One Week With Lyla!

Lyla is a week old today!! What a week it has been!

We had a doctor appointment on tuesday at 4 o clock, and we found out that i was leaking some amniotic fluid.. our doctor said we'd probably have to go to the hospital to get tested there and to be given antibiotics, but then she came back and said that we were going to have our baby! So we headed home to pack a hospital bag and then went off to the hospital! It was so surreal, even when I got set up in the hospital I still wasn't fully convinced that I was about to have a baby! I got hooked up to some monitors and it turned out that I was having contractions that I couldn't even feel.. they broke my water the rest of the way bc it had ruptured a little already and gave me some pitocin, and soon i was definitely aware of my contractions.. I was having what they call 'back labor' and feeling all the pain in my back and my butt, like my butt bone was going to explode.. anyway, at about 10 o clock i decided to get the epidural, which was amazing! I could still feel the bigger contractions a little bit but nothing painful.. at about 12:30, I called the nurse in because I was feeling a lot of pressure and she said we could start pushing and that the baby's head was right there!!!! The pushing stage was surprisingly easy and painless, thanks to the epidural... it took about half hour and I didn't even really need to push a lot at the end, my contractions were pushing her out on their own! And Lyla was born at 1:12 am.. she was crying before she was even fully born!! I got to hold her right after she was born and she was so beautiful!! Erik and I fell in love with her immediately!! She weighed 6 lbs and was 19 in long.

We were in the hospital until Friday morning... Lyla had to get a blood test and we had to wait until then for the results (which came back fine!) In those couple of days we mastered some necessary skills like diaper changing and swaddling, had a couple emotional breakdowns over breast feeding, and spent time getting to know our baby! Lyla had lots of visitors in the hospital... Grandma and Grandpa, her Great Aunt Lois and Great Uncle Karl and Kenny, Auntie Britt, Uncle Alex, and Uncle Alex Martin.. she has met so many other people since then, too!

The first couple of nights at home were pretty difficult, I had a hard time sleeping, just because I was worried we wouldn't wake up to her crying, and I kept wanting to check her every time she made a little fussy noise. But now we are finally getting some good sleep at night, and then I can nap more during the day, too.

Monday was her first doctor appointment, and everything looks great! She had already gained 6 oz since Friday, which impressed the doctor a lot. She had no yellowing or anything like that, no other issues... and she was so cooperative at the office, only crying when they took off her diaper to weigh her.

Things at home have been going pretty well, although I still feel quite exhausted a lot of the time despite being able to sleep more at night. My mom has been here helping me during the day so that has been reaaally helpful.

I would describe Lyla as .. AWESOME!! she is such a quiet and content baby.. She doesn't really cry, except at bath time.. when she's hungry, she whines a little and eats at her hands, but no crying! She is also just really sleepy. She wakes up to eat, and then falls asleep while eating. When she's awake, she's very attentive and focuses right on our faces! In general, she seems like a very quiet, content little newborn!

Anyway, I declared today of rest for me, so I am pretty much staying in bed all day and napping as much as possible. I think my body wants me to get more sleep because i have just been soo tired lately, and I'm especially tired today because Lyla had me up a BUNCH last night!!!! So my mom is here helping out with Lyla and condo maintenance again.. My parents are here every day helping out, and I am so thankful to have them here, i'm not sure I could make it without them!

Back to napping!

Nesting

I never believed in nesting until about 20 minutes ago. But it is a real thing people.

It is like this. Say you are a messy person like me who enjoys clutter and piles of crap everywhere. Then say, you are just hanging out with yourself in your place, and all of a sudden, the clutter and the piles are the most disgusting things you've ever seen. And you must clean them IMMEDIATELY! This is especially apparent if you are a huge procrastinator like me... While I was doing this cleaning, I thought to myself... "You know, you could always clean this up tomorrow..." That's the real procrastinator in me.. but this new nesting me could not physically let the things sit and had to clean them up!!!

Too weird too weird.

And now it is 1 in the morning, and I am tired, but there is still much to clean! The place really is a disaster....

Another note about nesting.. if you know me and my obsessive love of books... you might even call me a hoarder of books and all things paper... well... I almost THREW AWAY an old planner.... I didn't end up doing.. but I had the planner in my hand and the lid to the trash can open.. that's how close it got!!

So in short, I believe in nesting.

Busy Girls!

Wow, lots has happened since I last posted, but apparently Lyla and I have both been very busy!

At our 36 week appointment on August 10, we found out that Lyla has dropped down already and that I'm already dilated to 3 cm!! Apparently, this doesn't mean a whole lot because a lot of women walk around dilated at 3 cm for weeks!! The doctor told us to mentally prepare to make it all the way to our due date! At first I panicked because I didn't feel ready at all!! But I cleaned up a lot of stuff, and we have the nursery prepared now, so I am feeling a lot better and really hope she gets here soon! Now that I know it could be any day, I am ready for her to come out and want to not be pregnant anymore, although I will say that overall I have enjoyed being pregnant!!

Lyla is still moving around a lot in there, but mostly just pressing her butt into me and making little jabby movements with her legs and arms. It's really quite painful sometimes! Poor girl is out of space, no wonder she is making her way towards the exit =)

In other news, Erik and I are engaged!!! He asked me on August 8 at our baby shower that my roomies threw for me!! It was amazing, and I was completely taken unawares! It was just so awesome to be able to share that moment with my closest friends and parents!

So I have been busy preparing for baby AND trying to get some wedding planning going.. just looking at ceremony sites, reception halls, and that kind of thing... figuring out a budget, blah blah blah. It's quite stressful really, weddings are so expensive! But we have gotten started so I am pretty proud about that! I just can't wait for our big day!!! It's going to be so fun! And Lyla will be there!! YAY!!!

Baby Showers!

Since the last post we've had TWO baby showers, one on July 18 and the other today! They have been SO fun, and we have gotten a lot of really awesome gifts!!!!

The first was with mostly relatives of mine, Erik's mom and sisters, and some family friends! We had GREAT food made by my Aunt Lois and my mom.. lots of cute little sandwiches, fruit and desserts!! We played a bunch of games.. we had to guess types of baby food, fill out a questionnaire about me, match the word 'baby' in other languages to the right language and match name meanings to names! it was fun! Then I opened gifts.. we got LOTS of big stuff.. the crib, high chair, exersaucer, stoller, and infant car seat.. plus tons of cute clothes and toys... My mom finished knitting a blanket for the baby, which is awwwwesome, and my grandma gave me a blanket that my great-grandma had knit for a future great great granddaughter back in 1990!! wow! it was SO nice and meaningful!! Oh we also got a baby carrier and a bundle me, which are both really great... anyway. lots of things! :)

Today we had a shower with Erik's relatives and family friends, mostly from Bethany i think... and we got TONS of stuff!! First we had more great food and then moved right to opening presents.. we got lots and lots of clothes, including SIX swimsuits!! I got a changing table mat, a boppy pillow, our pack and play, diaper genie and a baby swing, which looks like its going to be GREAT!!!!! Lots of cute beachy things, bath toys, diapers, bottles, shoes... lots of onesies... just tons of stuff!! After I eat some dinner I'm going to start organizing the stuff in Lyla's closet that I can fit in there! But there is SO much haha!! Some of my fave gifts: a little tennis racket with poofy tennis balls.. and a scrapbook started for us by Kari!!!! its sooo cute and leaves lots of space for pics and extra pages that we can put together!

Just seeing all the baby stuff in the condo makes me SO excited, the day really is coming up fast!!! And I feel like we still have lots to do to get ready! At the same time, can we really be fully prepared for such a life altering experience??! Probably not.. but we can prepare as much as possible =)

Only 6 more weeks!!!! I can't WAIT to put a baby in all our new stuff hehe

Gettin Fat [both of us]

The other day at work I was going down some stairs, and for the first time, I could really feel her weight in my belly! It was like with every step I could feel her being pulled down by gravity in there. So strange!

Anyway yesterday we had another doctor appt. Nothing too exciting to report there, everything is perfectly normal. We didn't get to see our doctor AGAIN for the 3rd time.. I think she's on vacation this week actually. Pretty routine appt, testing blood pressure, fetal heartbeat, measuring the height of the fundus, and all is well. We also asked the nurse if she could tell us how the baby's positioned right now... at the moment she's head down and will likely stay that way until birth.. her back and butt are on the left side and her little arms and legs are on the right side of my belly, which I kind of figured since I feel a lot of kicking over in that area.

Right now Maggie, Lyla and I are hanging out at the condo.. Maggie keeps barking whenever the people above us walk around, and I think her barking is startling Lyla, she kicks whenever Maggie is barking close to her! The new condo is great. It's already kind of a mess. We keep getting new stuff for it and I haven't put any of it away yet so it's just sitting all over the condo. It's also covered in Maggie drool... I already told Erik he has to clean it all up at some point. Anyway, besides the mess and drool, it's SO nice in here and a great first home for our little one! Hopefully Erik can paint the nursery tomorrow... our first baby shower is on Sunday and I want the room to be ready to have all the furniture put in it!! I can't wait for the shower, I think it'll be pretty fun!! PLUS we'll get lots of things for Lyla! I hate the idea of only ME opening presents in front of everyone though, how awkward.

only about 8 more weeks to go! AHH!!!!!!!

8 Weeks To Go

Have you ever met someone and thought, 'wow, that person will be a great mother?' Well, I would definitely NOT consider myself one of those people. And yet here i sit, 2 months away from being a parent for the rest of my life. Not quite what I had in mind for after college, but i can't complain!

You might wonder, how does it feel knowing you only have 2 months left of non-parenthood? So far it doesn't really feel like much. I don't know if I can fully comprehend what it means right now, what it will be like from her birthday on... Right now it almost doesn't feel like it's actually going to happen. It's like when you are packing for a huge trip.. and the reality of going to whatever place doesn't really hit you until you get there or maybe even a couple of days later. In short, it hasn't hit me yet! I should probably be feeling pretty scared.. and I am a bit a nervous, but I'm mostly so excited and getting impatient about how slowly time seems to be passing. I was thinking about how fast time went in the beginning.. months seemed to fly by.. and now the weeks just seem to be crawling along... every sunday feels like another HUGE milestone.

But I'm really excited to be a mom. I feel like it will be hard, but it can't be SO hard... people become new mothers every day!

So really this is going to be a blog about Lyla and her cuteness and all her happenings.

So far her cuteness is difficult to monitor bc of the opaque nature of human skin. Forever ago, before I even knew I was a pregnant, I had a dream that I had a clear belly and I could see a baby inside.. actually it was a kitten, so that was weird. and actually we could take the kitty out and put him back in.... anyway. it'd be cool to have a clear belly haha.

She's moving around a lot still.. but not as much as before, which is supposed to be normal at this time. She is getting a bit cramped in there.. and also sleeping a lot more to prepare for the BIG DAY! :O!!!

Birth. What an awful experience for a baby. Good thing they can't remember it. It would be traumatizing... 'I was passing the days sleeping and snuggling myself, minding my own business, when all of a sudden... i was SQUEEZED through a tiny hole and brought into a place that was cold and bright with so much noise etc....' I don't even want to think about what it will be like for myself so we just won't even go there.

Also we realized we can SEE my belly move when Lyla moves! So that is really cool! It's hard though bc its like.. Oh she's moving!!! and then we'll watch the belly.. and she's already stopped.... She's so sneaky! I already know that she is so cute and amazing hehe. We love her so much!!!