Months 7, 8 and 9 all combined

So I have to make a made dash to catch-up on the 2nd 6 months of Leah's life before she turns 1 :)

Here she is at 7 months old, during her 7th month she perfected her crawling skills and learned how to get into everything, she became a master of mobility and we had to baby proof and move a lot of things up. She began venturing a lot more with her foods and I had a lot of fun making her baby food. She would try almost anything and ate very well.


And here is 8 months. As you can see there isn't a huge difference in the pictures, I think her filling out had started slowing down since she was on the go constantly. During her 8th month she started pulling up first on her activity table then on anything she could figure out how to get to a standing position. We started introducing more and more table food and she transitioned really easily to being nearly off all baby food/purees by the time she was 9 months old. At the end of August, Leah's beloved Miss Laurie, that has been babysitting her since I went back to work, found out that her breast cancer from 3 years ago had come back. Understandably she wasn't going to be able to continue watching Leah and we were blessed by being able to quickly get her in a wonderful daycare in a matter of 3 days. She misses her Miss Laurie, but wants her to spend all her time trying to get better and kill that awful cancer!!!


Just short of being 9 months old Leah was dedicated at our Church and all her grandparents were in attendance.



And finally here she is at 9 months, getting her to nicely lay down by her doggy just isn't working any longer, she moves way too much. During her 9th month she perfected her ability to pull-up on anything and everything. She made new friends at her new school and loves her current teacher Miss Sandy. She totally transitioned to table food and got her first tooth. She really started clapping and loved to see how loud she could make her hands :) When we went to her 9 month appt she was 29 inches long (92%) and 17lbs 14 oz (30%) and I can't remember the inches for her head but it was like the 87%, so she is a tall, skinny kid with big old noggin :) The daycare germs have been getting their punches in, I think she has been sick with something from pretty much the week she started, luckily nothing has been too serious or lasted too long and we haven't had any ear infections.


On a really nice day in September we all headed to the zoo, here is Leah with her Daddy enjoying the Rhinos. I think this is the first time she went to the zoo and stayed awake long enough to see and enjoy the animals.

Month 6 ......a vacation and cancer turning our world upside down

Leah had a pretty eventful month 6, we went on our second vacation in a month and this time we drove out to Hilton Head, SC with my entire family. Leah did great and on the way back we drove straight through, that's 14 hours + for a 6 month old, thank goodness for a great little traveler. We stayed at a great townhouse condo right on the beach (well basically it was like a 100 yard walk) and had a big pool and baby pool right outside our patio. It was one of the best vacations I've had in that it was a perfect mix of relaxing and yet not getting bored. We ate some great food, we went to Savannah for a day trip, and spent a lot of time at the beach. But best of all we spent 9 days together as an entire family and everyone got along great and really enjoyed each others company.

Below was Leah's first dip in the ocean, she wasn't exactly a big fan in the beginning but got better each day.



Leah and her older cousin Camryn had a lot of fun together. Camryn liked playing pick-a-boo with Leah, and Leah thought anything Camryn did was really funny. The only thing Camryn wasn't a big fan of was Leah pulling her long locks every time she got a chance :)
Here is Leah our last night there, by that point she loved the water and thought the sand was great to run her fingers through and throw around.

While we were on our trip we noticed that my Dad just didn't quite seem himself and urged him and my mom to get to the Dr. as soon as we got back home. On June 10th, the Thursday after we got back Dad had an MRI which confirmed that he has a brain tumor in the left side of his brain. Its been quite a roller coaster since then, but I'll elaborate more on that in a separate post. To say the least that day turned our world upside down but we have been very blessed as a family for all the love and support that has been shown to us.

During our trip Leah started getting up on all fours and rocking and as soon as we got home she started doing her own version of a crawl. At first it was more of lunge, which usually led to a head first dive into whatever toy she was going after.

Getting her picture by a piece of paper that said what month it was and the date just is not even possible anymore, due to her new found mobility. This month again she was more interested in eating her stuffed puppy than laying next to it.

We didn't get to have her 6 month appointment until a little after actually turning 6 months, but her stats were 16 lbs 1.5 oz and 26 1/4 inches long.

Opps we need to rewind to 4 months

I'm totally a blog slacker and haven't updated since Leah turned 3 months old, opps :( The biggest development that happened from 3 months to 4 months was that Leah learned how to rollover from her back to her belly. Once she figured this out, putting her on her back was just a game for her b/c within seconds she was on her tummy. This was fun for playing and stuff but we had to make sure she didn't play on the floor too close to eating b/c otherwise we were cleaning up her and the floor! She also went for her 4 month appt (actually a few days after turning 4 months) and was 14lbs 4.5 oz and 24.5 inches long, which is basically puts her in the 60th percentile for both weight and height.

Some other things we did was go to the final four festivities downtown. The picture below is of us watching Butler practice a Lucas Oil. Adam ended up being able to go the championship game on Monday with my dad. What and amazing final game he got to see.

We then had our first Easter with Leah and she seemed to think it was a pretty great day to celebrate Christ's resurrection. She looked adorable in her little pink Easter dress and we spent the day with family, it was a nice day. For some reason Leah took like 4+ hours of naps that day and then didn't sleep hardly at all that night, it was such a fun Monday let me tell you.

And of course here she is with her dog on her 4 month birthday, and for the first time I look at this picture and I actually think she is starting to look a little like my baby pictures.

I'm a quarter of a year old!

Hi its Leah here again, Mommy and Daddy let me do this month's post because I have more time on my hands then they do. If we waited for them to do this post I might be 3 years old instead of 3 months. That's right this is my 3 month of age post and I'm gonna tell you all about what I did since I turned 2 months old. First though we have to show you the picture that Mommy takes of me every month next to my doggy.


I've decided to start posing for my pictures this month with my one hand behind my head, aren't I cute :) And mommy wanted me to tell you that I'm really filling out now, as you can probably see by the pictures. I guess this is the only time in life that it is cute to be chunky and have rolls, at least that is what I have heard. Mommy and Daddy have been weighing me lately on the Wii, I even have my own Mii, and I seem to be a little over 13 lbs. We'll get more precise measurements when we go back to the doctor next month for my 4 month appointment.

This last month I've really mastered being on my tummy and being able to support myself. Mommy and Daddy tell me I'm pretty strong and that I'm getting to be such a big girl, they say it is happening way too fast.

We finally got some nice days where the temps got up into the 50's and 60's, the first day it was pretty and sunny out Mommy and Daddy wanted to take me for a quick walk outside around our neighborhood. My first official walk outside, since I was born in the dead of winter. So they bundled me up in this snowsuit, and then laughed hysterically while they took pictures of me, I don't understand what was so funny!

I'm keeping Mommy and Daddy on their toes and learning all kinds of new tricks. One of the things I did between month 2 and 3 was learn to roll to my sides and play with my toys. It is much easier to reach what I want this way. There was an even more exciting development that happened a couple days after I was 3 months old, but that will have to wait for the next post.

My mamaw and pawpa have a grandparent's pass to the Indianapolis Zoo so on one of the Saturday's that it got up to the 60's we went there for my first trip. Here is picture of Daddy and I by the Rhino's. I slept for a lot of the trip but I liked watching the people that were there and maybe a few of the animals.

One of the biggest changes this last month was that Mommy went back to work on March 3rd. She was very happy that her work let her have a reduced schedule so that she only works 5 hours a day and is only away from me about 6 hours a day, we hope that it can continue until the end of the year when I turn 1. While Mommy is at work I go to Miss Laurie's house, she is one of Mommy's best friends, and she and her daughter Casey play with me and take care of me until Mommy picks me up. Mommy tells me we are so blessed to be able to have this schedule and have someone that loves me taking care of me during the day. Its also very fun that Mommy, Daddy and I are all home by about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and have a lot of time to play and have fun together, Daddy says we will be able have even more fun as the weather gets nicer and we can take long walk and go on bike rides. Here is picture that miss Laurie took of Casey and I, our Mommies say we will be friends just like they are :)

Well that about wraps it up for my 3 month post, I'll see if Mommy can get the 4 month post done or if I'll have to fill in for her again b/c she is too busy.

Nice try Boilers!!

I guess Leah's excitement about the Boilers making it to the sweet sixteen wasn't enough to propel them over the Blue Devils and on to the Elite Eight. It was a nice run and better than anyone would thought they could do after the horrific train wreck in the Big Ten Tourney. We'll miss you Kramer and Grant, hopefully next year will be just as fun to watch.

P.S. I realize I'm edging closer to being a month late on getting the 3 month post completed. That's next on my to-do list.

2 month Stats and Shots

So this little girl has been with us for 2 months now and I think both Adam and I can say even though we don't think we can love her more than we already do, our love for her grows everyday. She has changed a lot this month, not the least of those changes being that she has gained over 2 lbs this month. After the little turkey took forever to gain back her birthweight, that first month, she has gone from 8lbs 9oz to 10lb 11oz this last month. We went for her 2 month appointment on Tuesday and she checked out great, hitting all of her milestones and being a healthy little girl.

Her stats are:

Weight - 10lbs 11.5 oz (45th percentile)
Height - 23 inches (70th percentile)
Head Circumference - 39.5 cm (65th percentile)

Of course this appointment included shots, actually 3 of them, and an oral vaccine for Rotavirus. She, as expected, let out the horrible "I'm in pain" cry and turned 8 shades of red, but we brought a bottle of breastmilk with us and gave that to her once she settled down just a bit. That turned out to be a good idea and she soon went to sleep in her carset. Actually for the next 17 hours pretty much all she did, just waking up long enough to eat a few times. I guess we should feel blessed that the shots made her sleepy and not cranky. I'm also happy that she didn't get feverish or any of the other side effects.

One of the big things that little missy is doing is that she started sleeping in her crib at night at about 6 weeks. On most nights she goes down between 9 and 10 gets up once at sometime between 3 and 5 and then goes back down until some time between 6 and 8. We can definetly handle the only one waking and the nice stretch of sleep. She has also just recently started taking some naps in her crib, we'll have to work more on this, but daycare might help this happen more regularly :)

Here is a picture of her on her 2 month birthday with her stuffed dog, that we are taking her picture with every month to show how much she is growing.

And here is her life in pictures of many of the things she has started doing this last month.

Its hard to see but she is all about blowing bubbles and does so almost constantly, when she isn't "talking", eating, or crying!!

Here she is getting ready for the Superbowl, this was a jersey that was her cousin Camryn's but it was 3-6 months and just wouldn't quite fit yet. We ended up dressing her in a Colts onsie we had so she could use her hands :)

We got out the Bumbo just to try it out, I think it might be a little while before her head control is enough that she looks comfortable.

And the best part of the last month has been all the smiles we get (I know this is a horrible picture, but you take what you can get). She melts my heart with her sweet little smile and now she is also "talking" to us constantly in the midst of these great smiles.

And here is a video of all that talking she has been doing.

http://vimeo.com/9356402 from Amanda Phillips on Vimeo.

We have a bag of potatoes

Leah and I went to a the Breastfeeding Support group at Clarian North yesterday and I'm able to weigh her there. She is now a big bag of potatoes and weighs 10lbs 2 oz, she gained a pound in 2 weeks which is right on target according to the doctor. And this kid is long, I'm interested in what she is measuring at her 2 month appt that is coming up, because due to length she can't fit in really any newborn clothes anymore and is basically in all 0-3 clothes and some 3 month clothes. I hope for her sake she is tall and lean like her daddy.

She is also really starting to notice her surroundings, especially her toys and mirror on her activity mat. I got a video of her playing from earlier today (if I upload this right)

Feeling Blessed!

Do you ever have those days when the blessings of life are just more apparent to you than others, I think I'm having one of those days. Here are some of the things I'm grateful for:

1. A nice warm home that is comfortable and a place where we can host friends and family, and use the blessings we have been given to bless others.

2. A perfect little girl that is healthy, and getting to watch her literally change every day and learn about the world around her. This week she loves seeing herself in the mirror on her activity mat and coos and smiles. She now give tons of smiles to Daddy and I and doesn't laugh yet but gets this really excited coo when we respond to her smiles. She also just seemed to realize there are toys hanging on her activity mat and hits them and gets really excited that she figured that out, as well as, laying on her tummy and holding her head up like a champ.

3. Being married to a man that is both an amazing father and husband. I didn't realize when we had a child how much more I would love my husband by watching him embrace his role as the rock of our family. I feel like our marriage has grown more in 6 weeks then it probably had in 3 years, b/c you forget all the little things that you used to argue about and just concentrate on taking care of this little person and being a team to accomplish things. The way he takes care of Leah and I melts my heart everyday. Leah is one lucky girl to have a daddy that loves her the way he does and is so hands on with taking care of her, never turning away from changing a diaper or giving a bath, or like this weekend nearly getting pooped on!! :)

4. Friends that want to help us in whatever way they can as we transition though life. We have had meals twice a week brought to us since the week after Leah was born, until this week. It seems like a small thing, but what a blessing to not have to worry about meal planning or eating really badly those first 6 weeks, and getting to spend that time as a family enjoying one another. It also gave us an excuse to get to visit with a lot of friends we don't see as often and get to introduce Leah to them. Also those friends that call to check in just to make sure you are doing OK or that try to help you with the small things b/c you usually have one arm occupied by a little person.

5. An OB/GYN and Pediatrician that are wonderful doctors but that care for the people they see and not just medicine. My OB is close to my age and has two small kids so her opinions are nice to hear and she is helpful and encouraging in being a new mom. She is also very good about making sure that both myself and Adam are taking care of ourselves so we can adequately take care of Leah. Our pediatrician was totally picked by a couple of referrals of friends and he has turned out to be nothing but great. He is awesome with Leah, supportive of me and breastfeeding and willing to allow me try different things to stick with it, and also makes sure Adam and I are doing well so we can be good parents to Miss Leah.

6. Our families. You never know how much you love your parents until you are one yourself. Although I was already really close to my Mom I feel even closer to her now, understanding what it is like to be a Mom. She has been supportive, encouraging, and there whenever I needed her while letting us have our space as needed.

So those are some things going through my mind today and just wanted to get it down to have it to read when I may not being having one of those "I feel so blessed" days :)

One month post ( a little late)

On January 9th, Leah turned 1 month old. I'm going to try and take a picture each month with this same stuffed dog to see how she is growing. Her first month was a great and totally busy month with Christmas and all the other things going on during that time. We finally had some success in the weight gaining department and by the time she was 4 weeks old she was several ounces over her birth weight, it was a lot of work for all involved to get that pound of weight on that little girl. We have enjoyed getting to know our little one and can't wait to see what the future months have in store and how much she is growing and changing.

And this picture if from this weekend at about 6 1/2 weeks, hasn't she changed so much, and Leah just wanted to say "Go Horse"!!!!

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.

My first week....from Leah's perspective

Hello everyone, this it little Leah and I have been out in the big bad world for a week now (actually a little longer, but it took me a few times of asking to get Mommy to sit down and type this). Things have been good so far; me, Mommy, and Daddy have gotten to know each other better everyday and are doing pretty well and are starting to get more settled into feeling comfortable with feeding and other things and getting faster at them all the time.

I've had a lot of family coming to see me, of course my grandparents are always up for a visit and like to snuggle with me. They only seem to complain about my little green friend, my soothie paci, they say its always in my mouth when they want to get a picture. Mommy and Daddy don't care about good pictures, like me, and are just glad that my paci and I are such good friends when other things don't make me happy!!

I have tried out my activity mat, my bouncer, and my swing. I like them all for about 10 to 20 minutes and then I'm ready to be with either Mommy or Daddy for awhile. I think I might try them for longer periods of time to give Mommy and Daddy more breaks.

I'm a really good eater and at my first Doctor's appointment on Tuesday I had gained back 3 oz from the weight I was at when discharged from the hospital, my Doctor was really happy with this. I am also making lots of wet and dirty diapers for Mommy and Daddy and I like giving Daddy the nicest gifts which usually require a new onesie and changing pad protector, he still loves me though. Mommy and Daddy take me back to the doctor next week and hopefully I am back up to my birthweight or more, if my eating is any indicator I don't think it should be a problem.

The last few days Mommy and Daddy have felt much better because I have been really good at going down after my night feedings and letting them get 2 1/2 or 3 hour stretches of sleep before the next feeding. Sometimes they have to wake me up to feed because I like sleeping so much. We figured out the trick was swaddling me in my Aden and Anais muslin blankets. Mommy is so glad she got those for me after some raving reviews by her mommy friends. I sometimes play tricks on Mommy and Daddy and sleeep a lot during the day so that they think I will never sleep at night, but I still sleep at night, I just like to make them sweat :)!!

Mommy and Daddy have an older furry child named Abbi and so far we get along just great. Abbi likes me and is somewhat protective of me. If I am crying a lot she wants to make sure I am ok and will follow Mommy and Daddy everywhere with me until she knows it is ok. She also checks out everyone that comes over to visit me to make sure they are OK. She likes to sniff me and sometimes her hair tickles my nose which makes me squirm. I think as I get older we will continue to be friends, she seems like a nice doggy.

Just in the last few days Mommy has gotten out the Moby "D" wrap and Slingling for carrying me around hands-free, and I love them. I get all warm and cozy and plus I get to be close to Mommy and hear her heartbeat which puts me right to sleep. This is going to be a great help for Mommy once Daddy goes back to work and she needs to use both of her hands to do things around the house.

Well that is about all I can think of to tell you right now, but I'll be back to tell you more about my 2nd week and my first Christmas.

Leah Kate's Birth Story

As most of you already know Leah Kate P was born on Wednesday 12/9/09 at 6:40 pm via c-section. This is a little post (probably not little, probably really long) about what all took place to get our 8 lb 3 oz, 21 inch daughter here.



12/8 ~ 6:30 pm : After eating a nice dinner at Texas Roadhouse we headed to Clarian North and were greeted by the great staff by name as we buzzed in at the L&D entrance. We were then greeted by 2 nurses one that was just getting ready to be done with her shift but would be back with us in the morning and the other our night nurse. They had me put on the lovely hospital attire (i.e. the normal blue/green hospital gown) and then went ahead and started the port for my IV and I think took some blood, I can't remember for sure. They then started the cervidil (cervix softening medicine), and Adam and I started running through the channels to see if there was any entertaining TV on, we ended up settling on the Butler game. After that was over ,we stuck in "50 First Dates" that we brought from home. They recommended I take some Ambien to make sure that I got enough sleep for my "Big Day" on Wednesday. I took that about 10:30 pm and Adam said I was out in about 15 minutes and slept hard until about 6:00 am the next morning.



12/9 ~ 7:00 am: I was able to wake up and take a shower and order a light breakfast (thank goodness my Dr. allowed this, otherwise I would have been even more insanely hungry by the end of the day). I ordered a bagel and fruit and Adam got this awesome and huge breakfast sandwhich, can't say I wasn't a little jealous!



8:00 am: After 12 hours of having the cervidil in the nurse took that out and checked me. We were all hoping if nothing else I was at least fully effaced and hopefully more had occurred, seeing that I was 9 days overdue, maybe my cervix just needed a jump start. The nurse checked me and was still only 2 cm and maybe 50% effaced, which wasn't horrible but wasn't really a lot of progress from the cervidil. At this point they started the Pitocin and everything was really cool and calm at this point.



9:00 am: My doctor came in and decided to break my water. I was contracting every couple of minutes but they really weren't strong enough to feel or do much of anything in the way of progress. She also likes to break the water a little earlier with post-term babies b/c there is a decent chance that the baby has had a bowel movement in utero since her system was ready to go about a week before. When she broke my water there was a significant amount of meconium in it, so our sweet little girl definitely had already decided to make sure her bowel systems were working. Because of this they started me on something called Amnio-infusion, where they infuse fluid into the uterus to clean out the meconium as much as possible to get it away from the baby and also I believe helps keep infection at bay. This also allowed them to really get a good reading on the strength of my contractions which at this point weren't enough.



10:30 am: My parents had arrived in the meantime, they were trying to beat the weather and hung out with us for a bit. I think my Mom noticed that I was starting to grimace every few minutes and mentioned to my Dad that she thought it was probably about time to leave the room. Within about 5 minutes of them leaving I could definitely feel the contractions and moved to the birthing ball to help cope some and breathe through each one. They were coming every 1.5 to 2 minutes and although they were still not as strong as they need to see them to say they are doing much, I was not able to talk or function much as each one came. Adam was awesome and just kept reminding me to breathe and let me squeeze the bujeebees out of his hand.



12:00 pm: I was checked again and still contracting at the same pace, they were getting a little stronger but still not where they wanted them to be. I was still only 2 cm and maybe had progressed a little in effacement but not anywhere near 100% yet. They did tell me that they were by no means suggesting any pain medication but if I did want and epidural, they needed to know about 15 t0 20 minutes before hand because they had to get a bolus of fluid pumped into me before they could do the epidural.



1:00 pm: I started seriously thinking about the epidural, I was still contracting every 1.5 minutes and I was just thinking that if this continued and resulted in a vaginal delivery that I was not going to have any energy left to push. I felt a little bit of a wimp that I was considering an epi at 2 cm but the contractions with Pitocin just aren't the same as when your body does the process naturally.



1:15 - 1:30 pm: I informed my awesome nurse Sara that I was ready for the epidural and she started the fluids. About 15 minutes later the anesthesiologist came in and Adam had to leave since it has to be a completely sterile environment, so he took the opportunity to eat some lunch. They then began the epi which the anesthesiologist said I was a textbook epidural and that the way it looked everything should start to work soon and I should feel significantly better.



2:00 pm: Adam arrived back to a new woman, it was amazing the difference and so quickly. I couldn't feel the contractions anymore but was able to still feel my feet and move my legs from the knees down. They said this was good for the time it would come to push because it would give me more strength and they just really wanted to make sure I couldn't feel the contractions. Adam and I were able to relax a little bit and figured we were in for a long day at this point.



2:30 pm: The babies heart rate started declining and of course my monitors started going a bit crazy. My nurse came in and asked me to start turning from side to side to just make sure it wasn't a positional thing and that Baby just didn't like a certain position. Her heart rate had gone from ranging between 120 resting and 150+ active to between 80 and 100 bpm. In the midst of this another nurse had come in to assist my nurse and a NICU or Peds doctor was suddenly in my room. After switching sides a number of times my nurse calmly paged my doctor, yet Adam and I knew things weren't quite right. Her office is in the building 2 floors up so she could be over in a few minutes if needed. After she wasn't there fairly quickly the nurse asked them to page her again. In the meantime my nurse had the Pitocin turned off and made the call to give me a short of something that started with a T to counteract the Pitocin and stop my contractions. A few seconds later my Dr. walked in and said she was trying to get an elevator when she got paged the 2nd time and was literally praying at the elevator that God would get one there ASAP. She came into my room and went to try and touch the baby's head to try and stimulate the baby to see if that would get her heart rate up, of course after all the other stuff her heartbeat immediately went up from the 100 bpm level to 130 and stabilized. Feeling less stressed we all laughed b/c it seemed like Little Miss just wanted some attention from the Doc and as soon as she got there the baby completely stabilized. My doctor went ahead and checked me and in the like half hour since I had gotten the epi, my body must have relaxed and the contractions became strong enough to get me from 2 to 4-5 cm in that short time. But it was too much for Baby and she did not respond well. Since we had no medicine at this point to get things moving along we needed to reevaluate and have a strategy about restarting things without bothering the baby and getting her stressed out. My dr was a little concerned that everything had pretty much come to a screeching halt and that my body wasn't doing any of this on its own. She said she would come back at 4:00 pm to check me and they started the pitocin back up at 1/2 of where it was when they had to stop it.



4:00 pm ~ The doctor came back to check and there was still no progress from where I was before and she was really getting concerned that my cervix was not effacing and just did not seem to want to get out of the way. Also they measure the baby's position in stations and she had been in a -1 station with zero being engaged and the +'s meaning she was moving through the birth canal and she was actually moving backward and was now a -2 station. This really puzzled my Doctor and she said while things were calm lets just talk about a c-section and that it might be something that needs to be considered if we don't start getting contractions at the strength we need them or if my cervix continues to stay unchanged. I went ahead and signed the needed consent for a c-section and then she said should would be back in a couple of hours to check one last time and then we would make the call.



4:00 to 6:00 ~Adam and I talked and at this point we both were getting to the point of just wanting to meet our sweet baby and didn't want to just keep pushing nature if that wasn't the way she was meant to come out. My doctor, who also attends my church, just put it this way. God is always in control of every single little life and the way they come into to the world and we would all like to see that happen as naturally as possible, but he has given her the knowledge of being able to perform a surgery and when the risks of continuing to wait start to outweigh the risks of a c-section then she is thankful for her knowledge and training to be able to help get this little life into the world. I luckily had gone into the entire situation knowing that flexibility was going to be my best friend and a "plan" was going to be my enemy. I have watched too many of my friends experience all different kinds of labors and deliveries and didn't want to feel like I failed at this b/c it didn't happen the way I "planned" for it to. I just wanted a healthy baby at the end and if a c-section was how that needed to happen then so be it.



6:00 pm ~ My doctor came back in to check me and still no progress from earlier. She said at this rate I could stay pregnant for another 7 days but at what point do we just make the call to get this baby here safe and sound and make sure I'm as healthy as possible. We all agreed that a c-section was the direction we were going and the whirlwind of prepping began. Adam made a mad dash to the waiting room to inform our parents what was decided and that we would be in the OR within the hour.



6:00 to 6:20 - Everyone was coming in and out of my room to cover all of the bases of things that needed to occur to get me ready and a different anesthesiologist came in to give me a larger dose of the epi as I no longer wanted to be able to feel my feet or anything else from the top of my abdomen down :) My nurse Sara was amazing and made sure we always knew what was going on and what the next steps were. My doctor, who has an almost 6 month old baby, said she needed to go pump b/c when my baby was born and cried she would have major "let down" and I would probably prefer that she was concentrating on my surgery and stitching me back up, I agreed :)



6:10pm: Everyone was ready and they wheeled me back to OR. Adam had to stay in a little recovery waiting area while they prepped me. The anesthesiologist did a little test with a needle to make sure that I was totally numb, which I was and then gave the go ahead to prep. At this point the big blue drape went up and my ability to know anything that was going on with the actual surgery was completely gone. Adam was then brought in and my doctor arrived. Everything was set-up to go.



6:30 pm: They started surgery and it was the weirdest feeling b/c I could feel the sensation of what they were doing but I had no pain. They kept me somewhat informed of what they were doing and Adam later told me he watched some of the surgery (mainly post arrival). With his medical background (animal not human) surgery and stuff fascinates him more than grosses him out so he probably thought there was a little bit of a coolness factor in being able to watch the surgery.



6:40 pm: I could feel them pull her out and immediately heard the first whimper and then an all out cry. She let us know right away that she was fine with a great pair of lungs. NICU was brought into the OR in case there were complications with her breathing from the previous BM she had in-utero but she was soon okayed so they began bulb syringing and cleaning up our little miss Leah. Soon after this, the nurse told us that she was 8lbs 2.5 oz and 21 inches long. They flashed her behind the drape really quickly immediately after she was born but then Adam went and took some pictures as they were cleaning her up and brought them over to me so I could get a better idea of what my sweet baby looked like. We then announced to the room that her name was Leah Kate and got many compliments about the name. Everyone was commenting about the amount of hair that she had, which didn't really surprise us given the full heads of dark hair that both of us have.

7:15 pm: I was taken back to our recovery room with Leah in my arms and Adam went to the waiting room to share the news about Leah to our parents who were patiently (not really!) waiting for her arrival. Adam came back to the recovery room to get settled and have a chance to bond with our girl for the first time together as a family of three. My doctor stopped by and gave me a huge hug and said everything went perfect, she then offered to help me get started with nursing, she currently has a 6 month old that she is nursing so her real life experience and knowledge was very helpful. Leah did awesome and latched on perfectly right away< she has made breastfeeding so much easier than I expected.

8:00 pm: Our parents came back and got to meet Leah for the first time, which initiaed her into the world of camera flash like the amount at a professional photo shoot :) The nurse then offered to give her a bath since I still wasn't able to get out of bed. Leah screamed pretty much the entire time and Grandpa Love videotaped the whole thing. The part that took the longest was washing her hair, imagine that, but she actually stopped crying and enjoyed getting her hair washed. Then our parents left for the evening and Adam gathered up all of our things to move to our new postpartum room by around 11. Leah actually was very nice to her new parents and took a nice long 2 1/2 hour nap in her bassinet so that we could catch some sleep as well from our long but very amazing day.

--> Keep posted for continued updates on Miss Leah and the new adventures yet to come