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