Two Months

Now that my first "baby" is not much of a baby any longer, I relish the ridiculous volume of pictures, videos, and blog posts revolving around Britta's babyhood. For this reason I am trying with all my might to keep up with it this time around with Elodie as well. As trite as it sounds, it really does fly by way too fast. On one hand I wish I could freeze time and keep Elodie tiny forever, while on the other hand I woudln't mind fast forwarding through these very trying toddler years with Britta. I guess you can't have it all, right?

Elodie is such a good baby. I remember thinking Britta was a super easy baby, and then I had Elodie. I hope this is the pattern for all for my children--I might have a dozen if they get progressively easier. Elodie is super easy-going. She loves her binkie, but is spending more time without it as she is more aware of her surroundings and spends time looking around and taking in all of the craziness that is her big sister. She loves to lay on her playmat and look up at her toys and every now and then surprises herself by grabbing onto one of them. She eats small amounts in pretty frequent intervals (every two to two and a half hours) during the day but sleeps about a eight or nine hour stretch at night. In the past few weeks, I feel like she has grown a ton and when I get her undressed for a bath or to change her clothes I just spend some time nibbling her chunky little thighs. At her two month appointment, she weighed 10 lbs 15 oz, putting her in the 50th percentile for weight. Her head was in the 25th percentile--a large departure from Britta's which was always off the charts big. And her length was in the 75th percentile.

We love all of the little smiles and coos. She doesn't seem to talk as much as Britta, and I already feel guilty sometimes because she is so laid back that I feel like she gets neglected. The very best thing about this baby is that she only poops like once a week. And she has had exactly two blowouts in her entire life. I was happy if Britta only had two blowouts a day. The trade off to this poop schedule is that she has terribly stinky toots. Like grown man style. But she's all sugar and spice on the outside, so we let it slide.

Oh, and yes, her hair is as awesome as ever. See for yourself.

Newborns

I had the wonderful Kristin Rosenbusch capture some newborns of Miss Elodie when she was a wee eight days old. Kristin saved my behind when my original photographer bailed and I thought I was not going to get any pictures done of the sweet newborn stage. I called around and she set up a session the very next day--did I mention she was seven months pregnant with her third and her husband was days away from leaving for a deployment? A saint, this woman. She was even kind enough to get some pictures of Britta--which I love! Just days later, Britta had a nasty run in with some scissors and is sporting some unfortunate Farrah Fawcett bangs as a result. I am so glad we got these pictures before that tragic event.

One Month

Why do babies grow up so fast? Nine months of pregnancy, and I only get a few short weeks of delicious newborn snuggles. Luckily, I was a bit better prepared this time around and have taken far more liberties in terms of holding, squeezing, and (don't tell) dozing with this baby.

At her one month check up Elodie was 9 lbs 5 oz. I wonder what it would be like to have a small baby; would they seem like a newborn for longer? She still has some of the newborn glow, but she already seems so big to me--like there's no way she ever actually fit inside me.

She is such a calm baby. She rarely cries unless she has gas or is starving. Even in the middle of the night, she just grunts at us until I finally peel myself away from my covers and feed her. Speaking of sleep, she has been pretty consistent since day one really. She generally gets up to eat anywhere from 2:00 to 3:00 in the morning and then again 3 to 4 hours later. We have had a few rare gem nights where she's gone 8 or 9 hours, but those just tend to set me up for disappointment the next night. The funny thing is it really doesn't matter what time you feed her at night, she will still wake up at the same time. She usually puts herself to sleep around 9:00, so I try to feed her about 8:00 or 8:30 but initially I tried to wake her up at like 10:30 or so to eat before we went to bed so maybe she'd go longer and she still got up at the same time. So, seriously people never wake a sleeping baby--it's rarely worth it.

Britta is still enamored as are we. Everywhere we go people comment on her hair and it never gets old. We are excited that she is more alert now and hope to be getting some real smiles out of her soon.

 Still fresh from the womb.

Sisters

When we first found out that Elodie was indeed a girl and not a boy, I think I was the only one in the family who was secretly elated. I always thought I wanted a hoard of boys when I was younger, but after having a girl who thinks its fun to dress up, put toys where they belong, and help me sweep I was terrified to have a boy who would want to play with bugs and jump on my furniture. Plus, I was so excited for Britta to have a sister close in age to her.

I was worried, however, that Britta would have a terrible time adjusting to the new baby. She was the poster child for "only child syndrome." Everything was "mine" and even her cousins couldn't sit on my lap without a meltdown. People would ask me if I thought she understood that we were having a baby and to be honest I wasn't sure. She kept saying that baby sister was in her tummy. And let's be honest, the concept of a person growing inside of me was mind blowing for me to comprehend at times, so let's think about it from a two year old's perspective. Add to that the stories of my older sister loathing my brother as a baby and continually asking my mom when they could "take that baby back to the hospital" and I was convinced we were in for a rocky ride.

When Britta showed up at the hospital the day Elodie was born, she came right in all smiles and wanted to hold the baby and show her the stuffed giraffe she had brought for her (courtesy of my sister in law). She was enamored and has been to this day. Every morning the first thing she asks is where her baby is. She squeals with delight any time the baby makes a noise--in fact at the hospital she kept asking her great grandma to make the baby cry so she could hear her (sounds mean, but it wasn't). When we went to have newborn pictures taken, she kept telling the photographer we wanted our baby back, as she does when anyone other than Chris or I holds her for too long. All in all, I could not have asked for a smoother transition. She loves to give the baby her binkie and help in any way I ask. She especially likes to watch me feed the baby from my "tiny horns" (her words, not mine). She was even caught trying out the breast pump last week.

Sisters from Erika Herman on Vimeo.

What's in a name?

I have had several people ask me how to pronounce Elodie's name. It is literally pronounced L-O-D or like Melody without the "M." I have also had several people ask me where we got the name. The name Tess has long been on my list of girl names. It got passed over for Britta, so I resurrected it again during this pregnancy. However, I have struggled to find a good middle name for Tess (without making the name Tessa) so one day Chris was Googling middle names for Tess and came across the name Tess Elodie. Then we both were like "hmm...actually Elodie itself is pretty." So basically, Google named our child. Mae was Chris' Grandma's middle name, so there is a little meaning in there I suppose.

I am a firm believer in not committing to a name until you are holding the baby in your arms--it feels like too much pressure to name them beforehand. So Chris and I go to the hospital with a short list of names we both like. Britta is my grandma's name and for that reason, I was really hesitant to commit to it when Britta was born. I wanted to make sure I was naming her Britta because it was really her name and not out of any sense of obligation. Plus, my grandma is the only other Britta I have ever known and so it felt really strange at first to call my child Britta. I fought against the name for a few days even though deep down I knew that it was her name. When I finally did commit to naming her Britta, it was like I couldn't even imagine how I ever thought her name could be anything else.

This time, as soon as Elodie was in my arms I looked at Chris and said "Is she a Tess?" and we both shook our heads. I then said "Is she an Elodie?" and we immediately felt good about it. It was kind of nice not to have the three day window of calling her "baby girl" and trying out different names on her like we did with Britta. At one point they threatened not to let us leave the hospital with Britta because we hadn't chosen a name. Gotta love New York.

We love the name, even though we have already had it mispronounced on several occasions. It is the cutest thing in the world to hear Britta say it, and every time someone comes over to see the baby she says "Her name is Elodie" like ten times.

Elodie Mae

On Monday, August 19th I went in for my 39 week check-up/ The week previous my doctor had told me I was dilated to 1.5 cm and 25% effaced. This week I was really hoping for some progress since I had been having some good Braxton Hicks contractions. The prognosis was 1.5 cm and 60% effaced--at least something was progressing. When I went to bed that night I noticed that the moon looked full so I looked up the lunar calendar and saw that the 20th was the full moon. When you are 9 months pregnant, you will grasp at any glimmer of hope that the end is near so I decided to put my faith in the old wives tale that the full moon can bring on labor.

I woke up in the middle of the night with a contraction that felt like it might be the real thing. I got super excited and was rewarded with no more contractions. So, I said a little prayer that labor would come and went back to sleep. I woke up at about 6:45 on Tuesday morning with contractions again. I went to the bathroom and discovered I had lost my mucous plug (yum). I got all excited again and then did some research that said losing your mucous plug basically just means you are massively pregnant and going to have a baby in the next few weeks. You can imagine my delight. Over the next hour while I was getting ready and trying to decide if I should go to work, my contractions were super irregular but not going away. I decided to call my mom and let her know that it might happen soon and go to work to keep myself occupied. My mom immediately booked a plane ticket and was on her way. I suddenly got really worried that it wasn't the real thing and she was going to come out here for no reason, but Chris was convinced that it was going to happen in the next 24 hours as well so I went with it, really hoping it was not a false alarm.

I went to work, went and picked Britta up from Chris's parents house, put her down for a nap, went for a walk around the neighborhood, bounced on my yoga ball, and generally tried to distract myself. By about 3pm, I was getting discouraged because my contractions were still really sporadic and not really getting any stronger or closer together. Just when I decided that it was indeed false labor, they started coming every ten minutes like clockwork. So, we went out to dinner, installed the baby car seat and decided to take Britta over to Chris's sister's house to spend the night. By this time it was 8 pm and they were still every 8-10 minutes apart, but still somewhat sporadic. My mom was on her way to our house from the airport and we went home to wait. My mom and sister pulled up to our house at just after 9, and I kid you not, from that point on my contractions got steadily closer and stronger. Baby girl was just waiting for her Mimi.

By about 10pm, they were seven minutes apart or closer and I decided to call my Dr's office. The on-call doctor told me that usually they would wait to have me come in but to head over to the hospital since I was a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section) patient and they wanted to do some monitoring. I decided to wait until my contractions were at least five minutes apart so I could labor at home longer. By 11pm, they were. So we went to the hospital with my mom and sister and by the time we got there they were about four minutes apart. As we were walking in I looked at Chris and said "if they check me and I am 1.5 cm dilated and 60% effaced, I am going to punch someone." Lo and behold, 1.5 cm dilated and 60% effaced. An entire day's worth of contractions for no reason. Awesome.

The nurse told me to walk the halls of the hospital for two hours and then come back and she would check me again. If it looked like I had made progress, they would admit me. My sister had left by this point since she had to be up for work the next day, so Chris, my mom, and myself explored every square inch and stair well of Skagit Valley Hospital. I was really glad it was the middle of the night since I looked super awesome in my hospital robe stopping every two minutes to breath through contractions. I think I also visited every bathroom in the hospital during our stroll.

At 2:15 am, we went back and the nurse checked me. I was at a 3 and 80% effaced. Booyah--I was not going home! I got set up in my room and decided I wanted to try out laboring in the whirlpool tub. I got in and it was so relaxing, but really increased the intensity of my contractions. After about 45 minutes I got out and wanted the juice. I had decided to labor as long on my own as I could, but by no means wanted to go natural. I am just not that strong, people. So they checked me and I was at a 5/6 and told me I could get the epidural if I wanted it. I did.

The anesthesiologist came in and placed my epidural and told me to let him know if I had any weird symptoms. I had a ringing in my ears, but it went away after a minute or two so he thought everything would be fine. He said it should take 10-15 minutes to fully kick in and he would come back and check on me. Now, I had an epidural with Britta so I know what they are supposed to feel like, and this wasn't it. With Britta it was like and immediate slice of heaven; this was like a giant needle in the back and then crazy painful contractions that brought tears to my ears. I was so looking forward to some relief and then not to get any was devastating--hence the tears. So, after about an hour the anesthesiologist came back in, removed my epidural and proceeded to give me a new one, which he didn't like the placement of, so three giant needles in the back. And guess what? Nothing. (Disclaimer: my legs did go numb for a short while so I think the epidural did take some of the edge off, but I was in intense pain and having back labor at this point so I know it was not working like it should have).

By this point, I was at an 8/9 and 100% effaced. There was a small lip in my cervix that they were waiting to thin out and then they were going to break my water and have me push. By this point I was in blinding pain and things were kind of a blur. I know my doctor got there at about 8 am and I was at a 10 and 100% effaced. She decided to break my water and do a few test pushes to see if I could just push past the slight swelling of my cervix. I did a push or two and she gave me the green light to continue.

She went across the street to the clinic and I started pushing. Pushing was wonderful. Aside form the fact that I felt like I was pooping myself every time I pushed, it was way better than just suffering through the contractions. About 45 minutes into pushing, the nurse was all of a sudden like "Wait! Stop! Let me call the Dr.!" Apparently, I had one super great push that almost delivered the head before they were expecting it. The two or three minutes that I was not allowed to push while we waited for the Dr. were agony. It was all I could do not to just push the dang thing out--screw whether the doctor was there or not. Finally she showed up and I gave one huge push and out came her head and within two or three more pushes, she was all the way out. They immediately plopped her on my chest and I got to see her, gross slime and all. It was incredible.

I have had several people ask me whether this was better than my c-section. I will not lie, this was WAY more painful. At one point, I wanted to be like "alright forget this, just cut me open." But being able to hold my baby girl right afterward and go home the next day, and pee on my own without a catheter that day--all pluses. Yesterday I sneezed and I didn't feel like I was being ripped in half. That's not to say the recovery is all roses, but it sure beats having your abdomen muscles literally sawed through, and not being able to feel your incision site for a year.

All in all, we are just happy that she got here safely and that everything went so smoothly. I did not have any of the complications that I did with Britta and the word C-section was never even mentioned. I felt so much more in control than I did in New York.

We are in love with this new little one and Britta has been an absolute gem of a big sister. We couldn't be happier (well....I could do with some more sleep...but....)

Going to the hospital! I love not being pregnant anymore.