Heading Out - Take Two

We attempted to head out today - but way way over estimated what we could do. I'm feeling somewhat better but this morning was so so still (especially since I not only had the baby up during the night but Nora up from 2-4am as well).... but we headed out with the two girls to try and get some things done. After getting settled in the car and explaining (very sternly) that Nora can't make Rose close her eyes (I think she was trying to make her close her eyes like her baby dolls). We were finally heading out... we made it to the bank, the post office and then Kohl's... did a little shopping then headed to Target. By the it was late - it was almost lunch time, I was tired, hungry and needed some medicine. We did some quick shopping and I headed out to the car to feed Rose while Mom and Nora checked out. Whew!!!! After a quick run through the Chic Fil A drive through (it was almost 1 at this point) we headed home quite tired. Obviously Nora was too as she fell asleep on the way home... that never happens!! Once awake, it took her some time to be "happy" again but once she did she was fine. I recorded her saying her ABCs... so cute! Here's the video (if this one or the one below of the girls playing with Rose don't work for you let me know and I'll try and convert them to something different).

Once Emily came home, the girls were busy coloring and playing. Then they both were playing with Rose - very cute!

Then as the evening came to a close, Nora was feeding for the 99th time today and as I was getting her settled in she found her thumb again and was just sucking away - thank goodness she takes to the pacifier too!

Fever and Dr. Visits

What a weekend - after looking forward to heading out to the store on Saturday it turned into a not so fun time as I ended up back home with a fever and sore throat. My fever didn't come back last night but I still headed to the dr. this morning for fear of passing something onto Rose. So here are our dr. reports (Rose also had her weight recheck appt. this morning... busy busy morning!)

My dr. said that the fever and sore throat are unrelated... sore throat from drainage and for now should be ok but if it gets worse to call her back. She didn't want to medicate me and in turn medicate Rose. The fever she said was most likely Mastistis... I had this twice with Emily... with nursing, if a clogged duct doesn't get cleared it can become infected giving you flu like symptoms including a fever.

For Rose's appt. she gained 6 ounces since last Monday which is great news. They still want her back for one more weight check since she's still not at her birth weight (she's currently 8lbs 8ozs.. at birth she was 8lbz 10 ozs) but the dr. thought she would have no problem getting there as long as I don't see a decline in my milk with the Mastistis.

So those are the updates.. it's been a long weekend - glad my fever's gone... that was no fun at all. But here are some pictures that I've taken since the last update:
http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2948197004/a=3401034_3401034/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walmart/

Comparisons

With each new little one we are always comparing - comparing sleep habits, eating habits and of course looks! Rose slept so much better... so now hopefully that will continue as well as her good eating and (fingers crossed) weight increasing! I'll upload more pictures later but I thought it would be fun to look at pictures of all three girls together. Below are pictures of all three of them at 2 and a half weeks. Emily and Nora looks so different from each other and then Rose seems to have her own looks too but sometimes I catch a glimpse that reminds me of the other two - it will be such fun to see how they change as they grow!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Morgan brought out my Valentine's gift at Rose's midnight feeding this morning - a dozen roses and a box of truffles.. yum! :o) It's so nice to sit there and feed Rose while smelling roses. :o)
We spent the day at home (of course). Emily headed off the religious ed and church with our friends and Nora played with Mom all morning while we enjoyed some quiet and Rose sleeping. She was up eating pretty much every 2 hours last night... so I've been pretty beat all day.
We had some flurries flying around this morning but nothing stuck but it was pretty while it came down. Tomorrow starts another week and we're trying to get into some routine - Morgan is going to try and start bringing Emily to school and we'll see how that goes. Rose has her 2 week appointment tomorrow so I'll have to update you all about that tomorrow.
Here is a link to an album at Walmart of pictures from the past couple days.
http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2912203004/a=3401034_3401034/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walmart/

Here is a little Valentine Greeting ...

And then here are the two movies of Rose napping - we converted them to a different file so hopefully everyone can view them now!

Growth Spurt?

Today started early and with lots of wake ups last night. Seems little Miss Rose is going through a growth spurt. She changed her schedule last night to every 2 hours up and eating... and it seems that Nora heard her when she got up at 5:30 this morning - because as I was feeding Rose - Nora comes toddling into the room. So there begins our day!

Nora did really well all day considering she was up so early.
Rose of course snoozed and ate her way throughout the day. She was up a lot more this afternoon though and was more alert and watching the world around her.
Nap time - here's my naptime view - not too bad huh?! I was so tired so thankfully Mom took Nora upstairs to play and I slept for a good 2 hours... felt great!
Rose is quite to noisy sleeper - and sometimes hard to tell whether she's awake or asleep or just on the way to sleepy land. Here are a couple videos of her as she was snoozing... I quickly followed!

Emily was busy busy today - with school, Valentine's Day party at school, piano afterwards and then off to the school's Valentine dance this evening... so she's missing in pictures but busy with activity for sure!

Catching Up

So where did the week go? The days seem to run together lately - but here's a quick update on everyone....

Rose - Rose is doing great - she actually has fallen into a really good schedule - she nurses about every 2-3 hours, is awake a little then falls asleep again. Of course she keeps that schedule all day and all night - but it could be worse! She starting to really watch things and become more alert which is so fun! She's such a good baby and really only cries (or squawks is more like it) when she first wakes up hungry. Her coloring seems to be getting better too!

The girls - Emily and Nora seem to be doing well - Nora is a busy bee from morning 'til night and keeps Mom on her toes. Emily is back into the swing of things at school and loves to hug and hold Rose when she gets home. So all seems good on that front.

Morgan - The icy weather earlier this week became an obstacle for him heading into work Tuesday. He went in late but still hit a patch of ice walking into work and fell. His beloved coffee thermos has seen better days - it completely cracked with the fall! He's ok but his leg is a little sore.

Mom - I think Mom will need a vacation from her trip up here... as I said before Nora keeps her hopping all day and then when Emily comes home she is busy filling Mom in on everything at school, chatting or playing games with her.

Me - I'm getting there.. I had my first post-delivery migraine yesterday - great fun trying to nurse a newborn and still recover from the horrible headaches! But we got through. It's been great having Mom to take care of the girls though - I have been napping each afternoon which helps so much with the long nights... the swelling in my ankles has finally gone down, I've lost 17 lbs of my pregnancy weight gain and feeling less sore each day.

I do take pictures everyday - but uploading sometimes becomes hard... the day just flies by! But I'll do what I can. Here's the link I sent out earlier today of pictures from the past week in case you need it again:
http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2893333004/a=3401034_3401034/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walmart/
And then here's a good night picture for you of Rose all settled in ... well, at least for another 30 minutes or so! :o)

Stocking Up

We were running low on lots of things - the past two week's events have just thrown us all out of any time of usual routine! So Morgan and Mom headed out to Walmart and Sam's to stock us up on things - good thing too - snow and other wintry fun is in the forecast 3 times this week!!

Today went pretty good - for me, I'm still sore and my ankles are swollen but besides a slight headache today I was feeling a little more like myself. Rose is sleeping pretty good and wakes, eats and sleeps on some what of a schedule - nice two hour chunks of sleep during the night which isn't bad! Her coloring isn't getting worse which is good but it's hard to tell if it's getting better ... but her bruises seem to be getting lighter which is good!
We had a fun time playing with Skype with Dad today - if anyone else has it we can show off Rose to you in "person" if you want... :o)
We enjoyed another yummy dinner from one of our friends tonight... it's such a nice gesture to have people bring meals! We enjoyed one last night and have them set up at least every other day from now through the 20th - it's great!!
Here is a picture of Rose wearing her bracelet that Emily made for her - Emily is so proud of it! It's really cute! :o)
Then to close for the night - here's a snuggly picture of Rose and Morgan enjoying a little cuddle time. She reminds me of Emily's "tree frog" that she used to do to snuggle up and sleep with us.. very cute! :o)

Day 2 at Home

Day 2 at home... better in some ways and not in others.. just the chaos of life and sleepless nights caught up with me.. whew! Thankfully Mom ordered up some nap time for me.. 2 hours worth! It felt great though. Rose has been doing really good though - sleeping well and eating great!

She had more "awake" time today which is so fun! She has so many expressions - I tried to capture some of them here... more of what I got are up on Walmart here:
http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2868176004/a=3401034_3401034/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walmart/

"Scrunchy Face"

"Big Yawn"

"All Relaxed"

"Oooo.."

"Checking Things Out"

"Content Smile"

Here Nora is having fun doing Mom's hair and Emily below is busy making flowers.. it was nice to have a day at home where we didn't have to get out for school or anything!
Rose found a comfy spot to sleep though - Morgan's shoulder (I think I have this picture of him with all three girls) and then on our bed on the boppy all bundled up!

The Story of Rose

Here's the story of Rose - it has been such a whirlwind week I figured I'd catch you all up on what all happened...As you all know I had a due date of 2/10/10... but last week we had a bit of a hiccup with the whole blood pressure monitoring issue.. but we made it through and I went for my Monday weekly appointment to see how things were progressing. Emily was off school because the roads were still a mess from the snow Friday. So Mom stayed home with the girls while Morgan and I headed out. We were going to take two separate cars so he could go on to work from there but I figured if they were worried about my blood pressure that driving on icy roads probably isn't the best thing to do - so we rode together.

So we got there - all checked in - and guess what? Blood pressure still high! My dr. came in - did my exam... I was 3-4 cm dilated and measured 40 weeks (even though I was barely 39)... but she was really concerned with my blood pressure so she wanted to go ahead and deliver. She said she would let us talk it over and would be back. Well, we did - figured we'd see what she thought in terms of timeline and when and all. When she came back in, we asked our questions, and decided we'd have to do what we have to do... the the whole time line thing... well, she meant then - right there and then! I was shocked and pretty upset... I had the girls completely natural and really wanted to do this one the same... more because of the uncertainty and not knowing what being induced would be like. So we gathered our things, tried to call Mom but our cells phone wouldn't work and up to "Labor and Delivery" we went.

I got all settled in and hooked up to everything and Morgan headed home to get my stuff and let Mom know this is it. They started my pitocin around 10:30 and that was that. My dr. came in around 3 and broke my water and then at 5:20 Rose was born. I was so relieved to be able to have her like the other two.. just such a relief. So while I scooted Morgan off to go take pictures of our new little girl, I had a lot of bleeding after delivery which concerned my dr. I guess typically the pitocin helps stop all that but my IV had come out and using other measures got things under control.

After getting settled and cuddling with Rose a bit, they were trying to get my IV back in but with no luck. I have 3 lovely poke spots and bruises where they tried! My veins had basically collapsed due to dehydration - I guess 10 hours of no eating and hardly any drinking took it's toll - oh as well as giving birth!

They took Rose for her initial cleaning and check ups while Morgan headed home to share a picture of Rose with the girls, get them settled into bed, give Mom a little relief and then head back to me (I was busy making calls spreading the news of Rose's arrival). By the time he got back with dinner I was attempting to get out of bed for the first time and wasn't doing so well. I was dizzy, light headed and just awful feeling. But after downing lots of water, tea and some food I was finally feeling better.We then heard from the pediatrician around 11pm about Rose's first checkup. There were a few issues they were checking on her. First they thought she broke her clavicle during delivery (after and X-ray and close examination everything's ok)... Second, she had a lot of bruising during delivery (notice in pictures her eyes, her nose, and all well that is all due to birth trauma).... Third, the whole blood thing we've been following the whole pregnancy - that antibody issue. Well, turns out that all that (she's O- and I'm O+) caused her to have a lot of jaundice and is probably related as well to my increased blood pressure and all before delivery... so that's why she had the light therapy and we were at the hospital the rest of the week.So that's how our week started... today being our first full day at home went pretty well. We're hoping for a decent night's sleep but we'll see... I'll get more pictures up soon!

Sleep tight!