1 month!

You are already 1 month old! I can hardly believe how fast the time has gone.  You have grown and changed so much already and your daddy and I are just amazed.  You are staying awake for longer periods of time now, you are sleeping stretches of 5 hours (you would sleep more, but I wake you up to eat) at night, you sleep in your crib all by yourself =/, and you have already outgrown your newborn clothing!  You are starting to get used to your carseat now, but you hated it at first.  You like your baths for the most part, except when you are hungry.  You are kind of in a 3 hour routine (eat, play 1.5 hr., sleep 1.5 hr.) during the day, but you really like nursing yourself to sleep and you give me this pathetic little whine that I can hardly resist, so I give in most of the time...but that will be stopping completely at 2 months! They say you can't spoil a newborn baby, so I don't feel bad giving in to your little whines wanting to nurse yourself to sleep or picking you up and letting you sleep with me sometimes when you cry after I put you in your crib. You can finally latch on during breastfeeding- you lost 12% body weight during your first 4 days because you couldn't latch, so I finally got nipple shields and that helped you a lot! you are still very little- not much baby fat, but you do have a nice double chin hahaha. your umbilical cord fell off at 10 days old, but it is still moist inside so I have to clean goop up twice a day around your bellybutton... odd, but normal from what i hear. you now enjoy your mobiles and follow movement with your eyes. you are just starting to smile at us- it is the sweetest thing in the whole world.  i try to talk to you in Spanish as much as I can, but i am not very good ;) you are pooping like 8 times a day now and we are just starting to use cloth diapers, so i will be doing a lot of laundry! your daddy made you a bunch of cloth wipes (terrycloth/fleece) and he has been working so hard on making you cloth diapers and diaper covers from scratch- he is so sweet how he loves to make you things! your dad took 4 weeks off of work and stayed home with us- it was so wonderful to have lots of time to bond as a family <3 cece is actually doing really well with you! she likes to smell your butt and i think she feels a little left out by all the attention i give to you, but as long as we take her on a walk everyday, she is a good girl. i am not sure what else to say about your first month- it has been a learning experience for sure! i read so many books and watched so many videos, but i still felt like i didn't know how to do anything and just had to try it out! you are such a trooper- putting up with your newbie parents! we love you sooo much and are loving this time with our tiny little one month old baby! but we are also excited to watch you grow!

<3 mommy

your birth story!

Hi love bug! I am going to share your birth story! It was such a wonderful experience and I feel so blessed to have gotten to go through it! I had no idea what to expect because you were my first, so it was a wild ride and I will never forget it :)
You were born on Friday 3/14/2014 (pi day!) at 2:13 a.m.  I went into labor on Thursday at around 5:10 p.m.  Your dad and I really didn't want to wait for you to come any longer, so I was trying all the self induction methods- I walked 2 miles that morning, I was eating spicy food and dried pineapple, etc.  After your daddy got home from work, we tried one more self induction method (ask me about this once you are pregnant someday..) and it worked! Contractions started right away and they were pretty strong, so I was pretty sure it was the real thing.  We started timing them and they were about 90 seconds apart every 5 minutes for an hour, so we decided to call the midwives.  Because we live really far from the hospital and it was just after traffic time and because I was GBS+ and needed 4 hours of antibiotics, they said to go ahead and head in.  We kind of thought that we might get sent home, so we didn't tell anyone yet.  After we got to the hospital (~7:30 p.m.), they decided that my contractions looked strong enough and went ahead and admitted me.  Once we got in the room, the midwives checked me and I was 4.5 cm. dialated (I had been 3 cm. dialated on my appointment on Tuesday and 90% effaced) and then my water broke all over! So, then we knew we were staying and having you that night!! We texted our doula (Hannah) to tell her to come to the hospital and we told both of your sets of grandparents and then we settled into labor.  I think I was having back labor because it was really painful in my back... I had contractions just standing up in the room for about 2 hours before they brought out the waterbirth tub. Once I got in the water, it felt a little better but of course the contractions were getting stronger.  Hannah told me to do a deep lunge in the water and it would help you turn around and sure enough it worked!  It still felt really good to have Hannah apply pressure on my back during contractions.  Your daddy would stay by  my face and hold my hands.  In between contractions, I was SO thirsty!  I mean, I went through 4 32 oz. water bottles and about 16 oz. of orange juice... I would ask for water in between every contractions- your poor daddy had to keep getting me more! After an hour of labor in the water, the midwives checked me again and I was still only at 5 cm.  At that point, I started feeling like I could not handle hours and hours more of contractions, so I started asking about epidurals.  They said that it takes about an hour to get everything for an epidural ready to go, so I said to go ahead and start prepping everything and that they could check me again right before administering it and I would make a final choice.  I must have been in transition when I started asking (which would explain why it was SO painful) because when they checked me again an hour later, I was at 8.5 cm. so I said I would finish the birth without any medication.  I started feeling like I HAD to push and the midwives said I was at 9.5, so I couldn't start quite yet.  But I couldn't help it, I pushed a few times.  And then, at midnight, it was time to start pushing. I was really surprised that I was in no pain when I was pushing... It was hard work but it was not painful.  I feel like I had little energy because I hadn't eaten since lunch and I was exhausted toward the end, I was having a hard time continuing to push when I didn't feel any contractions or urges to do so.  But I would just rest in between pushing and then push again when I felt like I had the energy.  I did a really good job of pushing and then pulsating my breath to hold your head down and stretch myself out so I wouldn't tear.  Once they started saying your head was coming down during pushes, I was asking if you had hair and they said yes! Here is where the story gets a little crazy.  Your head came out and the midwives had on their gloves, their hands in the water ready to catch you and you were not coming.  They told me that they thought your shoulder was stuck and I would have to get up onto the bed on my hands and knees.  Once I was up on the bed, they said that yes you were stuck and they had to turn you.  I could not push you out no matter how hard I was pushing.  The midwives were also counting how long I had been out of the water and that was scaring me to death.  They finally told me to lay down on my side and then they were able to get you out.  They had called in a pediatric team and they quickly cut your umbilical cord and rushed you over to the other side of the room.  You did not cry for at least 2 minutes.  Your daddy went with you and I was on the bed with Hannah.  I was so scared! I was crying and crying and just kept saying, "She's not breathing!" but finally you cried and everything was ok! You had a head full of black hair and your face was so swollen from the birth and we actually thought you looked asian...haha! I was so surprised to see your black hair- I had thought that you would look more like me! They kept us in the birth room for 4 hours because they wanted to monitor you after a traumatic birth.  You were wide awake and wanting to breastfeed and we just had you skin to skin with me and it was beautiful.  And then at 6:15, they brought us all up to the recovery room! We got lots of visitors that first day and we were just exhausted.  You actually were very alert for most of that day and were making lots of eye contact with everyone. We pretty  much kept you in just a diaper and on top of either dad  or my chest all of the first 48 hours! Then, we headed home so we could get some real rest without doctors checking my blood pressure or whatever every 2 hours. I am sure that I wrote down way more information then you ever wanted to know ;) It was such an amazing experience and I will cherish it in my heart forever!

i had to put this in here because your dad thinks it is hilarious ;)

pi day baby!