3 Months

Time is absolutely flying by and no matter how much I wish, it won't stop! I can't believe she is 3 months old and in just 2 more months I will have to leave her at daycare. It breaks my heart to think about leaving her for most of the day with strangers.  We have chosen a great place; one that we're really comfortable with and know people whose children go there....but it doesn't make it any easier. I wish that our county still offered the chance to take a sabbatical for a year and then come back.  But this stupid economy has taken that away, and if I chose to stay home then I would not have a job to come back to. She and I are covered under my insurance, so I think we will try it for a year and see how it goes. If I absolutely can't stand it, then we can figure out what to do next summer. But the good thing is that she will be around other kiddos her own age, be doing fun art activities that, let's face it, she definitely wouldn't be doing with me (I can barely draw a stick figure!), and I'm sure there are other bonuses too...it might just take me a while to figure them out.  Phew, sorry for the long rant...I never thought it would be so hard...and I still have 2 months to dread it coming.

Anyway, we've had a great beginning to summer. We've already traveled to Pittsburgh, Philly, New Jersey, and York. We have the only child in the universe that HATES the car. Hates to the point that she gets red in the face and screams to the point of choking herself. It is heartwrenching to hear, but we can't figure out how to help her. :-(  We've tried pacifiers (she refuses to take one!), toys, mirrors, even one of us sitting with her, but nothing seems to work. She eventually tires herself out and falls asleep, but it's so sad...and makes for VERY loooong car rides. Other than that, she's a super happy baby and is the love of my life.
Right now she.....
~weighs a little over 12 pounds
~can sit up in her Bumbo chair
~loves being propped up on the couch so she can "watch" baseball with daddy
~coos, gurgles, and talks constantly
~smiles whenever we talk to her
~does great during tummy time - lifts her head really high
~has rolled from tummy to back a few times by accident, but not on purpose yet
~bats at her toys on her play mat and "yells" at them
~loooves the water! She screams anytime she is taken out of the tub or the pool. We have quite the water baby on our hands.

Every day is something new and I love waking up and seeing what she will do next. Here are some pics of our growing girl. :-)

2 Months old

Sophia had her 2 month appointment this morning - complete with her first set of vaccines. :-(  She is doing really well - 11lbs 4 1/2 oz, 22 1/4 inches long. She is in the 66% for height, 63% for weight, and 50% for head circumference. It was awful to hear her scream when she got the vaccines, but she started screaming as soon as her leg was wiped with the alcohol, so I'm hoping that the actual shots didn't hurt her that much. Luckily, Pat was able to come with me and hold my hand so I didn't freak out as much as I expected.

Sophia has also started to grace us with longer stretches of sleep at night. Over the weekend she slept through the night 2 nights in a row! Last night she slept 7 hours - which meant she was up at 4:30am, but that's still a looong stretch of sleep. :-)  She is smiling more and more, but I can never quite catch one on camera.  She is gurgling and cooing and is quite the wiggle worm...I think any day now she will be rolling over!

As for me, I'm still trying to get a handle on housework and cooking while taking care of her. She doesn't really like to be in one place for too long, and if she can't see me she starts to cry. It definitely makes it difficult to get anything done during the day. My plan for maternity leave had been to have a clean house and dinner ready every night....not happening yet! Hopefully I'll get the hang of it before summer is over!

4 weeks already?!

I can't believe I've been a mom for 4 weeks already. (ok, 4 weeks tomorrow, but she's sleeping so I thought I'd take advantage and update.) I can't believe that I'm in charge of this little person! It sounds so cliche, but it's true - I never knew I was capable of loving someone the way I love her. It's so hard to explain, but I feel like I've been waiting my whole life to meet her, and now that she's here, I'm complete. I am so content to just hold her and stare at her - even at 3am when she refuses to go back to sleep. (don't get me wrong, I WANT her to sleep, but even as exhausted as I am, I just sit and stare. haha)
And yes, sleep is definitely something that we want and need more of. She still has her days and nights confused, and nothing we try can convince her otherwise. She is such a good girl though that even when she's awake for hours in the middle of the night, she doesn't cry, she just sits and wants to be held. And you know what? I'll take it. I'm savoring every minute I have at home with my little girl because I know that September will be here way too soon and then I have to hand her over to daycare. (which I cannot even let myself think about because when I do I start to cry!)
Anyway, here are some pictures of sweet Sophia - I can't believe how big she is getting!!!

She's Here!! (sorry for the wait)

I'm sorry that it has taken so long to post anything - Miss Sophia seems to sense when I'm about to eat, sleep, check e-mail, etc and decides to wake up. I'm hoping that it doesn't take me 6 hours to write this post, but as I'm typing she's beginning to move around in her bouncy chair....I'll try to type quick! :-)
Our perfect Sophia Elizabeth was born on Tuesday, April 6th at 10:23pm. She weight 7lbs 14oz and was 20 1/4 inches long.
I had gone to the dr. that morning b/c I wasn't sure if my water had broken or not. Sure enough, it had, and they admitted me to labor and delivery right away. They started me on pitocin to help kick start my contractions and I called Pat to tell him he needed to leave work, grab our hospital bags, and head on over. I got my epidural soon after Pat got there, and while I didn't fall asleep, I was definitely in a daze and didn't really do much except lay and stare at the Law and Order marathon that was on tv. At one point, one of the nurses checked my monitor and saw that I was having almost constant contractions with no break (yea for epidurals!!). She didn't like the way Sophia was reacting to the contractions (her heart rate was fine though) so she turned down the pitocin and left the room.  3 hours later, I told a different nurse that my hips really hurt and I was really uncomfortable. She did a check and said "I would never believe it if I wasn't here". I had gone from 3cm to 10cm with no more pitocin in 3 hours....apparently that's fast! haha. She started getting prepared for me to start pushing. I pushed for 2 hours and Sophia was born.  The dr. placed her on my chest and told Pat to tell everyone if the baby was a boy or girl. He then got to cut the cord.
We ended up staying in the hospital until Friday morning because Sophia had jaundice. We were sent home with a billi-blanket and had a check up with our pediatrician Saturday morning. The check on Saturday was perfect, so we have a clean bill of health. :-)
Overall, things are going well. She definitely likes to be up at night and sleep during the day, so hopefully we can break her of that habit sooner rather than later. Anyway, here are some pictures of our little girl. I will try to update more regularly as we start to get into a routine. (I hope!)

37 weeks

Today I have officially made it to full term.  That means Baby Crum could decide to make his/her debut at anytime.  Unfortunately (for my swollen ankles and numb hands), most 1st babies go past their due date, not before. BUT my appointment went really well today - I've made more progress since last week - and Dr. D said that I am favorable for a selective induction if Pat and I decide that's the way we want to go.  She won't do it until late in my 39th week, but it's an option if Baby Crum has decided to make my body it's permanent home and I just can't take the discomfort anymore.
I've heard lots of horror stories about inductions, and only a few positive ones, so I'm really hoping that our little decides to come on his/her own before the official due date so that I'm not tempted by the induction. I have to admit, knowing a specific end date - knowing that the swelling, back aches, numbness, etc. will come to an end has me toying with the idea...but I want to make sure that baby is fully developed and ready to come.....it's a tough decision to make.
Anyway, only 4 more days of work and then I can relax and spend all day long over analyzing every twinge and pain and trying to decide if I'm in labor.  During spring break week I plan on trying to walk a lot to help move things along. The only problem is, I can only make it about 7 or 8 houses down the block before I have to turn around to make it home to use the bathroom! I don't know how much progress I can make with only walking a few houses down, but if I do it a few times a day, maybe it will help!

And no, I don't have a mammoth baby in there. I remembered to ask today, and she said baby is only 6ish pounds now and she's estimating that he/she will be around 7 1/2 to 7lb 12 oz. when born. We'll see how accurate she is! :-)

36 Weeks

I had my 36 week dr. apt. yesterday and everything went well. Dr. D. is pleased with how things are going and is predicting that Baby Crum will make his/her appearance the week of April 12th.  This was the start of my weekly dr. apt's, so I'll get to see her every Monday until the baby is born - nothing more that I love than spending at least an hour a week sitting in a waiting room! ;-) 

According to the baby book, our little one is weighing close to 6 1/2 lbs right now. I meant to ask Dr. D. what her estimate of our baby was, but I forgot to ask once I was in there. I'll have to remember to do it next week. I have instituted a new rule in our house in honor of my new size and difficulty moving - if something falls on the floor and can't be picked up by my toes, it stays on the floor until Pat gets it or a dog chews it up! It's just waaay to hard to bend down anymore!

I had my work baby shower today and it was soo nice! We had a great time unwinding after a crazy day and enjoyed visiting with people that we normally don't get to spend time with.

Anyway, here's my weekly picture....hopefully only a few more to take! :-)

 

35/35

Yep, that's right! Today I am 35 weeks pregnant with only 35 days to go. Not really too much to update - my stomach is starting to feel really heavy, but I've been expecting that. Baby is weighing around 5 1/2 pounds right now, so it's no wonder I feel heavy! I'll have more to update next week since I have a dr. apt. Until then...here's my weekly picture.