Andi's 1st X-Mas and the Meaning of Patience

First of all, we will start with Christmas! We all got the best X-mas present this year, Andi!!! Even though she really didn't take much part in it, we are looking forward to the years to come:-) 

Aunt Christie and Cassie got her a X-mas onezie

We celebrated 3 christmas and Charlie finally got enough courage to hold her!

She spends a lot of time being held which of course is spoiling her!

I knew when we had her, that it would slow me down. However, I had no idea it would take SO much extra time to get things done. Trying to get around to go somewhere takes FOREVER!!! Pumping slows things down too. At first it was really overwhelming, but now I am slowly getting better. I understand now why when you see a lot of mothers with newborns that look all frazzled...that would be me. Most of the time I smell like soured milk and my hair has knots in it. I seem to walk in a daze...my memory is not what it used to be. Now I am on a 2-3 hour schedule and my mind only thinks of when she last ate, how much she ate, and when her last diaper change was and what it was. Welcome to motherhood!!!

 As for developmental milestones, she holds her head up really well. She is a month ahead in her movements.

2 weeks ago she weighed 6.9

As of Thursday she was 8.1

She has grown half inch..now 20 inches

Her head grew an inch too!

She is gaining 1.5 oz/day!!

Overall, she is a good baby. She is awesome during the day!!! She lets us know immediately when she has a wet/dirty diaper and when she is getting hungry but sleeps great! However, when it gets close to 9p she starts to get really fussy and doesn't want to sleep. There is nothing wrong with her, she just wants to cry. I use to look forward to night time because I knew I was going to get to sleep and now I dread it because I know I am not going to get much rest. My new bed is on the couch. Mainly because she keeps Matt awake, which he has to get up really early for work. She is afraid of the dark. Every time we turn the lights out she screams. She has to have some kind of light on so she can see. We started keeping her awake after 7 hoping she would fall asleep around 10 which backfired. The other night she stayed awake from 7 until 12:30a. The night that really tested our patience was when she was awake from 9p to 3:30a. Poor Matt only got 2 hrs sleep before having to go to work, and he was not a happy camper! That was the night I officially moved to the couch. She gets in a mood where she doesn't want to lay down, be against you, or be in her swing. She has to sit up, be bounced, and look around. This is hard to do when you are falling asleep. For some reason she won't sleep in her bassinet at night either. This is what night time looks like before bed:

 This is how we sleep:

Kudos to the single moms out there because I can't see how they survive without help. How they can even function. Matt has helped a lot!! Mainly with the house cleaning but still that is help and we have gotten A LOT of help from our family. Even all the help, and I still get exhausted!!

Last night Matt and I were able to have a date night. She spent the night with my parents and of course she acted well for them during the night. I was looking forward to non interrupted sleep but that didn't happen because I kept waking up. My parents really enjoyed keeping her and learning what all her sounds and movements mean. I was hoping she would stay awake for 6hrs in the middle of the night like she does with us, but no that didn't happen. She actually slept in her bassinet at night. 

 We never really knew the meaning of patience until now. But the little moments, like her gassy smiles, that makes it all worth while!!

1 Week Andi Faye Faye

It's hard to believe it has been a little over a week since she entered our world. We are establishing a better routine throughout the day which is allowing me more free/sleep time. Matt likes to call her Faye, Faye. We usually say Andi Faye instead of Andi. 

So far she eats 3-4 oz, sometimes up to 6 every 2-3 hrs. She has quite an appetite which keeps me pumping constantly luckily from what my lactation consultant says, I have enough milk for twins! The great thing about breastfeeding other than the nutritional value, the calories it burns. I only need to lose 10 more lbs and I'll be at my pre-pregnancy weight! Wonder how much more I can lose!! My goal was to nurse and we did in the hospital. Matt has been awesome in helping me nurse her and going to consultations with me but it takes about 45-50 minutes per feeding and I won't be able to do this once I go back to work. So breastmilk in a bottle works best and everyone can feed her. Hopefully I can continue to do this for at least 6 months to a year.

She gets the hiccups a lot...which I am not surprised because she always had them in my tummy. That is one thing I miss about her being inside me. We have a lot of dirty diapers, and I never knew something so precious and small could make such loud toots and bowel movements. We tend to have blowouts. We went through 5 onezies the other day. We can thank breast milk for that. I'm not a fan of Huggies. Pampers seems to keep everything in and not so irritating to her skin. 

She has big blue eyes like her daddy and her eyelashes get longer everyday.

Andi lost her umbilical cord on day 4 which is really early. She is ahead of schedule in her movements and eating. She is back up to her birth weight and is able to hold her head up pretty good and look around. She likes to be bounced so she can look around the room. The dogs love her. They are constantly wanting to lick her and Sammy has became protective of her. When she cries, they get very concerned and have to check on her. I will put her in her swing and Sammy lies in front and watches her. 

This is when we brought her home

She sleeps a lot during the day. I have kind of spoiled her at night though. For some reason she will sleep in the living room in her bassinet but when we move it into the bedroom at night she refuses to sleep in it. She likes to sleep on my chest curled up under my neck. She will push her way up from my chest to my neck. She is a really good snuggler but radiates a lot of heat to where I wake up drenched in sweat. At night she usually goes to bed around 9 or 10 and wakes around 12, 3, and 5. 

Her newborn clothes tend to swallow her hands. We have very few newborn clothes. Most everything I bought and we got is 0-3 months. We were expecting a bigger baby...lol

 She can really get to sucking her fingers. Getting them out of her mouth for the bottle can be challenging sometimes.

She gets A LOT of attention especially since she is the 1st grandchild on both sides of mine and Matt's family. She is constantly held. It is going to be hard going back to work, thankfully I am off for 8 weeks and can absorb every moment:-)

Welcoming Andi Faye

Andi Faye Maness entered the world December 7, 2012 at 8:52 am. She weighed 6.14 and 19.5 inches long. We were instantly in love and shocked by how petite, small, and how much hair she has!! I guess all my heartburn and calcium intake helped. Labor went really well, more so than we expected. However, how it started was interesting. 

Before I start, I will share something I call a divine intervention. I never use the calendar on my phone and I was going through it at work and saw the 6th highlighted. I opened it and it said I had an event starting on the 6th at 5:30. I don't know how it got there. I noticed this on the 2nd.

I was originally due on the 11th and the dr. moved it up to the 4th. Well on the 5th I started having really close contractions to the point my parents took me to the hospital. We were sent home though. The nurse said I was dilated 1cm and effaced but my contractions weren't intense enough. She said I would probably have her in 2 days. The next morning, the 6th, I woke to a bloody show and had my weekly appointment. I told the dr. what the nurse said and he said she was wrong. I wasn't dilated or effaced and the baby wasn't coming anytime soon. They scheduled me to be induced for the 18th. I literally wanted to cry because I knew I couldn't make it that long. Later that afternoon I started leaking blood and called labor and delivery asking if it was normal to be lasting all day. They said yes and to not come in. When 5:30 rolled around I started having very painful contractions about 2 minutes apart. I told Matt to go to bed, I was going to stay up awhile. I used a heating pad and it wasn't helping. Around 11, I took a bath and blood clots were coming out. I was in tears because of the pain. I knew something wasn't right. I stayed on the couch for another hour and my contractions were a minute apart. The worse back labor EVER!!! I finally got up and barely said Matt's name and he was up. The poor dogs stayed by my side. They had this concerned look on their faces. 

We got to the hospital at 12am and the nurse checked me and said she thought she felt hair. I went from 1cm-3cm in 30 minutes. The back labor was horrible. I was falling asleep between contractions because they were draining me sooo bad. The dr. on call said he thought I was dehydrated and was more than likely going to send me home. He had me drink 8 glasses of water. I WAS NOT going home. They had a 2nd nurse check me and she said she could feel hair and that my bag of waters was not there. My contractions were a minute apart lasting 30 seconds. She made the decision to admit me at 1am....hallejuah! I know I wanted to go all natural but I couldn't handle the back labor so I got the epidural and it was the BEST DECISION EVER!!! The dr. got it in the right spot. I was still able to move my legs and I had some feeling. I was scared I was going to be paralyzed from the waist down.

Matt is excited and happy labor is going really well

I started dilating a cm an hr and at 7:30 we were ready to start pushing. We both had to ask the nurse again what she said because we couldn't believe it was time!! This is the part that I got worried about Matt and he AMAZED me!!! He was actually watching everything going on and the nurse told me I had to stop because I would have the baby before the dr. got there. Well guess what....my dr. was not there. The nurse said he usually clocks in at 7am and they called him and said he wouldn't be in until 9. Wendy Johnson delivered Andi at 8:52 and she was great!!! 30 minutes of pushing and Andi was there. They asked Matt if he wanted to cut the ambilical cord and he said" oh yeah." He really did well and apparently he was amazed with me too!!! Overall, I spent 7 hrs in labor at home and 7 hrs at the hospital. 

We have had a lot of help from our family which has been great. Our house is always full of guests now helping us which we are truly grateful!!!! Things are started to fall into routine which is nice. It was a little overwhelming at first, but over all she is a really good baby. I can't help but tear up when I look at her because she is so small, precious and angelic. She was a gift from GOD and we truly feel blessed to have her in our lives!!!

It's Beginning

First of all, I will start by thanking everyone for coming to the family baby shower last Sunday. It was soooo much fun. We played the dirty diaper game and baby food game. The video we got of it is hilarious and once I get it downloaded, I will post it. I have some pics though! Barb really got to laughing at the look of the dirty diaper. Some candy bars are pretty true to the real thing except the smell.

 What made the games the funnest was having the men there and seeing there facial expressions!!!

Out of the baby food we sampled....never feed your child "chicken in chicken gravy"!!! It is NASTY and smells horrible. Sweet potatoes/corn and applesauce are alright. 

I was sooo happy that my best friend, Jenna was able to make it!!! She made it a lot of fun!!! The family absolutely loves her!!! She fits in sooo well. The men couldn't believe she knew deer lingo. She can have a conversation with anyone!!! She got me 3 jars of Reese's peanut butter...lol...I had completely forgot about being drawn to it at her shop lol.

The cake my mom had made was awesome!!! It was a cookie cake and absolutely adorable. The booties are keepsakes!!

We loved everything we got. We received a lot of blankets/quilts. Matt's aunt made the one below. It is cross-stitched!!! It is beautiful!

My grandma and aunt also had some blankets made for us!

 We also got our stroller/travel system which was a pain installing in the car but we love it! We also got a musical jumper that speaks english and spanish. It was a pain putting together too. As Matt says, he can't wait to here the same songs and words played over and over...lol....

A lady I work with made Andi a little hat and mittens! JuJu is checking them out!

Jenna made a really cute tutu so I dressed the womb bear to show off the look! Christie and Cassie got us the blanket in the background as well as the cross on the wall and a Boppy!

Now onto what is happening in the womb.

Prelabor pains have begun! I am having cramps and lower back pain which are two of the symptoms. By the end of this week I will be 37 weeks and the baby will be considered full-term which I could have her anytime. My belly has really grown over the past couple of days, I think it is because I have dropped some. 

The other night a deer ran out in front of me on 44 and I barely missed it. That is when the pains started. I thought it was from tensing up but apparently not. My cervix has started thinning. This weekend I will begin packing our bags since I will have time. I am working a 7 day stretch right now, and it is exhausting! I am closing 6 of those days. All-in-all, I will have worked 56 hours this week. I am really starting to worry about going into labor at work since I am there all the time. I am also starting to think I am an idiot deciding to work right up to the last minute. Hopefully all the standing and walking I do will make labor and delivery easier! My hands have started swelling pretty bad, especially my left. I can only wear my wedding band now. I don't know what is up with my body lol. My right ankle and left hand swells.

Last but not least, I bought 2 X-Mas outfits with matching tights during our discount days. They were hard to choose. As I have asked before, why are we having a girl? I wouldn't probably spend a lot of money on a boy!

Baby Shower and a Buck

Some of my coworkers had a surprise shower for me at our manager's house! It was soooo fun and cute!!! I got some really great stuff!!! One thing they did was decorate onezies that turned out adorable and then they signed a message to Andi in a nursery rhyme book! Some pics of the onezies are below:

 The Estee' Lauder manager is hosting a foreign exchange student from China and though she spelled the name different, she wrote it in Chinese which is neat.

  I received some other great items as well and I love the colors!!

 I love the womb bear and so does JuJu. She keeps getting it out of the bouncer and dragging it up on our bed.

A big thank you to everyone that made that night very special!! I wish I would of brought my camera to the party:-(

Something I couldn't resist at Target, in case we have a very cold winter:

It is sooo adorable and soft!!! Why are we having a girl???? As Matt puts it, I spend money on less practical things for the baby.
As of lately, we have finished all of our classes. Yesterday was the last breastfeeding class. I am soooo glad that Mercy provides those classes because I feel very prepared and more knowledgeable about how to do things. I found out that Matt is a great swaddler, a lot better than me! We toured labor and delivery and it kind of scared me lol. I realized this baby has to come out in 5 weeks.....I am ready for her to be here and I pray my labor and delivery goes as smoothly as this pregnancy has. I have started packing my bag. Now it is just a waiting game.

Nothing really new has happened other than my right foot is starting to swell more than before. It was just swelling half way down like in the pic but now my whole foot is swelling. It is weird how only my right foot/ankle swells.

I don't know what it is with the right side of my body. I have been using Icy Hot on the lower right side of my back and hip and it has worked great numbing my sciatic nerve pain. I think I will use it in labor as well. The only bad thing about it is I smell like pepto-bismol. I can't sit for very long because of my sciatic nerve, so I am constantly having to do something. I also think since I am on my feet all day, I am just used to it. Lately I have been cleaning a lot. I guess it is part of my nesting.

Matt has had a pretty good month. He loves to hunt, especially bow hunt because it is more challenging. I am going to toot his horn for him. He was in a bow shooting tournament in September. Out of 400 participants, he placed 9th!!! He is really good at what he does, and he practices on the decoys all over our yard and makes bets with me if he hits them from certain distances, usually 50-60yrds. Anyway, he had been wanting to add another nice buck to the wall and he got his wish!

 He had to search for it the next day since it got too dark but you can tell how excited he was when he found it!!! He got a doe earlier and he plans to get another one during rifle season. One thing I know is that if we ever have hard times, he will definitely be a great provider!!!

One last pic to show. At night Sam and JuJu have a big jealousy fight as to who gets to sit with dad. Usually JuJu wins because she is his favorite, but here recently she has been sticking to me and Sam has won his attention. We love our dogs...lol!

As Barbara says, " If our kids are anything like our dogs, we are in trouble."