more newborn pics, pumping, bottles, etc.

Well, I will start with Chloe's newborn session part two. It went so much better than her first one! It probably helped that Matt and Noah weren't there to disturb the peace, lol. Or maybe moreso just Noah... bless his sweet little heart. This is one of my absolute favs from the session. She's so perfect! And I'm glad we did these when we did because her baby acne is getting worse by the day, LOL. I guess she got her mom's terrible skin genes. Sorry, Chloe.

Today we ventured out to Babies R Us... which, as we all know, is dangerous territory. Today was especially dangerous because it was my first time ever going out to look for things for Chloe. All the clearance items were BOGO free but I really didn't find as much as I was hoping to find. I ended up getting a cute onesie for her and some shorts for Noah. I also got her a set of sleeveless onesies from Carter's and an Amy Coe onesie. Then I got an Amy Coe tee for Noah that will go with a pair of plaid shorts he has that didn't really go with any of his current shirts. And I got a 4th of July t-shirt for him. Chloe already has an adorable 4th of July dress. Since I'm on the topic of clothing, Chloe has moved up to the 3 mos size already! She's growing so fast. Even one of her 6 mos sunsuits fits her loosely now. I guess that says good things about my milk supply! ;)

Tomorrow, I'm going to start pumping. I'm kind of nervous about it. I just want to make sure I do everything "right". So I think I will start in the morning after Chloe wakes to eat and then goes back to sleep. And I guess I'll just pump next when she is eating from a bottle and during her naps. I'm really not trying to build a "stash" but I guess it couldn't hurt to have some extra around the house for babysitters and whatnot. I just want to pump enough to make her next bottle that Matt will feed her with and also enough to begin her first day at daycare. So we will try that tomorrow for the first time and see how it goes. I got the Playtex Drop-Ins nurser starter set today. These bottles have gotten the best reviews across the board so that is why I'm going to try them first. My Avent bottles worked out fine for Noah in terms of him liking them... but we had plenty of leaking issues if the nipple wasn't screwed on JUST right and that's not something I'm willing to toy around with when it comes to breastmilk... for obvious reasons!

newborn photos.

There is a sneak peek of one of Chloe's newborn pictures up there. Will is coming back over on Wednesday to try some more poses and whatnot. Let's just say Chloe was less than cooperative for the photo shoot, lol! The one day she finally gets incurably fussy is the day she needs to be an angel! But he still managed to get some really cute shots. In between the meltdowns and nursing sessions... which pretty much left him with a 30-minute window of time. So I feel kind of bad about that even though I guess there's really not much you can do, right? Actually, I did consult with some others who've been through the same thing and it seems that is just the way that newborn sessions go. All the super cute pictures you see when you Google "newborn photography" are just split-seconds where the photographer got lucky. :P And I am not the only one who's gotten pooped on nor is Chloe the first baby to have peed on her props, hahahaha. Oh, man... I am thinking I will keep her swaddled on Wednesday. Maybe that will help. And I will crank the heat up to 80 instead of 75, lol. Here is one more preview!

happy easter!

Well, today was a wee bit stressful but not as bad as yesterday. At least Chloe took naps today! And she slept most of the night but it took forever for her to GET to sleep. She finally stayed asleep at about 2:00 and slept until 8:00. Ate at 8:00 and then slept until about 11:30. I guess she had some catching up to do. I'm so glad she slept so well because I had a terrible headache last night and had been wanting to take a nap all afternoon yesterday and didn't get to. :( Chloe was pretty fussy last night so instead of nursing her in the bed, which didn't seem to be working, I moved the glider and the swing into the bedroom and tried nursing her while rocking and then moving her to the swing... that failed. Twice. So then I went back to the old trick and she finally fell asleep. I just don't know what her deal was.

Anyway, Chloe and I attempted to make it out the door for church at 1:30 this afternoon but she had spit up on two different outfits and I was half-dressed (really not even sure what I was going to wear), it was almost 1:00 and I just said, "Forget it!" Matt took Noah by himself. Not something I would have ever attempted, that's for sure.

Chloe does spit up a lot. The symptoms of GED and a forceful letdown/oversupply of breastmilk are annoyingly similar. So any time she is fussy, I worry about her being in pain (like last night). But even if she does have a mild case of reflux, I can take comfort in the fact that breastfeeding is the best thing you can do because it digests quickly, therefore leaving much less time for reflux to occur. Plus, breastmilk is a natural antacid, which kind of makes me wonder if that's why she nurses SO OFTEN. Who knows... she only really became fussier a couple days ago because she NEVER fussed in her first couple weeks. I let her sleep on her side. Sometimes it sounds like she's burping and gulping... which isn't a good sign (silent reflux). Anyway, it's probably more comfortable for her to sleep on her side and I'm right there next to her so that makes me feel better.

We let Noah eat quite a bit of candy today, LOL. Sign us up for parents of the year! ;) So he's been pretty wild. And definitely not going to bed yet like he should be. He just dumped his basket of toys out in the living room. I set up an "egg hunt" in the backyard for him. We will have to upload that video! He was all excited to go search for eggs and put them in his basket. He also did an egg hunt on Friday at his daycare's Easter party. We've got that one on video, too.

Ooh, so Express had free shipping on all orders today. I purchased this large tote thinking I might be able to use it as another diaper bag for Chloe. It's cute and summery. I also got some black sequin sandals.

And Papa John's had everything 50% off today if you ordered online. We definitely took advantage of that for our Easter dinner. :) Yum yum!

karma.

Noah GOT BITTEN at daycare yesterday! I mean, I know it's no laughing matter but we have to laugh a little bit (no pun intended) because he bit someone just the day before, LOL. Apparently, four of the boys were brawling over pillows and Noah ended up at the bottom of the pile. :P Noah does not mess around when it comes to pillows.

Thank God he went to bed easily tonight. It's so hit and miss with him. His teeth must not be too bad tonight.

And ((AI SPOILER ALERT))...

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Just received notice that Stefano is voted off American Idol. Boohoo. I liked him okay but his performance last night was not good.

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I would have loved to see Jacob go though. LOVED.

My girl April gave me a bunch more clothes for Chloe today. :D Thanks, April! AND a super adorable flower headband. :) We went to visit the office this afternoon. It was pretty quiet since most everyone was gone but Chloe got to meet two of my co-workers!

Tomorrow Chloe is getting her "newborn" pictures done (even though she barely qualifies as a newborn anymore, lol). I'm super excited for them! Should be a lot of fun... maybe not for her as much as it will be for me. :P I have a few ideas for her "outfits", one of course being her birthday suit with the headband on that April bought for her. And I also have these cute little beanies that my cousin knit. Then I have this red knit hoodie sweater that buttons and the buttons are little ladybugs. That's all I have so far!

Our TV has been broken for a week now. The lamp burnt out so we ordered a new one that we actually received in the mail today but now that we have that, we discovered that our DirecTV got fried when lightning basically struck in our backyard during the storms last weekend. It had also fried the board on our air unit. That was one crazy and LOUD (and bright) lightning strike, for sure.

Well, Chloe slept pretty great last night... although the fact that she sleeps next to me probably helps her sleep so well. And it's great for me because I can basically nurse her while I sleep when she does wake up. The only one who doesn't really win in this situation is my husband, lol! But if we had a KING SIZE bed, I'm sure he could still sleep in there with us, no problem. Sigh. If only.

april christmas gifts... check.

I was able to purchase something "gender-specific" finally... for the "noob" (whom we now know as Chloe)! I got the diaper set (pic on the far left). It's a pink paisley top with chambray bloomers. :) Too cute. I got it in size 12 mos so she can wear it in the spring.
And Noah's gift this month is probably going to be a stocking stuffer - it's a children's orchestral CD. I know he loves music so I think he will like this. :)

April is all done! Now I have to wait until May before I can buy some more goodies for the kids.

quicklike update.

Because it's rare I have any down time! But Chloe had her two-week checkup yesterday. She weighed in at 9 lbs, 2 oz! So that's great... she is gaining well and in the 75th percentile for weight. She is also a whopping 22 inches long - that's the 95th percentile. She's already doing better in the height department than Noah is, lol! They also had to re-do her PKU test. :( That part sucked. I was kind of looking forward to no needle pricks but nope! It went quicker than it did in the hospital, at least.

I found out just now that Noah bit another child at daycare today. :/ Greaaaat. We have THAT kid~! Hopefully that is just a one-time incident. I'm not even sure how to get him to not bite other kids when he doesn't do that at home (but he does bite himself... is that weird? Yeah, I think so.).

My birthday was last Friday! Matt got me an HTC Evo Shift. :D That was a great gift! Although I am having issues with the SD card already. So hopefully I can figure that out because right now it's not letting me take any pictures.

Speaking of pictures, I took some of Chloe today wearing her "0 months old" sticker. :P I bought a pack of month stickers from Etsy and that was included so I figured I'd use it! Even though she's not quite as little as she was when she was first born. I also picked up a few things at Target with her today. I got some onesies and fruffles (headbands) for her Easter basket... but I did take one of the fruffles out today so she could wear it for her pic, lol.

I got some Hello Panda cookies (strawberry and chocolate), animal crackers, bubbles, balloons and sidewalk chalk for Noah's easter basket. I want to fill some of those plastic eggs with candy so he can do an egg hunt but I could not find any! I also got him some new shoes. And Chloe also got a new blanket.

Oh, and Chloe was sleeping when I got to Target so I figured I'll just leave her sleeping in her car seat and I'll take out the stroller. So she was fine and slept... blah blah... then I'm going through the baby clothes section and she starts to cry. My fear. Because we all know that means she wants to eat. I took her out of the stroller and held her but she definitely wanted to eat. So luckily there was no one near me and I took our the nursing cover and got her situated (I'm glad she's still small enough that I can nurse her using one arm) and continued shopping, LOL. I wondered a.) how many people even knew what was happening and b.) of the people that knew what was happening, how many gave me dirty looks. I tried not to make eye contact but a kind fellow who worked there actually struck up a conversation with me while I was nursing her. I don't know if he even had a clue but he said he had a seven month old so he might have and just didn't care... which is awesome. I was kind of scared he was going to be like, "CAN I SEE HER?" lol So of course she started to get fussy again eventually... I know she had a dirty diaper, too, so that probably made her mad. I'm standing in the middle of the main aisle trying to get her re-situated, which wasn't happening, so I just took her out from under the cover and carried her... I very well may have flashed someone. Who knows.

it sure is nice not having to pee every 30 minutes.

But I don't know how I'm going to last the rest of my life never getting pregnant again! It's addicting, the whole thing. From the excitement of trying to conceive to holding a brand new, freshly created human being. But then again, it is a LOT of work (mostly having a newborn onward). The thought of being done is kind of nice. But we'll see. I'm torn, LOL. Guess I don't need to be worrying about this now! But every time someone just has a baby or announces a pregnancy, I'm jealous!

yippy skippy!

I took Chloe to the pedi's office this morning, just for a weigh-in. She is up five ounces from her appointment on Monday! Yay! She tipped the scale at 8 lbs, 9 oz. :) On a not-so-yippy-skippy note, I think I was crazy to think that we could travel with a week-old infant. :/ It was quite the day today after the doc appointment. I spent all afternoon packing for me, Chloe and Noah to head to the beach for the weekend. Well, in between feeding her, of course. So it took me FOREVER to pack because she wants to nurse like at least every hour but it's usually closer to every 30 minutes. She rarely goes a full three hours between feedings (that's only if she's sleeping). So anyway, we finally got everything packed and I installed her car seat base into Matt's car, thinking I could somehow sit in between her and Noah. Ummm... no. I could not even get one ass cheek in the seat. So then I was freaking out because I don't like not being able to see her because she has like no neck muscles and her head likes to flop forward in her seat... or to the side... something that looks very uncomfortable and not safe. So... I just sat in the front seat and we took off. But wait. I just couldn't stand it so we went back so I could see if there was any possible chance that someone could fit in the middle of my car's back seat with the two seats. I moved her base over and sat in the middle just to see if Noah's seat could fit next to me. No way. In the meantime, Chloe starts crying so I rock her in her carseat before putting her back in Matt's car. But that didn't last too long so I ended up taking her out to nurse her while Matt stopped for gas and food. This went on and on. Then I had to take her out and nurse her in the parking lot of Noah's daycare. Then again at some random truck business on our way out of town. And trying to put her back in her seat pisses her off all over again so then I have to nurse her some more. It's like a chain reaction. I eventually just tried to stand back there next to her and lean over so she could nurse but that wasn't good enough. She has to be in my arms, of course. At that point, we were all stressed out and feeling extremely uneasy about this whole thing so enough was enough. We canceled! THANK GOD. It took us forever just to get back home but once we walked in the door, I felt like it was worth all the trouble just to realize that... that trip was not happening, lol! I absolutely cannot imagine how long it would've actually taken us to make this normally-two-hour trip but I'm guessing at least four hours, considering it took us two hours just to get 30 minutes out and then come back home. Yuck. But now we are home and happy and Chloe is sleeping in her swing. So breastfeeding is awesome but doesn't work well for road trips. If she was older, I would just pump a bottle and feed it to her but I'm not ready for that yet. That's going to be an entirely different story when that times comes, I'm sure.

I just ordered these adorable month stickers from Etsy. :) I feel kind of bad that I didn't do this for Noah but I didn't find out about these until he was already several months old!

Chloe is doing fantastic. She is such a good baby; she RARELY cries (only in the car so far, really... because my boob doesn't stretch like that, unfortunately). We haven't really had any sleep issues. Of course, she nurses constantly but the side-lying position is my best friend forever. At least I can relax (and sometimes doze off) while she's eating. Poor Matt hasn't been able to sleep in the bed since she came home. At least now he has the air mattress to use since my mom left today, lol. But I'm so thankful that he's allowing us to have the bed to ourselves so I can just sleep next to her and I don't have to constantly get up at night to feed her. Because last night, for example, I nursed her for like three 60-minute increments. Plus, babies just need to be next to their mommy's skin when they're still so new. They've been in our bellies for nine months! She is just so precious.

Anyway... her poopy/wet diapers have been really good so I think I can depend on my boobs to work properly this time! I'm nervous that having to pump once I go back to work is going to ruin everything but we'll see. Hopefully not. I will probably contact the lactation consultants at the hospital once I start pumping to get some good advice about how much to send to daycare, how often to pump at work, etc.

post-partum expressions.

Clever title, eh? I remember after I had Noah, I came home and just felt like a piece of me was missing (a baby bump!). Like... I missed being pregnant to the point of feeling sad. It was really weird. I attributed it to the baby blues. This time, I feel SO much better than I did after having Noah, physically and emotionally. I have no idea why. I was at home cooking dinner the day after giving birth and I felt awesome. It's just strange how the two compare so I figured I would write about it!

Anyway, Chloe had her first checkup this morning and it went great! She weighed in at 8 lbs, 4 oz, which they said was completely normal (7.5% below her birth weight).

Side note: I think it's safe to say our scale at home is less than accurate, lol - but at least using the same scale before and after a nursing session showed a 2 oz gain.

My milk definitely came in yesterday so from here, she should start to gain up to an ounce a day. She has been eating like a champ. We are going to go back for a nurse's visit just to get her weighed again on Thursday morning since I told them I was paranoid about having what happened with Noah happen with her! Everything looks good so far though. Also, her jaundice level was almost nonexistent and this is the point where it would be at its peak so that's good news, too!

So anyway, my pubic bone was killing me early this morning. I think it might have been the fact that I was in the same position for a long time and it was just putting too much stress on the same area. But I ended up Googling since I couldn't sleep and I guess that's a pretty common gripe after pregnancy. I didn't get it with Noah though... must be having two kids so close together did me in, lol. It should get back to normal with time. It doesn't bother me much during the day, at least.

chloe.

I think I love her name more and more every day. It's simply sweet; feminine but not frou-frou. And I have no doubt that choosing Isla would have just thrown us into that group of parents who constantly have to correct the pronunciation of their child's name... at least around here, haha. But Chloe fits her. And Chloe Marcella is music to my ears. :)

Noah has been... accepting, for the most part. Of course, he wants to hit her with things and grab her face but... other than that, it's all good. He is definitely doing more to get our attention though, bless him. And that would be negative attention, for the record. He's turned into a little terror child I've never seen before since we brought Chloe home. I have been trying really hard to give him loving attention because obviously he's not getting as much from me as he's used to. I did almost everything for him and now I do almost nothing for him. I would get up in the early morning hours if he woke up and go rock him back to sleep, I would wake up with him in the morning and make him breakfast, I would give him his bath every evening after dinner, etc. So his world has just been turned upside down! But I know we will all adjust in good time. I still do what I can for him whenever Chloe is not nursing (which is pretty much all the time right now, lol). But his demand for our attention has seemed to increase ten-fold. :/ Hopefully that will pass...

Speaking of Chloe nursing, I think it's going well. I'm pretty sure my milk came in today since my boobs have been feeling quite heavy and tender. I can tell that she is getting milk since I can hear her swallowing and there's milk all over her mouth when she pulls off, lol. I was paranoid yesterday because I weighed her on our scale at home and it showed 8 lbs 4 oz. But I weighed her again today and it was 8 lbs 8 oz... and then again after a feeding and it was 8 lbs 10 oz (which is where she was in the hospital before we left). So I'm hoping these are all good things that will continue. I think we were having some latching issues, initially, but it is improving. I actually had a freak-out moment overnight when she would fuss at the breast. I didn't know if it's because she wasn't getting anything or what and I considered going to make some formula... but I KNEW that would probably mess me up. So I didn't. I tried burping her because she seemed quite gassy (in fact, she farts almost nonstop) and then tried the other breast and that worked out better. Then she fell asleep for three hours and I had to wake her to eat again. Her pee pee diapers have been fair today and she finally pooped for the first time today! So that's a good sign.

But she is nursing right now and I definitely don't want to type with one hand anymore.

birth story.

I added a link above to the novel-length version of Chloe's birth story but here is a summary in case you don't feel like you need or want all the details. :P

I started timing contractions at 6:00pm on March 30. I labored at home for 12 hours before heading to the hospital around 6:00am on March 31. My midwife performed a cervical check once we got to our room and announced that I was 8 centimeters!

I spent about four hours total laboring there at the hospital, most of which was in the bath. I agreed to let my midwife break my bag of waters, which was actually bulging out of my vagina! So, of course, I had to reach down and feel it. She broke my water while I was in the bath and noticed meconium in the fluid. Thankfully, this posed no complications for the birth. The baby’s heartbeat was being checked periodically by fetal doppler. I was also able to go without a saline lock.

I was going to have a water birth until the fetal doppler did not pick up the baby’s heartbeat after multiple attempts by the nurse. I was instructed to head back over to the bed so I could get checked with the EFM. Luckily, the EFM picked up the baby’s heartbeat right away and everything was fine. I remained on the bed for the second stage and gave birth to Chloe Marcella on my hands and knees after just two contractions! She joined the world at 10:08am on March 31, weighing 8 lbs, 15oz and measuring 20.5 inches long. All I ended up with was a “papercut” but no stitches. I am barely even sore and Chloe and I are both doing great. :)