in action

High Five!

Dancing Babe

As promised in the nine months post, here she is dancing away:

Crawling....sort of :)

Well she's finally mobile!!  It's less of a crawl, and more of a slither - or maybe an army crawl.  But she can get from point a to b and we're so proud of her :)

nine months

How is this possible? My daughter is 9 months old! I could've made a whole other baby by now!! :)

At her 9 month appointment, Gwen had to have her blood drawn for the first time - I was all stressed out because I've heard how bad it can be.  Justin was able to come to the appointment which I was happy about because I definitely needed some support.  So the pediatrician had Gwen sit on my lap while she looked for a vein and [of course] said that she has "hard to find" veins - she went back and forth looking on each arm a couple of times before she finally found a good one.  The Dr had me hold her arms down while she drew the blood and, to be honest, I think being restrained was worse for her than the actual needle.  The whole thing was over in a few seconds and my little trooper calmed down in no time.

Some 9 month stats:
Height - 29 inches, 94th % (seriously?)
Weight - 18lbs 3oz, 50th %

Monthly Updates:
I've already mentioned that she's pulling up and cruising (walking while holding on) around her activity table.
Although she's not crawling, she's starting to be able to get where she wants to go by bringing her knees under her hips and pushing herself forward with her feet - now she just needs to lift that belly off the ground :)
She DANCES! Whenever she hears music, she rocks her body back and forth. It's seriously the cutest thing ever.  I have a video that kind of shows it but the song was too short for her to really get into it. I'll try and get a better one.
She is now obsessed with finger foods (cheese is by far her favorite).  To the point where she's giving me a tough time with the purees that I normally give her - she purses her lips together and blows raspberries.  So I'm thinking about starting to mostly give her what I eat.  The pediatrician told me the only foods that are off limits are shellfish, nuts, and honey.  Bring on the messy meals - good thing Jackson does a good job with the cleanup ;)

Pull Ups

(not the diapers)
I swear this girl is going to walk before she crawls.  Gweny doesn't have much of an interest in crawling these days. The most she'll do is go from a seated position to tummy time and then roll if she really wants a toy.  I mentioned last month that she is starting to pull herself up to stand, but yesterday she actually did it all on her own!  She's also "cruising" (which means that she'll hold on to an object and walk herself around it).  I'll try to get a video of that too, but for now here she is doing her pull ups :)

Waving

My sister in law kept telling me "I can't wait until Gwen starts waving backwards!!".  I didn't really know what she was talking about - but now she's doing it and it's adorable!
See for yourselves:

eight months

Big updates for this month: 

Gwen has started pulling herself up to stand with very little help from us.  She grabs onto her jumper or crib and lifts her butt off the ground.  She needs a little boost from us but she's just starting to learn to walk her hands up to support herself as she stands.  When she first started sitting, that's all she wanted to do, and now she's that way with standing.  She gets so excited and proud of herself after she has pulled herself up.

I love it when I hear my babe chatting away!  She's been saying mamamamama a lot, and has started saying dada more too.  Even though we realize that she probably has no idea what she's saying, I think she sees that we get excited when she says it so she keeps doing it.  As much as I love hearing her talk, sometimes she can be a little bit loud.  Usually, it's when she's around other babies, or (a bit more inconveniently) when we're at restaurants. When she gets excited, she expresses it by SCREECHING.  To the point where her face turns red and she starts coughing after a while.  Today, we caught her doing it in order to get Jackson's attention.  It's funny and cute, slash concerning - just because I have no idea how to get her to stop doing it when the timing is inappropriate.  In the beginning we thought it was hysterical, especially when she'd do it at home so we'd laugh and mimic her.  We realize now that that's probably not the best idea.  It's like when you invite your adorable new puppy in your bed, and then a year later it's not so cute anymore when he's all sprawled out and kicking you in the throat in the middle of the night.  Sooner or later, her screeching probably won't be as cute.  ;)

Seriously, how can you discourage this face?

This is brand new, like as in today: She just started feeding herself with a spoon!  See the big girl in action in the video below.

In other news: Gwen now weighs just under 18 lbs, and is officially heavier than Jackson!

Lovin the Summer Sun

We've been having a lot of outdoor playdates lately and it's made me wonder what the heck we're going to do when the weather turns colder!  Oh well, for now, things have been great - we're loving sprawling out on blankets with yummy picnic lunches and great friends to play with.

my happy girl

Ava and Gwen taking a break from browsing at a craft fair in Gloucester

there was a great playground at the park where the craft fair took place

Swinging with Ava

Picnic lunch with Reese

A relaxing afternoon with Ava and Callie

Pre-Hurricane Irene party with the nursing group babies!

Hurricane Irene's a-coming, so we'll have to spend the next few days hunkering down indoors.  See ya after the storm!

Roly Poly

I thought this day would never come! lol  Gwen holds herself up while sitting like a champ, she has rolled from back to tummy a couple of times, but she *just* rolled from tummy to back!  The girl did not want to do it, but she finally did :) I was so lucky to have my friend Christina video taping during one of our playgroups!

six past midnight

I'm writing this post as the new mom of an almost 3 month old.  Gwyneth Rose was born on 1/9/11 at 12:06am.  The reason why I chose six past midnight as the name of my blog is because it was the single most amazing minute of my life.

Because Gwen is my inspiration, what better place to start, than with her birth story (be sure to check out the video at the end):

Saturday 1/8/11

We wake up, excited and anxious that today is my due date and yesterday was my last day of work. woot woot! 

1pm

Justin is out running errands and I start to feel a little crampy.  The thought enters my mind that "this could be it" but I talk myself out of it because a.) it's my due date and no one actually gives birth on their due date! and b.) the cramps are only 2.5 minutes apart and if they were real contractions that close together, they would be A LOT more painful.

2pm

Justin gets home and we decide to call the Dr. because the "cramps" are getting a little more intense.  She tells us it could be pre-labor - wait it out a little bit and call back if they get to the point where I can't talk through them.

around 5pm or so

We decide to take a trip to Target (bags packed) because it's on the way to the hospital and walking is supposed to help progress labor.  Walking through the parking lot, we had to stop at least 3 times so I could breathe through a "cramp".  Looking back now, it cracks me up that I still though I was having Braxton Hicks contractions.

We attempt to walk around Target for a good 10-15 minutes before I decide that I need to high tail it to the hospital - calling the Dr. on the way.  Oh yea, and eating a fruit rollup that we bought along with some other delivery room snacks.

5:45pm

We arrive at the hospital, still not sure if this was "it" and half expecting to be sent home.  After being examined and finding out I was only 1.5cm dilated (sigh) they decided to keep me there for now but thought it could be a while.  I was frustrated, because all along I really envisioned having a pretty quick labor.  At this point, I wish that I would've held out at home a little bit longer because it would've been much more comfortable than pacing up and down the hospital hallways.  I can only read the same bulletin boards so many times.

6:30pm

The nurse told me to get in the hot tub because it would relax me (a hot tub? yes please!).  There is only one hot tub available to patients so I was lucky that it was a slow day for deliveries.  They were actually drawing it up for another girl but she had progressed too quickly, so I got it.  I was envious, but happy that it worked out in my favor.
I have to say that my time in the hot tub was AMAZING, and what had felt like pretty intense contractions before, ended up almost vanishing.   Something has to be said for being relaxed during labor, because I wasn't in there 15 minutes before my water broke. yaaaay!!!  I had read that it feels like a rubber band snapping inside you, and it was so true.  I actually heard a pop too!  I was totally in shock because like I mentioned before, I was only 1.5cm dilated - the nurse was shocked too, she thought it was just my mucus plug.  When I stood up, I realized that there was meconium in my fluid (the fluid wasn't clear like it should be), which means that the baby went #2 inside me which is not supposed to happen.  This really scared us because when the baby is born, the Drs need to take special care that she doesn't inhale any of the fluid, or it could lead to serious complications and infections.

6:45pm

High tail it back to the delivery room.  Still only 2cm, but now these are DEFINITELY what contractions are supposed to feel like. breeeaaaathe....

You know how they show laboring moms screaming at anyone in sight while they're having contractions? Impossible!  It was all I could do to breathe through the contractions, I wasn't even physically able to make any other noises.  I think Justin was expecting me to be one of those screaming women because he couldn't stop saying (with surprise in his voice) how well I was doing.
Justin now goes down to the car to get my hospital bag that I had packed.  We didn't bring it in initially because we were still in denial that we were there to stay (lol).  Turns out I didn't use anything in that bag until after the baby was born.  No music, no magazines, no games, no cell phone.  It was all going by so fast. 

8pm

Epidural please...thank you :)
By this point my contractions were SO intense and SO close together.  Of course the anesthesiologist chose to stick the massive needle into my spine while I was mid-contraction.  I secretly have been terrified of this needle during my entire pregnancy (and pre-pregnancy).  Not because of the pain, simply because I didn't want to be...paralyzed.  It's funny, thinking back on it now, I don't even remember the pain.

The epi makes me shaky, and the tingly legs feeling wasn't my favorite but let me tell you, after that, the rest was a piece of cake.  Now at 4cm.

After I'm settled, Justin goes downstairs to grab dinner.  I'm not allowed to eat and they tell me to rest (yea right), so he takes his sweet old time.  By the time he comes back...

9:45pm

8cm...Woooooo!!! Still feeling good. 

10:30pm

10cm and letting the baby labor down.  Translation: We just have to hang out a bit longer, and let the baby do the work so I don't end up going through hours of pushing.

This gave us a little bit of time to relax and talk.  It was a slow night at the hospital, the lights were low and everything was so quiet.  All I can remember thinking is just how surreal it all is.  I've been walking around with this human being inside me for 40 weeks (exactly), and we were finally going to meet her tonight.  This whole experience is nothing like what I thought it would be so far.  It wasn't hectic, there weren't a lot of people, it was just Justin, the nurse and me. It was so quiet.

11:30pm

Ready to push - the Dr only just now comes in (for longer than just to check me).  Seriously, all they do is baby catch at this point.  Most of the coaching was done by the nurse.
It's so weird.  Pushing just like you're going to the bathroom.while you're lying on a table.with Justin holding one leg and the nurse holding the other.  It's so barbaric and the weirdest feeling ever.  It took me a few tries to get the hang of it, but luckily I only had to do it for just over 30 min.  The whole time I was wondering if my babe would be born on her due date or the next day.
Here's where I started to get nervous because the special care team had to come in the room and the Dr told me that at a certain point she would tell me to stop pushing.  The reason for this is because as soon as she sees the baby's face, she needs to immediately suction her so she doesn't have the chance to breathe in the meconium.  I literally had about 6 Drs in the room at the point and it scared the crap out of me.  She told me that I wouldn't hear the baby cry, her cord had to be cut and immediately brought to the bassinet where she would be checked over by the special care Drs to make sure there were no signs of breathing distress.

Sunday 1/9 12:06am

It's a baby girl!  After they checked her over, they gave her a clean bill of health and finally placed her on my chest. my heart melted.  No words can ever describe the feeling of making a baby who starts out as a tiny cell and grows into an actual person that you feel moving around inside of you and then you actually get to bring her into the world and finally touch her and hold her and see and kiss her face.  Later that day she looked into my eyes and I felt in my heart what it feels like to love someone more than anything in the world.

I wanted a special way to remember Gwen's birth so I put together a short slideshow that I'd like to share, Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4UjZEAOGt8