Update on our 5 mth old!

There are so many things going on...where do I start?

We are moving...at some point hopefully before Maielle's 1st birthday (that is my goal, to be able to have her 1st birthday in our new house)!!! We have been looking at houses in our area for a few months now and we have narrowed it down to a few options. One of those options is building a house. I never thought we would be in the place to be able to afford to build but after crunching the numbers that is an option! This is so hard to decide! We have been touching up the paint inside our house and Marcus has been doing some work to the outside to get it ready to sale! So if anyone knows of anyone looking for a great starter home...ours is for sale! It is two bedrooms and one bath, with an extra room in the back that use to be the third bedroom. It is around 1300 square feet! I am hoping that we can sale it fast!!!!

I had to take Maielle to the doctor two days before her scheduled well visit because she woke up coughing real bad and congested! Then two days later we were back at the doctor for her 4 month checkup! So we had a week of going to the doctor, because I caught her cold and had to go to the doctor! We are all well now and enjoying our almost 5 month old little girl! The doctor told me not to start her on solids until 6 months, so I am happy about that! She is doing great on just breast milk, growing perfectly! She is also sleeping great! At almost exactly 4 months she started sleeping through the night, waking once to eat and going straight back to sleep. Since then she has slept through the night without waking at all to eat! So I don't think she needs solids to sleep! We are all doing great and loving spending each day with her.

I keep finding myself thinking of our other embryos waiting for us. I don't know when we will do another FET, but I do know it will be awhile from now! Until that day, I will wait and think about them often! I love Maielle so much and I want her to have a sibling!

I will leave you with a picture of Maielle hanging out at her Gamma's & Papa house!
She is growing so much and time is going by way too fast! I can't believe we already have a 5 month old (next week)! 

Almost 4 mths!

Our almost 4 month old little girl!

She has changed so much over these past few months! Maielle is now talking so much...she has discovered how to yell! She has had a couple of colds over the past few months and I have discovered how much fun it is to have a sick baby! It is hard when there is nothing you can really do to comfort her. She will give me a few nights of sleeping through the night then she will go back to waking up every 3 hours. So we are still working on sleeping through the night!!! I guess she is about to start with some solids, since my doctor starts babies on solids at 4 months. I gave her a little rice cereal a few weeks ago and after that she did not poop for 3 1/2 days and she did not sleep any better! I am thinking about maybe trying barley or oats instead of rice...I will of course ask her doctor to see what he thinks. Anyone else have these problems after starting solids?

Maielle is so aware of things around her. She has discovered Zoe and grabs at her face when Zoe runs up to her. They are so cute...Zoe is always having to find Maielle and would sleep in her room if we would let her. Maielle is now laughing which is the best sound ever!!! She also rolled over a few weeks before 3 months but since then she hasn't done it any more?!?!?

I have now been back to work about a month and half and today is the first day that I feel caught up! It is a little hard working with Maielle, but I would not change it! I am so happy that I am able to bring my baby with me to work. When she falls asleep I go crazy getting as much work done as I can! Well I here her calling for me...I will try and blog a little more...but don't count on an every day post!

Back to Work!

This week was my first week back at work! I am very lucky to be able to bring Maielle to work with me!!! It has been really hard to get out of bed every morning and get both of us dressed and to work on time. I think we have done pretty well though. Some days Maielle doesn't get dressed until we get to work because she is still sleeping and I don't want to wake her to get her dressed. I am getting some work done...just a little slower with a baby here.
Maielle is doing great! At her last appointment she weighed 11lbs 2oz and had grown 3" already! She is growing too fast! I love this stage with her! She is cooing, smiling and love to cuddle! She sleeps pretty well. She has been waking only once in the middle of the night to eat, but every now and then she will throw in a night to where she wants to eat every 3 hours. She is still sleeping in her cradle beside my bed, but this weekend we are going to try and move her to her crib!
Breastfeeding is still going great and I have started cloth diapering!!! I just ordered some more diapers because I didn't have enough. So I am very excited to get those in and cloth diaper most of the time! I am glad that I decided to CD because I have found that Maielle is allergic to most disposables! I have also had to alter my diet. Maielle has a milk protein allergy so I am not able to eat or drink anything with milk in it. It is very hard to remember to not eat things with milk.
The holidays were nice and she got lots of stuff!!! We are going this afternoon to look at a bigger house, because we are growing out of our house!!!
Well that is about everything that is going on in our world. As you can tell, blogging has taken a back seat to motherhood!

Baby Girl, Maielle!

Let me introduce you to our new beautiful addition!

Maielle James

8lbs 3oz

20 1/2 inches long

Our first family photo...after I tell my birth story you will understand why I look so tired.

It all started at 4am on Saturday, October 23rd. I woke up bleeding and got scared. We ended up going to the hospital, they hooked me up to monitors and I was having contractions. I wasn't dilated much and was hoping that they would send me home to labor at home. After about 2 hours of monitoring, they sent me home and said that I would most likely have a baby within 24 hours. We came home to where I labored most of the day. Looking back I wish I would have stayed home for longer, but not knowing what to expect we headed back to the hospital Saturday afternoon after my contraction got stronger and closer together. When we arrived at the hospital they sent me to triage to check me out. I was only dilated to 3cm and was a little disappointed because I was hoping that I was further along. My contractions were coming regular, around 3 - 4 minutes apart. They admitted me and I got set up in a Labor & Delivery room for a long night ahead! Little did we know how long it was actually going to be. I think I labored for around 24 hours without an epidural and then I just needed sleep and decided to get one. After the epidural I was able to get some sleep and rest up until the next morning. After 30 hours of labor it was finally time to push and meet our baby girl. They turned the epidural off and after about 4 pushes our baby girl made her arrival on Sunday at 11:09am. 

Maielle endured the long labor and did great the entire time! When she came out she didn't not cry much, seemed healthy and breastfed right away! She then had to go to the nursery for 4 hours for them to check her out and she was still doing great! They brought her back to us and my nurse was in the room checking me out. She asked if she could see our baby girl because she was making a grunting sound. She then called the nursery to come back and check her out because something didn't seem right. So we got to see her for about 5 minutes before they came to take her back to the nursery to get checked out. After some time had past we were told that she was getting moved to the NICU because she needed to be on oxygen because she had fluid on her lungs. It was so hard to see her with bruises from being stuck, iv in her hand that ended up in her head and a tube down her throat. All the things that you go in not wanting to happen because you are going to breastfeed...your baby given a bottle and a pacifier...all go out the door when all you want is your baby to get healthy. I worked hard while she was in the NICU. I would go and see her every 3 hours and feed her and then come back to the room to pump so that I would have to best chance at breastfeeding. It all worked out perfectly and we are successfully breastfeeding with no formula! 

They said by her x-rays she should be doing worse than she actually was, but she is a fighter and was on a low level of oxygen. They started antibiotics right  away and we were told that the minimum number of days that she has to be on antibiotics is 3 days and I was going to be discharged in 2 days. So that meant that I was going to have to go home without my baby girl! We ended up working it out so that we could stay another night and go home with our baby girl! So we went from constantly watching her monitors to check her oxygen levels and heart rate to bringing her home with nothing attached to her! 

This picture is from Maielle's first day home!

Since being home, she is now up to 9lbs and is in the 75% in height and weight! She sleeps well and wakes to eat and goes right back to sleep. Every now and then she will throw in a fussy night but most nights she is good! I am surprised that I am not very tired and it is easy to get out of bed when you have a little person wake you up cooing to eat!

We are very happy at home and now have a month old baby! She keeps me pretty busy, because she loves to be held and sleep on my chest. Here are a few pictures from her one month photo shoot!

Shower #2

Almost a month ago, I had my second shower! It was beautiful and once again Baby Girl received so many great gifts!

Here is a picture of the grandmothers and great grandmothers! Baby Girl is loved by so many and we all can't wait to meet her!

This is a picture of all the wonderful ladies that gave me the shower!  

Isn't the cake gorgeous? It tasted even better than it looked...best cake ever!!!

As you can see by all of the gifts...I opened gifts until the very end!

I have since found a place for everything in our very small house. Everything is organized and all the clothes are washed. Now we are just waiting for Baby Girls to make her arrival! I am praying that she will come before Monday, so that I do not have to be induced!

Thank you to everyone that worked so hard for this shower (my sister especially)...it was absolutely amazing!

End Date

I just got back from the doctor and I am dilated to almost 2 cm. Baby girls head is now engaged and everything is progressing! I have stayed home from work the past 2 days because my feet are swelling very bad and they seemed to be getting worse. Today at my appointment my doctor didn't seem as worried about my feet as I thought he was going to be, so I am going back to work half a day until Baby girl makes her arrival. I am praying that baby girl will decide to come within the next few days because if nothing happens by Monday, then most likely I will be induced on Monday. I really don't want to be induced because my birth plan is going to try and go all natural. I am keeping all options open though and will try and keep an open mind! Any suggestions on if I do have to have an induction and opinions on pain meds???? Baby girl has 5 days to get moving and I am going to try all the old wives tales to get her out before Monday! If you want to keep up with us and baby girl, I will be tweeting any changes and updating along the way!