Eleven Weeks Old

Eleven. Eleven. Eleven. 

We got this adorable set from "Uncle" Tracy (one of K's godfathers). He picked it out especially for E. It also has a matching hat, a onesie, and a bib. She has room to grow in this tee, 

but the jean shorts - like most pants - were a tight fit over her cloth diaper. 

This little sleeper was a gift from Great Auntie Pets. 

Can't resist those sweet feet!

 

My former coworkers from Weight Watchers threw us a shower. 

Here we are with the hostesses: Cindy, Kathy, and Beth.

E had fun - more than a few laughs.

Ten Weeks Old

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 R is a teeny, tiny fraction Irish. I don't remember how much, but I know it's not a lot. 

Doesn't matter. He still loves to remind me that he is Irish. And so is E.

 This adorable outfit was a gift from Aunt Cheryl and Heather.

Sweet ruffles in the front and frog on the bloomer!

E's new thing is smiling super hard when I stick my tongue out and go "pbbbt!"

She goes crazy for it. Her whole body reacts: arms flail, legs kick.

Then she tries to do it, but just ends up blowing bubbles.

Lacey made some hats - and a million other things - that are starting to fit now. So cute! 

And perfect for the cool, early spring air.

We have gone on walks twice this week. It's just so nice to get outside.

Nine Weeks Old

Ok, time...slow down a little bit! I definitely feel like starting each one of these posts with "I can't believe she's ___ weeks old already!"

Babers is doing so well with sleeping through the night that we've started to transition her out of being swaddled during naps and at nighttime. She is napping right now - one arm out. (=

We shouldn't ever have to duplicate outfits on these weekly posts, but I wasn't ambitious enough to change her out of this one just for the photo.

  

Just a couple days late on the 9-week post - I didn't know where the Grinch was hiding. 

E seems glad to see him, though.

 

She was born with pretty eyelashes, but suddenly it was like they grew a few inches overnight. So beautiful. I tried to capture them. 

I just want to remember every sweet little detail. 

 

We took our first trip to Bismarck to meet The Mrs.'s side of the family (more on that in another post). Vonda and Arnold treated us to wonderful strudels, and E experienced jealousy for the first time in her life. (See her mouth watering!?)

 

E also spent some time with J this week while Mama went to the dentist. (This is where she will hang out when I go back to work.) 

The babies had fun together. E seemed more interested in J than he did in her. We'll have to teach her that the man is supposed to be the pursuer. (=

 

It was a pretty busy week, but we still found time to just hang out at home.

Push.

Disclaimer: The following contains drawn-out details of our labor/delivery with E. Consider yourself warned.

We were 6 days overdue and eagerly awaiting our little girl’s arrival. I had felt a few Braxton Hicks contractions throughout the last couple months of pregnancy, but I woke up at 3 am on Thursday, and knew something was different. I sat awake for about an hour before deciding to soak in the tub for a while.  I used a stopwatch to start timing contractions. About an hour later, I noticed some consistency in the durations, so it was time to wake The Mister up.

We continued to time the contractions for another hour or so. After consulting our book from the hospital, we found that every one of our “criteria” was just not quite a match for calling in to have the baby. At about 5:30 am, we called in and asked what we should do. The nurse said, “Sounds like early labor….but since you have an appointment this morning, just wait and come in then.”

Our appointment was scheduled for 10:00 that morning.  It was really fun to try to relax/sleep for 5 hours when all we could think was “BABY!!” I ate a peanut butter sandwich in the middle of the night and cereal and a deviled egg for breakfast.

When we arrived at the hospital, our midwife let us know that I was dilated 5-6 cm.  I was disappointed – hoping for 7-8. But the midwife said, “That’s good!” and gave us two options: Go home and come back later or check in now. We didn’t even have to talk it over. We were ready to start this party.

We were checked in within minutes and got hooked up to the NST monitors. Everything looked great – loved hearing that! We watched some TV, and I ordered a chef salad for lunch. (Sadly, it ended up being about the size of my thumbnail and half made of cheese.)

I was soon given the green light to sit in the whirlpool – stayed until the midwife came into the room later in the afternoon. She broke my water to move things along. After that, I headed back to the whirlpool – and that’s where I stayed until, like, 7 pm.

The contractions were intense, even under water. Things had progressed pretty steadily while I sat in the tub, but I didn’t realize it. During the transition phase, I thought I couldn’t handle it anymore without the epidural. I got out of the tub and found out I was dilated 9 cm. Awesome! I was thrilled. Thought I still had a long road ahead. Being 9 cm, I knew it would be fine to move forward without the epidural. (Lesson learned: Next time, I won’t be so “married” to the whirlpool. And will asked to get checked more often.)

Our midwife came in the room, and she told me I should push a little so they could reposition Baber’s head. The Mister and I both thought I would do a couple pushes and then wait, but the midwife never told me to stop pushing. So, to our surprise...30 minutes later, (at 7:29 pm) our girl arrived!

It was the most amazing experience. Ever.

At the time, it felt like a long day. Looking back, the time flew by.

We are so thankful that God held us close and kept us all safe and healthy. He gave me a great, encouraging partner and a wonderful team of midwives and caregivers.

I’m so blessed to have the gift of giving birth. Really, I liked it. Such a privilege. Such a miracle. Can’t wait to do it again! 

Seriously.

Eight Weeks Old

Woah. I can't believe Babers will be 2 months old in just 3 days. Yikes.

The big milestone for the week is that - as you can see - E started using her cloth diapers. 

Now, be on your best behavior.

K and I had our first date away from Babers tonight. I had been thinking about this night for a couple weeks now, but I figured if I brought it up, K would say, "Are you completely mad?" But "mad" like a British person says it. Thus, I waited for her to bring it up, which she did this weekend.

Still, I mentally prepared for K to cry through the entire date. For K to talk about nothing except the daughter we are spending time away from. So I wanted to cover my bases. I wanted to bring my wife out for a night she wouldn't forget. I wanted her to have no choice but to focus on the outlandish splendor of the experience.

We went to Pizza Ranch.

Babers spent a couple hours with our friends, B and D. We trust them because 1) They have 4 children (three of which are triplets), 2) their children are turning out to be wonderful, and 3) B and D are awesome. It was really comforting to drop off Babers and not feel that we had to explain how to babysit. We didn't say, "Now D, if the baby cries, make sure to rock her while humming "Moonshadow" by Cat Stevens." or "B, when she starts to fuss and smells like pee, you should change her diaper." We just said, "Here she is. We'll be back when we've gained 2 pounds of pizza."

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch...
K and I enjoyed an hour and a half of looking at each other, eating very unhealthy food at an alarming pace, and talking in adult voices about whatever the heck we wanted. It was actually really fun. K didn't shed one tear, and she didn't say more than a few sentences about Babers (which is super hard if you know how utterly adorable she is).

Even though my wife and I had a totally romantic evening of eating and hearing about other people's vasectomies (yes, plural) and strolling by a karate lesson next door, we were still very excited to end the date and take home our baby girl.

When we got back to B and D's, our girl was looking about as calm as an 85-year-old man in a jacuzzi.

That helped us feel okay about maybe doing this again sometime.