Facts about little miss Chloe

• She doesn't wake us up, we wake her up to eat
• She lost 5oz after she was born, but was back to her birth weight the day after we got home
• Her eyes roll like crazy when she's tired
• If she goes from content to crying like crazy, she probably just went #2
• When you've fixed all her problems and she's still fussing and crying, she just wants another sip of milk then she goes right to sleep
• Her hands are badly peeling, and I love picking at them :p
• She started going crazy on Sunday

So far she has been a pretty easy baby for us, up until Sunday. My mother spent two nights with us the day we got out of the hospital and took care of her at night so I could get caught up on sleep. She cleaned, she cooked, she cleaned some more, and she took care of Chloe. It was great. I had my first bout of post-partum crying when she left. 

We spent one night alone with Chloe. She was fine all day Saturday, but got fussy during/after feeding her in the evening. It was the same thing after we fed her around 1am Sunday, and the same thing in the morning. Sunday afternoon she was a little fussy when eating, a little fussy when I was giving her a bath. Her daddy went to work and she started crying on and off. She'd lay in bed for 15 minutes, then cry. She'd sit in her seat for 10 minutes, then cry. I'd hold her and she'd cry. I would try everything. Then she got really upset and cried  non-stop for awhile. I just couldn't figure her out. I gave her more milk, she drifted off but woke up when the phone rang. I gave her a little more milk, and this time we both fell asleep on the chair. When I put her to bed, her eyes opened but this time she actually went to sleep. She slept great, like she normally does.

At her Sunday night feeding she fussed, but not nearly as much as earlier in the day. She's still having a hard time getting to sleep.

So mother came back to help me out again for awhile. Hopefully we can figure out what's upsetting her so much, because I don't think it's just fussing. Some of the crying she was doing sounded pretty painful. I hate seeing her so upset.

I think I jinxed it when I said to B last night how lucky we are to have such a content, easy baby. She's been crying practically ever since.

Here's to hoping we can figure out my baby girl and get her back to her happy self.

Ps.. I have a bunch of posts that I'd done leading up to Chloe being born as well as a few guest posts from some awesome ladies. I'll be blogging again here and there, but that's mostly what you'll be getting for the next couple of weeks. 

My girl is here

My mother recently told me this story, about a 15-month old baby who squirmed out of his mother's arms and fell over the balcony in the Toronto airport. And she told me while she was sitting across from me holding my baby girl. The thought alone near killed me. And so begins the terrifying job of motherhood. 

So yes, she is here. My amazing little mini-me. 

I told you a week ago today about the night I thought I was in labor. The rest of Friday went by, then most of Saturday. A post went up on Monday, but it was one I scheduled in advance. 

I went to see the Lion King in 3D with my friend, Sarah, and at 9:38pm on Saturday, September 24th I started timing contractions. 15 minutes apart. And this time, they didn't stop. At 2am I sent my mother the text telling her to come to town. She was here by three. B's mother came over too. The waiting game began. Finally, the contractions got worse, and we got to the hospital sometime around 8am. I stripped, got strapped in, and we did a lot more waiting. I believe I was dilated 4-5cm. I got zero drugs until eventually they gave me the gas machine. I was told to suck it in with deep breaths during contractions. That was fine and dandy at first. When the contractions got bad, it wasn't so easy to suck my breaths through a tube. I felt a little lightheaded, but the pain didn't hurt any less. 

When they examined me, they weren't 100% sure that the baby was facing down or not. Two nurses plus my doctor all took their turn checking, but finally had to bring in the ultrasound machine. Sure enough, babygirl had NOT turned. I suspected this all along. The bump at the top of my belly (her head) always felt the same. So I was going into surgery. I was a little relieved, but annoyed at the same time that they didn't discover this sooner, so I could've had a schedule section, and not had to deal with the contractions that were yet to come. 

[ And here we wait to go into the OR ]

Someone else was priority, so I lay in that bed for forever, it felt like. My contractions felt horrible, and were coming ever 2 minutes or so. I squeezed B's hand in a death grip on my right, and the gas contraption in my left hand. Finally, at 7cm dilated, they threw me in a wheel chair, needled me up. Epidural = nothing compared to the pain of the contractions. And I would know - I was basically having a contraction the whole time they were doing it. 

[ Left: Being wheeled into the OR. Right: One last belly shot and just laying in bed ]

Finally, the worse was over. I was nice and drugged up. My feet were getting tingly. They lay me down on the table and I didn't have to move again for hours. Between the medication and my nerves, my arms were shaking like I was trying to take flight, and I was terrified I was going to bite my tongue off. It was great when they finally sent B in. I was fine, but feeling a little freaked out. It was nice to have a familiar face. 

They did their thing, quickly showed me my girl over the curtain then took her to clean her off. It was so nice just listening to her cry. 

[ Photos of those first few moments of life = priceless ]

I said mini-me above, because she is. It is amazing looking at this little person who shares some of my features. She weighed 5lbs 12oz when she was born. She went down to 5.7, but as of today is back to her birth weight. She is a tiny, adorable thing. 

Finally, they lay her on my chest and I could've stayed there and stared at her all day. But instead they took her away, and stuck me laying on a bed in recovery alone for over an hour. 

I only had a few thoughts, while all drugged up along in recovery. 

- I want to see my baby! 

- God I'm hungry

- I am so itchy

- Let me out of here! 

It seemed like forever, but they took me to my room, then they still had to fix me all up in bed. I just wanted the baby! And then I got her, and life was forever changed. 

So this is little miss Chloe. Born on September 25th, 2011 at 1:01pm. She weighed 5lbs 12oz and was 18 inches long. She's a great baby - content most of the time and sleeps great. We usually have to wake her up to eat, and she puts herself right back to sleep almost all the time. 

We came home from the hospital on September 29th, and we're doing great. 

All those things they say about motherhood? So true. 

That time I thought I was going to have a baby

I kept waking up during the 4 o'clock hour on September 23rd. Such a coincidence that it was the due date. 

I felt some weirdness, some pain. I move to the couch so I wouldn't wake up B. I put Friends on tv and drifted in and out of sleep until somewhere near 6am. Then for the first time in my life I actually timed contractions. With the stopwatch on my cell phone. 

It was about every 8-10 minutes, and lasted about 30-40 seconds. That went on for almost an hour before I decided to try for a nap. The pain woke me up many times, but each time I checked the stopwatch I was sleeping a little longer. The first nap was 10 minutes, the last one was 40. When I woke up at 9 I was still having them. I finally told Mom, who got ready to come to town, then I woke up B and told him. 

I had a couple more strong contractions, about a half an hour apart. Then pretty much nothing. I felt slight cramping maybe 5 times since then, lasting about 10 seconds each, and only happening 45 minutes apart or more. 

It is now 3:30 and I've got nothing. I'm exhausted, and it's time for a nap. 

Then I'll decide if I'm joining the family for dinner in a couple of hours, or if I'd rather more sleep and a shower. Right now I don't know which way I'm leaning. 

Dear Baby Girl

Dear Baby Girl...

Your clothes are all washed and put away. Your crib is made. Your playpen is set up in our room. Most of your decorations are on the walls. 

Everything is ready for you, but it's September 20th and you're not here yet. 

You're interfering with my sleep a lot lately, a sign of what's yet to come I'm sure. I can tell that we're getting closer to the day that we meet you, but it still so hard to believe that it's ever going to happen. I've had you growing in my belly for so long that it seems to crazy to picture you here with us instead. 

Still, I am so excited to meet you. I can't wait to see what you look like. Hopefully you look a lot like me. I looked so much like your grandmother that sometimes it's hard to tell who's who in really old pictures of us. I hope you're my little mini me like that too. It's okay if you look like daddy a little, I guess :p

Tomorrow we have (hopefully) our last appointment with the doctor. Maybe he'll tell us it's time for you to come, or maybe we'll be waiting a little longer. I'm happy either way. If you're born on your due date, you will have the same birthday as your aunt and uncle. I think since their names and yours all start with the same letter (and they rhyme!) that it's a sign that you're supposed to be born that day. 

Only time will tell.

All the baby milestones have been hit.

Under 20 days now until baby's due date.

I remember pretty clearly the day I realized I might be pregnant, back in January. It seems like every pre-baby milestone has just flown by since then.

We had our first ultrasound at the end of April.

We had our 3D Ultrasound and found out we were having a girl in June.

We moved to the apartment we'd be bringing the baby home to at the end of June.

I had my awesome baby shower mid-July.

B's mom just moved here. Yesterday. 

And I think the only thing that's left now is to actually have the baby. Well, it would be nice if the baby would turn in the right position first. That's the one thing left for her to do before she's born.

If time is going to fly by so much, I wish it would at least fly by to the point where my mouth doesn't hurt anymore. Seriously, wtf is up with my mouth still being sore 5 days after the tooth being removed? I still wake up nightly because of it.

I just finished working a streak of 3 mornings. I don't really do morning shifts. I may have gotten 4-5 hours of sleep each of those nights, compared to the 9 hours my body would rather have. By last night, I was sleeping in the chair at 8:30pm while B's Mom was here and he was still at work. Luckily he got home and reminded me that Big Brother was on, so I managed to watch that and stay up another hour afterwards. I was still in bed early enough that I'm now up at 8:30. I don't care how large my to-do list is. There is nothing I want to get started on at 8:30 am.

I've been up almost an hour now and I'm putting serious consideration into grabbing some breakfast and going back to sleep. If I can. You see, the pain in my mouth is what got me up in the first place. And got me up a couple of times throughout the night.

I just can't win. Seriously frustrated here. I think I will get more sleep after the baby arrives than I've gotten the past two weeks.

Dear Baby Girl

I haven't written any letters to you before, so this will be the first, and probably not the last. 

I may not have done this at all, but today is one month before what is supposed to be your birthday. You must be growing pretty big. Mommy doesn't feel huge, but still gets a surprise sometimes when she walks by the mirror. Mommy has also started feeling really tired a lot of the time. I heard this would probably happen near the end, but I didn't think it would be this bad. 

I think you finally have a name, as of a few days ago, but not very many people know about it yet - just your two grandmothers and your uncle Scott. And maybe Daddy told some of his friends. It's not something I originally pictured naming you, but it seems to fit. Or at least it's something Mommy and Daddy could agree on. 

I decided today when my last day of work would be, and I hope you don't decide to make your appearance before then. While I can't wait to meet you, I'm hoping you'll give me at least a week of vacation, then if you want to come a week early, I'd be okay with that. 

Time has just been flying by since January 12, when I first found out about you. We know you are going to be a huge change to our lives, but we can't wait. We love you so much already, Baby C. 

See you in a few weeks. 

Baby Thoughts and Baby Lists

Lately I feel like there just aren't near enough hours in a day to get everything done that I'd like to. Now that may be because I actually have to spend more time laying down than usual, but it still bothers me. The swollen feet are still tolerable 85% of the time, but sometimes I have to stop whatever I'm doing and put the feet up for awhile. I am not a fan of this.

I need to make up some sort of cleaning schedule. I get stuck doing the same things so often, that I never get around to other things I want to get done. The basic tidying up is taking over the more complicated stuff - like cleaning the junk out of the baby's closet or organizing my craft area so I can actually find things.

I started doing the baby laundry. Three loads of laundry later, I still have enough clothes to make up half of a load left to do. That's JUST clothing. How did she ever get so much? God knows how many loads I'll have to do to get all the facecloths, blankets, bedding etc done. I wish the laundry room was right across from our apartment. I'm not a fan of the exercise of living on the third floor.

I believe we are going back to my hometown for maternity pictures on the 15th. Nothing fancy, just a new photographer getting started who I went to high school with. Still something I'd like to get done while I'm pregnant. I'll save the more expensive professional photo sessions to spend on baby girl herself.

I got my pregnancy emails yesterday from Babycenter and The Bump.com, and I know I've been telling people all week that I had 7 weeks left, but seeing '34 weeks' and '6 weeks left' still amazed me a little. Especially since one of the emails assured me that if I was worried about pre-term labor, babies that are born after the 34 week mark normally turn out just fine as long as they have no other medical issues. So I could potentially have a healthy baby any day. This is scary shit stuff.

This was supposed to be random, but it wasn't too random was it? More like it was all about this nameless baby hogging all the space in my lower belly.

Random baby shower photo.

Baby to-do List:

• Finish all laundry
• Pack bigger baby clothes away in a bin
• Finish the Super Mario Stars for the wall
• Hang the piranha plant on the wall
• Start (and finish) the Super Mario Hills to hang on the walls
• Finish the baby blocks
• Finish painting the white shelf
• Finish Bob-omb lamp
• Find a white bookshelf
• Wipe down all the baby furniture - crib especially
• Set the crib bedding up
• Soon pack my hospital bag

Baby to-buy List:

• Change pad fitted sheet
• Pack and play fitted sheet
• Bottle set
• Possible breast pump, and any other breast feeding supplies
• Bumper pads
• Possible bassinet
• Stroller (won't need for a few months, I think)
• Waterproof mattress pad
• Toy box
• White bookshelf
• Diaper bag
• Baby book
• Princess fitted crib sheet
• One more pack of receiving blankets

My Baby Shower

My baby shower was this past Sunday. I'd have to say it was a huge success. I had a ton of fun, we got so much that we needed for baby girl, and I had so many people tell me how good the food was or how they loved the decorations and other things my awesome host did. 

The baby shower was a rubber ducky theme. We had baby bottles with bath salts as favors, and tissue paper pom poms, which I stole and hung from the ceiling in the baby's room. 

I'm not a big fruit eater, but I love the fruit bouquet. It's not something you can get made around here, so A. had to travel with it. S. made the ice cream cone creations - the duck bums. Cutest things ever, although I never got around to trying one. 

I mentioned that I was going to set up a little photobooth at the shower, where people could take their own photos using my camera on a tripod with the remote. I'd say it was a success. My little brother loved it the most:

Someone wanted to take some photos of my and my beach ball belly.

These are all the people responsible for making the shower a huge success. My host, A. and her family that helped out, and S. who took on a a lot of the food-making, including the awesome duck bums.

There was a pretty big turnout, and I was kind of amazed at how much stuff I actually got. There were even a lot of people who couldn't make it and sent along presents. We are very lucky and spoiled. My grandfather got me a high chair, and unknowingly picked out the one that matches the playpen I already own. I got the Diaper Genie Elite II, which is all set up and ready to go in the baby's room. I got a baby carrier, playmat, rubber ducky inflatable tub, vibrating chair, and baby monitor. I got tons of clothes, pjs and little items. The baby facecloth count is just a few short of 50, with two packs still unopened. There isn't too much that we still need to get. 

I took advantage of the fact that my family was all together, and got photos with my mother and grandfather, and of my brother and sister. I'm sad that I didn't think to get one of all of us together before brother left. 

Here are more people I love that attended:

I have way too many photos to share them all but overall it was a really great afternoon and I'm so grateful to everyone that came and everyone that helped plan it. It's been almost two days and I'm still sorting and arranging baby things. I love it all. 

One last photo of my "family" that's not blood related. 

Tuesday is Filled with Random Thoughts

I keep thinking today is Monday. I am a wee bit off. I'm excited for the weekend to get here, but dreading the rest of the week because I'm up early tomorrow for a doctor's appointment, then I work at my second job on Thursday. After that, I am free!

It's been a good week so far. I found a new pregnancy-sized uniform for work. None of it is maternity, but I think it'll do the job. I'm glad that's out of the way and I've already been reimbursed. And I even like the uniform. I thought I'd be stuck with something I hated just because it fit. My current one got pretty tight all of a sudden.

I finally finished all my baby shower invitations, and have them all mailed out except for two. I've been trying to finish up a second project to send along with one of the invites.

My grandfather got his invitation. I called him tonight to wish him a happy birthday. He is now 74. He seemed pretty excited about the 3 ultrasound photocopies that I sent along with the invite. He also seemed pretty excited about the baby shower. I really hope him and my great-aunt can make it up. Neither of them are able to drive. It's all kind of strange. Before the stroke he would've been too busy and never would've came to something like my baby shower. It wouldn't have bothered me, I know it just wasn't his thing. But after the stroke, now he gets excited about these kinds of things. I guess blessings really do some in disguise sometimes.

[ Christmas 2010 ]

 

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the little Miss's room for when we move in about two weeks. I decided to go with the Super Mario/Princess theme. Which basically means a lot of Princess Peach, pinks and yellows, mixed in with some of the other Super Mario characters.

I ordered two quilt squares from Ebay, one with Peach and one with Yoshi on it and I'm hoping to get a baby blanket made. Hoping to get some wall decals and make a few things myself. I'm still hoping to make the handpainted Super Mario name letters, as I posted here, except try to make them a bit more girly. But I can't get started on those until a name is chosen, and I'm not sure that'll happen before she's born. I'd hate to decide her name then not find it fitting when I finally meet her.

I also learned that Ebay is very very addicting. I wanted to order everything, but thankfully I only got the two pieces of quilt. I will definitely be getting a few other things in the near future.

I didn't mean to get so rambly. I apologize. Not really. But maybe I'll save some of my random thoughts for another day. Here's a random photo to end the day:

[ Me and my husband, Deric Ruttan, February 2010 ]

My Baby is no longer an 'it' anymore

Baby is definitely flexible, with feet always poking in the face.

My 3D Ultrasound was last night. Finally. We know what we're having.

In the poll. 3 people voted boy, and 9 people voted girl. Well, the majority won.

It's a girl.

History doesn't lie. You see, my grandparents 4 kids... never mind, I'll draw you a diagram.

If you don't understand the diagram, basically my grandparents had four kids, the 4th was the first (only) girl. Then the uncles had three boys, and the fourth grandchild was a girl (me), given birth by Mom (the fourth child, first girl). And now my cousins and sister have had 3 boys, and I (the fourth grandchild and first girl) am having the fourth great-grandchild, the first girl. So I had to have a girl. 

Everyone is pretty excited about it. Obviously we would've been just as happy with a boy, but it'll be nice to finally have a little girl around. The youngest girl in our family is now 19 years old. The youngest boy I think is 2. 

I won't ramble on because I've got shower invitations/'It's a girl' announcements to finish so I can send some out tomorrow. I'll share a couple of 3D photos though. 

In the photo above, I swear she looks like me when I was a baby, but in the picture below she looks just like her father's childhood photos, or at least I think so. 

Baby girl's got all her fingers, as you can see. And that's all I'll share for today. 

Ps. We are very open to name suggestions at this point. 

Pps. I'll announce the giveaway winner in the next day or two. 

Baby's Gender Revealing Is Later Today!

Today is finally, officially, the day we f ind out the gender of our little wiggly baby. Nothing matters today except that. The appointment is only tonight at 6pm. SIX PM! Why would they do that? That means I have to sit here all day (thank God they gave me the day off) and have that on my mind. I try not to think about it too much, because when I do, I get all excited and just want to dance or something. Dancing would not do me much good right now, because I caught nephew's cold and my body hurts all over. 

And therefore I'm going to spend the majority of the day laying in bed watching tv and movies. Or at least that's the plan. I finished my three seasons of Gossip Girl and for the first time I'm actually willing to watch an unreleased season online. I'm that excited about it. I mean, Chuck just got shot at the end of season 3. I couldn't wait months to find out what happened. 

I went out with Mom yesterday and we took photos. It was so nice to finally have a model that doesn't run away on me. 

I took more, posted on my photography blog here, but I'm way too lazy to post more here.

I need to lay back down. But stay tuned for baby gender announcement, and picking of the giveaway winner. Giveaway will end by the end of today. So enter now if you haven't.

Pregnancy-related and other random thoughts

For starters, thank God blogger is up and running again. I was getting bored.

For second.. I have finally started buying a few 'maternity' items. Yup, "maternity". I say "maternity" because they're not supposed to be maternity clothes, but I've had to upgrade some of my clothes to bigger sizes.

Like the black pants I wear to work. After breaking off buttons, sewing on buttons, and struggling to button the buttons after bathroom breaks, I finally bought a cheap pair of sweat pants that can pass as dress pants. The trick? The drawstring is on the inside so you can't see it. They're still at size xs, but I can finally breathe in my work pants, and that means there's plenty of sizes for me to go to as I get bigger, and they're cheap enough for it not to matter.

I bought a couple of longer, room-ier shirts for the warmer days too. Not that it's ever going to get warmer. It's just going to rain forever. And ever.

And call me crazy but I bought two pairs of girl's winter booties, even though I don't know what I'm having yet. They were only $3 each, and at the price it's no big loss to me if I don't have a girl. I know a few people having baby girls soon anyway.

Baby is still kicking around, but not as much as a few days ago. Maybe because I've been too busy to really sit down and feel it. Still, it's pretty amazing when it does happen.

Now that the wedding is over I'm having to find new things to look forward to. Sounds like I'll be busy enough to keep me occupied.

May 14 - Viewing of potential apartment

May 15 - Time to take month #5 belly photos

May 15/16 - days off

May 17 - Doctor's appointment

June 7 - 3D Ultrasound and finding out sex of the baby!

July 1 - Potential moving day

Things are getting crazy and changing all over the place, but for now I'm going to be secretive.

I'm putting up a giveaway later today. Stay tuned. It's super easy to enter and win.

Baby Room Ideas

Ideas for Baby's Room

I've been thinking a little about how to decorate the baby's room when the time comes. I don't want to stick him/her in just a plain room, but where we'll be living we won't be able to paint. I found a lot of awesome ideas on Crafter.org, but I'm always looking for more suggestions and ideas.

Super Mario Boy's Room:

Because Daddy is a big video game nerd, so it fits some of his personality in there, plus who doesn't like Mario? If only I could find a Mario bedding set. But then I'm getting ahead of myself. It might not even be a boy.

[ See them up close here ]

Up close, they don't look terribly hard to paint. I think I could handle it. This Super Mario room, on the other hand, looks awesome but looks like a ton of work. 

I love this Bob-omb lamp, and ended up making a Bob-Omb lamp of my own.

Piranha plant made out of beads:

Or how about some Super Mario clothes hangers?

I found a ton more awesome ideas but way too many to post today. 

Baby Girl's Room:


I love this girl's room, but I can't paint, so I just admire:

Little Miss Nursery. I don't think I could make those flowers very well:

General Baby Stuff:

I love these baby plaques that I came across on Etsy:

In the end, this turned out to be my baby girl's nursery, with most of the decor made by me out of cardstock and bristol board. A lot of work, but totally worth it.