Life with Lucy.

Lucy is such a good little girl, she even allowed me some time to re-vamp our blog the other day! Adjusting to her schedule has been easier than we expected and while taking care of her takes a lot of time, it's a lot easier than we thought it would be. When she's not napping during the day she is very alert and content just looking around her new little world. She loves to be sung to and it is just so precious to hold her in front of you and watch her little eyes scan your face, taking in all the details and memorizing what you look like. We can't wait until she starts to smile! Here are a few pictures I took of little bean.

Our days pass quickly and by the time we know it, Daddy is home! It's so rewarding to spend days at home with Lucy and take care of her. We've had a ton of visitors and still more to come. One of my mom's friends has come over twice to clean our house for us and we are so thankful! I just haven't had time or gotten our routine to the point where I can get enough time to clean the whole house, so that has been so nice. Jenni came over today and spent the day with us and that was really fun, she loves her Godmama!

We met with our pastor on Saturday and planned her baptism for March and we are so excited. So we've started planning the event and the luncheon to follow and we can't wait to share her special day with our family. We're looking for my baptism outfit which Bunny made for me, because I'd love for her to wear it. We also got her birth announcements ordered and are anxiously awaiting their arrival!

Tonight is movie night and it's time to go snuggle with my little family :) xxoo

Lucy's birth story.

I had a very long and tiring labor. We headed to the hospital on the 18th, but Lucy wasn't born until the 20th. I labored for 3 days, and although it was an emotional and stressful few days, I wouldn't change a thing!

On Tuesday, January 18th Jay and I were laying in bed watching the movie Inception when my water broke around 9:15 pm. Even though it was obviously coming, we were shocked! We both looked at each other thinking, "what do we do now??!" I was planning on laboring at home as much as I could before heading to the hospital, but things weren't panning out like we thought they would. Instead of my contractions picking up, they sort of stalled out. I had been having them for weeks prior, so I was surprised that they were not progressing. I could tell Jay was nervous, because he was scurrying around the house trying to keep busy, but would come check on me every few minutes to see how I was feeling. I was actually very calm. We cleaned up Lucy's nursery, picked up around the house, made some food for the hospital, and changed our sheets. We sat on the edge of our bed together and prayed for Lucy, and then finally we reluctantly headed to the hospital to meet my Mom around midnight.

I was checked for progress a few hours after being admitted (they wouldn't let me leave since my water had broken) and I was disappointed to hear I was only dilated to 1 cm. 2 weeks prior at my doctor appointment I was already at 1 cm, and although I was progressing in other ways (her head was engaged and I was 50% effaced) I still felt disappointed. Right away they wanted to start pitocin to speed things up, but we declined. I really wanted to experience a natural labor and not have to medicate myself and potentially harm Lucy. So we continued laboring naturally. I labored through the night Tuesday with no sleep, and all day Wednesday. By Wednesday night they were concerned that it had been 24 hours since my water broke and they were pushing the pitocin again. At that point I hadn't slept in 2 days and had not had much to eat. My doctor said we needed to do something to get things going soon if I wasn't progressing on my own. She offered to give me the night to rest and hopefully progress naturally, or else Thursday morning we would need to intervene for the health of Lucy. We agreed, and we prayed that my body would cooperate through the night.

So I labored through the night Wednesday and contractions became stronger and closer together. By 5 am they checked me and I was only dilated to 2.5 cm. I was devastated! I was 90% effaced but was just not progressing quickly enough on my own. I was handling contractions great and labor was not as bad as I expected, but it wasn't quick enough and they were worried about the risk of infection since my water had broken 3 days prior. I had labored for 2.5 days on my own and was just not progressing enough. So Thursday morning I ran out of options-I had to get pitocin to move things along. Once I started the pitocin labor was complete hell! It was so painful and the contractions were so strong and so close together, and I could feel Lucy squirming around in my belly and I knew she was uncomfortable, it was awful. I labored through 4 hours of pitocin contractions until I thought I was going to die, and I finally got an epidural around 9am. After the epidural life was amazing! I could not feel anything and I progressed very quickly. By 1pm I was 10 cm and started pushing at 1:30, and she was born at 3:03 pm. My mom, sister, and Jay were all there in the delivery room helping me push and encouraging me. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever experienced, and so different than I thought it would be. I was very quiet and calm through the entire experience. I could not wait to meet my baby.

I felt like I had pushed for 5 minutes and then she was born. They placed her on my chest and she looked up at her mama with her beautiful tiny little eyes and we just stared at each other. She didn't cry. She was perfect. She reached out and grabbed my finger and held on for dear life. I looked at Jay and we cried like babies. I just kept saying she is so beautiful, and he kissed me and told me she looked just like her mama.

When she was born the cord was wrapped around her neck twice, so the doctor had to cut it before she was out-pushing her into the traumatic birth category. Jay was later able to cut the cord shorter, but we weren't able to let it stop pulsing like we had hoped. Because of this and the length of time that passed after my water had broken, her blood sugar levels were very low and she had to be closely monitored, having blood drawn every 3 hours after she was born. My milk had not come in yet so she had to be supplemented with high caloric formula to raise her blood sugar level. I was not happy that we had to give her formula-but the positive side was that it gave Jay the chance to feed and bond with her, which I loved watching. We opted to feed her through an SNS tube, which means a small tube is taped to our finger and she sucks from our finger, rather than a bottle. We didn't want her introduced to a bottle until she was successfully breastfeeding. I know Jay really enjoyed those first few feedings of her life. It was a precious sight.

After a few days my milk came in and we were (thankfully) able to stop supplementing with formula, and she is doing great now. She dropped to 7lbs. on day two, but at her 2 week checkup yesterday she was a plump 8lbs. 4 oz! It was an emotional roller coaster, and I absolutely could not have done it without Jay. He was by my side every step of the way, and I'm sure he saw and heard things he never thought he would be able to handle and he was amazing. We have become closer than I ever thought we could be and we just appreciate each other so much. He was so loving and caring and attentive to my needs and he was the best support system I could have asked for. He was my first line of defense when something was not happening as I wanted, and he was my advocate for what I needed and hoped for. We also had an awesome doula who we loved.


Although labor did not go how we had originally hoped, Lucy is here safe and sound and that is all that matters! A few days after she was born, Jay surprised me and my Grandma (who was staying with us) with massages! So we were able to get out and have some relaxing alone time. He also watched Lucy so I could go get my hair done and have some me time. It was awesome. Jay is the best hands on daddy in the world. He takes the initiative with Lucy and just loves being with her. I love that he is comfortable feeding, changing and taking care of her on his own. Life is good at home and we are adjusting to Lucy's schedule really well. She's a really easy going baby and we are very lucky, she is like her daddy in that way. We just love her so much! Here is one of the first pictures taken of her after she was born.

Two weeks old.

I have a few precious spare minutes while my baby girl cuddles with Grandma, and Daddy is sleeping so I don't know what to do with myself! Free time is few and far between these days, and that is perfectly fine with me. Although I don't have much time, I think it's important for me to document this time in our life as often as I can because it is fleeting and so precious.

When I look at the tiny being in my arms I often wonder how I could be so lucky. How could I be part of something so perfect? This precious little baby knit together with intention is a part of me. I was part of an absolute miracle. She is so tiny and such a blessing to us.

Tomorrow she will be two weeks old and I can already see change in her. She's growing like crazy! We're beginning to create her birth announcements and plan her baptism. We have so much to look forward to, and so many memories to look back on. Last night was our first night alone with Lucy, and today my first day on my own with her. Everything went great, she's such a good baby. We've been so spoiled because Bunny stayed with us the first week we were home, and my mom has been staying with us since she left. It's so nice to have the extra hands and not have to worry about cooking, cleaning, etc. Plus we've been getting lots of sleep!

I need to sit down and write up her birth story but I haven't had time yet because it was a long few days :) My mama is staying with us tonight so I hope I can find some time tomorrow to do that.

At two weeks old Lucy is:

-Sleeping until I wake her at night to feed, and sleeping most of the day!

-Only cries when she is not fed on time! She's such a low key baby.

-Holds her head up and looks around, responding to voices and noises.

-Loves being sung to.

-Will put herself to sleep.

-Is a loud sleeper. She likes to sigh and grunt :)

-Loves to cuddle on my chest.

-Sucks her thumb.

-Loves her hands by her face.

-Is starting to like her bath.

Introducing....

Miss Lucia Louise! We call her Lucy.

Born January 20th, 2011 at 3:03 pm.

She was 7 lbs. 13 oz. of absolute perfection.

She has a head full of white blonde hair and adorable dimples.

Birth story and details to follow, for now snuggles are demanded 24/7 :)

We are so in love with this little peanut.

Maternity leave.

This mama has been busy!! Let me start by saying maternity leave is pretty much the best thing ever invented. I am so enjoying my free time while I wait for this little girl to arrive. You would think that all I've been doing is laying around right? HA. I've learned this nesting stuff is serious business. I have the concentration and motivation to get things done I would have never given a second glance before pregnancy. Basically I've been working through a room each day/every few days and totally re-organizing and cleaning it. I get such a huge sense of accomplishment when I finish one! This house is starting to shine and we have had a LOT of garbage the past few weeks. It feels awesome.

I'm still having contractions, and lately I've had periods of more intense spurts...but they never muster up to anything or start real labor, so it really is a tease. Trying to be patient waiting for the one little being that will completely change your life is difficult! But we've got our hospital bags packed and last minute items done so now we just wait. Here are a few pictures, they are random because we've been bad at taking them. Here I am at 35 weeks.And here I am at 37.5 weeks...full term! I am HUGE! I've been able to meet Jay for lunches on his break here and there and that totally makes my day...it's so fun to have a mid-afternoon date, and we look forward to doing that once bean makes her arrival too so she can see daddy! Alright, back to work...so much to do!

Christmas.

Things have been so crazy around here that I haven't even had time to blog about Christmas! We had a wonderful and full few days spent with our loved ones and we were able to see all of our families and share the special time with them. We kept dreaming about how fun next Christmas will be with a little one in the house. At Bunny + Papa's we celebrated Jesus' birth with birthday cake and our tradition of reading "One Solitary Life." If you've never read it, I've posted the content below.

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.
He never held an office.
He never had a family or owned a house.
He didn't go to college.
He never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born.
He did none of these things one usually associates with greatness.
He had no credentials but Himself.

He was only 33 when public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. When he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race, the leader of mankind's progress. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on earth as much as that One Solitary Life.

I love that reading. Aren't family traditions the best? We are looking forward to starting even more next year. We were ridiculously spoiled with gifts this year, and are so thankful for so many useful items we need for baby, etc. One of my favorite gifts was a new Canon powershot camera. I'm not going to always want to lug my big fancy camera around to the zoo or other baby outings, and we hadn't upgraded our "smaller" camera since college. My Grandpa picked this beauty out for us!

My favorite gift was a necklace Jay got me-a silver necklace from etsy with bean's name hanging from a delicate chain. It's perfect and I love it. I wish I could show a picture of it, hopefully soon! ;) We also got a couple sets of our china and we are on our way to hosting some fabulous, fancy dinner parties. Bean got a pint sized rocking chair just for her and our handmade book holder from Papa. We are so lucky!

We also had time to plan our first family trip for this summer. We're heading to Key West for about 2 weeks in June. We rented a house right on the beach on one of the Florida Keys islands. It will be bean's first vacation and we can't wait to have her here to share it with her, she'll be such a fun age!

As it always does, Christmas break flew by and we had to say goodbye to my sister :( But for her birthday she gets to fly home when the baby is born!! So we will get to see her again very soon and for a very special occasion. I can't wait to see her again. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season filled with nothing but joy and happiness! Here's to a new year!

Labor.

On Wednesday of last week I started having consistent, time-able contractions around 9 am. I've never been in labor before so I thought they were braxton hicks and really didn't think twice about it. Around lunchtime I told my mom I was having contractions and when I told her how long I'd been having them and how long they were lasting, she told me to call my doctor right away. I still thought it was no big deal. After a call into my doctor, I was sent immediately to the hospital around 2:30 pm. Upon admittance they hooked me up to the fetal monitors and told me I was in labor.

What?? Labor? I was embarrassed to even go to the hospital because I was sure I would be sent home with false labor pains! Meanwhile my husband was on his way to Denver for a ski trip with a friend. Perfect timing. Since I was only 35 weeks my doctor would not let me have her {and I didn't want to with Jay out of town!} so I was given 3 shots of medication to stop the contractions and to ease me out of labor. They eventually found out I had an infection which was causing me to go into labor to protect the baby and get her out. The nurse told me had I not come in when I did, we'd have a little baby girl in the world. Crazy. I was monitored for 5 hours until the contractions lessened and then given antibiotics and sent home. I tried to relax and rest for the evening but the contractions kept coming and never went away, so at 11:30 pm my mom made me go back to the hospital.

This time I was given another dose of shots and hooked up to an IV with more medication. We stayed until 3 am and I was so exhausted....I just couldn't get rid of the contractions! We got home by 3:30 and I slept for most of the next day. I ended up going back to the hospital on New Years Eve because they were growing in intensity and I was very sick. They switched my antibiotics thinking that the first medication was not working to fight the infection. This time my Mom was prepared and brought us a bag full of goodies and we had a feast in the hospital while I was monitored :) Now I've been home and out of the hospital for a few days but I continue to have contractions, and I am so exhausted. After 36 weeks they most likely will let me continue into active labor, so as early as next week we could be meeting our little girl! They sent me home with the medication they were giving me through shots in pill form so that I can take it at home and not have to go back in. So who knows, we may be welcoming her into our world sooner than we thought!

I would not have been scared had Jay been there, but I was so afraid something would happen while he was out of town! I felt terrible because I know he was very worried while on vacation and he wanted to come home right away. I tried to reassure him that I was fine and that our doctor had everything under control and wouldn't let me go into active labor, so it was only a matter of getting medication to stop the contractions. Anyways, I was never happier to see him when he got home on Sunday and I have no fear he won't be leaving my side until she arrives now :)

Thanks for all your prayers and concern for our family. I'm very tired from lack of sleep and continuous contractions, but it's all worth it for the end result when we can finally meet bean-whenever she decide it's time!