Two Months

Well, this is a catchup post! She is really getting ready to be 3 months! I know that I will probably say this every time Milena reaches another month in life, but I really can't believe how quickly she is growing. We just adore our sweet girl. Life is for sure different and in some was a lot more complicated, but with the smiles this girl can give all of that fades away. She is such a sweet baby. She absolutely loves to cuddle. I know I said I wouldn't let her sleep in our bed, but oh how I love waking up with her all cuddled next to me. It is the prettiest site, even though my elbow is killing me because I have had it bent all night so her little head can lay right next to me, well on me! =) At about two and a half weeks she decided she LOVES her swing. She still enjoys her bouncer. Her nana and papa have been spoiling her by bringing home two bounces from garage sales. They are both different, but I think she loves them both.

When she smiles, her whole body smiles. I LOVE IT! It will melt your heart. One of our friends getting ready to have their first baby (after trying for almost 3 years) asked what one of the best things about being parents was and Stephen and I both answered, that her smiles were our favorites. It brings tears to our eyes!

I put her in her bumbo seat for the first time about 2 wks ago and got her stuck! Her thighs are a little chunky! She has been wearing size 2 diapers for about two weeks. She is still wearing 3-6 month clothing. Some things are getting a little snug. Stephen weighed her yesterday and said she weighs 14lbs. She has started grabbing a hold of hair, her burp cloths or her blankies. She is a drooling queen. Poor baby drools so much she chokes on her slobber. She is great at blowing bubbles and making sound effects. She still has blue eyes. We are still wondering if they will change. She loves to stand when you hold her. She doesn't have a very good base because she stands on her own feet. She would make a very good cheerleader when she grows up!

This past week she has gotten startled very easily and it breaks her little heart. She pouts her bottom lip up really well. It is so pitiful! We took her on her first road trip (5 hours) so Stephen's mamaw could meet her. She did really well. I would pump and Stephen would then give her the bottle so we only had to stop once! It might be that the 5 hour there and back is what made her hate the car seat now! Last night I put her in her pack-n-play to sleep and she made it 3 hours and then woke up and I put her in bed with us. It is a good start. Although, I will miss having her sleep with me.

Back to Work

Oh how I dreaded the weekend before I went back to work! I was so emotional that weekend. I just tried so hard to take in every moment and store her tiny features and actions in my brain forever! I just don't want to forget these short moments. I started on June 6th and only worked half a day, so it made it a little easier. I picked up Milena before I left and just started to cry. Oh why must we need money and health insurance! Luckily I was able to leave her with Stephen so it made it a little easier. My next day of work was Wednesday, and it was a full day! Stephen took her to my mom and he had some separation anxiety. He sent me a text right after he left her and said, "I just left her sleeping. =(" It was sweet. I love it because it gave him a good feel of what I felt on Monday. It was kind of nice to get out with adults again and feel like myself. But I did miss her terribly! My parent's had such a good time playing dress up with her when she was awake. They put her in my old dresses and even in her great great grandmother's dress. I love that we have family close by so they can help us watch her. Work has been great so far to allow me to work part time. So I am only there Monday afternoons and Wednesday all day and some days Friday. So that is a huge blessing.

Finally some Photos

One Month

I can't believe Milena is already a month old. Well, actually a little over a month old since I am just now getting a chance to write this. We have had such a busy month! We have been busy getting to know each other, busy with laundry, busy celebrating Easter, laundry, Mother's Day, Daddy's birthday, laundry, Gram's birthday, meeting great Aunts and Uncles, laundry, and Memorial Day (5th week).

I love Milena so much! She loves to cuddle, which has made it difficult for our sleeping arrangements. We were those parents, who said, our baby would not sleep with us. She proved us wrong the first night at home when she would not sleep in her pack and play. Mommy and daddy were exhausted, so daddy said just put her in bed with us. Oops!

Milena absolutely adores taking showers! She is not such a fan of taking baths in her tub by herself. So the shower it is! She would prefer to sleep on her tummy, but I'm so paranoid of SIDS that I will not allow her on her tummy at night.

She wakes up every 2-3 hours on the dot. Hopefully this will change soon as this momma will be going back to work next week (I think) so I need some better sleep. She loves her bouncer and was not a big fan of her swing. But I have gotten her to swing in it for about 30 minutes, so hopefully she will begin to love it.

We have been to see her pediatrician twice. The first visit was when she was 5 days old, she weighed 7lbs 3oz. and the 2 week visit she weighed 8lbs 12oz on May 13.

She is very active and likes to lift her head up when she is up on your shoulder. Her favorite position to be held. She likes her feet tucked up and a good pat on the back. She immediately took to nursing when she was first born and we haven't really had any problems other than soaking the bed at night during our sleepy feedings!

She is a pampers baby. For some reason, maybe because of her tiny hiny she inherited from her daddy, she leaks in huggies. We moved up to size 1 diapers on her 4th week. She isn't a huge fan of riding in the car. When she gets really mad she takes both hands and scratches her pretty face.

I let Stephen give her a bottle for the first time on Sunday the 21st. She took it really well-she likes to eat! Mommy didn't take it well-she cried! She went to church for the first time on Saturday the 20th. She woke up right after daddy finished leading worship. So daddy took her out and walked her for a while until it was his time to go back up to close the service. I took her to the nursery to eat.

I guess that's a good enough update for now. Little stink bug is trying to wake up so I better go get some laundry done before it's too late! Blogger still won't let me upload any pictures.

Bathroom Sniper

Okay, so when Stephen and I first discussed who would be in the delivery room, we decided it would be just the two of us. But then I started thinking of how I wanted pictures and video and couldn't figure out how to get all of that and allowing Stephen to be in the pictures and focused on me and Milena not on taking photos. So I told him, that I would like to have both our mothers and that they could video and take pics. Well, that was sort of up in the air, but was an option. Ideally, I wanted to let our sisters come in as well, but I really kind of thought that may be too many people considering he has 3 and I have 2. During the labor process, I really didn't have a preference. I just knew that I wanted pics/video. Well, my nurse told them that she didn't think my doctor would be okay with that many people, so maybe 4 total. Well, we felt bad for kicking some out and letting some stay in. So my bold sister, Suzette said oh let them stand in the bathroom with me while I record from this angle. So she went and got them and they (Stephen's sisters) all piled into the shower area with Suzette at the door way of the bathroom with the video camera on the tripod.

When the doctor came in, he put his mask on and then turned toward the bathroom to look in the mirror (since the door was opened) and he immediately ducked! And then started laughing. He said he had been down in the doctor's lounge watching a movie the snipers in it, and my sis and camera/tripod scared him. It was a very comical moment...I even laughed!

I don't have a picture of Suzette, it must be on my parent's camera.

Our First Outing

This stuff isn't too exciting, but I want to be sure to write it down so I don't forget!

Oh my goodness, we had our first doctor's appointment for Milena on Thursday, April 28th. Our appointment was at 10:10. So I got up and started getting ready at 8. I knew it was going to be a little tricky trying to get myself ready and Milena fed and ready. So I tried really hard to do things quickly. Stephen helped me as soon as he got up and showered. I fed her and then got myself ready. We were ready to leave when all of a sudden Milena filled her diaper. So I had Stephen change her diaper, and get her outfit on. Well, I pulled the first outfit from her drawer. It was in my neatly organized 0-3 month section. Well, little did I know that someone tried to help me put up clothes didn't realize they were in sections. Anyway, I was brushing my teeth when Stephen told me the outfit was too big. I said just roll up her pants and make it work. Well, I only said this because a lot of our outfits are a little too big right now. So he did what I told him. We were 10 minutes late for our appointment. The sweet nurse just told us everything was fine and she always knows to allow for her new parents to be a little late. I jokingly said well when you see her outfit you will clearly see that we are new parents. She said okay well strip her down to her diaper and we will get her weight. So I went to take her outfit off and realized that she was wearing a 6 month outfit! I died laughing! I can't believe daddy didn't tell me it was really tooooooo big! =) Oh well, luckily I had thrown in another outfit that was the right size so she wore it. Her appointment went really well, she weighed 7lbs 14.5 oz when she was born, in the hospital before we left on Monday, she weighed 7 lbs 6 oz. and then at our appointment she weighed 7lbs 3 oz. Her doctor wanted us to give her some vitamins and he warned us that they taste awful. He wasn't lying. She spits it out every time we try to give it to her!

We headed to Target after that and she fussed the entire time she was in her car seat. Then we headed to Hobby Lobby and had to leave shortly after being in there, but I just sat in the car and fed her. Then we went back in and got the items we needed. And finally came home! That was a big day!

April 23, 2011

Milena Rose Fulton made her grand appearance into this world at 3:25pm. I was in complete shock and knew that there was no way I was really in labor. Here are the details beginning Friday, April 22, 2011. I had my weekly appointment on Friday the 22nd. My appointment was with the nurse practitioner in this clinic. I absolutely love her. Anyway, after checking my weight, blood pressure and giving my urine specimen, the nurse took me to my room, listened to Milena's heartbeat and then said, Laurie-the NP would be in. I looked at Stephen and said, I'm I not supposed to be checked on this appointment. Well, when Laurie came in and we talked a little bit we asked her and she said, yes of course she needed to check me since I was 38 weeks. So she asked me if I had any contractions up to this point, and I told her no, none. Stephen then jumped in and said, I don't know if she knows what they actually feel like. So when she checked me, she "gave" me a contraction...Okay, no, I hadn't had any contractions! That was my first. We left the clinic learning that I was dilated 1 and effaced 30-40%. Laurie said she expected to see me at my next weekly appointment. Well, as soon as I got to the parking lot I had another contraction. They were very quick, but they were contractions! We then went to Walgreens and I had another one.

Friday night, our church was having a very neat Good Friday event that Stephen had worked really hard on all week. So I went with him and waited on his turn to tour the events with me. Well, before we were even able to go in, they had to shut it down due to the tornadoes in the area. Our last night out to eat with out a baby and we spent it at Chili's with our good friends Jenni and Jeremy and Stephen sister Abby and her husband and his brother Caleb!

Stephen had stressed the importance of us getting a good nights sleep Friday night because he wanted to be well prepared for his Easter service on Saturday night. So when I started having more contractions at 2:30am I just dealt with them by myself. They were coming every 10-20 minutes. Well, at 5:30 am I went to the bathroom and found that I had lost my mucus plug and then yelled for Stephen. He came immediately and then we started timing them together. They were now 5-6 minutes apart. I told him I wanted to wait it out as long as I could so we were for sure in labor and wouldn't get sent home. I waited till 6:30am and told Stephen maybe I should call. I talked to the Dr. on call and he told me it was reasonable to come in and get checked. So Stephen showered and I laid in bed and contracted more.

Let me just add that during this entire time, all I could think of was how we were not ready! We still had shower gifts in our living room, the nursery was about 70 % done. I really needed one more week. =) But I was very ready to meet my baby girl.

We got some stuff together, just in case we stayed. We just didn't have anything for the baby or for me to wear home. Okay, so back to the delivery.

We arrived at the hospital around 7:45 am. It was pouring down rain at the time and made it tricky to get into the hospital. They had me give them a urinalysis and then change into a gown. As soon as I went to take my pants off and lifted one leg, my water broke. Praise the Lord! I didn't want them to break my water. So at this point I knew we were staying! At this point, I was dilated 2 and effaced 90%. They expected me to deliver around 6:30pm. This totally messed up things for Stephen and his Easter service. He called and let our parents know what was going on, his parents had just gone out of town and were 4.5 hours away. So they started heading back at this point, and my parent's were going to wait till a little closer to time. Then my mom called me not long after and said she just couldn't wait. Which was fine with me because they had the video camera and Stephen was on the phone trying to work out the details for his replacement. I progressed quicker than we thought I would. I labored on the big exercise ball several times for about 15-20mins at a time-I loved that thing. I couldn't believe that I was still pain med free! Around 3:00pm I was ready to push! Oh my goodness, that hurt so so bad! At that point, I kept saying I made a mistake and should have gotten an epidural. I finally pushed her head out and then remember two nurses hopping on my belly and pushing on it because they had problems getting her shoulder out. She had her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck once. She came out with some trouble breathing and they passed her by me real quickly and then took her to the nursery. At that point it was okay with me that they took her to the nursery because it was now time to deliver the placenta and stitch me up! That was also very painful and I cried during the suturing part! Then they brought my baby back and had me do kangaroo care and had me wait to pass her around or feed her. In the delivery room were, Stephen, both our mother's, and my 2 sister's and Stephen's 3 sisters. There is a funny story that goes with the sister's being in the room, I'll share it in another post. So at 3:25pm, Milena Rose Fulton was born weighing 7 lbs 14.5 oz and 21 in. long. After a little breathing scare, she is healthy and beautiful with long fingers and toes and a head full of dark golden hair! Blogger isn't allowing me to add photos right now, so I may just add a post with pictures!