1 Month Pictures

And as an added bonus for the day... Here are some of Colette's one month pictures!









 

We're still trying to figure out the lighting.. but we'll get there!

Holidays

[caption id="attachment_709" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Christmas Eve[/caption]

Time is zooming by. Christmas has come and gone and now we're about to ring in a new year. Colette is already 5 weeks old. Where is the Tardis when you need it?

I need to update more. I knew there are a million things I wanted to write about, but now I can't remember any of them.

The holidays have been great. I'm sad they're coming to a close. My little babe has already grown so much, it amazes me. We had a scare on Christmas day. Well, sort of. She spit up a little blood and I calmly freaked out. Luckily the blood was mine. I noticed a little in some of the pumped milk I had from a day or so before. Whew.

She doesn't really have any issues other than that! A little cradle cap, but nothing to worry about! She's on more of a schedule now, with the occasional "I want to nurse every hour on the hour" days. Unfortunately the schedule include staying up most of the day.. and most of the night. The girl just doesn't sleep. I've found myself sleeping in the glider in the nursery a couple of time... did wonders for the neck.

Well, I take it back .The holidays haven't been all great. We lost my Papaw on the 17th. As much sadness as I feel, I can be happy and rejoice in the fact that he's found his real home now. Like I told my sister, I don't know what my granny is gonna do without that old man to nag her all the time. He will be truly missed, and like those that have gone before, (My Granny Jo, Cory's Grandma Clara Nell, and most definitely Cory's father...) I wish Colette would have had the opportunity to meet them as they were all extraordinary people. Again, where is that Tardis?

Now that Christmas is over, I''m ready to start planning 2014 vacations. Actually there's not a whole lot of planning left to do. We're going to beach in August to the beach house that Cory vacationed at with his family nearly every year since he was a baby and to Disney World in October with my family. LET'S GET EXCITED.

I'm looking forward to all the incredible things that are going to happen in 2014.

 

[caption id="attachment_710" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Proud Mommy and Daddy[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_711" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Our Christmas Party Dress[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_712" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Our First Christmas[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_713" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Four Generations of Love[/caption]

Christmas Card/Birth Announcement

I think everyone has probably received their cards by now. (Sorry if I missed you!) So I thought I would post baby Colette's birth announcement. Here ya go!

[caption id="attachment_702" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Front[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_701" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Back[/caption]

She's a pretty cute little thing. These were the first photos I took of her using all my stuffs. (Minus any sort of lighting). My boom kit is coming in today so hopefully I'll get to take some more tomorrow!

In other news, we definitely have a night owl on our hands. I found myself calling upon the Goblin King (read: David Bowie) last night to come take this baby far away from me. (Not really.. okay kind of...)So far her pattern is:

• sleep from 8am-2pm


• eat


• hang out in the land of the living for maybe an hour


• sleep til 5pm


• eat


• up til 10pm


• sleep til 2am


• eat


• fuss, eat, scream, eat, scream/fuss, eat til around 8am

It's incredible how long and deeply she sleeps in the morning/daytime. I'd really like to wake her up to feed her more often (for supply purposes... not because she needs to eat more..), but it's literally like trying to wake the dead. Cold wet wash cloths, lights on, talking, diaper changes... nothing can get that girl up unless she's ready.

I should be really thankful that she sleeps for all those hours, but for some reason when it's dark outside I get a lot more frustrated with the inconsolable crying. Usually I give up/tag out around 5am and hand her over to Cory. I think if she did it during the day it wouldn't be so bad. I know "This too shall pass.." and I'll miss these days when they're gone, but that doesn't make it easier!

Ah well, what can ya do. She definitely makes up for all the crying when she's awake in the day. Lots of little grins and sweet faces. Those are the things I'll miss.

Feeling a Little Like Superwoman

Of course now that I've typed the title I can slowly feel the fatigue coming over me. And hunger.

I spoke a little too soon on that last post, because the following night was terrible. I had a bit of a breakdown. But here we are a few days later and I'm feeling like I can get through anything (except maybe the TV shows that have been stockpiling on the DVR). I have to say I would probably be in a closet crying somewhere if it weren't for that husband of mine keeping his cool and keeping me sane. Love that guy.

We had her two week check up on Monday. Sweet little thing is doing very well, has grown from 20" to 21.75".. and from 7lb 13oz to 8lb 10oz. At least now I understand why she wants to nurse ALL THE TIME.

Last night we put little baby Colette in her crib when it was time for us to go to bed. It went surprisingly well. Of course, I'm not sure I slept a whole lot for staring into the baby monitor making sure she was still alive. She wasn't too fussy.. maybe a little gassy, but not upset. And we may have tried to overeat at one of our nightly feedings which resulted in a catapult of spit up. But we both survived! Today we went for a stroll around the neighborhood, did some laundry and general cleaning around the house, and now she's sleeping peacefully while I think of something I'd like to have for dinner. Scratch that. Dinner plans taken care of.

Nursing is getting better everyday. We have the occasional off moment, but now that I'm starting to heal up, things go much more smoothly.

As far as postpartum healing is concerned, I think we're in a great place. I don't have any irritation or pain and feel pretty great getting up and down constantly. I've also dropped a lot more weight than I thought I would have. Pre-pregnancy I was around 160, got up to around 183, and now I'm down in the 150's. I'm pretty sure that just means I lost a ton of muscle, but I'll take it for now.

And with that, I hear a baby stirring.

A Good Night's Sleep

Amazing. Our little one did so well last night. No crying or whining. I got up twice to feed her and she went right back to sleep both times. Mom and dad both got sleep.

In light of this new found sleep, I feel like I left a few things out of my last post that I did want to mention.

Pets.

We have two dogs, a beagle/terrier mix and a Weimaraner. One of the big stressors for me in the first couple of days home came from my poor little (90lb) weim, Max. With all the excitement and stimulation we brought home with the new baby we also brought home a feeling of dread for Max. He immediately started acting off. I know I mentioned in an earlier post about him having a seizure while I was home alone, and I knew from his actions that another one was coming on. I was extremely stressed out about it. It's the most terrible thing to witness and know you can't do anything about it. His symptoms lasted a little while before he actually started seizing. My sister and Cory took him outside right before it happened. I stayed far away. When the episode was over he ended up running away. The temperature was near freezing with rain and the two of them searched all over the neighborhood for him. Cory finally found him at a dead end, in a confused state, but he got into the car and came home. The effects from this seizure, unlike the last, lasted for a couple of days. I was certain I was spending my last hours with him and I had to find some way to cope with that and having a new baby. It didn't go so well.

I am happy to report that Max is doing better now, but he's still pretty afraid of the baby. He warms up a little tiny bit each day. We went from Max not being able to be around Colette at all, to him coming up and sniffing her on Friday. I somehow caught that one on my phone:

[caption id="attachment_694" align="aligncenter" width="560"] The First Sniff[/caption]

 

Note the terrified eyes. Poor guy. Our other dog, Ace is completely fine with the baby. He generally comes up and licks her once then just stares at her. He'll follow us all over the house, protecting us from evil, no doubt.

We also took our first trip out of the house yesterday (for something other than a doctor's appointment). A Target trip, in fact, to get baby girl a Christmas dress. It was interesting to see how strategically we managed that. We woke up I fed her, handed her off to Cory, took a shower, got her back from Cory and while he got ready I fed her again, got her dressed while Cory fixed the carseat and loaded up, then we were off. We got to the (completely-overpacked-Christmas-rush) Target, picked out a dress and a couple of button up onesies (whoever decided babies should have clothes that can't be zipped or buttoned all the way up should be put in time out..), grabbed a couple things from the grocery section and headed out the door. We got home just in time to feed again. And nap. It worked out incredibly well.

Thus far today has gone pretty well too! Cory went out and got us breakfast, and we've been able to get some cleaning (and another blog!) done.

I ordered a continuous light boom kit last night so I can take some better newborn pictures of our dear daughter. As soon as that comes in you can expect those pictures I promised. My goal is to not go overboard with the pictures on the internet. He whole life from conception to now is documented in this blog, so I'm going to try and keep the photos to a minimum. The internet is forever. Eventually, my plan for the blog is to turn all my posts into yearly books. One for the pregnancy and so on, always ending with a birthday. Hopefully I'll remember that.

I was able to take some Christmas photos for the Christmas cards I designed a few weeks ago and send those off on Friday. They should be arriving tomorrow, so I'll stuff them into the envelopes I already addressed, stamp them and send them off on Tuesday! I'm excited for everyone to see them!

Well I think that's all for now. Might be time to sneak in a little nap before little one wakes up and decided it's time to feast again.

A baby is born!

I think I finally have a moment to sit down and write out my birth experience. I've actually had a few moments when I could have done this but I used them for more important things like sleeping and eating. It's been almost two whole weeks since little Colette decided she wanted to grace us with her presence. It doesn't seem like it's been that long. It's beyond my belief that Cory and I created something so small and wonderful and terrifying. So, below is the somewhat censored version of our birth story. If that's not something you're interested in.... I'd probably stop reading and maybe pick up a few paragraphs later. 

We started our journey through the thing called labor around 2am on Saturday, November 23. I was ready for her to be here that day. It seemed appropriate as it marked exactly 10 years since my grandmother passed away. Contractions started out bearable but 5-6 minutes apart. I got up around 3 and called our doula just to let her know how things were going. I wasn't quite ready to go back to bed as it wasn't terribly easy to sleep through the contractions. Bearable but certainly noticeable. I went into the kitchen and made a batch of haystacks (my grandmother's recipe on hand...) then decided I should probably go lay back down. I slept a couple more hours and got back up around 7am. 

I hadn't taken any baby bump pictures in a few weeks, so I thought I would take another final picture (as seen in the previous post!). Definitely a cold and dreary morning! I can't say much else happened on Saturday. Continuous contractions, never more than 10 minutes apart. We ended up eating dinner at Cory's mom's and renting a movie to watch when we got home. Contractions got stronger though the night and by 5am I was ready to go to the hospital. I was in tears and just ready to go. So we called our doula and she headed over to our house. When she got here to help out things got much better in terms of how I dealt with the contractions. We spent the next 8 hours doing lots of breathing, drinking water, and moaning. There was a lot of moaning. Around 3pm on Sunday contractions were strong and steady and we decided it was time to head to the hospital. 

After checking in at the front desk we headed up to L&D. We were greeted by a familiar face! A friend of mine from my roller derby days opened the door for us. She took us back to the triage room so I could get monitored and checked out. I was only about 4cm at that point. That was a bit disheartening since it'd already been so long. I was then admitted to a room. The only position I really felt comfortable in was sitting on the edge of the bed. The exercise ball wasn't right, showering was terrible.. it was all just terrible. When the on call doctor got there and checked me around 8pm I was sooo ready to give up. I wanted that epidural, STAT. But after he checked me he said I was about 8cm. With that information I just decided I would stick it out. It couldn't be that much longer, right? HA.  Hours passed and pain progressed, as did the fatigue. We tried using a breast pump and rupturing my water but by 12:30-1am I was pretty much low-moan screaming through contractions. I was so tired, in so much pain, and shaking uncontrollably. All I wanted to do was sleep. After a lot of crying and talking with Cory I decided it was time. I had no idea how much longer it was going to go on, but I just needed some rest. I got the epidural. I was a bit disappointed at the time because I felt like I was failing at something I really wanted to accomplish, but at that point I really felt it was the best option. The epidural took 20 minutes from the time the nurse walked into the room, set up, asked her questions, stuck the needle in, and  walked out. I imagined it would be a much bigger deal than that. I felt so much better afterward. I still felt contractions and I could still move my legs but I could finally get some much needed sleep. We all slept/rested for a few hours. Our nurse came in a few time to check on me a few time, to change my positions and at some point give me oxygen. I was sleeping so well that my breathing slowed a bit. I don't think Cory was too excited about that. The oxygen made me so flippin' cold. Around 4:30 I woke up and thought to myself... "I think... I think it's time." I then asked if I would know when the time to push came even with the epidural. The nurse came in and sure enough, it was about that time. She called in the doctor and just before 5am I started pushing. No more than 30 minutes later we had a baby girl!

Crazy! I didn't have any issues with pushing, but I wasn't sure Cory was going to make it. He had to walk away in the beginning and get a snack and a drink so he wouldn't pass out. (Poor guy, he's probably traumatized.) 

Baby Colette was was born at 5:26am on Monday, November 25 after 51 hours of labor, weighing in at 7lbs 13oz, and 20in long. She's got a little tiny bit of dark hair and an adorable little nose (...and lips and eyes and toes and fingers and all those other parts...). She had a slew of visitors in her first day of life, A truly loved little girl!

We stayed in the hospital that night and were given the all clear to head home on Tuesday morning. I felt pretty good despite just having another human leave my body. I had 2nd degree tearing which was not exactly comfortable, but I could handle it after the last couple of days. 

When we got home we had Nana and Aunt Lori waiting on us. The first few days home were a challenge. We couldn't wake her up for feedings, she was tearing the ole nips to shreds, and I was generally in a panic for most of the first week. Between the birth on Monday and Friday afternoon, we had seen every doctor in our pediatrician's office. We were scheduled to go back in on Saturday but, alas, we were finally making some progress in the wet diaper area. I had a few more rough days and nights over the last week, but dearest husband of mine has tremendously helped out and alleviated a lot of stress. He's taken baby girl a couple of nights so I could get some sleep. It's amazing what a few hours of sleep can do for your stress levels. 

We're now on a good road. We let her dictate when she wants to be fed instead of trying to wake her up constantly. (Seriously it was taking 3-4 hours to get a feeding in..then it was time to start all over..) Now, if we just wait til she wakes up or starts showing hunger cues, things go pretty quickly. Her latch is better too. Still painful from the first week of terror, but I think we're starting to heal. (Emotionally... physically....).

On a lighter note, it's nice to be able to wear my wedding ring and my pre-pregnancy clothes. Hooray!

She's a pretty good baby so far! Of course she cries all night and sleeps all day, but what can ya do!

I'll post pictures soon. Here's one from our ride home.

[caption id="attachment_691" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Baby Colette[/caption]

Last Pregnancy Photo

I intend to write out a blog about my whole birthing experience in the next couple of days (don't worry, nothing too gross or intimate...) but it's certainly nap time at the moment. In the meantime, I thought I would post the last photo taken of baby Colette in the belly. This was about 4 hours into early labor. 40 weeks + 6 days.