Sugar & Spice...

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I've been sitting here rubbing my eyes and trying to get the motivation to post. My kid is finally sleeping after what seemed like 7 hours awake and semi-fussy. I say "semi-fussy" because she was fine if you were holding her while bouncing on the exercise ball. Try laying her in her swing once she's out and see what happens...crying. Lots of it.

Really? Could the 4 gulps of caffeinated coffee I drank this morning be bothering her tummy already? Or is it that I've already "ruined" my child by holding her so much that she isn't a fan of sleeping any other way? I held her against my chest once she fell asleep for about 30 minutes then finally found the nerve to lay her in the Boppy and stick a blanket over her. Every once in a while she stirs. Just now she let out a whimper but of course she's fast asleep. Why does she do that? Yesterday on the way home from church she full on started bawling in her sleep. She stopped after a couple of seconds and her face relaxed into the serene expression it had held just moments prior. She just did it again...seriously as I wrote this my little girl started crying in her sleep (pouty face that melts my heart and everything) then went right back to a relatively peaceful slumber. Arms still flailing widely as if she's conducting an orchestra...oh, there's the turtle move. Lots of stretching...is she going to wake up or not? Oh, the suspense.

And...she's out.

Here's what I'm looking at...just took this picture about 10 minutes ago:


It was nice to have my mom, dad, twin & her kids in town last weekend. We didn't do much but it was nice. Amelia smiled for the first time and it was at my mom...she did it a few times. I read that babies start smiling around 4-6 weeks and Amelia will be 4 weeks on Friday. There's also an entire article on how to tell the difference between gas smiles and social smiles. How they really know, I don't know. Anyway, here are some pictures.

I got out the Fisher Price Rainforest Play Gym for my sister's baby, Anna, and realized that Amelia really enjoyed it, too. Let me tell you that the Rainforest Play Gym is a hot commodity...it was difficult to find. We first tried to buy it at Babies R Us but they were out and didn't plan to restock it anytime soon. Next, I scoured the internet but could only find it for above suggested retail price. No, thanks. I found it on Amazon.com for about $10 under retail. It was out of stock but they let me purchase it anyway and surprisingly it actually came back in stock and was shipped to us.


Here's my dad with the baby, a picture of Amelia & me, and a picture of my twin sister with Anna and me with Amelia. This is all for posterity, you understand. The picture with Anna and Amelia makes me laugh because it looks like Anna is trying to give Amelia a "pound" and she's being ignored. Ha. The last picture is me holding Amelia at church on Sunday night. Can you see why I wanted the picture taken? Amelia's sweet daddy accidentally put her little outfit on backwards. I didn't notice it until we took her out of her car seat after services and the ruffle that was supposed to be on her rear was actually on her tummy. I can't blame D - some of the outfits have buttons in the front and some in the back. Dressing a baby is tricky business.

Oh, yeah...Carrie cut off all my hair. I love it. LOVE it.



D is home again for another 2 weeks after one week back at work. It's nice to have him home. We were planning to go to the farmers market here in town but it doesn't open until 3pm and it's supposed to be 97° tomorrow. Uh, no thanks - not with a one-month-old baby. So, we'll probably just relax...maybe get some things done around the house. We may just go in to hibernation since the temperatures are supposed to be upwards of 100° all week. I'm so, so thankful for the air conditioning we had installed after we moved in. I can't imagine having a 3 week old baby and no A/C. Yuck! It's not typical for houses in the Northwest to have air conditioning. As a matter of fact, most homes are built without it because we simply don't need it most of the year. I mean, as a pregnant woman and now the mom of an infant I can tell you that we have our A/C on pretty much all summer even if the temperature isn't scorching.

How does one misplace an entire stash of contact lenses? I have no idea where I put them so I've been having to wear my glasses exclusively. I don't like to wear my glasses exclusively. I've been racking (wracking?) my brain to the point of wanting to beat it against the wall trying to think of places for contact lenses to hide. There's the down side of "nesting". I know that during my cleaning frenzy (admittedly a panicked forced frenzy) I put them in a "safe" place but now I can't think of where that would be.

My little girl is sweet. She is. Even on the nights when she cries and I cry with her because I'm so tired I still can't help but love her to death. I pray that she gets into a sleeping routine before her dad has to go back to work in 2 weeks. Last week when D went back to work for that week it was only difficult because I didn't get a lick of sleep at night and then during the day I wasn't tired so I wouldn't nap. DUMB.

I bought "The Time Traveler's Wife" on Amazon and I can't wait to read it. The movie looks fantastic - I've already pegged D down to take me to the movie when it comes out on August 14th.

Anyone else hooked on Farm Town and Farmville on Facebook?

Need to feed my baby - I should start writing down things that I want to post about because this is what ends up spewed on the screen when I don't.

Until next time....

Long overdue update...slacker edition

I really should keep up with this blog more than I have been. It's the only thing I've been doing to document our baby girl's first few weeks of life. Right now I'm watching my sweet husband cuddling his little girl and smiling at every noise she makes as she sleeps. Today was his first day back at work since she's been born and he kept commenting on how big she's gotten. Apparently he put a picture on his desktop at work of Amelia when she was only a few days old and, compared to that picture, she looks pretty big in real life. He's been holding her practically since he's gotten home from work today - he missed her.

We're wondering if Amelia maybe has colic. At least a few nights a week (it's a guessing game of how the night is going to go) she starts screaming around 10 or 11pm and will only stop screaming if I'm nursing her...obviously comfort nursing and not because she's hungry. Our worst night was a week ago when she screamed or nursed until about 5am. Last night she did this from 11pm until 2am when she finally fell asleep. Not easy for her daddy to fall asleep before he had to wake up at 5am to go to work, but I did everything I could to keep her in the living room and keep her quiet. Regardless of my efforts, she was still fussy and crying loud enough for D to hear. He came into the living room where we were around 1am and held Amelia for a bit. For some reason he let out a long hum type of noise that shut Amelia up immediately. Not sure if it was vibration of his voice or what, but she loved it. Of course, as much as I wanted her quiet I wasn't willing to let D stay up with us!

Ok, admittedly it's now Tuesday evening. The blog got put on hold, as usual. The last couple of days my mother-in-law has come over around 1pm to help with the baby. The first day I was able to finally get a shower when she got here since Amelia was either awake, pooping, or eating all morning and I hadn't had the chance to get away. Today when she was here I took a nice long nap...it was wonderful. She also brought dinner for us both days which took a lot off my mind...it was very nice not to have to think about what to prepare for dinner. So, thanks Mama B! The next couple of days I'm going to be entirely on my own but I think we should be okay. Amelia's a dream during the day. It's the nighttime that can be a bit dicey.

I finally clipped Amelia's nails for the first time today. Yes, the first time since she's been born. We were going to file them but D hates the sound, the feel, or even the thought of an emory board. He says it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. So today while the baby was sleeping I used the little scissors in our American Red Cross first aid kit to cut her nails. No more socks on the hands!

The first week of Amelia's life we were at a doctor appointment every single day. Not kidding. The Monday after she was born we went to the lactation consultant which is standard procedure for new moms & babies. However, while we were there we found out she was a full pound below her birth weight which meant a few things. It meant we needed to supplement with Nutramigen until my milk came in and it meant we needed to go to the pediatrician the next day for a weight check to make sure she was gaining. We also found out that since my milk hadn't come in, Amelia was burning more calories eating than she was getting from me. Some time between the two appointments my milk came in and at the ped's she weighed 7 lbs, 4 oz which meant she gained a full 4 oz overnight. We already had a follow-up appointment scheduled with the lactation consultant for Thursday (I had a doctor appointment on Wednesday) and we found out there that she had gained another 5.8 oz. So, her weight was no longer a concern since she was obviously gaining.

That means I found another thing to be worried about. I realized as she was laying on my chest early Friday morning that she would stop breathing for a few seconds every once in a while (usually every minute or so) then she would gasp for breath. It was very scary, but after another trip to the pediatrician we found out that it's totally normal. Actually, the nurse told me when I called that it sounded normal but if I wanted to come in to ease my mind and get her checked out then that would be okay. Being a first time, slightly paranoid mom, I opted to go in. Then we had her standard ped appointment on Monday, too, and we found out that she was up to 8 lbs, 2 1/2 oz which the pediatrician was thrilled with so we're thrilled, too. We also confirmed how much we love our pediatrician. She's awesome.

So, needless to say I'm not healing very quickly. But the last few days have been pretty restful so hopefully I'll heal now.

Let me get to pictures.

Here's the nursery. Still unfinished. D's brother-in-law is making us a shelf for her room so there are a lot of things that will go on that shelf that will in turn move other things to a more permanent, less cluttered place. But, I got the wall decal as a custom order on Etsy.com and I'm really happy with it. I've spent quite a bit of time trying to find lighting for the nursery, but everything that's pink or white is labled "baby" and highway robbery. D had these torch lamps in his old condo that were black and I wasn't a fan of them - they were so...black. Anyway, I guess it's the result of me watching too much HGTV, but I got the bright idea to spray paint those torch lamps white. Also, while we were at Lowe's we found a small brown lamp with a white shade that had a nice shape but it was brown. So, D painted it pink at the same time that he spray painted the black torch lamps white. Anyway, you can see the torch lamp and small lamp in these pictures. Also, the quilt clips are done and hung. I drew the birds as a template and D cut the wood so I could paint them. I think they're a tad too big, but that's how they're going to stay!

The exercise ball is a lifesaver. Oftentimes, especially when she's having issues at night, bouncing with her on the exercise ball is one of the only things that can quiet her down. Here's D using that "technique"...

I just have to say I have the most awesome husband. He's been doing laundry, cleaning, working on home improvement projects, changing dirty diapers, and helps me with anything and everything I could possibly need or want. He's been taking care of everything around the house since I've had the baby and he always stays 5 steps ahead of me in everything. He goes to every appointment and reads up on what our baby could be going through developmentally each week. Man, I love my husband. I'm excited that even though he's back at work this week he'll be off work next week and the week after that. Yay!

And I leave you with a few last photos.

The first one was taken today - I sent it to D at work. The second D took last night...that's the swing that Amelia sleeps in at night, too. We're going to borrow my sister's Moses basket on Thursday so hopefully Amelia will enjoy sleeping in that as much as she loves her swing. She won't sleep in her pack n' play bassinet. I think it's too open & airy and not snug enough for her even though we swaddle.


The first one, Amelia is doing tummy time on a blanket that was made for her by the ladies at church. Each woman made her own square then the quilt was put together. The second photo is just for fun - it's Amelia's drunk baby look after she eats. I think it's hilarious.


And finally, here we are last Sunday outside the church building after Amelia's first Sunday morning worship service. The good news is that I'm only 6 lbs above my pre-pregnancy weight. The bad news is that I was not a good weight before I got pregnant so the weight thing isn't anything to write home about. Although, I'm not complaining - it's a good starting point for a healthier me once I can be active again!

And finally, finally...a video. Taken last Thursday when she was 2 weeks old.

The blessing of sleep deprivation

The first couple of days of Amelia's life were very rough. D & I didn't get any sleep but that's the easy part of it. I would feed Amelia for an hour at a time but she would still scream after each feeding and especially at night. I thought she had gas and was hurting which was bad enough, but on Monday at our lactation appointment they told me she was hungry because my milk hadn't come in yet. My heart broke. Really, I think it broke. Just thinking about how my baby was hungry and I had no clue why she was crying so much makes me want to cry even now. There were times those first couple of nights when I would try to feed her and we would both end up bawling.

At our appointment at the Women's Clinic on Monday they weighed Amelia before I fed her and she was down to 7 lbs - a full pound below what she was at birth. After I fed her they weighed her again and determined that she was burning more calories eating than she was getting nutrients/calories from me. Her weight was a concern because my milk hadn't come in so we were offered a supplement called Nutramigen which is a formula as close to breast milk as you can get. It's pricey, but the lactation nurse gave us a couple of boxes full which we really appreciated. The lactation nurse told us that we can use my breast milk in a bottle or via a tube when it comes in to supplement because she wanted me to pump anyway. This is getting into the "TMI" arena so I'll steer away from that...

While we were at that appointment the nurse called Amelia's pediatrician's office and asked that we be seen the next day for a weight check. Her pediatrician wasn't in but we got an appointment with another doctor in that office. Apparently between Monday at 5pm and Tuesday at 11:30am my milk came in because Amelia gained 3 1/2 oz overnight! That meant she had lost less than 10% of her birthweight and her weight was considered normal and nothing to worry about. We are continuing to supplement a little bit until our next lactation appointment tomorrow.

By the way, I have to sing the praises of a product called "Itzbeen". It's a baby care timer that lets you keep track of the last time you...

- Changed the baby's diaper
- Fed the baby
- How long since the baby slept or how long the baby slept
- A timer for whatever you want (for me, it's when the last time I took my pain relief medication)

There's also an alarm on it for each button. We set the alarm on the feeding button to wake us up if Amelia goes more than 3 hours at night without being fed. We haven't heard that alarm yet, but I'm sure it works :)

The timer even has a night light on it that is a really nice bright light that D & I have used several times. I love this timer. It's so easy to just push a button and let this device keep track of things for you instead of having to write everything down. We were writing down when and how long Amelia ate for the first 4 days as well as when she needed her diaper changed and that whole thing was a pain. D of course did a great job writing it all down but I always forgot. If you're expecting a baby or know someone who is, this is a great item to register for because, trust me, it will be used!

It's now Thursday. I was too tired to finish this last night. Amelia did so well last night! At first she was really fussy and would cry when we put her in the bassinet in the Pack n Play. Every time we laid her down she'd cry. Finally, I suggested that we bring her swing into the room and lay her in that. We didn't turn it on - just brought it in and laid her in it. She was OUT! She slept for 3 hours the first round, woke up and I fed her, then she slept for 3 1/2 hours and I had to wake her up to feed her. She's sleeping in her swing right now and is a little squirmy so I might have to cut this short.

Today we have another lactation appointment and I'm excited to find out how much she weighs today. She is the gassiest baby, though. I'm not sure what's causing it because it's not like I eat the same thing every day. I'm hoping that it's just left over from earlier this week when she wasn't getting enough to eat. Woooo it's smelly. I'm sure she'll love that I wrote about this in about 15 years.

So she has a couple of "moves". One I call "the turtle". She cranes her neck and makes a kissy face with her lips. It reminds me of a turtle coming out of its shell. What's so funny to me is that she has never lifted her head then banged it into anyone's chest. From day 1 she cranes her neck and lifts her head then gently places it back on your shoulder/chest. Amazing strength in her neck already...and believe me when I say her legs and arms are super strong, too. She's had the poo on her foot to prove it.

Another "move" is what I call the Stevie Wonder. She'll either be eating or just laying on my shoulder and all of a sudden she tilts her head back and does the Stevie Wonder thing with her neck. You know what I mean.

Ok, I'll stop dragging on and post pictures I took last night. Isn't she gorgeous? I know I'm partial, but I seriously want to eat her up. I can't stop kissing her. I can't believe the Lord let me grow her inside of me!

We had to go to Babies R Us yesterday to return something and while we were there I picked up a couple of newborn outfits. She only has maybe 3 things in her closet that were newborn...I would never have thought I'd have a small baby!

Ok, baby's restless. Need to check her diaper :)

Have a great Thursday!

Winner!

To find the winner, I went to Random.org and let them choose for me. Here's the number I got....

So the winner of the Geo Sage Modern Swaddler from BeddingSets.com is...

Congratulations! Enjoy your swaddler! Please email me at baldwinbungalow@gmail.com with your name, mailing address and email address to claim your prize!

Thanks again to BeddingSets.com for sponsoring this giveaway!

Hoping to have a new post tonight. It's been an eventful week with the baby but things are looking up.

Enjoy your Wednesday!

Amelia's here!

I probably should post about my birth experience before posting about what a joy being a mom has been so far. I won't go in to a ton of detail, but here's the basic outline.

Because of pregnancy-induced hypertension, I was set to be induced on my due date. I called the hospital at 6am but was told inductions were being held off for a few hours due to how busy the hospital was at the time. We were given a time of 12:15 to arrive, so that's what we did. Just so happened that a couple from our childbirth class was waiting in the waiting room to be induced, too. Apparently they were at their doctor's appt and it was realized that their baby was way below what he should be size-wise and wasn't getting the nutrition that he should so they were sent over right then. She was due 2 days after me...they ended up having their baby 30 minutes after we had ours!

Anyway, I was checked but still at 2 (almost 3) centimeters. The Petocin was administered at 2pm on a very, very, very low dose of 2 miL/hour. The nurse only upped it by 2 every hour and a half or so and my contractions were nothing so D & I caught the Mariners game in its entirety and were able to watch them beat the Yankees! Finally, at 8:20pm when the Petocin was at 16 but I was only dilated to 3 my doctor came in and broke my bag of waters. The contractions started coming much more frequently and became very painful. I used the exercise ball a lot, tried a rocking chair, and tried to stand and "slow dance" with D for a while but the pain was really bad and I got very discouraged when, at 11:10 pm when the Petocin was up to 18 and the nurse checked me I was still only 4 centimeters. I asked for the epidural at 11:45 and by 11:50 the sweet anesthesiologist came in to administer it. She explained all the risks and benefits as well as exactly what she was doing when she did it. She told me to signal when I was getting a contraction and she'd stop what she was doing to let me breathe through it. The whole thing was painless and she did just the amount of doseage so that I could still have some movement in my legs but didn't feel the contractions anymore. When the time came, I was also able to feel the sensation to push. I fell asleep around 12:30pm and by 2:25pm I was fully dilated, fully effaced, and ready to push! I was so surprised and thrilled that I progressed 6 cm in just 2 hours...it didn't surprise me, though, that I wasn't relaxing the way I should have been during the contractions - I remember trying really hard but not being able to stop tensing up when they would come (when I felt them, that is). I pushed for a total of 1 hour, 20 minutes with 15 minutes of that time trying not to push while waiting for the doctor to show up.


Amelia was born at 3:52 am surrounded by both grandmas and two aunts (with grandparents, uncles, and cousins in the waiting room!). It was truly the most amazing experience. Hearing my husband and my sisters encourage me while I pushed and also tell me how beautiful she was (and how "tiny" she was!) before I could even see her was great motivation for me to finish the task at hand and get that baby out! I don't think there was a dry eye in that room by the time Amelia made her appearance. If there was, I don't want to know because I was a mess! They plopped her on my chest while they cleaned her up and I remember hearing her cry. Most of this experience felt like a dream and even looking back it seems that way. I know Amelia had the cord wrapped loosely around her neck when she first came out so after she was on my chest for a bit they took her over to the warmer and got her cleaned up and checked her vitals. I remember someone (my mom, maybe?) explaining to me what the doctor was doing as she prepared the cord blood donation kit. I also remember hearing the process of D cutting the cord and watched as he stamped Amelia's footprints in our baby book.


This is dragging out longer than I thought it would, but I didn't want to miss anything since I doubt I'd write out her whole birth story while it was fresh in my memory.

We were moved to the mom and baby unit shortly after Amelia was born and we stayed there until 11am on Saturday. The nurse we had most of the time in there was really awesome. On Friday night we sent Amelia to the nursery around 11:50 and they didn't bring her in to be fed until around 3:30. Even then, she slept for over an hour after we got her back before wanting to be fed. To this day that stretch of sleep is the longest I've gotten since her birth. The food in the hospital was yummy! In the labor & delivery section they had an entire snack room for the fathers-to-be with everything free of charge (really - they don't track it). They had a fridge full of sandwiches, salads, pudding, Jello, etc and a freezer with ice cream, popsicles and the like. They also had an assortment of Kettle chips and granola bars. D took full advantage of the food while I was in labor and then afterward when I was in recovery. It was so nice because I was fed steak salad for lunch and salmon for dinner! And when I wanted a snack, D ran and got it from the little kitchen. When we left, the hospital gave us a really nice SwaddleMe with the hospital's logo on it. What a sweet replacement for tshirts emblazoned with the hospital's name!


Wow this is dragging. Sorry!

Recovering from the birthing experience is harder than I thought it would be, but I'm doing okay. I'm so thankful for my family being in town this weekend to help with the baby and the house. It was really fun to come home from the hospital to a house full of some of my favorite people. Saturday night was rough. We had some feeding issues and I got really discouraged. But today Amelia is doing so much better and I don't feel like such a bad mom! My parents graciously offered to keep Amelia in their room on Saturday night for a couple of hours so that D & I could get some sleep. Exactly 2 hours after they had her I woke up with a start and had D go grab her...I felt bad for not having her with us and instead sleep depriving my parents.

I called the on-call nurse for our pediatrician's office tonight with some general questions that had me concerned. She was really sweet and explained everything well, but at the end I said "So pretty much I just need to wait for my milk to come in", to which she replied "Exactly". So, that will be a joyous event here in this house. No more hungry baby.

I'm still having hypertension issues. My swelling in my feet is getting worse and my bp is still pretty high. I need to call my doctor tomorrow...this swelling business was supposed to go away after pregnancy!

Oh, we went to my in-laws' house on Saturday for the 4th of July so I got to dress Amelia up in a patriotic outfit. The hairbow was made by a very special friend (if you remember that post), the bracelet was made by another friend, and the outfit was bought by yet another friend when she found out we were pregnant. It came together nicely! The dinner with mine and D's family went really well and was fun but I was exhausted by the end.


I really have to get going even though I have a LOT more to say. Amelia is sleeping on D's chest while he plays Call of Duty and seriously we should be sleeping, too. I'm loving being a mom even though I'm realizing that the worrying doesn't stop once they're outside the womb. I wish I could bottle the love I have for this little girl and give it to everyone - it's the most amazing feeling. I can't believe she's here and all ours. God has richly blessed us - I mean really blessed us!


Don't forget to enter the contest below - it ends today!

Giveaway!!

Well, the hospital is putting us off a bit this morning. We may not go in until later today to have this baby.

So, while you wait...

A Giveaway!

Beddingsets.com offers a wide variety of bedding for children and adults, and they're letting me give away this awesome swaddler to one lucky reader!

Inspired Crib Bedding S-GS - Geo Sage Modern Swaddler Part of the Geo Sage collection (View full Geo Sage collection)

This modern baby swaddler keeps your baby warm, feeling secure and look stylish at all times. Feature exclusive Geo and Geox cotton prints outside with ultra soft minky inside and velcro closure to swaddle your baby in 2 easy steps. Features:

• Modern swaddler
• 100% cotton and 100% polyester minky
• Coordinates with our crib bedding collection
• Machine-washable

Two chances to enter...
Leave a comment for each of these that you do.

1. Simply leave a comment
2. Mention this giveaway on your blog with a link back to my blog.

Giveaway officially closes Monday night at 9pm PST. Winner will be announced on Tuesday, July 7!