HALLELUJAH!!!!

HALLELUJAH! CECILY IS SLEEPING ALL NIGHT!!!! Praise the Lord and pass the late night movies! Hahaha. Well, not quite but I now feel amazing and well-rested! Except like on nights like tonight when I'm staying up a bit late. :-)

I put her down about 8pm and she sleeps until 7-8. I've heard her wake up a few times, not every night, but she usually just gets herself back to sleep. I'm not a big fan of "crying it out" but I don't mind letting her fuss for a bit to settle herself back down. She doesn't wail for 2 hours or anything like that. And the funny thing is that almost every morning when I go and get her she has squirmed all around but she still has her blankie and paci! It really is wonderful to go all night without having to get up and I'm really enjoying it.

We haven't started many solids yet with our baby girl because I haven't felt like she was ready. But recently I've been giving her tastes of banana and avocado and she LOVES it! It's really cute to see her go to town on a piece of something. She makes a huge mess and probably only eats a small amount but she has fun with it. :) I'll probably start introducing her to some oatmeal or something soon. I just don't want to rush anything right now. Refer to this great site for any questions about delayed solids.

I am waking up at 6 am though to pump because (and here's another great part) I am able to pump about NINE ounces every morning!! Crazy, huh? I guess that's about how much she was eating through the night. I've been chugging water all evening and then I'll usually drink about 32 oz. after waking and before she wakes up. When Cecily wakes up I usually am able to feed her enough to keep her satisfied but sometimes I have to give her some of the pumped milk. I'm really trying hard to train my body to produce more so I can store up the pumped milk. I had a hard time always producing enough for Libby and I don't want to run into that problem again. Also, if we ever have more space maybe I'll be able to store up enough so that if she weans early I can give her breastmilk. For now we're just storing it in our little freezer. Here, I'll show off my little stash. :)

Yes, I know it's not ideal to store it in the door but that's the only option we have at present.
Anyway, there's my breastfeeding update. I'm so happy that things are still going well!!

6 months!

Taking a little rest in the sun with Daddy.

My baby girl is growing up!! Do you think she favors me yet?

One of her favorite play spots.

My baby is six months old, y'all! How did that happen? Well, however it did I'm loving it. I love this age so much!! She's a sweet, snuggley little girl and is just precious and perfect. These days Cecily is scooting and rolling everywhere! It's so funny because I'll set her up in the middle of our living room with a pile of toys and I'll walk out of the room and when I come back she'll be waay on the other side! Gotta keep my eyes on this girl! She can sit up unassisted and does a really good job of keeping her balance and not toppling over. She's still working on moving from a seating position to lying back down so that sometimes gets the tears going when she does ker-flop over. I think that she can get up into a seated position by herself now too. This morning when I heard her crying in her bed she was sitting up! That was a big surprise but I should've seen it coming. Right now she's still in the pack-n-play thing but since Lib will be moving to a big girl bed *hopefully this weekend* little Cecily will soon be moved into the crib! I was hoping for Cecily to be sleeping more consistently at night before I moved her in with Libby but we might just have to try it out. On a good night Cecily will go down around 8pm and sleep until 3am when she'll wake to eat and will go back to sleep until about 7am. That happens about 1 every 4 nights, but it's getting more regular. It's more common for her to wake up a few other times and usually I am able to get her back to sleep by sneaking in and sticking the pacifier back into her mouth.
Our littlest one is still a happy, sweet, and charming little baby. Everyone comments on how big her smiles are and how happy she is to see people. Mama is her favorite person around but she loves it when Daddy holds her too. She also really likes the sweet ladies at the gym daycare and of course her two grandmothers and numerous other relatives.
The other day I gave her an apple slice to suck on and she went to town on that thing! You would've thought I'd given her an addictive substance the way she threw a fit every time she dropped it! I might start trying to give her some baby food here and there but I'm not in a big hurry. I'm waiting for a few more "signs" that she's ready. Plus, I don't want to interfere with breastfeeding quite yet. It's going well and I've even been able to pump a few ounces most days so I'm hoping to keep that up. I'll probably try to pump more when I do start feeding her just to keep my supply bumped up.
Well, I'd better get to cleaning', these little girls can destroy our living areas pretty fast! :)

I'm in love

with this precious girl!!!

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. ;)

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?!

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.