3.5 Months

It has been an interesting couple of months. When I posted a couple of months ago, I referred to Lilli's "witching hour". Well- the screaming became pretty constant. Like screaming-every-waking-hour constant. Whenever I'd talk to anyone about it I'd get pretty much the same response. "My baby did that too, I know exactly how you feel." or "My baby was colicky like that." or "It should pass by 6 months or so." (That was my least favorite. It would mostly make me want to cry. haha. 6 months? I don't know if I can survive that long...). Since everyone seemed to have gone through the same thing, I thought I was just being a baby about it- not patient enough, too tired, whatever.

As we had one screaming day after another (and it was just the  two of us since Scott was on his rotations as well as working)- I began to think that there was no way what she was doing was normal. She always seemed like she was in pain, and it was heart breaking- and there wasn't anything I could do to console her except rock and rock in the rocking chair until she was lulled into a fitful sleep. We would have maybe a grand total of an hour or two of non-screaming time each day. If that.

Finally we had her 2 month appointment (a couple of weeks after she was actually two months). When we got to the doctor's office, Lilli was screaming true to form. When the pediatrician came in (I absolutely love my pediatrician, by the way)- he asked me if I had any concerns. I explained that the screaming she was currently doing was what she was doing most of the day. As the appointment went on, the screaming intensified and the doctor turned to me and said something along the lines of "If this is what she is doing all the time, it is definitely not normal."

He explained that the most common reason for fussiness in babies were reflux, colic, UTIs, and food sensitivities. We had already been on medication for reflux that seemed to help at first but didn't do anything after a while. He said he was almost positive that it was not typical "colic" because of the extreme nature and frequency of her screaming. So he took a urine sample with a catheter (so sad! It took 3 two nurses to hold her down while the doctor inserted the catheter. :-(  ). She did not have a UTI. So, he gave me a list of foods to start eliminating from my diet to see if something was bothering her.

The first food he had me eliminate was diary. I was skeptical, probably because I thought I was doomed to days and days of screaming, at least until she was 6 months old. haha. However, the change was nothing short of miraculous. haha. It was seriously like we had a whole new baby. Scott came home from work the after a couple of days of me being off dairy and said, "Wow! I didn't know she could be happy." And we seriously didn't know how miserable she was until we saw her actually happy. I feel so bad that she felt so bad for so long!

Since making that change, however, she has been so great (most days). She also started sleeping through the night the day after I stopped eating dairy. And got on a (better)  napping schedule. She still hates to nap and its almost impossible to get her to go to sleep most of the time during the day. haha. She is just way to busy and interested in what is going on around her. :) I will post some pictures at the end of our happy little girl.

The latest development, however, is her complete refusal to take a bottle. She took a bottle just find for months before, but all of the sudden won't have anything to do with it! Won't even try to suck on it. Screams and screams. We have tried everything- like 80 different types of bottles, having me gone, letting her scream until she takes it (this absolutely did not work), giving her a bottle somewhere else, putting her down while I feed her. You name it, I can almost guarantee we've tried it. Since nothing has worked, and she MUST take a bottle since I go back to school in a couple of weeks, Our pediatrician is sending us to a feeding specialist from Primary's. Our appointment is on Tuesday. Wish us luck!

She is also going through a phase where she will not let anyone put her down for a nap or for the night except me. Not even Scott. This also must change. We are working so hard on it, but she is so stubborn. haha. Any suggestions are more than welcome. :)

Anyway. She really is like a whole new baby now! She is babbling like crazy, which alot of times sounds more like growling. And she is laugihng more and more. Smiling all the time. Grabbing things and sticking them in her mouth. She is standing, and jumping, and tracking things with her eyes soooo well!And just learning and growing like a perfect little baby. :)

Sorry if this post sounds like I'm complaining. I really wasn't. But now you know why I may have seemed like I dropped off the face of the earth if you have tried to get a hold of me at all. We were working through a lot of stuff. :)

Here are some videos of our happy girl. :)

 

2 Months

Okay, so now I get to write about the last 2 months with Lilli. :) And post lots of pictures.

First of all, I can't believe its already been 2 months! Lilli will be 10 weeks on Wednesday. I seriously don't know where the time went. I only get 2 more months with her before we have to go back to school. :(

Its crazy how much she changes in 2 months! She is so strong. She stands up by herself if we help her balance, and she has actually been doing that for a few weeks now. She has also started babbling, which is the most adorable thing you've ever seen. It seriously melts my heart.

She is generally a pretty happy baby. Sometimes she is very screamy. Usually if this happens its between 7-9pm. Scott and I jokingly refer to this time as the witching hour. :) It seems to be getting better, though, I think. She also has GERD, which makes her little tummy upset. But we have her on some medicine that has helped quite a bit.

The rest of the post I am just going to put pictures that show a kind of progression of her development. :)

A few days old- I love this picture because you can see how tiny she was. :)

Again- so tiny. :)

Newborns by Morgan. :)

1st bath- not a fan. She likes them better now, though.

4 Generations of girls on her blessing day- 2.5 weeks

Nobody told me my hair was crazy, but this us on her blessing day. :)

I just love this picture. haha. 1 month

1 month- she started smiling like this at about 4 weeks.

Again, one month. This was my favorite face. She doesn't really do it now that she's older.

about 1.5 months

This is her most recent picture taken last week. 2 months. :)

The witching hour begins... :)

There. Lots of pictures. But they are more fun to look at than any other blog post I could write. :)

Graduation

Okay. I am a slacker. I'm pretty sure I say that every time I blog. haha. But I am. A lot has happened in the last couple of months, so I am kind of splitting things up. This one will just be about my graduation.

I am actually writing down this story because as word traveled through the grapevine, many members of my family were under the impression that I collapsed while speaking at graduation. I did not collapse while speaking at graduation. Here is what actually happened.

The week after Lilli was born was seriously the craziest week of our lives. No joke. We got home from the hospital on Friday, April 26, which was my birthday. Coming home was a good birthday present. :) The following Monday, however, was finals week. Both Scott and I had 3 or 4 finals each, so we spent the next few days studying non-stop and taking our tests. I am not joking when I say I literally studied every waking minute. Even at 2:30am while I was nursing her, I would go through flashcards. haha. It was kind of pathetic. I finished my last final on that Thursday, a week after she was born.
After finals, of course, was graduation. I was chosen as the "Outstanding Senior" for the College of Health at the U and was asked to be the Undergraduate speaker at the Convocation for our College. It was kind of cool. The college of health includes departments like Communication Sciences and Disorders (mine), Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Parks and Rec, Nutrition, etc. So It was kind of a big deal being chosen. I was very surprised. I got to be up on stage with all of the professors and the graduate student speaker.

I would put a picture of my walking with my diploma, but I forgot to tell Scott I was going first, so they are all blurry. So, here is a picture of me sitting on stage. Woohoo.

So on Thursday, I had to go meet the Dean for the first time and then give my speech to his secretaries so they could see what they thought. Friday morning, I needed to be there early so I could line up with all of the faculty since I would be sitting on stage. So, of course, Lilli decided not to sleep at all the night before and was in no condition to sit through a graduation. ha. So Scott's Mom and step-dad offered to stay and watch her so Scott could go. So Scott, his Dad and step-mom, and my parents were all going.

I left to go early, and found out that the shuttles were not going to be running from our apartment like they usually were. But... the Huntsman Center is only like a half a mile or a mile away from our apartment, so I was just going to have to walk. And here's where I was an idiot. I realized I was not going to make it on time if I walked-- SO, not even thinking about it, I started to jog down. 9 days after having a baby. They tell you not to do things like this. Believe them.

I got there, lined up, and graduation started. I was feeling fine. I got up and gave my speech (though the microphone was kind of freaking out, and I was not quite as prepared as I would have liked to have been since Lilli was screaming the whole night before). Even though it was less than ideal- I finished and sat back down on stage. My department was the first one to get our diplomas, so I went first and then sat back on stage again with the Chair of my department.

At this point, I went to bend over to get my program from under my chair and felt some pretty excruciating pain in my abdomen. Excruciating enough that I could not, in fact, bend over in my chair. So while all the other colleges went through presenting their diplomas, I sat as still as I could. Finally, it ended and I very gingerly walked to the bathroom to make sure everything was okay, but I found that I was bleeding way more than I had been. So I went outside and started up the stairs to where my family was. Stairs were a bad, bad idea. By the time I got to the top, I was in tears. My abdomen hurt soooo bad. I was pretty sure I had done something very bad to my body. Because I rarely, rarely cry because of pain, Scott knew I was really hurting and literally ran back to our apartment to get the car because there was no way I could walk back.

While we were waiting for him, I started to get very light headed. So I sat down. And I was basically a huge party pooper while all of our family members came to congratulate me. I was not in good shape. Then I started getting light headed enough that I literally could not stand up. Finally Scott got there with the car and had his mom and step-dad stay with Lilli at our apartment. My parents, Scott and I piled in and we were on our way to an insta-care. Then I started passing out in the car, and my chest started getting tight. My dad took my pulse, and it must have been low because he told Scott to go to the ER instead. So we did.

We got to the ER, they took me in, and Scott and I were quickly ushered into a room. The pain was still quite excruciating. Every time I moved it was pretty intolerable. They wanted to give me some morphine but had to check my blood pressure first, so they checked it while I was laying down, and then they had me sit up for one minute then checked it again, then had me stand up for one minute then checked it again. Well- I couldn't stand for one minute. I sat down before I passed out, and the nurse quickly took it. AND it made sense why I couldn't stand up. My blood pressure when I tried to stand up dropped to somewhere around 50/30. Very low. My normal is more around 120/70.

Because my blood pressure was so extremely low, they couldn't give me anything until they got it up. So they gave me a bag of fluids, checked it again, and it had gotten better, but still wasn't good enough. So they gave me another bag of fluids. By that time, it was finally up enough that they gave me some morphine (which I actually hated because it made my head feel so funny). They rest of the day they did test after test to make sure that I hadn't done anything very bad.

It turns out that the jogging must have triggered some like super-contraction (seriously worse than anything I felt during labor). Because this was so painful, it sent my body into shock, and that made the blood pressure drop sooooo low and made it hard for me to stay conscious. So I spent form about 11:00am-5:00pm in the ER after my graduation. Lamest graduation day ever. haha.

Even though the rest of the day was not ideal, however, it was pretty cool that I graduated. And that I got to speak. And all that cool stuff. Because the day was so crazy, I only got one picture before I had to sit down as to maintain consciousness. So here is a picture of my mom and I. :) Take that Bachelor's degree!

Lillian Carlita

This is my favorite picture of her ever. Scott took it- and no we didn't pose her. She just sleeps with her hands like that a lot. :)

 Well- after 41 weeks, our little Lillian finally made it here. We had not decided for sure on the name Lillian until we saw her. We had a narrowed down to a few names, and that's the one that won in the end. Lillian is just a name we both love, and Carlita is my grandma's name. And I couldn't think of a better person for her to share a name with. If she turns out to be as sweet and good as my grandma, the world will be a better place.

She decided my womb was much to comfy to come on time, so on April 24, a week after my due date, we went to the hospital at 6am to begin the induction process. We got there, got checked in, and by 6:45 or so they had started the pitocine (not entirely sure how to spell it?). At 8:30, my doctor came in to see how I was making any progress and decided to go ahead a break my water to try and speed things along and so she could put the internal contraction monitor so it was more accurate.

Breaking my water did make my contractions much more regular and stronger, (and I ended up getting my epidural around 11:00am) and by noon I had dilated to about a 4, baby was waaay low, I was mostly thinned out and things were looking good... and then I proceeded to make no progress. We waited and waited, and around 4:30 or 5:00 that afternoon, a midwife (who I'd never met before) came and had me do some crazy positions to try to get labor started. Well- unfortunately Lilli did not take kindly to these positions and started to stress. Every time I had a contractions, her heart rate would drop down to the 60's.

My doctor (who didn't know the midwife had talked to me or given any authorization for her to do anything) then came in and was quite worried. The midwife then insisted on trying one more position, so they put more fluid in me to replace the water that had been broken for most of the day, and tried one more. Lilli did not like this one either, and evidently neither did I since it made me feel very light headed and almost pass out, or throw up. Neither of which I wanted to do. The doctor then told me that she was going to be honest with me, and things were not looking good for a traditional delivery and if the baby continued to stress after a little more monitoring we would proceed with a c-section. I had Scott call my mom, and my parents came over at this point. Glad they were there too. :)

So- they made me nice and comfy again and laid me on the side that I had been making the most progress on before. Thankfully, Lilli's vitals went back to normal, and I suddenly felt a very funny urge to push with each contraction. It was really weird. I hadn't felt any of my contractions for the most part up until that point, and all the sudden I felt that. I let the doctor know, and she came in and checked me, and I was suddenly dilated to an 8! She said she was going to go home for an hour (because she lives 5 minutes from the hospital), and by then we would probably be ready to go.

About half an hour after that, I had Scott let the nurse know that I really felt like I needed to push and it was getting unbearable. So she checked me, and low and behold I was at a 10 and ready to go, so we began the pushing process while they called Dr. Falk to come back in. I probably started pushing at about 6:00pm, and at 6:46, Lillian was born. Pushing was exhausting and not the most comfortable expeirience, but it was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. I would try to describe how cool it is, but I don't really know how. So we'll leave it at that.

I think one of the coolest things about the whole experience is right as I was about to push the baby's head out, Dr. Falk asked Scott what size of gloves he wore. They got him some, and he got to be the one to deliver the rest of the baby after the head and put her on my chest immediately after delivery. It was so cool for him, and for me! He was officially the very first one to hold her. :) And then he, of course, cut the cord and helped clean her up while they stitched me up and all that good stuff.

Right after they wiped her off and weighed her

Proud daddy immediately after cleaning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our first family picture. :)

We got to come home on Friday afternoon- so we have been home for a few days now. We are so happy. Its funny how much drool and being pooped and peed on doesn't bother you at all like you thought it would. Lilli is so beautiful and perfect, and we can't do anything but love her. :) Even though our nights have been a little sleepless, we are happier than we've ever been and we seriously just fall in love with her more every day. Didn't know it could happen like that. :) I am sure you will all see TONS of pictures on facebook between Scott and I. We are a little picture crazy with the little girl. But she's just so cute.. we can't help it. :) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19 Days- Give or Take

Well, the countdown is on. For real. ha. We only have 19 days left until our due date. Which is just over 2.5 weeks. Which is not long at all! Thanks to both sides of our family throwing me a shower, my ward throwing me a shower, and some awesome friends throwing me a shower we finally have all the essential things we need (I think)! Just a few things left that we need to get. So thank you to all of you who helped us out. We are blessed with some pretty amazing family and friends. :)

The whole pregnancy I have been measuring small, so two weeks ago the doctor had us get another ultrasound to make sure the baby was growing appropriately. And she is. :) Turns out my torso is just freakishly long, so she has plenty of room to spread out without me getting too big. I hope this happens with every pregnancy!

She was measuring 5 lbs 7 oz at the time, and her measurements were all perfectly normal. Its pretty amazing to see how much she has grown. And how much better you could see all her tiny body parts and facial features. Here's a profile shot:

 So she should probably be at least a pound or so heavier by this week. And I can tell. She takes up pretty much all the room in my stomach. :) But I don't mind too much, because it means I can feel every tiny movement she makes, which I absolutely love. Even her feet constantly sticking in my ribs is kind of cool. haha. Uncomfortable, but mostly it just makes me laugh. Its also really cool to feel actual body parts rolling across my belly instead of just little taps and kicks.

At our doctor's appointment today, the doctor said the baby has dropped and I am beginning to thin quite a bit. So that's exciting (and crazy!) news! I had been wondering all week if the baby had dropped because I have felt a lot more pressure on my sciatic nerves on both sides. And it turns out thats probably why! She said it probably won't be this week unless things change significantly, but probably not long after that.

I hope she gives us a couple of weeks still. We do not have her room even close to organized. The only thing done is the crib, and we need to get our dresser before we have anywhere to put stuff. But then I can really let the nesting instinct take over. :) Our apartment is clean, and we have the things we need, but I feel so unprepared since nothing is organized. I also need to pack hospital bags pretty soon for both of us.

 We also hope she waits a couple of weeks more just for the sake of both our school situations. This week I am finishing up my last 2 assignments early so that I have nothing left but finals, and I am supposed to take one of my finals early on the 11th. And Scott has a pretty hard test on the 9th. So we are just hoping she hold on til at least that weekend. Which she probably will. Even though I am thinning and she has dropped, I haven't dilated and I haven't had any big contractions or anything. BUT- really its entirely out of our control. So we will be happy and excited whenever she decides to come.

And now to address the question that everyone has been asking... What are we naming her? I am afraid we are keeping that a secret. Haha. We have narrowed it down to a few, and we are waiting until we see her to decide. We have only told our parents what we have narrowed it down to, and nobody else. So we will announce it as soon as she is born and we actually know for sure. :)

In other non-baby news.... I graduate in about 4 weeks! So exciting. Its so weird to think that I am done with that part of my schooling! And awesome. School for Scott is also going well, too. After this semester, he will be half way done with Pharmacy School. This is also supposed to be the first of the two most difficult semesters, so he will have survived half of the worst of it. :) And time has seemed to fly by WAY faster since we have so much to do and not enough time to do it. :) Isn't that how life always is, though? haha.

Scott is also doing well with is knee. He had surgery over Spring Break, and he is recovering pretty well. Its taking longer than we thought it would since the surgery ended up adjusting his joint instead of just fixing his meniscus. But he's currently at work, walking all over the hospital. So he's definitely improving! :) Though I am sure he will be very sore tonight! He is getting pretty antsy to get back to playing basketball, and walking normally. But he's getting there.

By the time I blog next, we will probably have a new little baby. And life will be so drastically different. We are soooo excited, and its getting more and more real as we get closer and closer. I will post pictures as soon as we have some to share. :)

Back to School

Remember how I said I was going to blog more often to keep you updated on my pregnancy?.... Yeah... um. Sorry. Ha. I guess some things, like my lack of ability to blog consistently, will never change. :)

Winter break has been magical. Simply because I think both Scott and I desperately needed some time off together. We have spent a lot of the break at family parties, activities, etc. We have spent some time being responsible and going to work (which is where Scott is now). I was also pretty productive with my graduate school applications. I finished it and it is turned in. Now I just have to wait. People have asked when I will find out. The answer: I have absolutely no idea. The U is notoriously slow at letting you know about stuff like this, so I figure it will be a while. :)

Any extra time we have had we have spent watching Breaking Bad. I am not ashamed to admit that we have watched the first 3 seasons over the break. :) We really love watching tv seasons. I don't even know why. I guess because they keep you so enthralled for so long. And the break between semesters is the perfect time to obsessively watch something while we can. There's just something great about cuddling in our pajamas and watching a crazy show. Love it.

The pregnancy is still going well. :) I finally have a noticeable baby bump. I am 25 1/2 weeks-- which means I am almost done with the second trimester! Crazy!!! When I think about the fact that we only have about 3 months until the baby will be here... I freak out a little. I feel like there is a lot owe need to do-- but I don't know what any of those things are. haha. Suggestions are welcome. Really though, we are very excited to meet our little girl.

Things have been really cool though. In the last month or so I felt the baby move for the first time, then Scott was able to feel her. Now I feel her moving all day long. And boy, does she move. If I ever have anything resting against my tummy (say, like a laptop while I write a blog post) we can watch it move up and down as she kicks and moves. It is seriously one of the coolest things I have ever felt or seen. Scott thinks its pretty cool, too. :) She even keeps me awake at night sometimes or wakes me up in the morning. I don't mind though. Its a pretty cool experience.

According to my pregnancy apps and e-mails, this week she is the size of a rutabaga. Am I the only one that had no idea what a rutabaga really was or what it looked like? haha. Seems like kind of an arbitrary choice of vegetable to compare her to. My other e-mail said she is the size of a zucchini--something a little more familiar. :) Either way, she is over a foot long and weighs about a pound and a half. So that's really cool to think about. :)

rutabaga- for those who are as clueless as me.

So all in all, only 15 more weeks left. Which seems like a small number. And after my next appointment on February 1st, I have to going in every 2 weeks. I also have to do the glucose test on that day. Hopefully its not as bad as everyone makes it sound?

Anyway. We go back to school on Monday, and then life probably won't slow down. But that's how I like it. :) It means we are happy, healthy, and busy. And very fortunate to be where we are at. So happy back to school to everyone else who is going back as well. :) Here's to a good semester.