6 week comparison

On the left is mommy at 6 weeks, on the right is Jillian at 6 weeks

6 weeks

Jillian is 6 weeks old today! Last week we decided to take the sling out of her infant bathtub since she was filling up the whole thing, and just let her lounge in the infant tub. Turns out she LOVES the bath when she can splash around, and doesn't even mind getting water in her eyes. She also calms down in the bath so she's been getting at least one, sometimes two baths a day when she gets worked up too much to console (usually from a diaper change). On the sleeping front, she's awake from 11 pm to 3 am just about every night, and sleeps pretty much all day long. She likes to sleep in mommy and daddy's bed, but only gets to when one of us is awake with her in the bed. Otherwise she sleeps in her bouncer. We get between 3 and 5 hours between feedings at night and 2 hours between feedings during the day. Daddy helped out with our photo shoot today with Mr. Bear, so below are some additional poses he came up with:

 

Bathtime

A few of my favorite (baby) things

After being a mother for 5 weeks, I thought I'd share the things that make parenting an infant easier (at least for me!)

Boppy Pillow - The boppy is a must-have for breastfeeding. It is so helpful in supporting the baby and your arms while you're nursing, which allows you to relax more instead of being tense while trying to hold up a baby. Whenever I have to nurse without the boppy it reminds me just how much I love this pillow! I pull the pillow up tightly to my stomach and then lay my baby on it. She knows when the boppy comes out that it's time to eat! Be sure to buy at least 2 slipcovers though, as my baby is a sloppy eater and gets milk on the pillow a lot.

Boppy Pad Liners - I don't know what we'd do without these. They are waterproof pads that go on the changing table, so whenever she poops or pees during a change, we can swap out the pad and not have to take the entire changing pad cover off for washing.

Fleece Sleepers - These are not a specific product, any fleece sleeper will do. Jillian hates blankets, and these are actually warm enough to keep her asleep when she kicks her blankets off.

Playtex Drop-Ins Bottles - I love these because they require very little cleaning. There are only 4 a few pieces - nipple, ring, drop-in liner and the plastic bottle liner holder.  The nipples and rings get washed in the dishwasher in a bottle dishwasher basket, and the bottle liner holder can be reused without washing if needed since all the milk is in the disposable liner.

 Fisher Price Beautiful Garden Comfy Time Bouncer - Another item that I don't know what we'd do without! Sometimes this is the only place we can get her to sleep. I just wish we could remember to turn off the vibration on it when we take her out of it so the battery doesn't get run down as quickly. The vibration is so quiet we forget it's on.

Johnson's Nursing Pads - These are one of those necessary things that you need if you're going to breastfeed. I like this brand the best because the pads are VERY absorbent and they are contoured to the shape of your breast and even have a little indentation for the nipple, unlike a lot of other brands (including the reusable ones) that are just flat.

Fisher Price Rainforest Baby Gym - Jillian loves to watch the lights and listen to the nature sounds. She also plays with the hanging elephant and toucan. Often this will occupy her attention for up to 20 minutes. Also worth noting is that I bought this in great condition for $20 from someone on craigslist (it retails at $69.99).

Graco Travel System - I pretty much don't go anywhere without the stroller anymore, unless there is a cart that I can put Jillian's car seat into. Shopping with her is so easy with the travel system, she usually sleeps in the stroller and when she fusses, pushing her around is usually enough to make her happy.

Medela Symphony Breast Pump - I originally picked up the Simplisse manual breastpump, which I really like, but it's slow to use. After a couple weeks, I ended up renting the Medela Symphony electric pump. It's super easy to use, and lets you pump both sides at once. It takes just 10 minutes for me to pump each morning to get 3 bottles worth. I've been keeping 4 pumped bottles in the fridge for Tom to give Jillian when I'm either asleep or away from home, and freezing any additional milk pumped for future use.

Nursing Shirts - I love nursing shirts. Being able to nurse without having to lift up the whole shirt is so nice. I highly recommend picking up at least a couple nursing shirts if you're going to breastfeed. I have 2 and I am thinking of picking up a few more.

Happy Mother's Day

Jillian and I with the flowers daddy helped
her pick out for me for Mother's Day.

1 month old

Jillian is 1 month old already!

Here are some highlights:

• She loves to eat and even seems to dream about eating (she makes sucking motions in her sleep)
• We go for walks in the stroller around the neighborhood a lot, she likes this for the most part except for when mommy isn't paying attention and hits a big bump!
• She likes to sleep on mommy, not so much in her bassinet or her crib. This frustrates us at bedtime, as one of us is up most of the night with her these days.
• She's outgrown all her newborn clothes, and is in the 3 month clothes now.
• She's getting really good at holding up her head for short periods of time.
• Next week we go to the doctor for her 1 month checkup, so I'll update then with her weight.

How things change...

You wouldn't dream of driving somewhere without baby safely strapped into a car seat in the back seat, but consider this...when Daddy went home from the hospital, a car seat wasn't even required. The nurse just handed him to his mom who held him in the front seat on the drive home. Mommy rode in a hand-me-down car seat used by her older cousins.

On the left is Mommy, at 2 months, in her car seat

On the right is Jillian, at 2 days, in her car seat

The first 2 weeks...

2 weeks old

I can't believe that 2 weeks have already gone by since Jillian was born! It was a crazy 2 weeks, as I had an allergic reaction (hives and swelling) to the pain medicine the hospital sent me home with and had to go to the emergency room, and then I spent 3 days with the worst headache ever while withdrawing from the pain medicine being stopped suddenly. I'm finally feeling more normal, and can enjoy spending time with the newest member of the family. But enough about me, here's what we've learned about Jillian:

• Jillian lost ~8 oz in her first 5 days (very common for newborns) but had already gotten back up to her birth weight by her 1 week birthday. It will be interesting to see what her weight is at her 1 month check up.
• Likes: She LOVES to eat and sticks out her tongue and opens and closes her mouth when she's ready to eat to let us know, and pants like a puppy when she knows the "food" is coming. She also loves to sleep curled up on Mommy's chest, and when she's awake, she likes to lift her head (which she can already hold up for several seconds at a time) up and look at Mommy with her big eyes.
• Dislikes: being swaddled, clothes (especially if they cover her hands), having chinchillas visit her while she's sleeping
• She has the uncanny ability to spit up within 2 minutes of being dressed in a brand new outfit. 
• At 12 days we made our first adventure out of the house to someplace other than the doctor's office - we had lunch at Bob Evans and then went to Babies R Us. 

 The youngest customer at Bob Evans (12 days old)

• At 13 days we got ice cream at Fritz's (she slept thru the whole thing!)
• At 2 weeks (today), she grasped an object besides mommy or daddy's hand for the first time in the baby gym. She tried to eat from the toucan's nose (well I guess it's a similar shape to a nipple?).

 Trying to eat from the toucan's nose, and grasping onto the ring to pull it closer

Labor and Delivery

Just before leaving for the hospital - 40 weeks, 3 days

At my last OB appointment (day before my due date), we discussed inducing labor, and when the doctor said that he was available Monday I said let's do it without giving it a second thought. It was really surprising to me how relieved I felt to know that baby was coming out in 4 days, whether she wanted to or not!

On Monday morning (April 5) we got to the hospital just after 8 am, reviewed paperwork, my vitals (3 cm dilated, 75% effaced, -1 station, anterior cervix), and got situated in our room. Around 10 they started an IV of Pitocin, a drug used to start labor contractions. I had a few contractions, but nothing really painful, and by 1:45 I had only dilated up to 4 cm. Even though I wasn't in much pain, when they offered the epidural I went ahead and had it put in and after that the doctor came and broke my water to get the labor going faster. I took a nap and when I woke at 7 pm I was at 8 cm, having felt nothing due to the epidural. By 8:45 I was at 10 cm and they started setting up the room for delivery.

I started pushing around 9:45. I could feel pressure in my lower pelvis so I knew when a contraction was coming but I couldn't feel anything else (thankfully!). The doctor came in around 10:30 and pushing continued. It became obvious pretty quickly that her head wasn't going to fit out without an episiotomy, and all at once, my IV came apart causing blood to start running down my arm (quickly attended to by the nurses), the doctor made the episiotomy cut (again, I felt nothing due to the epidural) and I pushed out most of her head. Tom tells me that after that push her head slowly slipped the rest of the way out and after another push I heard a nurse say, "now that is a big baby!"

She was born at 11:15 pm, April 5, 2010, weighed 8 lbs, 13oz, and measured 20.25 inches long.

Advise to mothers - when they offer you pain medicine before the epidural wears off, take it! I didn't feel any pain when I went to sleep at 4:30 am after the delivery, but at 7 when I woke up the pain was horrible - they offered me pain medicine at 4:30 am but I declined because I wasn't in pain (because I was still numb from the epidural) and didn't realize how much I would hurt when it wore off!

 

 35 minutes after birth

Baby girl is here!

We are so pleased to introduce Jillian Nicole, born Monday, April 5, 2010 at 11:15 pm,
weighing 8 lbs, 13 oz, and measuring 20.25 inches.

40 weeks - full term

Today is baby girl's official due date - but only 5-10% of babies are actually born on their due dates. If she doesn't come this weekend, we go in Monday morning to induce labor, which means that baby girl will have made her way into the world by very early Tuesday morning at the latest! Oddly enough, I feel much calmer about when labor will start knowing that Monday is the day. The doctor did say there is a 15-20% chance she'll come before Monday on her own.

So what does 40 weeks feel like? Constantly feeling like you have to use the bathroom, constant ache in my hips and back,  and the skin on my stomach feels so stretched that it feels like it just might split open at any moment.

We got the rocking chair for baby girls room in today, just in time for her birth.

39 weeks - almost there!

We're almost there - one more week until Baby Girl's due date! Things are progressing well and hopefully we'll have a baby before her due date, but if not, the absolute latest she will be born is April 9, as the doctor said he won't let the pregnancy go more than a week past the due date. We pretty much have everything ready and we're just waiting for the big day now. The hospital bags are pretty much packed, the car seat is installed, and we even requested absentee ballets from the county for the April 6 election in the event we will be too preoccupied to get out of the house and vote that day.

Fipsy loves the bassinet play pen in our bedroom - he thinks the storage area is a chinchilla seat, since it's just the right size for his furry butt!

Baby's Room

Baby Girl's Crib with her musical giraffe that daddy picked out

Flower and butterfly decals above the closet and window, and a butterfly growth chart on the wall. The baby bouncer is in her room right now, but I'm sure it won't stay there once she's here!

Baby girl's dresser/changing table with matching lap, ipod/ihome and the butterfly mobile I made.

I painted the wooden butterfly and flower shapes to match the decor we decorated her room with.

The rocker won't be in until right around her due date, but it will go next to the crib/lamp beside the door.

Maternity Pics

I just wanted to share a few maternity pics that my friend Elizabeth took of Tom and I last week...

Chili always has a way of getting into the middle of things...

no hints on her name - you'll have to wait until she's born!

Fipsy and the Baby Swing

Baby Shower

We got all kinds of goodies at the baby shower - clothes, blankets, a baby bouncer, a baby bathtub, bottles, toys, and more. Check out more pictures!

Guessing Game #2: Baby's weight and length

How much do you think baby girl will weigh - and how long will she be?

Mom was 7 lbs, 6 oz and 19 inches long
Dad was 8 lbs, 8 oz and 20.5 inches long

Get your votes in - she could come any day (or 3 weeks from now)!

Weeks 36-37

Sorry I didn't update last week - so much to do and so little time! Baby Girl is full term now (as of 37 weeks) and could come any time, but "they" say that babies born to first time mothers usually hold out until close to their due date or even after.

We almost have everything we need for Baby Girl - my baby shower was a couple weeks ago and we got all kinds of cool things, and I picked up the remaining items at super discounts used from folks on craigslist (think $145 baby swing for $30!).

A couple days ago Baby Girl started a new game - previously whenever she was kicking and you rubbed the spot she was kicking, she'd move so you couldn't feel her anymore. Now she kicks back at you when you rub her!

Hopefully I'll get some more pictures posted soon of her room, my belly and the baby shower, but this is all the updates I have time for right now!

Guessing Game #1: Baby's birthdate and time of birth

It's the game you've all been waiting for - when do you think baby girl will be born. Her due date is April 2, but only 5% of babies are born on their due dates...most are born sometime within the 2 weeks before to one week after their due date.

What day and time do you think she'll make her arrival into the world?

Week 35

Baby Girl's room is finally done! All we have left to do is decorate it, and find a rocker/glider for her room. Pictures below...

 

  

  

 

Week 34

We had our 34 week doctor appointment on Thursday - he confirmed that she is head down (which I was pretty sure of already). He got out the portable ultrasound to "make sure" he was right, and he was, we saw her little fists and her head - at this size, you can't see very much on the ultrasound because she's taking up all the room in there! Everything else was fine, we go back in 2 weeks and after that it's every week until she's born. When the doctor went to listen to her heartbeat with the fetal doppler she kept kicking it so hard we could hardly hear the heart beating - but obviously she's doing fine with all her moving around! In fact, right now she is kicking me pretty hard, trying to tell me that it's time to go to bed so I'm stretched out on my side and she has more room to move around (every night when I lay down she wiggles around to get in just the right comfy position).

Monday night was our first "prepared childbirth" class (it's a 2 hour class once a week for 4 weeks). They had us watch a video showing 3 women going thru labor and when it was over Tom grabs my arm and says "I had no idea labor was so painful!"

We celebrated Tom's birthday tonight with his parents and his mom brought out his baby milestone book and some things she saved from when he was a baby. We spent a couple hours reading aloud from the book and hearing stories (some more embarrassing than others) from his parents and grandma. For example, his dad taught him all kind of important skill during his first year of life - like how to stick out his tongue. Among the milestones noted was when they started feeding him solid foods - which was at 4 weeks. They now say to wait until 6 month to introduce solids. It's interesting how things change.

Week 33

Quite a busy week here are some quick recaps!

• I managed to catch a head cold this week, and have been congested with my nose running non-stop since Wednesday. Hopefully it doesn't last much longer... 
• I discovered early in the week that if I rub the lower part of my stomach, it will wake up the baby and she'll start moving around. Tom tried it last night for the first time and got a kick out of interacting with the baby for the first time.
• First "craving" of chocolate hostess cupcakes (Tom thinks there must be some kind of conspiracy going on b/c his mom craved twinkies, also made by hostess)
• I spoke with the priest at the church near our house this week and got permission to have Baby Girl baptized at St. Ann in Normandy (where we got married). We have to attend the "Baptism Preparation Class" next month and then after she's born we'll pick a date for the baptism ceremony.
• We had 3 chinchilla "accidents" this week - which is unusual because they usually wait until they are back in their cages to relieve themselves of #1. I'm not sure what the deal is with that - we started decreasing their playtime this week so prepare them for less attention when the baby comes, so I wonder if it had to do with that.
• We got her bedroom mostly painted - the first paint that we bought was too light on the walls (even after 2 coats) so yesterday we picked out a darker green color and I think we're both really happy with how it looks on the walls. It just needs some touch-ups and the walls will be done.

Baby Girl's room in green!

Week 32

32 weeks down, 8 to go...

Everything is still going well, blood pressure is low, baby's heart rate is good, and she's still measuring 1 week bigger than she is (33 cm, this is week 32, but again, +/- 2 cm is considered normal).

Her room is coming along, we have everything primed, the closet is painted (white so that if we repaint the room, we won't have to repaint the inside of the closet), and the ceiling is almost done. Hopefully by the end of the weekend we'll have some of the green on the walls.

The room looks a lot different in white

31 weeks - elbows!

Baby girl discovered her elbows this week...I woke up Thursday morning with something hard and pointy sticking out of my side, after rubbing it for a minute she moved away from the spot. She still moves a lot, but since she has less room in there, her kicks aren't as hard.

This afternoon Chili heard a baby crying on tv and got scared and took off from daddy and went running around the house - here's to hoping this isn't a sign of things to come!

 

We went shopping for carpet for her room today and found a couple carpet remnants at Becky's carpet that are very cheap (less than $1/sq ft!) and are nice and soft. I think we're leaning toward the carpet remnant on the right...the pics were taken with my camera phone though so the color isn't as accurate as seeing it in person.

Week 30

Just 10 more weeks until baby girl is here! At the doctor yesterday, my belly measured 31 cm, which corresponds to "31 weeks," so she's still measuring big (but plus or minus 2 cm from the week you are at is considered the normal range).  The glucose tolerance test and anemia blood work from the last appointment were both normal, and I'm now 8.5 lbs above my pre-pregnancy weight (but add in the 16 that I lost and gained back for the total pregnancy weight gain so far).

My prenatal swimming class is going well, but sleeping not so much. I have to get up every 2 hours to use the bathroom through the night, and acid reflux/heart burn makes it difficult to find a comfortable position - and once I find a position that works for that, my back or hips start hurting. And to top it off, the random, vivid dreams I have when I actually do fall asleep keep me from sleeping very restfully.

We've made a little progress on baby girl's room, one wall and the closet are now primed...hopefully the whole room will be primed by the end of the weekend...pictures below...

 

Your only hint about her name...

This is the only hint you're getting, and it's only because I spent the weekend painting and decorating the letters in her name to hang in her room and I'm so happy with how they came out I had to share one with you. The letters are 8 inches tall. And no I'm not telling you whether it's the first, last or a letter in the middle of her name (but you can safely rule out MY name as a possibility - ha).