One Month Update!

I know I'm slightly delinquent on the posts (especially since she's actually one month and 5 days old now...) but I assure you, the pictures were taken when she was one month. We had a mini photoshoot in the nursery, and she was surprisingly cooperative!

She's grown so much this month, and way more since I took these pictures, if you can believe it! Our little girl weighs around 9 lbs (at least we think) and is about 20.5" long. Again, not exact since we're weighing her ourselves and measuring her with my sewing tape. We're amazing parents.

And just because she's adorable, here's a picture of her in her Valentine's day dress, too.

It's been a great month, and I look forward to many more. I also look forward to showing embarrassing pictures of our adorable little teenager to future boyfriends while Jesse cleans his gun. OK, so he doesn't have a gun. It's a metaphorical gun. But he'll be scaring them, and I'll be embarrassing her.

Four Week Update!

Four weeks! Little baby E is almost a month old! I seriously can't wait to dress her in her Valentine's Day outfit and take her one month pictures for her baby book. Look at all the progress the cupcake has made in the four weeks!

Not much changed this week. She's still eating 3.5 oz at each bottle feeding and on almost exactly the same schedule for feedings. I also used my fail proof method of weighing her again, and it looks like shes about 8.4 lbs even though she's still in her newborn clothes. As far as milestones go, she's still rolling over like a champ and she's more aware of her surroundings every day. I noticed this week that she can tell when Jesse or I are in the room. It really makes a difference in whether or not she naps. :)

A big step for us as a family was our first meal out of the house! My bestie came through town with her brother's family and we all met up to have lunch. I'm so glad she got to meet Emily, and I'm even more  glad that Emily was so good. She hardly fussed! Well... until we got in the car. She threw a holy fit almost the entire 20 minute drive home. Oh well, babies will be babies sometimes.

Three Week Update!

Three weeks down! I can't even fathom that our little pumpkin is three weeks old, or that I'm halfway through my maternity leave. Yikes, time moves fast! I can't believe how big the cupcake is compared to when she was born. She's still small enough to fit into her newborn clothes, which makes me wish we had bought more of them. We have one outfit (her going home outfit) and a handful of onesies and pants. She can sort of fit into 0-3 month onesies depending on where it's from, but the pants are WAY too long. She'll be in the newborn pants for a while. Jesse says she has his legs, which means she has super short legs and a long torso. Granted, we both have short legs, but I'm 5' with a 28.5" inseam and he's 5'11" with a 30" inseam. So yeah, he has short legs. haha

Our little chunk is also guzzling down milk at every meal. I weighed her in the most scientific way possible (I weighed myself, then I weighed myself holding her...) and she now weighs around 8 lbs. She's up to 3.5 oz per bottle, but she's only taking 2-3 a day. We tend to give her bottles for her middle of the night feeds because she can be really fussy and cry (OK, more like wail!) for 15-20 minutes before she latches properly at night. During the day we nurse because it's less work. If I gave her bottles I'd have to feed her, get her to sleep, pump, and then clean all the parts. By the time I finished all that she'd be ready to eat again! So Jesse and I both get up twice a night, change her diaper, and while he gives her a bottle I go to the nursery and pump. After that we'll put her back in her back in her swaddle sack and set her in her Rock and Play sleeper. She's usually out in about 10 minutes after that. It takes about 45 minutes total, but like I said it's only twice a night at this point so it's not too bad.

She's also pretty predictable as far as times go. She almost always wakes up at 12-1 AM and then again at 4-5AM. When she wakes up around 8:30 AM I'll nurse her in the living room and then we're up for the day. She finishes nursing around 9:15 AM and then fusses for about...... 90 minutes. Yes. She'll through a holy fit for an hour and a half unless I'm carrying her or holding her. Usually I'll hang out on the couch with her or put her in her sling so I can get things done, like eating breakfast. Then she'll fall back asleep around 10:30-11 AM and wake up around 12:30 PM to nurse again. After that her schedule is slightly less predictable until around 7 PM. We nurse at 6 PM and again around 9 PM and then she's down for the night. Every other night we try to get a bath in between 6 and 9, and usually sometime during the day I'll either put her in the stroller or the sling and take her for a walk.

As far as milestones go, we're still doing tummy time a few days a week, and my baby girl surprised me at 17 days old by doing this....

Yeah. This little cupcake rolled over. She did it twice before I got out my cell phone, and I couldn't believe she did it again! Sorry for the shakiness and the baby talk. I can't really help it.. haha

See you next week!!

Our Birth Story

I woke up at 6:42 AM on January 16th, 2013 to what felt like a really strong cramp. I wasn't super concerned about it because I'd had braxton hicks a few times before and I just figured that I was having another episode of that. I got up and grabbed a glass of water and laid back down. When Jesse got up to get ready for work at around 7:30 AM I had already had 3 or 4 more (I decided to time them after the second one just to be safe), and when he got out of the shower I told him he might want to call his boss and tell him he could be a little late for work. So we hung out at home until 10 AM, at which point my contractions were averaging out to around every 4-5 minutes. I decided to call the hospital, and they told me to come on in and they'd check me out.

When we got to the hospital it was around 10:30 AM. They hooked me up to the monitors for the baby and for my contractions and ran a few tests while they waited on my Doctor's decision. The nurse made it seem like they were going to send me home because I was only 75% effaced and 3CM dialated, but my Doctor said to keep me because my contractions were close enough together and he was sure I'd just have to come back. So they moved Jesse and I into a labor and delivery room and started a pitocin drip to regulate my contractions. By the time they got the IV in and started the fluids and pitocin it was about noon and the Doctor said he'd be back in about an hour to check how dilated I was and discuss breaking my water.

Around 1:00 PM he popped back in and checked my cervix. It turned out that I was dialted to 5 CM already, and my water broke as he was checking me. Now, up to this point I wasn't in a huge amount of pain. The contractions were strong, but not unmanageable. I was actually thinking to myself, "I don't need an epidural. I can totes magotes do this!" Then my water broke, and I can only describe my body's reaction as shock. haha I was literally shivering and chattering, and it got way worse when I had a contraction. So of course I said, "Where's this epidural we've been talking about?" and in popped my savior the anesthesiologist. By 1:30 PM I had the most amazing epidural that anyone has ever had in history.

The nurse came back in at about 2:30 PM to check me and put in my catheter, and I was only about 6 CM dilated. As soon as she put the catheter in my contractions intensified again and I told Jesse I felt like I had to push about 30 minutes later. She came back to check me again about 3:45 PM and I had dilated to 10 CM so she called the Doctor and got me ready to push. After about an hour I was ready for the Doctor to come in and deliver, and he showed up around 5 PM. At 5:34 PM little miss Emily Caroline Hillius was born, and the first words her Daddy said to me were "She has huge feet!"

A few minutes later, my baby girl was in my arm and I was the happiest (and most tired) Momma who ever lived. :) Plus, thanks to my awesome epidural the birth was a snap. I told the nurse who wheeled me into recovery that I would do it again, and she looked at me funny, so I explained that the anesthesiologist was amazing and I had basically felt slight pressure, and no pain. She said I was the only person who ever told her immediately following labor that I would do it again. haha Go figure.
 

And that's how our little cupcake made her arrival into our lives. :)

Two Week Update!

I can't believe it's already been (over)  two weeks since my little munchkin made her appearance! She's already grown so much. I seriously can't believe how different she looks! Or at least bigger.. :) She even outgrew her first outfit right at two weeks! I was kind of excited but sad at the same time because that means my little baby is growing! She's also starting to be awake more often, and more alert when she's awake which is amazing. Her eyes get really big when she's interested in something and it's always fun to watch her react to new sounds.

Leaving the hospital, at one week, and at two weeks!

Since we left the hospital we've had two Doctor's appointments and 4 weigh-ins. We were kind of freaking out about her weight (she had lost 8 ounces when we left), but by her two week appointment she had gained it all back and was up to 7 lbs 4 oz. I can't believe she's gaining almost 6 ounces a week, but she's already eating 3 oz at every feeding so it's not that crazy. She eats about 21 ounces of expressed milk a day (3 oz 6-7 times a day) and she also nurses once or twice. When she gets really fussy we let her nurse, and it seems to calm her down quite a bit.

We started her on bottles right before she turned two weeks old I think it actually helped her latch. You hear all this hubbub about "nipple confusion" and almost every lactation consultant will tell you not to introduce pacifiers or bottles until at least a month, but we were having major latch issues. She has a good latch and a good suck reflex, she just got really upset when it was time to feed. It would take us 30 minutes just to get her calmed down enough to eat! Now when it's time to nurse she pops right on. So I'm calling BS on nipple confusion. Some babies might have it, but not Emily.

Our pediatrician also suggested we start her on tummy time because her neck and arms are so strong already. It seems so early to start, but she assured us that it's never too early to start tummy time and suggested we start with 5-10 minutes a day (or however long she'll tolerate it) and see how she develops.

As for Mommy, I'm doing great! I'm moving around way better this week and not feeling pain anymore, and I've also lost more of that water I was retaining from the hospital stay. I'm down to 126 lbs and measuring at 28" in the waist and 34" in the belly. I look much less pregnant and more like I'm just carrying a few pounds around.. haha But I've only got 10-15 lbs to lose since I've got to retain some of the weight for healthy breastfeeding, and at 2 weeks post partum I can't complain about that. Jesse goes back to work next week so Emily, Sammy and I are going to try to get in lots of walks in the fresh air!