Our Super Nanny Episode

My wonderful sister Lea came and visited me for a week with her 4-month-old Skyler, making Skyler the first cousin Julia has met. Lea left her other 3 boys at home, and I am so glad she came. She taught me so many things...it was like being on a Super Nanny Episode!

 Like for example that this thing pictured above was not for washing small items in the dishwasher. It's for teething/eating babies! 

And that the little space there between the handles is for me to put my arm through. Sure glad she told me that cause I was doing all sorts of ridiculous things!

And by the way, this beautiful carseat cover was made by my amazing SIL Devri. I get compliments on it everywhere I go! Thanks Devri!

 Cousins Julia and Skyler meet! This is when I learned that Julia is not fair like I thought, at least not compared to her fair cousin. Look at her olive complexion! I'm so proud!

Here is Julia eating Skyler's shoulder. Oh yes, he knows he's about to be eaten!

 

Look at Skyler's beautiful blue eyes!

We went on a "hike" to Line Creek, a little nature area in PTC. Yes, little Julia is in that Bjorn somewhere!

Sisters!

Group shot!

Lea took over caring for Julia one morning so I could get some sleep. When I woke up, I found Lea like this. She truly is Super Mom!

Beautiful Lea and Julia

Sisters and our babies. We're only 15 months apart, but Lea has a 9-yr-old. I'm glad I at least get to have one child who is close in age to one of hers.

Skyler loved his Aunt LaLa!

Lea is an excellent photographer, and took these family pics of us. She did a wonderful job! (Especially after I edited out my fat rolls.)

Mom and Daughter's feet. You probably can't tell, but Julia clearly has Greg's feet!

Thank you Lea for coming and teaching us how to use our stuff!

Greg's Safety Check

Greg had to test out Julia's new crib mobile at work...

Yep, it works!

A Thank You Gift

See this happiness written all over Julia's face? This is because Dr. Cook made us wait for an hour before he came in to examine me. Meanwhile she pooped and wanted a diaper change, but I was terrified to change her diaper only to have Dr. Cook walk in with my backside exposed. If only I had known I had an hour to expose my backside before he would make his appearance.

Once the exam was done, Dr. Cook picked Julia up out of her car seat in the stroller to pose, as per my request. I bring out the nice camera, only it doesn't work. It takes me a few minutes to realize I had left the memory card at home.

Meanwhile Julia's cries crescendo.

So I get out the phone camera, only that takes some time to get it working as well.

Meanwhile Julia's cries crescendo.

Finally, the above picture is taken (thank goodness!) and Dr. Cook puts Julia back in her seat. I can't wait for him to get out of the office so I can change my poor baby. Only he doesn't leave. He starts scrubbing at his tie and remarks that she got him. I think, "Come on, what is this...a $100 tie? Are you that afraid of a little baby drool? Just get out of the office!"

But he scrubs for like 5 minutes, looking upset the whole time, and Julia keeps crying.

FINALLY the man walks out, and I jump off the table and take my crying baby out of her seat only to discover her left side is covered in poop...all over the car seat, her pants, her leg.

Yep, that's right. Her diaper leaked out of her left leg hole. Look closely and you'll see that's exactly the side that Dr. Cook is holding next to his nice white coat and tie.

I don't think I've ever been so embarrassed.

Thanks Dr. Cook for getting my baby safely here! Oh yeah, and Julia has a thank you gift for you!

One Month Old

I've become one of those people that blog obsessively about their child. Don't worry, when I find a life again I will cool it. But until then, it's all about Julia!

Who by the way turned one month old. That's right, folks. We managed to keep her alive for one month...go us!

One Month!

One-Month!
(Don't you love how Greg feeds the baby?)

I decided it was time to start playing oboe again. This is Julia's face when she first heard me play the oboe outside of the womb. Happy to hear it again? Doesn't seem like it.

Julia went to church on Easter Sunday - her Easter outfit, which was the smallest dress I could find in her closet and is still way too big.

Yes, I'm also one of THOSE people...we matched in our yellow dresses. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of us together because I didn't want to wake her, and I didn't want to stay in my dress until she woke up.

Julia's "oh" face - one of my favorites

Greg trying to help Julia make the perfect "oh"

I love how she is sleeping with her hands together

Julia loves to be snuggled when she sleeps. Here's a pillow cave Greg made for her during one nap.

And the answer is....

Julia

Lara on the left

Lara--yes, with blonde hair

Julia


I'm not trying to be vain here, but I think I'm the winner!

Got Milk?

For me, the answer was no. I tried so hard to breastfeed. My milk came in late, and so during that time we supplemented Julia with formula. And then once my milk did come in, it wasn't very much. I did everything I was supposed to: I pumped after every feeding (and usually didn't even get 1/4 of an ounce after 20 minutes...ultra depressing), I took Fenugreek, I drank Mother's Milk herbal tea, and I did breastfeeding boot camp which consisted of nursing around the clock. I was completely unprepared for the insane desire I felt to nourish my baby, and the utter devastation I felt when I couldn't.

The end result? A starving baby and a depressed mom. Julia started off being such a perfect baby, but after a week of breastfeeding boot camp she was fussy and inconsolable and wouldn't sleep, and I couldn't stop crying. Greg and I kept arguing about giving her a bottle, and Greg kept sneaking her formula at night.

Finally, I remembered from my earlier blog post:
2. Sleep deprivation = Insane and irrational behavior and thoughts
3. Always trust Greg who is sane and rational at all times

So on Sunday April 1st, the three of us went to the hospital to see a lactation consultant. She weighed Julia before I fed her, then I breastfed for 30 minutes, and then we weighed her to see how much milk she got.

After 30 minutes of hard work, sweet Julia hadn't even gotten an ounce. This is after my milk supply was at its highest.

The lactation consultant said it was medically necessary for me to supplement as she was just barely making her weight goals with formula and breastmilk. She also gave me a Supplementary Nursing System (or SNS), pictured below...but that boob isn't mine, and before you think this is really weird, that's not Julia either.

Yep, that's a tube of formula going into the baby's mouth, allowing the baby to get formula and breastmilk at the same time.

I lasted for about 24 hours on the SNS, and then I decided life was too short to sit in my bedroom with a tube taped to my boob, and life was WAY too short to be pumping every feeding and getting only 1/4 of an ounce.

And to add insult to injury, we were diagnosed with thrush on Monday.

So Julia is a formula baby now, and can I just say, she is soooo happy! She has gained almost a pound this last week, weighs 7 lbs finally, is sleeping 6 hours during the night, never fusses, and in short is a perfect baby.

So here's my parenting advice for any new moms out there. Starve your child the first two weeks of life, and then when you finally start to feed them the third week they'll be so grateful for the food that they will automatically be perfect children!

The Birth Story

My birth story is pretty picture-perfect...no screaming, pain, or interventions. I went into the hospital at 10am (they were too full in the morning and my induction got pushed back from 7am), and we had to wait around another 2 hours before they started me on the IV. Dr. Cook broke my water around the same time as I got on the IV, and I was hooked up to the pit drip by 1pm. And then I just laid there and waited, and slept, and waited some more.

I was dilated to a 3 and effaced 60% when I arrived at the hospital (which hadn't changed from two weeks ago), and by 2:30pm I was just at a 4. Dr. Cook came back at 6:30pm to check me again, and I was really disappointed to hear that I was only at a 5. Dr. Cook said, "Well, it looks like nothing's going to happen until after midnight. She'll probably arrive closer to 2am." I said, "But Dr. Cook, I don't want to have this baby on the 13th! I want to have her on 3-12-12!!!" He just kind of shrugged and said it probably wouldn't happen.

Well, as most of you know, I am an over-achiever. An hour later I was talking to my mom and complaining of how nauseated I felt, and I was beginning to shake. My mom said, "It sounds to me like you're in transition." I said, "No, that's not possible. I was just at a 5 at 6:30." My mom said, "Okay, but it sounds like transition to me. I would have the nurse check you."

So I told the nurse I was feeling super nauseated, and she didn't check me. Nope, instead she gave me anti-nausea medication. Seems kind of weird now that I think about it, but I was pretty convinced I wasn't progressing very fast at the time so I wasn't too worried about it.

Around 8pm I received a text message from my friend Yvonne that said SHE was in labor as her water had just broken. She wasn't due for 4 more weeks, and so I called her immediately to see how she was doing. As we were talking on the phone, her being in labor and me being in labor, I suddenly got this very intense pain in my lower left back. It hurt like crazy! I called Greg over and asked him to roll me to the other side because my legs were numb and I couldn't move myself. He rolled me, and the pain was worse. So I asked him to roll me back to the other side, and again intense pain and no relief. I finally said to Yvonne, "I need to go call the nurse. I'm having some crazy unexplained lower back pain." I hung up, paged the nurse, and she came in a minute later. When I told her about my back pain, her face showed total surprise. She checked me, and I was at a 10 and the baby was at +2 station and ready to come out!

The problem was that Dr. Cook was delivering another baby, and so I had to wait about 15 minutes. Thank goodness that epidural was working because without it I imagine I would have been extremely uncomfortable and angry at having to wait. But I didn't feel an intense urge to push, and other than the back pain, which I tried to relieve by laying on my wallet, I was feeling okay.

Dr. Cook arrived in the room at 8:40pm. He walked in and said, "Wow, you were really serious about having this baby on the 12th, weren't you?" I said, "I told you I didn't want to have her on the 13th. And you should probably know, I'm an over-achiever." I had been bragging earlier to the nurse (which by the way, my first nurse Karen was AWESOME and I loved her, but the second nurse who took over at 7pm was not my favorite, especially seeing as how she didn't even check me when I was feeling nauseated) that I was a woodwind player and had extra strong abdominal muscles. She looked at me like I was crazy. When Dr. Cook had me all prepped to push he said, "Now I imagine you've got really strong diaphragm muscles," knowing I was an oboist because his son had played oboe in high school. I said, "Just you wait, Dr. Cook!" He laughed and didn't believe me.

The first push came, and as soon as I pushed Dr. Cook was a believer in those oboe diaphragm muscles! He said, "This baby is coming!" I pushed through about 4 contractions, and she was born. She would have been born even faster, but her heart rate dropped and he pushed her back up until she stabilized before I did the final pushing. Let me put this in perspective...Dr. Cook arrived in the room at 8:40pm and still had to do prep. Julia was born at 8:54pm. Yeah, I did not push for very long at all. Of course, it also helps when your baby is so freaking tiny and has a head in the 5th percentile!

Seriously, labor and delivery was a piece of cake. It was a very good birth experience and was much better and easier than I expected. I couldn't believe how disgusting Julia looked when she first came out, and how quickly she looked beautiful afterwards! I was worried I was going to have a blue, slimy baby for life. I had my immediate skin to skin contact, and about 15 minutes afterwards when they had cleaned her off, I breastfed her for the first time. It was a very surreal experience, and it took a few hours for me to truly comprehend this little baby was mine.

My recovery has been amazing as well. I've had no pain and have felt physically normal in a very short amount of time. Now emotionally normal is another story, but I'll save that for another post! :)