She's such a hoot!

Miss Blue Eyes

Despite the acid reflux, temper, and the napless days, we are smitten with our daughter ("our daughter" is still weird to say). And her smiles are killer, we both melt at the sight. The real story is that I have been blessed with a night sleeper. She has never really woken me up at night to eat. And I had no idea it was bad to let them sleep more than 4 hours before they hit 6 weeks. So after education from a lactation consultant I was having to wake her up for nightly feedings. Believe me when I tell you that a beeping alarm with a snooze button at 3am is much more difficult to get up for than a crying baby. Now that we passed the six week mark I am now aloud to let her sleep more than 3 hours between feedings at night, hallelujah! She is now sleeping about 6-8 hours in a row. Great for her, but bad for me, I usually end up waking her about 5-6 hours since I am so engorged. I know I could pump, but I would rather fill her belly so she will surely sleep another 3-4 hours. It's selfish I know, but I think of it as a win-win. Since the nightly sleep deprivation has diminished, my days are so much brighter. Her longest nap during the day is 20 minutes, so I don't get much down time. I am hoping she will get into a daily nap pattern in the next few months so she is not so cranky. The girl just can't stay asleep when the sun is up!!

But my real question is will she keep that dark hair and dark blue eyes???


I was trying to take a self portrait with the SLR camera....believe it or not this was the best of many.

Here is an unsuccessful tummy time, I thought she was awake enough and in a good mood. But she started to cry so the finger pacifier worked and soon she was asleep.

The dramatic entrance

I have a million things to say but don't have the energy to say them. But things are going well. We are finally getting in the swing of things and I must say there are a lot less tears for both Josie and myself. Without getting too graphic and in too much detail here is a rundown of her birth story. The evening of her due date (Aug 24th) I decided it was time for her to come out, so I went on a really fast, uphill walk for about 2 hours on the trails behind my house. I don't know how far it was, but according to Nick it was too far. Now before you freak out, Nick knew the exact trail that I was on, and it was not far from a road. He was at work and I was in the park so technically he could have run code to come get me (with his lights and siren on). I started to feel sharp pains that lasted about 20-30 seconds on my way home and I thought, "are these contractions?" But they weren't that bad, so when I got home I mowed the lawn. There were a few of these "sharp pains" that I had to stop mowing and breathe through, so when I was done I decided to take a shower just in case I was actually going into labor. I didn't want to be sweaty and smell like cut grass if I had to go in. So I got out of the shower about 7pm and they were getting much worse so I called Nick to tell him that we might be going to the hospital tonight. He was going to rush home right then, but I told him to take his time, they were not too close together. But a bit of my family history was making him weary. Both my mother and grandmother had their babies all within 2 hours of their first contraction. There was no way to tell if this was going to be my future as well. We live about 30 minutes from the hospital and neither of us wanted to have this baby in the car... So when Nick arrived home, we walked around the block until they were about 5 minutes apart and close to a minute long. But I could walk and talk through them at this point. So I called my doc on her cellphone to ask if she wanted me to come in (see above family history). She said to wait an hour and see if they get worse. So Nick and I proceeded to walk around the block over and over. Within 45 minutes they were definitely closer, harder, and I could not walk through them. So we headed in about 11:30pm. We got there at midnight and I was 3cm and just to make sure it was not pre-labor they had us walk around the hallways for an hour to see if I progressed at all. By 1am I could not walk or talk through a contraction, in fact I had to brace myself on the wall, and when checked again I was 4.5cm. So we were admitted at 1am.

I continued to walk around the room and tried to relax, but couldn't sit or stay still for any contractions. So I walked around as long as I could. I wanted to wait as long as possible before I received the epidural because I had heard they can slow your labor down. So I made it to about 6cm and my contractions were about 1 minute apart and 1minute long. I was pretty exhausted since we had not slept at all and it was 5am. So epidural in I was able to sleep a little, only thing is that my contractions slowed down...bummer! So my doc broke my water to see if we could speed them back up, and they did a bit, but not as fast as before the epi. So in comes the Pitosin, yuk! And we sat and sat until about noon before I was ready to push.

The pushing then began, and 2 hours later I was still pushing with not much progression. It was really hard to hear "that was great, keep pushing exactly like that" with nothing to show for it. What we didn't know at the time was that Josie had flipped herself over and was posterior and at a weird angle. So my doc (with a very worried look on her face) suggested that we call in the hospitalist to try suction. At that point I was ready to try anything, so in comes a whole team of people. The doc and hospitalist told me that they would try to suction 3 times and after that a c-section would be required. Not only did they suction more than 3 times but they tried for a half hour. And just when the nurse anesthetist came in to start prepping for the c-section, miss Josie Mae popped out! She was blue grey and it seemed like she didn't cry for minutes (although my mom said it was seconds). Nick and I both instantly burst into tears of joy. She was quickly whisked away by the NICU team and thoroughly checked out. She scored an 8-9 out of 10 on the APGAR test even with the massive bruise and laceration on her head. She was perfect!

She also has a liver of steal because her billirubin was back to normal by the 3rd day. Everyone was pretty amazed that she didn't need any light treatments. She did have a massive headache for the first 2 weeks of life, but other than that she was in great shape. I guess I went into more detail that necessary but it was a pretty intense experience.

The funny thing is that when people hear the story they almost always tell me that the next one will be so much easier so not to worry. But I have to say I would do it again the hard way in a second because the prize at the end was worth it a hundred times over. I would have pushed for days just to get my sweet girl.

2 week old montage of Josie Mae

We have survived our first two weeks with Josie. It has already been a wild ride. Enjoy the pictures below. Hopefully, I will have a bit more time to write about her dramatic entrance into the world!

I call this one "milk coma"

Please note Gage in the background licking the coffee table...

First play date with Logan who is less than 24 hours older. They were surprisingly both active and awake at the same time.

Endless Daddy Love

39 weeks

Let the countdown begin! Everything is ready for a baby, now we just need one to make an appearance. Come on little lady, come on!

I also got my last pre-labor pedicure in honor of this little lady. Besides polka-dots are a fun distraction from my incredibly swollen feet.

36 weeks and growing

At 36 weeks i can't believe I still have another 4-5 to go if I go full term. But the nesting has also started to kick in and I am pretty much ready for a baby. Now I am trying to make Nick and I some freezer meals, so when baby comes we can focus on her.

Speaking of HER, I had one more ultrasound on Friday because I was measuring small. But it turns out I am right on track and she is about 6lbs. We also got a clear shot of her little lady parts, so I know I won't have to return all the generous amounts of clothing we have been given. Phew...

Sneak Peak...

Here is a sneak peak of little Parkert's room. I still have not put up anything on the walls, and I believe there might be a shelf or two in that mix, but you get the idea. The curtain fabric is what I completely fell in love with, and I couldn't "see" anything else, so we went with it. My mom was the best, she really knows what she is doing, and read the pattern and helped make changes with things about the pattern that I didn't like. When Nick is at work, it is hard to get stuff done so she also came yesterday to help organize and help me do a bit of planting. It is hard to do a lot of things when you can't squat, bend, or lift. She is my angel and I don't know what I would do without her!!!