Celeste: 8 months old

We have an 8 month old. It seems like just yesterday I was pregnant. Now we have a crawling, smiling, sweet baby girl who has filled up our lives.

She is so sweet, almost all the time. She's recently learned how to kiss, so she will grab your face and basically suck on it, which is her version of a kiss. 

We had family photos taken by Laura at A Plus L Photo. 

Happy Holidays! 

Celeste: 5 months!

I cannot believe we have a 5 month old baby. I am so impressed by how much she's learned in such a short amount of time. She is holding her head up so well and rolling front to back and vice versa. She loves talking and squealing. We tried food around 4 months and it's been iffy. She likes eating but she is very fussy the day after she eats. It happens too often for it to just be a coincidence. I'm putting it on hold for a little while. 

She had some issues with food intake that we seemed to have overcome. She regularly eats big meals and is weighing in around 14.5lbs. At two months she was in the 9th percentile and now she's over 35th percentile, so we have come a long way. 

I'm back at work and loving the challenge of being a part time worker, full time mommy who has two full days off with Cece during the week. Doug has been very busy with work, and was even out of town for 5 days, which proved to be a tough challenge for me being a single mom for the time. Many props to caregivers who do it alone more regularly. 

Some more photos before I go: 

I'll post again soon on Celeste's baby naming. 😊

Celeste: 3 months!

Celeste is 3 months old today!  She weighs 11lbs 5oz. We finally figured out her food issues and she's on special hypoallergenic formula for milk and soy protein intolerance. She hates the taste, but we sweeten it with alcohol free vanilla extract and she's finally drinking it. She only takes about 20oz a day, but she's gaining 1/2-1oz a day which is just perfect. 

Likes: putting everything in her mouth, falling asleep on her playmat, talking/cooing all the time, doing sit-ups, kicking, rolling over when she's doing tummy time

Dislikes: overstimulation, being put into her car seat, hot weather 

I go back to work next week! My 3 months off flew by. I'm sad but I know it's time. 

Celeste is 8 weeks old!

I cannot believe we have an 8 week old and that I have been doing this for two months already! It's amazing how quickly time flies, and how quickly the unknown becomes the routine.  

 Celeste is doing really well lately. She had been experiencing nightly screams right around dinner time where the only thing that calmed her down was a car ride. It was a bit of a bummer to have to expect to spend 30 minutes to an hour driving around but at least we had a solution.  Lately, she seems to have dropped the extreme cries. Last night, she was being extremely fussy and crying and we did a bath. It soothed her and she was able to fall asleep soon after.   Baths have become a part of the routine.  I highly recommend it to any new moms reading this. I also think time helped. The doctor had said usually the witching hour begins to decline at 6 weeks, and she was right.  

Celeste and I are continuing to enjoy my time off. I confirmed with my office that my return to work date will be July 5th. I am trying to soak up my time with her. I am lucky though, my office agreed to let me return at part-time, so I will be working 20 hours per week. We worked out a schedule with family watching her while I am at work.  I'm hoping for the best with this new schedule. I love my job and I'd like to keep it, and I hope it will allow me enough time to bond with her while I can have adult time too. 

She continues to smile all the time! Doug said she half-laughed the other day. I keep trying to recreate it but I have not been able to just yet. 

That's it from here for now! 

Happy 3 weeks to Celeste! 

Our little pumpkin is 3 weeks old today!!  

Likes:

Chest snuggles 

Naps

Daddy reading to her 

Car Rides

Her special green pacifier

Eating

Morning quiet alert time with Mommy & music 

Pandora shuffled music stations

Dislikes:

Between 4pm-5pm usually every day, she has her first witching hour where she will fuss for no reason at all.  It returns again sometime in the evening, right when Doug and I are getting ready to enjoy dinner.  She does not like these times of day! 

Ziggy toe kisses 

Being put down when she's asleep, unless it's night time 

Birth Story: Celeste Evangeline Lief

Birth story for our little miracle! 

Wednesday evening, 3/30 at about 10:30pm I went to use the bathroom and when I wiped, there was a ton of bright red blood on the toilet paper. I ran to my husband to show him I was bleeding and I had to run back to the toilet as I felt something was gushing out. I was super sure it was my water and it was tinged with blood. We grabbed our mostly packed hospital bag, threw a few other things together, and drove to the hospital. 

Once there they checked my fluids twice with the fluid ferning test but it wasn't showing up as amniotic fluid. They weren't sure what it was, but hooked me up to the NST to monitor the baby and the bloods as well. They said they could either admit me, or wait for the bleeding to stop and send me home. It depended on how I was doing and how much more blood was going to come out. I bled for awhile but it mostly halted after that. They kept me on to see if I would go into labor on my own, and I started having a few small contractions here and there.  I was only about 1.5cm dilated at this point. 

At around 3:30am or so, my nurse showed up and shared that she had talked to my doctor and she had decided to admit me for induction. I was already scheduled to come back in 4 days anyways, and the unexplained bleeding was enough for them to keep me. They started the pitocin drip and the antibiotics since I was strep b positive.  

The pitocin kicked in and I started contractions pretty much right away and they escalated over the next few hours. At 7am my doctor showed up to check on me and I think at that point I was only about 2cm dilated. It took about 4-5 hours before the pain got horrible after that and the next time they checked me, I was dilated to about a 3cm and significantly effaced. Baby's head was quite far up though. I believe it was about this point where my waters broke and the contractions got unbearable. I said I couldn't take it and they ordered the epidural. Once the epidural was in (and that was rough all on its own because the contractions were hitting every 2 minutes and it took us awhile to find the right spot, and I had to stay very still, which is almost impossible when you're in crazy pain), but then I had literally 0 pain once it was fully administered. The only bad part of the epi was the leg numbness which made me freak out for awhile. It wasn't something I was comfortable with. 

So from about 12-4pm, on 3/31, I slept and labored painlessly. The heart rate monitor started to show a high fetal heart rate. Baby was about 5.5cm dilated, had not dropped, and was showing signs of fetal distress. My doctor came in and decided we should do a c-section. She said she didn't think the baby could endure the stress of labor given how long it was taking me to progress. The pitocin was speeding up her heart rate but stopping the pitocin would slow down the progress. So it was a catch-22. We agreed to do the section and got wheeled in around 5:30pm. The section was really uncomfortable for me. I was one of the rare few who get severe shoulder pain during the cutting. I was also shaking uncontrollably. But the baby was born at 5:48pm and it was all worth it! I finally got to spend time with her about 30 minutes later and daddy got the first skin to skin with her. 

I had severe itching due to a side effect with the epidural. I was unable to sleep due to the itching.  That has since gone away, but sleep is an issue due to anxiety. I'm assured it's normal for now and I'm doing my best to catch a few hours here and there. 

We love our little baby girl and while the labor was a long hard day, it was worth it! 

Celeste Evangeline

Born 3/31/16

5:48pm

6 lbs, 4oz, 19.5" 

T Minus 8 Days to Baby

I can't believe it's been almost two years since I have posted. Essentially, two years ago from January was when our attempt to start a family began. And here we are, 8 days from my due date and I feel like I have so much to share. 

Like I said, we decided to try to have a baby around January 2014. I won't get into all the TMI details, but we were extremely unsuccessful.  Months passed with negative after negative pregnancy test. Those months were hard on my soul.  I couldn't stop dividing everyone I know into two categories: those that had children and those that did not. My Facebook feed became a platform for moms to showcase their beautiful children. My own page seemed empty in comparison; I showed off photos of my adorable puppy instead. He was my consolation prize. In fact, we got him right around the 9 months of trying point. Don't get me wrong, I loved him. But there was a hole in my heart in the shape of a baby footprint that no affectionate, smart, sweet puppy could fill.   

After months of trying on our own, we sought help. We tried a few rounds of fertility medication. Those proved to be unsuccessful. We also tried one round of intrauterine insemination (IUI), which also was unsuccessful.  Health conditions on my end began to reveal themselves - Celiac Disease, Thyroid Disorder.  We began to get those under control.    We interviewed a new fertility doctor and were excited to move forward with one more IUI before considering IVF when I got pregnant, mostly all on my own (We did something called a trigger shot to ensure ovulation) I couldn't believe it. All my months of trying and my wish had come true. 

I remember squealing the news to Doug as I ran downstairs to show him. I had shown him many many false alarms previously, with lines so faint you had to close your eyes to imagine them to actually see them. But this one was pink. And it was real. And I sobbed. It was finally my turn.  

The first month was nerves. All nerves. I was convinced something was going to happen to the baby. We did prenatal testing around the 10th week and were blessed with finding out the gender very early on. I even surprised Doug with the news. 

We had an early scare where we rushed to the hospital because i was bleeding. I remember repeating over and over that I didn't want to go. I didn't want to lose my precious miracle. And she was a miracle because she was still alive, heart beating strong. 

Months passed and my bump grew. It was amazing to see my body change.  Here are some bump progression pics: 

Even more exciting was being able to capture her change from inside of me. I went to far too many ultrasounds than the average girl. But I didn't care. 

(I apologize for the way these are uploading - I can't seem to center all of them!) 

 

So here we are. Today I am 8 days away from meeting my little girl. I am impatient. Uncomfortable.  Ready!