One of the hardest things about life with Kate is trying to figure out if I have time to do something before she's going to wake up and want to eat again. It's particularly hard in the morning - I'm tired and want to stay in bed, but I'm also a morning person and I hate not being showered, etc. before mid-morning. So, an hour ago I was laying in bed with Kate, debating. I expected her to wake up around 8:30, and I was starving (I'm totally devoted to breakfast) but also thought I should probably jump in the shower. I wasted a few minutes wondering if I could do both things before she awoke vs. just eating breakfast to settle my stomach. I decided that I could do both if I took a quick shower. So, I showered. No problem. The diapers need to be washed this morning, so I ran to the basement to start filling the machine for their soak. Back upstairs to put my styling products in my hair - I had already reconciled myself to the fact that I wouldn't be able to dry my hair before she got up, but at least it could start air drying in the right direction. A few whimpers start coming from the little one. Back downstairs with the diapers. Back upstairs, and it's looking like the kid is really sleeping, so I decide to dry my hair. Glory be, I'd never thought about the impact of the dryer on her (I've been going into the bathroom do dry it) - white noise totally conks her out, so now she's seriously sleeping AND my hair is done. Next, breakfast - I figure I can get my oatmeal ready and eat it while she feeds. No need, though - she keeps sleeping. So, why not make some coffee? I'll get a cup after she eats. And now, here I sit, coffee half-drunk, stomach full, hair dry, diapers soaking - and she's still sleeping. This is exactly why it's so hard to figure out what to do - sometimes she'll just keep sleeping, and I'll have sat around doing nothing, SURE that she's about to wake up. I actually have experienced this enough in the last three weeks to now know - just do your thing. That includes going out. Before I was of the mind that we should go out immediately after she eats to maximize the time we have out of the house without any tears. Now I just go whenever (unless, of course, a feeding is supposed to occur within the next 20 minutes or so); if there's an hour before her next feeding, we go. I can always feed her in the back of the minivan, and between the motion of the car and being out and about, she tends to sleep through our excursions anyway. We're going to the grocery store after she eats (whenever that is!), and I'll definitely be using this logic...

OK, so the photo taking frenzy has died down a bit, but I have some that I haven't shared. There are a bunch of her hair - since it's such a hot topic of conversation, even among the family, we've tried to document it as well as possible. The pictures of the back of her head were to try to illustrate that there are two different colors on her head - a dark brown close to my color and a lighter brown/dark blond. All bets are that she'll lose the dark color and be a little dark blond kid. Don't put too much weight into the color you see in the photos of her in the sun - it looks way lighter in those photos than it does in reality. The sun pictures do, however, make the point that her hair is not straight. Each hair is a little kinky, so I'm expecting that she'll end up with wavy hair (from my side, because there's essentially no wave in Jay's family).

 

She loves her swing, although we don't actually turn it on very often - she generally just uses it as a place to overcome the hiccups and then in the evening when she really likes to look at her toys. All the pictures of her sleeping are just because I think she's too cute when she's asleep - I'm a little obsessed.

 

Last, there are pictures of her in her Moby Wrap. I figured out how to tie it last week, but then I tried to put her in it and just couldn't. Jay wasn't home at the time, and it was just too nerve-wracking. On Sunday one of my teammates reassured me and gave me the push I needed to just try it, and I came home and loaded her in! I've used it everyday since, I think, whenever she's looking to be held but I'm looking to not sit still (Tuesday I cooked dinner while she slept, for example). Yesterday I put her in it so that we could take a quick trip to the corner grocery - two blocks didn't seem to require a stroller, but carrying her in my arms didn't seem smart either. It worked great, and of course everyone thought she was adorable. She seems pretty comfortable in it, although she definitely gets warm - I have to strip her down a little before loading her up. If she was a summer baby I don't know how useful it'd be because I think we'd both die from the heat. Oh, and Tracey, you'll see that the wrap is purple (therefore clearly not the one you gave me) - someone gave it to my at my shower and I couldn't return it, so I sent yours back and got diapers with the credit. Anyway, I really like the wrap so far, and I expect that I'll keep using it a lot. Our little outing yesterday made me wonder if it wouldn't be a good way for us to take our daily walks, particularly on a day like today that is quite chilly and very windy.

 

OK, that's all the photos for now. I hadn't realized how long it had been since I'd posted some, so I'm sorry about that. I'll try to be more consistent!

This whole staying at home thing really throws off my sense of what day it is, and I certainly have no idea what the date is! *lol*

 

Kate and I met my friend Diana out for lunch yesterday. Kate ate at 9:30, so I expected her to want to eat again between 11:30 and noon. I was a little worried about feeding her out in public for the first time, but I figured that I'd just do the best I could and try to not flash anyone. Well, the little petunia decided to just sleep the entire time - she didn't eat until we got home at 1:15! Needless to say, by that time I really needed her to eat. I just couldn't believe that she kept sleeping, and I felt kind of bad that Di didn't get to hold her, but there was no way I was going to wake her. Di and her family are coming over on Saturday, so Kate can be held then.

 

The friends are coming fast and furious now. Yesterday I saw Di, tonight Eric and Janet are coming over, tomorrow Allison and the twins will be here, Friday DeEtte is stopping by, Saturday the Phipps crew will be here, and I think Sunday Rick and Amy are stopping by. What fun! It's great to see friends so frequently. Jay and I aren't big on going out a lot, so we generally go long stretches of time between seeing friends, and it's been really nice to see everyone over the last few weeks. It's also fun to show off our little cutie, of course.

 

The little girl is still doing well. She seriously chowed down at each of her feedings yesterday and overnight...there's supposed to be a three week growth spurt, so maybe she's ramping up my supply in anticipation of that. We're still pretty much on a consistent 2 hour schedule, although there certainly is a little variation in there. Actually, it seems like she always has one 3 hour stretch overnight. I decided that trying to spread out her feedings at this age just isn't fair, but I think when she is 4 weeks old we'll start working on that if things haven't changed. I'm feeling ok in terms of sleep deprivation (it's become very clear to me that I have to take a long nap in the afternoon), so I'm not feeling any desperation to shift her life just yet.

 

We had another unplanned bath yesterday after a serious spit up incident. I've finally figured it out - if she gets hiccups after eating, she can't be laid down. Instead we put her into her swing (so that she's more upright) until the hiccups subside. She has hiccups multiple times everyday (it's hysterical), but they generally just show up from out of nowhere and aren't associated with having eaten. Anyway, hopefully my new strategy to minimize spit up will continue to work. Neither of us mind unplanned baths, but they do take a little while and can definitely throw off a day's schedule. Luckily she spit up long before we needed to leave to meet Diana yesterday, so it all worked out ok.

 

OK, time to go feed the little munchkin! I'll post pictures later on...

Kate had an appointment at the pediatrician's this morning, and the doctor proclaimed her to be 'perfect.'  Gotta love that.

 

It's kind of funny that I was giving you all vitals updates about her while she was still in utero, and now I get to give you actual info about her as her own being. There are still days when I can't believe that she came 11 days early!! Anyway, she's apparently a good little eater. She weighed in at 8lb 1.5oz - 15 1/2 oz more than she was 10 days ago! Not too shabby, huh? I knew she was porking up...I've taken a new approach to how I feed her, and I was a little worried about it but the doc said that it's totally fine. Without going into great detail and potentially grossing out the men out there, I'll just say that I've shortened the amount of time she gets to eat from each side so that she eats from both sides at every feeding. I don't really think it makes much of a difference to her, but it's a huge difference for my comfort. And I guess she's getting plenty of food. Oh, and the new method really shortens up the whole feeding routine because she doesn't take her breaks.

 

Last night was good - between the nice nap I got yesterday and her sleeping 2 1/2 to 3 hours between feedings all night, Jay and I felt pretty rested this morning. The doctor appt was at 9:20, and that was a tad early for the three of us - it was a little frantic getting out of here, but we were on time. After the appointment I sat in the back of the minivan and fed her, and then we went to Denny's for a yummy breakfast. Jay just left to go pick up the dresser - woo-ho!! When the glider comes in we'll pick that up, too - so much for the one charge delivery of all three pieces and the $10 set up. Whatever, it's nice to save the money. I guess I'll spend some time this afternoon loading up her dresser with all of her teeny clothes - what fun.

 

I don't know if I mentioned it, but Jay is using his vacation time to take off Mondays for the rest of 2006. It's nice to know that we always have a three day weekend with him, and I think he's happy to know that he'll have more time with Kate for the time being. He's loving being a daddy so far, and I know that it's just going to get better for him as she gets older and a tad less dependent on me. It's so cute to see her snuggle with him. I just love our little family.

Kate generally eats on a 2 hour schedule, but occasionally will go for 3 hours between feedings. It happened overnight the other night - instead of eating at 12, 2, 4, and 6 she ate at 12, 3, and 6. That's a huge difference, and it was noticeable when I got out of bed in the morning. This afternoon I fed her and then putzed around for an hour before laying down to take a nap with the kiddo. I figured I'd get an hour - not what I'd intended, but good enough. She slept for another two hours which meant that mommy also got a 2 hour break - man, I felt great when I got up from that nap, and I'm feeling far better now than I normally do at this time. At the other extreme of the hour difference, for some reason it seems that most evenings she goes to a one hour schedule for about three hours. As much as I have tried to dissuade her from this, she really seems to be hungry every hour to hour and a half and eats about half of what her normal feeding is. I don't know what it's about, and frankly it's kind of a pain. Luckily she reverts to the two hour plan overnight.

 

After her 5:30 feeding tonight she was very alert, so I put her in the swing (but didn't turn it on) just so that she'd have something different to look at. I hung her one toy with black and white patterns on it from the mobile on top of the swing, and she was just enthralled. So cute! She stared at it and even reached out and hit it a bunch of times. She was so cute just sitting there taking it all in. It's amazing how different she seems to me after just two weeks. She's outgrowing her smallest clothes, and her face has really plumped up. We've reached an understanding about her need to be burped and what the best method is for that, and now today she started reaching for things. In addition to the toy she grabbed my hair a few times earlier while she was eating. Her alert times are definitely more regular and more alert...it's going to be so fun to watch her figure things out and learn new skills. She is, of course, as darling as ever.

 

I took Kate over to meet my soccer team this morning - we got there right before the game ended and hung out with the ladies for a little bit. They were all so happy to see her, and of course had lots of comments about her hair. Everyone comments about her hair! On Friday I took her in her pink stroller over to Noah's Bagels so that I could have something different for lunch, and a number of women talked to me about her. They all talked about her hair, too. I feel like I should make a sign to hang from the stroller: Yes, I have a lot of hair. Please don't point out the obvious to my mommy.  I know that it's unusual and worth commenting on, but really people, do you think that I haven't noticed that she has a lot of hair?? Ay.

 

OK, time for me to get ready for bed...I promise to try to be more active in my blogging!

 

Oh, and fyi - I was laughing the entire time the other day when Kate just keep making messes. She's two weeks old - what else can you do but laugh?

Little did I know that my little squirt was going to make me work today...I decided that I should just go to the hospital and leave the house unlocked, so after Kate had eaten this morning I got her changed and dressed, and then put her down for a minute in the co-sleeper while I threw on a shirt and some makeup. As I'm putting on my mascara I hear this series of odd noises - I turn around, and the kid has spit up all over herself. Her onesie was soaked, and because she was laying on her back her neck and hair (the back of her head) were also soaked. I had been planning a bath for the afternoon, but she rearranged the day with this one simple action. (Oh, and fyi, she never spits up.)

 

So, then we had a bath. Afterward I was lotioning her up and decided that it might be good for her cute little bottom to have a little air. So, I took the naked baby (wrapped up in a towel) out into the living room. Not thirty seconds later...she poops! Just a little, and luckily I got her off of my body immediately so I was undirtied. So, back to the bedroom to get her diapered and dressed...so now I have a baby with a t-shirt on, and as I'm about to slide a diaper under her cute tushy, the poop comes back. But this time, in full force. I didn't know that poop could be of the projectile nature! My goodness, what a mess. She's already spit up all over one outfit, and now the flying poop has dirtied a second outfit that's folded and waiting to get put on her. What a freaking mess! I eventually managed to get her dressed in clean clothes and all of the poop casualties gathered and into a bucket to soak.

 

After the next feeding I decided to head to the hospital. Man, did that suck. The stupid technician poked her heel and then is squeezing the hell out of it, trying to get enough blood for the test. Poor Kate is just screaming her little head off the entire time. She had to get a second prick, and then the bleeding wouldn't stop. Jeez louise. The poor little thing was just beside herself. I carried her out of that lab and we found somewhere to sit and get ourselves together before heading home.

 

So, it turned out to be quite a day. I guess she must have known that this was the first day mommy was going to have to be on her own - and she decided to make me work for my pay.

I can't find my keys. What a pain! I'm sure that they're locked in the basement, but of course today is Jay's first full day back at work so I can't get into the basement to retrieve them (we have an exterior entrance to our basement). I went out with Kate yesterday, and I got home just fine and didn't go anywhere after that, so they're definitely here somewhere. We did a load of diapers last night, and I'm thinking that my keys were used to get into the basement and then put down on the shelf by the washer. We always leave the basement unlocked while laundry is actively being done, but when I gathered all of the diapers last night I locked it behind me. So, here I sit, keyless. I have the valet key to the minivan, so Kate and I could go out still, but I won't be able to lock up the house behind us. Hmm...The problem is that (not only do I have laundry to run) I was going to take Kate to the hospital for her follow up PKU blood test today. It needs to be done either today or tomorrow, and I'd like to just get it over with...maybe we'll venture out. We'd only be gone ~40 minutes, I think. When my mom was in town in August we were commenting that it would make more sense for Jay and I to have the basement key on a separate key chain that stays in the kitchen since the basement key isn't exactly useful when we're out and about. Of course I never took care of it...

 

So, yesterday Kate and I went to Fred Meyer. There were a few essential food items that we needed, but mostly I wanted to look at clothes. FM is not a great place to buy clothes (not exactly stylish that is), but they're cheap and I needed to find something that fits me. Maternity clothes are huge on me, but my pre-pregnancy clothes are a bit snug. (I am able to get my loosest pair of jeans on and buttoned, however!) My lower half is definitely on its way to fitting into all of my old pants, but my torso just isn't there. Between my loose stomach and my expanded chest, the shirts that I wore last winter - which were pushing the line of being too small then - simply don't work. I managed to find a great pair of jeans that fit a bit better than my old ones (and very much on sale) and a cute enough knit shirt. Kate slept the whole time, so that made things easy. I'd like to really go out this weekend and see if I can find some tops, but with her on a 2 hour schedule it's a little tricky. I can always feed her in a fitting room, though, right? (Although not at Victoria's Secret!) Anyway, it's nice to have my body almost back to normal (I can't tell you how luxurious it is to just be able to bend over!), but I really don't have clothes to fit this new 'normal.'

 

It rained all day yesterday and looks like that's going to repeat today. I need to get a rain cover for the stroller so that Kate and I can still go on walks...

Things continue to go well here. Last night was a bit of a pain - Kate decided to just snack at each of her feedings. Of course the problem with snacking is that it doesn't really satisfy hunger, so that means you eat more often. For Kate that meant that she ate every 90 minutes all night long. Ugh. She has had the pattern of taking long breaks during her feedings, so last night I was doing everything I could to try to get her to eat more. It was hopeless. Undressing, changing her diaper, etc. all just would wake her up for just a moment, then she'd be out again. Meanwhile, I'd be up for 30 minutes with all of my efforts to get her to eat for longer than 3 minutes. So, I have a new plan for tonight: I'm not going to feed her right away. I'm going to be make sure she's really awake and aware of how hungry she really is before she gets to have any food. She's eaten really well all day today, so I'm hoping that we can continue that into the night and get a little more sleep than last night. I'm going to be unwilling to let the little darling get completely worked up while she waits for food, but maybe we can find a middle ground where she's a little antsy but not totally panicked. Wish me luck.

 

I got the crib bedding ironed and into the crib today - it's so cute! The dresser came in yesterday, and we're waiting to see if the glider comes in this week as well. It wouldn't be a big deal for us to go pick up the glider when it comes in, but it would be nice if we could have both pieces delivered at once instead. I ordered letters for the wall and have the paint that I need to get those ready. Before Kate was born I managed to get quilt ready to be hung on the wall. The nursery is going to be very cute - it's already looking better just by having a crib in there.

 

Kate and I went for a walk yesterday and then again today. The weather was gorgeous today, and I'm hoping that it continues. I'd really like to spend some time doing some yardwork. Jay's going back to work on Thursday, so maybe that's something to do at the end of the week. Our baby monitor arrived today, so I'll be able to be outside now while Kate sleeps. Jay went out of his way to find a monitor that has an extra feature: two receivers that can work as walkie-talkies. With his office being upstairs he was concerned that it'd be hard for me to get his attention if I needed him, so he found a monitor online that would handle the problem. So, we have two parent monitors that can be used as walkie-talkies, and the baby monitor can also be used as a walkie-talkie with the parent receivers. Pretty cool, I have to admit. It was only $15 more than the monitor that we got as a gift, too. Anyway, now I can function a little easier on my own when Jay goes back to work.

 

OK, enough randomness for now! The munchkin is still too cute for words.

Time ceases to be normal when there's a baby around...Part of it is that we're in bed until 8 or 9 everyday, so starting the day that late has its own impact. Mostly, though, it's this two hour feeding schedule - two hours isn't very long, particularly if you remember that it's two hours between the start of the feedings, so it's really only an hour and a half between the end of the first feeding and the start of the next one. I was feeling pretty good about the two hour thing - it's way better than an hour! - but I'm starting to think that maybe I should try to stretch Kate's hunger just a little bit longer everyday so that we can get to a three hour spacing. That would be so much better. She is pretty amenable to the pacifier when she's hungry, so maybe if I can get her to add 10 or 15 minutes of patience between each feeding we could be on a new schedule by the end of the week. Or maybe I'll just make my baby happy and feed her when she wants to eat.

 

We had a good weekend. Friday we went to see the pediatrician, and she had a great little exam. She'd put on 3 oz since the hospital check on Wednesday! On Friday she was back to 7lb 2oz, so hopefully by next Monday's pediatrician appt she'll be back to her birth weight. What a good little eater. The nurse did a much more rigorous length measurement at the office on Friday, and she came out at 19 1/2 inches, and we're thinking that's probably a more accurate assessment of her length. It makes more sense, anyway, because 18 1/2 inches is pretty short, and she wasn't a lightweight. Those factors would lead you to expect some chub on the kiddo, but she's really pretty lean (with the exception of her meaty little cheeks, that is ). So, at 19 1/2 inches her weight makes more sense. Anyway, the appt on Friday was good.

 

After the doctor visit I fed Kate in the back of the minivan, and then the three of us took a little trip. We went to USA Baby to pick up the crib and then to Babies r Us to get a few things and return our monitor. She slept the entire time (the car and the stores), and all told we were out for a little over 4 hours. I fed her when we got home, and then the three of us went for a walk in the neighborhood. We were gone almost an hour and I was dragging by the time we got back home. I guess it was a little ambitious - we went to the bank, and that walk normally takes me ~40 minutes. I didn't figure in the fact that I move a little slower these days.

 

Saturday went by pretty uneventfully. I talked to Claire for a while and then Jay and I did a little cleaning/straightening around the house. Mike and Melinda came over to watch the Mets game and eat pizza, and it was great to have company. Of course they showed up with a bunch of junk food and then left it all for us...just what we need, right?  Anyway, it was great to spend some time with them, and they both held Kate for a long time. Very cute.

 

Yesterday just slipped away. Carmen came over in the morning for a short visit - she also came bearing sweets (as well as dinner). Kate and I took a (much needed) nap in the early afternoon. Jay and I put the crib together (so cute! pictures to come), and I did some editing (I got an assignment last week that was due today). So, that was pretty much it. I had intended to call some people, but it just didn't happen. Like I said, time has ceased to be normal.

 

Kate is still a pretty easy baby (I know, I'm probably jinxing myself!). She doesn't fuss very much and really never out and out cries. She's pretty easy to soothe, although yesterday did require a little more cuddling than normal. When we laid down for our nap she just wouldn't fall asleep in the co-sleeper, and I really wanted to sleep. She quieted when I picked her up, so I slept propped up on pillows with her in the crook of my arm - surprisingly I didn't get a kink in my neck and I rested very well. Then again last night, she wouldn't fall asleep in her bed. I fed her at 10:30, and at 12:30 I just gave up on the whole thing - she was too awake to have any chance of falling asleep, so we came out into the living room to eat and she slept on my chest until 3. Again, surprisingly decent sleep for me and the babe. After that she was fine in the co-sleeper. I guess she just wanted a little attention, the twit.  It was funny because both times she fell right asleep - she was definitely tired, but just didn't want to be alone.

 

OK, the munchkin is stirring - it's time for lunch.

We're really settling into life here with Kate. We left the hospital Monday afternoon and had a nice afternoon at home. That night, however, was a bit interesting...we were up most of the night. Between the feedings and the nearly constant diaper changes we didn't get much sleep at all. Things have dramatically improved since then. For one, Kate's tolerance of having her diaper changed has really increased so that she doesn't require a half hour to calm down after each change. It also seems that her tolerance to having a wet diaper has gone up so that she doesn't start screaming the second she pees. What a twit. Anyway, one bad night out of three isn't bad at all. Last night was the best yet - she ate on a 2 hour schedule all day yesterday and then overnight, and in nine hours we got seven hours of sleep! The two hour feedings have continued all day today, so I'm crossing my fingers that tonight goes equally well.

 

I'm feeling surprisingly well. My body was pretty sore on Monday - I'm talking about all over muscle soreness here. It actually wasn't too bad, and it didn't last too long. My recovery is going really smoothly so far, and my hormones are even not too bad. I'm a little more prone to crying than normal (that's saying a lot about me, who cries at the drop of a hat!), but other than that I think I'm on a pretty even keel.

 

Kate is doing great. She's a good little eater and she is simply adorable. She's pretty mellow and makes the cutest little noises and faces. We just can't help but smile when we look at her, even when she's upset because she's just so darn cute! She has the most ridiculously full head of hair, and I love that. Everyone seems to think she looks like Jay, but Jay and I can't really tell who she looks like at this point. We've been trying to take a lot of pictures of her, but I just know that one day I'll be sad that we don't have more pictures of her.

 

Kate and I took a trip out to the store today for a couple of things, and I found a baby book for her. I'm excited to get some things recorded now, and I'm really going to try hard to keep it up to date with all of her firsts, etc. She slept the entire time that we were out, and it was nice for me to get out of the house and run a couple of errands.

 

OK, so I'm feeling like this was random, but I wrote this while watching Grey's Anatomy, so please forgive my rambling. I've added a few pictures for your enjoyment...

OK, I know you already know that if you've been paying any attention at all, but I'm her mom, so I get to make the announcement, too!

 

I won't go into all the details in one post, but I will tell the story, briefly...Saturday morning (at 38.5 weeks) I woke up feeling really strange. My back was really hurting, and my body just seemed off - I assumed that she had finally dropped (ha!). About an hour or so after I woke up I started wondering if maybe I was in labor...things just seemed too strange, and I started to have what might be contractions. Around 10am I figured that I must be in labor, and at 11:00 we started timing the contractions. After an hour of that I paged my doctor and told him what was going on. He reminded me of when I should head to the hospital, and we kept on timing. My back labor was pretty bad because it was consistent pain that didn't ease up after a contraction - little did I expect that that was just how it was going to be for the rest of the day! A little after 3pm we headed to the hospital, and when I was first checked I got the surprise announcement of: you're 5cm. Holy crap, I was actually going to have a baby!

 

Labor is no fun, and mine was no exception. It progressed relatively quickly, and I was given the go-ahead to start pushing at 8:40pm. An hour an a half later, Kate was born. Things were a little hairy during my pushing phase. During a contraction oxygen flow to the placenta drops so the baby's heartrate drops, but once the contraction is over the heartrate should recover very quickly. For Kate that wasn't the case everytime - for multiple consecutive contractions her pulse would stay low between contractions, and the doc would start to get very concerned. Then, inevitably, she'd do great for one or two contractions and he'd be reassured that things were ok. After watching this continue for a long time he finally said, we need to help her get out of there a little faster. He used the vacuum extractor to guide her out - it's basically a suction cup that was attached to the top of her skull. While I pushed during a contraction, he'd direct her head around my bones. I have to say that vacuum thing was one of the most painful parts of the delivery although I am so glad that I had a competent doctor there to make the right decision...

 

Once her head was delivered everyone (except me) realized there was another problem - she had passed her meconium into the amniotic fluid and had breathed it in. After she was delivered she was whisked away to be worked on - the stress from her varying pulse and the meconium issue were pretty bad. The first view I had of our darling daughter was a very blue, quiet baby...not something any parent wants to see. A team of nurses worked on her for about a half hour - giving her oxygen through a mask (she pinked up immediately much to everyone's relief) and doing lots of suctioning. It took quite a long time for her to make any noise - mostly little whimpers - but after the half hour under the warm lights and with some extra TLC she was doing well and I finally got to hold her. She's the picture of health, but she had a pretty rough start into the world.

 

So, that's the labor and delivery story in a nutshell. I'll have more to say later about other things, but now I have to go shower for our appt at the hospital in an hour and a half...Enjoy the pictures (there are plenty more to come)!  We're loving life as parents so far...

First, let me just say that we told Kate that today could not be the day, and she obliged.  Jay had to go down to the Bay Area for meetings all day and while he could have been home ~4hr after I called to tell him to get here, that would have been a pain. Instead he's on his way home now as planned - I'll pick him up at 10:30. So I told her that now she's free to come whenever. I finished up the laundry yesterday, and that was so much fun.

 

So I took Jay to the airport this morning at 5:45, but that was after being awake for about 2 hours overnight. I came home from the airport and just collapsed back in bed - I didn't get up until 9. I headed out of the house around 10:20 to go see Allison and the girls, and I got back to the house at 4:30 - we had such a great visit! The twins are 8 weeks old now and just as cute as can be. Seeing them in all their sweetness definitely put me in the mood for babies (as if I wasn't already in the mood!). Talking with Allison about new mom-hood was so much fun. We're both looking forward to seeing the three girls together. I can't wait to meet Kate!!

 

After I ran home to change I went to meet our pediatrician. It was a short little visit, but she seems very nice. I went to yoga and then came home for good - finally! Kate is a bundle of energy right now; I don't really know why, but it's kind of funny since she's been pretty quiet on a regular basis for quite some time now. Maybe she's forcing herself down farther into my pelvis - I wouldn't complain about that!

OK, can you all believe that I'm only two weeks away from my due date??? Totally insane - and so exciting.

 

I had yet another doctor appointment this morning, and it went fine. I lost 1 1/2 pounds in the last week! I've read in a few places that after 36 weeks you may stop gaining weight as amniotic fluid starts to be reabsorbed, and the nurse said that they attribute 1-2 lb weight loss to water weight - which makes sense if you remember that I was totally swollen last week during our little heat wave. So maybe I won't break 170 after all...My bp was 130/72, Kate's heart is strong in the 140s, and my cervix is softening but not opening up yet. The doc was checking her position and got to be pretty forceful and a little quiet, and then he said, I'm going to get my ultrasound. Apparently her head is far enough down in my pelvis that he couldn't really feel it and wasn't sure if her butt was her head or her butt. The ultrasound verified what I knew - there was NO WAY she had flipped over without me knowing it, and she's still head down. Her butt is simply hard as a rock and just below the surface of my skin; as he said, she has buns of steel.  I can't wait to tell her that when she's older. *lol*

 

I did find out that I tested positive for group B strep last week, so that's a bummer. It means that I need to have an antibiotic administered at least 4 hours but fewer than 8 hours before the delivery. That gives time for the drug to make its way across the placenta so that Kate doesn't pick up the bug during her travels. What a pain! That's the only dose she'll need. In most babies group B strep causes only very minor infection-like symptoms, but in 1:1000 babies septic shock can occur, and it can be fatal. So, 30-40% of women have the bug at the end of their pregnancy, and I'm one of them - yippee for me.

 

I'm loving this life without work thing! I went into the lab yesterday to help out Laurie, and now I'm done, done, done! I've got the first load of Kate's clothes in the dryer right now, and I can't wait to fold them all up...they're so cute and tiny!!!

Well, I did manage to finish up in lab on Friday, so that was exciting. I have to go back either tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon for ~2 hours to help Laurie with an experimental technique she's not completely comfortable with, but that's no big deal. I edited Leo's grant over the weekend, and I think he sent it out this morning, so I think I'm just about done. There are a few things to do to handle the reviews of the paper we submitted in August, but those are small. There's a little bit of downtime during the experiment I'll do with Laurie, so I'll probably finish up the manuscript stuff then.

 

So, here I am, a free woman! We had a really productive weekend, but I was totally pooped by the time I went to bed last night. Saturday was a little crazy in terms of how many things were happening back to back and all of the stuff we needed to buy, so Friday night I woke up a bunch of times and spent a lot of time awake. Because I was tired I thought I'd sleep better Saturday night, but nope. I woke up at 5:30 yesterday morning and gave up trying to sleep at 6:15. Again, I had a lot of things I wanted to do yesterday, but none of them had to happen yesterday, so I don't know what my problem was. Oh well. Last night I was totally pooped and told myself that I was going to sleep as late as possible today. Boy, did I ever! I climbed out of bed at 9:30 after sleeping almost constantly since 10:30 last night.  I definitely feel better today! I really do hate starting my day so late, though - it's so strange to have it be mid-morning and not have showered or anything.

 

I made a master to-do list of all the things I want to do before Kate is born. It's pretty thorough, but I'm sure I'll continually add stuff to it over the next couple of days. I spent most of my morning on the phone calling various places about the more urgent matters, and I have a little list of things that I really need to do this afternoon. I don't think I've mentioned it, but I'm doing some scientific editing to make some extra money. I've edited 4 papers now (I just finished one that's due tomorrow), and it's really pretty cool. I get paid $5/page (1 page =270 words), and while that sounds really awful, it's not. I've made ~$250 over those 4 papers and it's taken me a grand total of ~5 1/2 hours to make that money. And, I enjoy editing when it's just grammar and word usage - I don't have to make any scientific comments. It's a great little side thing to have going on while I'm home for the next 6 months, and we're hoping to just put all of the income into savings.

 

Anyway, my list of things to do today is getting shorter and shorter. Like I said, today is kind of the 'urgent matters' day. I'll start in on the bigger things tomorrow, I guess. It's so strange to just be home and not have any guilt about not being at work...Strange and FANTASTIC!!

We are really feeling ready now. We got an extremely generous set of gifts from some friends this week, so that was a lot of fun but also a load off our minds to have a bunch of "stuff" suddenly. We have a pack n play set up in the living room, the swing is in the corner, the nursery is loaded down with gifts and purchases, and the attic....totally loaded up with things. Jay and I went to babies r us today to get the remaining needed items and to return and exchange things from the shower. Those credits covered just about half of the cost of the things we bought, so we were feeling pretty good about it. It took a while longer than I had anticipated to go through the store and pick out the things that we wanted out of all the options available, but it was fun. We now have a lot of stuff! After we ate dinner we rearranged the bedroom, and that ended up being a very small task in the end. We've decided to use our dresser as the changing table until Kate's dresser arrives, so that's now all cleared of our (mine, really) crap and the changing pad etc. is in place. So cute! We also got the co-sleeper set up, although we didn't actually connect it to the bed yet. That isn't very hard to do, so I figure we'll take care of it when I'm in early labor. Our bedroom looks like we're ready to have an infant in there.

 

We went on our hospital tour this morning. It was great to see it again - the details you care about at full term differ just slightly from those you care about at 8 weeks (when we initially went on a tour). *lol* We both really like the facility, and it's so close to home - 4 minutes! It doesn't get better than that. So now we have the protocol for the hospital down pat. Between the stuff at home, that knowledge, and our many completed classes (we had CPR on Wednesday evening) - we're definitely feeling pretty ready. The only really urgent thing left is to get the remaining supply of diapers in place. I have to wait for the credits from some returns to be processed, and then I'll be buying up the remainder of what we need (hopefully on Tuesday, if things go according to plan). So, as I said, bring her on! I was just telling her that we are ready at any time now, so it's up to her to decide when to join the party.