Growing Strong

It is funny how the smallest things can give you a thrill. Andi has started cooing and squealing. She has also started smiling now when she is awake. Sometimes she responds to you. We get the biggest kick out of her when she is on her mat for tummy time. She gets her legs to bicycling and lets out loud squeals! You can't help but talk back. She likes to look in the mirror and  will get excited! The fun is beginning and we can't wait for more:-)

She has started holding her rattle and can lift her head 90 degrees, just doesn't keep it up very long. She is now over 10 lbs!

She has started liking bath time as well. When we first started bathing her she protested but now she enjoys it! We have started giving her nightly baths since she has a blowout between 4 and 6pm. 

This was her very first bath at home!

And now....see how she has grown:-)

So many of her onezies are ruined now. Thank goodness we are out of the newborn diapers, that was the main problem. The size one diapers are really big on her but at least it keeps it in A LOT better!! Earlier this week, her blowout was the worst we had seen yet and Matt was helping me hold her over the trash can so we could get the diaper and onezie off. There wasn't a place you could put your hand and not get poop on you. Matt freaked out and had to immediately go wash his hands so needless to say I got poop all over me holding her. I don't know what he is going to do when I am working nights and he is home alone with her.  The other day he was taking her clothes off for bath time and when he brought her to me he said he was worried. I asked him why and he said because she enjoys being naked!

Matt still isn't very confident in feeding her simply because she choked once with him. So when he gets home he volunteers to change her diaper as long as I feed and burp her. She is a really good burper. She had a really, really loud burp which made Matt proud. We still get tickled over her loud noises. The other night I was holding her and lifted my leg on the couch and at the same time she let it rip. Matt thought it was me and said I shouldn't blame it on the baby...lol

These past two days I haven't really gotten much done, I have basically been holding her all-the-time since her swing went out. We have only used it 6 weeks and the motor all ready quit. I ordered a different one, one that has a plug in and is bigger. It came yesterday and hallelujah she likes it!! The only bad thing is that it is too big to move into the bedroom so I guess we are going to have to train her to sleep in her bassinet and soon her crib. Night time doesn't go very well and I am still swaddling her. She has been sleeping good in her swing but she sleeps the best on me. She will go to sleep around 11 and wake at 3 and then at 7:30. It is just getting her to sleep. She sleeps great during the day but she has to throw a crying fit between 8 and 9 where all you can do is bounce her. She will fall asleep but soon as you stop she is crying again. I have to start rocking her hard and quick  while singing to her. She does a lot of fake outs. She will be asleep for a good 15 minutes and I get up with her and move her to her swing and as soon as I place her in it she is awake. When she wakes in the middle of the night and I am changing her she starts cooing and wanting to play....that is not the time to play! She really is a good baby but I still dread night time, especially when I go back to work in 3 weeks. 

A couple of weeks ago we had her 1 month pics taken. It went alright. She had to have her paci. We had to remove it quick to get a pic without her crying. The funny thing is when we would sit her up, she would stay as long as she had her paci in her mouth. Once you took it out she would fall over. It was her balance apparently.  I have posted our favorites below....

I wish we could have gotten a better pic of her in this dress. It is really pretty but this was her last dress change and she wasn't having it!

We will probably have pics taken every 3 months...I can't believe she is almost 2 months. Time has gone by quick.

Andi Faye is 1 Month

Time has passed quickly. I will be heading back to work in 4 weeks. I don't know if I will be ready. It is hard to believe she is already a month old. She is growing like a weed, already over 9 lbs! The older she gets, the more she looks like me as a baby. The only thing she has of Matt's is the Maness nose and hair color. We still can't get over how big her hands and how long her fingers are. She has already outgrown newborns in the length and foot part. She has outgrown newborn shoes as well. 

Yesterday we had pictures made by Michelle, Matt's step-mom. We are excited to see them when they are finished. Of course I dressed her up in all the frills and she was adorable!!! She didn't like it much. We had to console her with her paci and pull it out quick to get a pic. We also had some family ones taken as well. I'm not liking my hair very much right now. It has gotten really long and I usually just wear it up. Andi has gotten a hold of it and it is fight to get her to let go. I don't know how much longer I am going to have it...lol. 

The funniest thing she does is giggle in her sleep. She will have a big smile and just laugh. She has started cooing some and definitely locks eyes for a long time. We have gotten a better night routine down, thank goodness!!! She finally got big enough where we could use an actual swaddler on her and that knocks her out. I always feel like I am putting her in a straight jacket. She doesn't like it at first and it is difficult keeping her hands down but once she is a burrito she is fine.That is the only way we can get her to sleep in her bassinet. Sometimes we have to start out in the swing. She has been going to bed between 10-11p and has been sleeping until 3a. At night I have started feeding her rice and formula because it keeps her satisfied longer.

She likes to sleep like this in her swing

Poor Sam hasn't gotten use to her crying yet. She will let out blood curdling screams when her diaper is wet. Mainly because we are fighting diaper rash. The bassinet is at the end of the bed and that is where Sam sleeps. She will be screaming when I change her and Sam starts choking and just looking at me with a "help me" look. Sometimes when we sleep on the couch, she will be in her swing and Sam will be lying on the edge by it. When she screams he will fall off the couch. He has been quite amusing. He and JuJu have been great though. They always have to check on her and make sure she is ok.

I have to share a funny incident. One morning I was feeding her and she was grunting, filling her diaper. It went on for about 5 minutes and she stopped so I thought it was safe to change her.  While I was changing her I noticed her butt hole was open and puckering. I thought that was weird because it had never done that before. I immediately thought of the scene in the movie Change-Up with the twins and as soon as I thought of it, it was too late. She shot poop like a water hose. It went up and landed on the dresser and continued down. Of course the drawers were open because I never close mine all the way and it went in all three drawers and into the open door in the middle of the dresser. So a lot of my clothes got hit. I ended up getting sprayed with it and poor Sam was standing beneath me. My reaction time was a little slow because I was half asleep and later that day I was finding dried poop on my feet and in Sam's hair. She definitely keeps us entertained and we can't wait for her to be older because it is just going to get even better!!

Next month she will be getting her shots, which I am not looking forward too. I had to change pediatricians because the one she was seeing doesn't accept Matt's insurance. He was really good, and I liked him a lot. The new has high recommendations, so hopefully she is good too! 

Until next time.....
 

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!!!