Crawling

Autumn has been "army" crawling for a couple months now but just the last couple of days she has been getting up and crawling on her hands and knees a few times. Its so adorable. She is still very shaky and hasn't quite figured it out yet so she resorts back to the army crawl when she wants to get anywhere. Afton never really crawled. She rolled wherever she wanted to go. She crawled for about a week and then walked. I don't even remember her crawling. Autumn has also started pulling up on furniture and things to standing. She is growing up so fast! Afton gets quite irritated with Autumn as she gets into whatever Afton is doing. I've had to get stern with her several times for pushing Autumn away. She just doesn't know quite how to handle all this sharing and Autumn suddenly being mobile enough to reach more and follow. Afton will surprise me by doing something really sweet like coming over and touching my face and saying, "you're really such a sweetheart mommy". It melts my heart. Autumn's adorable grin never fails to make me smile :)

Remembering

When I was pregnant with Afton I kept a journal and wrote down how I was feeling and some of the thoughts I had. I really love it and love looking back through it and remembering that time. I meant to do one when I was pregnant with Autumn and just never got around to it. Which makes me sad. But I can't change it. So I thought that as I remember some things from when I was pregnant with her I would write them down :) I remember when I was about 12 weeks along I got a doppler to listen for her heartbeat. We didn't know she was a girl yet of course. I had just found her heartbeat, that beautiful "swish swish swish" sound and Tyler said, "Is that her?!" And I laughed and said, "Oh so it's a girl?" And he just laughed. I felt like she was a girl from the very beginning. There were several times I got out the doppler to listen to her heartbeat and to hear her moving around. One time I could distinctly hear that she had the hiccups and I just laughed and savored the wonderful sound. We had an ultrasound done of her at 16 weeks to find out her gender. She had the hiccups then too. So cute watching her little body bounce with them. I remember the ultrasound tech saying, "Look at her little brain." And I thought, "Did he say her?!?!" And then he showed us that she was definitely a girl. He said, "There is nothing there between the legs! She is definitely a girl!" And Afton was there and I told her, "Afton you are going to have a baby sister!" And she was very excited and cute about it :) Here she is at 16 weeks along. She was so darling already. Ultrasounds really are incredible.

Her sweet little hand

I'll have to write down more as I remember. I am definitely not slacking with my next someday! And at least I have her baby Calendar to write things in as she grows now :)

Fotofly

We recently got pictures done at Fotofly. It's my all time favorite photo studio! They are so incredible. We had Autumn's newborn pictures done there and we were so impressed with the entire process and the photographers. This experience was just as good if not better. They worked with us and our kids and got some amazing shots. I just love their technique and how they treat us. Here are some of my very favorites.


Afton was very good about holding Autumn


Afton spinning. I love her necklace flying :)


This is my favorite of Autumn. She is just so darn adorable!


This is probably my favorite of Afton!


I absolutely love the effect of this one and how it shows how tall she is. So so cute.


Isn't she such a doll!


Family shot :)


My precious girls <3


Last one for now. Me and the love of my life :)

I'll post some more later probably. There are soooooo many adorable ones!

Sitting in the doorway

When I was little my dad used to sit in my doorway at bedtime so that I would go to sleep. Otherwise I would get up and get up and get up. I can still remember him sitting there reading. Well the other day we got a video monitor to watch Afton because she keeps taking off all the clothes and we wanted to know if we needed to go in or not. Well all this time we thought that most of the time she was going right to sleep because she was quite. Turns out she is tossing and turning in her bed for 2 or 3 HOURS! So Tyler suggested we try my dad's trick. Well two nights in a row now we have done it and she has fallen asleep in about 15 minutes both times! Crazy!!! Thank you dad!

Patting

So right now I am laying on my bed as Autumn sleeps in her crib next to me. I seem to be her biggest comfort object and she senses even if I am just in the same room. She will be fast asleep and a few minutes after I leave she is awake again and crying. If I stay in the room she stays asleep. So I am staying in here until she gets into a deeper sleep at least. Silly girl. It gets very frustrating sometimes but at the same time I can't really deny that I love her attachment to me. It's one of the best parts about being a mom.
We are struggling with getting her to sleep. She cries and cries (in my arms or my husbands arms) until she wears herself out and falls asleep. We have tried everything. Rocking, bouncing, singing, nursing (well I have), dark, nightlight, warm, cool, swing, bouncer. I swear nothing works. And then once she does finally fall asleep she wakes up every ten minutes or so for a few hours until she finally sleeps and then she wakes up every one and a half to two hours to eat. I don't really mind that part. But it would be nice to get 3 or 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep. That would be pure bliss! I heard someone say the other day that, "My baby woke up twice during the night! It was awful! I'm so tired!" And I'm thinking, ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?! That would be incredible! Ulg! Very annoying. Haha.
So I sit here and pat her anytime she stirs and catch up on my blogging. Which I am not very good at. I don't really have much time or energy to do it anyway.

But look at that face. Who can be annoyed at that? She is so precious!

Birth Story

On a Sunday night (8/28/11) there was a big storm. My braxton hicks were starting to get a bit painful. I had already lost my mucus plug about a week ago and had some bloody show a couple days ago. I had a fairly painful contraction and a big gush of fluid about 2 in the morning. I was sure it was my water breaking because it was so much and I got the shakes after it happened and that happened with Afton after my water broke.

I called my midwife and she told me I could stay home for 6 hours or come in whenever I wanted. So the contractions started picking up a bit and were actually every two mintues for a while. I then laid down to try to sleep and the contractions were still pretty painful but slowed down. My midwife still wanted me to come in to check if my water did break so at 10 we went in and they checked me. To my dismay I was supposedly only 1 cm and 60% effaced. I knew I had to be more than that though. And it turned out that my water hadn't broken I had just peed on myself from the pressure of the contraction on a full bladder lol. Anyway

They had me walk around for half an hour and checked me again and stripped my membranes and I went to a 3 plus just with that. So I walked around for another hour and was at a 4 and they decided to admit me.


I then walked some more with the contractions getting stronger. I then got in the labor tub and my contractions slowed down a bit but I also brought the baby down a lot and went to 90% effaced and 5 cms. My midwife decided to break my water as this had all taken quite a while.

Me in the tub during labor

She broke my water and nothing happened for about half an hour so I got a few drops of pitocin to get the contractions going again. Then I really started going.

I started begging for the epidural. I was sooooooo exhausted and did not want to continue. I laid down in the bed and wanted to cry and just felt after each contraction there was no way I could do anymore. But I had a great support team that would not let me give up. I had to pee really bad so I finally got up and did that and it felt really good haha. Then Tyler wouldn't let me get back in the bed (good for him!) and so I got on the birthing ball and started rocking.
I started doing this deep moaning with each contraction. It was all I could do to get through them. Tyler and my mom and the midwife and nurse were all supporting me. Tyler put ice on my neck and rubbed my back and took turns with my mom. I found any touching was a big help. So they were all constantly rubbing my back or face or neck or arms. Including the midwife.

I had to pee again but really didn't want to as I was in so much pain and started begging for the epidural again. The midwife said well if you want it you have to pee first anyway. She said let's do one contraction on the toilet and see how you do.

So I sat down and peed and then had a contraction. She pressed back on my knees to open up my back a bit and told me to grunt a little with the contraction and I did and it actually felt a bit better. At this point I started shaking a bit and feeling a little nauseous so they knew I was starting to transition. I didn't want to be checked because it hurt to much haha. So I didn't know what I was at.

I laid down in the bed again on my side for a minute so she could push on my knees while I had the contractions. I then started feeling like pushing a bit with each contraction really helped the pain. I was still doing the deep moaning and now I was grunting a bit too.

I laid on my side and my midwife had me hold my legs apart during the contractions and the urg to push a little got a little stronger.

She then said something to the nurse about "seeing some separation and bulging of my vulva" meaning the baby was coming down. She checked me and I just had a rim of cervix left about 8 she said just on one side. She made me turn to my other side lol I didn't want to move at all and then with my next contraction she pushed the cervix and the urge to push got super super strong. And then from there it got so intense and my instincts took over so hard I don't remember a lot of details. I remember at some point the midwife saying she had dark hair and I was really surprised and pleased but wasn't sure I believed it haha. I then remember my moaning got a lot louder and Tyler was on one side of my and my mom on the other and I was gripping my mom's hand so hard because it was all I could do and then I was pushing. The urge is indescribable!

It was like it took over my whole body. As I pushed I grunted/moaned really loud and hard because it just seemed to be what I needed to do. The baby was out in two pushes! It was crazy. I knew when her head was out because they told me to ease up for just a sec on the pushes and then it was this enormous relief as she came out.

I immediately pulled my gown down and then put her skin to skin on my chest. NICU was supposed to be in the room but I pushed her out a bit too fast before they got there. They got there just as they were giving Autumn that first shot and Autumn screamed her head off. The NICU people heard that and said, "You don't need us here!" and walked back out haha.

I pushed out the placenta and Tyler cut the cord.




I then nursed Autumn. She latched on instantly and with no problems at all. She sucked hard for 15 minutes. It was incredible. While she was nursing Tyler and I decided on her name. Then I asked them to wrap her up and give her to Tyler for a minute. She hadn't left me since she had been born

They gave her to Tyler and I got up and went to the bathroom and then they massaged my uterus (NOT FUN! Lol) and then they weighed and measured Autumn.
She was 5 lbs 12 oz and 19 inches long. And didn't cry once during them checking her out.

I looked pretty gruesome haha



Then I changed into a t shirt and got the mesh panties on and diaper like pad on lol and got in the wheelchair and they took us to our room. And then we really got a good look at Autumn. I knew from the minute I saw her that she had her Daddy's mouth and nose and that was the first thing I said when I saw her. And I said, "SHE DOES HAVE DARK HAIR!" I thought it was such a perfect combination!

My mother in law didn't make it to the birth because she had to stay with Afton as it was really bad timing and my father in law was out of town and then by the time he got back Afton did NOT want my mother in law to leave. So my mother in law was waiting in the room for us. Then we all got to talk about the birth and Autumn.

Autumn was SOOO wide awake and alert it was amazing! She had her eyes wide open and was looking all around and making the cutest little grunts and coos you've ever heard!

And that's it really! I could keep going about it all forever! It was so amazing! I was so proud that my team didn't give up on me and that I did it!!!!

Tired and sick

My poor sick girls :(


Pretty sure this is going to be the title to a lot of my posts. What with having two kids it's pretty much a given.
Autumn is getting over croup right now. I am so sad she got it. It happened when we took her to church for the first time. Our pediatrician recommended waiting to take her until she was 6 months as she was premature and her immunities are lower but I was feeling a lot of pressure to take her and I figured she'd probably be okay so we took her at just over 3 months. Well the next day she came down with Fifth's Disease (Slapped Cheek Disease) which then turned into Croup. Afton also caught Fifth's Disease. Luckily Autumn's croup never got very serious. Just sad and uncomfortable. Unfortunately Afton came down with a bad cold after the Fifth's and I got it too. We have just been a house full of sickies lately. I hope we all get completely better soon!