Catching up

We've been a little behind on blogging these days so this will be a catch up entry. On Christmas morning we woke up for our first Christmas as a family of 3 and really the only ones with gifts under the tree were Leah and Abbi. Adam and I didn't really worry about getting presents for each other this year since we had so many other things going on with having a baby.




Leah was sporting her Christmas wardrobe and looked a bit like a candy cane, a cute candy cane, of course.




On Christmas Eve Leah got to meet her Uncle Ryan, my brother, since he hadn't been home from St. Louis since she was born. It was weird that my little brother wanted to hold this tiny newborn right away, but I guess having a child of your own gets most guys over the I'm going to break the baby thing. On the Saturday after Christmas she met her Uncle Chris, Aunt Kacey, and only boy cousin, Nolan. We hadn't seen Nolan since this summer, because he and his parents are now living in Boston, and boy has he changed from a 1 year old to an almost 18 month old. He is a very active little boy and is starting to try and talk more, although his words are a little cryptic right now he can get his point across :)

We were a bit busy over the Christmas weekend and just needed some recoup time after that weekend. Adam said next time we need to have better timing and not have a newborn right at Christmas, as if we have that much control :) The last week of the year we just spent a lot of time together since it was the last week before Adam went back to work.

We didn't really do much for NYE since we didn't know if we would be awake, asleep, or feeding a child, we slept through the ball dropping and I think said "Happy New Years" to one another about 2:00 am when Leah woke up to eat.

Below was Leah's first time wearing her Boiler gear for the game against West Virginia on New Year's day. We think she might be the cutest little Boiler fan out there!



In my previous posts I mentioned some issues we have had with Leah's weight gain. After her 2 week appt where she hadn't really gained any weight and was below her birth weight still we tried a different approach to feeding and she lost another 3 oz, at this point the pediatrician was a bit more concerned and so for the next week I exclusively pumped and fed her all the breast milk I could pump and then supplemented with formula until she was full, which seemed to top off at about 3 oz. She did great with the bottle and it was actually a little bit nice that Adam could help me feed her. In that week she gained 13 oz and went from a sleepy, kind of apathetic, eater to a really hungry demanding eater. She was finally back up to her birth weight plus a little more. The pediatrician then said that I could just pump and feed every other feeding and go back to nursing the other feedings. We visited the office again this week for a last weight check and she is still gaining weight, finally this kid is heading in positive territory. We are still doing the combo of pumped milk and nursing but I hardly have to supplement anymore so its working for now and our baby is gaining weight so we are happy.

Although I definitely want her to have the benefits of breast milk, I'm glad I have been pretty open and flexible to how we are feeding her so that we can do what works for us as a family and not get so wrapped up in success or failure on the breastfeeding front. A mindset I would recommend for any new mommy, everything is new and not easy so feeling like you are a failure at something is just a stress that you as a new mom and your family doesn't need!

And here is just a cute picture of our little peanut and as you might be able to tell she is filling out more, you can see it in those chubby little cheeks!! She was done with me taking pictures of her but I think she is so cute when she gets fussy, at least when its during the day and only last a minute or two :)

My Second Week

Well, hello again everyone, I'm now a whole 2 weeks old and life just keeps getting more interesting. Lets see what has happened in week number two, well first of all my cord fell off last week and has been healing very nicely. Mommy and Daddy couldn't figure out where it was for a while after they noticed it fell off, but then Daddy found it in my onesie. Glad my furry friend Abbi didn't find it on the floor and eat it, yuck!!

On Saturday one of Mommy's friends, Kathy, came and took pictures of me and everyone said I was being so good. I didn't cry at all for the awake ones and once they wanted some pictures with my peepers closed I feel right to sleep. I only got a little frustrated at the end when they woke me up to put me in a Christmas dress for some Christmasy pictures, after a couple hours I decided I was done being a model :)

On Sunday I made my first trip to church and all the ladies loved all my hair and that Mommy could already put a bow in it. I slept in my seat for nearly the whole service, until Mommy smelled something a bit foul coming from my direction and determined I had a dirty diaper that needed changed. Mommy and Daddy did a good job scheduling so that I ate right before we went to church and was hungry right when we got home, we all worked together and it was nice for Mommy and Daddy to get out of the house for just a bit.

Other than that we have a ran a few errands here and there for Mommy and Daddy to finish some Christmas shopping or grab some groceries, but I always stay in my seat or we wait in the car so I don't get too many germies around me, being so little and all.

Yesterday we went for my 2 week check-up and I was supposed to have gained enough weight to be back to my birth weight. Well I had a surprise for Mommy and Daddy, even though I seem to be a great eater, I hadn't gained any weight from my 1 week check-up and still need to gain 9 oz to get to my birth weight. I think Mommy and Daddy were a little bummed about that, maybe I just have a good metabolism :) Dr M., my pediatrician, said this happens pretty frequently and that for the next week we need to breastfeed and then Mommy needs to pump and feed me that as a supplement. I go back next week and hopefully have gained quite a bit of weight. This new schedule is a little harder on everyone because it now takes longer to feed me and Mommy and Daddy are trying to get in more feeds a day, so sleep deprivation for them might be back for awhile. I'm a really good sleeper so they were kind of getting used to having some decent periods of sleep at night before starting this new schedule, I just like to keep them on their toes.

Well tomorrow is Christmas Eve and we are heading to Mamaw and Pampa Love's for the day, and then on Christmas, after we open our presents that morning, Grandpa and Nana Phillips and Uncle Matt are coming over for lunch. I'll have to fill you in more on my first Christmas in the next post.

The last 48 hours.....

Hopefully that is all we have or less until this kiddo gets here. Since to this point she had decided that she is not coming without being evicted, we are scheduled to go to the hospital at 6:30 tomorrow evening to check-in and start on cervidil, which is a medicine that helps to soften your cervix. We'll spend the night and then they will actually start what most people know as induction on Wednesday morning (pitocin and breaking my water), unless the cervidil somehow jump kicks my body into starting contracting itself. So this is our last night sleeping in our house as just the 2 two of us, and probably getting close to a full nights sleep for quite some time.

Today we did some stuff around the house, finalized some last minute planning with taking care of our dog while we are gone for a few days, and then tried to get some Christmas shopping done tonight. We also picked up my birthday gift to Adam for his 30th, which is a new grill. Our current grill is on its last leg and so this one is quite a bit nicer. And since he is the grill master of the house I knew that was something he would enjoy having.

I think our plan for tomorrow is to finish up some random things around the house, finish packing our bag for the hospital (I'm pretty much packed, Adam hasn't packed a thing), probably grab a somewhat early dinner before heading to the hospital, and then try to figure out how to entertain ourselves at the hospital and maybe get a little sleep. Between trying to sleep in a hospital and having our minds racing with the idea we are going to be parents so soon, I don't know how much sleep we will actually get.

And for your viewing pleasure, ha ha ha, this is what 41 weeks pregnant looks like. I think this child had definitely maxed out every square inch of room she has or at least I feel that way.

A week of Christmases.....

We had a pretty busy Christmas week this year starting the Saturday before with my Mom's side extended family, Christmas Eve & Christmas Morning at my parent's, Christmas Day at Adam's parents and then we finished the week with Adam's mom's side extended family on the Saturday after Christmas. Here are some pictures from 3 of the 4 gatherings, at the final one I brought my camera but never got it out my purse to take any pictures.


What is more entertaining at family gathering than watching 2 year olds color and fight over toys, guess not much since there were about 6 adults in this room.



This cracks me up.....my niece is trying to eat cherios with a fork and has reindeer antlers on her head. I do have to say she looked more Christmassy than the rest of us.


Camryn trying to hold herself back from tearing into her presents, especially since they were wrapped in Dora Christmas paper. And her at the end of the night all ready to go home and go nigh night so that Santa could come. I think the little robe is pretty darn cute.



Uncle Adam with Nolan our nephew from his side of the family. This was Nolan's first Christmas and he was all decked out in his outfit. He loves to jump/bounce on your lap so he was getting passed around a lot because we were all out of shape and our arms would start to hurt.