Attack of the Pink!

It's a bow! In her hair!!! Gahhh! So cute :)

Jamie and I want to a cosignment sale at the expo center yesterday. I got 14 outfits for $22! This is the one newborn size outfit I got, everything else is 3 or six month sizes so she has to wait to wear them.

Testing out the stroller

George had to add some air to the tires first


Norah didn't seem too concerned about the whole thing, she slept for a little while
Country roads need big tires, or baby would be shaking and jiggling the whole time!

Picked some little apples from one of our trees, Norah wasn't impressed...

Family

No egg cookies

I wish I would have remembered this while I was pregnant!
1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla or almond extract
dash salt
Cream butter and sugar, add flour, extract and salt. Bake at 350 for 12-15 mins. Or if you're pregnant and want cookie dough just eat it!

Auntie Rhea

My bestest best friend Rhea came to visit for a few days. She's been living in Hawaii for the last three years and hasn't been here since our wedding two years ago! It was so great to have her here, made me realize how much I really miss her! I seriously thought about refusing to take her to the airport yesterday :(
She was wonderful with Norah, held her, bounced her etc while she cried, gave her a bath, dressed her, what a good Auntie!
Move back here Auntie Rhea! That goes for you too Auntie Sarah!

One Month

Norah is one month old today! She wasn't very excited for our photo shoot, so I'll have to get some better pics later today. Lately she's been sleeping better at night, usually a four hour stretch then up for an hour or more and then sleeping for another two or three hours. We found that bathtime before bed seems to help her sleep for the four hours. I want to weigh her today, but I'll have to wait for George to get back from army. She eats a ton so I'm thinking she's over eight pounds by now. She is still in all her newborn size clothes! I tried to put one of the cloth diapers on her and it was huge! More than halfway up her middle and gaps around her legs. So we had to buy more disposable, again, still in newborn size.
She still has her hair! I'm so happy we've made it this far and I can't see any hair loss, hopefully it will just keep growing so we don't have any weird baldness issues.

We have started working on tummy time, not her favorite thing but she does pretty well. Her hands get a little distracting though....Oh and she learned a trick, I'll try and load a video, she can roll over from her tummy to back. What? At this age? Yup, she's done it several times.

I bought a wrap, finally! We kept talking about getting one and I was out near the store that sells them, so here it is! Norah LOVES it :) Both George and I have worn it and so far she falls asleep very quickly every time. Despite the unflattering chin in this pic I have actually lost all the pregnancy weight and a few extra pounds, yay me. It's nice to be able to wear normal clothes again.

I'm going to try and get some family pictures when George gets home from drill :) Yay family!

So cute and big eyes!

It's out

Passed the stone on Sunday, icky. Named it Felix.

Kick her while she's down

Yup that's right. Kidney stone. Started really hurting about 6pm yesterday and just got worse from there. I had pain pills left from delivery so I took two of those and we went to urgent care at about 9pm. Norah stayed with grandma and grandpa so she wouldn't be exposed to all the sick people. Grandma was able to give her the first bottle feeding while we were gone. She took it well and wanted more since I was only able to pump 2oz before we left. George did an amazing job last night since I was all loopy on pain meds. I don't think I can say it enough times what a wonderful husband and daddy he is. He gave Norah a bottle around 4am when I was hurting too much to get up. Thankfully I was able to pump several more ounces before we went to bed so we had a bottle waiting for her!
So, I've been told by several people child birth is worse than a kidney stone which I found hard to believe prior to having Norah. Now, well, kidney stones really really hurt, but labor/delivery is a whole different level of hurt.

Three Weeks

How has it been three weeks already? Who knew 3 hours of sleep could go so far..I'm looking forward to the night she lets us sleep longer. The last two nights have been okay, she was asleep by midnight and up by 3:30, then slept from about 5-6:30. She's had several naps today, but it seems like when I decide to sleep when she's sleeping, that's the shortest nap she has all day! So rude...But she's so stinkin cute you can't be mad for long.

Part Three ...I know its about time!

So what’s the first thing my beautiful new baby did right after she popped out? Pooped all over me. Yup, good job baby! The nurses were impressed with the quantity too, but hey she works! So the pushing was done, the contractions were over, but the aftermath had just begun. I was hurting all over, shaking and trembling pretty hard also. They took Norah to clean her up a bit and the OB starting putting me back together. I got a shot of some pain killer in my IV to help me relax a little, then several shots of local anesthetic before she started stitching.

Basically, because Norah came so fast, her head didn’t mold much as it was coming down and my body didn’t have a lot of time to stretch around her… All that leads to a bunch of stitches. Shortly after the OB started her repairs I finally picked my head up enough to look at her. I think I said, Hi, nice to meet you. It was the first time I had seen her, I wouldn’t recommend meeting anyone in this fashion it’s a little awkward. During this time, the nurses were checking Norah over and told us she was having some trouble breathing. Again because she came so fast she still had a lot of amniotic fluid in her lungs which would normal have been squished out with contractions. They put her under the heater and monitored her for a while. At some point they decided to call someone from the nursery to check her out since her breathing was so rapid and they could hear the fluid in her still. (OB is still stitching) We were told that she may have to go to the nursery for a while if she didn’t improve. Luckily she started breathing better and the fluid continued to come out.

At some point I looked at the OB again and commented on how she seemed to be putting in a lot of stitches. She smiled and told me that there were quite a few and she had to pause for a while and wait for the bleeding to slow down. Oh that’s not what I wanted to hear…So again with the TMI but all you other mommas can sympathize with me, there were two major tears and another smaller one. One was very deep and went pretty high up in there, enough that the anesthetic hadn’t reached all the way to the end. So eventually the OB was done, and the nurses decided Norah was okay to stay in our room. We made some phone calls, sent emails etc to share our news. My mom or dad went to get my sister who I had wanted there for the birth but again, went too fast. Then it was time for me to venture to the bathroom.

George and a nurse helped me get up very very slowly. We shuffled to the bathroom and I managed to sit before anything bad started happening. The nurse had George stand in front of me ‘just in case’. She told me to tell her if I started feeling lightheaded or dizzy. Nope, I feel all right, oh, wait, maybe a little dizzy, oh now sparkly, and everything started to sound really far away. I’d never fainted before, pretty much as everyone describes it. Good thing George was there, he caught me so I didn’t hit the floor.

From here George tells me the nurse pulled the help cord in the bathroom and a few more nurses came in, then I started having convulsions and they called a code, meaning a nurse pulled the lever thingy in the room and lots of nurses came running. I woke up as they were moving me to a wheelchair and back to bed. Once in bed the nurse hooked up my IV to a bag of fluid and explained that I had lost more blood during delivery then they like to see so they were giving me some fluids. I felt really cold and dizzy for quite a while after that. I guess everyone else was pretty scared too, George stayed at my side for a long time. The next bathroom trip went better, meaning I made it back to bed without actually fainting again but I was close. It got better each time.

We had a lot of visitors that day which was nice but exhausting. Norah was pretty fussy that night, the nurses were in about every hour to check on one of us, and I was in a fair amount of pain. There are signs in the room that say to place your baby in the bassinet if you feel tired or drowsy, but we held her while we slept. Funny thing is, the nurses never told us not to. The next day George went to the airport to pick up his sister Sarah and her daughter Evoly. They came right to the hospital to visit us and it was so cute to see Evoly hold Norah! She was very gentle and did a great job. That afternoon we had lots of visitors. My parents, sister and her family, her sister in law and her family all came to visit. It was fun to have Jamie, Naomi and myself and our husbands and babies in the same room! Our second night was pretty hard also, lots of fussing for Norah, lots of pain for me. The OB decided to keep us until the third day due to my blood loss, so Friday the 21st at about noon we finally got to go home!

I didn't realize how far back in the birth center we were until we started walking out, it was a long way! I was super mommy hormonal too. There were people in the waiting areas who commented as we walked by, congrats, what a beautiful baby, etc. I almost cried. We made it to the doors and a nurse waited with me while George pulled the car up. Then we were on our way home! I rode in the back with Norah and we made it most of the way home without any problems. Then she started to cry. She was hungry. She cried a lot, and loudly. It was too much for me, so I cried too, maybe more than her. That wasn't exactly how I planned to arrive home, me sobbing and her crying, but it is what it is. I nursed her right away and then all was well again.

After that, well, we're still here. Nobody came to take her away from us so I guess we're doing an okay job. Tired, sore, sleepy, but healthy and happy to be home as a family.

awhoooooooo deep breaths

I'm assuming it's the HepB shot she had yesterday. She slept a lot last night, waking up to eat then falling back asleep fairly easily. I guess it's all that sleep that prepared me for today. When she didn't sleep. She cried a lot, she ate a lot, she did not sleep a lot. She would fussy and cry for half an hour, sleep for 5-20mins, fussy and cry for another hour, eat, sleep for 10 mins, etc. George was at work from about 10:30-5. He has been so great this evening, holding her so I could sleep for a while. I should clarify, he's always great with her no matter what, which I am so greatful for. I'm sure she's exhausted too, here's hoping she will sleep for a few hours tonight.

Noodle baby

Two weeks

Okay, this should be a nice detailed post about all Norah's accomplishments over the last two weeks, but, we're tired, oh so tired. She nursed much more frequently last night so I let her sleep on me in between feedings. Okay, no one freak out about that okay? She was perfectly safe. I'd describe how I arranged us both so neither of us would move, but again, tired, you'll just have to trust me :) She slept great. I didn't. She's a noisey, wiggley sleeper, and I'm a very light sleeper. But hey, the things we will do right? The bad crack is already starting to heal noticably so hopefully by Thursday we will be operational again.
She had her two week check up today. She's perfect! No really, the doctor said so! And a little advanced :) Her fine motor skills with her hands are about at a two month level. She's gained one ounce over her birth weight, now at 7lbs 9.5oz, go go mommy juice! She was at 6lbs 14oz when we left the hospital. She did have to have the PKU test again, where they stick the heal and get several samples. I guess that's normal, but it was so sad! She turned purple crying so hard, poor baby. She also got a HepB shot, again purple baby. I nursed her through both ouchies but she was pretty upset. I had to get a tetanus shot, yeouchers, that was not fun. Made me nausous and light headed for a while, gross icky feeling. Overall we are doing well, tired, but getting by. George goes back to work tomorrow, so that will be a new adventure!
I'll try and get a few pictures of her later this evening.

Lactation consult

So we went to see a lactation specialist today for a consult about the soreness. Ummm maybe more TMI.....anyway, she was AMAZING. We learned so much from her it was so helpful. Made us realize how UNhelpful the hospital was. Basically she taught us how to nurse where the baby leads the latching you just have to get them in the general area and position. None of the hold baby just right and holding boob just right and making the two meet up just right...like the hospital teaches....Lucky for us I have a very generous milk supply so Norah is gaining weight just fine despite not latching perfectly and my soreness issues. The nurse was very concerned about the condition of my right side and advised against nursing on it until it has healed, probably 2-3 days. Soooo, we got a pump, lucky for us the insurance paid for most of it! So now we just have to hope lefty can keep up with her, which means nursing much more frequently, aka less sleeping, sigh. It will also cause some quantity issues when I start nursing her on both sides again, so the pump will be in use for a little while. But, whatever it takes to make it work, that's what we will do!
Norah's two week peds appointment is tomorrow. I can't believe it's been TWO WEEKS already! George is scheduled to go back to work on Thursday. I'm pretty worried about that, especially now with the extra boob issues. But again, whatever it takes, we'll make it work.