sleep, smiles, and squeals

Hello friends and family! Sorry to those who've been regularly visiting the blog in hopes of seeing Zoe updates -- turns out babies take up quite a bit of time :-) I started this post a week ago, lets see if I can finish it in one sitting...
Its hard to believe Zoe will be 3 months old in just a few days! Some fun and not-so-fun things about this age:- she goes to bed pretty well on her own and with 5ish minutes of fussing, falls asleep pretty easily! Around 10 weeks she was sleeping thru the night (8+ hours), but this past week or so she has insisted on waking up somewhere between 4-6am, but will usually wait to eat until 7 if I give her a pacifier.

- she is on a good schedule throughout the day which makes going out or getting things done so much easier. She eats every 3 hours and naps every 1.5-2 hours. This past week she's been taking longer naps and not eating as often in the middle of the day. Perhaps we'll be transitioning to 2 long naps a day here shortly, though she doesn't seem quite ready for that yet.

- she is out of the newborn fussy stage and only cries when there is a reason (hungry or tired) and is otherwise a happy girl for the most part!- she is quite talkative and its so fun to have a "conversation" with her - it most often happens on the changing table, but she also squeals a lot when laying on her play mat or when we go get her out of the crib

- her smiles just melt my heart and she can really turn on the charm when she wants to- especially when its time to go to bed, haha. Her daddy and I fight over who gets her from the crib when she wakes up, because she gives the biggest smiles then!

- she is really beginning to reach for and grab toys on purpose and its fun to see her swatting at things as her hand/eye coordination improves.- she is quite good about play time but she does not like tummy time- a few minutes on the tummy requires consistent entertainment and then she starts screaming. But she is getting quite strong and has great head control... we keep trying!

- unfortunately, she does not take a bottle well At. All. Daddy tries to feed her once a day but it usually ends in one or both of them crying... and since she doesn't take a full feeding she is hungry again in an hour or two. Thankfully we've had no problems with breastfeeding since the first week or so and she gets plenty to eat, it'd just be nice to have the option of leaving her with a bottle once in awhile. Oh well.All in all, parenting is the hardest but most wonderful thing I've ever done. Its amazing the amount of love you can have for someone who does nothing to earn it, its just there. We're enjoying this new stage of life, with its trials and joys, and so thankful for God's continued blessing on our family.Zoe Paige, we just love you to pieces. So grateful to God for giving us such a special little girl.

Tweet Tweet

(No, this post is not about Twitter)

At first I was bummed that we couldn't paint the nursery in our rental home... until I came across the idea of wall decals. There are a plethora available out there and they are so easy to apply, and come in so many fun designs that I may never want to paint again :) We found this cute wall decal on Etsy to put above Zoe's crib and while we loved it from the beginning, we're loving it even more now that Zoe is becoming so interactive. She loves laying on her changing table (which is across the room from her crib) because she can look at her birds. Its actually one of the spots she is most happiest and calm- we've thought about leaving her there permanently but are afraid the luster may wear off eventually. Ha. Recently, she has begun talking to her bird friends while laying in her crib and has put herself to sleep this way several times now. Maybe she gets bored because they don't talk back? Its amazing the entertainment the birds provide for not actually doing anything, but she seems to enjoy them and we enjoy watching her "interact" with them. Just one of the many ways this kid cracks us up.

A new love

Guess I have to get used to sharing my Valentine from now on...

sweet girl in her outfit from Oma & Opa (Geoff's parents)

love

Geoff made us crab cakes, roasted asparagus and potatoes for our romantic Valentines dinner. Notice the candlelight, despite the additional person at the table:) She didn't last long in her seat before she protested being so far away... Daddy held her for most of the meal. A reminder that its not just about us anymore. We love it.

Her friend, Clem

I've seen other people do weekly/monthly pictures of their baby next to a stuffed animal or in the same outfit or basically in some way compared to an object that does not change in order to show how their baby is growing over time. We decided to go with the stuffed animal, so please meet Clementine, Zoe's bright orange bear friend who is affectionately known as Clem. As you'll see, she wasn't too sure about Clem at first but she has begun to warm up to her :)

1 week old

2 weeks old

3 weeks old
(that Newborn outfit is looking a bit snug)

4 weeks old
(out of Newborn clothes entirely)

Its a Girl!

Baby girl was due 1/6 and as of 1/11 she was making no moves to enter the world anytime soon, so we went into the hospital that night to begin induction. It was so weird leaving our house that last time, knowing we'd be coming home with our baby we'd been dreaming about for 10 months, and life would never be the same.

I was admitted into INOVA Fairfax hospital at 9pm and the fun began :) I was still not dilated at all at that point so they gave me some medication overnight to hopefully soften things up before starting the Pictocin the next morning. During the night, baby's heart rate dropped at one point so I was given Oxygen and fluids for awhile, and this seemed to take care of it. My OB, Dr. Wolf, came to check on me at 6am when they started the Pictocin, and her exam unfortunately showed that I was still not dilated at all. She managed to break my water in hopes of moving things along, but she warned me that it could be a long day and that baby was still pretty high so that I should be prepared for a C-section if labor did not progress as hoped. We had discussed this at my last office visit so Geoff and I weren't surprised and we'd agreed that whatever was necessary to get baby out safely was fine with us. Our "labor plan" was all about flexibility!

Shortly after my OB left, baby's heart rate dropped again so the nurses stopped the Pictocin drip. I'd only been on it for about 45 minutes at this point so while I was having minor contractions that felt like cramping, labor hadn't really had a chance to get going. My OB had gone into surgery during this time so we were waiting to hear back from her as to what she wanted to do. She came into see me again somewhere around 9:30am and determined that since baby's heart rate had dropped twice and labor had hardly progressed at all, she wanted to do a C-section since baby wasn't responding well. She said she'd go find out where to fit me in the schedule, and would be back. As soon as she left, the anesthesiologist was there to have me sign consent forms and I was heading to the operating room within minutes. Everything happened so quickly that we hardly had time to process what was going on- hardly 20 minutes passed between deciding I'd be having a C-section and me being on the operating table, fully prepped.

Geoff wasn't allowed to be in the room while they prepped me, so he was in a little waiting room where he got decked out in scrubs and had a minute to let our parents know what was happening. Then he was by my side as they started the operation, holding my hand and reminding me that he loved me. All the staff were anxious to see whether baby was a boy or girl. I'd told them that I suspected it was a boy, but I had dreamed it was a girl. Apparently dreams are correct. At 10:18am, our little girl was born.

"Its a girl," Dr. Wolf exclaimed as she lifted her over the partition so we could see our beautiful daughter. I was so overwhelmed at this point that when the nurses asked me what her name was going to be, I couldn't remember what we had chosen for a moment! Geoff stayed with Zoe as they stitched me up, and then once she was cleaned up and checked out, I was able to really see her and kiss her precious little face.

Yes, I cried. She was finally here and she was just perfect. The immediate love for her was overwhelming. And how precious to see my husband holding our little girl. I wouldn't have asked for anything different.