2 years ago...

Two years ago tonight I was in labor with my precious first born, Liberty Ann. The labor was long and at times very difficult. You can read about it here. Long story short, I woke up with labor pains early in the morning on the 29th of December, 2008. I hoped this was "it" because my due date was the 20th. The labor stopped then re-started that evening for real about 6pm after laboring at home in bed, in the shower, and on my birthing ball we headed to the hospital around 1am. The longest ride of my life! After getting settled into my room and spending hours in the shower my precious baby girl finally made her appearance at 11:21am. I pushed for 2 1/2 hours. Without pain meds. It was HARD! But holding my tiny newborn for the first time made everything worthwhile. She looked up and around and immediately stopped crying when she heard mine and Tim's voices. She also was able to instantly latch on and start eating. It was truly a magical time. After she spent some time in the nursery they brought her back to us and we reveled in her preciousness.
We brought her home and we were so happy to have her with us, we felt like we had always needed her with us.
The last two years have been wonderful and fun. We've had some rough times with our headstrong little girl, but she has a sweet heart and a desire to do the right thing. She is an amazing addition to our family and we couldn't ask for a better little first born child. Oh and for her birthday she requested: pizza, cake and icecream, and hats (because one of her best buds Miles had hats at his bday party). We were going to have a little party with our best buds but I've been horribly sick and don't want to share the germs. Poor girl, she was sick for her first bday and now mommy is sick for her second. :( Oh well, we'll still make it a blast!!
Here are some recent pictures of our darling:

Pictures!!

This was taken right before Libby decided to whack Cecily on the head with her sippy cup. Poor Cece!!!






Since Cecily is almost 3 months I figured it was time to post some two month pictures of her. :)

My sweet Cecily is doing great! At her two month checkup she was: 23 1/2" and 11 lbs. 3 oz. Thats the 90th % for height and the 70th for weight. (I just checked at Lib was 23" even and 11 lbs. 6 oz! Crazy, huh?) That would be funny if they stayed the same size at the same ages.
Anyway, she's doing great! She loves to be all smiley and happy and is a very contented baby. She has even been laughing at us for a while. She loves her daddy and will laugh when he makes silly faces at her. She is sleeping fairly well. She goes down around 8ish and then I wake her up and feed her right before we go to bed, any time between 10 and 11 and then she wakes up to eat again around 4 and then sleeps until 8. She's getting into a two nap a day routine which is really nice. She has her happy playtime in the morning and then sleeps from about 10-12. She sleeps again in the afternoon and sometimes takes a bit of a catnap in the evening.
Breastfeeding is going well again but again I have been "cursed" with an early returning period. Sorry for the TMI but this is my blog and it helps me remember things. It effects my supply negatively so I don't know what to do about that except feed more often. Which is loads of fun when she wakes up starving several times in the night, poor babe! We're hoping to be somewhere new soon so that Cece can have her own bedroom so I'll be able to move her there and that will hopefully help her get used to sleeping longer at night, at least that's how it worked with Libby. And that will make both of us a lot happier, or at least one of us. ;)

SHENK it UP!

So yeah, I have a blog, and I've been neglecting it lately. Boo-hoo. But I have some great news for ya! My incredibly talented and hilarious younger brother started one! So now you can read his much more hilarious posts instead of my non-existent ones. :)
So here ya go, lets here it for...

SHENK IT UP!!!!!!!! W00T W00T!!!

Labor Day at the ranch '10

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

One Month!!

Here are some new pictures of our littlest girl!







I took pictures almost every month of Libby's first year on this same blanket and I'm going to attempt to do the same for Cecily.

At one month Cecily is...
Growing and eating! She's doing really well and I think she weighs around 10 lbs. I tried holding her and weighing her and then weighing myself and then I put her on the scale and there was a bit of a difference. I had already taken her in to the pediatrician and so when her one month checkup came up I canceled it. Its not worth the $20 co-pay to go sit in the waiting room with two kids for an unknown length of time for the doctor to tell me everything is great! I want to know exactly how big she is but not that much! We'll go in for her 2 month check-up and I'll find out then.

She is sleeping really well at night. I hesitated before typing that because I don't want to jinx myself. ;) She eats at 10:30, 2:30, and 5:30 approximately. She then sleeps somewhat until anywhere from 7 to 9. She's been sleeping in her bassinet until the early morning when she gets in bed with us. That set-up is working really well for us right now. I love the early morning snuggles and we both sleep better with her in the bassinet. She is a loud little sleeper!! :)

She is a very personable baby. She loves to just stare into people's eyes while she's being held. That will usually make her stop fussing, if you just start talking to her and staring into her eyes. I think she'll be a real people person. She looves to be held and is always happy whenever I put her in one of my slings. I have a great ring sling and a moby wrap and I really want an ergo for when she's a bit bigger. I have another one that I want to sell so I'm going to wait to get the ergo until I sell the other one.

Libby is doing waaaay better with her little sister. She says all the time that she loves Cece and that she wants to hold her. And she hugs and kisses her and pats her stomach. Its very sweet but a tad annoying to poor Cecily. If Cece has her pacifier Libby takes it out of her mouth, if she isn't sucking it, Libby tries to jam it in there for her. Second-born children put up with a lot more than first-borns!! I should know as I am a second-born myself. :) I think that Libby has forgotten about being an only child and is doing a lot better with sharing mom and dad. She still gets jealous and wants us to hold her when we're holding Cecily, but she's doing better.

We took our first road-trip this past weekend and Cecily did great!! She slept almost the entire way both ways and we would have made it without any stops on the way back had the traffic not been so terrible. Both girls slept the first 4 hours and that's how long it usually takes us on a slow day. Unfortunately we made it in around 6 hours, the last 30 minutes filled with the sounds of screaming children. Lovely. Otherwise, it went great! :)

Cecily loved the ranch and slept so well the whole time we were there. I think it was all the fresh air and attention. Her Aunt Heather got to hold her a bunch and I think they both enjoyed that! Aunt Heather is a baby-lover and it was nice to have a bit of a break and know that Cecily was in excellent hands. Tim's mom also gave her her first bottle! It went really well and we're going to keep giving her one every now and then.

My mom is having a little tea in Cecily's honor next weekend and I am so excited to show her off to my friends and family. Tim's family has all met her but only my older sister, Rebecca, has gotten to meet her so far. Oh and my mom, of course!

Cecily is such a joy to have around and I'm really enjoying having a second child. I think I'm able to enjoy her even more than I did Libby. It's hard to explain, but when you see your first little baby running around and acting like a tiny adult at times it makes you want to hold and snuggle your newest one a lot more. I've really tried to slow down and hold Cecily a lot because I know how quickly she'll grow and change. Already she's grown a lot and isn't a tiny little one anymore. Literally, she's about 3 lbs. more than her birth weight!

Well, there's my little update! Enjoy!

Darling

Oh I love this baby girl!! She has added so much to our lives and we are blessed to have her. Life is a lot busier with two little ones, obviously, as I've been pretty absent on here. :)
I hope to write a good update soon, but for now these pictures will have to suffice. Isn't she adorable?!

Baby girl

Ten days old!! She's getting to be such a big girl! Seriously, nursing is going so well I'm curious to see how big she'll be at her next appointment. Can you see the little chub rolls starting to build? She is such a good baby and we are doing very well. Libby is still getting used to having another person around but she's adjusting well. She is very sweet to Cece but she's also been very clingy and fussy. She wants me to hold her a bunch and snuggle her. I'm sure we'll find a new normal sometime soon. :)

Birth story of Cecily Jane (super long version)

This is really long and a birth story, so expect a few gory details. :)


The Birth Story of Cecily Jane Merkin
Friday, August 6, 2010 at 5:06am
7 lbs. 5 oz; 20.4"

Right at midnight on Thursday, August 5th 2010, I woke up after feeling a slight gush. I went quickly to the restroom where I thought perhaps my water had broken but I couldn’t believe it. So I put on a pad and went back to bed. It promptly happened again and I had to repeat that process several times throughout the night. That was a pretty rough night for us and we didn’t get much sleep. First of all, we were excited about my water breaking but also Libby had a bad cold and did not sleep well. So we really only got about 3 hours of sleep that night. I got up about 7 and took a shower and called my midwives’ office and talked to Tanya, the midwife on duty. I told her I didn’t want to go to the hospital right away so she suggested I walk around and try to be active and then check back in around noon. After that I called my mom and several other people and told them the news. Mom had been on call since I initially realized what happened so she was almost ready to come up. Tim went to work as I wasn’t having any contractions and I started cleaning up while waiting for Libby to wake up. She finally woke up about 9:30 and was obviously still sick. Still, I loaded her and the dog, Maddie, up to head to the park to walk. I really wanted to get labor going so I was willing to walk even in the 95 degree weather! I only lasted a little more than a mile before I knew we had to head inside. I still wasn’t having any regular contractions so I was getting a bit nervous. Back at home I finished cleaning up and ran up and down the stairs a few times. About noon I called the midwives back and talked to the nurse who told me I had to come in right away. I was quite disappointed as I still wasn’t feeling any regular contractions and I was deathly afraid of being induced. I called Tim tearing up at the thought of my plans going out the window and he agreed to come right home. In the meanwhile I called our babysitter and asked her to come over to be with Libby that afternoon. Since Libby was sick I wanted to minimize the time she spent with our friends who were planning on watching her. I got in the shower and then packed the rest of my hospital bag, trying to be as positive as possible. The nurse had told me to come in immediately but I dragged my feet, not wanting to be at the hospital too early. Ellen arrived after a while and we finally left and arrived at the hospital a little after 2pm. We went up to Maternal Observation where I waited for Gloria, the midwife on duty. She talked to me a little bit and then did an internal check where low and behold I was already dilated 4 cm! She did not think I would need any kind of inducement! I was also hooked up to the monitor, which tracked several nice contractions. I had brushed those off as just Braxton-hicks contractions but had been feeling those same ones for about the past week. So I guess they really were working! The nurse came back in and asked me about a million questions before we headed over to L&D where I answered more questions and had to do more monitoring before being allowed to walk around. While on the monitor the baby’s heart rate had a few significant drops so the nurse was a little concerned. After the midwife came in and checked it out she cleared me to go walk!
So walk we did! And walk, and walk! Mom also went and got us some dinner so I enjoyed a delicious turkey wrap and some banana pudding. My contractions picked up throughout the evening and gradually become more intense. After walking and then being monitored for increments the midwife asked to check my progress again around 8pm. At this check she discovered I was still at a 4 and hadn’t made any real progress. So we talked about it and she did a little “sweep” and discovered that my water hadn’t broken completely. She asked and I gave her permission to break it the rest of the way to keep things going. After that the contractions got quite intense again and I couldn’t simply walk through them. The walking and monitoring continued, along with a few soaks in the amazing tub, for a few hours until around 2am when I was monitored yet again and I actually fell asleep for about 20 minutes. During that time the baby’s heart rate didn’t really change and I didn’t have any contractions! It was amazing. It really seemed like my body just needed a bit of a break. But the midwife was concerned with the seeming lack of progress so she wanted to check me again. I was a little worried but didn’t have any need to be because I had progressed to 8 cm!! She was relieved and so was I because I wanted to avoid any kind of chemical induction. Her checking me and breaking my water was about as far as I wanted to push things. She wanted me to walk again to try to really keep things going and by this time that got very, very difficult. No longer were we power walking through the entire hospital. Now I was limping along next to Tim in just the L&D wing, stopping when a contraction hit so that I could lean on him and hum my way through it. During contractions I found it helpful to moan and “ohm” my way through them. I also repeated to myself, “I welcome the pain, with each contraction I am closer to meeting my baby”. And it really seemed to help! About 3 or 3:30 I got back into the tub and the contractions really hit hard! The warm water helped immensely and mom and Tim stayed by my side giving me ice and wiping my face with a cool cloth. After a while in the tub it became obvious I was getting close. I could feel the baby descending and the midwife came in. I started to feel the urge to push and did so for a while in the tub. I was having trouble getting into a good position and the baby wasn’t moving down. Unfortunately I had to move to the bed at that time. So incredibly difficult! They had to practically carry me to the bed but after a little while I was able to finally push her out! The whole pushing stage took about 45 minutes, which was quite a bit shorter than Libby’s but it was still pretty difficult. As soon as I pushed her out they handed her straight to me where I discovered we had another little girl! She started crying and rooting around and latched on almost immediately. The cord had been wrapped around her neck but the midwife was able to easily remove it before she came out all the way. Gloria said that the blip in the monitoring at the beginning of my labor might have been related to that. Thankfully the cord was nice and long and didn’t interfere with her blood or oxygen supply. The after pains were much more difficult this time around and it was a real struggle to deal with those. After a good long look my midwife proudly declared I hadn’t torn at all! Not even a “skid mark”! I was so grateful and it’s made my recovery a lot faster and easier. We rested for a few hours in the room before moving up to recovery where we were very well taken care of. Cecily didn’t leave my side the entire time we were in the hospital. Everything from the weight check to the pediatrician visit and hearing test were all done in our room. It was really wonderful to have her with me the whole time. I think that helped my milk come in the day after she was born. We had a great experience at Harris Methodist and will gladly use them again in the future!
I’m so grateful that my mid-wife was patient with me and never even suggested any kind of induction. I got to have everything I wanted: I wore my own clothes, ate the entire time, moved around when and how I wanted, and didn’t even have to have an IV! I had the baby with me the entire time and the nurses were very respectful of our wishes. I will definitely use that group and hospital again!

Introducing Cecily Jane!

On Friday morning at 5:04am, August 6th 2010, we welcomed our sweet little Cecily Jane!!
7 lbs. 5 oz
20.4" long

Full story to come!!
Teaser...water broke at midnight Thursday morning, went to the hospital at 2pm and baby arrived at 5am!! Another successful natural delivery and I am so pleased with our midwives and the hospital we used. I'll give all the great details later, I'm still working on the birth story.

Almost 40 weeks!

Tim took some cute pictures of Lib and I before church this morning so I just had to share. Who knows, it could have been our last time to go to church as a family of three!! Or I could have two Sundays left. :) Nobody knows!

Everyone's guesses & 38 week check-up

Girl: 7
Boy: 9

Before due date: 7
On due date: 3
Post date: 6

I don't feel like figuring out the other stats but I don't think anyone thinks this babe will be massive. Thanks, y'all!! :-D
I would also like to hope that the baby doesn't come on the 7th. That is our anniversary and I don't want to share that date. Of course that's probably when he/she will make their arrival. :)
Thanks for guessing! I can't wait to see who is closest to being right!!

Today I'm 38 weeks and 3 days pregnant but who's counting? ;) I think this is right about the time my friend Kacie went into labor and stole my due date. Since her son was 10 days early and I ended up being 10 days late (and took her due date!) I think it's only fair that this one come early. Hmmm, unfortunately babies don't get fairness. ;)

At my appointment today I learned that I tested negative for GBS! Hurrah! That means no IV for me! Good dealio. It wasn't too bad last time but it was annoying getting those antibiotics twice during my labor. I'm also still measuring small and hadn't gained any weight but oh well! I guess the baby is just tucked way up in there. Everything else looked good so we're just waiting to see if anything happens. I don't want to start worrying about going late and having to deal with inducement so I'm just not going to stress about it. If I do end up going past my due date they'll want me to do a sono to confirm fluid levels but that's ok.

All-in-all everything looked good and I'll see them in another week!

38 weeks!

Nearing the end...I hope. :)

Time to guess!

Here is our set-up for baby #2. Cute, huh? He/she will share a closet and drawers with Lib but will sleep in our room.


Well, baby #2's birthday is coming up! Is the babe a boy or a girl? July birthday or August? Bigger or smaller than Libby? Here is your chance to guess! And just like last time there isn't really a prize, just the satisfaction of being right. :)

Gender:
Date:
Time:
Weight:
Length:

Here are a few "hints" (I have no idea how helpful they are :) Libby weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz. and was 20.5" long at birth and was TEN DAYS late (please, oh please don't follow in big sister's footsteps, little one!). Like I said before, Lib was late, I started labor 9 days after her due date and she was born the following day. She was born at 11:23am on a Tuesday.
Today at my 37 week check-up I declined to be checked so I don't know anything really and baby is apparently a bit sideways or transverse. The mid-wife wasn't concerned at all and said if I go into labor they can move the babe around. She also said that second babies are typically a little bigger and come closer to their due date, whereas first born's are usually late.
Good luck!!

Edited to add: my EDD is August 3rd, Kacie. :)

Thanks for playing everyone!!! Here are my guesses:

Gender: girl! (I had a super vivid dream last night that we were having another little girl)
Date: August 5 (I really think this one will be around my EDD and will be an Aug. babe, plus that would be convenient for my to give birth at the beginning of the weekend! :) )
Time: 3:30 pm
Weight: 8 lbs. even. (I just have a feeling that this baby will be bigger than Lib)
Length: 21" (remember, baby measured long at the last sono I had)

Ok, so there we go!

Last time Todd was almost exactly right and with his guesses this time I wouldn't mind if he were right again! Go Todd!!
I really, really do not want the baby to come on our anniversary, so I hope you're wrong, Heather! I don't want to share. :)
Seems like my family really thinks we're going to have a boy! I guess we'll just wait and see. :)

Thanks again for playing, everyone. Can't wait to make our announcement!!

37 weeks!

Well, I made it! I'm officially "full term"! I didn't really have many doubts that I would and I'm fully expecting to go over again but it's still nice getting to this point. I have a lot of tiny little clothes washed, a lot of tiny diapers ready to go, and even the baby bed set up in our room. I've been nesting like crazy and it's causing my house to stay very clean so that's been nice. :) I guess I'm scared that the house will be messy when I do go into labor.

Libby is doing really well. I've been encouraged recently by her interest and excitement about babies. Lately she's started knocking on my belly and saying "knock knock knock". Its really precious. And today after running errands we came inside and as soon as she got through the door she started calling, "baby! baby!" as if she thought the baby would be here!! And tonight when I saw Tim pull up I said, "Libby! Someone is here! Do you know who it is?" And usually she says "Daddy!" but today she said, "baby? baby?" Too cute. :-) Unfortunately she's also pretty jealous of me with other kids so we'll just have to be sensitive and work out any potential issues.

When we were with friends last week I was helping our friend's little girl with something and Libby got really, really upset. So we had a little chat with her about sharing mommy and she put three words together for the first time and through her tears said, "I share mommy." It was precious. :-)

Speaking of...we went and stayed over the long weekend with some friends up in New Jersey! It was so much fun and I'm really glad we went. I'm sure some people thought we were crazy traveling so late in the pregnancy but we got the go-ahead from my mid-wife and we felt comfortable so we went! And everything was fine. I'm sure I was more tired than normal and walking around a bunch got to be difficult, but other than that it was great! We went for a wedding so there wasn't any way around the dates. The wedding was beautiful and it was so fun being in our old stomping grounds and visiting friends. We're planning on getting our NJ friends down to TX in the spring so that will be a lot of fun, I'm sure!

Well, here's my little preggo update thingie before I sign off:
Pregnancy: 37 weeks

Weight Gain: 10 lbs. total

Sleep: HA HA. Apparently my body is preparing for a newborn and suddenly despises sleep.

Gender: No clue.

Name: Depends on the above

Feeling: Very chill and zen about the whole labor process but excited and a bit nervous about having two kiddos!

Health: Much better these days. Feeling very good and energetic.

Movement: Very, VERY squirmy

Belly: Very high, not that big but for some reason I think this baby will be bigger than Libby was.

Next Appointment: Thursday morning, most likely will do GBS test and REALLY wanting to avoid testing + again. Being hooked up to an IV and stuck on a bed for 45 minutes during hard labor was NO FUN. Would love to avoid that this time.

Well, that's about it!! Oh here are some pics for ya. :)

PS. Blogger is stupid so for some reason all of the above text is underlined. I've been fighting with it all night and am ready to go to sleep! Good night!

At a great petting zoo, Libby had a blast.

Libby and Mathilda, the little girl of our friends in NJ, who we stayed with.
In the city outside a very dangerous store. ;)
Scary dude.

Libby LOVED the stuffed animals, especially the piggies. Daddy told her to give them a hug and then put them back, it worked really well!

She did make it out of the store with a small piggy. :)
Throwing pennies in the fountain.



All dressed up for the wedding. Libby didn't come. :) Made for a fun date night.
On a nature trail in Tarrytown. See the Hudson behind us? It was a terrific view.

The result of a large sippy cup of Jamba Juice at the airport. Apparently the sugar went straight to Libby's bloodstream. She went NUTS!! It was a bit scary but after a little bit of screaming on the plane she sacked out. :)