I came across a blog post on Pinterest today about sleep training your baby. lately waverly is having a hard time staying asleep after I put her down for the night, so i read the post out of curiosity. of course what I found is that I have sleep trained my baby to sleep in my arms. am I surprised by this? no. will I change my ways? no. the highlight of my night is rocking my sleeping baby who I know from experience won't sleep like this forever. the blog post recommended that you never hold your sleeping baby - even as a newborn. thankful that I have the sense to know that while that might work for some, it most definitely isn't advice for me. I'm enjoying rocking my sleeping girl now. even if she does wake up after I lay her down. soon enough she will be too big for my arms, so for now I will rock her and breathe her in. love her baby smell & her soft cheeks & her sweet breath.
10.22.2013
7.23.2013
waverly quinn
its funny to read my last blog post on march 2nd... little did i know i had 1 more day of pregnancy. i'm ashamed it has taken me this long to return as i do really love to look back at my thoughts. it's been on my mind to get on here, but work or sleep usually win out.
we welcomed our precious girl, waverly quinn, on monday, march 4th at 1:05 am. she was a tiny 5 pounds 14 ounces, 18.2 inches long. as petite as she was, she had the most perfectly chubby cheeks that were so kissably soft. i say this in the past tense, thinking back to the day of her birth, but it should be noted that 4 months later, she still is petite with the most perfectly chubby cheeks that are so kissably soft!
i went about my day on sunday, march 3rd, doing my usual sunday chores of picking up the house, vacuuming, changing the bed sheets & washing our duvet. jeremy had put the crib together in waverly's room a couple days earlier & just had some touch-ups to finish on the dresser. i was anxious to see the bedding on the crib, so i put the crib skirt & sheet on while jeremy was out. rivers and i played with his animals up in the playroom & i felt good and productive all day.
that evening, one of my old friends, courtney, came over to drop off some baby gear, along with her husband & two boys. they visited for maybe an hour before they went on to dinner. i started to notice some tightening of my belly while they were over, but it felt like braxton hicks so i didn't pay it much mind. shortly after they left (about 6:00 pm), jeremy & rivers came home from my dad's house. at that point i started timing the contractions & realized they were pretty consistently 5 minutes apart. they weren't painful, but they were consistent. i had dinner cooking in the crock pot all day & asked jeremy to get the sides prepared for us to eat. i decided it might be good to lay down to see if the contractions would stop. they didn't. so the boys ate their dinner & i continued to rest. i let my parents know what was going on, so that they could be prepared, if in fact this was real labor. we went about our evening as usual. rivers got ready for bed and i told him that his sister might be coming that night and assured him that gigi would be here if mommy & daddy went to the hospital. within a couple hours i knew it was active labor. contractions were getting stronger & more painful, so we called the on-call doctor to see if we should come in. he agreed that it was time, so my mom came over to stay with rivers. we took our time getting ready. i took a shower, finished up packing my bag as well as waverly's. jeremy took his dear sweet time - i swear he was moving in slow motion - packing his bag as slowly as he could. (he really wanted one more day at the office to wrap things up! he was in denial it was actually happening!)
but nevertheless, we got to the hospital around 11:00 and labor had become very painful. soon enough i was checked by the doctor and i was 4-5 cm dilated. because we had planned on a c-section, they took me right away to a room to get prepped with an iv and monitor me & baby while they waited on blood work results. about an hour or so went by before i was in excruciating pain. my labor with rivers never felt that intense. to the point that i was squeezing jeremy's hand as hard as i possibly could & couldn't help but curse with each contraction. it was the only thing that brought any relief. i told jeremy he needed to get someone in the room as i felt pressure to push & couldn't bear the pain any longer. the doctor & nurses came rushing in & immediately moved me to the operating room. from there everything happened in a flash of what felt like 3 minutes, although i'm sure it was probably closer to 30. i had to move from the hospital bed to the operating table and i can clearly remember my body trying to push. i had no control over it. even sitting on the operating table, while they gave me the spinal, my body was trying to push. i'm certain if they had waited any longer to take me back, i would have had waverly naturally. (and if i had known how tiny she was, i probably would have gone for it.) the spinal kicked in almost instantly & gave me a welcome relief! and then just as quickly, the doctor started opening me up. jeremy wasn't even in the room yet & i was panicked he was going to miss it, but they whisked him in with just enough time to get his exposure on the camera. shortly there after, waverly was born! she gave a loud, mad screaming cry.
such a wonderfully reassuring thing to hear! my first thought was thank you god, she's ok! and the next thought was, wow - what a set of pipes! she's loud!! jeremy went over to cut the cord & take a few photos while they checked her out.
i was able to see her for just a few minutes while jeremy held her and they finished my surgery. waverly was taken to the nursery to be weighed, measured, cleaned up, etc. i was wheeled into a recovery room for monitoring. after a little while a nurse brought her back and that's when i was able to hold my beautiful girl for the first time.
it was so wonderful to have that time in the recovery room with her & it made me less anxious to have my baby there with me. i didn't get that with rivers, which was such a shame. i was awe struck with her tiny features. she was so small & light. easy to hold, beautiful & perfect. i was in baby bliss heaven. this is also when they gave me her stats. the nurse told me she was 5 lbs 14 oz and i was in complete disbelief! my doctor had been telling me that she was measuring 2 weeks behind, but wasn't concerned. just figured she'd be petite like her mama. and turns out, she is. but even still, i felt certain she would be about the same size as her brother. i'm not sure why, i just never expected her to be that tiny. in hindsight, i will say, i never felt as heavy & uncomfortable as i did with my pregnancy with rivers. but it was also july & hot. so i guess i figured the cool temps were helping me stay comfortable. turns out, waverly is just petite and i love her more for it. the nurse humored me with a scale photo because jeremy wasn't allowed to go to the nursery for photos like when rivers was born. she taped the correct weight to the front because waverly was already dressed & diapered, which was adding to her weight on the scale. it's not an authentic scale shot, but it was so sweet of the nurse to recreate this for me.
waverly was sleepy & content in my arms. eventually we were wheeled into our room for the remainder of our hospital stay. she was perfectly content to sleep those first couple days and i was perfectly content to hold her.
we welcomed our precious girl, waverly quinn, on monday, march 4th at 1:05 am. she was a tiny 5 pounds 14 ounces, 18.2 inches long. as petite as she was, she had the most perfectly chubby cheeks that were so kissably soft. i say this in the past tense, thinking back to the day of her birth, but it should be noted that 4 months later, she still is petite with the most perfectly chubby cheeks that are so kissably soft!
i went about my day on sunday, march 3rd, doing my usual sunday chores of picking up the house, vacuuming, changing the bed sheets & washing our duvet. jeremy had put the crib together in waverly's room a couple days earlier & just had some touch-ups to finish on the dresser. i was anxious to see the bedding on the crib, so i put the crib skirt & sheet on while jeremy was out. rivers and i played with his animals up in the playroom & i felt good and productive all day.
that evening, one of my old friends, courtney, came over to drop off some baby gear, along with her husband & two boys. they visited for maybe an hour before they went on to dinner. i started to notice some tightening of my belly while they were over, but it felt like braxton hicks so i didn't pay it much mind. shortly after they left (about 6:00 pm), jeremy & rivers came home from my dad's house. at that point i started timing the contractions & realized they were pretty consistently 5 minutes apart. they weren't painful, but they were consistent. i had dinner cooking in the crock pot all day & asked jeremy to get the sides prepared for us to eat. i decided it might be good to lay down to see if the contractions would stop. they didn't. so the boys ate their dinner & i continued to rest. i let my parents know what was going on, so that they could be prepared, if in fact this was real labor. we went about our evening as usual. rivers got ready for bed and i told him that his sister might be coming that night and assured him that gigi would be here if mommy & daddy went to the hospital. within a couple hours i knew it was active labor. contractions were getting stronger & more painful, so we called the on-call doctor to see if we should come in. he agreed that it was time, so my mom came over to stay with rivers. we took our time getting ready. i took a shower, finished up packing my bag as well as waverly's. jeremy took his dear sweet time - i swear he was moving in slow motion - packing his bag as slowly as he could. (he really wanted one more day at the office to wrap things up! he was in denial it was actually happening!)
but nevertheless, we got to the hospital around 11:00 and labor had become very painful. soon enough i was checked by the doctor and i was 4-5 cm dilated. because we had planned on a c-section, they took me right away to a room to get prepped with an iv and monitor me & baby while they waited on blood work results. about an hour or so went by before i was in excruciating pain. my labor with rivers never felt that intense. to the point that i was squeezing jeremy's hand as hard as i possibly could & couldn't help but curse with each contraction. it was the only thing that brought any relief. i told jeremy he needed to get someone in the room as i felt pressure to push & couldn't bear the pain any longer. the doctor & nurses came rushing in & immediately moved me to the operating room. from there everything happened in a flash of what felt like 3 minutes, although i'm sure it was probably closer to 30. i had to move from the hospital bed to the operating table and i can clearly remember my body trying to push. i had no control over it. even sitting on the operating table, while they gave me the spinal, my body was trying to push. i'm certain if they had waited any longer to take me back, i would have had waverly naturally. (and if i had known how tiny she was, i probably would have gone for it.) the spinal kicked in almost instantly & gave me a welcome relief! and then just as quickly, the doctor started opening me up. jeremy wasn't even in the room yet & i was panicked he was going to miss it, but they whisked him in with just enough time to get his exposure on the camera. shortly there after, waverly was born! she gave a loud, mad screaming cry.
such a wonderfully reassuring thing to hear! my first thought was thank you god, she's ok! and the next thought was, wow - what a set of pipes! she's loud!! jeremy went over to cut the cord & take a few photos while they checked her out.
i was able to see her for just a few minutes while jeremy held her and they finished my surgery. waverly was taken to the nursery to be weighed, measured, cleaned up, etc. i was wheeled into a recovery room for monitoring. after a little while a nurse brought her back and that's when i was able to hold my beautiful girl for the first time.
it was so wonderful to have that time in the recovery room with her & it made me less anxious to have my baby there with me. i didn't get that with rivers, which was such a shame. i was awe struck with her tiny features. she was so small & light. easy to hold, beautiful & perfect. i was in baby bliss heaven. this is also when they gave me her stats. the nurse told me she was 5 lbs 14 oz and i was in complete disbelief! my doctor had been telling me that she was measuring 2 weeks behind, but wasn't concerned. just figured she'd be petite like her mama. and turns out, she is. but even still, i felt certain she would be about the same size as her brother. i'm not sure why, i just never expected her to be that tiny. in hindsight, i will say, i never felt as heavy & uncomfortable as i did with my pregnancy with rivers. but it was also july & hot. so i guess i figured the cool temps were helping me stay comfortable. turns out, waverly is just petite and i love her more for it. the nurse humored me with a scale photo because jeremy wasn't allowed to go to the nursery for photos like when rivers was born. she taped the correct weight to the front because waverly was already dressed & diapered, which was adding to her weight on the scale. it's not an authentic scale shot, but it was so sweet of the nurse to recreate this for me.
waverly was sleepy & content in my arms. eventually we were wheeled into our room for the remainder of our hospital stay. she was perfectly content to sleep those first couple days and i was perfectly content to hold her.
3.02.2013
i am one of those annoying women who love pregnancy. i never had the dreaded morning sickness with either of my pregnancies. extreme exhaustion in the first trimester, yes, but i can deal with that. bad acne in the first trimester, yes, but it's not the end of the world. maybe some moodiness & irritability, but we made it through. ;) i have loved being pregnant with both of my babies.
overall, i've felt great and most of all, i love the feeling of a life growing inside of me. watching my belly grow, feeling the first flutters of movement to the full on belly waves from a little being tossing, turning, and kicking inside. feeling the consistent thump of hiccups each day and having a constant companion who is all mine.
it makes me sad to think this is likely my last pregnancy. my last chance to feel the kicks, my last chance to put my hand on my belly and know that i am carrying a new life. i'd love to have a third child, but i also know the financial responsibility that comes with another. and i know my poor organizational skills and my complete lack of multi-taking would likely pose a problem when trying to keep up with a home, three children, and a business. as much as i don't want to admit it, i do know that we will likely stop at two. not to mention, it took us so long to get pregnant this time around and i just don't see us likely to go through all of that again. i am painfully aware that many people out there try for much longer, many still waiting to become pregnant. so i am very thankful for having been blessed with this experience twice.
and as much as i was thrown for a loop when we found out we were having a girl, i am also thankful for the experiences, challenges, and lessons that i know will surely come with her. this pregnancy has been worth the wait and i'm sure our girl will be too.
38 weeks & we thankfully have all the necessities covered. carseat is installed, clothes are washed, hospital bag packed {mostly}, pack & play set up, and we have a name.
i'm ready. so now that we finally have it together, i'm thinking little miss will likely stay put until her planned delivery date. i am soaking up these last few days. enjoying the last kicks & movements. as uncomfortable as i've become, i'm so grateful to have made it this far. and all in all, my uncomforts really aren't all that bad. i keep thinking to myself, 'what else should i be doing?', 'what else won't i have time for?', 'what am i forgetting?', 'how should i spend the next few days?'. spend time with rivers, clean, organize, rest. those are the only answers that keep coming to mind. rivers has a 3 days weekend, which has come at a perfect time, so we will definitely be spending some time together. i've done a little cleaning today, which feels good. as much as i'd love to "organize" - truthfully, thats not a strength of mine & likely won't get done {a girl can dream}. and i have been resting. my body only allows me to do so much before its time to rest again. nature has an amazing way with that.
overall, i've felt great and most of all, i love the feeling of a life growing inside of me. watching my belly grow, feeling the first flutters of movement to the full on belly waves from a little being tossing, turning, and kicking inside. feeling the consistent thump of hiccups each day and having a constant companion who is all mine.
it makes me sad to think this is likely my last pregnancy. my last chance to feel the kicks, my last chance to put my hand on my belly and know that i am carrying a new life. i'd love to have a third child, but i also know the financial responsibility that comes with another. and i know my poor organizational skills and my complete lack of multi-taking would likely pose a problem when trying to keep up with a home, three children, and a business. as much as i don't want to admit it, i do know that we will likely stop at two. not to mention, it took us so long to get pregnant this time around and i just don't see us likely to go through all of that again. i am painfully aware that many people out there try for much longer, many still waiting to become pregnant. so i am very thankful for having been blessed with this experience twice.
and as much as i was thrown for a loop when we found out we were having a girl, i am also thankful for the experiences, challenges, and lessons that i know will surely come with her. this pregnancy has been worth the wait and i'm sure our girl will be too.
38 weeks & we thankfully have all the necessities covered. carseat is installed, clothes are washed, hospital bag packed {mostly}, pack & play set up, and we have a name.
i'm ready. so now that we finally have it together, i'm thinking little miss will likely stay put until her planned delivery date. i am soaking up these last few days. enjoying the last kicks & movements. as uncomfortable as i've become, i'm so grateful to have made it this far. and all in all, my uncomforts really aren't all that bad. i keep thinking to myself, 'what else should i be doing?', 'what else won't i have time for?', 'what am i forgetting?', 'how should i spend the next few days?'. spend time with rivers, clean, organize, rest. those are the only answers that keep coming to mind. rivers has a 3 days weekend, which has come at a perfect time, so we will definitely be spending some time together. i've done a little cleaning today, which feels good. as much as i'd love to "organize" - truthfully, thats not a strength of mine & likely won't get done {a girl can dream}. and i have been resting. my body only allows me to do so much before its time to rest again. nature has an amazing way with that.
2.14.2013
we are just 20 days away from meeting our baby girl, if not sooner, and i have a sinking suspicion that it just may be sooner. my doctor checked my cervix yesterday and was surprised to find that i'm 1cm dilated and 25-50% effaced. with my official due date still 1 month away and the fact that i've consistently been measuring 2 weeks behind, both my doctor and i were surprised. she is not at all worried, being that i'll be full term next week, but it has me feeling the pressure to get it together!
i have 1 session left this weekend, but 2 others to finish editing. those are a top priority to finish up asap. on the home front, jeremy is feeling the pressure to finish painting the nursery furniture so that we can get her room looking a little more together. while i'd love for the room to come together before she arrives, i'm more concerned with the everyday essentials - getting the carseat installed, which i plan to do next week. getting the pack & play set up in our room, so baby girl has a place to sleep when we bring her home. diapers & wipes, clothes, etc. and of course, i'm thinking about rivers and what preparing him involves. he's so excited & ready to meet baby sister, but there's also the thoughts of mommy & daddy being at the hospital for a couple days instead of home with him. we have planned a sleep over at gigi's house for this weekend, so that he can have a trial run of sleeping at her house. i bought his gift from sister today, so that when we go to the hospital, sister is prepared to schmooze him. i've washed his 'best big bro' t-shirt that i plan to give him just before it's 'go' time. and this weekend we have both a family day planned as well as a sibling hospital tour so that he can see where mommy, daddy, and sister will be when she is born.
we're getting there. i'd love to have a clean, organized house. i'd love to have a finished nursery. i'd love to have another 3 weeks to get it all together. :) baby girl might have other plans though. as long as i've got the essentials covered, i'm good. and thankfully, we have the carseat, enough diapers to get through the first week, sweet baby girl clothes, and the pack & play is simply a matter of setting it up. the rest will fall into place... well, maybe not the clean, organized house or the finished nursery, but we'll get there. and it looks like we've settled on a name. at least a first name, which is most important. we're still working on the middle name, but have a couple good contenders. thank goodness the last name is already decided. ;) we'll be sharing it soon.
i have 1 session left this weekend, but 2 others to finish editing. those are a top priority to finish up asap. on the home front, jeremy is feeling the pressure to finish painting the nursery furniture so that we can get her room looking a little more together. while i'd love for the room to come together before she arrives, i'm more concerned with the everyday essentials - getting the carseat installed, which i plan to do next week. getting the pack & play set up in our room, so baby girl has a place to sleep when we bring her home. diapers & wipes, clothes, etc. and of course, i'm thinking about rivers and what preparing him involves. he's so excited & ready to meet baby sister, but there's also the thoughts of mommy & daddy being at the hospital for a couple days instead of home with him. we have planned a sleep over at gigi's house for this weekend, so that he can have a trial run of sleeping at her house. i bought his gift from sister today, so that when we go to the hospital, sister is prepared to schmooze him. i've washed his 'best big bro' t-shirt that i plan to give him just before it's 'go' time. and this weekend we have both a family day planned as well as a sibling hospital tour so that he can see where mommy, daddy, and sister will be when she is born.
we're getting there. i'd love to have a clean, organized house. i'd love to have a finished nursery. i'd love to have another 3 weeks to get it all together. :) baby girl might have other plans though. as long as i've got the essentials covered, i'm good. and thankfully, we have the carseat, enough diapers to get through the first week, sweet baby girl clothes, and the pack & play is simply a matter of setting it up. the rest will fall into place... well, maybe not the clean, organized house or the finished nursery, but we'll get there. and it looks like we've settled on a name. at least a first name, which is most important. we're still working on the middle name, but have a couple good contenders. thank goodness the last name is already decided. ;) we'll be sharing it soon.
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