More Macie

This is a mash up of two posts I've been meaning to write for too long. Both, of course, about Macie. :) I have Christmas etc. to write about, but first I have to post about Macie girl once more.

A month ago I wrote a bunch of nick-knacks to remember about Macie's first 3 weeks of life. She's 7 weeks old now, so I've added some updates here and there. 

AND... like I said before my friend, Tiffany, took some sweet photos of Macie so below are more pics from that photo shoot.

Here are some details about life so far with Little Pip:

~The boys adore their little sister with their whole souls and stick to her like a magnet when she's in the room.

~She hasn't lost an eyeball yet and has only been laid on a couple of times. 
Update: She still hasn't lost an eyeball, but I left the room for a whole 30 second and found Lincoln holding her upside down by her feet last week. 

~The first week of life with Macie was HARD.  It seems like for every good night we had with her, there were two bad nights to go along. Good = eating and going back to sleep. Bad = crying majority of the long, long, sleepless night.
Update: life has improved MUCH since then.

~When she was three weeks old we moved her into her own room and she's sleeping in her crib full time now. 

~She's sleeping great at night, waking up once usually around 4 am.  During the day she's a stinker and wakes up multiple times per nap. I've added the fan to her room and that's helped some.
Update:  She's been sleeping through the night most nights - usually 6 or 7 hours at a time. Wohoo!

~She's nursing beautifully, for which I am VERY grateful.  She was slow as molasses for the first couple weeks but she has figured out how to eat more efficiently now. And she's not a snacker, which brings much sanity to my life.

~Loves her car seat but not a big fan of the swing or bouncy chair.

Update: She now has a strong dislike of her carseat but loves swinging.

~She hates binkies and it's breaking my heart. I remember having to convince Lincoln that he liked binkies, but this girl is a whole other story.  They just gag her.  I haven't given up trying though... I'm determined to make a binky lover out of her. 

Update: I could just cry and jump for joy because finally a few nights ago at 6 weeks old she FINALLY started taking a binky!!! After much prayer and moments of desperation something just clicked and she figured it out. I know all this talk about binkies sounds dramatic, but this has made the next year of my life MUCH easier. I haven't been able to go to the store, to friends' houses, church, anywhere, without her waking up and crying. And the only way to console her was unbuckling her from her car seat and holding her while pushing the cart. Right. That's a nightmare with two other boys wandering around me like free electrons at the same time.  This has greatly improved the quality of my life and has, in all reality, been an answer to many prayers. :)

~She smiled for the first time Tuesday night! She's smiled three times for me now but I have yet to get it on camera.

Update: She smiles all the time now. I will just catch her smiling randomly at the wall, Christmas tree, etc. It's pretty darling. 

~She has grandpa hair now!   
During her second bath, I used the scrub brush (from the hospital) on her head and after I dried her off I  realized all the hair from the front half of her head was totally gone. Ha ha. I scrubbed it all off so she is totally bald now except in back. She has blonde peach fuzz starting to grow in but I fear it will be a LONG time before anything girlish appears.
 

~Macie was born tongue tied. See? 
(The frenulum under the tongue keeps her tongue from sticking out as far as it should and creates a heart shaped tongue).

We had it clipped last week at 6 weeks old.  We were going to have to do it anyway because it affects speech, teeth, jaw and facial formation. But we decided to do it now because she was making a clicking noise when she would nurse sometimes and would swallow a lot of air. We also had hopes that it would help her to not gag on her binky.

~She has become so alert and loves to look around and especially loves laying under the Christmas tree and staring at all the lights.

~She rolled over two times from belly to back a few days ago. She hasn't done it since so it was most likely an accident.

I can't get enough of her. Even if it's 4 in the morning and I'm slightly grumpy and have a fraction of bitterness in my heart that I have to get out of my warm bed to feed her. Even then I just can't get enough of her sweet, innocent self.

Macie's Grand Entrance

Macie's officially one month old today!  And better yet we survived... "we" meaning my two slightly crazy boys. :)

Anyway, as previusly mentioned here's the story of her arrival.
I absolutely loved Macie's delivery. It really was perfect for us and it was everything I wanted. 

Starting Tuesday, November 6: 
Due date. Came and passed which I was ok with because I still had to set up her room and finish painting her room.

My goals for this delivery were:
(1) Go into labor on my own (no induction, no pitocin)
(2) Have an unmedicated delivery - something I only told a few people. I didn't want extra expectations and pressure from others.
(My reasoning? I just realized that this is the only time in my whole existence that I get to experience birth, which is what Heavenly Father created my body to do.  I didn't want this short window of time to pass without really knowing the feeling of what my body is fully capable of doing and feeling what God designed for it to do. And, I'm not going to lie, spending $800 less sounded like a nice thing too)

(3) Stay at home as long as possible
(4) Have a bonding experience with Ben
(5) Get to hold Macie as soon as she comes out (didn't get to do with either of my boys)

Thursday, November 8:
I knew/suspected today would be the day.  I knew a storm was coming and I thought the drop in barometric pressure might do the trick. And I could feel that she had drop way down and my belly was hanging much lower.

Walked a couple miles with the boys before Logan went to school.
Went to lunch  at Mama Chus with Jera (mother-in-law).
Dr. Woolsey stripped membranes at my appointment (was only dilated between 1-2).

I came home from that appointment excited and full of anticipation and set out with a burst of energy to get the house in a state ready to leave for the hospital!  I finished unpacking the few last boxes in my bedroom and cleared out all of the clutter so it would be a relaxing place to be.

Then for dinner I made Ben and the boys walk with me to Sensuous Sandwiches.  I spent the rest of that night putting her dresser together (that I had just painted the day before) and organized all her clothes. I vacuumed the family room and cleaned the bathroom. And finally at 1:30 am I went to bed.

Then at 2:58 I woke up to a contraction and thought I felt a trickle of fluid, but wasn't positive.  I went to the bathroom and walked around for about 10 minutes.  After about 30 minutes a few more contraction came so I decided to wake Ben up and let him know.  

3:30 am - Ben called his mom to let her know (she lives in Lehi and it was the plan for her to come get the boys whenever labor hit) and then he called and left a message with my mom (my parents were going to leave to drive down here from Washington when the baby came).

Ben went back to bed waiting for my labor to pick up a bit and I jotted down a few notes on paper for Ben to use as a guide to help me through labor.  At this point my contractions were maybe 10 minutes apart.

 4:00 am - Jera got to our house at and she slept while I joined Ben in bed to try to rest.   I thought I felt a little more fluid leaking, but it really wasn't much, so I wasn't sure if my water had broken or not.  . 

The time between 4:30 and 6:00 am is all a blur to me.  I know I woke Ben up maybe around 4:45 to help put pressure on my back during contractions. Contractions were sporadic, varying anywhere from 7 to 11 minutes apart, and lasting 45 second to 90 seconds.  

Finally one contraction came that was so hard, long and painful and as soon as it was over I said, "ok we're going to the hospital!"  At this point I still didn't realize how fast labor was progressing. I thought I was going to the hospital prematurely still.

By now it was about 6 am and Ben left my side to rush and get dressed and get our bags out to the car. Contractions started coming really fast at that point, and were maybe 3 minutes apart.  Finally Ben came in to help me walk to the truck.  

I didn't even make it past the kitchen  before another contraction came.    

I had another contraction just after getting into the truck. 

Another contraction the way down to the hospital (we live about 5 minutes away, thankfully!!).

And another contraction as we pulled up to the hospital. 

About 6:15 or 6:20 -  Ben pulled up to the valet parking. Of course there was no one there to take the truck so he just locked it and left it there.  We walked in and another contraction came. Ben kept going to fetch me a wheel chair and I just leaned over the front counter and was so thankful the hospital was fairly empty while I was breathing and moaning through the contraction and holding my belly. 

He rushed me up to labor and delivery and of course another contraction came. Looking back now,  I was in transition at this point but just didn't know it.  They wheeled us right into a delivery room.

6:20-ish am

Ben got my gown on and heaved me onto the bed and another contraction came.  The nurse checked my progress and I was only dilated to a 6. I yelled, "That's it?!"because I couldn't believe all that pain only got my cervix to a 6.

At that point  there were lots of nurses buzzing about frantically getting things ready.  I had 2  more intense contractions. . Then suddenly during that contraction I felt my uterus  heave all of a sudden and totally push on it's own.  I yelled, "I'm pushing! I have to push!" 

The nurse checked me and I was at a 9.  They paged my doctor, but the in-house doctor (Dr. Girly) walked in the room to start delivery.  And I rejoiced  when he said, "She wants to push, let's get her pushing then!" I think it was 6:30 am at this point.

During that first push  Dr. Girly discovered Macie's head was turned the wrong way making it hard for me to push her out. He tried turning her head, but it didn't work. At that point Dr. Rees came in (my doctor... I am still baffled at how quickly he got to the hospital!) and jumped right in, trading places with Dr. Girly. During that next contraction and push Macie turned herself around the right way.  It felt forever long, but I only pushed for 5 minutes.  Once her head was turned she came right out at 6:38 am!

I really don't remember much through the pushing, except that it was the hardest part physically and mentally and that was when I doubted myself the most.  I remember yelling and screaming a few times, "I can't do this! And "It hurts!"  Ben's words of encouragement is what got me through this part.  It was hard to focus on pushing effectively. I had to concentrate hard on not yelling or crying out, but relaxing instead.

Dr. Rees put Macie on my stomach right away and I loved it. Both Ben and I were in complete shock that she was here already.  I just kept saying over and over, "I can't believe she's here. This isn't real! I can't believe I did it!"

The whole thing was 3 1/2 hours and 18 minutes at the hospital.  Looking back, I'm positive my water broke early on, making my labor so fast.  And it was a blessing that we went to the hospital when we did so she wasn't born at home.  And more than that I'm glad that Macie came out totally healthy without complications. What a blessing.

 We stayed in the delivery room for an hour and the first thing I wanted was for the boys to see their new sister. I couldn't wait to be all together with the newest tiny member of our family. 

Jera got the boys ready at the house (it was so wonderful to have her in town now and so close!) and  brought the boys up around 8 am to meet Macie.  They were so excited to meet her and promptly inspected her little hands and toes. Meanwhile it was snowing and storming like crazy outside and continued to dump snow for 2 days. And poor Ben got a migraine later that day and had to go home to throw up and sleep it off.

We went home the next day, Saturday at around 10 pm. And after debating the whole time, we finally decided on her name about an hour before checking out.  In the end it was between Mae, Macie, and Morgan.

Skin to skin -  exhausted but completely happy and shocked

 delicious cream cheese cookies

nicknamed her Macie Moo dressed in her cow outfit to come home in

3 Weeks Ago

Well Macie is 3 weeks old today. Already!  I have her birth story written that I'm going to post... except I got a bit carried away with all of the details that I want to remember and it ended up being 5 pages long... :)  SO I'm going to post a shortened version here and print out my version for her baby book and my journal.

It truly was the best birth experience yet. Heck, it was the best pregnancy and post birth too. Anyway, my goal is to get that posted tonight, or at least this weekend.  

In the mean time, my fabulous and uber talented friend, Tiffany, took some photographs of her that are just darling. Here's one so far and you can see a few more here. I'll post more once I get them all from her.

I love this shot of her sucking on her fingers. I love the composition of the photo too.

Anyway I can feel it's almost time to feed her. Again. Which means she'll be waking up any minute. And I still have a craft cabinet to organize (that I've been trying to get done for a few days now...). Time to go.

Macie Mae

Man, life has been a bit on the crazy side since Macie was born! But she has been a sweet addition to our family so far.  She came on Friday, November 9 @ 6:38 am. She weighed 8 lb 3 oz and was 19.5 in long.

This is her at about 4 days old.  Between her birth story and an update on her blessing (we just blessed her on Sunday) I have a lot to add here. But for now this will have to do!

Moving etc.

Hello! It feels like an eternity has passed (and an eternity's worth of drama) since my last post!  But alas we are here in Orem, alive and well, kickin' it in our new house and still very pregnant.

Maybe the term "kickin' it" should be replaced with something a tad more fitting... 

sweating... unpacking... working like dogs... moving things over and over trying to find the perfect fit... losing sleep, running errands like crazy.

Tonight I drove home with the boys in tow after a long day and as I pulled up into the drive way 1 1/2 hours past their bedtime,  it was one of the first times that walking into this house has really felt like home to me and had the same old welcome-home-after-a-long-day feeling. It was SO nice to have a minute of pure peace before tackling bedtime routine chaos.  We're loving our new house.

Here's what's gone down since my last post...

After much delay and drama with the family buying our home we finally closed on our Provo home and our Orem home on the same day. Back to back. About 20 minutes apart. Remember how we were supposed to close initially on Friday, Oct 5th? Yes... well that ended up being pushed up to Wednesday, Oct 3 and then  extended to Thursday, Oct 11, and then pushed back once more to Friday, Oct 12.  I was a mad, hormonal, pregnant woman who had strong words to say to our buyer's lender and underwriting team. 

The pros? 
-We didn't end up having to rent our garage space back from our buyers just to store our things in our garage for 2 weeks.
-I learned that if I ever get back into the work force it will NOT be in the housing, lending or real estate industry.  

The cons? 
-We really wanted to close on Thursday so the loans could record and fund Friday, giving us ALL Saturday to move in.  Grr.
-I made at least 50 phone calls to various utility companies changing the date over and over for hook up and shut off dates. 
-I got my cell phone bill for $200 (normally $50 mind you) because I had gone so far over my minutes and text limits trying to coordinate all the details of selling and buying a house. 

That same Friday morning that we closed my sisters and mom totally and completely surprised me by coming into town for my 30th birthday!! (A tradition started  10 years ago with my oldest sister, Andy. Note - I don't turn the ripe old age of 30 until November but due to the whole baby, Thanksgiving, moving issue, they just planned early. This will be it's own post.).

Sunday, Oct 14th, we visited our new ward and LOVED it.  It seems like an extremely well-oiled machine that we have moved into.  Wohoo!

Monday, Oct 15 -After much sweating, hoping and praying that our buyer's loan would fund and record by 5pm so that our new loan could fund and record (stinkin' domino effect) it all funded (barely!) and we got the keys from our realtor at 5:15 pm exactly.  Meanwhile Ben was at our old house at 3:30 pm loading things into the UHaul praying that we could get into the house that night. Luckily it all worked out and Ben pulled in with the UHaul at 5:45 pm to start moving in with about 2 1/2 hours of daylight to work with.  

But here's the awesome part... Ben's mom had the boys at her house the whole night, we had a handful of guys from our old ward show up, two friends from Ben's cycling team, Kaye and Riley, Ben's dad, Tim and Brenna, Andy Gavan and Mercer,  2 of Ben's co-workers, about 10 guys and 3 whole families from our new ward!  It was amazing and relieving to see how much help came around when we really needed it.  And it was wonderful that a handful of them stayed late into the dark going back for one last load so that Ben didn't have much to do the next morning. 

Wednesday, Oct 17 night we had enough unpacked that we could start living in the new house. 

We worked our tails off unpacking for 4 days.

Sunday, Oct 21th - Ben left to go to California for a week for business.  

Friday, Oct 26th  - Ben got home to find me still pregnant (38 1/2 weeks) and somewhat sane, ready to kill our stupid cat and I had even gotten some unpacking done.

Now, Monday, Oct 29  we are almost fully unpacked (minus the nursery and all the boxes of house decorations that just aren't going to be put up until after Christmas...) and it's finally feeling and looking more like home!!

We've gotten a loaf of bread, a plate of brownies, three plates of cookies, a couple random stop-bys, an interview with the bishop, a visit from the Relief Society and Elder's Quorum and even an invitation to a girl's night out since moving in two weeks ago.  We feel so welcomed and loved so far.

And I finally got to sit down and start sewing a bit tonight (in my very own sewing room!) and it felt so, so good to be reunited with my sewing machines again!  I haven't seen them since June when we packed up to show and sell the house.  I never thought sewing an R2D2 costume could feel so fulfilling.  Ha.

So now we're 7 days away from baby girl's due date and what's left to do?

Paint her nursery
Unpacking her 0-3 clothes
Buy a new nursing bra
Dye the muslin blankets I made, old white burp rags and my old diaper changing pad cover
Finish her afghan
Finnish her flower embroidery wall hanging
Sand her dresser and repaint
Hang up decorations
Wash and clean bassinet
Wash and clean baby swing
Sew a yo-yo pillow and yo-yo's for her wall hanging
Put together the fabric hoops for her wall art
Sew her quilt
Pack hospital bags and boy's overnight bags for Marm's house
Decide on a name, er, at least narrow it down 
Get a baby book
Sew a blanket from the cute flannel that I could help buying today
Sew two crib sheets from a cute old sheet that I got at DI
Spray paint the wicker stool I bought for her room
Make blessing dress
Get ready for the actual birth and mentally ready for a 3rd babe at home

Yeah, that's not all going to get done this week.  Time to prioritize I suppose. It's a good thing babies don't really need much as newborns. :)   

Here's some pics from the past month, in no order really.

35 weeks

36 weeks

38 weeks

 

I unpacked this suit that Jera made for Ben when he was 2 years old.  Linco wore this to church a  few weeks ago and was pretty much the biggest mack ever.

Meet Shae, Lincoln's PEIP person (child developmentalist). She has been a part of our family for the past year. This picture was her last day of visits.  It was actually timely because he's qualified for speech pathologist visits now so she would have stopped coming regardless of our move. 

Evidence of moving.. the paper products stage. 

Ben puzzle piecing our...stuff... into 2/3rds of our garage for storage. 

Logan's last day at the house... of course sporting a super hero pose. 

Getting our new keys!!! I promptly set to work cleaning after this. 

Late, late night after moving in the first day. We were totally exhausted. This is our kitchen.

 This was the day we were officially under contract to buy the house a month ago. A neighbor came over and took this pic for us.

Picking out pumpkins with Marmie

THe boys kept stacking and unstacking the pumpkins.  or "Pupicks" as Lincoln calls them.

We drove away with just a few...

I actually bought a handful as well and that was actually the first thing that we moved "in" to our house. Pumpkins on the porch. :)

Oh did I mention that amongst all the moving and unpacking we've been big-boy bed training Lincoln?  Logan's upgraded to a twin bed, Lincoln has Lo's toddler bed and the baby will have the crib now. 

He's actually been doing AMAZING at staying in bed. There have been small frustrations here and there during nap time, but compared to Logan getting up 60 times per night when he transitioned to the toddler bed, Lincoln is  doing awesome at staying in bed.

This is how I found him his first night in bed. 

Conference weekend we were living with Ben's parents and Nick, Maegan and co. came down for the weekend.  Saturday morning while the boys were fishing bright and early, the rest of us took a stroll down to Lehi Bakery to indulge in some doughnuts. 

The cousins riding bikes between Saturday sessions of conference. 

Chicken noodle soup (with homemade egg noodles of course) was the first meal I made in our house the first night we started living there.  

It just happened to be what I was craving that day and it used ingredients I had unpacked thus far, but it just happened to be quite the homey meal in my opinion. :)