5 Months

Fashion: Hattie is firmly in 6 month clothing territory. She has some long little legs. Random opinion: I don't get why anything buy onesies and bodysuits are sold for babies. I have so many shirts for Hattie but she just lifts the bottom of them up and sticks them into her mouth so we don't use them.

Health: She weighs 17 lbs, 1 oz.  Healthy there. But has another double ear infection. :(   One more and it's tubes time. Sigh.  She has one tooth that has popped out so far. She doesn't love the teething phase of life. She chews on things and then cries because it hurts.... Oops! I almost posted this without mentioning the worst part of this month. The ER visit. Long story short... Hattie had croup. Scary stuff. Her breathing was labored and her cough sounded like a seal. It took 15 years off of me, I swear. I don't ever want to think of it again honestly.

Zzzzz: Randomly sleeps through the night, but more often gets up at 2 and wants to eat. Since she only eats part of her last bottle most nights and goes to bed at 7ish, I don't want to deny her food so I feed her. Then she gets up right when I'm done with my shower in the morning. Like clockwork. I haven't been able to put my makeup on at home for a couple of weeks now. I'm scaring the natives when I go outside. ;p

Nicknames this month - Baby Bear, Buzzy Bee

Fitness: She's strong, this one. She loves to stand assisted and is able to sit up on her own for minutes at a time now. She still topples backwards soon after, but she's getting good at it. She is sooo eager to crawl, but can't figure out the logistics yet. She sort of crawls backwards and sideways though. And she loves to plank.

Eats: She's still at around 30 oz per day and still leaves 3 oz in random bottles for no reason. We have started her on solids. She loves carrots and loves eating from a spoon. It's like she's been doing it all her life. No big thing. :)

The Spoken Word: She talks a lot still. I hear random 'words' like ma and ba but nothing more. Everything else is supercute babble. She was blowing raspberries and screeching happy screeches a lot but stopped when she got sick. I wish those would come back into the mix.

Things Hattie Loves:  Chewing her thumb, her Violet dog, her IKEA stacking cups from Karin, snuggling her head into Daddy's chest, smiling (smiling's her favorite!).

Things Hattie Hates: Being hungry and not having a bottle in her mouth that very second, when anyone wipes her nose (after having a cold since October, I don't blame her).

Pics from the past month:

(This one makes me laugh. It really doesn't look like her that much, but is so cute.)

Yummy!

4 months

Fashion: Hattie is in between sizes pretty much. 3 month clothes are too short and 6 months clothes are too long. It's hard to find things that fit just right. But mostly we're quickly transitioning to 6 month things and just folding sleeves and cuffs when needed.

Health: She weighs 14 lbs, 13 oz. She was gaining 2 lbs per month but has slowed down. Her little pudgy wrists and ankles are thinning out a tiny bit. I don't want it to happen! She finally moved on from ear infection town. It took three rounds of antibiotics (final one being shots of Rocephin), but she's good now. She seems so much happier now. As am I. Her congestion was the worst! I couldn't be happier to have that be done and gone. Girlfriend can BREATHE! :)

Zzzzz: Well, I was going to say she sleeps through the night like a champ still but she is going through some changes now that I hope don't last long. I think she's having a brain growth period and she's so alert and curious and excited about the world. I am tired but I can't get mad when I'm greeted with such huge smiles when she wakes me up in the middle of the night. BUT... we are going to work on transitioning her to her crib in her room and also from the swaddle. I don't want to do either, but both are inevitable so may as well start the work now. I can sleep when I retire, I guess.

Nicknames this month - Baby Bear, Buzzy Bee, Sweet Face

Fitness: Hattie has awesome neck and head control. She's strong! Tummy time = rolling right over from her tummy to her back. So we do other things to strengthen her head/neck like have her spend time in the Hop 'N Pop we just got ( http://www.smartplayzone.co.uk/product-detail.asp?prod=1344 ) and basically just hold her while she sits up. Speaking of... that's ALL she wants to do. No more laying down for this girl. She can't do it on her own, but she's getting there.

Eats: She's up to probably 30 ounces of formula per day. She has been acting funny with bottles and sort of grazing on them so it takes longer to feed her. Hoping that stops soon as feeding her takes a super long time right now.  - This is from last update and hasn't really changed. She's gaining weight though and has wet diapers so we just go with it.

The Spoken Word: She is a loud one now.  'Talks' all the time. She also now makes a sound that sounds like "Aah aah!" over and over like a monkey. It's so stinkin' cute. She also lets us know when she's not happy by telling us in that little voice and adding a little scowl. There's no mistaking when she isn't into something. Girl has opinions.

Things Hattie Loves:  Chewing on her wrist or my knuckle, grabbing her feet, her teething links, holding hands, the piggy rattle that hangs in her car seat, seeing babies on TV (she smiles at them), touching EVERYTHING,  'eating' cloth books, watching football on TV.

Things Hattie Hates: Being woken up (I guess what baby does, but sometimes it has to happen!), waiting for a bottle. Hmm... not much else. She is such an easygoing one right now. :) We are hoping that continues. She's so happy!

1 and 2 month pics

Because I forgot... :)

She doesn't look that different, does she?

3 months old!

Hattie is three months old!The difference between 1, 2, and 3 months old is colossal. I love this age already.

Fashion: Hattie is wearing size 3-6 month clothes now in many cases, but sometimes they're too big. It's amazing how different brands' clothes fit. It's tricky to try things on an infant, so we usually have to go ahead and guess if it'll fit and if not, re-dress her. Which I leave up to Mike if possible because girlfriend does NOT like to put her arms in and out of sleeves.

Health: She is probably somewhere close to 13.5 lbs now. Not sure as her last well visit was at 2 months and we don't have another one until December.  I think she may be teething as she continuously wants to chew on things and drools a ton. When she chews on my knuckle, I wonder what I'll get when it comes out of her mouth. She gums HARD!


Hattie had her first ear infection already. :(  Hoping it's her last. She has been congested for 3 weeks now also. Poor little one.

Zzzzz: She sleeps pretty darn great. And a LOT. TenderCare says she's the best napper in the room (4-5 naps per day, some as long as 1.5 hours!). She sleeps through the night most nights at home, only occasionally getting up once to eat and then goes right back to bed. She has been doing this since 2.5 months. I consider myself VERY lucky and don't take it for granted at all. It's actually hard to get her up in the morning. Like Mama, like daughter. :)   We're transitioning her to the crib slowly. We started out in the Rock n Play and transitioned to the cosleeper a couple of weeks ago. We're not ready for her to be in the crib yet though! We love having her in our room. We're also going to start transitioning her out of swaddlers. We tried one arm out a few weeks ago and she woke herself up too much with her arm jerking around, but it seems like her arms are more calm now so we're going to try it again starting this weekend.

Nicknames this month - Nugget (since she was born), Nugsy, Little One, Pretty Girl

Fitness: Hattie is getting better at tummy time. Which is good since she has a mild flat spot on the back left side of her head and we're trying really hard to correct that. She actually loves sitting up so we sit her in our laps facing us and she has awesome neck strength then. I wish she liked tummy time on the blanket more because I'd like her to work on rolling over. Right now, she just chews on the blanket when we try that. ;p   We also sit her in the Bumbo seat but that freaks her out after a couple of minutes for some reason, so we limit her time there.

Eats: She's up to probably 30 ounces of formula per day. She has been acting funny with bottles and sort of grazing on them so it takes longer to feed her. Hoping that stops soon as feeding her takes a super long time right now.

The Spoken Word: She is 'talking' a lot now. She makes an 'oooooh' sound that melts our hearts. Her little voice sounds so sweet.

Things Hattie Loves:  Chewing on cloth diaper burp cloths, bath time, ceiling fans, Baby Einstein DVDs, lamps, car seat cat, sitting outside and listening to the noises of the world, snuggling with Mama after eating, smiling at Daddy.

Things Hattie Hates: The Nosefrida (so do Mommy & Daddy), being hungry and having to wait for her bottle, waking up from a nap, when the ceiling fan stops spinning, being in the car most times (ugh).

Picture!  (Hungry baby = challenging photo shoot)

She's here! (Well, she has been here for 12 weeks. Oops!)

Hey there. I had a baby! :)  Yaaay!

Sorry for the lapse in blogging. Let me tell you, I had NO idea how tough it would be to do anything else when I had the baby. When my friends who all had babies disappeared during their maternity leaves, I was all, "Hmph. They could totally still be in touch with me. What the heck?"  Well, now I know what the heck. During my time off, it was a miracle if I was able to eat three meals a day and DEFINITELY something to call the Pope about if I got a shower daily. Anyway, I'm back at work now and can git to blogging again.

And here she is!  

Hattie Elizabeth Petruska

But I guess we should start with my birth story since that's sort of where we left off...

At week 39.5, I went in for my scheduled c-section. We were scheduled to have it at 1 PM so we headed to the hospital a couple of hours before that. I was SO ready. The girl was starting to wrap her feet around my right rib cage and scratch my back with her toes. I was also feeling lots of Braxton-Hicks that day so I was doubly ready. We checked in at around 11:45 AM. The desk clerk told us there were a few emergency c-sections ahead of us and we'd have a delay. Oh boy. We settled in to the chairs in the waiting room and waited for our name to be called so we could get to having our kid. Tick tock, tick tock..... three hours later (!!!!!), we finally are called to go back. Which is a good thing because my B-H were getting stronger. Finally we get put in a triage room and I'm hooked up to a fetal monitor and a contraction monitor. Yeaaaah.... my contractions were 2 minutes apart! Eeps!

Well apparently it was a full moon (Literally. The moon was full.) and it was one of their busiest nights in a long time, so we kept on getting bumped by emergency c-sections and regular ol' natural births. I didn't go back to the OR until 7 PM! Needless to say, we were ready. Let me tell you... having a c-section is a strange experience. First of all, there are like 15 people in the room. I couldn't keep them all straight. I think my Uncle Leon was there. I can't be sure. I had three anesthesiologists. For that, I was very thankful. They were SO helpful. They did a great job giving me a spinal and helping me feel calm. The one basically just sat near me and put his hand on my shoulder. Which was very comforting because Mike couldn't be in the room until after the spinal was administered. Finally, I was numbed up and Mike was in the room next to me. Then my OB showed up. The show was starting! They told me what was going on for the most part. There was some, "You're gonna feel some pressure." and "Things are going great!" Then about maybe 20 minutes into it, while we were talking to the anesthesiologists about the show Amazing Race, I believe, the OB shouts, "Here's your little girl!" and all of the sudden a crying baby is raised above the curtain between us and the Doctor. And then taken away. Wha?! No drum roll? No "We're yanking your baby out from behind your ribs now!" If we blinked, we may have missed seeing her. ;p   It was very surreal. I felt like I was dreaming. We heard her crying over in the corner and then she was brought over and placed in Mike's hands. I was able to kiss her little head but not much else since I was tied down to the gurney. And she wasn't HUGE like the OBs kept saying. She was definitely healthy at 8 lbs, but not the 9.5 lbs they predicted. Pfft. So... they closed me up. There were some hairy moments during that process in which I thought I was seriously going to die. I thought, "I got to this moment and NOW I go?!" There was intense pressure and I couldn't breathe. I kept asking, "Um, what's happening?" and the OB finally told me that they were having a bit of a tough time getting everything tucked back in. WHA?!?! OMG. Finally everything was in it's rightful place and I was wheeled to ICU because all of the full moon emergency people took up the L&D rooms. Hmph. I finally got to look at our daughter. She looked sorta swollen and bruised, but beautiful. Amazing. Again, a very surreal feeling. But holding her made me feel like a Mom. It just was a feeling that all of the sudden filled me up. Nothing else in the world would ever matter as much.

The rest of the story is pretty typical. We stayed at the hospital for a few days. Hattie had many visitors and was showered with love. I ate jello, pudding, many Italian ices. We had a photo shoot and the pictures were so amazing.

That's it for now.

38 weeks

How far along? 38 weeks, 1 day

Total weight gain: 12 lbs. I did decide this week that I'm having ice cream if and when I want it now, so maybe I'll pack on a couple of more lbs before 'labor day.'

Appointments: Just the bi-weekly NSTs so far. I do have a regular OB appointment on Friday.  The NSTs are fun because I get to hear her awesomely strong heartbeat, but she hides from the monitor device strapped ton my bump so the techs have to come in and chase her with it a lot. Little baby shenanigans! ;p

How big is baby and what's new with her? 

"Your baby's internal organs and systems are now fully developed. She's ready to enter the world. Her once spacious home inside your uterus has become cramped, and she has little room to stretch out her arms and legs."

 

Who knows how big our girl is. The 'normal' stats don't count for her. ;p   I bet she's a little bit over 8 lbs now.  Feels like she's 20 lbs of arms and legs pushing to get out!

Clothing? It's going to be another hot week. I'm over trying to find things to wear. I just want to wear mumus now. The focus now for me is purchasing some things that will be comfortable to wear post c section. I picked up some things at Old Navy this past weekend and a comfy nightshirt at Sears that won't scare away visitors if I'm wearing it when they come to meet her.

Sleep? So sad. I loooove sleep but right now, it's the worst time of the day/night for me. Peeing every hour still (thanks to being SUPER thirsty as soon as I get in to bed and having to chug water despite knowing the resultant 1000 bathroom visits). Turning over takes every ounce of strength I have. 

Symptoms? Heartburn is strong, but I've been eating foods that are safer for heartburn and they seem to be working, back hurts from lugging the bump around, general crankiness, congestion.

Picture: Thar she blows! ;p

  

37 weeks

How far along? 37 weeks, 2 days
I haven't posted in a few weeks because a) I got super lazy, and b) carpal tunnel reared its ugly head and basically crippled my hands.  

Total weight gain: Holding steady at 159. Thinking this is as high as I'm going to get weight wise. That will equal a total pregnancy weight gain of 12 lbs!  Props to the gestational diabetes diet!

Appointments: I've had a few. The most important to mention would be the appointment with MFM last week where we had a growth u/s and found out that the girl was measuring at 7lb, 6 oz at 36.5 weeks. The MFM doctor recommended definitely getting her outta there by 39 weeks because of her increasing size. I had an appointment with the OB the next day and she agreed about the 39 weeks deadline and actually recommended going straight to planning a c section. The reasons being the baby's increasing size and maybe more importantly (since size estimates can be off) due to my hemi issues. She said she doesn't want me pushing long at all due to the risk of the hemis (sorry -i know - ew!) getting bad like they were. They also mentioned the risk of shoulder displacement if the little one IS big and gets stuck. I don't like that risk at all. So we're scheduled for a c section on 8/1. If I go into labor naturally before then, we'll still do a c section. I feel like I should try for a vaginal delivery, but I also trust the doctors and agree with the risks so I'm putting those feelings aside and am feeling excited just to git 'er done and meet our daughter!!!


How big is baby and what's new with her? 

"Your baby is now considered "full term," even though your due date is three weeks away. If you go into labor now, his lungs will likely be mature enough to fully adjust to life outside the womb. (Some babies need a bit more time, though. So if you're planning to have a repeat c-section, for example, your practitioner will schedule it for no earlier than 39 weeks unless there's a medical reason to intervene earlier.)

Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel. (Our baby is measuring probably around 8 lbs now. She doesn't like to be average. :) )  Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz."

Clothing?  Just recycling the same ol' stuff. I don't want to buy any more maternity clothes with how close to l & d I am. But this 90 degree weather sure makes it hard to be this pregnant and have to find clothes!

Sleep? Peeing nonstop. Probably 4-5 times per night. Indigestion is a big challenge. Turning over ain't easy.

Symptoms? Heartburn/indigestion is so ridiculously strong now, ankles are super swollen, back hurts if I walk long at all w/o wearing the maternity support belt, I'm one drooling and snoring fool, and I feel congested most of the time. Hands are swollen too. I miss wearing my wedding rings! Carpal tunnel in both hands is feeling better thanks to cortisone shots. So happy about that one. 


Picture:   Blurry again. Not sure why. I cleaned lens of phone camera. Oh well...