Update!

Hailey is officially 3 months old! She went to the doc this past week and weighs 11 lb. 6 oz. She is also above average at 24" long. Sean and I love Hailey so much. Besides our salvation and then marriage (cause that had to happen to get Hailey), she is the best thing that has happened to us! She still sleeps through the night. I've gotten bad at not keeping her on a schedule in the mornings... she should be getting up at 7 AM in the mornings but I like sleeping in! Hailey does well eating every 3 hours. Sometimes she has gone to 4 hours with no problem.

A couple weekends ago Hailey went to a theme park for the first time! We went to SeaWorld. The weather was breezy and cool. But all Hailey cared about is that she was clean and had her milk. =o)

This weekend we hung out a lot at home. Hailey is very content as long as she has a full belly. She will just chill in her carrier or boppy. We set-up the playpen when the cold front hit this past week. Hailey still needs her tummy and laying on back time but I didn't want her on the floor with the draft. Soon we will either have to put her in her crib or put the playpen in our room because she is getting too long for the bassinet.

Today after church we went and visited Hailey's great grandmother. This is the first time she had seen Hailey. It was a short visit as Hailey was hungry and tired but it was fun. Hailey's Great Aunt Dora, Great Uncle Mac and Great Aunt Linda were there too. It was their first time seeing her as well. They were overjoyed!

Twelve weeks old!

Saturday night we went to the in-laws so Sean and Blake could play with some air-soft guns. They shot a banana taped to the tree until the banana was non-existant! We were standing around the island in the kitchen when Hailey went poo. It was so loud! Sean and I have had a laughs about it and are used to it now but Blake had never heard it. He laughed so hard which made Sean and I laugh. We were all bent over and crying. It was so funny! Hailey just sat there with a "what did I do?" look. Then I went to lift her up to change her and saw she had a blowout on her back and it went on me too!

Hailey has a freckle on the back of her right calf. My mom noticed it weeks ago but I just now remembered to mention it. She is now holding toys. The other day she went to sleep holding on of her toys! It was so cute! Pics are below! Hailey is making different "coo" noises and her cry is changing more. She did the cutest sneeze the other day too. Sean thought it was me!

Drool, drool, drool! Hailey will drool so much she soaks the front of her onesie! I think she is in the beginning stages of teething. I gave her a frozen teething ring a couple days ago and she loved it! When I took it away, she cried.

Sean has a cold so he is trying to keep his distance from Hailey and I. My mom just started radiation this past Monday. Please be praying for her. She is exhausted. My grandfather just got released from the hospital yesterday. He had a blood clot in his lungs and his leg. He is doing much better now.

Exercising isn't the easiest thing to do but I'm trying. It's not easy to find the time and also it's not easy body wise. I just don't have any strength in my muscles. Whatever muscles I did have is gone! It's like starting from scratch and very difficult. Just wait, a couple months and I'll be a hot mom! =o)

Oh, and speaking of getting back in shape, I crave chocolate all the time. Everyday, every moment. Give me chocolate! What is my problem?! I have never been like this. It's aweful but I've learned to go ahead and get some chocolate because if I don't I will eat everything in sight until I get it. I just need to know when to stop!!

It seems that Jacob and Hailey will be great friends. Jacob was playing with one of Hailey's toys at youth last night. He really likes her stroller (the same as his) and when he sees her he always wants to reach out and touch her. So cute!

Tonight Hailey had the biggest blowout ever. I think it was mostly due to not putting the diaper on properly which is my fault. She was squiggling and squirming and it was just difficult to get it on good. Woops! Learned my lesson!! At least the blowout wasn't on me!

39 weeks pregnant pics

These are some cute pics Jason Poludniak did when I was 39 weeks pregnant. Thank you Jason!!

Afraid of the dark?!

Hailey rides great in the car. Only a few times does she cry and that's when she is really really hungry. But, about four days ago Sean and I noticed she cries in the car at night. As soon as a light comes on, she stops crying. Light off... she cries. She is afraid of the dark in the car! I felt bad for her but it was quite humorous at the same time. Poor thing! We turned the light on in the car every chance that we could. I don't know how to resolve this problem... just hope she gets used to it and sees that it's not scary. We had a fall festival at church. I dressed Hailey up as a rockstar punk ballerina. She was adorable! Sean was volunteered for the dunk tank. I don't know by who. ; )He got dunked several times. Then I dunked him. Here's some pictures! (I'm glad I got the pictures before the massive blow-out!)


Hailey is now ten weeks old. She is opening her hands more and noticing things in front of her. I think she is starting to try and touch things. It's so cute to see her concentrate on something. We love to place toys at her feet and when she kicks id makes noise. She tries to figure out why that's happening. I can always tell when Hailey is going to poop. She gets very still and rigid and gets a concentrated face. She perces her lips together and then the grunt comes! Sometimes she turns red.

Hailey is now in a size 1 diaper. She has only had a few blowouts since we changed sizes. She is a great baby and I have found loves a routine. I feed her every 3 hours now. She also knows when night time feeding and bed time is. The last couple weeks I haven't even needed to rock her to sleep. I couldn't ask for a better baby!

I love to make Hailey smile and laugh. She has the biggest smile and her eyes light up. She loves a bummble bee toy Jennifer Fries got her. It makes laughing sounds. She also loves a baby doll that laughs that her Nana got her.

Speaking of Nana (my mom) please keep her in your prayers. She starts radiation this Thursday. She has to get six weeks of radiation, five days a week. It's a lot to go through but onces she does it, she will be done with the cancer stuff all together!! I praise God for my mom and for her healing from the breast cancer.

Pictures!

Hailey birth story part I

I'm going to tell Hailey's birth story in parts. I want it documented so she can look back and see what we went through to have her! =o)

8/20/2008
I went on my daily 2 mile (sometimes 4 mile) walk at Crane's Roost and home to clean up for a couple minutes before my doctor's appointment. On this day I was 3 days past due. Even though I was huge and uncomfortable, I was planning to tell the doctor that I want to wait until the following Monday to induce, should he suggest it.

The nurses did a stress test and had trouble keeping Hailey's heartbeat monitored because she was moving around so much! After about an hour and a half of monitoring, the doctor saw me. Evidently my blood pressure was elevated (they checked it when I first came in and then when I saw the doctor) and I had protein in my urine. I was surprised because I hadn't had any problem so far! I was swollen but had that for weeks.

The doctor said I had pre-eclamsia and wanted me to go to the hospital immediately to get induced. I was only one centimeter dialated but I wasn't going to argue with him on that because I know pre-eclamsia can be dangerous if it goes too far. I called Sean and went home to get my things. Sean met me at home and we went to the hospital.

I was very excited gathering my things at home and calling my mom. Sean was on the phone and texting a ton of people. I ate a granola bar on the way to the hospital. Originally, I planned on eating something sufficient (cause they won't let me eat or drink there) but I was too anxious. Meanwhile, Hailey was quite calm at the time!

My mom and sister Stephanie arrived shortly after I got to the hospital. I was hooked up to machines and an IV which was pumping 3 or 4 different medicines into my body. I was receiving magnisium sulfate which made me SO sick. I mean abnormally, really bad reaction sick. It was terrible! Since I had this medicine, I had one nurse who was assigned to me and they came in very, very often to check on me. They still had trouble monitoring Hailey's heartbeat. They had to come in all the time and move the monitor to try and find Hailey.

My sister Stephanie had her laptop. Sean and I started blogging when we were in the hospital. That evening my dad came, sister Rachel and my best friend Sica (she drove all the way from Davenport!). I had a full room! Everyone just hung out, patiently waiting. They would go get food and come back. We all watched my stomach as Hailey rolled around, entertaining everyone. It was odd to have everyone just starting at me, like I was a ticking time bomb!

While all this is going on, Hurricane/Tropical Storm Faye is hitting Florida. We are getting pelted with rain and wind. Poor Amanda Voss is at Sean's and my home taking care of it and the animals with such nasty weather. There wasn't really a view out the window but everyone said it was crazy out there.

I had to take out my contacts because the medicine made my eyes red and burn. I turned red too and I was so very thirsty. My lips looked like I had red lipstick on cause I was so chapped. But all I could have was ice chips. Everyone kept on commenting on the ceiling fan in the room. Saying they have never seen a ceiling fan in a hospital room. I'm thinking it's for the people like me who get wicked hot from the medicine. I think I froze everyone out!

It was apparent that I was not going to give birth soon or during the night unless something changed very quickly. I was only dialated to 2cm. My in-laws came and brother-in-law to visit quickly before everyone had to go home. Sean and my mom stayed with me during the night. I'm glad they did cause I got very, very sick from the medicine during the night. I couldn't keep down ice chips. I tried to get up and go to the restroom but started to fall. I was just too weak.

I started begging the nurse to take me off the magnisium sulfate. She wasn't finding any protein in my urine (they hadn't the whole time I had been at the hospital) and my blood pressure was perfect. She found it odd that my reflexes were a little jumpy which I guess is another sign of pre-eclamsia. But she agreed that I could probaby go off an do fine. She said she would talk to the doctor.

The nurse also said that the magnisium sulfate tends to slow labor (that's one of it's uses) so it's actually working against the pitocin they are giving me. Uh-oh I thought, this is exactly what I wanted to avoid. Situations like this often end up in c-section. But I just pushed the thought out of my mind. I didn't want to think about it or even consider that it was a possibility. Besides, I hadn't even prepared for one cause I was determined to give birth naturally. I wouldn't become one of the statistics!

Tune in next time for Part II!

God never let's go!

This past Sunday we were singing a song at church called "You Never Let Go". I was thinking about when I was in the hospital laboring and then had the c-section to deliver Hailey. There were moments when I was very scared and the only real, constant, true thing I could hold onto was God. I had an "I know this but right now it's very real to me and out of my control" moment and realized everything else could fade away at an instant. All I could do was pray and have faith that God was holding onto me, and Hailey.

I praise God that He never let's go of me. I thank Him that He reminds me that He is there for me, even in the small things. It is the same for you too!! What an awesome God we have!

P.S. - I am working on Hailey's birth story in parts. Will post the first part in the next couple days!