New Mom Lessons

What I've Learned so far as a new mom:

-Velco and Muslin fabric do not mix.

-Always say yes to offered help.

-You can make a lot of meals out of a chicken.

-We have amazing and generous friends who have kept us fed.

-Don't forget to take your Advil!

-Babies get heavy, think about lifting some light weights during pregnancy.

-Blow drier is no longer part of daily routine.

-Baby carriers are awesome and a great way to reconnect with baby like when you were pregnant.

-Your baby falling asleep on you is the best thing in the world.

-Everything seems more emotional (football almost made me cry).

-Work seems so much less important.

-You have to constantly remind yourself not to do too much.

2 Week Appointment

Today was Keira's 2 Week Well Baby Visit. She was a trooper while they poked and prodded her. She is growing so much! 

Height = 22 inches (94th percentile)

Weight = 8lb 12oz (65th percentile)

Head Circumference = 14.5 inches (80th percentile)

She is totally adorable and just the sweetest baby-

We can't believe how tall she is getting! Her next appointment is in two weeks for one month checkup, when she will have to get a shot. 

Here is the information they gave us of what to expect the next couple weeks:

  

Baby Love

This is the new sleeping in late...

Mornings playing with baby :-)

2 Weeks Old

Keira is two weeks old today! She has already gotten so much bigger and much more alert and interactive. She will grab your hand and follow an object (briefly). She can lift her head and she is a very strong kicker.

She has pretty much outgrown her Newborn clothes and now is in 0-3 month.

She is also getting more and more adorable :-) 

It Takes a Village

This is a shout out to all of our wonderful friends who have been bringing by food, drinks, and support the past two weeks! 

Thank you so much!!!

Daily Dose of Cuteness

12 Days Postpartum

12 days later and I'm almost feeling back to normal, well it's a new normal - one that includes sleeping only in 3 hour (maximum) segments, and learning to make oatmeal while breastfeeding - but it  is my new normal and I like it.

My body has changed drastically in the past two weeks-

Pounds lost: 19

Pounds left to lose: 9

Baby Supplies- my favorite things

We received so many amazing adorable gifts at our baby shower and finally get to use them! Here are some of our favorite baby items so far (some gifts/some purchased by us):

-Boppy pillow

-Miracle blanket

-Halo sleep sack

-Bamboobies soothing pads

-Bravado nursing bras and tanks

-BoobEase balm

-OXO wipes dispenser

-Gerber kimono shirts

-Carter's zip-up sleepers

-Aden and Anais swadle blankets

Baby Pictures - Shutterfly Site

We've started a Shutterfly site to share all of our photos of Keira, please check it out!

https://keiracecelia.shutterfly.com/

8 Days PostPartum

Today is my first day on my own. So far, so good. I fed baby, showered, then we all went for a nice "long" walk like I used to do before 32 weeks and walking got more difficult.

So Hungry

Keira had her first pediatrician appointment on Wednesday and the doctor asked that we come back two days later for a visit with the lactation consultant (LC). She was about 6% below her birth weight, which is in the normal range, but doctor just wanted to check and make sure she was gaining appropriately.

So we all went today and the LC weighed her before and after a feeding, she wasn't even really done eating yet when she weighed her and she had already gained an ounce! The LC was VERY pleased with this and said that mom and baby were doing great. 

We got permission to not wake her up for feelings since she is eating so well. Keira lets us know when it's time to eat and when we don't listen, this is what happens!

5 Days Later

I'm still recovering but it's going well. I'm more in love with this little munchkin everyday! We've been going for short family walks and I've made it a priority to take a long nap every afternoon. 

I feel closer to normal every day, I've lost 14 pounds and there's 14 left to lose, but that is ok. I'm still wearing my maternity clothes:

I miss being pregnant a little, mostly just wishing I could have known then how adorable Keira would be, it still amazes me that I made her and she lived inside of me for 9 months. Today was her due date, she was technically 5 days early but in my book, she came exactly on time :-)

Cute Baby Pics

Having Keira is 10,000 times better than I  imagined, she is this sweet little thing who just loves us because she doesn't know anything else so we just love her a million times back.

No rhyme or reason - just cute pictures of Keira:

Keira Cecelia

As you all know, we struggled with picking a name for baby G. We knew we wanted to use Cecelia as her middle name but the first name took a while... Well actually I decided when her head was about 2/3 of the way delivered and she was about to be born. 

Cecelia is Mike's paternal grandmothers first name. She went by her middle name, Barbara, but we checked and this was only because there were other women in her family with the name Cecelia. We tried to quiz her casually so she wouldn't know what was up. This was months and months ago and we managed to keep it just between the two of us. We love that the name is in the family and we can honor Keira's "GG" (great grandma).

               Keira & GG (Cecelia)

For baby's first name we made lists and lists, and read several baby name books over to cover. The only name to show up on our list twice was Keira. So Mike took to researching the Internet to find out how girls named Keira liked their names. Everyone with that name was happy with it and glad they didn't have a more common name (we had considered some names that are very popular right now). We read more about what Keira means and found out it was an Irish name. Perfect- we are both descendants of Ireland.

We are so happy with her name and when she popped out with a head full of dark brown hair we knew it was the perfect name for her!

 Keira- Pronounced "keer-ah"

The feminine form of Ciaran, from the Irish ciar meaning “dark” and implies “dark hair and brown eyes.” St. Ciara was a distinguished seventh-century figure who established a monastery at Kilkeary in County Tipperary. It was the fourth most popular baby girl name in Ireland in 2003.

Put Your Hands Up!

We had our first visit to the pediatrician yesterday and she was reading through all the records from the birth... "Oh so baby came out with a hand presenting?"

Say what?! Hmmm I do recall someone saying something about a hand but I was a little medicated and distracted at the time. 

Turns out not only was baby 8lb 7 (an a half!)oz - lets call it 8.5 pounds - she also came out with a hand next to her face- and I only pushed this button once!

She still loves keeping her hands up my her face, her arms and hands are waving around like crazy when she's not swaddled, Mike says she looks like a little  lobster (next years Halloween costume- check!) :-)

Baby's First Walk

My goal was to try to take a walk with baby everyday, no matter how short. We started yesterday on our first full day at home. We all went together and just walked a few blocks (Mike is still in his boot). Keira was hungry and crying a little bit but as soon as we got outside she passed out. 

The carrier is so comfortable and we just loved being in there. When we got home I kept her in there while I straightened up a little bit.

Baby Playlist

I had my heart set on listening to music during my labor and delivery. We packed our mini iPhone speaker and I planned to carefully create a playlist...

Well I ended up making this playlist as I was waiting for my epidural. The music got me through that hour and a half of waiting through the contractions and the nurses loved the music while I was pushing. 

We can't remember which song played exactly as Keira was born but these songs will all have a special place in our hearts as we can recall listening to most of them during labor, especially Man in the Mirror, one of MJs most beautiful songs.

3 Days Postpartum

Recovering from pregnancy and delivery... I expected recovery to be very difficult so it's been better than I expected. I'm a little sore and really tired but its all worth it when I look at baby Keira's sweet little face.

Through pregnancy I gained 28 pounds. So far I've lost 10 pounds and a few months of pregnant belly:

Breast feeding is doing its job of shrinking my uterus back to pre pregnancy size. Just need to get some more sleep so my face can go back to prepregnancy status and not look so tired!

Birth Day

4am- woke up to a strong contraction and as soon as i got out of bed my water broke

5am- arrive hospital, think I'm going to die, they check me and I'm 3cm dilated 

6:30am- finally receive epidural (the best thing in the world!)

39 Weeks

Baby is the Size of a Large Watermelon

She is now 39 weeks old and that means I am totally fine with her making her entrance into this world at any point! Baby girl weighs anywhere from 7 to 8 pounds and measures 19 to 21 inches. Her measurements won't change much from now until delivery date but her brain is still growing.

Mom + Dad = Baby

She is coming soon, but it's fun to guess...

Who do you think baby will look like?

 

Pregnancy Books and Apps

When you are pregnant you cannot have enough information about what is going on inside of you. I found these resources helpful and fun. Of course there are other very informative books and Apps out there but these are the ones I found myself going to back to most often.


BOOKS:

The Pregnancy Countdown (via Kindle)

What to Expect When You're Expecting

Random Update- 38.5 Weeks

We've got 10 days til due date... After Mondays appointment and the doctors "you could literally go into labor tonight", we got our bags all packed as ready to go. My body is all ready for baby to come whenever she is ready!

Random picture of the day:

(Voting Day)