Mamarazzi Monday: Jillian and Friends

Crinkle King
(can you tell this one is her favorite?)

Green Bug

Frog Legs

Crinkle Kitty

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Mamarazzi Monday: Green Beans

This past week Jillian got to try green beans for the first time, her first food other than the rice cereal.

At least as much got in her as is on her face!

She stole the spoon from daddy and tried to feed herself

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Fourth Month Recap

Monthly Mr. Bear Picture - She looks so grown up!

Recap of Jillian's Fourth Month:

• At her 4 month checkup today she weighed 14 lb 11.5 oz and was 25" long
• Loves playing with all her toys (look for a blog entry next week introducing them all to you!) She even convinced daddy to buy her a new toy that she picked out at Target.
• Went swimming at the Chesterfield Family Aquatic Center and the Maryland Heights Aquaport
• Checked out the sprayground at Millennium Park in Creve Coeur
• Attended her first playgroup with mommies and kiddos from the St. Louis Mommies Group.
• Found her toes - and likes to play with them!
• Enjoys exploring different textures - soft and silky on Twinkle Froggie, and a cold soda can for example.
• Learned she can scoot down in the bathtub and drink the water. Giving her sips of water from a sippy cup helps keep her from drinking the bath water.
• Took her first long car trip (2.5 hours) to Boonville, MO for the first annual Boonslick Art and Music Crawl. She did pretty good in the car, considering she can't see anything from her rear facing car seat, so riding in the car while awake is extremely boring for her!
• Started rice cereal! She seems to like it and understands the concept of opening her mouth for the spoon. She also likes to stick her hands in the bowl though.
• She also started taking baby zantac this month to help with her reflux problems. It hasn't totally alleviated the problem, but her spit ups have decreased dramatically. We still have to give her mylanta after she eats once a day or so too.
• All three of us visited the Butterfly House in Faust park last weekend, and even though it was REALLY hot inside, Jillian watched all the butterflies.
• She started making the Razz sound and blowing bubbles and sticking out her tongue this past week and thinks it's hilarious to do so.

With our buddy Andy at the Maryland Heights Aquaport

Yummy Rice Cereal!

Playing with my dress and sticking out my tongue

What it costs to have a baby

I finally got around to adding up the total cost of the delivery and hospital stay. Remember, this was a medicated, but not complicated vaginal birth, with 2 days, eight hours total time spent in the hospital.

Total billed to the insurance: $14,097.66
Provider discount: $6,385.03
Total paid bt the insurance: $6,155.57
Total paid by us: $1,556.40

Mamarazzi Monday: The Sprayground

We took little Jillian to the sprayground at a local park for the first time yesterday. She loved it and didn't want to leave...mostly because she was trying to drink the water in the fountains (her latest obsession).

 Our friend Andy sprinkling water on Jillian's head

Trying to drink the water

Where'd the water go?

(it shuts off every 10 minutes or so and you have to go press a button to start it back up)

All done - such fun!

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7 Quick Takes

1. In an effort to blog more, I decided to try out a "7 quick takes Friday" blog post. I first saw this on the blog "So Much to Say, So Little Time."
   
   
2. I found a neat website today, www.stlexercise.com, which lists places to exercise in the St. Louis area. Turns out a lot of the pools near our house have "tot time" in the mornings at a discounted rate for an hour or two where they open the pool up for just kids under 5. Jillian is too young this summer but I could see weekly trips to the pool happening next summer. I also discovered that Ballwin's Vlasis Park has a splash ground which I'm sure we'll make lots of trips to as well.
   
   
3. I also read yesterday about a new organization - St. Louis Coworking, where you can rent space to do your freelancing. It's downtown, so I have no interest in participating, but it's a neat opportunity to have available in town.
   
   
4. I tried the new pretzel M&Ms. I wasn't real excited about the concept of pretzels and M&Ms, but CVS had them free (with $1 back reward bucks) so I figured it was worth a try. They were pretty good!
   
   
5. Moms will enjoy this one - Ridiculous Parenting Products. My favorite is the Plush Pee and Poo Duo. Seriously...who would buy a stuffed toy shaped like poop?
   
   
6. Jillian grabbed her toes today when daddy was changing her diaper!
   
   
7. Jillian is always doing silly things - and a couple days ago while we were at wal-mart, I unbuckled her carseat straps so she'd be more comfortable while riding around in the cart. A few minutes later I look down and see that she's found herself a new "toy" to suck on - the plastic clip on the carseat.
   

3 Months and Growing!

Monthly Mr. Bear Picture
(notice how she can sit supported now instead of laying on the bear?)

So much growing, so many new things this month...

• No doctor check-up this month, but her "unofficial" weight taken at home was 14 lbs
• Started off the 3rd month with her baptism
• She hates bottles now and screams VERY loudly if you attempt to offer her one
• Seems to live by the motto, "Daddy is for talking, Mommy is for eating" as she talks and plays with Daddy but if she's hungry or needs to be comforted, she needs Mommy.
• She's very attached to blankets, thanks to Daddy using them to distract her during diaper changes. She likes to grab onto the blankets and chew on them, and also play "where's the baby" where you cover her head with the blanket and she kicks and pulls it off.
• She finally seems to like the baby swings, and tolerates being put in them for short periods of time.
• She still won't sleep in the crib, but she likes to lay in the crib and watch the mobile
• She LOVES to watch TV (and anything that resembles a TV - including Daddy's cell phone, the ipad and the laptops). She especially likes to watch Cardinal baseball games with Daddy.
• She lifts her head 90 degrees on her stomach and can hold her head up for very long periods of time now. We sit her in her bumbo in the middle of the table during meals now so she can feel a part of the meals. 
• She babbles and coos a lot, and she has conversations with Daddy. She has also invented the "get louder game" where she gets louder and louder with each babble back and forth with Daddy until they are shouting at each other. She also talks to her blanket, and Grandma and Grandpa's golden retriever Daisy.
• She likes to play, especially with the toys in the bath (she has picked up the ducky in the bath a couple times), and also with "crinkle birdie," a toy that Grandma got her that makes a crinkle noise when you grasp it. Another game we play is the "up and down game" where you grab her hands and pull her to a sitting position and then gently lay her back down again.
• She recognizes her name - even when strangers say it. When we got her 3 month pictures taken at JCPenney, the photographer said her name and she lifted her head high to look at her.
• She got to ride in the stroller without a carseat a few times, but she doesn't quite have the trunk control to sit up in the stroller.
• She rolled from her tummy to her back
• Daddy let her lick a tater tot and she found it quite tasty!
• We watched fireworks on July 3, and she wasn't frightened of them, after Daddy lifted her from the stroller and pointed to the pretty lights in the sky she watched them in amazement.
• On the night before she turned 3 months old she slept through the night (8 hours!)
• She grew out of most of the 0-3 and 3 month clothes this month and is now wearing 3-6 or 6 month clothes.

 Holding up my head

Sitting in my bumbo chair, watching TV with Daddy
(one of my favorite activities)

Playing with my toy "crinkle birdie" that my Grandma gave me.

My baptism

Chili Kiss

Click the black box below to start the video!

I can roll over!

Coupon Mama

Since the baby was born I've become quite the deal searcher and I wanted to share where you can get coupons for free online and print them at home. The sites have you install a coupon printer to your computer, so that you cannot print multiples, so you have to have your printer connected to your computer when you go to the sites to print the coupons. I just to through the sites and print coupons for products that I already buy at the regular price when I need them. Occasionally I'll come across a coupon for a new product I'd like to try, but for the most part, I'm saving money on stuff I already need. Generally when I go to Target or Walmart, I save at least $5 by using coupons.

coupons.com
Everything from baby wipes, diapers, cereal, insect repellent, shampoo, pet food, even toys.

I printed $4.50 worth of coupons from coupons.com today

http://coupons.smartsource.com
These are the same coupons that come in your Sunday newspaper, but you don't have to buy the paper to get them, you can print them for free from their website!

I printed $1.30 worth of coupons from smartsource.com today

redplum.com
Again, more coupons you'd find in the Sunday newspaper, free to print online.

I printed $2 worth of coupons today from redplum.com

target.com
Scroll down toward the bottom of the page, and on the left is a box that says "Coupon Savings." Click "Get Coupons" and you can print coupons good only at target. Best part about these coupons is that you can use any manufacturer coupon (from the newspaper, or printed from online) in addition to these store coupons for the same item.

I printed $2.30 worth of coupons today from target.com

www.cvssavingscentral.com
I just discovered this one today - the CVS rewards program. You earn 2% back with every purchase in-store and online at CVS/pharmacy, 1 Extra Buck for every 2 prescriptions purchased in-store and online at CVS/pharmacy. Get instant savings on items featured in their weekly store circular ads and earn even more Extra Bucks on select brands advertised in our weekly ads. Then you can spend your Extra Bucks at any CVS/pharmacy location or online the next time you shop. Now obviously there are some restrictions and expiration dates on these extra bucks, so I'll be watching closely the next couple months with this program to make sure that I'm actually saving money with it.

At my first visit to CVS today,  I got a 64 load bottle of Tide for ~3 cheaper than Target's price, just by using the CVS reward card at checkout, and got $10 extra bucks (good for the next trip to CVS) for buying a box of huggies (which I also used a $3 off coupon from coupons.com on), $2 extra bucks for buying 2 bottles of pantene, and $5 extra bucks for buying a 42 count box of prilosec. Grand total of $17 to spend toward next week's extra bucks items at CVS!

2 months old

Highlights of Jillian's second month:

• Jillian likes to take car rides, but if she's awake, she crys when the car stops at a stoplight.
• She loves to take a bath and at the end of this month, she started playing with the toys in the bath - she likes to kick at them
• She smiles at us all the time but I've yet to get a good picture of her smile.
• She has laughed a couple times for us, I'm not sure if she realizes that she laughed, I think the sound just escaped from her when she was happy
• We started the month off with a horrible diaper rash, but discovered that the generic Target "Up and Up" brand diaper rash cream works wonders. The Butt Paste brand just wasn't clearing it up.
• We went to the zoo 3 times this month, but Jillian has yet to grasp what the zoo is all about. Mostly she just wants to nurse. The third time we rode the carousal together.
• We also tried out her backyard wading pool.
• She knows the difference between her home and being out somewhere. After a big day out, she looks around when we get back home and relaxes.
• Jillian only sleeps in her bouncer at night. The doctor thinks this might be due to her having some reflux, so we'll be trying some remedys during month 3 to try to help her with this. She also hates having blankets on her and kicks them off and we have to keep putting them back on her - until she falls asleep that is. 
• Other ways to get her to fall asleep are vacuuming, sitting her by the dishwasher or taking her downstairs to the basement by the washer and dryer and having her listen to the white noise created by these appliances.
• She said her first word - "Mom" - ok just kidding, but sometimes when she cries (especially when she's frustrated) her cry sounds like "mmmooooooooommm"
• When she's really concentrating on something she has her little hands in fists. As she relaxes, the hands relax as well. 
• Speaking of her hands, she loves to suck on them. On the day she turned 2 months she managed to get her thumb into her mouth, but hasn't figured out how to do that consistently yet. It's rather entertaining how loud she can be slurping her hands.
• She also uses her tongue to play "ice cream cone" when it's time to eat, licking the nipple instead of sucking on it.
• She's started cooing - ooo and ahh sounds

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.