A Ball of Germs

Our little Sophia is just a big ball of germs. It only took her one week (with a weekend inbetween) of daycare to come home with a stuffy nose. And now after 2 months she has had an ear infection and now RSV. Welcome to a daycare baby - AKA a big ball of germs! Now when people say "Oh I should wash my hands before I hold her" I always say "Well no, you probably want to wash your hands AFTER you hold her." The RSV has been pretty rough for her. She is losing her voice she coughs so much and she can barely cry. It's so sad to listen to her. It's amazing to think that in 4 short months, we know her little personality so well that we can immediately tell she isn't feeling well. Her mood has definitely changed. She is such a little cuddle bug and which makes me love rocking her to sleep. I could just rock her all day if I wanted to. She hasn't been sleeping well the past few nights because of her cough, so the pediatrician prescribed an inhaler and a nebulizer to help her breath better. Since it's a virus we just have to let it pass. Hopefully tylonal and the inhaler will make it a little easier on her. Here is our sweet girl on the nebulizer. Sometimes she doesn't mind it and sometimes she screams and fusses the whole time. The doctor said it's almost better if they are crying when getting the medicine because they breathe it in more.

Hubby has been taking her to all of her doctors appointments and staying home sick with her. That is one good thing about having him in school - he has a flexible schedule. I feel guilty but I'd rather save my sick time for when we really need it (like next year during his rotations). Lets just say I'm milking it for all its worth, because I know for the rest of her life I'll be taking her to the doctor and staying home sick with no other options.

Challenge Accepted

We have been very lucky in the fact that our little peanut has slept through the night at an early age. But ever since she started day care and the infamous day care germs have begun, she's woken up earlier and earlier from being conjested. It's like she refuses to breathe out of her mouth so you just hear how stuffy her little nose is. It's pretty cute actually. But every little thing she does is cute! :)

The other night she woke up at about 3:30 at night. Hubby decides to wake up with her because I have been sick for the past few days too. He picks her up and says "can I feed her?" Feeding her in the middle of the night is probably the last thing you want to do when she's just trying to break from her usual routine. I'm not jeopardizing the good thing we got going here! So I told him "not unless you want to feed her at 3am every day this week." he puts the bottle back and tries to get her to go back to sleep. changed her diaper, pacifier, and laid her back down but she just laid there squirming and never fully went back to sleep. then at around 4 she starts crying again. histerically. he asks again if he can feed her. I give him the same answer. I decide to switch with him and give him a break. and bam! I had her snoozing in less than thirty minutes. when she finally fell asleep, I felt a strong urge to shout Boo ya! and do a little dance. I laughed at how pumped I was (at 4am!) just from getting my baby to fall back asleep without feeding her. I felt empowered that I was able to do something my husband was so quick to give up on. If anyone knows my husband, knows he has to win at everything. So half the time it irritates me, but most of the time our competitiveness is an ongoing joke in our family. So of course, I go back to bed wake him up and rub it in his face. :)

Sometimes it's nice to have a sign that says "you're her mommy and no one else can do what you do". Especially when you are a working mom and have a loving husband who wants to help out as much as he can. I love that she is a challenge in our life and that every once in a while I can come out the winner. One thing that I've learned between us as parents is to make light of everything as much as we can. It can be frustrating holding a screaming baby that you can't calm down. So half the time we just try and laugh at her and the silly faces she makes. It's like we have formed an unwritten rule: if you aren't holding the lil monster :) than you help your partner find the fun in it. Sometimes it turns into a game and whoever gets her to quiet down is the winner. In this case... I won ;)

Be effective

Life is getting a little crazy. We are doing our best in learning how to balance everything with baby girl. Life certainly is not the same anymore and never will be. When we pick her up from daycare we just want to spend the rest of the day with her. We fight over who gets to feed her and hold her. "Here I'll hold her while you make dinner." "No, it's ok I'll hold her while you make dinner." She is very loved around here :) Everything else on the other hand is falling apart... dishes, laundry, cleaning, our to do lists, oh and making dinner. Our home can go from clean to dirty in less than an hour. It will be clean and the next thing you know there are dirty bottles, burp cloths, a random sock, headband, and pacifier everywhere. If something falls on the floor while you are holding her, you simply have to say "I'll get it early" to not bend down with her in your arms. At the end of the day, I am surrounded by unfinished projects and can usually go through and tell you exactly what happened in the middle of each (usually, her yelling at me or coughing, a feeding, or a diaper change).

I had a friend at work when Sophia was just one week old ask me "How has motherhood changed you?" I didn't have a good (or anything really) to say at the time. But this is what I would say now... Being efficient trumps everything. Anywhere from the clothes and shoes I wear, to shopping, to dinner. For example, online shopping has become my new best friend! I used to hate online shopping. I remember saying this when I would try and update or change something on her baby registry online. I just couldn't understand how you could buy something without seeing, touching, or wearing it. I'm convinced online shopping was made for moms. Being more efficient with my time is far more important than just "not liking online shopping" I got over my fear of it real quick! Today, I bought a friends baby shower gift online and bought a few things for Sophia as well. I spent enough (over $25) to get free shipping - which was another reason I disliked online shopping. Paying extra money for something pointless like shipping when I could go out and buy it myself was always a pet peeve. But now, even if I did have to pay a reasonable shipping price it would out weigh the headache and time needed for shopping.  Also today, I noticed it was time to order more heartworm medicine for Bossman. I decided to try the 1.800.petmeds I had seen online. Hubby said he felt more comfortable buying it from a vet. But then when I said "you know it will take us forever to make our way to the vet" he agreed and bought it online. It will be mailed here (free of shipping) in 5 days. Score! I also set up on amazon.com to have a package of genie diaper refills shipped to our place continuously every three months. Awesome! If my husbands class didn't throw us an huge diaper shower, I would have set up automated shipping for diapers and wipes. I will now be browsing online for good deals on things for Sophie as well.
Now with Christmas shopping coming up, my last minute gifts will probably be bought online. I still enjoy a good Friday morning shopping spree to save money. But maybe this year, I'll combine the two and shop online on Cyber Monday.

Another example on being more efficient with my time is cooking. I was never a fan of coming home after a long day and start cooking in the kitchen even before I was a mom. Now, I really don't want to cook dinner after I work and pick her up from daycare. My solution: frozen crockpot meals. I found this blog on pinterest about spending one day creating a bunch of crockpot meals and placing them in Ziploc bags and freezing them. Best idea ever! While my mom was here, we spent one day tackling this. It was a ton of food (9 meals) but very effective in the fact that they shared some of the same ingredients. It was so nice to put in the crockpot in the morning and dinner was waiting for us when we got home. The meals were all great - juicy and tender. This gave us more time with our baby girl each evening. That time with her is priceless to us.
http://melissafallistestkitchen.blogspot.com/2011/09/freezer-cooking-slow-cooker-meals.html

So how has motherhood changed me so far?.... I feel that there are not enough hours in the day. There is not enough time to get everything done and spend as much time with our precious baby girl. She is our priority now and everything else can wait. So learning to be more effective with my time so we can spend as much time together as a family is how motherhood has changed me.

Sophie's First Halloween!

I think everyone will agree that holidays are that much more fun with little ones! Even my husband this month said the words "Having a kid is SO awesome!" She is truly the joy in our lives! Here is our little trip to the Pumpkin Patch. At this pumpkin patch they had a petting zoo, ponies to ride, tables to paint pumpkins, food, hay ride, and a little train. We can't wait 'til she's older and can enjoy these thigns. This will be the beginning of our little family tradition.

 

Our little pumpkin was a bit fussy... :(

 

 

 

 

For Halloween, our little pumpkin was an adorable lady bug! Growing up my mom always made my halloween costumes. I am proud to say that I made Sophia's first Halloween costume.

 

 

 

 I found a black long sleeve onesie and ironed on a ladybug patch from Hobby Lobby. She's wearing red leggings underneath her tutu. I wanted to her to have antennas but knew she wouldn't be able to handle long ones. So I just glued black cottonballs to a sequined headband. Her tutu was made out of tule. I cut strips of tule and tied knots half way through around a piece of ribbon. Then I would tie the ribbon around her little waste. No sewing needing! My kind of DIY halloween costume! Then I hot glued some black cottonballs to her tutu. I got the original idea here: No Sew TuTu I was planning to make the tutu all the way around. But when I stopped halfway around, I thought that was good enough. It worked out better to have the tutu only in the front and made it easier for her to lay on her back, sit in a carseat, and let people hold her.

 

My little lady :)

 

 

We can't wait for halloweens to come!

C blood

Conversation after a preceptorship:

Husband - So today we were at the Sim Center... The blood made my fingers red because it was high C blood.
Wife - High C? What is High C blood? I thought there was just A, B, AB, and O.
Husband - haha, no they use Hi-C juice as fake blood on the dummies.
Wife - Oh...

Mat Leave

My Maternity Leave (or MatLeave) wasn't what I expected. I expected it to be this wonderful time getting to know my sweet baby and learning all about her. Don't get me wrong, I knew it would be long sleep deprived nights and difficult, but I also knew it would be a bonding experience. Well, our matleave was a little rough... Sophia has always been very loved from the beginning. So loved that we had at least two people visit her everyday for a about the first two weeks we brought her home. As much fun it was watching everyone hold her and get to know her and see how we were doing, at the end of it all I was ready to have some peace and quiet. I had some peace and quiet for about a week after that. I had her all to myself while Daddy was at school studying. We would take naps together, tummy time, and although it was hard being bymyself with her, looking back it was great. And then we found out my grandma passed away. After we got the phone call, we decided to pack and leave the next day. Packing for a 4 week old was a little intimidating. Not sure how many clothes, diapers, wipes, bottles, blankets, burp cloths, pacis, (and the list goes on) she would need. We stayed nights at the hotel, and days at my grandparents house. Again, she was surrounded by her family living in perfect bliss. Getting all the attention and was never put down once. As sad as the trip was, it was perfect to have her there. She was able to bring so much joy to everyone, even when she was making small noices in the back of the funeral.

The three of us the day of the funeral.

As nervous as I was to have her at the funeral, not knowing how she would do and what noises she would make, we received compliments afterwards on what a blessing it was to hear a baby whimper at a funeral. Life goes on. Sophia rode in the car (the longest in her little life) for 7 hours there and 7 hours back. She did perfect and we were stopping often to feed and change her. It was mommy and daddy who struggled. We both had two coffees each way just to stay awake. We were really missing our afternoon naps while Sophia was enjoying hers.


 

My grandpa with his great-granddaughter
on the day of the funeral.

The girl likes to sleep in the car apparently. Like I said, we spent the days with all of our family and nights with a non-sleeping baby in a hotel room. By the time we got back home, it hit me. Maybe a little bit of baby blues, but a whole lot of sleep deprivation and just a lot going on. I realized 'trying to get caught up on (just a little bit) sleep' with a newborn is downright impossible. It definitely took a while for us to recover from the trip. Then in the middle of matleave, a new position opened up at work. I went in for an interview, got the job, and before I knew it I was going in for halfdays to learn the new position while the previous employee was there to teach me. And next thing I know, I'm back at work full time. I had taken 8 weeks off (which didn't include the two weeks with half days here and there). A friend had suggested to me to take 8 weeks, not 6 because they grow and change so much in just those two weeks. Boy, was she right! Exactly at 7 weeks was when Sophia started smiling at us and cooing for the first time. And now she smiles and coos more and more everyday.
So if you ask me if I put her on a routine/schedule (walks in the morning/tummy time after a certain feeding/bath at same time everyday), the answer is no. We were always having to plan something around the day. If you are married to a student, then you know that their schedule is never the same either. Test weeks and preceptorships brought nights with me by myself and him coming home to allow me to take a shower. And I know I wasn't going to take away from his time with her. When he came home, it was whatever Daddy/Daughter wanted to do at that time. I feel like this will be an ongoing theme in our future.

Daddy/Daughter time :)

If I had to do it again, I would work hard to make matleave as less stressful as possible. Of course, everything was an unexpected turn of events and out of my control. But I think Sophia realizes that - she's a part of this family and she's going with the flow. And I already love her for that.





Here are some pictures from our sweet baby girl...

Sophia's first bath. Boss helped/watched.

Just a little over 1 month old.

Grandparents soaking it in

Sophie's here!!!

Here is the crazy story of how Sophie made her big debut! :)

On Tuesday afternoon we went in for our normal 38 week check up. I wasn't able to see my doctor because she was busy in labor and delivery. I saw a nurse practitioner who I did NOT prefer (for more reasons than I am about to list). At one point, she left the room to come back and say "Ok, here is what we are going to do... you are going to go have a few tests done because these are the things that are wrong: you have high blood pressure, protein in your urine, and your uterus was measuring small." Tears began to roll down my face.  I have never had any issues throughout the whole pregnancy. My doctor and nurses would make fun of me for being such a 'boring pregnant woman.' I was so confused. She hurried us out and we went to the desk to check out. The desk lady asked us "when" we needed to take these tests, and we had no idea. We were so lost and confused and didn't know what was going on. I had to go draw blood, do another urine test, and see an OBGYN at-risk specialist. When we saw the specialist he walked in the room and said "Do you know why you are here?" We laughed and said no idea. He was nice enough to take the time and explain to us why we were there. Basically, I had a restricted uterus. Meaning baby girl had stopped growing and fell below the size charts. He did all the measurements of her brain, different bones, her abdomen, and so on. As the different measurements for each were showing up on the TV, you can imagine the look on my face as I try and picture my sweet baby girl with a big brain, small forearm, normal femur bone, small tummy... I was thinking how deformed and un-proportional my baby will be! haha. The specialist then turns to me and says "are you ready to have your baby today?" I literally sat there thinking oh my gosh! is he serious? how do i respond to this? I shook my head in disbelief and he responds "is that a no?" in which I respond... "umm, no, that's just a really weird question!" He says "I'm sorry, but are you ready to have your baby today?" after this sinks in for a while and we confirm with the doctor that this is a done deal and there's no going back, we begin to call family (my parents who have to drive 12 hours) and my work telling them I'm not coming back this afternoon. We are escorted to labor and delivery. Hubby runs to our apartment and grabs are packed bags. Thanking God I had washed all her clothes and sheets and finished packing our bags just 2 days prior. We get settled in our room and start the pitocin. I'm at 1cm and say "this is going to take a while, isn't it?" yep!

Arrived to our room.

So here comes the meds... Due to the high blood pressure, I am diagnosed with preeclampsia. First I am givin pitocin (to start the induction) and magnesium (for preeclampsia so that it does not cause seizures during labor). I had multiple nurses come in and say, "Ok, so do you understand what's going on here...?" pointing at my IV stand. "pitocin is to have your muscles contract and magnesium is a muscle relaxer and we are hoping the pitocin wins" ohhhh, well ok. Yay for a chemical war going on inside me. The magnesium made me feel awful! Hot, dizzy, and nauseous. The nurses kept asking me if I was having trouble breathing (Apparently a side effect of magnesium). I just said no, but I feel like my hearts racing. They began to monitor my pulse which I was right and had escalated to 145. At this time I had 3 doctors standing there staring at me as I am feeling miserable like they were waiting for something bad to happen. I just remember telling my husband "I do not like the way this makes me feel." Then they gave me medicine for the nauseousness, which in turn made me sick (or I was still getting sick from the magnesium, whichever you prefer).

My IV stand

Then came the pain medicine. That made me even more sick and again some more medicine for nauseousness. Then the epidural. My anesthesiologist was really nice. Him and and my husband got along great talking about medical school. After he was done, he said "How does that feel?" I said good. He said "good I'm glad I did well on my first one!" not funny doctor! not funny! Hours later after the epidural I began feeling contractions on half of my body. It was obvious to me that one of my legs was much more 'dead' than the other. So I asked to have the anesthesiologist come back and fix it. My biggest fear was the medicine wearing off right before it was time to push. A lady came in, who didn't introduce herself, and gave me more medicine. A few hours later, the the epidural was wearing off on now the other side. I remember I kept saying to my husband "I don't want to be a weenie, I just want to get it fixed before it's time" over and over. So I asked an anesthesiologist to come back again. Apparently the previous resident that came in (and didn't introduce herself) didn't write down how much she gave me on my charts. So this doctor was a little hesitant giving me more and not knowing when I received the last dosage. Awesome! I think he called her and figured it out and ended up giving me more. He informed me that if this one didn't work, than I was out of luck because I was reaching my max amount. Looking back, I'm not sure why I wasn't freaking out to my husband by the doctors comment. Just a couple hours later I began pushing. I was pretty close to not saying anything because I didn't want to be 'that' pregnant woman constantly complaining. So glad I decided to speak up and have them come back a third time to fix it.
During the middle of the epidural, a resident came in to break my water. I will never forget this moment... a minute after my water broke, she says "Ok, well everythings looking really goooooo" And she stops and stares at the monitor and can't finish the word good. She pushes the emergency button, doctors and nurses come flying in, they lay my bed directly back and hook me up with an oxygen mask. My husbands head is in my face and I'm trying to stay calm. Apparently, when the water came out the umbilical cord tightened and was wrapped around her neck and her heart stopped. Her heart rate came back and everything was ok, but we were seconds away from a c-section.
I was in labor for 30 long hours (33 if you count all my tests that were done before labor and delivery). There's always that saying that night nurses are so much better than day nurses, which I didn't believe was fully true because I think I'd be cranky if I had to work all through the night every night. But I have to say it was 100% true for us. We loved our night nurse and actually had her twice! Ha! She came back the second night, and I look at her and say "We're stillllllllll here!" She was also the nurse there with us while Sophie was born and took us to post-partum. So thankful for great nurses!
Sometime during those 30 hours, I actually had to listen to someone else go through labor next door and she was a screamer. Can I just say that was the worst thing ever!!??!! Sitting there listening to someone scream and think "that's going to be me in a few hours" is awful. She was a bad screamer too! They should sound proof those walls better in the hospital, just sayin. Nobody wants to hear that. Hubby thought it sounded like they were killing her (that comment at the time wasn't helping either). We kept turning the volume on the TV louder and louder to drain her out, and I was trying to play mind games with myself and tell myself  "she's not having a baby, she's having open heart surgery and awake for it" anything to not believe it.
My doctor was actually at home when I started going into active labor. My nurse called her and told her it was time. And let me tell you... it took FOREVER for my doctor to get there (or it felt like it). I remember being able to hear my doctor through the phone as my nurse stood next to me, and turning to my husband saying "she better do valet !" Later we found out the reason why she was a little late was because she couldn't find someone to take care of her 4 kids (the littlest being a 5 month old and her husband being a doctor also). While we were waiting, I remember saying "I know she was at home spending time with her family, but she's my doctor and I need her here!" My husband kind of smirked and said "Ok, well remember this in the future when my patients 'need' me and I'm at home with my family." I remember grunting and thinking now's not the time to discuss this! But true statement, being on the other side and feeling the true need for my doctor to be there for me gives a new understanding. If my husband was smart, he'd use this moment against me in the future when I have a bad day and give him a hard time for leaving. And quick side note, I kid you not, while in active labor and a minute before baby girl was born, my doctor's cell phone went off. Her ringtone was a song and obviously she couldn't stop and reach in her pocket to turn it off so we all had to sit there and hear it out. Everyone laughed and I did NOT think it was funny at the time, but I do remember thinking "I guess that shows how she busted her butt up here and didn't stop to take the time and turn her phone off" which I was appreciative of.
...And then our beautiful baby girl was born! :) The first thing one of the nurses said to me was "It's still a girl!!!" Really? Was I supposed to be worried? That's a weird thing to shout out. The very first thing the doctor said when she held her up was "look at those long eye lashes!" She had a full head of brown hair and absolutely beautiful. NICU team was on standby and did there routine check up and she was good to go. So thankful she didn't have to go through NICU. She was born at 10:05pm 5lbs 9oz and 18" long. She was long and skinny and perfectly healthy.

Sophia's very first picture

Skinny and long

Footprints

Our sweet girl

I, on the other hand, still had high blood pressure and had to remain on the magnesium for another 12 hours and stay in the hospital an extra night instead of the standard one night. After being mesmerized by her beauty and in awe that she was ours, I stopped and thought... well wait a minute if she was perfectly healthy then why did we just have to through all that? Whatever. She's here, beautiful and healthy, and we're happy.

On our way to postpartum; swollen with 30 hours of liquids