Nicole "running"

Nicole also likes to "run", she is always kicking her legs these days. It is funny because the first ultrasound of her when I was 10 weeks pregnant we saw her doing something similar and she was a kicker throughout my pregnancy. Here is a video of her "talking" to Daddy and "running."

Nicole "Talking"

Here is Nicole talking to us on her changing table. She really is such a cutie and I think she knows it. She gets so excited when we talk back to her.

3 Months

Wow, how things have changed! Our little one is growing up so fast. She likes to sit and stand (even though she can't do either on her own). She smiles all the time now. She loves to be talked to and to "talk" back. We took some video of her talking.

She is sleeping in her pack n' play finally. This has been a long process for us. She spent the first weeks needing to be held in order to sleep, then she moved to our bed, then she moved to a separate sleeping area, but still in our bed. Now she has been in the pack n' play for the last two weeks. She wakes once or twice a night, but eats and goes right back to sleep, so it works out very nicely to have her in the pack n' play right next to the bed.

2 Month Check Up

Today was a stressful day! I went back to work today and Nicole had to go to a sitter for the first time. That alone would have been enough, but it was also her 2-month check up where she was supposed to get shots. This is also the first day we've tested our morning routine to see if Shaun and I could get ready for work with Nicole and get out of the house on time. We were able to accomplish that, so I felt good leaving the house. The appointment went well. She is growing like a weed. She is now 9 lbs 6 oz (39%) and 22 1/2 inches (76%). Her head size also increased from 8% at birth to the 51% today. The doc said everything looked great. She is hitting all her milestones and is a beautiful baby. He actually said she was a good shape...I thought that was an odd comment. We went to immunizations to find out we had to wait until the 18th (tomorrow) to get her shots because the system doesn't allow them to do it early. After watching a mom come out with her 4-month old, I wasn't too disappointed about that except we have to go back later this week to get them. After the appointment it was time to drop Nicole off. She is on a waiting list to get into the facility on base, so we found a certified lady on another base close to our house that could watch her until mid June. Her name is Keisha and she has two children of her own. I knew she would take care of my baby, but it was sad to think of somebody else watching her. I haven't been apart from her for more than 30-40 minutes since she was born and even then, I was pretty close by. I knew it would be rough, but I almost made it out without crying, but didn't. By the time I got to work, I was okay but everyone was concerned about me and wanted to hear how it went. The day went alright, but I couldn't wait to go and get her. I know it will get easier as time goes on, but I hate leaving her. When we picked her up, she was happy to see us, but tired, so we were only able to get a little bit of fun time in before we put her down for a pre-bedtime nap, dinner, then bedtime. Overall it was a good day, but I had been so anxious about it.

Nicole is doing great. She is still really gassy, but we are able to manage it and she has become less fussy. She was diagnosed with reflux awhile back, so we have her on medicine for that and it helps the fussiness. She has really been fun to play with now. She loves to lay on her mat or changing table and watch her toys and her mobile. She makes the cutest little sounds and smiles back at us when we talk to her and smile. We found a great method to calm her on a DVD called "The Happiest Baby on the Block". I had the book while I was pregnant, but the DVD really helped us a lot. We are already thinking of ordering the toddler version by the same doctor. It really does work. I think I will get it for every pregnant person I know now. The next step for us is to work on getting her to fall asleep and stay asleep on her own. It is getting better, but she still spends a lot of time in our arms sleeping. Our goal is to get her to be able to sleep in her crib by 12 weeks. We will see if Nicole wants to follow that plan or not.

Almost 1 Month Old!

It amazes me that the last month has flown by so quickly. It seems like the days go by in 2-3 hr bits. Nicole is such a precious little girl and we love her so much, but it has definitely been an adjustment for us. I was hoping to update this blog weekly, but it has been hard to have a free hand. I seem to always either be feeding Nicole, playing with her, trying to get her to sleep, or using the time she is sleeping to get stuff done around the house. Everyone told us that we wouldn't get much sleep these first few weeks and that has really been the case. When we first got her home, we tried to lay her in the pack n' play in our room and she would not have it. She did not want to lay in her crib, her pack n' plays, her bouncy chair or her swing for more than a few minutes. The only way she would settle and sleep is when we were holding her. Last week I thought we had a breakthrough when we were able to get her to sleep in her crib for 3hr stretches. It was wonderful! Then all of a sudden, she didn't like that any more. We think most of her sleep problems are because of really painful gas. We've tried everything -- the drops, the burping, the tummy rubs, laying on her tummy, and nothing seems to really work. We feel so bad for her because she'll be sleeping and then we see the pain in her face as she struggles to let the gas go. The gas is loud and explosive and can last for awhile. I've been trying to do some research to find out if it is something I'm eating or what. We've decided it may be lactose overload, so I've adjusted the way I feed her. The other solution we found with her sleep is to make sure we don't get her overtired. The last few nights, we've been letting her sleep in her bouncy chair and she has been able to sleep for the long stretches again. Tonight we are going to try the crib again.

Shaun was able to spend the first two weeks at home with us and it was great to have his help. He went back to work last week and it has been interesting to adjust to having her all by myself. I feel like I'm always either feeding her or trying to get her to sleep. After a few days, I knew I had to find a way to get more activity in for her and more "me time." That has been getting better. Some days are better than others. Some days, I'm lucky to get a shower and then other days I'm able to fix dinner and take her for a walk. I love those days!

Nicole has grown so much since we brought her home. I put her in the outfit we brought her home in from the hospital and it almost fits. I'm not sure what her weight is, but she is definitely getting bigger. We got her pictures taken when she was 2 weeks old. They turned out so cute. We had to cut the session a little short because she got pretty fussy, but the pictures still turned out really well. She is happiest when she wakes up. I love to watch her big, wide eyes just look around and take things in. I know that people say babies don't smile at this age, but it seems like she has been smiling from the beginning. I'm not sure if she is smiling because she is happy or for some other reason, but I love to see her smile. Everyone who sees her swears she looks like Shaun. We think it is still hard to tell. I can see she definitely has some of Shaun's features though. Here are some of the pictures:

She's Here!! Labor and Delivery

Nicole Marie arrived on 18 March at 8:18am!! I know I was supposed to be prepared to go any day, but I've always heard people say they had a "feeling" the day they went into labor. This was definitely not the case with me. On Wednesday, I left work a little early because I had some stuff I needed to take care off. I went home and started working on stuff in the nursery. I put together a shelf (which was a lot harder than it should of been since I was soo pregnant). I was having contractions, but I figured it was because I was doing too much, so I figured I would just take it easy when I was done. Then at 6, the contractions got more regular. I tried lying down and resting, but that didn't seem to make them stop. Shaun got home late at 8 that night and that is when they started getting more painful. I thought I would just go to bed. That didn't work because I couldn't lay in bed. I started checking all my books to see what they said about when to go to the hospital and how to ease the pain. At 11pm, I woke Shaun up and told him it was time to go. We rushed and packed my hospital bag (I know I was supposed to have this done weeks before). We arrived at the hospital around midnight. They hooked me up to the monitors and checked me out. While they were checking me, I had a contraction that dilated me from a 3 to a 5, so they admitted me. At that point, I started getting anxious because I realized it was really getting ready to happen. I decided to have an epidural, which I got around 3 am, when I was dilated to an 8. Then the labor slowed down dramatically. It took me the next 3 hrs to get to a 9. The nurses recommended using this time to get some rest. I was able to sleep for about an hour. Then around 7, they came and asked me how I felt about speeding up the labor. We decided to have them break my water and see if that helped get the contractions going again. It helped a little, but by 7:30, they started pitocin and reduced my epidural, so we could get things moving. By 8:18, she was here. We were able to hold her right away and Shaun cut her cord. They checked her out and said everything looked great! She was still pretty small - 5lb 12oz and 17 3/4 in. We stayed in the hospital for 48 hrs. I couldn't wait to get home. It definitely has been an adjustment for us. She really is wonderful, but we need to work on establishing some sort of routine for her. I go back to work at the beginning of May. I'm not really looking forward to that, but the next few weeks will be nice to be at home with her.

Any time now! 38 Weeks!

Well I officially hit the "full-term" benchmark this past week. It is crazy to think that the little grain of sand I had inside me when I found out I was pregnant, has grown into an actual little girl that's almost ready to come out and join us. We've been pretty busy getting ready for her arrival. We had the baby shower a few weeks ago. It was a really great time! Vero and Carol did an excellent job planning it and making it fun for all our friends. We got lots of stuff from our registry that we needed. Our friends were way too generous! We had our maternity pictures taken. Some of them turned out really well. I can't wait to have the photographer come back out when our little one arrives.

I've been fighting a cold for the last week or so. I can't seem to get rid of it. This weakened immune system is a pain right now. Being unable to take much medicine has made it tough some days. We also need to go and do a tour at Labor and Delivery, but I don't want to do that until I've kicked this. We are probably going to try to do that this week or next weekend. We have another doctor's appointment on Friday, so we'll be pre-registering at the hospital, too. I can't believe we are at this point already. It is very exciting.

We washed a bunch of the baby clothes and set up a lot of the gifts we got. Now the nursery is starting to look like a nursery. It still isn't finished, but if she came today, it would be okay. We have a pack n' play set up, so she can sleep in our room for the first few weeks. We've been reading a bunch of baby books to get ready. We got our car seat installed and inspected. It is really strange having a car seat set up in the back of our car. We also have our stroller set up and it is just sitting in our hallway. Even Roxy can tell something is getting ready to change. We leave the baby room open, so she can go in there to check everything out. She checks it out almost every time she comes up the stairs. I know she is going to be jealous, but we are trying to make the transition as easy as possible for her.

I wonder if this will be the last post before her arrival. I doubt it. I don't feel like I'm getting too close. We'll see what the doctor says this week.