Month 1

1 month old!!

Audrey turned 1 month on September 3rd! This was a special day because it was also her Daddy's 24th birthday :) So of course we had to make him a birthday sticker too!

Our first month with our little princess was very exciting! It was also very hectic. Anyone that is familiar with the military knows that nothing is a simple process. We were given a packet telling us what to do, but of course it was missing half of the stuff. It was quite the process, but about 5 weeks after she was born was had her enrolled in DEERS and Tricare, had her command sponsored and her passport/social security card/birth certificate applications done!

As you know from my previous post, we had a hard time from the get-go with breastfeeding. After many emotionally charged, failed attempts at nursing I ended up having to pump and bottle feed. This was emotionally and physically draining. Everytime she wanted to eat I had to feed her, then pump. I was spending hours a day pumping. It was terrible and I was exhausted. I also had the baby blues and it was a terrible combination. I battled with wanting to quit and feelings of guilt. After a little over 4 weeks, I had to give up. I just could not do it anymore. I felt like I had failed. We switched Audrey to formula and she is doing just fine! Breastfeeding just is not for everyone and I am not a bad mother for not doing it longer. It took a while for me to get over my feelings of guilt. Doctors here make you feel so guilty for not breastfeeding, HEY GUYS my baby is just fine! Not only has my life gotten much easier, my baby is much happier because I am not so stinking stressed! Rant over.

We took Audrey for a spinal ultrasound to check out her sacral dimples. They needed to see if they were tethered or something. I don't really understand...but they are normal! They are just cute little dimples and nothing to fret :) She was also jaundice for a couple days but after a bit of sunlight she was fine.

Like I said earlier, I battled with the baby blues for a couple weeks. I was completely fine one minute, then bawling the next. I am sure my husband thought I was crazy. One day we were lounging on the couch and out of nowhere I looked over at him and said, "I think I am going to cry now." Then I just started bawling. Rather than make me feel like a nut job he just came over to me and hugged me until I was done crying. He truly is a wonderful husband, how did I get so lucky? My doctor also warned him that I could be weepy for a while, so he was prepared for it. I think I would have been fine if I had my family there. I was just so incredibly sad for really no reason. I felt so guilty for being sad because I was supposed to be so happy right? I was really nervous that I was going to get postpartum depression with Brandon deploying...but luckily the baby blues slowly faded. One day I just felt a sense of relief, like everything was going to be just fine....and it is :)

Audrey's developments:

1-She weighed 6.7 lbs when we left the hospital and at 4 weeks she was up to 8.11 lbs
2-She wore newborn size clothes and diapers the whole first month
3-She learned how to smile and giggle around 4 weeks old!
4-She could life her head up off my chest and hold it for several seconds...pretty wobbly though!
5-At 4 weeks old she took her first trip away from the area we live in! We went to Spangdahlem AB for a softball tournament and she slept the whole time.

Woo! I am caught up. Since we are almost at the two month mark this post is a little jumbled because everything is blending together...everything has been such a whirlwind! The Month 2 post will be better organized hopefully! :) And some pictures of her first month.....

She is so stinking cute!

First bath at home!

She was jaundice in this pic, you can tell in her face.

LOL love her!

I wanted to track her growth the first couple weeks until I could start using the monthly stickers! This was my stuffed animal I have had since I was 6! Now it is Audrey's turn to love him :)

Audrey Part Deux

Hello again! I intended to get up to date with the blog much quicker than I actually am. Saturday we were in Trier all day and I spent the majority of Sunday being a total bum. I ate like total crap this weekend so that contributed to the laziness on Sunday. I still managed to lose two pounds though, holla! Anywho, lets pick up where we left off....

After the C-section I was taken back into the L&D room where I waited to be transported to the Mother/Baby ward. I couldn't leave L&D until I could feel my legs, which took a little while. I hardly remember the time period after the surgery while I waited to be transported. It was all such a whirlwind. Doctors and nurses were in an out checking on Audrey and I. I tried nursing her but she wouldn't latch on. The nurses said that is pretty normal for c-section babies so I wasn't concerned. I wasn't in any pain either, just itchy beyond belief! I was itchy everywhere but it was the worst right above my lip. So weird! A friend of mine told me the same thing happened to her so it must be normal. All I wanted to do was hold my baby and call my family. Both were nearly impossible. We had too much traffic in the room to even think about calling family and the doctors kept taking Audrey. Apparently she needs bathed after sitting in a hot tub for 10 months ;) A pediatrician also came in and looked her over to make sure everything was okay. He noticed two small dimples at the top of her bum (they are so cute!) that he was concerned about it. They are called sacral dimples and can cause problems later on in life. You would think I would be panicked, but I was so drugged up it hardly phased me. (more on that later..)

After her first bath :)

Fast forward to when we finally got down to Mother/Baby ward. The hospital stay really wasn't too bad, but I know I would have enjoyed it much more if 1) my family was here 2) I wasn't breastfeeding. Breastfeeding was a complete nightmare! She would NOT latch and she cried and cried when we tried. The nurses were helpful, but it just was not working. We even had a lactation consultant come in and she was awful! She was very forceful and Audrey and I were both bawling and she did not let up. I was in so much pain and this lady was jerking me and the baby around trying to get her to latch. I was a wreck, I felt so guilty because she was hungry and I could not feed her. I ended up having to pump and feed her with a little syringe. It was such a joyous time and I was miserable because I guess I just expected the breastfeeding crap to come naturally, so not the case. I also did not realize how badly I would want my family there. I wanted to share that time with them so badly. Military life has many perks, but it is so stinking hard sometimes.

I wasn't impressed with the day time nurses, but our night time nurses were fabulous. It was a younger, new girl that was still training and a big burly man-no joke. They were awesome though! They had to come in every few hours and massage my belly to make sure my uterus was going down or something weird like that. Needless to say, this was excruciating. I was on painkillers but it did not help. In walks this big, buff man with giant hands saying, "I have to massage your belly." Talk about terrifying. Turns out he was so much more gentle than the women nurses!He was Brandon and I's favorite nurse.

Hanging out at the hospital

It was painful to get up so I did not change one diaper until we got home from the hospital. Brandon was so incredible with her. He was very attentive to both of us and I am so grateful for that. He was at my side helping me get up, getting me things, asking if I needed anything. The first night he even slept on the cold hospital floor because he didn't know the chair folded out into a bed LOL Poor guy.

I only stayed in the hospital for 48 hours. The doctor suggested staying another night, but said there was no medical reason that they could not discharge me, so they left it up to me. I chose to go home even though I really should have stayed. I just wanted to get into my own bed. Did I mention I couldn't shower for 2 days because of my stitches? I was so disgusting. Once we finally got the discharge papers and my brown paper bag full of pills (seriously, a bag full of them) we high tailed it out of there. I could not wait to get home. I was expecting to get a wheelchair and have a nurse wheel me out or something, hey I just had major abdominal surgery. Nope. Mother/Baby ward is on the second floor and I had to just walk my hobblin butt outta there. I couldn't even stand up straight! It took a solid 30 minutes with several breaks. That's a military hospital for ya. I was discharged and not their problem anymore. The drive home was pretty miserable because military bases love speed bumps. These are not just little speed bumps, they are the kind that you need to make a complete stop to cross. I am NOT exaggerating. Percocet was my best friend for about a week. Oh well, I survived ;)

Getting ready to go home! She wasn't thrilled.

First car ride!

Home and snuggling Daddy :)

From here on out I plan to do a post on Audrey monthly so I can share her monthly photos and updates. Of course I will post in between as well because I am basically obsessed with this baby.

Thanks for reading yall!

Numero Uno

Hey y'all!

My first blog post, WOOP! I actually created this blog before Audrey was born and intended to start posting right after her birth...but here we are at almost 7 weeks old and I am just starting. Hey, motherhood is pretty time consuming. We have finally gotten into a *sort of* routine, so I have some time to start. I say I made the blog for family back home to keep up with our lady, but really it is more of a selfish thing. There is a lot coming at me at once and I need an outlet, this is it. I am also too lazy to scrapbook so this can replace that HA ;)

Let me explain the awesome blog title. Most people call Brandon, Sully. So it is a play on words..parenthood...sullyhood...get it? Clever, eh? ;)

I am starting by sharing Audrey's birth story (which by the way I started writing 2 weeks ago and just finished.) From there I will play catch up on the last 7 weeks to get caught up with what is happening currently.

So...let's begin shall we? :)

Audrey's birth story

I have read/seen numerous birth stories all over blog land and I loved reading them while I was pregnant and knew I wanted to write one after the lady's arrival...so here goes! This will be long, prepare yourself ;)

Audrey was stubborn from the get-go and was in breech position since week 18 in the pregnancy. We went in for a growth scan at 32 weeks and she was still breech, this was when I decided it was time to come to terms with the fact that she wasn't going to turn. I was upset at the thought of having a c-section because I really wanted to experience the spontaneity of a regular childbirth, never knowing when the time could come and all that jazz. Luckily, I am also a huge control freak so it didn't take long for me to come around and enjoy the fact that I knew exactly when she was coming. It was nice being able to plan for the big day. I was offered an ECV to attempt to turn baby, but I refused. I had read up on the procedure and wasn't interested, besides, she was obviously cozy the way she was. So, my c-section was scheduled for August 3 at 7:30 am.

The night before I did not sleep well at all, I was so nervous and anxious. I got up around 3 am and showered and did some last minute tidying up. When the time came to leave the house it felt so surreal, the next time we were home their would be 3 of us!

When we arrived at the hospital we were taken to a room in labor and delivery to get my IV started and wait for the big moment! They told us right away that they were running a little behind because their was construction going on in one of the operating rooms. We were told it would probably be about an hour delay. Well, of course that was not the case. It was torture just waiting and waiting! Especially because I hadn't had anything to eat or drink since 9 pm the night before. Luckily we had very friendly nurses who kept us updated. We ended up FINALLY going back into the operating room 5 and a half hours late at 1300.

No pictures please, I am a freaking cow.

They took me to the operating room and Brandon stayed in the room until I was prepped and ready to go. I was most nervous about the spinal block so I wished he could have come back with me. The room was very small and there was a lot of people in the room. Along with the doctor, anesthesiologist, and 2 nurses, there was also 4 or 5 students in the room observing. When they began the spinal block I remember feeling very claustrophobic and became extremely nauseous and sweaty. Literally dripped sweat, so gross. It took the anesthesiologist two trys to get the spinal block in because I kept wiggling, oops. They told me it would take effect very fast but WOW, they were not kidding! My body felt like a tree trunk, so heavy and it felt like I was floating. Such a bizarre feeling. The next few minutes were such a blur, it all happened so fast! Next thing I know Brandon was next to me and I heard my doctor saying "I see a butt," and she was being pulled out. I didn't even know they had started! Even though I was numb I could feel such a relief when they pulled her out. I felt like I could breath again, like all my organs were back where they were supposed to be LOL. They held her up over the curtain for a very brief moment and I just started bawling. I barely got to see her before they took her away and I couldn't see anything because of the curtain. Brandon went over to her to see her and I remember being worried that he would see me all sliced open so I said "Does it look gross? Don't throw up!" Then the anesthesiologist said "Oh she's cute, not gross." I should have let her know I wasn't talking about the baby but I never did LOL She was probably thinking I was a weirdo.

That smirk! "Hey guys, you ready for what I am about to throw your way?"

It was probably only 10 minutes before they brought her over to me but it felt like an eternity. I was so incredibly jealous that Brandon got to hold her first, I know, how selfish..blah blah whatever. Seeing Brandon walk over with her was such a wonderful feeling and all the jealousy went away, I loved seeing him hold her and I could see in his eyes how happy he was. I did get to house her for 9 months after all, so I suppose it was his turn ;) Her eyes were wide open and she was sticking her tongue out and "sucking." Guess she was just as hungry as I was. I got to kiss her little face and look at her for a minute, then Brandon and her had to leave the room while they finished putting me back together. The doctor was explaining what she was doing to the students and all I remember hearing was "and this here in my hand is the uterus," UHHH so weird. The anesthesiologist stayed by my head and wiped my tears for me, she was so sweet.

What seemed like hours later, I was wheeled back into my room where I finally got to hold (and attempt to nurse, more on that later, TMI? oh well.) my precious little baby. BEST FEELING EVER. It was such a surreal moment, holding her in my arms and actually seeing her. She was so perfect and beautiful and tiny, I could've stared at her forever. She is the best thing I (and Brandon, I guess he helped some) have ever done. We created this beautiful little life and I couldn't be more in love.

OMG, can't believe I am posting this terrible photo of me in all my glory...but the first time holding my lady.

 ....and coming next in the oh so exciting Sullyhood saga...my (NOT) so fabulous hospital stay and the weeks leading us to now!