A new stage

Happy! A diaper change!
Extreme closeup!
What we've been seeing a lot this week... Pouting and crying!

Taking a (very!) relaxing nap on daddy.
Blowing bubbles!


This week Beth has begun to scream. It's lovely! Actually just in the past couple of days she's been very fussy with both of us, refusing to just let us sit down and hold her... She must be carried around. She really likes it when Daddy carries her though, which is nice for me to have a bit of a break! The good news is though is that she's starting to fall asleep on her own at night. We'll all get in bed (she sleeps with us!) and I'll lay her down after she's nursed and she'll babble on for a bit with her nuk (pacifier) and fall asleep. No mommy required (except to stick the nuk back in when it falls out). I'm hoping this will remain a good habit and eventually become a daytime nap habit too. I tried today to put her down after she fell asleep in my arms and she woke up... So I tried again. And again. And again. I gave up after the 4th time because by then she was wide awake! I'll keep trying. I love holding her while she sleeps, but I know she's got to learn to sleep without me or DH holding her so I can get stuff done! She's also started blowing bubbles when she's sitting contently in her bouncy chair, she reminds me of a little sand crab!

Tummy time!

Baby's First Valentine's Day

Talking
Taking a ride on Daddy!
Enjoying her bouncer chair.
Not enjoying tummy time very much.




Today Beth is 7 weeks old! This week we did two big things: ordered a stroller and some cloth diapers! Actually we went stroller shopping one day but as it turns out, the Toys R Us here is run by a bunch of morons so we came home empty-handed. The good news is after messing with display strollers at Toys R Us and Target, reading reviews on epinion.com, and talking to a LOT of people about strollers, I finally decided to order one off Babies R Us.com since they were having a sale. :-) I was hoping it would be here by now but it's not, so I'll post a picture when I do the next update!

I also ordered some cloth diapers from naturalbums.com. The diapers are bumGenius! brand- which are supposed to be some of the best out there. These come highly recommended to me by other women who cloth diaper their babies. I just ordered a 3 pack to get us started since DH is still unsure about the whole cloth diapering thing, but I'm sure he'll get used to it! In the long run, it will be a major money saver, not to mention we won't be creating that much more trash. The kind of diapers we ordered are one-size, meaning that they will grow with Beth so we don't have to keep buying different sizes. And they're made very well so they should last us through another baby!

6 weeks old already

diaper changes are fun!
pushing herself up on the boppy


the new thing... this was supposed to be the "spitting it out" picture...


It's hard for me to believe. She's moving from the "newborn" to the "infant" stage... She's starting to look less like a newborn to me, especially after reviewing the past week's worth of photos!

It's been a big week. Miss Bethany has discovered she has lungs. And she isn't afraid to use them either- wow that girl can shriek! Sometimes it's random but also whenever she's the slightest bit displeased.

We also took the leap and gave her a pacifier. I was having serious reservations about giving her one but finally realized that maybe I wasn't meeting one of her needs so I'm trying to view it as something that's beneficial to her. The funny story is that the first time I put it in her mouth, she made a sour face and spit it out(I was so happy!) so I grabbed the camera to take a picture of her spitting it out and stuck it in her mouth again... She kept it in! Little toot.

We also had an incident at the mall this week. I was shopping and had her in her sling and she started going to town making a dirty diaper. It was so loud another customer laughed and made a joke about it. Shortly after I felt something warm on me, through the sling, so I hightailed it to the ladies room. Umm yeah, she had exlpoded through her diaper and all in her bodysuit (it was a footed onesie)and I'm pretty sure nothing was in her diaper. It was everywhere else though (including her feet, not sure how that happened). So I wipe her down with diaper wipes and reach for her spare onesie I keep in the diaper bag... Yeah, not there. I debated putting her back in the nasty outfit or going naked. Naked won. I took her to Macys (closest store) and grabbed an outfit off the rack and brought it to check out. By this time Beth was angry that I had her back in the pouch (she had only a diaper on!) so she was screaming at the top of her newly-discovered lungs. I was so flustered I asked the lady if I could just put it on her right there at the checkout and she helped me get Beth dressed, then I hurried back to the ladies room to nurse her and de-stress myself. It's funny now but not so much while it was happening.

Today I had my six week OB checkup and it was weird going back with the baby outside of me this time, lol. I'm healthy and properly healed, but he's got me taking some iron suppliments because I was and still am pretty anemic. I am also only 3 lbs above my pre-pregnancy weight, which was nice to hear since I was prepared to see a much worse number and am struggling with body image issues right now. Having a baby changes lots and as well as you prepare yourself for changes, you just can't know what to expect until you're there.

Beth's 5th Week

Beth and Vegas
In the first piece of clothing she ever owned, given to her by her Grandma and Grandpaul!


Ok I know it's almost her 6 week birthday but it's hard for me to get online sometimes!

I feel like the past few days she's really "grown up" a lot. She spends a lot more time recently with her eyes wide open, taking in the world. She's taken an interest in her mobiles, which means she's been more content just laying in her crib looking around and listening to music (Baby Einstein CDs or the lullaby the mobile plays). She's also starting to enjoy her swing a little bit more since she likes to look at that mobile now. Today I found out from out friends that she's probably ready, or will soon be ready for a Bumbo seat very soon. These, I hear, are great. :-)

I have my 6 week checkup with my OB this week, which means I should get the okay to begin exercising again. I don't plan on joining a gym because I'm not ready to leave my Beth alone yet (!) but I do plan on buying a stroller and taking her on walks once the weather gets a bit nicer.

Photo Shoot

Here are some pictures I took of Miss Beth on her one month birthday (yesterday). I realized I didn't get any good shots of just her on her baptism day so I put the dress back on her and took a whole lot of pictures, and a few came out really great. The blue gown was her "party dress" that she wore at the housewarming party! These are DH's favorite pics.

Today Beth has slept a LOT. I'm hoping it's a growth spurt and I HOPE she sleeps well tonight since she's slept pretty much most of the day...

A video...

I'm testin this out...

Big smiles!

Today our Beth is 4 weeks old, and to go with her big girl age is her big girl smiles! Our little girl has smiled before, but they were all involuntary smiles... Today we got her to smile back at us! I was sweet talking her and smiling wide at her this afternoon, and she smiled back! And she did the same with her daddy when he got home from work... I grabbed the camera and got a few pictures.





She also got a swing yesterday, it's a Fisher Price Rainforest cradle swing. She hasn't really taken to it yet, but it's only been one day. Hopefully she'll learn to love it, or maybe it will help her fall asleep in the evening!

Baptism!

My family
Proud parents!
In her slip, getting ready!


Miss Bethany Grace was baptized on January 21 at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic church. Her godparents were her Aunt Jenny and her Uncle Josh. She did sooooo well! She slept through the entire service, including when the holy water was poured over her head, and woke up at the very end- just in time for pictures! We had an after-party at our house with friends and family, and she slept through most of that as well, and didn't mind being passed on from guest to guest (although Mommy must admit she was a bit worried about germs!). The gown she was baptized in was the same gown that I, my sister, my mom and my uncles were baptized in, and the hat she wore was the same hat my grandmother was baptized in, so it was very special to us. All in all we had a great day, although we were VERY tired by the time everyone left. The excellent news is Bethany went to sleep around 10:15, and completely skipped over her usual fussy time in the evening! We hadn't been to sleep that early in a looooong time!

Thanks to everyone who came! It was really nice being able to see everyone, although at parties it's hard to spend one-on-one time with everyone, so I hope we can all follow through with our "let's get together soon!" plans!

Sling

Today we got our sling! Beth seems to enjoy it very much. We went to someone's house, were fitted and taught how to properly and safely use the pouch, and then we met DH for lunch and hit the mall. I shopped! I needed a few items for my newly-post partum body and a new pair of shoes with some Christmas money. (I've also discovered pregnancy didn't make my foot grow at all. How nice!) Here's a picture of Beth enjoying her sling. I believe she enjoyed it so much because she slept the entire time she was in it- I only had to take her off a few times to try on clothes and then popped her back in and she was asleep again. It's sooo nice to have two hands again!

The other picture is of her stuffing her first finger into her mouth...I guess she missed the memo that the nickname is "thumbsucker" and not "fingersucker". Cuteness.

3 weeks old!

Tak
Already! It's amazing how time is flying!

We've had some big milestones in the past few days. Well, big for us! First off, on Sunday, Beth attended mass with us (my first time to go since she was born) and she slept through the entire thing! It was very nice. Although it was still hard to pay attention since she's just so darn cute when she sleeps! Anyways, she was so good during mass that DH and I decided to go for Mexican food- an after-church tradition. She did very very well there, although she was awake. We had our first nursing in public experience, at which I think I did well but could have done better (there was no flashing!). We very much enjoyed the food, although I didn't get to cram as many chips in my mouth as I would have liked.

Yesterday something fantastic happened. Her umbilical cord stump fell off! That thing was getting so gross. I noticed some blood on her clothes and checked- it was hanging by a thread so I let it be. Then about 20 minutes later I noticed it wasn't there anymore... DH later found it on the floor in our bedroom! Soooo nasty.

2 weeks

Bethany had a good second week... Well, we're working on our third week now but I update when I can. :-) We had special visitors from New York- my best friend Julie and her husband, Zeke, came to town and stopped in to meet the newest family member! Of course, they thought she was the prettiest creature alive! We also visited our next door neighbors, who have a 2 month old, and Beth and he enjoyed not noticing each other since they're too little to care! It'll be fun when they're older and can play with each other though! She's also been having some rough nights- she really wakes up around 10 or 11 pm and gets very fussy and has a hard time nursing and calming down... Last night she and I were up till about 2 am. It's difficult when this happens but it's nice that she's back to her normal self in the morning and she and I can sleep until noon if we want! Beth has amazing neck control, I'm not sure if all 2.5 week olds can hold their necks up for as long as she can, but she really picks her head up and looks around when I have her laying on my chest! She really likes to look at our blinds- I read that it's the light contrast that interests her so much.

I'm feeling much better, a little tired of being home so much but that's hopefully about to change. I feel like my body is mostly healed, although some things will never be the same! I haven't stepped on a scale yet but I feel so tiny, I guess it's because I can lean over now and tie my own shoes! Next week Beth and I are going to meet someone and be fitted for some slings and a pouch, so once we get used to those then we're going to trek to the mall so I can buy some much-needed nursing clothes and meet DH at work to show off his little princess. :-) I'm thinking I should also buy a stroller at some point!

A week from tomorrow is Bethany's baptism. DH and I are preparing our house to have visitors over, today he did a bunch of yard work and at some point I'd like to hang stuff up on the walls in our house. Bethany will wear the same baptism dress that I wore and that my mother wore on her baptism (assuming she fits in it! Haven't tried it on yet...). Kind of neat, I think.

1 and 1/2 weeks old

One week old!
One day old!

Our girl is almost 2 weeks old, it's amazing how quickly time flies. I'm sorry I haven't been able to get online to update my blog, it's kind of hard to type with one hand while the other hand is holding the baby! In fact, all of my online time has pretty much been cut down to almost zero, so if it takes me time to respond to emails or Facebook messages, that's why!

Beth had her one week pediatrician appointment last Wednesday and she did great. She gained a whopping 13 ounces (usually they're down or still at their birth weight) and everything else looked good! You can really tell she's gained the weight- she's going to be a super chunk!

DH and I looooove just spending time looking at her. She's starting to lose her hair, but she's still b e a u t i f u l! She's such a good baby, too, her sleep schedule is a bit different than what DH and I are used to, but I'm quickly adjusting. :-)

I plan on posting pictures on this blog instead of starting a new blog, cause I just don't have time to set something new up. I hope everyone continues to check up on us and our beautiful girl!

Our Beth is here!

Our Bethany Grace is here! She was born on December 27 at 6:13 pm. She weighed 7 lbs, 13 oz and was 21 inches long and is absolutely, amazingly beautiful!!!

Here's the full story. Around 11:30 pm on Christmas night, after a wild game of Texas Hold Em with some family members (Ryan won!), we got home and my contractions started. They were very consistant until about 4 am, when they slowed and finally stopped. We were up most of the night- I slept from about 4-7 am and woke up when a few more contactions started. They were like that all day long- off and on. I'd have maybe 4 or 6 contractions, about 8 minutes apart, then they'd stop for a few hours.

Tuesday came and went and that night, around 11:30 again the contractions became regular and a bit more painful. I thought it'd be another false alarm but we started timing their regularity and once we realized we had an hour of contractions about 4-7 minutes apart we decided it was time to head to the hospital. It was so exciting! We arrived and I was examined- 5 cm dialted, 80% effaced and 0 station. Wohoo! They showed us to our room and we called our parents and let them know the good news!

I hopped in the hydrotherapy tub once we got to our room (soooo nice) and spent about an hour in there until I had to be examined again. I had dialated another 1 cm so I was up to a 6. An hour later I was still a 6... I really felt like I was handling the pain of the contractions very well, but I was so exhausted because I had only gotten several hours of sleep in the past 30 something hours. I was worried that I wasn't dialating fast enough for the amount of sleepy that I was, so I opted to have an epidural. Wow. It was so nice. This happened around 5:30 or 6 am so I was able to catch a few hours of sleep, until my OB came in at 8 am to check on me. I was still a 6-7 so he broke my water- I didn't even realize he'd broken it because the epidural was so strong. They hoped that would speed things along. When he came back around noon, I had only dialated to a 7-8 so they started me on a pitocin drop. I was okay with that since I already had the epidural- if I hadn't of had the epidural I honestly would have been very scared of the pitocin since it makes contractions very hard and very strong.

There were a couple of difficult times when the epidural ran out- first the battery died on the drip so I stopped receiving the medicine...Gosh that was so very painful. Then the second time I don't know what happened but again, I stopped receiving the medicine so I felt the contractions again (this is when I was in transition)and that was also very difficult on me. But each time when the anesthesiologist came in to fix it, afterward I fell asleep so I was able to get some more rest.

My OB came in around 5 to check on me again- he and the two nurses agreed I was ready to start pushing. I was so incredibly numb- I couldn't move my legs- that DH and the nurse had to hold my legs up for me the first 10 or 15 minutes until I was able to do it myself. Then I got all of the feeling back... I won't go into details here but I will say that I pushed for a bit over an hour and that was the hardest hour of my entire life. But she finally came out and she was amazing. They cleaned her up and brought her straight to me to nurse and she was a pro at that! I found out later that this was one of the nurses first delivery! She did a good job- I couldn't even tell it was her first time! One thing that got me through my pushing stage was that I was sooooo thirsty the entire time- it was seriously like running a marathon and not being able to have water. I begged my OB to let me have ice chips in between contractions (the nurses were worried about me throwing up so they wouldn't let me) and he agreed. So I'd push and then Ryan would feed me one or two pieces of ice, depending on how long I was able to rest. That had to have been the best ice of my entire life. Thoughts of ice and water, as silly or sad as it sounds, got me through that stage!

We stayed in the hospital for a good 48 hours after my angel was born and we arrived home last night (Friday night) at around 9 pm. We're adjusting very well, I think!

She's such a good baby. She's very mellow- I think she's cried only 2 or 3 times and once was because a nurse had to prick her heel to draw blood. Mostly her routine is sleep, wake up and look around for a few minutes, get a diaper change, nurse, then sleep again. Just in the past 3 days she's plumped out quite a bit and her face is slowly changing into a cute little baby face instead of a newborn face. Although I must admit, when she was born, she was the best looking newborn in the hospital!

DH and I are so in love with her. I'm sure all new parents play the "Let's watch baby" game and we're definitely in that category. We'll just sit there and watch her eat, sleep, make faces- it doesn't matter what she's doing!

I will most likely start a new blog to update it with pictures of her and other milestones. I haven't really thought too much about it- she's having a marathon sleep right now which is why I'm able to type up this much! We'll try to keep updating with photos!

Today is my due date!

And I have realized I am in prodromal labor. I was hesitiant to tell anyone that I was in labor because I wasn't sure exactly what was going on, but right now I'm pretty positive this is what's happening to me. This link explains it really well, just scroll down a bit. Basically it still could be a few days from now, but it started last night around 11 pm.

Please don't worry! DH plans on calling people when we're admitted to the hospital, and updating the blog after we get home. Hopefully it will be within the next day or two but there's really no way to know. We're going to go to my OB tomorrow and have him check me out to make sure Bethany and I are both okay!

DH is doing a wonderful job of taking care of me. I seriously couldn't ask for anything more.

So keep us in your prayers and know that we're both feeling good about what's going on right now, it's just hard because things are moving so slow. I'll give an update when there's something to update, but please don't be offended if you call and we don't answer- we're both sleeping at very odd hours or I could be in the middle of a contraction! We'll let you know!!!

Still waiting...

Yesterday and today have been slow, in terms of the baby watch. DH and I have accomplished a lot around the house, actually he built a dog run for our mutt Vegas. It looks GREAT and I'll post a picture when I get a good one. It's her designated "potty" area so we don't have to watch where we step in our huge backyard!

I made fudge yesterday. It didn't come out so great- really grainy but it tasted goood. I planned to try again today but the weather was turning rainy by the time I was ready to start to hopefully tomorrow will be dry and I can try again.

I learned today that DH can moonwalk. Pretty well, actually. I had no idea!

On a baby-related note, I'm starting to think there's a religious lesson to be learned here. I mean, we've been in a period of waiting for Christ to be born in a few days, only we know what day we're waiting for (the 25th). I am waiting for my child to be born. I guess it's helped me realize the anticipation Mary went through while waiting for her babe to born, and all these Christmas songs I'm hearing are helping me prepare, in a way, for Bethany's birth. I'm having a hard time putting this to "paper" but I guess what I'm trying to say is that being 9 months pregnant right now has helped me to focus on what Christmas is about- Christ- and less on the secular side of things. Which is a good lesson for me. :-)

39 week and 2 day appointment

This morning I had an OB appointment that basically was a repeat of last week's appointment. :-( I had planned on asking him to strip my membranes if it was possible, but since I'm still posterior he couldn't do it without a lot of pain. Soooo... I'm still posterior and about 1 cm dialated. No "progress" but as I'm learning from reading and from other women, babies can engage and mothers can dialate all within several hours of birth, so I'm not really worried that this means I'll be pregnant forever. Some women sit at 3 or 4 centimeters for several weeks before birth, so at least I don't have false hope!

I finished some Christmas shopping today, well technically there's one more person to buy for but DH is going to take care of that tomorrow probably. I am sooo worn out because I was gone today from 9:30 to 3:30, I was brave and took on THE MALL as well as Target. Both were madhouses, as you can guess. And of course, everyone and I mean EVERYONE has to comment on how huge I am. It really doesn't bother me, but most conversations go like this:

Them: "Awww! When are you due?"
Me: "December 26- just a few days!"
Them: "Oh how nice! A Christmas baby! You look like you're carrying a boy."
Me: "No, it's a girl!"
THem: "But you're carrying so far out!"
Me: "Yup..."
Them: "Do you have a name picked out?"
Me: "Yes, Bethany Grace"
Them: "Oh that's so pretty"

Seriously. 95% of my conversations with strangers go EXACTLY like this. Then it will continue about how big I am for a few more seconds, or they offer advice or say something like "She'll come when she's ready" or "Hang in there!" It's so predicitable it's hilarious.

Funny Picture

This is sort of gross... But it's so bizzare I wanted to share it! I don't know WHAT she's doing in there!

More nothing.

Last night I was up every couple of hours with cramps and contractions, but nothing that was painful enough to make me think I was in real labor. Just enough to take my breath away and make me uncomfortable. Still, I thought this might be it so I told DH to call in this morning so he stayed home until lunch time when I realized NOTHING ELSE was happening. I've been doing laundry all morning and I finally finished packing our hospital bag, I plan to go rake some leaves in a little bit...Cook dinner... I don't plan on leaving the house today! Tomorrow, however, pending no baby, I have an OB appointment at 9:45 am and then I plan to finish up Christmas shopping. I just have 2 or 3 more people to buy for then I'm done. Beth's room is basically finished except I don't have anything up on the walls yet, but our entire house has nothing on the walls since we have a hard time commiting to where things should go. Should we wait a few months till we get our real furniture or should we just put stuff up in empty spaces now? I'm leaning towards putting stuff up now since we can always move it later, plus parts of our house still echo since there's nothing up! Wow I got off topic. Ok I'll update after the appointment and shopping tomorrow. Hopefully there will be good news...

Nothing

Today I went out to run errands. I walked quickly when I was out just to try to get things moving but nothing to report. I'm a little crampy but I've been that way for days...

All of the baby's laundry is done. As DH said, if we have a boy we're in trouble because there's a whooooole lotta pink in that room!