouncer.





Sunday, May 15, 2011

Tummy Time at Mimi's house

May 3, 2011 milk drunk video


delayed post!

I wrote this on Wednesday! Forgot to post it lol. 
The last two and a half weeks feels like two and a half months! She has grown and changed so much in such a short time it’s amazing. Nick and I have been adjusting and adapting as quickly as possible. We learn new things about our little girl everyday. She is the cutest thing ever. Some of my favorites are the “milk drunk” face, her gassy smiles, when she makes kissy lips, and when she makes a little noise while she sneezes. These probably sound pretty lame to most people, but they are the things that make me forget about how exhausted I am! 
Friends, family and neighbors have been terrific bringing us food, helping out, and spoiling us with gifts. My clients at work are so generous, keeping me busy writing lots of thank you notes. We are a lucky little family!! 
We went to the doctor on tuesday again. She weighed in at 7lbs 15oz., which is awesome! She is gaining the ounce a day she should be, which again I’m taking credit for lol. I have been able to pump so Nick has been helping with feeding as well. Saturday I went to a wedding and he and Natalie spent the whole day together. Myself and everyone at the wedding were so impressed with his braveness!! He did fantastic, home alone with a 2 week old, what a great daddy :)
Natalie has been nicknamed “fuss bucket” by mommy and daddy. She is generally a happy little girl but she has a few hours each day of fussiness. We asked the pediatrician about it and she suggested trying a few gas relievers. Gripe water and Mylocin were purchased immediately, and we have been mainly using the Mylocin. I’d say it definitely helps a little depending on the time of day, but i’ll take the improvement even if it’s in my head lol. Luckily she is so cute I can’t even get frustrated :)
My first Mother’s Day was fun, we went to my moms for dinner and saw family. Natalie behaved herself, and was the center of attention all afternoon. It was so cute! Nick got me an awesome Jogger and a new pair of kicks for moms day! Can’t wait to start working out, I’m counting down the days :) 
We have made a few car trips and errand runs this week and she did pretty good. Once I had to stop, park the car, change her diaper and feed her in the back of the element. Not too bad though! I’m impressed she seems to like the car and sleeps most of the time. 
She doesn’t have too much of a schedule yet. She eats during the day every 2.5-3 hours, sometimes I have to wake her at the 3 hours mark. At night if I’m lucky she will do one 4 hour stretch. Those are the good nights!! Generally I’m up between 1-2 and 4-5 in the morning. The good part is 80% of the time she goes right back to sleep after a few minutes of rocking. Nick is great. He gets up with me usually at the 4-5 AM feeding and changes her diaper while I peel myself out of bed. Some mornings she even falls back to sleep long enough for me to jump back in bed too! Once I switch her over to formula I’ve heard she will sleep better. Breastfeeding is definitely draining, but has it conveniences too. 
We have lots of visitors and busy weekends coming up. Our friends Tiff and Jonathan are coming to visit from Tampa this saturday and sunday! Then Nicks mom gets in town sunday night. She will be here for 2 weeks, I’m so excited for her to meet Natalie, and the extra hands cant hurt! Then we are going to Orlando for a wedding on the 21st. Peggy is coming with us to babysit, cause she is flippin’ awesome!! Jo is coming to stay with us for that following week. Then the first weekend in June we have Nicks brother Ian, his girlfriend, and our friend Jay in town!! Woohoo :)
This is a huge post. I know I’m skipping over lots of details, but to sum things up Natalie is amazing, I can’t stop kissing her little head. I’m exhausted but some how functioning on 4-5 hours of sleep! Mommy-hood is amazing, yet far from glamourous lol. I have a wonderful husband and a great mom who have been a huge help. Couldn't have made it through these first few weeks without them both :)

Sunday, May 8, 2011

I have the best wife, and she's an amazing mommy! I love you HON-E-Y!! I hope your first Mother's Day was as special as you deserve!!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Doctor appointment

Just a quick update. We went to the doctor today because I called to ask about her few puking incidence, and they wanted to see her. Everything went really well. I asked a few questions and the sick doctor we saw was also really nice. She talked a little about acid reflux, but after asking me some questions Dr. Gina determined that our girl is a happy puker. Glad we don't need to worry about that right now. Natalie eats like a champ. She weighs 7 pounds 8 ounces now!! Almost gained a whole pound since birth! Thats my girl :)

I feel alot better after talking to the doctor. I probably could have done that over the phone, but its ok. I did have to pull a boob out in the office though, since we again waited about 45 minutes for the doctor. That was not as scary as i thought it would be. She has another appointment next tuesday now (her 2 weeks checkup), then nothing until 2 months.

Nick did a good job of calming me down in the office (again). I have a really hard time listening to natalie cry when I know she is super hungry. It gives me massive amounts of anxiety! I can't help it! It's a good thing Nick has developed some killer patiences, because mine have gone out the window with my lack of sleep lol.

I'm going to take winston for a walk and do some laundry before our munchkin wakes up :)

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Go Natalie Go!

It's been a while.

Oh my gosh! mommy hood is here!! It's been an awesome first 10 days. Exhausting but awesome. Natalie is amazing. We couldn't be more in love! She is the sweetest little eating, pooping, sleeping machine. As far as updating, I don't even know what day it is lol. But I can try and remember a few fun details.

We were so happy that we got to take her home with us Monday. It would have been a pain to have to go back and forth for feedings if they kept her in NICU. I'm not sure if we ever wrote about it, but I had a fever during labor so natalie also had one when she was born. Standard procedure was to then keep her in NICU for observation. We understood, better to be safe then sorry, it just made it tough the first few days. Our first night we didn't really sleep at all. We kept a pretty good sense of humor about it though.

The second day home was interesting lol. My mom was here to help us (thank god), friends dropped off food and snacks, my dad and his girlfriend Ann came over, and I tried to get the munchkin on a feeding schedule. Getting adjusted to breastfeed has been a challenge, but so far so good. It still was feeling pretty surreal for us having a baby in the house. It was crazy realizing that she was home with us and not still in my belly!! Winston was doing fantastic, getting adjusted really well. He would sniff her and whine if he couldn't see her. It was cute.

Wednesday Natalie had her first doctors appt. We were excited to go on our first outing, and meet the pediatrician. We had a 9:45 appointment and he didn't come in the room till 10:35. In the 50 minutes of waiting we had an eventful morning. Nick got her naked when we got there and swaddled her up. Then the nurse came in to weigh her so we had to take off the diaper and the blanket. When Nick went to put a fresh diaper on, Natalie peed all over her ONLY blanket. So now we had a cold, naked, hungry, blanket-less newborn in a freezing doctors office...awesome. She then proceeded to poop herself in dads lap, which caused us to hysterically laugh... man babies poop loudly. As we changed that diaper, she spit up on the table and was then fussy from that point forward. Rightful so, she was due to eat between 10:30-11:00. SHe gained 2 ounces in 4 days!! I took all the credit for that!! The doctor came in and totally made up for being so late. He was awesome, we like him a lot, very informative, made jokes, and told us Natalie was "perfect". That's what we wanted to here. He then made fun of NICU doctors and Chiropractors in the same sentence. Nick loves him. Wednesday night we had more company. My grandparents and aunt came over. They brought us corn beef and cabbage (nicks fav). SO DELICIOUS!

Thursday and Friday kinda blurred into one big day lol. I got to leave the house! Went and picked up a breast pump. I have a wedding this weekend so I have to make sure dad is good and stocked up with milk for Saturday. I'm really excited for Melanie and Joey! I've known Mel for many years, and I'm so stoked to see her walk down the aisle. I'm glad my hubby is cool enough to take on the challenge of being on his own with a 2 weeks old! Such a good dad he is :)

Saturday and Sunday....also a blur. lol. Saturday we had our friends Dan and Angela come down to meet Natalie, and Sunday we went to Mimi's house!! Nick and I also got about 40 minutes of "US" time Sunday which we spent laying (sleeping) in the sun out back with baby monitor in hand. We almost lost the dog, but I felt like a regular human for a few minutes....not just a upright standing cow :)

Monday we had a photo sessions with Georgia Handy Photography! It was so fun, Natalie was awesome, she got some great shots. I can't wait to see them, hopefully we should have them the end of the week. I also got to go into work in the afternoon. Nick brought the baby down so a few of the girls from work got to see her. Two of them brought their little girls in too, it was so cute!!

Im going to give the pediatrician a call this afternoon. once or twice a day after about 35 minutes of a good feeding she empties her tummy all over my lap when I burp her. Not sure if that's normal or if she is over eating?? And I usually end up waiting a little bit and feeding her again. Just want to make sure this is nothing to worry about, or what I should do to help her. I read online at 2:30 this morning to try and limit how much she eats, but it's hard to do that with breastfeeding. We'll see what they say.

Just a few side notes before I wrap up this huge post:
-Nick is the diaper master...I suck at it.
-Breastfeeding is tiring, but seems to be working well.
-Stay at home moms must watch a crap load of TV.
-It's crazy how much you worry about a tiny little person.
-Laundry one handed isn't so bad.
-Baby throw up is impressive.
-Umbilical cords are gross...hopefully that will be falling off soon.
-Damn do we make a cute kid!!

I'm sure I missed a ton of fun details, but now I should be able to update a little more often so I don't forget everything lol. Thanks so much for all the congrats everyone, we are a happy little family now :)