Garbage in, garbage out

A week or so ago we started Melanie on carrots. Since we do the solids in the afternoon, evidence of what Melanie has eaten does not appear until the next day. So the morning after the first carrot feeding, Robbie sends me an email at work titled, Garbage in, garbage out. He proceeds to tell me that that is an old engineering phrase and that the same applies to carrots... or poop! Lets just say that baby poop certainly changes when solid food is introduced.

Bed Time

Melanie has been sleeping through the night since she was about 10 ish weeks old. At around 4 months old, she regressed for a little bit, waking up once/night but that did not last long. We are truly blessed to have such a great sleeper. I hear from so many moms in my mom's groups that their babies do not sleep, or if they do, they are in a swing, or in bed with them. Not my sweet little angel. She sleeps in her nursery, in her crib and had been doing so since she was 6 weeks. Initially, she slept in her bassinet in our bedroom. SHe was newborn, waking up every couple of hours, so it made it much easier to get her to nurse when she was right here with us. But I was going nuts (literally) worrying about her waking up to Robbie's snoring, Tillee's (the dog) shaking and jumping off and on the bed. (Yes she sleeps with us... don't go there. ) So at 6 weeks old, Robbie initiated moving Melanie to her room. I think it was one of the biggest factors in her successful sleeping regime.

Now, over 5 months later, she sleeps from 8 PM to 7:30/8 AM!!

Here is Melanie's current sleep schedule/routine:

-Wake up at 7:30 AM
I have to wake her up in the morning in order to nurse her before I go to work. Otherwise, she would likely sleep until 8 AM (as she does on the weekends)

- Nap 10 am - 12:30

- Nap somewhere between 3:30-5 for about 45 minutes

- 7:30 PM Bath time, book time

- 8 PM out for the night

Robbie handles the morning naps and he gives her a bottle. She will either fall asleep or get really, really drowsy while eating. He will then put her in the crib and walk out of the room. In the evenings, I nurse her and she almost always falls asleep at the breast. I then gently get up and put her in the crib. She typically does not wake up. But for the last two nights, she has talked and laughed while nursing in the evening. She even unlatches and stops eating which is very strange for her. I was worried that this was a sign that she was not tired or too stimulated to fall asleep. I decided to just get up, and put her in the crib... wide awake. And like magic, she went right to sleep. I am so proud of my baby girl!

Melanie's Stats

July 29, 2010 - 2 weeks old

Head circumference: 35.5 centimeters - 38%tile
Height: 20.75 inches - 68%tile
Weight: 6 lbs 8.5 ounces - 5.7%tile


September 15, 2010 - 2 months old

Head circumference: 39 centimeters - 58%tile
Height: 22.75 inches - 67%tile
Weight: 11 lbs 8 ounces - 69.8%tile


January 18, 2011 - 6 months old

Head circumference: 44.2 centimeters - 90%tile
Height: 27.25 inches - 92%tile
Weight: 18 lbs 9 ounces - 90%tile

Crazy huh?

Thank goodness for mommy friends

Making new friends is hard. Particularly when I am not in school, or at a new job. I am 32 (yes, I admitted it) and cannot even remember the last time I actively tried to make new friends. But now I am in a new stage of my life where priorities have shifted.Conversations are no longer about cute shoes and yummy restaurants, but instead about poopy diapers and sleep routines. I am not trying to say that I do not appreciate my old friends. I love them! But is was important to me to make some new ones too. It was difficult for me to make the decision to attend mommy groups/meetings. I am SOOOO glad I did though. I have met the most wonderful woman and the most adorable friends for Melanie.

Today, I met up with 2 of them for a walk and coffee. It was so nice to talk freely about all of the things that occupy my mind these days and have people who genuinely and empathize. My mommy was the queen of making friends. She would be very proud of me.

Ouch! No biting

Melanie has 2 teeth. They are super cute and she is the first of her "friends" to have them. BUT, she has decided to use them on me...while nursing. OUCH! I am sure one of the reasons why many mommies stop nursing around 6 months is because that is when babies start to get teeth. Well I am determined to get through this. I have read many articles on strategies to nip the biting in the bud and tried a few. They seemed to work for a few day but the biting is back! The biting seems to come at the end of our nursing sessions so perhaps it is when the flow has lessened. She is biting to tell me she is ready to switch sides? That she is still hungry? All that I know for sure is that it hurts. But I will not quit.

6 Months... in pictures

The hard part about catching up on 6 months of blogging is that there is just too much to say. So instead, here are some of my favorite pictures that we have take of our munchkin over the last 6 months...

Milk please

I knew from the start that I wanted to breastfeed my children. Neither Robbie or I were breastfed, and we turned out just fine, but I knew it was something I wanted to do. I spent time reading/researching before Melanie was born and felt like I was as educated as I could be without actually having the chance to try it. I told the labor and delivery nurse that she I delivered Melanie, I wanted skin to skin time ASAP as well as the ability to nurse her. What a phenomenal experience to have my warm slippery, tiny baby placed on my chest for the first time. When it came to breastfeeding, all the reading in the world did not prepare me for actually doing it. I put Melanie on my breast immediately after delivering her. For what I knew, she was doing just fine. Over the next 2 days (in the hospital) I continued to breastfeed her. The nurses would come in and watch and see how I was doing. They thought things were going well, as did I. The scale however, was not saying the same thing. My little girl was not gaining any weight, in fact she was losing. We were told not to worry, as weight loss was very common with newborns. But she was also jaundice and the best remedy for her mild case was to flush it out. Wit milk that it. So I knew I needed to really give her some quality nursing time. When it was time to be released, she still had not gained at all so the pediatrician recommended we give her 1/2 ounce of formula when we got home. I really did not want to introduce formula but knew that she needed it. The next day (after our first night at home, we had a follow up appointment with the pediatrician. M was still struggling to gain weight and it was now clear that she was not latching on correctly and getting the milk she needed. So I made an appointment with the lactation consultant. After seeing her, we learned that M had yet to develop her suck/swallow reflexes. Typically, those reflexes are developed in the last 3 weeks in utero, and Melanie was 2 weeks early so she missed out on that.

The journey that followed was rough. We were pumping and then giving M milk via a syringe and tube into her mouth when it was on my breast. She would be "rewarded" for sucking (or what looked like sucking) by Robbie pushing the milk into her mouth. This routine or pumping, giving her breast time and then feeding her as mentioned above look over an hour and because she needed to be fed every 1.5-2 hours, it felt like all I did was pump and feed. Luckily however, after a week or so, M finally figured it out and the rest is history. She is quite the eater too. Breastfeeding had turned into something I really enjoy. I love the time with my little girl. I love the eye contact we make when together and I love when she is so relaxed and her tummy is full.

I tried 2 different nursing pillows and by far the Boppy is my favorite!

Playing Catch up

It is going to be hard to summarize the first six months of Melanie's life. What makes it even harder is that I did not start this blog when I was pregnant... like I wanted. I thought about it all the time but for some reason, just could not do it. But never late than never. Here I am playing catch up. You will have to forgive me in advance for being scattered. I have a few goals for this blog. The first is to have a place to document milestones, exciting events etc. Although I do not intend for it to replace a baby book, it seems to be a more practical place to record things. I also want a place where family and friends can some and see what is going on in our world. I have many blogs of other people (both that I know and do not know) that I visit regularly and am entertained by their posting. Lastly, I think it will be fun for Melanie to have a place in the future to go and read about her journey into this world.

And so it begins...

Well (about) a year has passed since I last posted. It is amazing what can happen in twelve months. I am not even sure how to capture each milestone without spending hours on end typing. And since I no longer have hours, if not minutes to do anything, that is not going to happen. What I can do is fill you on the high lights and (sadly) low lights of the last year. Where to begin?

• October 2009 mom was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer
• November 2009 we found out we were pregnant!!
  
• December 2009 I lost my mom to the horrible disease
• July 2010 Robbie and I welcomed Melanie Karen Adler into the world

I think I will start from there.

My pregnancy with Melanie was for the most part easy. I never got really sick. I never was in too much discomfort and except for being watching like a hawk due to my previous miscarriages, felt pretty much at ease throughout. I ended up delivering Melanie 2 weeks early because my amniotic fluid levels were low. Although all of the non-stress tests showed that M was doing just fine, the doctors were still concerned. So on July 13, 2010, I was told to check into El Camino hospital. Here is how the next few days transpired. On the evening of 7/13 I checked in an was immediately administered Cervidil. Lets just say that the pain I felt when the RN inserted the rope (yes rope) was so intense, I began to worry how I was going to get though the natural labor that I was hoping to have. The Cervidil was supposed to do its thing overnight and I would ripen and then go into labor on my own. No such luck. I woke up the next morning feeling pretty darn normal. So on came the Pitocin. After I showered they hooked me up to an IV and the Pit party begin. After every 3o minutes, they increased the dosage. Robbie and I walked laps around the hospital, watched TV and chatted for several hours. My Aunt Colleen and cousin Shanthi showed up in the early afternoon. At around noon, I finally started feeling real pain. I can only describe the contractions as really painful period cramps but instead of being centralized in my groin, they radiated through my entire abdomen and back. Soon after the pain of the contractions started to intensify, the RN came in to check me. I assumed I was moving right along. WRONG! I was only 1 centimeter dilated. How could this be? How was I in so much pain and not making any progress? So I continued to walk laps, lay in the hospital bed and move around the room. I was getting more and more uncomfortable. Around 2 PM, I went into the bathroom because my tummy was not feeling right. I did what I needed to do in there and when I stood up, I felt warm liquid dripping down my leg. My water broke! I was so excited to this as I was sure it meant I was moving right along. I came back out to tell the RN. She checked me and I was still 1 centimeter! Now I was getting mad. I started to doubt my ability to naturally get through labor at this pace. I really wanted to give it my best effort, so I sucked it up and went back into the process of walking, bouncing on the ball, leaning on the counter for back rubs etc. It got later in the evening and I was miserable. I practiced all my yoga techniques and did all the pacing I could do. I asked ot be check again around 8 PM. My thoughts were that if I were 6 centimeters or more, I could hold out and not get any pain relief. I really felt like I had progressed because my contractions were closer together and much, much more painful. But to my dismay, I was only 2 centimeters. I was so sad and angry and exhausted. Robbie and talked about it with the RN. She told me that I still had many hours to go. She offered me narcotics for pain relief and that just was not the answer for me. So at 1 AM on 7/15, I asked for an epidural. When the anesthesiologist finally came in I was ready. He did his thing and put the epi in. Or so we thought. It did not take. Yes, you hard me. These things happen to real people, not just on TLC. So he tried again. Success. It is such an amazing feeling to have all that pain go away in an instant. I actually began laughing at myself for waiting so long. But then all of a sudden, I felt sick. I told the Dr. (who was still in the room) that I did not feel well. I could not explain what was wrong but they were able to figure out quickly, that my blood pressure was quickly dropping. The dr. quickly gave me some meds and just like that, I was back to normal. Things quieted down and I was able to relax. The plan was for me to go to bed for the night and that in the morning, I would likely have progressed and I could finally deliver my little girl. Then the RN figured out that the baby had turned to face sideways. Go figure. My nurse Margarite was amazing, She told me that in order to get the baby into position, she would have to come in every hour and wake up to change positions. So every hour, on the hour, she came in and did her thing. At about 6 AM on 7/15, I woke up feeling different. I felt like I had to poop and everything that I read, told me that was the sign that the baby had finally dropped. So I asked the morning RN if she would check me. She told me to hang on because I had likely not progressed that far in the 5 hours since the epi. So I waited in bed for a bit longer but kept telling Robbie that something was going on "down there." I asked again to be checked and was told to wait. Argh! Then, just as the RN was coming in to check me, my OB arrived on her morning rounds. I told her how I was feeling and she ended up checking me herself. Low and behold, I was 10 centimeters and the baby's head was right there! I told you so was right on the tip of my tongue but I held it in. My OB told me that first babies take a while to come out and that she was going to go back to her office (which was literally right across the parking lot) and that the RN would call her when I was ready. The nurses got everything all set up and I began pushing with them. After 2 pushes, they had to get on the phone and have my OB come back over because I was ready to have my baby! Dr. LW came rushing back in. In just 15 minutes I pushed Melanie Karen out. I cannot begin to describe what it was like to have that warm slippery baby put on my chest. An absolute miracle.

Melanie Karen Adler
Born at 9:18 AM on July15, 2010
6 pounds 6 ounces
20 inches of perfection!