The Poop Runneth Over...

Yeah....they forgot to mention this little bit of information in my copy of What to Expect. Wow....I am continuously amazed at how much comes out of my little girl...and it gets EVERYWHERE! All over her clothes, her rocker, and MAMA and DADDY!!! But this picture of Daddy changing her diaper was too funny not to post. Right when he had gotten her all cleaned up and was ready to put a new diaper on her, she went again....yay!

This is Lydia with her Great Granny just before she decided to take a poop on her...ALL OVER HER!!! I tried explaining to Lydia that she's definitely not going to be the favorite Great Granddaughter now, but I don't think she listened to me. She's already tuning me out...I didn't think that was supposed to happen until the teenage years!!

Okay...enough poop talk. Here is a picture of Lydia before her first doctor's appointment. You can tell how excited she is about meeting Dr. Farr. Thankfully the appointment went well...her jaundice is gone and she's at a healthy weight.

Unfortunately, Dr. Farr informed us that she has colic....YAY! Tim and I noticed that she becomes inconsolable around 3 in the afternoon and then again from 9-12 at night. We were pulling our hair out trying to figure out what was wrong with her...it never crossed our minds that it could be colic. I thought colicky babies cried ALL the time....but that's not the case. Lydia is our very own Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. She can be sleeping soundly (or hanging out with us) and it's like someone flips a switch and the screaming starts...and boy, can she scream! I can't tell you how relieved we both were when Dr. Farr told us what was going on with her. We were thinking she was in pain or that we were doing something wrong. Now that we know what is causing the screaming, we can deal with it. We are currently trying BioGaia, which is a probiotic that has been shown to help the digestive system. She's had more "good" nights than bad, so it must be working...a little anyway.

I've also been having some medical problems that require strong medication which has resulted in me having to wean Lydia and put her on formula. This was a hard decision to make, but I think it is best...especially with the fact that I was not supplying enough breastmilk for her anyway and we were having to supplement. We have her on a new formula that is supposed to be easier on the digestive system. We're on our first full day of using it, and so far it's been great! She's not been nearly as fussy as she normally is. Let's hope this continues into the night!

This is a picture of Lydia's first Easter. She's holding a little bunny that Tim's Aunt Marita and Uncle Rich sent to her. I guess I'm Mom of the Year because I didn't even think to get her an Easter basket, but her Grammy and Papa did. They loaded it down with diapers, onesies, wipes, and lots of other goodies!


So sweet!! I love this picture! It's so hard to believe that she will be 1 month old tomorrow!!!! My baby girl is growing so fast. I will be sure to post her 1 month pictures tomorrow. It will be a big day for her as she gets her first big outing. A friend from work is having a baby shower and of course we have to go! It will be fun introducing Lydia to everyone! It will also be the first time that I've driven alone with her in the car...wish me luck! I'm sure I'll be driving 10 mph.

Lydia Is Here!

Sorry for taking so long to update the blog, but as you can imagine things have been very hectic around our house! She arrived on April 2, 2009 at 12:53 p.m. weighing in at 8 lbs, 1 oz and measuring 19 3/4 inches long.

We were admitted to the hospital for our scheduled induction on Wednesday night. The plan was to begin medication to help thin out my cervix and to ready my uterus for the following morning, however when they did the internal they found that I was already dilated 3.5 cm and was 70% effaced so they opted against the medication.

Wednesday night was VERY long. I began having contractions about 10 minutes apart around 11:00 pm and they HURT. The nurses offered to give me some pain medication and sleeping medicine to help, but I turned it down because I didn't want to be groggy the next morning...silly me. Around 12:30 I finally gave in and took half a sleeping pill because I thought it would help me sleep through the contractions...again, silly me. I was awake every 10 minutes throughout the night.

I had to "wake up" around 4:00 the following morning in order to shower before the nurses came in at 4:45 to begin my IV. The doctor came in around 5:00 and broke my water and then the Pitocin was administered. When asked if I wanted pain medication this time, I quickly jumped on it. It was wonderful....I felt no pain for about an hour and a half. I was able to rest during that time, which was great. When the nurses came back in around 7:00, I had already dilated to 5 cm so they prepared for the epidural.

For those of you who know me, you know that nothing terrified me more than the thought of an epidural...have you seen those needles?!?! Thankfully, I had a wonderful doctor and nurse that calmed me down and "held my hand" during the process. I was completely surprised at how easy it was! It felt like a bee sting!

About 20 minutes later I was great. Tim kept looking at the monitor and would tell me when I was having a contraction...I felt nothing. I quickly fell asleep again and didn't even realize when my parents came into the room! Around 11ish the nurse came in to check on me and told me that it would soon be time to push.

I think we began the process around 11:45 or so. I was really surprised when the nurse put Tim to work holding one of my legs....I was scared to death that he was going to pass out when he saw the head crown! After the very first round of pushing they were able to see her hair! I was sooo happy to hear that she had a head full of brown hair!

We didn't have to push very long before the nurse called for the doctor. We got very lucky because my doctor was scheduled for a C-Section at 12:30, but the patient was not ready. When she came in to check on me she decided that it was time to welcome Lydia to the world! About 20 minutes later I got to hold my sweet girl for the first time.

There was a bit of a scare because the cord was wrapped around her neck. As soon as Tim cut the cord, they whisked her away and started working on her. It felt like forever before she finally let out the most precious scream I have ever heard!

The nurses took her vitals and put her in the warmer to get her body temp up. I was just hanging out by myself for quite a while...I can't tell you how hard it was being in that bed unable to move while your child is across the room. I wanted to hold her so badly!

Tim was able to give her first bath, which was amazing to watch! He was so gentle with her and she never even cried!!! After her bath I was FINALLY able to hold her for longer than a second...it was amazing.

I was so surprised at how smoothly labor and delivery went. I had heard horror stories from ladies who were induced that were in labor for 24 hours or more and had the worst contractions imaginable. Thankfully my experience was completely different. I didn't even feel like I had given birth...it was really surreal.

Lydia had lots of visitors her first day, so we thought she would sleep well that night. While technically she did sleep well, Tim and I did not because every time she moved we sat up to look at her to make sure she was okay. That's pretty much how the first 4 nights went...she sneezed and we both jumped out of bed to check on her.

Before we left the hospital on Saturday, the pediatrician came in to let us know that Lydia had a mild case of jaundice. Thankfully, when we took her to the doctor on Monday he said that her color was perfectly normal and he didn't even feel the need to do a blood test!

She's now 9 days old (I can't believe it!). While Tim and I had several sleepless nights, we feel that we've got her somewhat on a schedule and we're all getting used to each other. We've figured out what some of her cries mean, but there are plenty of other sounds we're still trying to decipher. Tim's best friend Geoff has a newborn as well and gave us sound advice...once you think you've got things figured out they change and you have to start all over again. It's going to be a journey but we're excited to get started on it!