Julianne turned 5 months old yesterday. She enjoys standing more than sitting. We might have an early walker on our hands. (Gotta baby proof the house!) This weekend she rolled over on her own for the first time. The last two days she has been doing it more frequently. However, she hasn’t figured out how to roll back.
Because of this we have had to stop swaddling her for bedtime. Our plan was to wait until Josh got back from training this weekend, but Julianne had other plans. I swaddled her like normal on Monday night and she just kept screaming. It was time to stop. She enjoys sleeping on her side and I think she was frustrated that she couldn’t turn in her swaddle. This morning I found her sleeping on her tummy when I went in to wake her up.
She is a very happy baby. I love hearing her giggles! One day we’ll get it on video. We are still trying solid foods. She hasn’t taken to the spoon just yet. We have tried rice cereal, oatmeal, and sweet potatoes.
Julianne, Monthly Updates
Julianne took her first trip to Louisiana. It was nice, but it was hard on her. She met a TON of family. Including her Great MawMaw Betty & PawPaw Hulos and Great MawMaw Geraldine. She met her Great Aunts and Uncles and her second cousins.
Sanders Family
Robertson Family
I ended up getting tonsillitis the day before we left. Being sick plus a unhappy Julianne, made for a long car ride home. Poor Josh had two crying girls in the back seat.
Julianne, Monthly Updates
Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn’t worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.
Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.
Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.
Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn’t want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn’t stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.
Before I was a Mom,
I didn’t know the feeling of having my heart outside my body..
I didn’t know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn’t know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn’t know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.
Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment,
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn’t know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom.
Family, Julianne, Uncategorized
It has been a busy few weeks! Julianne turned 3 months old on April 15th and my maternity leave came to a close. I wish it could have lasted forever. She has been a perfect little angel with Grandma Rose during the week. She has settled in to a daytime routine for the most part, her nights are another story. She has been waking up frequently throughout the night, not hungry, just awake. Josh has been wonderful in helping during the night so I can get sleep. He falls back asleep much easier than I do!
She is eating her hands constantly. She even tries to get her whole fist in her mouth. She is grabbing at things more and more. The amount of drool that comes out of her mouth is crazy! She smiles a lot! I can not wait to hear her giggles.
I have started my second week back at work. I went down to a 30 hour work week. The days go by quickly right now. So far getting out of the house in the morning has been fairly easy. I get everything together the night before so it makes our mornings easier. My favorite part of our mornings is when she wakes up she always has the biggest smiles! So far she is a morning person like her momma. Daddy also gets to see her smiles before leaving for work.
I am looking forward to her 4 month checkup and finding out how much she now weighs and if we can start solids soon! She is growing so quickly!
Julianne, Monthly Updates
We celebrated Easter Sunday with Julianne’s baptism. She had many visitors come to meet her as well. She met her Great Grandma & Grandpa Ryan, Great Grandma Applegate, Uncle Tommy, and her godmother Jessica.
She has been sleeping through the night for over a week now! We are starting to get an nighttime routine down. Lights out currently at 8pm. Baths right now are about every 3 days. Then she has a small bottle, book, swaddle, and rock. She is usually out by 9pm.
My maternity leave is quickly coming to a close. I have a week and a half left. Next week will be our practice for going back to work. We will be spending the week with Grandma Rose so they can get used to each other. I’ve been able to drop down to 30 hours a week. So that will help give me a few extra hours to be with Julianne during the week.
Our little Easter bunny… I think she was wondering what the heck was on her head.
Julianne
These 2 months have flown by! She grows more every day. She is making more noises now. I could just watch her and play with her for hours. She has found her hands and loves to suck on them now. She instantly calms down when we lay her on the changing table. She likes tummy time on the bobby pillow and is getting better at lifting her head. She already has good head control when we hold her.
Our evenings are getting better – with the exception of getting used to the time change. She tends to go to sleep anywhere between 9pm and 10pm. Then wakes up to eat sometime between 2am and 4pm. It usually takes about an hour to eat and get her to fall back asleep. Depending on when she woke up during the night, she is up again between 6am and 8am. Those are the usually nights. Last night, however, she slept from 10pm to 5am. I feel great today!
We have made the switch to bottle fed breast milk so I can get used to how things will be when I go back to work. We still occasionally nurse in the late evenings if she needs a snack before bed. It makes me feel less stressed to know exactly how much she is eating. I keep track on how much I pump and how much she eats. I am building a freezer stash since she is currently eating less than I pump on a daily basis.
We have our 2 month check up tomorrow. I can’t wait to find out how much she weighs. Not looking forward to the multiple shots she is getting tomorrow. Thankfully, Josh will be going with us.
Julianne, Monthly Updates
She is getting bigger! She eats like a piggy. We have had the first of her responsive smiles.
We are starting to get out of the house more, which is very nice. I might even attempt to take her to the mall this week to get mommy some new bras. We got a swing and it has become her new sleeping spot. She very rarely will stay asleep in her crib or PNP, because her gas wakes her up frequently.
Our evenings are rough. She likes to eat constantly and if she falls asleep it is only for a few minutes. She currently has been falling asleep for the night around 11 or midnight. The last two nights she has slept until 5 am, but I often wake up during the time frame because of her loud grunting.
Breastfeeding has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. The pain was getting intense so we saw a lactation consultant. Of course Julianne had an excellent feeding while we were there and stayed awake the entire time – something she does not do at home. I believe to successfully breastfeed you need an additional two hands – to reposition, to keep her awake, and to hold her in place. It currently takes her about 45 minutes to nurse so I hope she becomes more efficient at it. I keep switching back and forth between breastfeeding and pumping breast milk. I guess as long as she is gaining weight then we must be doing something right.
Julianne was mildly tongue tied, so we saw an ENT doctor last Friday and he cut it. It was the first time I’ve seen tears in her eyes she cried so hard. If this was hard to watch, I can’t imagine how hard it will be to watch her get the 2 month shots.
I have my 6 week postpartum appointment scheduled on Wednesday. I currently have lost about 25 lbs since her birth. The only upside to gestational diabetes was that I didn’t gain a lot of weight during pregnancy. By the time we left the hospital I was already at my pre-pregnancy weight. I’d like to lose some more weight so I’ll need to figure out ways to get some exercise after I get the okay to do so. I can wear my pre-pregnancy jeans now!
Julianne
I can’t believe 3 weeks has already flown by. My days and nights are a blur. The first week was very rough for me physically and emotionally. I had trouble sleeping and lost a ton of sleep. It was hard for me to let go of things that needed to get done around the house and hard for me to accept help. We have had many many helpers for which we are very thankful for.
Slowly, we are adjusting to our new schedule and new way of life. Julianne still seems to have her days and nights mixed up. She likes to be awake for long periods of time between 10pm – 4am. Since Monday, she has started to have very painful gas that causes her to have restless sleep. It is hard to get her to go back to sleep when she is in pain. And it breaks my heart to see her uncomfortable. I am going to try to adjust my diet and see if it helps at all or try to see a lactation consultant for help. Hopefully, it is just a phase and her tummy is just adjusting.
All in all, she is worth every second of lost sleep. As she grows we are starting to see who she looks like and what features she has of Josh and I. We took our first grocery store trip last Sunday and she was a perfect angel. We have been to dinner at both of the grandparents homes. I don’t get out much right now so just going to dinner is a thrill! How times have changed.
Julianne
Julianne Rose Sanders, born Friday, January 15, 2010 at 11:36pm; 6 pounds 14 ounces, 18 3/4 inches.
We went in for our morning appointment to check my blood pressure and it has still high so it was on to the hospital to begin the induction. We arrived at the hospital around 11am and waited to be admitted. We were in our delivery room at about noon and I got set up with my IV and monitors. I had a blood pressure cuff that went off every 10 minutes, most annoying thing ever and goodness it was tight.
The pitocin was started at 2pm. I had my first internal check and was at 2cm dilated, 50% effaced, and -1 station. Our first nurse was convinced that we were going to have her by midnight! Well, the nurse shift changed and our second nurse was convinced we were in for the long hall. Around 6pm I had requested my epidural and the doctor came in about the same time to break my water. Thank God for epidurals! I am so glad we requested it when we did. I felt about 3 of the most pain I have ever felt in my life and once the epi was in place I was in heaven.
At 9pm the nurse came in to check me and I had progressed to 7cm and almost complete effaced! Should have seen the look on her face she was in utter disbelief and shock. The doctor came back in sometime shortly after to check herself and I had progressed to 8cm. They wanted to give Julianne some time to move further down the birth canal before pushing could begin.
At around 10pm I started to feel the pressure that she was about ready. I had to wait it out until the doctor was out of a c/s before we could start pushing. We started pushing sometime around 11pm. I pushed like I have never pushed in my whole life. After only 30 minutes (give or take) of pushing she was here! They instantly laid her on my stomach and it was the best sight I had ever seen. They took her to clean her up and check her out. Josh was by her side the whole time and was the first one to hold her.
I ended up with a 2nd degree tear, but all in all I am so happy that it was an easy and calm delivery. I don’t think I could have asked for a better delivery. Once I was all cleaned up, I got to hold her for the first time. She instantly wanted to eat after making her arrival, but she had to wait until we were situated in our recovery room which took about an hour. Since I had gestational diabetes they continued to check her blood sugar levels for 24 hours and she passed every time they checked. I was checked as well and am now back to eating regular foods.
We had a few rough spots during our stay at the hospital, mainly her choking on her thick mucus spit up. The nurse took her for 4 hours on Saturday night so we could get some rest. We were discharged from the hospital around 2pm on Sunday. It is nice to be home with her and we are all making our adjustments to our new family life.
Julianne, Pregnancy
Well, today was my weekly checkup. I first had a growth ultrasound. She is about 7 lbs 7 oz and fluid levels are perfect. I lost another pound, so we are at 15 lbs total weight gain. Then my blood pressure is checked and of course it is high. Met with the doctor. I am 2cm dilated and 50% effaced. My blood sugars have been doing great. I rested in the room for a few minutes and they came back to check my blood pressure. It was still up so I was sent to L&D to be monitored.
I spent about two hours in L&D hooked up to different monitors and a blood pressure cuff that checked every 10 minutes. Things dropped enough for them to let me go home. We were given the option of inducing tonight or waiting the night and being checked again tomorrow morning. We chose to go home for the night and I have to go to the doctor’s office at 10am tomorrow. If it high again, it will be off to the hospital we go.
I am confined to the couch now and Josh is waiting on me. Anyone who knows me knows that it is very hard for me to sit still so this could be… interesting.
Pregnancy