Happy 3 Months Aubrey!

Happy 3 Months Aubrey!

Aubrey is now 3 months old! She is growing and getting so big! I was just looking back on her newborn photos the other day and she has changed so much!

She loves to talk! Her new thing is screaming with excitement. She's discovered her feet so she's always playing with them. She has also mastered grabbing toys and loves to put them in her mouth (also her hands!) We are still working on her rolling over, Her personality is really starting to show. We've learned that she is a very adaptable baby that craves a schedule. She enjoys people and new surroundings but can be very sensitive.

Aubrey has been such a trooper with seeing doctors since she's been born. Early on we discovered she has moderate laryngomalacia and has been seeing a specialist for that. Laryngomalacia is a fairly common condition in infants where the cartilage surrounding the larynx is floppy, which results in noisy breathing. We noticed it in the hospital but the nurses attributed it to her still having amniotic fluid in her lungs from the birth. But when we got home it got worse and she started having a hard time eating. She often choked and made loud "seal like" sounds. Turns out she was having a hard time coordinating breathing and swallowing. She should grow out of it by the time she is one, we just need to monitor her closely when she eats. Now we have been seeing the pediatrician 'cause poor baby girl developed pretty bad reflux. Since she's been on the meds though she's eating again and back to her normal, happy self!

She now weighs 13lbs 12oz. We just started using size 2 diapers (I love Huggies!) and she can fit in most of her 6 month clothes.

Naps are still a mess. I can get her to nap occasionally in her bassinet but she will only nap 20 minutes. In my arms she will nap 1-2 hours. At night she is still a good sleeper, her first stretch is usually 8:00-5:00 or 6:00. After the holidays I plan on sleep training her and moving her to her own room and crib. No more sleeping in Mommy and Daddy's room! It is going to be a huge transition for all of us. My goal is to finally get her to sleep in her crib for ALL naps and maybe even fall asleep all by herself!

Hanging out in her bassinet after waking up.

She LOVES reading books. She gets so excited, yelling with excitement and hitting the book!

Happy 2 Months Aubrey!

Happy 2 Months Aubrey!

Aubrey is doing great! At her two month check up she weighed 11.7 lbs and is 22 1/2 inches long. Both are are around the 50-60th percentile. Developmentally she is on target and the Doctor commented that she acts like a 4 month old. (Mostly because she is so alert and active) She smiles, coos, laughs (though her *real* laugh we hear mostly while she sleeps), follows objects at a greater distance, pushes with her legs/feet, and has even begun reaching for objects! This month we should start seeing her roll from her tummy to back. She got her two month shots (three in the leg and one oral) and she was not a happy camper that night! It took her a couple of days to be back to her normal self.

Angry Aubrey! 

Aubrey is now sleeping longer at night. Her first stretch of sleep is usually 9:00-4:00ish and then she'll go back to sleep untill 7:30. Of course we have our nights where she wants to be up at 2ish, but I'm still at the point where I am totally okay with that! She is still wanting to be held for naps during the day, and I'm hoping she starts to grow out of this soon. (suggestions welcome!) A total life saver has been a last minute purchase I made late in my pregnancy: the Baby K'Tan. At first she hated it but after a few attempts she loves it. I put her in it and clean a little bit around the house as she falls asleep. I now have some sanity back as I'm not always stuck on the sofa as she sleeps on my chest. Hooray!

I noticed I have two pictures of her in her Bouncer but she really loves it!

Sleepy Aubrey- she has always hated being swaddled but I HAVE to swaddle her legs otherwise she kicks so much she wakes her self up. She moves a lot during sleep. I always find she has wriggled her way to the bottom the of bassinet. 

She had her first two big outings this past week. Saturday we went to a friends BBQ and Sunday she got to go shopping with Mommy and Daddy. She was amazing!  We were at the furniture store for quite a bit and she loved looking around at all of the people and lights. I was very nervous about having her out for so long (what first time Mom isn't the first time?!) but I'm glad I overcame my fears!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and we will be having a lot of Kesar's family come down and meet Aubrey for the first time. We are SO excited! Then the following month we are making the 12 hour trip by car up north for Christmas. I am already very nervous about the drive with a four month old! She falls asleep in the car seat pretty easily but I can't imagine her being in there for 12 hours! :(

<3 Till next time!

Happy 1 Month!

Happy 1 Month Aubrey! 

I cannot believe one month has passed already! Aubrey is doing great and is growing wonderfully. At her doctors appointment this month she weighed 9 lb 6 oz (84th percentile) and 21.5 inches (91st percentile). I do not know where she gets her length from! She is continuing to lift her head and look around and loves to face the world to explore.

She has begun "coo" and will smile when spoken and smiled to. I don't know if I mentioned this in the two month post but she is a major wiggle worm and always moving! She defiantly isn't the typical newborn that falls asleep randomly and is mellow. She never stops and is always on the go (as much as she can be of course!) This month she had her first bath and loved it! She just hung out in the bathtub while she was washed. I am so happy we don't have to rush through bath time!

She sleeps well at night, at least I think so for a newborn! Her first stretch of sleep usually lasts 8:30-1:30 and then she sleeps in two-three hour intervals. My body has gotten used to the new sleep schedule so I feel pretty good! During the day she enjoys 30-45 minute cat naps with one or two "big naps" of 2 hours.  She also enjoys snacking through out the day- enjoying 2-3 oz every 1-2 hours. I'm hoping this month we can get her to enjoy bigger meals less often :)

Till next time! <3

2 weeks old

Aubrey is 2 weeks old (as of 2 days ago)! It's amazing how fast time goes. My parents and brother left so for the first time since her birth Kesar and I are alone as Mommy and Daddy. It was great having the extra help! Tomorrow Kesar goes back to work so I'll officially experience the SAHM thing tomorrow.

Aubrey is such a good baby. She is already very alert and loves to look around. She would rather explore her surroundings then sleep sometimes. :) Her head control is pretty amazing, she is already lifting it up and moving it side to side while on her tummy. She is a wriggle worm! This doesn't surprise me because she was a wiggle worm inside my belly too. Her first doctor appt was great. She was born 8lb 6oz but was down to 7lb 12 oz when we left the hospital. She eats nonstop (I'm nursing) and it only took her 2 days to get back up to her birth weight! She goes again next week and I'm so anxious to see how much she weighs now. Newborn clothes are too snug so she is in 3 month clothes and just about size 1 diapers.

She obviously looks a lot like Kesar, though I think she has my chin, hands, feet and so far... skin. Her eyes were really dark when she was first born but are beginning to become a lighter brown, as well as her hair. I don't think any of it has fallen out so far, as a lot of times it does, so I'm excited to see her hair continue to grow!

Aubrey and Grammy, she loves being on her tummy!

So far she loves the bouncer! She loves the vibration and looking at the hanging bugs. She turns her head side to side as she watches them bounce around. This is also the only way we can get to her sleep during the day. She loves being held so we are working on getting her to STAY asleep when we put her down. Practice and persistence!!

'Till next time! <3

The Birth Story

Aubrey is here! It is so funny because 2 hours after I wrote the last blog I starting feeling the signs that labor was near. Aubrey Elizabeth was born at 8:29am on Saturday August 18, 2012: her estimated due date. Only something like 10% of babies are actually born on their due date. Turns out Miss Aubrey is punctual after all!

Here is my Birth Story:

Friday at around 3:30pm I started feeling lower back pain and constant menstrual cramps. Both were bare able but I thought it was weird because I haven't had these pains through out my entire pregnancy. I also new in the back of my mind that these were some signs that labor was near. Since this was my first pregnancy I really had no idea what contractions or labor would feel like. My entire third trimester I would constantly google "what does a contraction feel like" because I really had no idea and was afraid I wouldn't know. Every thing I read said, "trust me, you will know!" (Turns out they were right!)

So the next couple hours I had constant menstural like cramps and lower back pain. I did things normally like eat dinner and the laundry. In the back of my mind I thought that this might be it. At around 10:00 the contractions started. The menstural cramp feeling that I was feeling intensified immensely and then would just disappear (the back pain was constant). When I realized the pain came and went I immediately started to time them to see if they were true contractions. They were lasting 50 seconds long and were 7 minutes apart. This went on for awhile, untill around 11:30 the contractions were now 5 minutes apart. Now I knew I was in early labor. Kesar helped me time them because at this point they really started to hurt and I could no longer speak through them. By 12:30am we called the doctor and were told to go to the hospital to get checked out.

We got there at 1:00am and I was only 1 cm dilated!! Fustrated that I was in this much pain and still so early, we walked the halls of the hospital for an hour. They defiantly intensified so I knew I had made progress. After an hour I was now 3 cm dilated and was admitted.

By this point my back hurt so bad and the contractions were intense. I was nauseous and afraid that since this was my first birth I would be in labor and feel this pain for hours and hours. (It's not uncommon for many women to labor for over 24 hours with their first baby). I decided to get an epidural. The epidural was no problem, didn't hurt at all.

Since being admitted and laying down my contractions slowed so my doctor broke my water and started me on Pitocin. This is when we realized the epidural was not doing its job. The right side of my body was almost 100% numb but I could still feel the left side. I was still feeling the contractions with intensity and started getting nauseous again. They started being worried about why the epidural wasn't working and realized it was probably the location.  They asked me if I wanted them to redo it and I said no. Even though I was in pain and the actual epidural didn't hurt, I didn't want to be stuck again in my spine. So I said no and went on to deal with the pains.

5:30am rolled around and I was 5 cm dilated. Aubrey's heartrate started to drop after contractions so the nurses were really monitoring me.  The had me switch positions a lot to see if that would help but finally put me on oxygen. The oxygen definatly helped and Aubrey's heart rate began to remain more stable. At almost 8:00am I began to feel incredibly hot and started to sweat A LOT. I didn't know it at the time but I was going through the "transition phase"... FAST. I told the nurse how I was feeling and she checked my cervix and saw I was 10cm dilated. It was time to push.

The pushing stage happened really fast. So fast in fact that I was instructed not to push for awhile in order to wait for the doctor to arrive. Even not pushing Aubrey was making her way out on her own. It only took 10-15 minutes of pushing and Aubrey was out. This is the part of the labor I was most terrified about, but really it was not that bad. However, a lot of first time labors can take forever and women can spend hours pushing. I was extremely lucky that Aubrey was anxious to get out.

Aubrey was born a healthy 8 lb 6 oz girl and 20 1/4 inches long. She swallowed a lot of fluid coming out of the birth canal so she was pretty swollen the first day and had a lot of fluid in her stomach.

I am so blessed and so happy she is finally here!

Here are some pictures of her during her first three days:

40 Weeks

We are now 40 weeks pregnant and I wish I had news! Well, I have a little.

She is head down and fully engaged but other than that my 9 month pregnant body is showing no signs that she wants to come any time soon. She defiantly takes after her Daddy on liking to be fashionably late. :) We scheduled an induction date of August 27th. I wanted it a little bit sooner but the doctor is refusing. He wants to wait until I'm 41 weeks because if you do it too soon when your body isn't ready it makes labor a lot longer, painful and increases the risk of a C-Section.

Since I am going past my due date, they wanted me to get an ultrasound today to make sure the baby is healthy and can withstand a longer stay in her cozy "home". If my fluid were low, or if she was too little or too big, they would induce me sooner. However, I am HAPPY to say she appears to be a completely healthy and CHUBBY baby girl (she's still a girl- I made sure they confirmed it again!) The ultrasound technician even made a comment on how big her belly is, and I made a comment to Kesar, "It must be all of those cookies I eat!" (I have really had a sweet tooth this third trimester) But really, her belly looked HUGE! It was even bigger than her head! She is weighing in at 8 lb 9 oz. With another week at most to go, she will gain another pound before she makes her entrance into this world: almost reaching the 10 lb mark. Sooo, let's just say I am ready to get her out ASAP.

Some more great news: My Mom flies in tomorrow for 2 weeks. This relieves a load of stress for when I go in labor. My crazy self has been more worried about who is going to take care of the dogs and less about the actual labor! So, this calms me :) The following week my Dad and Brother will be here so everything will be pretty much perfect as Aubrey makes her debut into this world!

My next post will be the Birth Story. Till next time! <3

39 Weeks

We are at the one week mark! There is only one week (ok, 8 days) until my due date. Of course I could still go late so this is just an estimate. But my fingers are crossed that she will come soon!

 I found this neat little survey on one of the pregnancy sites I frequently visit and thought it would be fun to fill out. It's the perfect time to look back and reflect on the past 9 months!

 How much have you gained this pregnancy?
 I've gained 38 lbs. It all came during the second trimester, so for awhile I felt like such a cow, but in the end I stayed pretty much near the recommend gain the doctors gave me of 35 lbs.

 Due date?
My first due date was August 18th, but by the last ultrasound it got switched to August 17th. The Docs said one day is not really a difference so to use which ever date I wanted!

 Gender?
A Girl!

 Name?
Aubrey

 Nursery Colors/theme?
No theme, purple/yellow/green color scheme

 Stretch marks?
 No

 Do you have braxton hicks?
 Yeah

 Did you get any medical issues?
 No, I have been incredibly lucky.

 Have you been checked for dilation/effaced?
I got checked today at 38 weeks 6 days, and I have not dilated but she is head down and ready to go. This is very disappointing but I realize that dilation can happen suddenly and quickly so I shouldn't be discouraged!

 How much does baby weigh?
I haven't had an ultrasound since 20 wks, so I really have no idea!

 Have you started nesting?
 It's hard to say because I have always been a cleaner. I am not the type of person that can sit still for very long.

 Latest craving?
 I'm ALWAYS craving chocolate!

 Bags packed? 
Yup! Since 37 weeks. Only the last minute stuff has to go in yet.

 If yes, are they in the car?
 No, I can grab and go!

 Car seat ready to go? 
 No, that's a grab and go thing too. Except I might install the base in hubby's car tomorrow. But that's easy.

 C-section or vaginally?
 I'm hoping I can give birth vaginally!

 Do you think it will come early or late?
 I have a feeling she will come around her due date.

 Biggest fear? 
Labor! Specifically the pushing part.

 What are you most excited for?
 Meeting her for the first time!

 Looking back, do you regret anything you did during this pregnancy?
No. The only thing that I did that might be regretful to SOME people is drinking caffeine. But I was told as long as its under 200mg/day its fine. I only drank about a cup or two of tea a day (2nd/3rd trimester) and I needed it!!

 Are you going to miss being pregnant?
I don't think so, but it hasn't been an awful experience by any means! 

Favorite memory of your pregnancy? 
 Feeling her move in my belly.

 Any sure signs labor is near yet (loss of plug etc)?
 Just increased Braxton Hicks!

A little non pregnancy news: My parents have had an offer on a house down here in Florida for FOREVER and it finally got approved! This is probably the best news we have heard since 9 months ago when we found out we were pregnant! That means that soon my parents will be joining us and Aubrey in Florida :)

37 Weeks. (FULL TERM!)

We made it!!!

I am officially 37 weeks and full term! Which means that if Aubrey were to come now her rate of survival is very high since all of her major organs are done forming and fully functional. From this point on she is just practicing breathing by inhaling amniotic fluid and is continuing to pack on the pounds.

She still is a wriggle worm and has hiccups all the time! Last week at the doctor they checked on the ultrasound to confirm that she is indeed head down. I got to see her big, round head on the machine. :) The heartburn and general uncomfortableness has increased, but other than that I'm good. I'm not working any more, which is nice. So now I am just relaxing and taking advantage of the freedom! Most days I walk every morning before it gets too hot and then I have been cleaning and organizing around the house.

Next week it starts getting exciting at the doctors office. They are going to start checking to see if I'm dilating. I'll be just about 38 weeks and I am hoping Aubrey comes sooner rather than later! The Doc said if I am a week late they schedule an induction, which I REALLY do not want. So I'm hoping she doesn't get stubbornness from her Mamma and comes out when she is supposed to!!

 'Till next time! <3

35 Weeks

I'm posting to continue my every 2 week pregnancy update post, even though not much has changed!


I am going to the doctor now once a week. Baby still looks good. I'm still measuring a week ahead but this doesn't mean much. Apparently it only means something when you are measuring 2 or more weeks ahead or behind. She is still really active and Kesar finally got to feel the difference in her moving. When we first started to feel her move it was more like bumps and kicks, now you can feel her feet (or whatever it is) moving across the top of my belly. Now it feels like an actual baby (or as Kesar calls it, an "alien"). We realized she moves A LOT when we are in the car and the radio is playing. Maybe she takes after her Daddy and has a love for music??


I'm still feeling pretty good. My last day of work is this week so I'm looking forward to relaxing the last 4 weeks at home with absolutely nothing to do. It is important to me to take a break between work and baby. I want a chance to be lazy and prepare for the big changes ahead.


One more thing I'd like to share... I have started drinking Red Rasberry Leaf Tea. It has properties that is supposed to help strengthen your uterus. For pregnant women this means it helps promote uterine contractions during childbirth and also helps to reduce the pain experienced during and after labor. (Stronger uterus, less pain!) It also helps your uterus go back to its normal size at a faster rate after birth if you continue to drink it. Tons of people swear by it and I figured it was worth a shot. Any thing to help! It's also insanely delicious! :) Till next time! 


(33 Days!)

Savings!

Since the beginning of my pregnancy there has always been one thing I have debated about getting: a swing. I have heard such great things about them, such as how much of a lifesaver they are. However, I also heard how a lot of babies HATE them. Swings aren't cheap. Some of the best ones are over $100 so you can't blame me if I had always been scared of the purchase, especially with so many more important things to buy. I always questioned if I was willing to make the $100/$150 gamble.

Sooo, I ventured to a local consignment shop and purchased a $150 swing for $45! The only thing wrong with the swing is that it's missing an AC adapter. I am so excited because now I have a great swing that works perfectly and I didn't spend a fortune! Now, if Aubrey hates the thing I won't be kicking myself for wasting a ton of money. I am so excited for my purchase and defiantly think some things are worth the savings!

Above is a picture of the swing and a picture of my 34 week belly. I just posted a picture a week and a half ago at 33 weeks, it's crazy how much I've grown so I had to share! I am going to work on a timeline of all of the belly pics I have and will make a post soon of my growing belly. Some people who see my belly swear I'm having twins, but I'm certain Aubrey is going to be a heavyweight, (fun for me!)