We have a big eater!

All of those feedings paid off! At the dr.'s appt. yesterday she finally gained weight. She now weighs 8 lbs. 4.7 oz... slightly more than her birth weight. So she gained over 12 oz. in 5 days! I was so proud of her. No more visits to the baby wellness center for weight checks. And we were able to schedule her 2 month check up with a different pediatrician. The first one we saw was a nightmare! Hopefully the next one will be better. Some pictures from the past day or so for your enjoyment.

2 weeks old already!

Well technically 2 1/2 weeks old today! She's changing so much. Her face is looking more like a baby face and less like a newborn face. She's making noises and making funny expressions. I now know why everyone says it goes by so fast... and we're only 2 weeks in!

To catch you all up, she had a visit from her Auntie Janett which was lots of fun, and for Christmas she'll have some more visitors... Auntie Janett and Uncle John, and for the first time she'll be meeting Grandma Maryellen. I can't wait for that!

I'm not one to keep my baby locked up inside just because she's new here so we've had a few trips already. Of course, several doctor's appts., 2 trips to target, the bank, a Xmas get together at Grandma Kelly's, Xmas cookies with the Grcina's and yesterday we went to a Xmas lunch at a restaurant with my mom's side of the family. I know she's still a newborn so that's why I bring my hand sanitizer, but I don't see any reason why I should keep her (and myself) locked up in this house for months.

We've been going to see a lactation consultant at the baby wellness center at Kaiser. Normally they schedule one or two appts. with you but we've now had about 5 and we have 1 more tomorrow. For some reason Farrah hasn't been gaining weight. She lost weight after birth, like most normal babies do, but she got down to 7 lbs. 8.5 oz (from her birth weight of 8 lbs. 4 oz.) and hasn't gained it back. So they keep giving me ideas and scheduling more appts. for weight checks. So now I've been breast feeding, then I give her a bottle of pumped milk, and then I give her some formula to top her off. Add a diaper change or two in there and then it's time to start it all over again. But I think it's working. I've had a lot more milk come in and she's been eating like there's no tomorrow. She looks chunkier too so I know tomorrow at the appt. she will have gained weight. One of the things they noticed at the last appt. was that she has a tongue tie which is why they thought she might have a hard time latching on and therefore not gaining enough weight. It's where the flap of skin that attaches the tongue to the bottom of your mouth is too far forward so you can't stick your tongue out very far. So they sent us to see a head and neck specialist because they can cut it to fix the problem. Of course I freak out because I don't want a pair of scissors anywhere near my child but the dr. took a look and said it's not severe and that he didn't think she needed the procedure done. Talk about a sigh of relief. I see her stick her tongue out all the time so I didn't think it was a problem.

Here are some pictures from the past 2 weeks. We are so in love with her and I could stare at her all day. Merry Christmas everyone!

Farrah Lynn is here!

Sorry for the delay in posting the details but I've been a little occupied with a newborn ;) Here's how it went down:

Farrah Lynn was born Thursday 12/3 at 3:25 pm weighing 8 lbs. 4 oz and 21 inches long. I had a dr.'s appt. that Tues. and she stripped my membranes again to try to get things going. Later that evening I started having contractions. They got pretty intense and were consistently 4-5 minutes apart so we headed to the hospital. They checked me and I was only 2 cm so they told me to walk around the hospital for 2 hours and come back and they'd check me again. So I did and the contractions increased to about 3 mins apart and were even more intense. After 2 hours of that I returned and to my surprise was still only 2 cm. So they recommended to give me a shot of morphine to help me sleep and sent me home.

The morphine was great because I thought there was absolutely no way I could sleep through those contractions but I was able to get 6 hours of sleep and didn't feel the contractions. The next morning the contractions had decreased which I was told could happen with the morphine. They were inconsistent and not as frequent so I didn't think it would be happening that day. As soon as I went to bed Wednesday night they picked up again. Once they got to 5 minutes apart we headed back to the hospital and I was 3 cm so they admitted me. A few hours after I got my epidural (which was fabulous!) and I was able to get some rest. The one thing about the epidural was I thought I wouldn't be able to feel anything but I was wrong. About 3 hours before I started pushing I started to feel the contractions again (not super strong but I felt them.) and insane pressure. It felt like it was time to push but they kept saying I wasn't ready.... another half hour.... 3 hours later I was ready to kill someone! Finally it was time to push. Sometime in that period I spiked a fever of 101.8. Apparently there's a cutoff of 101.5 for the baby to have to go to the NICU so I was told they would have to take the baby right away. I had here out with 45 minutes of pushing and she seemed perfectly healthy so they let me hold her for a while. She stayed in the hospital until the Sunday night after delivery running tests and giving her antibiotics. She was finally able to come home. She is absolutely perfect and we're in love. Here are some pics from the hospital and coming home from the hospital.

40 weeks and I am so done!

Worse than the lack of sleep, back pains, difficulty moving around and the feeling huge combined is the waiting. Just sitting around waiting for this little one to arrive has been the hardest part. I've had all the signs and symptoms of labor, just no labor. Every pain I feel I think "is this it?" and every morning I wake up thinking today could be the day and end up going to bed dissapointed that nothing has happened. I'm sure Abe's getting anxious too since he had all last week off for the Thanksgiving holiday and has just been here helping around the house and waiting with me.

Farrah will officially be a December baby. I thought for sure there's no way that would ever happen. I never thought of myself as a control freak but this is the ultimate test. I have no control and keep reminding myself that God is in control, not me, not Abe, not the Dr., and not even Farrah. I have a dr.'s appt. this afternoon and hope that we'll either have some great progress or can talk about induction. Farrah has been a big baby all along and I don't want to wait to much longer and have her be so big that it's risky and/or we have to have a c-section.

One of this week's pictures is of Abe holding a bball he bought for Farrah that says "Baby's 1st Basketball." I reminded him, however, that Grandma Maryellen already got Farrah a glow in the dark pink bball. He said we'll leave it up to Farrah to decide. Just know I have your back

g-ma! ;)

I'd like to say this is my last post as a preggo but I don't want to jinx it like I did last time so I'll just say I can't wait to share the good news when it's time.