One month!

It's unbelievable that its already been a month (I say this while getting ready to go to a 2 year old birthday party and can clearly remember when we visited her in the hospital). More depressingly is that it has been 6 weeks. That means only 6 more weeks left on maternity leave. Insert graph I found a while ago:

Does this make anyone else upset? Note that the graph states "paid" maternity leave...not "use all your vacation hours to pay for your leave" or "enjoy 12 unpaid weeks of shopping at walmart" like most of us have. Luckily, I have built up quite the vacation bank which I plan on draining and still not making it the full 12 weeks.
Why can't every company be like my husbands? 12 weeks paid paternity leave...so really I'm not complaining.

Anyways, off my soapbox, Norah is now 5 weeks old. Sleeping schedule: somewhat..she's sleeping now. However for those of you who ask if we're sleeping at all: we are. I won't say she sleeps through the night. But only having to feed her twice makes it feel like she pretty much is. Added together, by 9am, I have gotten about 7-8hours. Feeding schedule: she's hungry, I feed. Play schedule: multiple times a day. We have begun doing "naked playtime." I should clarify. Norah has begun doing "naked playtime." Roman was quite surprised the first day we started this as he walked in to her bum in the air, kicking her lion hanging above her.

 Right now she resembles a oily faced teenager. Baby acne is the worst! It flares up, then calms down, and moves around her whole face. We're waiting it out...just hurry up!!

you can definitely tell which side was laying on the burp cloth and irritated her cheek while nursing

Taken on her 1 month birthday, did I mention I love her cheeks?

not so happy girl.

food coma

I have been loving our time together when she is feeding. She is past the super newborn stage where I feel like I'm just being used for my body. She is now awake for most her feedings, looking around and occasionally making eye contact with me. She's a bit quirmier now too, especially her little hands moving all around. You know what I mean if you have ever had the pleasure of breastfeeding a baby; it's becoming more of a bonding time socially, instead of just physically, for both of us. It is something that I miss when we're away during her feedings (more than her 1 bottle/day), and I know it will be a tough transition when I return to work. She'll still be getting my milk, just not always directly from me. Working mom strategies are greatly appreciated, especially for the first few weeks back.

check it: i have some photography skills beyond instagram

Norah has been quite the socialite lately. Spending time with friends and family. I must state one thing I have learned. Happy hour does not necessarily involve infants. While meeting a friend for happy hour at Bugattis (one of the best happy hours around), we walk in and stroll into the lounge, infant in tow. Its not really separate from the restaurant...but oh was I mistaken. The waiter tells me that the lounge is for 21 and over. While the friend I was with could easily be mistaken for under 21 (going on 30... :] ), I simply state "oh, we're both over 21," then he looks at the carrier. Really. "Ma'am, you cannot bring a baby in here". You mean I can't bring a snoozing 1 month old into your "busy" lounge because why...I'm going to slip her some wine into her bottle?! We not-so-calmly sat in the dining area talking withing an earshot of the new waiter how ridiculous this is. THEN had to pay full price for our meals (in their defense, our bitching worked, and we got free drinks because Bugattis is a great place with great servers).

Per previous blog posts, you already know that she loves bathtime. We get particularly cute pictures during bathtime.

add your own caption...this is her "whoops" face

one of our new favs - we love nemo

This year is gearing up to be a big one already. In two weeks is the baby shower for my best friend since...well forever. We'll be packing up and visiting the harbor (Roman says this with an "uppity" voice for the yuppy effect, pronounce "the haaa-bah) for the weekend. Also making a pitstop in Puyallup so Norah can meet her Uncle Kelly, Aunt Bobbi, and [not so] little cousins. Besides enjoying OUR baby girl, we'll be welcoming at least 4 other friends' babies. When we're not wooing newborns, we'll be attending at least 4 weddings between friends and family, one of those being for my mom and her fiance in Sacramento. Side note: they chose to have their wedding in July...in Sacramento aka 100 degree weather. Given the choice of 12 months, they chose July. Aside from August, this is quite possibly the most miserable month of heat. But we'll be there, getting our burn on.

has it been a month??

Well, not yet. It has been over 4 weeks, but Norah will be one month on Sunday. While we're no experts, we are feeling pretty good about the groove we've got going. Our day looks something like this (it is very -ishy obviously):
6am ish  - dad takes Norah out (if she's fussy) so I can get a few hours of hard sleep
8:30 ish - mom wakes up, feeds norah, then eats breakfast
..... Norah eats, sleeps, poops, eat, sleeps, sometimes holds poops until after 2 feedings then blows out her diaper.
Side note: I do not recommend the costco brand diapers for the itsy bitsy babies. They don't carry huggies in her size at costco, so we took a chance getting the store brand. They fit her just right but she still manages to get at least one outfit a day poo-ed on. either out the legs or up the back. Maybe this is common for all diapers, if it is...at least I have mastered the soaking part of laundry.
9:30 pm ish - last feeding and we all go to bed. Norah is sleeping in a pack-n-play in our room, occasionally falling asleep with us in bed. She loves to just lay on her back, so if she can fall asleep laying on her back in our bed, I love it!
1 am - 5 am mom and norah get up to eat. I have been setting my alarm because 1) i don't want her going more than 4 hours right now without feeding and 2) my milk supply does not want her going 4 hours without eating.
Then it all starts again!
 We have managed to get out and about to take walks in the sunny, yet freezing, weather. She gets bundled up then stuffed in our ergo front pack and away we go! She falls right asleep and we enjoy a nice walk. Today we tried the Moby wrap (thanks to Lacey for lending hers to me) around the house. She clearly hated it...and apparently the camera didn't like my face. Like Lacey said, it was nice to have both hands free finally!

Once we get our stroller, we will start using that on some of these country back roads. Side note: we received our stroller, but it was DAMAGED. Ugh. So we are patiently (however, this is running low) waiting for the replacement. In the meantime, I found a knock-off version for Roman:

Disclaimer: we do not really have this stroller, however it may come in handy if Roman was to walk her down to the gun club.

I am happy to say that the milk blister that I had has resolved and its back to smooth sailing for feeding! Researching how to get rid of these, I was scared that I would have to get to step 4: "heat the tip of a needle to sterilize it and gently pop the blister" (!!!!) what!? no thanks, those kind of blisters do not pop gently. Now you understand why I'm so happy the warm washcloths help.



For those of you curious about my facebook status the other day regarding a trial, I'll quickly fill you in as it will be an important part of our lives the next several weeks. In November 2008, my grandma (mom's mom) was involved in a shooting. She worked as a contracted Human Resources person for a small tech company in San Jose. After firing an employee, he returned to the company, shot and killed 3 people, my grandma being one of them. It has taken over 4 years, but the trial is finally beginning to bring this man to justice. Of course, he has been pleading insanity...but I'm sorry if you have held a job for this long, have a family, and have led an otherwise prosperous life, you're doing just fine if you ask me. We have many soapboxes that we could go off on as a family, however I said I'd keep this short. The sentencing should come early March. We're praying that the system is just and this man gets what he deserves.


Roman and I are both eager to get out of the house and spend time with friends! Hint. Hint. Norah's one-month photos will be up soon :]

 

 

 

 

 

my oh my

What a busy last couple weeks.

Tracy and Bentley holding their first grand daughter

Nana is enamored with baby Norah

Uncle Nick and his "cool" california kid look

Norah's Nana (Jen's mom) was here with her fiance and my younger brother from Dec 31st till Jan 6th. We laughed when my mom asked if we should pick up some champagne to celebrate the new year. Really. Think we're going to stay up by choice until midnight.
Our guests slept in Norah's room (since she was and still is sleeping in ours). They cooked us dinner each night and breakfast every morning. We were even able to get a date night in! The trip ended with Norah's baptism at Visitation Catholic Church in Verboort.

Norah wore the same christening gown as Roman and Eric

Godfather AND Uncle Eric holding her as she gets blessed

During all this time, Norah had her 2 week check up. We were back to birth weight and got the go ahead to try a bottle if we wanted and start her Vit D drops. She had been exclusively breastfed, but there were some feedings (especially at night) that I had become too engorged for her to latch on. We decided that I would continue to pump, but instead of freezing it all, Roman will give her one bottle a day. This way she associates only him (for now) with a bottle, and me with breastfeeding (recommended per her doc). This also allows me to have a little break and pump instead of feed her, and we can just drop the vit D in the bottle. Yahoo! She took it well...I mean why wouldn't she - getting the same amount of food in a fraction of the time and pretty much no effort.

Also, time to start some tummy time. Thanks to aunty Elyce, we have an awesome activity mat to use!

Also during the visit, her umbilical cord fell off. Time for some first bath pictures!

Would like to note that immediately following this photo, she peed all over dad.

She actually rather enjoyed her first bath!

What the..

Parent's update:
Most of you know that Roman and I have 12 weeks off each! We decided to take it at the same time. Mostly because both of our employers require you take it consecutively and with it being the holidays and such, just made sense for us both to be home. But don't worry, we have some key entertainment to keep us sane.

1) Dexter - season 7,
2) Homeland - just started this, and if you like 24 you'll love this
3) Parenthood - watched as much as we could on Netflix, but the actual show airs at 10pm. Who stays up to watch 10pm shows...
4) Breaking Bad

We are just finishing up the Harry Potter series as I ...type. We also have a few Cinetopia passes for date nights, some Dutch Bros gift cards from Christmas, and 2 vehicles :]

Norah has become quite the daddy's girl. You can find her in this position most mornings when Roman takes her so I can get a few solid hours of sleep. Or in the middle of the day. She is fascinated with his beard, and loves his kisses. Not spoiled at all. Roman has gotten a few bouts of Xbox time and we have been good about giving eachother some time away from the house to ourselves.

I have recovered remarkably well. I say this because of hearing near-horror stories of other's labor and delivery and thinking, I got lucky. Within the first week, I was pretty mobile. Lifting was restricted of course to Norah's weight, but we just adapted certain "duties" for me around the house so I wasn't sitting all the time. So at my 3 week mark, I am down 25lbs. Ok ok, for some this is ALL you gain. Wel,l that must be nice. I gained about 45, so still at least 20 to go until I feel back to normal. Roman's folks got me a 6 month gym membership (per request...don't worry they weren't implying anything) for me to start once I'm cleared to exercise. Also, Roman got me Zumba for the kinect...so if anyone wants to join looking ridiculous, let me know!! Breastfeeding is going mostly well. Last week I discovered a "milk blister" or bleb or clogged duct, whatever you want to call it.  Made feeding extremely painful. After a few warm compresses and some ibuprofen, the blister went away, but the residual pain usually lasts a few more days. Ugh. But if this is the biggest hurdle, I'll take it!

I get my cuddle time in too :]

week one (and a half)

It's hard to imagine that 2 weeks ago, we were exhausting ourselves with our "natural" induction suggestions (see previous post) trying to get this girl going on her own. We start doing this "can you believe that this point last week..." conversations and it is surreal.

We made our way home Saturday morning from the hospital. Nerve-racking? Yes. The first night without that emergency nurse button was hard to get through. Waking up to every sound, checking, holding, changing, and consoling because according to us, she was in immediate distress. We continued to have visitors on Sunday, but were much more comfortable sitting on our own couches instead of hospital beds.

Monday and Tuesday were whirlwinds. Between Christmas gatherings, this girl got to meet 99% of Roman's family. And I completely understood any feelings of being overwhelmed as I was in the same position a few years before, however was not allowed to sleep through the events and everyone oogle at my dimples. She made plenty of facebook and instagram appearances from those nights. She also got to meet her pediatrician. Apparently, I had not been feeding her often enough. She lost about 2 more ounces (on top of her discharge weight loss of 8lb, down from 8lb 7oz).

 


From Wednesday on, we started to try and get in a routine. It is such a shock to have to sleep in a bassinet/crib after being warm and cuddled to sleep the days before. Both Roman and I feel like we've got a good working system down for now. And she doesn't mind. We went back to the office for a mid-week weight check and she was back to 8lb. Mama and baby got a good pat on the back.

Norah had her first photoshoot. Roman's aunt, Chrissy, is starting her photography business and has been discovered by a few children's boutiques for her classic photography style. She was asked to photograph some "hair candy", aka headbands, with a baby. Well with Norah being perfect, we thought she'd be the perfect model. For 2 1/2 hours (in between feedings) she was an angel asleep then calm and cooperative awake. Until she got hungry. But that was plenty of time for Chrissy to snap some adorable photos.

And at the end of the week, we found our toes.

 We have been curious how our cat, Darby, would adjust. Between a few pacifier snags and his "monitoring"of her crying, we've decided that the transition hasn't been too hard for him.

visitors

Great Grampa Albert...and his blueberry fritter.

Mrs. Goldmann holding a future scholar.

Jess flew all the way from Switzerland just for Norah...and to visit her family for Christmas, but mainly Norah. We asked Kate to bring a pound of Starbucks Christmas Blend for every pound of Norah :]

Daddy to be practicing his skills! Also, quite amazed by her baby toenails

Mama to be was apparently in the waiting room while I was in labor. Our girls will be BFFs just like some other 2 girls I know.

Proud Grama.

Uncle Eric, also starting our bedtime story collection with Pooh and Disney Princess books!

Grand-Dad, the first of many rocking chair sessions.

Lacey, who baked some addicting cookies for mom.

We had many many visitors during our hospital stay to come meet Norah. We weren't able to capture EVERY person who came in, but we did our best! We thank all those who stopped by and a special thank you for anyone who brought gifts for baby girl (and parents!)

...and on the 5th day, she rested

Approximately two hours following our very first blog post - the one where we had given in to being induced the following morning - contractions began.  Thought I would share some advice we had received to induce labor "naturally" (because some don't seem so natural...):

1) Walk... maybe even jog
2) Squats...every time you need to pick up something, even if your husband purposely throws it on the floor
3) Sex...lot's of sex, because that is exactly what is on your mind
4) Spicy food...mexican, thai, normal foods + tobasco
5) Trampoline... that made me laugh
6) Exercise ball... who needs chairs?
7) Wine... Ardiri 2009 pinot noir anyone?
8) Castor Oil... never.
9) Baths

Coincidentally, we did NONE of these Wednesday as we had given into the fact that induction was the next and only step. So on the 5th day from her due date, we did rested. So Jen's advice: 10) Try whatever you want, but spend plenty of time relaxing with your hubby, and your body will do as it is designed to. She must have sensed the anxiety I had over the whole ordeal. At 1:30am, we checked into Tuality Hospital. Because I was scheduled to be induced the following morning, they weren't going to turn me away.

For the next 6 hours, we walked the "loop," watched those numbers rise and fall with contractions, I jacuzzied (twice...note to self to make sure our next house has a jacuzzi tub) and was not dilating. At 8am, I was still at a disappointing TWO centimeters. Mind you, we had been awake since 8am the previous morning. They gave me some sleepy-time medicine so Roman and I could both rest before the finale. They also started the pitocin...

I awoke, rather rudely, about an hour later to some awesomely huge contractions and vomiting. Yes, awesome. See, the thing about pitocin is that it can only try and mimic the body's natural birthing process. It doesn't do a great job, but it does it's job. Had my water broke by doc and from there on out, we progressed steadily for the next 3 hours. I will say I was that pregnant lady complaining when the pain meds wore down. Turns out, analgesics don't even touch transition and beyond (aka the last hour or so).

If you haven't noticed yet, we did this sans epidural. That was the plan, and I was determined to stick to it.

Those last contractions were...tough. Telling me to "blow" through the contraction. Blow through the contraction? After telling the nurse "I think she is coming out!" after every contraction - and her telling me, not yet Jen - we realized that I was a full 10cm (thank God!) and +2 station (meaning she WAS coming down...I knew it). Doc got herself situated. Placed a chair behind Roman, as he had expressed early on that he wasn't sure if he could make it through the birth, and asked if I was ready to push.

 Pushing consisted of an exhausting string of contractions and doc's form of motivation "I can see the top of her head!" (to which I responded, "then just grab it and pull her out!"). Half an hour later, we experienced the most emotional and exhilarating experience of meeting Norah Marie Walsh.

before we begin...

Welcome. Our little one is almost here. We decided to make a blog as to not take up all other "feeds" with photos of our adorable daughter and her adventures. This is a big step for us as we hardly consider ourselves writers, bloggers, photographers, crafty, or creators of delectable foods in any sense of the way.

:: on a side note, we have been told we are decent writers, photographers, and cooks... this is probably the only reason we chose to pursue this ::

We would be lying if we said this will only have photos of her. We have tons of family, many close friends, an affinity for wine, a 1950's house in the somewhat country, and a cat. You will find chatter about all of the above. 

This blog begins on the night before our labor induction. Our little girl :: no we did not give her a pet name in womb :: was "due" December 14th. Deciding to give her the benefit of the doubt, we will meet about halfway between when we were hoping she'd come and the very latest our doctor will let her come. This narrows it down to December 20th.
 
Our increased anticipation started a few weeks ago at our 38 week ultrasound when the tech flipped the switch from 2D to 3D. How dare she. AND she printed photos for us to hang on our fridge and look at everyday for the following 3 weeks. From that point on, we decided she could come anytime. She is having a different idea right now. Bags are packed, house is clean, and we are...about to enjoy our last dinner with just the 2 of us.

40 weeks

maternity photo courtesy of Vintage Tea Photography

Looking forward to filling your free time with photos! - the Walsh Family