Eva - Month 1!

Eva's been with our family for a month now!  As time does, it flew by.  So I thought I would do a quick recap of the month and add more pictures of our little person.

Week 0 - Organized chaos.  We arrived home on a Tuesday and introduced Eva to her home.  JD, Kim and Maddy visited our first night and brought enough food from Livonia Bakery to feed us for the next couple of lunches and dinners.  Ellie was amazingly sweet and excited to have us and her sister home.  Maybe a little too excited.  She got up 3 or 4 times that first night.  It must have been hard to have all of us together while she slept on the other side of the house.

Fortunately, Grandma Weitzel stayed with us the fist few days to help be an extra pair of hands.  And then when she left, Gigi Robison came over to help.  We are definitely smarter about accepting all help this time around.  I don't think we have said "no" once...you offer and we accept :)

Week 1 - Braden was still off work and we were enjoying the family time.  He spent lots of extra time with Ellie which she loved.  They would go outside and build obstacle courses and just pal around.

We celebrated our first Halloween together.  Ellie and Eva had matching blue princess costumes.

Week 2 -  Braden heads back to work.  Leaving our little bubble made me sad.  Life is so good when you don't have to focus on anything else but each other.  Our little vacation from reality was sweet and so appreciated.

By the end of the week, Eva had outgrown her "newborn" clothes.  You could really start to see her change.  The little chicken legs all newborns seem to be born with were getting little, countable fat rolls.  Her little butt was starting to fill out and looking like it had some "meat" to it.

Week 3 - We started experiencing gassy tummy troubles this week.  So we started focusing on anti-gas measures (burping, gripe water, gas drops).  Poor little thing looked so uncomfortable.  But by the end of the week, we seemed to be getting the hang of burping and more and more gas seemed to be expelled from her little bottom.  It's tough being little when all systems are new and nothing seems to be fully functional just yet.

Mom and Dad Robison said that Eva would follow my voice, by turning her head and try to track me with her eyes, no matter where I was in a room.

Week 4 - Eva experienced her first cold.  I was almost in tears at first.  I tried so hard to keep her away from germs.  I've been hesitant to go anywhere or do much of anything for fear of exposure to all the winter germs that are starting to float around.  But fortunately she weathered the experience well.  No fevers.  Just congestion.  We started Vitamin D supplements and propped her up in a swing for sleeping.  By Friday's doctor appt, she was doing well.

On Thursday, we started to get our first smiles and coos.  And she really started to seem to interact with us.  Her hand movements have become more intentional with her little hands grabbing onto things she wants.  She also is able to hold her head for decent amounts of time, which is making holding onto her so much easier.

We also confirmed our guesses...she'd grown like bamboo this first month with a visit to Dr Gordon on Friday.  She jumped from the 20th percentiles to 70th percentiles in height and weight.  Weight was 10lbs 4ozs, height 21.7ins and head circumference 14.5ins.  She's now filling her 3 month clothes nicely and doesn't have much room left.

Lastly, her sleep habits have been GREATLY appreciated.  From the beginning, she seemed to know her nights.  She started sleeping somewhere between 8-10pm and then continues to sleep only waking for feedings. So although I'm not getting great sleep being the feeder and changer, I'm not pacing the house like a zombie trying to get her to sleep (knock on wood!).

Transitions and Ellie

Ellie's been a little challenging for me recently.  Being fairly sleep deprived w/ all the over night feedings, all I want to do is be mellow.  But  that is the LAST thing an active 3 year old wants.  So there have been many times when Ellie and I get into a power struggle.  I ask her to do something (ie. "Me: please put your pants on", "Her: No, chase me")  And I feel such frustration (and sadly anger sometimes) in those moments.  

This was the recent note from Ellie's teacher and an timely reminder of all the really good parts of my active, sometimes frustrating 3 year old.  It made me stop and think and realize that I need to figure out a better way of balancing the very different needs of Eva and Ellie.

Something that is very special about Ellie is how flexible she is with other children.  Even though she has been an only child (up until three weeks ago), she shows so much love, empathy, and openness towards other children.  She is always asking, "Can I play with you?" and "Do you want to play with me?"  She seems to play almost any game with almost any child.  Ellie has made some meaningful connections with the girls in our group, but she doesn't limit herself to a certain play scenario and/or children.

We are working on problem-solving in our group pretty heavily right now, which is typical of this age.  It's important to give as many choices as possible throughout the day so children can feel that they have control over themselves and their choices.  At the same time, it's important to establish boundaries/guidelines with children so they know how far they can try to "push".  :)

Ellie is always so excited to be at school and her smiling never seems to end! I love that she feels so passionate about school and wants to come even when she's having a stay-at-home day (pictures and the Friendship Feast). :) She seems very proud to be a big sister and loves to talk about Eva! 

Eva's Birth Story

It all started with a full moon on October 19th.  I had a feeling Eva would come on the October full moon.

My very first non-stress test in the Birthing Center was delayed because the staff was so busy with a glut of deliveries.  They swore all the births were tied to the September Full Moon.  They hypothesize the gravitational pull of the moon breaks the amniotic sacks.

And with all my extra amniotic fluid, I thought I was an excellent candidate for the "full moon effect".  Turns out that it was a Harvest/Hunter Full Moon and was big, orange and really beautiful.  Braden wanted me to take a picture of it as we got onto the express way but the phone camera just didn't do it justice.  So here's a picture from the internet but it looked just like this.

I'm getting ahead of myself.  Rewinding a couple hours before, Braden was cooking dinner and just sharing that the Saturday had not gone at all like he thought.  And then minutes later, I came back to him sharing a suspicion that my water had broken (I felt like I was slowly peeing).  We just smiled because it was so fitting given the other strange occurrences of the pregnancy and his statement about nothing going as planned.

After dinner (we were too anxious to really eat but the food was already made), we called the midwife hotline and of course got Jen S (the midwife we always seem to get when something weird was going on).  At first she said to keep an eye on it, but called back because Dr. D was on duty and wanted us to come in for a non-stress test (ahhh yes, more non-stress tests due to the umbilical cord defect).

So arrangements were made with Mom W to meet us at the hospital to take Ellie.  (Fortunately Rose and Mike were running the Detroit Marathon the next morning so Grandma was going to be watching all the little ones anyhow.  And Ellie was thrilled to be having a sleepover with her cousins.)

Once hooked up to the fetal monitors, contractions started and we were able to see that Eva was managing the contractions wonderfully.  The nurses also confirmed water broke with some kind of test.  So I was admitted and we knew it was game on.  Eva was going to be arriving one way or another.

They wanted to know if we wanted to do anything to speed labor along.  But we asked that we take the evening to rest and see where labor naturally went.  Well that was a big, fat no where.  But on the good side, we were well rested come morning! 

Jo, the birth photographer left a Halloween party to join us for the evening.  I was in the hospital bed, Braden had the couch and Jo was in the reclining chair.  But in the morning we found out that she had come down with food poisoning overnight.  With labor completely stopped and "water" no longer leaking, we sent her home to recover.  (Poor thing didn't recover in time for the birth but she did make it up to us in the long run :) )

Although our room was an oasis of calmed excitement, the rest of the floor was off the hook.  Full moon craziness reigned.  We talked to Dr D at 8am and he had personally delivered five babies since 3am and was headed back in to deliver another one even though he was now technically off duty.  We didn't meet our day shift nurse until 1pm because she had been in back to back deliveries (she had started at 7am).

But honestly, we didn't mind.  It gave Braden and I plenty of time to settle in and "enjoy" some quiet time together.  We went for walks around the floor.  Took naps.  Ate yummy room service foods.  We were actually grateful that everyone was so busy and that we were hardly bothered.

Jen S was back on duty Sunday.  After a very busy morning, she tracked us down and started to discuss options.  Based on Dr D's recommendation, we decided to kick start labor again with pitocin.  He felt that it was the best way to push Eva down the birth canal and ensure that the umbilical cord didn't prolapse if water did break.

But after 2-3 hours on pitocin, we were no farther than when we started.  I was hardly feeling the contractions.  So at 5pm, we were at the 24hr mark since the initial leak started and potentially facing more interventions (antibiotics, etc).  We decided to "needle the amniotic sack" and break the water in more gentle way. 

What a crazy, crazy feeling.  Once the water was broken, it just gushed out and kept coming for what felt like a really long time.  But it also signaled "game time" for us.  They kept me on pitocin for another 30mins but the contractions were so intense that we quickly turned it off.

My body took over.  The midwives and Braden were amazing.  I was asking for an epidural (what felt like) soon after contractions took off.  But they just kept kindly delaying my requests and suggesting other comfort measures.  Rose arrived shortly and sweetly brought Braden a Smash burger (good for him, stinky for me :) )

Three hours later, at 8:39pm, Eva joined us at 7lbs 1oz and 19.75ins.  We had the opportunity to just enjoy her for the first hour or so.  Lynn R, the midwife I had been seeing at clinic actually delivered and was awesome at ensuring an intact bottom.  And Elizabeth, the attending nurse, was a midwife in Nigeria and took great care of all of us through the rest of the night.

Jo came back the morning of our discharge and took pictures of our room and last minutes together before heading back into the "real world".

Memories of a non-stress test

The one and only awesome Dr D

Loved our cranberry juice!!!

Headed home

Victory! Potty Training 0 - Parents 1

I feel safe enough after almost a week in underwear to claim us victorious over potty training.  As promised by her teachers, they have never sent a preschooler to kindergarten in diapers.

I have to say that I'm really happy and proud of us all for staying calm and patient with the process.  You would've sworn just a few short months ago that Ellie would be in diapers the rest of her life given her aversion to the toilet.  But here we are and how proud she makes herself when she uses the toilet.

Go team!!!  Happy Sunday to us :)

All's Cheeky

Little Eva's eating and growing and eating and growing.  She turns 3 weeks in just a couple of days and from our very rough measurement is at least an inch taller.  Absolutely amazing!


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