3 Weeks

How can Reese be 3 weeks old already??? Time is already flying by. Slowly but surely, we're starting to feel like we know what the heck we're doing!

This week has been a good week. On Wednesday night, Reese started sleeping in 4 hour stretches at night. We are really hoping this continues, because 4 hours of consecutive sleep is WONDERFUL. She's starting to have more alert time during the day, which is really fun. I still sit & stare at her all day, but now she stares back! She's starting to focus on objects and faces, so we've started playing on her Baby Einstein activity mat as well.

Reese's biggest milestone this week was receiving her first bottle feeding. The pediatrician recommended waiting no longer than 3 weeks to introduce the bottle, so Matt fed her a bottle of pumped milk on Friday night. It was exciting for him to be able to feed her!

Since I'm nursing, we don't really know how many ounces she's taking at a feeding. I tried to do some online research ahead of time to figure out how many ounces of milk to thaw out, and everything I read suggested that a baby her age would probably be eating about 2-3 ounces at each feeding, so I thawed 3 ounces to be safe. She went to town, and sucked down that 3 ounce bottle in about 5 minutes. That was with a newborn slow flow nipple! Matt burped her, & she was STILL rooting around looking for food, so I ended up having to nurse her as well! We couldn't believe it. She's a little piglet!!!

Two Weeks

I can't believe Reese is already two weeks old. The last 2 weeks are a bit of a blur! We had her 2 week check up with the pediatrician yesterday. She is doing great, & she is up to 7 pounds. The goal for the 2 week check up is to be back to birth weight (6lbs, 4oz), & she has gained 12 ounces over her birth weight! She's a great eater!

Matt went back to work this week. My mom came over & helped me out, which was great. Although it was nice having someone to make me lunch everyday, I'm really looking forward to being on my own with Reese this week. I'm going to snuggle this baby all day long. I'm sure I'll miss the help though. My goal is to be showered & at least have eaten breakfast by the time Matt gets home each afternoon. :)

My sister and 8 month old nephew came up from Florida to meet Reese this weekend. It was great to see them. Austin is such a cutie. We only got one quick picture of the cousins together before they left this morning, & I obviously need to learn to use my new camera, since I only got the picture focused on Austin. Oh well, they still look cute together.




The Guniers came to visit on Thursday night as well, & Uncle Brian & Grandpa got to hold Reese for the first time. :)




Well, Sleeping Beauty is waking up, so I guess this post is over!

3 years ago today, Matt proposed while we were in Paris. It's been an eventful 3 years since then! Our day today will be much different from that day in Paris, but just as much of an adventure!



Things have been going great the last few days. Reese's first pediatrician visit on Friday went really well. She is already back up to her birth weight, which they don't expect until 2 weeks of age. It's no surprise that she's gaining weight quickly, because she's quite the little piglet! She's perfectly healthy in every other way as well. :)

We have nicknamed Reese "monkey" because she always makes these little monkey noises in her sleep, and, well, she's really hairy. :) Seriously, she's proving the evolution theory. Her upper arms & back are covered in hair. The pediatrician made a joke at her appointment that we could wax her once she is 2 months old. He said that it's just immature hair, and it will fall out. Poor baby. You can see what we're talking about in this picture. Too funny.



We took our first big grocery shopping trip to Target today with baby in tow, & it was a success. Matt was going to go by himself, but I needed to get out of the house. It felt so good to breathe some fresh air!!!

Matt goes back to work tomorrow, and I'm so sad. I start crying every time I think about it. My mom is coming over to help me this week, so I'll have plenty of assistance, but it's been so nice having him here & having family time. It's been such a nice week, & I'm not ready for it to be over already!

Introducing Reese Sophia!

Well, it's taken me 5 days to get this posted, but that's not so bad, right? Apparently, life with a newborn is pretty busy! Reese is sleeping peacefully in her Moses basket next to me, so I'm going to try to update everyone on how things have been going. In case I don't make it to the end of this post due to a needy newborn, the short answer is that things are going well. :)

As all of you know by now, Reese Sophia was born on July 17, 2010 at 2:50 a.m. She was 6lbs, 4oz, & 19" long. She has a full head of beautiful hair, and we are so in love with her.









Our stay in the hospital was good. Our nurses were fantastic, & we were very well taken care of. However, it was really hard to get any sleep (or to keep the baby asleep) when nurses were coming in every hour to check me or check her. It was exhausting, and Reese didn't take well to it. The only way that she would sleep while we were in the hospital was naked on my chest. I loved having her snuggled up to me, but that meant that I couldn't get much sleep because I was so worried about watching her & making sure that she was ok. I was also so exhausted that I was afraid that if I fell asleep that I would not hold her tight enough or safely enough. So, I laid with one eye propped open. Before we had the baby, everyone advised us to take advantage of our time in the hospital to rest. I don't really see how that would have been possible with all of the constant interruptions. Needless to say, we left the hospital pretty sleep deprived.

Once we got home, Reese settled right in. She slept GREAT our first night home. She allowed us to lay her in her bassinet, & she slept for 2-4 hour stretches in between feedings. It was heaven. She has also been great about letting us lay her in the Moses basket during the day. Although, most of the time, I prefer to just hold her & stare at her. :)

As most of you also know, I was re-admitted into the hospital for the day yesterday due to heavy bleeding. It was a VERY scary day, but Reese made the day so much better. She was an absolute angel. She slept ALL day long, & only woke up to feed. She never even cried once. She was the best comfort I could have asked for while we hung out in the hospital room. It was so nice to lay in bed & snuggle with her. It made me feel so much better. Unfortunately, she made up for it last night, & was up about every hour last night. Oh well. Such is life with a newborn, right? I am so lucky to have such a great husband who does EVERYTHING during the day so that I can rest since he can't help out too much in the middle of the night (since I'm nursing). He is taking great care of us, & I would be a mess without him!!!

We have definitely been quickly initiated into the world of parenting via poop explosions. Our first night home, Reese decided to poop and pee twice in the middle of diaper changes, making a huge mess everywhere. We need to get more changing pad covers. We thought 2 would be plenty--we could have one on the pad, & one in the wash. We were wrong. :) We changed her outfit 4 times our first night home due to disasters like this. It was pretty hysterical though.

We have our first pediatrician visit at 3:15 today. We also have a few quick errands to run. I'm a little nervous about figuring out how to nurse while we are out of the house for a few hours, and to make sure that she will not be hungry during the appointment, etc. It's definitely an adjustment trying to figure out how to plan everything around an eat, sleep, poop schedule!

So, that's a quick summary of how things are going. We are loving being parents, despite the hectic events of the past few days. Reese is so sweet, and there is nothing better than holding our baby girl. :)

The Waiting Game

One month before Baby G's due date, one of my friends posted on my Facebook wall, "Welcome to the longest month of your life." This couldn't be more true. The days are dragging. All of our baby projects are completed, I spent 9 hours last weekend cleaning every little corner of the house, and I don't really feel good enough to get out and "do stuff" to stay busy. I am seriously bored. I know that I should just be enjoying this because I'm sure it will be YEARS before I am bored again, but I'm so anxious and excited to meet this little one that I can hardly take it anymore!

My OB appointment on Friday went well. Nothing has changed in the last week. I'm still 2cm dilated, and the baby is low (which is good, although very uncomfortable!!!). I had 4 hours of false labor on Friday night. Contractions started when we were out to eat with Matt's parents around 7, & came every 8-9 minutes until about 11. At that point, I decided to get in the tub to try to determine if it was the real deal (they say if contractions continue with a warm bath or shower, it's real, and if they go away, it's just practice). Needless to say, they went away, and I was bummed. Oh well. She'll come when she's good and ready!

On a separate note, we got our first harvest from the garden. We went out & looked at the zucchini on Friday, and they were still pretty small. By Saturday afternoon, they were HUGE & ready for picking. I can't wait to eat them with dinner tonight!


I didn't get around to posting last week, so here are pictures of the big belly from last weekend. This one was taken on Saturday before Eli & Emily's baby shower:


Here are Emily (29 weeks pregnant) & I (37 weeks pregnant) with our dueling bellies. Sorry Em, I think I have you beat on this one. :)


On Monday, Matt & I took Bailey out to Silver Springs. We had a nice picnic lunch, & then did some walking around (which I quickly realized I did NOT feel good enough to do in the 90 degree heat). It was nice for the first few minutes though!








Here is the belly today at 38 weeks, 3 days:




I have no idea why some of these pictures are normal size, and some of them are huge. I also don't have the motivation to figure it out. :)

The Nursery

I finally have pictures of the completed nursery. I have been hesitating to post them because I can't get the green color to come out very good in the pictures, but I'm excited to share, so these will have to do!

I'm very happy with the way our DIY projects turned out. My friend Tara & I painted the tree on the wall behind the crib. I made the pictures above the dresser. My mom
made the lining & set up our family bassinet. Everything looks so sweet, & I can't wait to bring Baby G home to her new room!