One month

Well, I failed to update this weekly as intended! Elliana is one month old already (EEK!).  We set our goals for each day as: getting ready for the day (including eating meals) and doing one errand or outing.  I list out a few thing I need to clean or accomplish around the house, and usually get to half of them.  Sometimes nothing gets done! ...
In this past month we have:
-introduced the pacifier at 3 weeks old. Worked great the first time to get her to calm down, but then she kept spitting it out and wouldn't take it.  We kept giving it to her and it was hit and miss, but now for the most part she loves it and it really helps to keep her calm!
-she officially outgrew her newborn onesies on July 07. She still fits into some of the newborn outfits, but most of them are too short for her.  They still fit her chest and skinny arms, but we can no longer snap them at the bottom.  I was depressed when that happened!
-she is still waking up every 2 - 4 hours at night. One night she slept 5.5 hours, which was AMAZING, except I woke up freaked out wondering why she hadn't woke yet! I ended up waking her up to feed.  Crazy me. Feed or pump, those are my options, so it means I have to be up anyway....
-I am now proficient in the strollers, car seats, and Ergo Baby contraptions and can get myself around with her without any help from Josh.  We made a solo outing to the grocery store (it was a pain, but we did it!), and we frequently walk to Fro Yo, Starbucks, or Zanotto's Family Market.
-She had her baby check up on June 24th; she surpassed her birth weight and weighed in at 7 lbs 15 oz.
-We've had lots of visitors! All of my mom's seven sisters have visited, we just haven't yet seen her brother and his wife and family.  Her great grandma and great grandpa (my grandparents) have met her.  She has had two visits from her grandpa (my dad), but hasn't yet met any of my dad's side of the family.  Josh's family has visited her, and we made our first long outing to Morgan Hill for lunch with Josh's mom. We plan to go again this Saturday. She hasn't yet met her grandpa Brad (Josh's dad), but she has seen him on Skype! We look forward to him visiting later this month. All of my close friends have visited, and Josh's friend Paul came over to visit.
-Her umbilical cord mostly fell out, but there is still some left in there, so we are still doing sponge baths.
Lots of staring, cuddling and changing diapers happening here!  Very much obsessed and in love with this little one!  On the to-do list since before she was born is to find child care.... I'm procrastinating because it is the LAST thing I want to think about.  So far, no luck.  I've only called one place. Yikes!

Bath time!

4th of July

 

In her car seat on her way to visit her great grandparents

In the Ergo baby carrier! Love it! 

Our first far walk solo.  :)

Father's day. Elliana met her grandpa for the first time.

Fathers day - meeting her grandpa for the first time.

Top Left: Great Aunt Rachael with Ellie and Great Grandpa. Top Right: cousin (2nd) Astrid with Ellie. Bottom Left: Great Aunt Sara (Astrid's mom) with Elle. Bottom Right: Great Grandpa with Elle.

Fro Yo outing, squeezing into my daisy dukes. 

Fascinated by how a baby fits in a belly... I think about this on a daily basis.  

Superbaby!

Great Grandpa with Elliana

4th of July Block Party - 3 newborn girls on the block.  This is Shannon with her baby Halina, Hali for short. We're just missing Paula and her baby Fiona.  

One month old!!! 

Happy with her pacifier!

One month - newborn onesies no longer fit!!!   :(

Welcome to the world, Elliana Jolene!

Well, I didn't make it to 40 weeks! Elliana decided to make her presence on 06.06.2013 - 6 days before her due date. At 10 pm on June 05 my water broke.  I was sleeping and woke up to a sensation that felt like I was peeing my pants .... but I could tell it wasn't pee.  I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom (as fast as a 9 month preggo lady can run!), and sure enough it just kept on coming and was definitely not pee!  I called Labor and Delivery, and the RN instructed me to come in. She said 'come with your bags and plan to stay.'  Josh grabbed our bags, put the car seat in the car, and off we drove to the hospital.  Since I work at the hospital, and know a lot of the employees through the job I do, sure enough the security guard at the door was my first encounter with an employee - 'hey, hey! It's time? You're gonna have a baby?' ....  Embarrassing since I had a towel between my legs since I was still leaking, but hey - they are excited for us so I just have to keep that in mind!  We arrived just before the RN shift change.  We were placed in a Labor and Delivery room, and lots of questions were asked.  As I was talking to the RN's in walks my midwife!!!!!!!!!!!  It is so rare to be able to get your own provider to be present at your birth, so I was SO excited!! My midwife advised that she would not be checking me because of risk of introducing infection since my water had broken.  I wasn't having contractions that I was able to recognize, so she said that likely they would have to induce labor.  I had the option to take the pill to induce at that moment, or wait it out.  I opted to wait it out.  She said that if at 6 am I hadn't started having contractions, they would need to induce.  I called my mom and told her not to bother coming down because I wasn't going to be checked again until 6 am.  I wanted her to be able to have her rest because I anticipated a long labor.  While I was on the phone with her, I had two contractions.  Small, not painful.  My mom opted to come in right then to be with us. My mom arrived just past 12:30 am. By the time she arrived, I was having small, regular contractions, but no pain. At 2:30 am, we asked the midwife to check me; she said I was 3 cm.  I continued to have regular contractions… My mom and Josh took turns getting me through the contractions. At 6 am I started having super intense contractions and had the feeling like I just had to push.  The RN told me I couldn’t push, so Josh worked with me on my breathing through my contractions.  He got me through it.  For all of the contractions, I had my eyes closed grabbing my mom or Josh’s hand, and as they got more intense, I just grabbed the side rail of the bed. I didn’t want to walk, I didn’t want to take a warm shower, and I didn’t want to move at all from my side!  I had to rotate back and forth from the left to the right side because my side would start to hurt, but other than that I wanted to remain stationary and just be silent through the pain in my own space. The RN’s were very supportive of my decision not to have any pain medications.  They offered, but when I declined they did not push it.  I appreciate their suport in me wanting to have a natural birth. When my intense contractions came, I asked my mom to call for a nurse – I asked to be checked again.  The midwife gave the RN the go ahead to check me again.  At 6 am I was 8 cm dilated.  This shocked everyone. The RN called for the midwife.  By the time the midwife arrived I was pleading to push.  She checked me again at 6:30 am and I was 10 plus 2. They rushed to set up the room for delivery.    After the bed was ready, they asked me to start pushing.  It felt like such a relief to push.  An hour later at 7:33 am, our sweet Elliana Jolene was born.
7 lbs 2 oz, 20 inches long.
The advice I got prior to having a baby was always: get lots of rest because you're in for no sleep once the baby comes.  What no one told me was - it doesn't matter. I can stay up all night and all day just staring at my little baby.

39 Weeks

After being on Maternity leave for my first week, Josh and I decided to take a day trip to Monterey this weekend.  We figured we should do some 'stuff' before the baby comes.  I really wanted a breakfast buffet! We had stayed at the Portola Plaza a couple years back, and thought that may be a good breakfast spot.  We drove up early morning on Saturday and made it there by 9:30 am.  No traffic, easy to find parking... and it was going to be a HOT day in San Jose, so we were lucky to have weather in the high 60's in Monterey (it made it in the 90's in San Jose that day! eek!).  The weather was beautiful. The sun was nice with a cool ocean breeze.  I got: french toast, oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon, yogurt parfait with granola, fruit and hot chocolate... Josh got all the opposites: potatoes, bacon, sausage and a 'make your own' omelet. It was a LOT of food!!!  So worth it. We went for a walk down the wharf after, watched the sea lions, and then down a walking trail to the beach.  Josh snapped a bunch of 'bump' pictures, for which I am so grateful! I'm happy to be able to capture this time on camera!  It is crazy to look back at my former self and see how much the belly grows to accommodate a life! So amazing.  We can't wait to meet her!

38 Weeks

38 weeks ... didn't realize I chose the exact same outfit to wear today as I did in my last bump picture.  :-)  oops! I officially started maternity leave, my last week of work was spent at the NCal Institute for Performance Improvement Training in Concord.  3 nights and 4 days away from home... it was hard, but I'm really glad I went now versus after the baby.

Happy to be home!

Went to lunch with Rachel and Danielle on Saturday, Danielle is 30 weeks with her twin boys :) Love being pregnant at the same time!!!!  So blessed!

....had to get the dessert! So delicious!!

Josh washed my car today and installed the baby seat.  He is so talented with all this stuff, I don't know what I'd do without him!!!  I'm  making my list of things to bring to the hospital and starting to pack my bag.  Trying to tidy up the baby room and get things all in order.  Still a work in progress, but it is coming along!
Photo collage is up! So excited, Josh did an awesome job spray painting these old frames we got at Goodwill (for about 2 - 3 $ each!!).  We picked Heirloom White for the spray paint color.  We were worried it would be too much white with the white furniture, but couldn't decide on a different color. We went through pinks, different green colors, and light yellow.  I love how the color turned out, and glad we settled on white! It looks great!  We picked out paper from Paper Source, and wah lah!   Easy and cheap decorating for the room!

37 Weeks

37 weeks brings leg pain, lower back pain, and painful Braxton-Hicks contractions. The belly is large and heavy! Feeling very lucky to be feeling as good as I do.  One more week of work, unfortunately, Tuesday - Friday will be spent an hour and a half away from my family in Concord at a NCal Performance Improvement training to become an Improvement Advisor.  Not exactly what I want to be doing 9 and a half months pregnant, but what can I say... I'm a workaholic right now... until baby comes.
We loaded up on diapers this weekend - some may say a dumb idea considering she may grow out of certain sizes, but we got a great deal! Still have so much to do before she arrives.  Cant wait to meet her! :)

36 Weeks

35 Weeks