Author: Jessica Dickerson

I made stuff!

November 29, 2011 2:25 pm

I cross stitched a birth sampler for Heather, but of course couldn’t finish it until after she was born. It is now hanging in the nursery, though:

IMGP6293as

This is something else I did. My mom made it and it hung in my room as a child, but the fabric had become really discolored over the years. So I re-stitched it and gave the wood a fresh coat of paint:
IMGP6286asLastly, here’s a picture I took of Heather this morning:

IMGP6268atiny

One Month of Heather

2:26 pm

Heather is one month old today. We “celebrated” by reading to her for the first time—Sometimes It’s Turkey, Sometimes It’s Feathers; Babes of the Wild; and Stanley & Rhoda. She actually did seem to enjoy it; at least, she sat quietly on my lap while I read to her.

Heather is doing well. I feel like things are starting to settle down a bit; we don’t have anything like a reliable routine or schedule yet, but things are gradually becoming more predictable. Like, if she’s awake, she’s going to want to eat every 2 hours. And at night, she’ll usually go down for a long stretch (4-6 hours) between 6 and 8pm, then sleep in 2- to 3-hour increments until morning. Her feedings are going much more smoothly these days (day and night), and she’s getting easier, overall, to get back down at night. She still doesn’t love sleeping during the day, but she’ll at least sleep for short naps (30 minutes to an hour) a couple times a day (only in her bouncer, or the car, or on a walk or something, though; she hates her crib during the day). 
She really isn’t too fussy overall. She is impatient, though—most of her actual screaming is done between the time she wakes up and the time I actually start feeding her. (Less when her dad gets her up; she likes him better than me.) Other than that, she fusses when she’s gassy (which happens frequently, unfortunately, but I think it’s improving). We’re accumulating a small list of things that work (most of the time) to calm her down. In no particular order:
  1. Vigorous bouncing (the easiest way to do this is to sit on the exercise ball and bounce as hard as you can). If her arms aren’t flapping in the air, you’re not doing it hard enough.
  2. Singing (the current favorites are “Angel Lullaby,” “I Am a Child of God,” “Families Can Be Together Forever,” “I Love to See the Temple,” and whatever Kyle makes up; I particularly like his adaptation of “Little Bunny Foo Foo”).
  3. The sound of the hair dryer (Kyle actually recorded this and burned it to a CD so we can play it and adjust the volume easily). Sometimes this works like a magic switch—she can go from fussing to sleep in less than a minute.
  4. Stepping outside the front door (the current theory is that the cold air just snaps her out of her fussing cycle; alternatively, she could just be really sensitive to overheating).
  5. Pushing her legs up to her stomach (not so much bicycling them, but pressing them both up at the same time for a few seconds at a time).
  6. Putting her down (sometimes, apparently, she just wants to be left alone). We stumbled upon this one because she loves lying on her changing table. I think it’s her favorite place.
  7. Sucking on her pacifier. We went through 3 different kinds to find one she would like, but the winner is the Nuk. Even that one she won’t take all the time, but when she wants to suck, it’s a gem. I was going to wait several weeks to give her a binky, but when Mom came out, she told me there was no way Heather really wanted to eat every ten minutes, for 2 minutes, for hours at a time—she just wanted to suck on something. So we started trying when she was a little over a week old, and finding one she liked totally saved me. 
  8. Sitting in her bouncy seat with the vibration on. This is actually where she is napping right now.
I keep meaning to try a bath, but I’m scared because she did scream through that once (it was time to eat, and like I said, she can be impatient). She really enjoys her baths in general, though, so I’ll have to give it a whirl sometime.
Kyle is back at work now (he started back last week, but only Monday and Tuesday, and he spent the afternoons working from home). It’s been a pretty smooth day, though. When she wakes up, I’m going to feed her and then go for a walk that may take me by Dairy Queen to celebrate a successful first day alone with the drgn. Who knows.

So much for the super-cute Halloween sleeper we bought her.

October 26, 2011 5:06 pm

I had another doctor’s appointment this morning. We started with a non-stress test, which involved an ultrasound to check fluid levels and then monitoring to see how the baby’s heart rate changed with her movements. Everything looks good, which is great. (Though I will admit to trying to come up with something they could find that would require a quick induction but not actually be problematic. I couldn’t think of anything.) Then I met with the midwife, and while she was glad to hear that I’ve been having (extremely sporadic) contractions since Saturday and agrees that the baby has definitely dropped, she says I have still not progressed, cervix-wise. I was really hoping those contractions would have accomplished something, but apparently I fail at this.

We scheduled an induction for Monday night (yep, we’ll be spending Halloween in the hospital, unless this baby gets a move on). We’re to call at 6pm to make sure they’re not swamped and then be there at 7 (please note that this is precisely the time of day we had hoped to avoid driving to the hospital because traffic is going to suuuuuuuck). Assuming I’m still not progressed at all, they’ll start me with Cytotec and then give me Pitocin in the morning. (Though it sounds like they’ll just keep giving me Cytotec until they see good progress, so it may take longer.) She warned me that inductions can take a couple of days, start to finish. So it looks like we’ll be having a November baby, which is something I really never even considered. (Technically, I could still go into labor on my own before then, but it’s not very likely.)

To make my day even more fun, I discovered that my car, which has been parked under a tree for the last week, is covered in bird poop. It’s truly disgusting. Like I’m in any condition to wash my car at this point! Also, when I left the doctor’s office, I couldn’t get into my nasty car because the car next to me was parked too close (jerk!). I had to get in the passenger’s side and clamber over to my seat, which was super fun and easy to do. But it’s all okay because in the opinion of Random Guy in the Parking Lot, it’s awesome that I’m pregnant because his daughter is flying from an island off Alaska to the mainland to have her baby today. Yes, that makes up for everything. (Actually, he was very nice and even offered to back my car out for me if I couldn’t get in. It’s just that there’s very little in the world I don’t resent at this point.)

Lastly, I discovered that the mascara I just bought (a curse on makeup companies who keep changing their product lines so you are continually forced to try new things instead of just sticking with the great one you finally found) needs replacing. Apparently, “water-resistant” is not even close to “waterproof” and will not hold up against tears. Stupid me for thinking it might be good enough.

Blah. If it sounds like I’m in a lousy mood, it’s because I am. Hopefully I’ll get through the next 5 days and have a blissfully easy labor that does not end in a c-section (I really think I’ve had enough surgeries) and I can write a happy blog next week. Cross your fingers.

Today is…just another day, apparently.

October 21, 2011 3:56 pm

Well, today’s the due date. Big whoop. I saw the midwife again on Wednesday, and we’ve still got no progress. Everything looks healthy, though, which is fantastic. I have another appointment this Wednesday, along with a non-stress test (to monitor the baby’s heart rate, movements, etc.) and we can schedule an induction then. I’m still really hoping she comes earlier, though! I don’t want to do this for another week…

The day won’t be a total loss, though: Kyle and I decided we’d go out for dinner tonight if we didn’t have a baby yet. I’m betting we’ll try out our new local California Pizza Kitchen, which never disappoints. And hey, mebbe we’ll require dessert from the Cheesecake Factory next door. Who knows?