Thursday, March 19, 2015

Hailey at 6 months!

So poor Hailey has taken on a true second child syndrome! I had planned to blog weekly as I did with Landon through his first year, but parenting 2 is much different than parenting 1!

However, now that my sweet lady is 6 months old today, I wanted to do a blog to remember all her sweet things she likes/dislikes at this age!

Hailey is the sweetest little lady, but full of drama.  Where Landon was easy, she is hard and vice versa.  It is literally like having another first child.  Here is an idea of Hailey at 6 months old?

Likes at 6 months:

-Loves to nurse and hang on to Mommy's necklace during the time.
-Loves Landon even when he is a bit crazy. She always looks to see where he is at and she can usually find exactly where he is since he is so noisy!
-Loves to eat solid food-her favorites seem to be veggies and oatmeal-so far she doesn't seem to be allergic to sweet potatoes.
-Likes to do tummy time, but still doesn't roll frequently.  She can roll belly to back on most occasions, but I have yet to see her roll back to belly. She has done it once, but I MISSED IT!
-Loves her jumperoo and her mamaroo still. She is finally done napping in her mamaroo, but still will sit in it in the evening while I make dinner.
-Likes her toys and loves to grab at all her toys.
-Loves her paci-it helps her go to sleep and calm down throughout the day.
-Loves riding in the stroller in the big girl seat-she likes to be able to see. 
-Loves to be worn in the Mai Tai carrier since she is right next to me.
-Loves to talk and be talked too-she loves all the attention!
-Loves the cats and Rusty.

Dislikes at 6 months:
-Riding in the car-though that is improving.
-HATES-medicine-she shakes, cries, and practically froths at the mouth when I have to give her Tylenol or motrin. We are going to be in trouble when she has to take antibiotics.
-Really doesn't love fruit unless it is mixed in with her oatmeal.
-Dislikes sleeping still =). Her naps are improving and her night time sleep is improving as well, but still not great. She gets up between 2-4 times per night and usually will at least take one long nap each day if I am lucky. Otherwise she takes short 45 minute naps. I don't see her sleeping all night any time soon!
-She hates to be really hot or cold-she likes to be just perfect. It should be interesting this summer when we are out and about alot in the car seat.

A day in the life of Hailey:
-Up at 720 sharp-it is amazing how that happens almost every day.
-She nurses, gets dressed for the day and plays on her playmat.
-She runs around with me to Landon's activities-she particularly enjoys music twice per week-once with Landon and once for her actual class.
-She just started getting baby oatmeal mid morning-she loves that.
-She usually takes one morning nap-maybe two if we are out and they are short.
-Back home for play time while Landon eats lunch and then down for her long nap at 1.
-She is usally up by 3 and nurses again. Then play time in the jumperoo.
-She MAY go down for a nap around 5, but she seems to be trying to drop that evening nap. SO instead she spends time in the mamaroo or swing while I make dinner.
-She eats dinner and gets some veggie purees and then some chunks of food to pick up and eat. She mostly just pushes the chunks around right now. 
-After dinner she heads up for bath, bed, boobs, and books and is in bed by 730!

At 6 months:
-Can sit up unassisted for a few minutes.
-Can roll belly to back.
-Has rolled back to belly once-but is super close other times.
-Reaches for toys and puts everything in her mouth. Her hand/eye coordination is amazing.
-Laughs all day at Landon, particuarly when he misbehaves ;).
-Growls when happy and mad-you sound like Daniel Tiger, which I am convinced is where you learned it!
-Reaches for eyes, hair, earrings, and nose-I can tell you are going to have to learn to be gentle in the coming months.

Here are her six month pictures:












We love you baby girl. You have brought so much joy to our family in the last 6 months. I can't wait to see what you will learn in the next 6 months!

Friday, October 3, 2014

2 weeks old!

Well, Hailey is two weeks old today! We are all surviving in a newborn haze of being sleep deprived and dealing with the toddler who has been rather terrorist like since his Gigi left last week. 

We have been busy trying to get out of the house to keep Landon occupied and behaving.  When we are home, it has been a big struggle with him for discipline. Lots of throwing toys, testing limits, hitting, etc. However, the only good thing I can say, is he is an awesome big brother and adores Hailey and shows no aggression towards her, just towards Logan and myself. Landon just loves to sit and watch Hailey and talk to her. My favorite is when he sings her songs; it is so sweet. He helps me burp her, change her diaper, and gets me things for her.  The biggest battle we have is him taking her pacifiers...so we are constantly having to wash them!

Other than being tired from lack of sleep, I would say we are all adjusting very well to a family of four. Hailey just fits right into our routine (as if she had a choice) and we just pack her up and go.  She is a sleepy little girl, as most of my posts to IG and facebook show, so she is pretty easy to tote around.  She struggles with sleeping at night since she sleeps a good portion of the day. We are trying to get her to wake up during the day. Currently, she is awake for 1.5-2 hours in the morning and then again for about the same in the evening.  She is just coming into the age of the witching hour at night-nothing compared to how Landon was, but generally unsettled. She seems to struggle with a bit of silent reflux just like Landon did and gets very upset when she has gas. So I am going to cut out dairy from my diet to see if we can help improve that before heading to the Dr. to see if she has reflux like Landon.  She really enjoys nursing, just like Landon, but is more willing to go 2-3 hours at a time, where as Landon nursed around the clock.  Overall, so far, she has been a much easier baby than Landon-or we are just more laid back ha ha. I am hopeful she stays calm and flexible since I will be flying solo in a few weeks while Logan attends an Army school for 2 months!


I wanted to finish writing about our experience in the hospital after we were moved from our labor and delivery room.  We had the SMALLEST room ever, but at least it was a private room.  All of Hailey's tests, bath, etc. were done right in our room.   At VCU, they encourage everything done in front of the parents and rarely use the nursery.  I think the entire time, I saw one baby in the nursery, where as all the other ones were in with parents.  We saw Hailey be tested for jaundice in our room, get pricked for her newborn screen, get her hepatitis b shot,  and hearing tests.  She did fail her hearing test 2 times, but passed with no issue the third time. It made me nervous since Landon failed his while in the hospital and we had to go for a follow up.  Most of the time in the hospital, the nurses left us completely alone unless we asked to speak to a lactation consultant or needed our vitals taken.  It was very different having everything done in our room. I liked it so I could ask questions and just make sure she was ok, even though they were taking her blood, etc. I think it helped having us close so she calmed faster than if she was in the nursery. 

Here are some pictures from the last two weeks:







I will try to update weekly, but it may not be on a specific day! More when I have the time =).

Until next time!

Monday, September 22, 2014

She is here!!

Little miss Hailey Marie arrived in a speedy fashion at 9:25 AM on September 19th, 2014! She weighed in at 7 lbs 4 oz. and is 19 inches long.

Here is her birth story:

As of my appointment last Tuesday, I was still only 3 cm along after sitting at that for several weeks.  the Dr. did a nice sweep to hopefully get my labor moving and give my body the extra push to go into labor. Well after several months of constant contractions my body decided to start to go into labor. Last Wednesday I had contractions for 8 hours 2-5 minutes apart and fairly intense but by evening they spread back out and the intensity died out. Thursday morning I woke up and felt the same as normal in terms of contractions, every ten minutes or so, just tight and not painful. We dropped Landon at preschool and Mom  and I went shopping. By the time we got home I had lunch and planned to just relax during nap. By 4 pm I started feeling very nauseous. After throwing up my entire lunch for an hour I decided I would try to nap. My contractions were getting stronger and closer together so I hopped in the shower to clean up and see what they did in water. Our doula had said that was often a way to tell if you were in real labor vs. false labor depending on if they sped up in water or slowed down. They got even closer to I got out and got dressed, told Logan it was time to go, and off we went. Unfortunately, since it was dinner time, Mom and Landon were off trying to pick up Chinese so I wasn't able to say goodbye to my little guy before we left to go to the hospital. However, he was VERY excited and didn't seem upset that we were headed out to go have Hailey.

At 8 pm we arrived in L&D triage, I was 4 cm, 80 percent, still -2 station.  They also did a quick ultrasound to make sure she was still head down...I could have told them she was ha ha.  We got moved to our room around 9:15 and I started out on the birth ball and hung out and had some broth since I had skipped dinner.  At this point, my contractions were still strong and about 5 minutes apart.  Our back up doula, Liz  (our normal one had left out of town for a training that afternoon-go figure) got there around 10 PM and suggested I move to a different position because my back was hurting, called polar bear, it did help but it certainly slowed down my contractions.  During this time I was hooked up to the IV antibiotics that I needed since I had group B strep.   I was check again and  I was 5 cm and 90%, but not progressing all that quickly.  They checked again after I tried to rest for a bit and hadn't had any change in several hours.  I stalled out at 5 cm, 90 percent. It was either go back home, break my water, or pitocin. After speaking with our doula and me adamantly saying that we weren't going back home, I chose to have them break my water the following morning at 8 am so I could try to get a bit of rest for a few hours...although that didn't really work since my contraction were painful enough not to sleep through and constantly needing to be checked on by the OB and nurse.

At 8:15 am on the 19th, the OB broke my water and the contractions ramped up immediately. At this point I felt like I wanted the epidural, but I had asked Liz and Logan to make other suggestions unless I was suffering in pain and not getting a break. I labored on the ball, leaning against the bed, facing backwards on the toilet, and was planning to sit in the shower with the birth ball but that plan was quickly changed when I felt a bunch of pressure during a contraction and yelled I felt like I was pushing.  My doula yelled for the nurse and an OB.  A different OB came in to check me and was surprised to find I was fully dilated and ready to push. She asked me to  push back on her hand and was like yep, this is it. Things moved very quickly then. My original Dr. showed up, several nurses, etc.  showed up in the room. After 6 contractions and a lot of stretching by the 2 Drs., Hailey was born at 925, an hour and ten minutes after my water broke. I made the right choice not returning home since I would never have been able to make the hour drive back to the hospital had my water broke! Going med free was the hardest but one of the most rewarding decisions I have ever made. Recovery has been so much better than after my son's birth, even though I am sore from delivery. We had a great support group from the doula, nurses, and OBs. They kept me calm even though I was starting to freak out from the pain during pushing. They kept telling me her head was right there even though I didn't really believe them. I remember yelling I wanted an epidural during pushing and they were all like nope, sorry.  Delivery her head was the hardest part, then once her shoulders were out she just came right out.

They put her right on my chest immediately and she stayed there for over an hour.  We waited for the cord to stop pulsing and Logan cut the cord =).  The Dr. delivered everything else, even though my placenta gave her some trouble. I only had a slight tear that required one stitch to fix.  I was STARVING so now that my placenta was delivered and my GD totally gone, I could eat whatever I wanted. My nurses ordered me pancakes with syrup, eggs, bacon, and gave me all the juice I wanted ha. It was fantastic!  While I was eating breakfast, they took her to be weighed, measured for length, and do several other tests. Once all that was done, they determined she received a 9/9 for apgar scores and then measured more as a 40 week baby in terms of development instead of 39.  Once she was done there, we hung out and did more skin to skin in the room until it was time to move to the recovery wing of the hospital.

I am going to stop there and then will make another post in a few days of our recovery and all the things Hailey had done in our room-which was SO different than from Landon.





Thursday, September 18, 2014

39 Weeks with baby 2!

How Far Along? 39 Weeks

Weight Gain? 28 lbs gained-apparently my body likes to gain weight the last few weeks of pregnancy!

Stretch Marks? None that I can see anyway.

Best Moment of the Week? Hitting full term, but she can come out now!

Movement? lots of painful downward motions-maybe that is a good thing?

What I miss? Sleeping past 6!

 Symptoms: Contractions, back pain, leg pain, swelling, GD, peeing all the time!

What I'm looking forward to?  Her arrival =).

Updates: Nothing major. Have hit my max of being pregnant. Every day I hope it is the day, but alas, not yet ha ha. We thought yesterday may have been it, but everything kind of slowed down around the afternoon, picked back up, and then slowed back down. So we will see what the next few days hold.

Belly Picture:





Until next week!


Thursday, September 11, 2014

38 Weeks with baby 2!

How Far Along? 38 Weeks

Weight Gain? 25 lbs gained

Stretch Marks? None that I can see anyway.

Best Moment of the Week?  Just still being pregnant! This is the most pregnant I have ever been unless she comes out in the next 6 hours which I imagine is unlikely.

Movement? Moslty just random parts coming out the sides of my body.

What I miss? Sleeping past 6!

 Symptoms: Contractions, back pain, leg pain, swelling, GD, peeing all the time!

What I'm looking forward to?  Her arrival =).

Updates: Nothing major to update. Everything is pretty much the same as last week. Contractions are becoming crampier and I can feel them in my back. Just waiting for them to get stronger and in a nice pattern..who knows when that will happen as I have been having them for months at this point! Maybe this will be my last pregnancy update!





Landon is doing awesome this week in terms of going back to music and starting preschool! He is such a big boy! He loves going to school and has walked in the last two times without crying at all. We will see how he does next week! We don't really get to find out too much information as we aren't allowed in his classroom and have to drop him off and pick him up from the door. Every morning we have to look at the fish tank and turtle outside his classroom and then we say goodbye and off he goes. Such a big change from MDO even from the summer! I hope he keeps it up!




Belly Picture:

 38 weeks:

Until next week!

Thursday, September 4, 2014

37 weeks with baby 2=early term!!

How Far Along? 37 Weeks

Weight Gain? 25 lbs gained

Stretch Marks? None yet...fingers crossed

Sleep? Sleeping is pretty nonexistent at this point.

Best Moment of the Week?  37 weeks with little miss! That is deemed early term, but at this point she won't carry a preemie label if born after today!

Movement? Lots of wiggling and painful movements!

What I miss? Sleeping past 6!

 Symptoms: Contractions, back pain, leg pain, swelling, GD, peeing all the time!

What I'm looking forward to?  Her arrival =).

Updates: Things are pretty much ready to go in terms of my body preparing.  As of my appointment on Tuesday, I am 3 cm and 70% effaced-so pretty close to what I was with Landon at this point. Still having alot of contractions and downward pressure from her, which is why things are progressing quickly! The Drs. said it could be any day or I could go another few weeks...yay, so helpful ha ha. I had an ultrasound on Tuesday as well since my belly only measures at 32 weeks, instead of 37. I hie her well, because little miss, isn't so tiny. She measures about 6.5 pounds, with a giant head just like her big brother. The other news we received is she is facing out towards my bell, sunnyside up/posterior, when she should be looking at my spine! So she needs to spin 180 degrees! Since we are aiming for a med free/low intervention birth, I would greatly appreciate it if she would rotate so I won't have awful back labor like I did with Landon! So only time will tell how that goes.

We have our last meeting with our doula tomorrow afternoon to discuss anything on the birth plan and anything I can do to get H to rotate before labor actually begins. I imagine things will progress quckly just like it did with Landon since I have already started to dilate quickly.  Little H needs to stay put until tomorrow at 6 pm when we pick my Mom up from the airport! We had initially planned for her to fly in Monday, but with all the news of her being so low and me rather dilated, we thought it may be wise to have her here sooner rather than later to watch our little monkey!

We have a busy week next week with Landon starting music again and preschool! I am hoping we can at least make it through music and his first day of school next week! Only time will tell =).

Belly picture:

37 weeks!





Until next week!

Saturday, August 30, 2014

36 Weeks with baby 2!

How Far Along? 36 Weeks

Weight Gain? 20 lbs gained

Stretch Marks? None yet...fingers crossed

Sleep? Back to being up every 1.5-2 hours! Sleeping is a joke this last month...

Best Moment of the Week?  Hitting the big goal of 36 weeks! Also, getting out more with Landon. He behaves so much better when we go out to do stuff. I am trying to enjoy the last few weeks we have together as just "me and you" as he puts it!

Movement? Mostly just wiggling motions and random limbs sticking out.

What I miss? Walking more than 15 minutes without extreme back pain! Makes going to the store difficult. Next week I plan to start waddling around the neighborhood to get her in a good position for labor.

 Symptoms: Mostly just contractions. hip pain, and the swelling has started.  I guess I should be thankful I made it this far without any swelling! My hands and feet are pretty swollen.

What I'm looking forward to?  Next major goal of 37 , which is now deemed early term and 39 weeks is considered full term! I may cry if I actually go to 40 weeks, but with GD I won't go past that date, possibly even 39 weeks  depending on how my numbers are looking and how large she looks. 

Updates:  Had my last appointment on Monday. Nothing terribly exciting as it was just centering appointment group meeting. Everything looks good in terms of weigh and blood pressure.  They did an internal to check-surprisingly everything has remained the same, except for the fact that she has gone from -4 to -1 station. It counts down from -4-+4, zero station meaning engaged. So she is 1 above being engaged in my pelvis, so I was right in assuming she had dropped since my last appointment. My belly was also measuring 3 weeks behind again so I have another growth ultrasound to check on her growth on Tuesday, as well as just a general OB appointment. After this, I go weekly until I have her...nearing the end! 


Landon is still working towards understanding having a baby coming. I can imagine the concept is pretty abstract. He talks about being a big brother to baby Hailey as he calls her and how he will help with diaper changes, feeding, and what not. He knows that I will use the boppy to nurse her and how he can hold her using it with Mommy or Daddy's help.  He is still obsessed with me going to my Drs. appointments and ultrasounds. I imagine he will be pretty excited to come visit us in the hospital once she arrives. He has been big on to talking to other babies when we are out and always very curious...so I am hoping that is a good sign.  He also tells me he has a baby sister in his belly. I have been telling him I need to rest because my back hurts and so he now connects that she makes me uncomfortable with pain. The other day he came up to me holding his leg and told me his baby sister was hurting his leg inside-highly amusing.  He has also become interested in feeling her move, so he will get right up next to my belly and talk to her and wait for her to move. He is pretty cute and sweet.

Belly picture:  36 weeks


Until next week!