Family visits

We had a busy time last week with Grandma Shannon and Aunties Summer, Autumn and Alissa visiting from Florida. Gabrielle was spoiled with kisses and playing and love.

Motor Skills Vroom Vroom!

So, it has been a big week for us! Gabrielle has learned to recognize and hit the toys on her bouncy seat, hold and shake and "eat" a rattle, and she has actually giggled for her first times. What a busy little bug! I've been so excited and just playing and playing with her. First baby giggles are so adorable! And with a digital camera ever at hand, we've been able to capture many of these first moments. I was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher when I saw that Miss Brie had discovered her bouncy seat toys. It was so cool, and I watched her for a while. Then I turned back around to finish what I was doing and I heard the music from it. I turned back around and saw that her little hand was wrapped around the ring and she had pulled it for music! She's only done it that once, but it was so great to be there and watch her discover these things. She also was able to follow the sounds of the toys on her swing tray. She gets a little scared by these sounds if they catch her off guard though. We'll have to wait a bit for the swing to become a friend for her. I just had to share all the new and exciting discoveries!

Adventures with Gabrielle

Danny and Brie in their matching Pirate duds:)



We've been having a good time taking Brie to new and exciting places. We got to go to Charleston this past weekend and we visited some friends at their beach house on Folly Beach too! The Castleman's have the Beach pictures in their camera, but I can post a few from Charleston. We didn't even have to stop the whole way to Charleston! Special thanks to Katie for being a great entertainer of Gabrielle when she started to get a little fussy. The trip home was a different story. We had to stop because she was screaming to the point of making herself cough! Basically, she just didn't want to be in her carseat. So we walked around a convenience store in Orangeburg for 20 minutes or so and tried again. She was good for a few minutes but it didn't take her long to get mad again. She finally stopped when we exited the interstate. Boy was that a relief!







I also forgot to post pics from our outing walking down the river trail with Juan and Raquel. Raquel had a blast walking Skoshi and Brie slept most of the time, but did wake up to smile for pictures at a vista point:)




Monday I had to go to the dentist so she of course went with me. She isn't the biggest fan of her carseat, so that wasn't going well, but the receptionist took her out and Brie ended up being greeter at the dentist office while I got my teeth cleaned!

Yesterday, she got to go to work with me out at McEntire. She was the hit of the day of course. Surprisingly, she took 3 naps so I got to get some work done and she wasn't even fussy. April took good care of putting her to sleep and holding her for one of her naps. She's not spoiled much:)

Tonight Gabrielle gets to meet Austin and Kylie! I can't wait to be able to post some cool pics of her meeting her cousins. Stay tuned!

Gabrielle is 2 months old!

So, we went to the pediatrician today and put the poor girl through a lot of torture. She has grown, but she's still pretty little for her age. I told the doc that it's because she comes from a long line of Irish midgets:) Brie weighs 10.15 lbs and is 221/2 inches long, which puts her in the 50th percentile for her age. She's quite alert and responsive to tons though...nosey the doc says:) She had her shots today, so she's been sad and fussy. It was heart wrenching. I'm also a bit annoyed by the mixture of vaccines. I wanted her to get some of them, but they mix them in such a way that she gets things she doesn't need...like Hep B. I mean seriously...why does a baby need a shot for that when Danny and I don't have it and she doesn't have sex or use IV drugs. But they mix it with DPT and Polio which you totally want your kid to have. Grrrr.

Danny had a beautiful first Father's Day. We had a nice family day at my parents and he and Joey even got to go hike while Brie was napping. Then we got some nice Father's Day pics:) Joey had a bit too much fun with the camera though.

We are hoping to head to Charleston this weekend. Maybe this short road trip will work out better than the last foiled plan. We are starting in the AM which is usually a nice peaceful time for Brie, so stay tuned for updates from our potential adventure.

Trucking Along

So, it's been a bit since I've had the chance to post, but things are going well. I pulled several drills at McEntire last week in 4 hour periods and after being there for 3 days in a row I was totally worn out and experiencing pain and cramping in my incision area. I didn't know being a desk jockey for 4 hours was so taxing on a body. Others who have braved C-sections before me have not been surprised. Apparently the body is not supposed to magically be healed because 6 weeks has passed. Silly me! So, Brie and I have been taking it easy this week while Danny has also been trying to recover from the nightmare 14 hour shifts he had to work over last week and weekend. The worst issue was on Friday night. I picked Gabrielle up from the Cobb's house after drill and headed home. I started packing to head to Mom and Dad's ( so Danny could get uninterrupted sleep for his 5am shift) and noticed our pillows on our bed were covered in fireants! They were everywhere and then while I was feeding Brie I saw that they had started to take on the futon in her room. I was irate and clueless...I mean...what do ants want with the bed?!?!?! There wasn't a single ant anywhere near food, just in the bedrooms! I stripped the beds and loaded all the ant infested linens in the washer and then when Danny got home I took Brie and left so she wouldn't get bit by any rogue fireants while Danny was doing cleanup. He vacuumed the beds and the walls and floor and then Dad came with industrial ant poison (yay NaturChem!). What a way to spend a Friday night....especially when all Danny wanted to do was crash since he'd been working 13 hours starting at 5am. Thank God for parents to the rescue:)

We have begun our transition to cloth diapers. I like them so far! They don't leave red marks on her legs and they are soo soft. Today we have also begun to play peekaboo and Brie loves it! I know anyday now she will start to laugh. So far she already sucks in her breath real fast and makes squealy noises...I know it won't be long before she figures out the whole giggle thing:) I'm posting the ultimate turtle girl picture...you can't look at this one and question how she got that nickname:) Also, she and Danny enjoy their time together in the evenings. Mom just doesn't do her upside down hold the way Dad does! She will sit quietly with him for hours...and apparently its a pretty good arm workout for him, who needs the gym anyway:) Plus, we had a little photo shoot after church on Sunday. And I had to add in a Harding onesie shot just for Kristen.

We're hoping to have house guests this weekend. The inlaws, Nancy and Kelci and possibly Mick, are talking about coming down for a visit. Nancy was sick and on antibiotics for a while, so she has stayed away, but she has been dying to get down here to visit her new grandbaby. We hope they can make it and I look forward to posting some great pics next week!

Sayonara for now.

Mad Dog

Grandpas always bring out the best in us.....

But a little swaddling makes it all better

MILESTONE!

Well, I'm not sure it was worth it, but Gabrielle slept through the night last night! She never got a full nap yesterday with so much activity going on...we have busy Sundays. So, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth she finally went to sleep around 1130 last night and didn't wake up until 630 this morning! To go along with this, I want to post some nap pictures of her from last week. She smiles in her sleep even and it's hilarious!

On another note, she's actually taking a pacifier now too! She can't always keep it in her mouth by herself, but she does okay. That will certainly make road trips or even just random around town trips in the car much easier to deal with.

Smiling Happy Baby

So, we have a new trend! Miss Brie is a very happy baby, especially in the morning. She is all smiles and is even starting to giggle a tiny bit. It is the most beautiful thing ever:) She is not a fan of road trips, however. Memorial Day weekend was supposed to be when she met her grandpa Alfred and Shannon and her uncle Alfred. We embarked on our auspicious journey from McEntire after Danny got off of work Thursday evening. By 9pm we were still in SC, 5 miles away from GA and we had spent 45 minutes in a Burger King parking lot feeding then changing then feeding then changing and there was no end in sight. Danny decided that we were definitely not ready for a road trip with Gabrielle yet, so he called and broke the news and we turned around and headed home. It still took us until after midnight to get back because we had to stop 2ce more for feeding and changing. We may try again, but we will definitely start with a shorter goal in mind before we undertake such a magnificent feat again:)

4 week checkup

So, we have a very growing girl! At her 4 week check-up on Wednesday, she weighed 9lbs and 6 oz. She has only grown 1/4 of an inch lengthwise...so she's getting to be a little babyball:) She's doing well. The sad thing, she's started losing her hair on the front sides :( Apparently, I lost all of my hair and was bald until I was about 2...but I was hoping for a better fate for Gabrielle. She is doing so many cool things now too! She smiles on purpose and she loves her mobile in her crib where we change her. She is content to sit and stare at everything around her for hours at a time. Last night, she was awake and just checking things out with only very short catnaps in between for almost 8 hours! She's even starting to entertain the idea of taking a pacifier and she's eaten small bits from a bottle about 3 times now. So, I know she won't starve when I have to drill. On Thursday when I was getting ready to head out to bible study, I had put her in her carseat and I was gathering everything by the back door. She was sitting there crying and when I started to get close to set something down, she stopped. Then when I walked away again to gather the rest of our stuff, she started crying again. I never once touched her or talked to her! She's a little goober already! I can only imagine what we have in store:)

2 Things

Okay, just for Philip we're posting the poopy face pictures. What do you think about the resemblence?

We've been having a great time. This week we got a stroller/travel system and took our first walk...we got a spiffy bathseat for a present and had our first enjoyable bath...and we had our first mother's day. It's been a busy few days! Brie is staying awake longer now and not all that time involves screaming:) She's enjoying her new vision and starting to find her voice in very small doses. She stayed awake for her entire walk yesterday and just enjoyed it. We will be heading to the pediatrician on Wednesday to see what progress she's made and make sure all things have healed properly. I think she has a perfect little belly button now:)

Yesterday being mother's day was a little freaky. We had lunch with my parents, and so being with my mom and having my own daughter put a lot of things into perspective. I can't fathom that I was so small once and that one day Brie is going to be as big as me with her own child(ren). It's very humbling to see things in the big picture sometimes and also very scary. I mean, I can't even imagine her with teeth...much less with her own family! Anyway, I'll keep you posted on updates from the doc. She's starting to fuss again, so I better get the pics attached so I can relieve Daddy.

Family Adjustments

As you can see, here's our routine. Eat on mom's lap, fall asleep. Repeat frequently. Every once in a while, she lets me put her down to sleep, and I can get some things done. It's actually not bad, she's a delight and changing every day. We've had a couple of outings, including church on sunday and the baby shower.
Tuesday, we went to the chiropractor, and THREE stores! She even nursed in the sling in Baby's R us :) Her awareness range is expanding beyond a foot now, and she is noticing toys in her bouncy chair, yay! She smiles at stuff, and coos. Now if we could just get her to stop swallowing giant bubbles of air that result in instant gas pain, we'd be set. Not much else for now, but will post again soon. Enjoy the pics :)
Heather

At Home with Gabrielle

Well, we haven't killed her yet, and nobody has come to take her away, so I guess she's really ours:) We have overcome the nightly gas trouble with Mylicon drops (thank you God for that miracle stuff) and she generally only wakes up once a night to eat and goes right back to sleep. She makes up for it by taking an hour and a half or so to go to sleep and eating every hour and a half in the morning...but Daddy gets to sleep all night and not be a zombie at work, so it's all good:)

It's hard to do a whole lot, so I'm sorry about taking so long to update and post pics...but we'll get the hang of this routine eventually. There have been some wonderful souls coming out to stay with me while I'm healing and that has been a life saver. And I never knew that having dinner made for you was something that would make such a huge difference, but it really does!

It's still amazing that we are actually parents, but I guess it will eventually sink in. Danny is a truly amazing father...which I knew he would be, but he has far surpassed my expectations. He is also EXTREMELY protective of me and a great caregiver. I didn't change a single diaper until Gabrielle was a week old! He is definitely one of a kind and I am completely blessed to have him as my partner.

So, Gabrielle makes the most amazing faces while she's trying to fight falling asleep...and she looks just like her Daddy while she poops:) The very best is when she finishes nursing and is all content and sleepy and she grins. I'm sure she's not aware of what she's doing...but it is just as beautiful all the same. Perhaps eventually I'll be able to get a picture of that to share, but for now, I'll enjoy it as mommy's special blessing. I'll attempt to post a few new pics and hopefully I'll be able to update a little more regularly as we adjust and I get better from the C-section and require less naptime. Until then, enjoy:)

More pics

Just making multiple posts for pictures since they are so big. Enjoy.

Gabrielle Pics

Now for the follow up :) Enjoy.

BABY!!!

Yes, it's about dang time too. Heather's water broke around 5pm monday, and she immediately started having contractions. At about 7 I started timing them, and they got close enough to warrant a trip to the hospital.
Upon arriving, they were around 3 min apart avg. Heather did very well, and labor for roughly 23 hours. She only got to about 3cm by this point, and things weren't looking good. Baby was fine, Heather was fine, but no progress.
We discussed options, and decided on Petosin. Starting off at the smallest increment, and graudally increasing, Heather labor for another 5 hrs, only to increase to 4cm. At this point, we started to worry, as we had reached our 24 hour mark after ROM, and Heather had developed a fever. Instead of giving up, we gave Heather anti-biotics, and ordered an Epidural. Once complete, we hoped it would 'relax' her enough to make progress. And we were dissapointed to find out that after 2 or so more hours, only 5cm.
Once again, we discussed our options and prayed, and decided that with all the curcumstances, the only option left was C-section. So they changed the type of epidural, and wheeled her out. I was able to sit in, and help "push" baby out, take pictures, and even carry our new arrival to the nursery while heather was finishing up. Shortly there-after, I arrived in the hallway to the birth team with our beautiful new baby GIRL.
Her name is GABRIELLE ELISABETH, and she is perfect in every way. She arrived at 7lbs 8.5 oz, and 21 inches long, with a little bit of brown-ish hair. I gave her the first bath, and eager on-lookers peered through the nursery window.
Everyone eventually went home to catch up on rest, and Heather sat in recovery for about an hour, where she fed Gabrielle for the first time :) Every thing went far off course from our original birth plan, but we couldn't have asked for a happier ending.
I would like to thank all the ladies helping me and Heather through out all this. In no particular order, Sandi, Sandra, and Miriam. 3 SUPER women who this would have been next to impossible to complete withouth their help. Heather and I love you very much and thank you for all that you did, and continue doing.
I would also like to thank Phill, for his prayers, and quick organization of people to pray for us during this difficult time. Phill's words touched my heart as he said, "this is the best part. This is eternal life you are participating in. God has allowed you to help him create an eternal soul. Every thing on earth we touch or make will wither and die and be lost forever. But when you make a baby, god is allowing you to make a person who will live forever." Thank you for that, and for sharing your wisdom with us.
And thank you finally, to all who prayed for us, or thought about us, or visited us, or wished us well, your support made things that much easier. (unfortunately, there is a problem posting pictures, so that will have to wait untill a later date....SOON I promise)

Danny

Well, as Jessica G. would say...I am as pregnant as I can get!

So we've passed over both "due dates" and still there's no Deather entering the outside world. This weekend has been a bit trying, but also a good bonding time for Danny and I. We've walked, cleaned, packed, discussed and he's basically held my sanity together. I've had contractions every night...and actually, last night I started at about 1130 and had contractions every 20-30 minutes until about 8 this morning. Then it stopped and started up again around 230 this afternoon and it's been steady at every 30 minutes. I also started spotting a TINY bit around 1130 today...so there's progress...just not super promising progress. I'll go back to the midwife tomorrow afternoon. I've probably dilated some by now, but I'm convinced that Deather is quite happy in the current situation and not ready to come meet us just yet. The good news is that I'm not super excitable anymore about every little pain and Danny is doing well at keeping me grounded. If I'm tired I sleep and even when having contractions, I'll sleep at night. I'll wake up every 30 minutes or so, when it's a pretty hard one...but I'll go right back to sleep so I'll have my energy when it's really needed. I'm very thankful for all the thoughts and prayers that are with us right now. It's really nice to have everyone's support.

Yes...we are still waiting...

So, I decided after 3 crying spells yesterday that it would be better to come in to work today. The first occurred after I finished folding all the laundry. I had just put all the baby clothes away in Deather's room and I started to talking to Deather of course. I was telling him/her, "you can come now, all your clothes are clean and ready for you". Danny says I'm pathetic, which is likely the case. But, it seems less likely that I'll break into crying fits at work...so as long as this kid is happy in the womb, I will be working. Grrr.

Will it ever end?

I know...it is promised that it will...it just doesn't seem like it some days.
Yesterday I saw the midwife and there was no good news...except for my fundal height measurement saying I'm due anyday now. Actually, there was other good news too. Deather's heartrate is doing well...in the 120s when sleeping...and in the 150s when moving around. I had fallen asleep waiting for the doc...so when they did the initial heartrate check it was low...apparently Deather was sleeping too:) So they hooked me up to the monitor just to make sure since that was much lower than the normal heartrate has been. It's all good though:) I still hadn't dilated...but the yeast infection is gone...which is very good. Also, they didn't do a retest of the GBS because they ended up getting a sensitivity test on the old one. I tested okay to use Erythromicin or Cleocin. I mentioned that when taken orally Erythromicin makes me sick to my stomach...so I guess I'll be getting the other one. I was hoping for the retest and to need nothing, but oh well. I also had some spotting last night and some contractions...but to no avail, I'm still not in labor. I've done all the laundry in the house, including baby clothes and Skoshi and I have paced the house and walked the neighborhood. Still, we wait.

Hilarious Sequence

Okay...so we spent the day Saturday over at Sandra's house chilling and enjoying her backyard...and of course taking more pictures. She's so good and she has fun and makes us crack up...who can resist? I had to share this funny picture sequence though. It is totally freaky and I think may reveal Deather's character:) You may have to view each one separately to make them big enough to notice what's going on. Danny's expressions are priceless!

EVERYTHING IS BREAKING NOW!

Except (of course) for my water:) Which is probably a good thing. So, between my last two midwife visits I've been found to be Group B Strep positive, I've developed PUPPP (see picture to the left....which is NOT my belly but looks very similar to what's going on on mine) and I have a yeast infection! I have not dilated yet, but my cervix is soft. So, we still have an undetermined amount of time to go...and things keep getting more miserable. Some of you may be familiar with all the things I just described above, but some of you are likely not pregnancy complication pros...so I'll share what all of this means.
Group B Strep: Is a normal bacteria found in human intestinal tract. They are normally found in the urinary tract and sometimes in the throat as well and it comes and goes depending on what you eat and how much "good flora" verses "bad flora" you harbor regularly. There are varying levels of this and depending on the "colonization" if they are found in the vaginal or rectal area during labor and delivery there is a SLIGHT chance that the baby could test positive for too many of these bacteria and then if so, there is and even slighter chance (1 in 10,000) that the baby will get VERY sick with long term effects and potentially die. SO, the solution is that they test women for this during pregnancy now b/w 35 and 37 weeks and if at that time you test "colonized" with Group B...they automatically plan to give you antibiotics while you are in labor. I've been doing a lot of research on this...and there are benefits verses risks...and I'm not really sure I want to take the antibiotics...for a variety of reasons. I may discuss that later...but for now, I'm working on increasing my "good flora" with a variety of methods. The good news there is that they were supposed to test my sample for sensitivity to decide what antibiotic to administer since I'm allergic to penicillin and therefore can't take that...but they didn't. SO, I may have to have a retest next week at my appt. Which means all this "good flora" preparation may cause me to test negative at that time and hopefully it will be a nonissue. Let's pray for that!
PUPPP:This is the least dangerous (it causes no harm to baby, no harm to mother) but the most uncomfortable. I have a rash...so far only on my stomach...that itches uncontrollably and isn't really treated with anything. The solution: give birth and it will almost always go away by 10-14 days post delivery. They don't know what causes it, they don't really have any treatment for it...and options vary based on the person. Some people need dry and hot, some people need cold and wet, some people need sedation...so far, I'm managing...but praying that it does not spread. The common thing is for it to start on the belly and spread to the trunk and extremeties...NORMALLY sparing the face, palms and soles of feet. Since it's only on my belly right now...I'm hoping to keep it contained...exactly how, I am not sure, but I'm of course doing MUCH research and I have several ideas to try.
Yeast Infection: Very normal during 3rd trimester of pregnancy...and needs to be treated before delivery because it would likely cause thrush in the baby. Not super serious...but it's hard enough for a first time mom learning how to nurse and deal with a new baby without the added complications of thrush (which is also a common side effect of having antibiotics administered during labor...one reason I don't want them).

So, as you can see, I'm having a VERY eventful final few weeks. So far, I'm still doing okay at work and miraculously my blood pressure is low:) While I'm dealing with all this...Danny is experiencing his first pollen season in SC. For those of you unfamiliar with this, let me tell you what they say. If you don't have allergies, spend March in SC and you'll get them. He's been pretty miserable and still has to deal with me not being able to take care of him like I normally would...and actually requiring him to still be taking care of me. He is doing all of this surprisingly cheerfully...even if in a drug-induced stupor (he's recently discovered Benadryll). How did I get so lucky?