Better late than never?

When I was cleaning this morning, I realized that I had never posted the birth story that the doula wrote... so I figured I'd post it now. Don't worry, it's much shorter than the ones Chuck and I wrote!

Early on April 27^th you called Christi telling her you had been up throughout the night. You were experiencing mild, inconsistent contractions. She reminded you to eat, to drink, and to go on with your normal activities. She encouraged you to keep your appointment with the chiropractor- knowing an adjustment would help proper alignment for the baby. Later that day you called again saying the contractions were still hanging around. We expressed the importance of rest and relaxation.

At 7:00pm Chuck called me to give an update. After talking with him on the phone I asked to talk with you (I needed to hear you work through a contraction). Once I heard you breath/moan through a LNOG contraction I instructed Chuck to fill a bath (in an attempt to get you to relax). At that point I knew it was time to come. I arrived at your house sometime before 9:00. I found you upstairs, completely naked, contracting on the toiled. You said you wanted to go to the hospital, I too thought that was a good idea. Based on the amount of bloody show you were presenting I knew you were dilating well.

I helped you get dressed while Chuck packed up a few last minute things. Your loyal dogs walked you to the door and we left the house around 9:25. Once at Riverside you labored your way through the parking ot and up to the labor and delivery floor. You were told there were no beds available and to wait in the waiting room. I shrugged saying “When you feel the urge to push we will get a room.” Your next contraction brought you to your knees, which lead the nurses to find you a room. Once in the room, at 9:45, your cervix was checked and your dilation was 8-9 cm!

You were laboring beautifully- so controlled. Chuck and I set the room with dim lights and soft music. I shared with you the verse Isaiah 41:10 Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, and help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Erin, Chuck and I witnessed the Lord’s provision of strength to you, what a blessed. You continued to confidently change positions, drink water, and empty your bladder. You liked warm compresses on your back and loved cold washcloths on your bladder.

The nursing staff allowed you to move around as needed, they only got a bit jumpy when you labored on the toilet. Chuck and I watched you move from active labor into transition, the tremble and shake of endorphins (to offset the pain) was quite clear. At 10:45, which squatting, you felt a small urge to push. The caused the nurse to check your cervix, which was now measuring 10cm. For the next hour you labored in several positions, however you preferred hands and knees. While in this position, I applied warm compresses on your perineum and at 11:45 your membranes ruptured- causing all of us to jump (and laugh). You trusted in your Maker completely.

You pushed with each urge and you rested (and even slept) between each contraction. You leaned into the Lord and His design for birth. You worshiped along with the music. You were not anxious or fearful. You continued to move your baby down through your pelvis. A little after midnight the doctor came into the room and allowed you to stay on your hands and knees. You continued to push with strength and stamina. Your baby’s head began to crown, you blew, and then with one more push she was born.

At 12:13am, on April 28, 2019, Christiana Jade took her first breath. She received a few minutes of cord blood and then was placed in your arms. You and Chuck soaked in the sweet moment of meeting your daughter. We all gave thanks to the Lord for this blessed event and miracle baby.

The doctor agrees

That Jade's amazing :) We had Jade's 4-month appt yesterday and she said that Jade has the trunk control of a 6-month old and the leg strength of an 8-month old. Yeah, you read that right. So it's not just conceited mama thinking :)

She weighed in at a whopping 12 pounds 2 ounces. She's 24 inches long and her head measurement is 15.75. She's in the 15-25% for weight and the 45-50% for everything else, which has been consistent since 2 weeks so everything is good to go.

I discussed our sleep/bottle issues and got 2 suggestions: try to give her a little bit of cereal (1 tablespoon) so see if it helps her sleep and go ahead and try a sippy cup... and skip straight to the kind with a straw. The sippy cup I'm totally game for... I'm sick of bottles :) But the solids kind of trip me out... there are all kinds of reasons why they normally advise waiting until 6 months, but they said that she has all the qualities they look for: lots of drool, good neck/trunk control and is very oral (ie, everything goes into her mouth). So I dunno. I figure we'll try it... but I kind of doubt that it'll help, and if it doesn't I'm gonna stop until the 6 month point.

My parents are supposed to come visit on Saturday, but Hurricane Earl is visiting on Friday. Hopefully the hurricane won't be too bad and we won't have to evacuate because that would definitely put a cramp in our weekend plans :)

4 months

Jade is 4-months old today. She celebrated by sleeping last night. Nothing extraordinary... but 3 hours in her crib is so much better than what we got the rest of the week.

She's rolling over front to back fairly consistently. Even in front of me a couple times :)

She has now officially held herself up with her arms while sitting once. She tries all the time, but her arms just aren't quite strong enough and she's super flexible so she winds up sitting... but with her face on the floor.

We went to Christopher Newport University yesterday to hand out fliers for our church's new college ministry, and she did so well. I had her in the babyhawk and she just looked around and hung out for a whole hour. It was great.

I am slooowly learning back carries with my wrap, which I love. I am hoping to get more proficient soon because she really likes to be able to look around and she'd be able to see so much more this way. But so far she's been too low to see over my shoulder, so I'm working on that.

We're loving cloth diapers. Still trying to decide which ones we're going to use full time, but we're definitely going to make the switch.

She's still a pretty serious baby... but she is smiling more and we FINALLY managed to get a few smiles on the camera- yay :)

And for the pictures...

My little girl

Is getting so big.

I am aMaZeD at how strong she is. She loves nothing more than to sit on the edge of the table while holding onto our hands. Oh wait, I take that back... she loves to STAND on the edge of the table holding onto our hands. She just stands there, looking around, wobbling all over the place, but so proud. Every now and then she'll let go of one hand for a second or two. I'm not sure how many almost 4-month-olds can do that, but I declare my 4-month-old amazing even if it's more normal than I think it is :)

The visit with Carmen and Randy was really good. Chuck and I were able to go see 2 movies... Despicable Me and Inception. I definitely liked Despicable Me better. Jade wouldn't take the bottle from Carmen here (I was really hoping she would say "oh, this is the person I took the bottle from in that other house", but no such luck) but we just left the house after putting her down for the night and it was ok.

Sleep was going better for a few days, but now is getting worse again. There's something called the 4-month sleep regression that I think we're going through. It's like she's too curious about what's around to sleep. Up until now, if she was asleep when we got to Target, I would strap her on and she would sleep the whole way through the store. But now she's looking all over the place and won't go back to sleep. And then we get into that lovely overtired place where she's exhausted but can't/won't sleep. Hopefully this won't last long, because I was enjoying the 4-5 hours she was doing in the crib at the start of the night :)

Grandparents

Are in town! It's so nice to have built in babysitters at the house :)

Jade and I had a good week overall. Her naps are getting much more predictable and nighttime sleep is getting some better.

I just finished up a life group with some ladies in my church... we did the book Frappe with Philippians by Sandra Glahn. I loved it and highly recommend it. I'm going to look into the other books in the study.

Wow

I'm a big fat slacker. I am determined to post more frequently, but this gets pushed to the back of the priority list fairly often. I will try to be better :)

Last week, my friend Jessica and her 11-month-old little boy Caleb came to visit. We had a ton of fun just sitting around doing nothing. We did go to Williamsburg to go to the outlet malls and I got 2 pairs of jeans that fit and do not have holes in them. An amazing thing in my post-pregnancy life.

This week we are starting to transition Jade to her crib some. Up until now we have been co-sleeping and bed-sharing. My goal is for her to do her first stretch of sleep in the crib and then we'll bring her to bed with us. Unfortunately, so far her first stretch of sleep has been 2 hours. Not exactly a lot. I'm thinking that we might be hitting the 4-month-wakeful a bit early, but we'll see. I'm not too worried about it. Honestly, as much as I never thought I would, I love bedsharing. I love waking up and seeing my baby girl laying right beside me. I just don't want to do it forever... so I do want to get her used to sleeping in her crib at least part of the night. But she is napping in her crib for most of her naps now, which is huge, so that's good.

Another new thing this week is cloth diapers. For various reasons that I can expand on if you guys care, I decided to try them out. There's a website that has a trial... you get to keep them for 21 days and as long as you return them all, it just costs you $10. So far they've worked really well... but I haven't had to wash them yet, so I'll let you guys know how that goes :)

And that is all.

Quick update

Today was our first appointment with the occupational therapist. Last week at her evaluation, they basically said that her mouth needs to be trained to do what most babies do naturally: suck and swallow. She will suck on her hand all day long, but had a hard time with the breast, and will not take a pacifier or bottle.

The appointment was fairly uneventful, but we can't expect a miracle in a week! We will go once a week for 6 weeks, and then re-evaluate.

Yesterday we had Jade's 3-month pictures made. She was the most serious-faced baby ever, but I think the pictures turned out really well. Here's a link if you're interested: http://smilestore.picturepeople.com/PR3/ThumbPage.aspx?e=6983224.