Ramblings . . .

Today, while teaching a dance camp at our local studio-- I found out that there will be a "Tippy Two Toes" dance class! A class for two-year-olds???? I have an *almost* two-year-old that would looooooove to dance!!! At $60.00/month I'm not too sure about the cost, but I think this little chica needs to dance!!!

Since I have decided to begin posting again, I think I will post about our breastfeeding journey.

Being a preemie, Haddie was taken promptly to the nursery for evaluation and then admitted into the NICU for closer observation. I did not have the chance to feel my brand new baby placed on my belly, I didn't have the chance for that first feed, letting her route around and find my breast herself, and I did not ever get to have her "room in" with me throughout my hospital stay. I held her once in our labor and delivery room for a moment, and then a brief moment before they admitted her into the NICU. Hubs was not able to hold her until her second day of life. After crying to the lactation consultant and the nurse practioner, I was finally able to attempt breastfeeding, even though the NICU staff acted like I was an idiot for wanting to try. They kept telling me that she could recieve formula and would be fine, but that isn't what I wanted. I called my sister, who also had a NICU baby 3 years prior, and she reassured me I was doing the right thing by fighting for the RIGHT to breastfeed, something that I shouldn't have had to do!

Needless to say, she didn't want to breastfeed. She was tired, had leads all over her, and unable to latch effectively. I knew that breastfeeding was something I wanted to do, no matter how hard it would be. I pumped and bottle fed for the first couple weeks, putting her to breast to almost no avail. We met with a WONDERFUL lactation consultant that was 100% sure we could get Haddie breastfeeding and thriving with some work. And magically, right around 4 weeks, she started breastfeeding, and by about 7 weeks old, she was no longer getting expressed breast milk. We finally hit our stride.

At this point, 7 months and counting, I can't imagine stopping. I am very fortunate to work at a job where I can feed Haddie on demand and I am very much looking forward to summer when she no longer has to spend any of her time in day care. I started her on solid foods around 6 months and she has enjoyed applesauce, bananas, avacados, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, carrots, peaches, and she even liked the prunes she had to have when she was a little, eh hum, stopped up.

While our journey in breastfeeding wasn't the easiest road, I am so happy I stuck with it and I am proud of myself for being Haddie's sole source of nutrition for her first six months of life. There is no way I could have done it without the support of my lactation consultant, sister, and hubs with me every step of the way. Whenever I thought it was too much I always had someone that could encourage me I was doing the right thing. I know as a parent I won't do everything right, but I feel confident that I made the best decision with breastfeeding my sweet little baby.

Let's see here, I wanted to document my birth story so just FYI-- this may not be for the faint of heart...I am SURE this contains WAY too much information for the general public!!!

Well...sweet little Haddie-Girl came 4 WEEKS EARLY!!!Photo by Emily Porter

How life gets in the way of blogging.

I'm not quite sure where to begin since it has been so long, so I'll give a brief recap of the past few days.

I am on bed rest. Boo. It all started when I was leaving work on Wednesday and felt a little dizzy. Being the supportive hubs that I have, he suggested I stop by my OB's office in case it happened to be high blood pressure. Well, my Dr. wasn't there because he was in surgeries all day so some of the nurses that work for him made me go ahead up to triage because it would be possible for me to have more tests done way more quickly there than what they could do in his office. By the way, at this point of the day my legs were so swollen they resembled tree trunks more than actual legs. Boo again. So I get to triage, they put a fetal monitor on the baby and a contraction monitor onto me and of course the baby is perfect, me-- not so much.

My Dr. ended up keeping me over night for a 24-hour urinalysis to check for preeclampsia and to watch my swelling. After 24 hours, and an additional 3 hours for the results to come back in I was discharged to strict bed rest, meaning I can only get out of bed to go to the bathroom and or to go to my Dr.'s appointments. When meeting with my Dr. throughout this experience, he informed me (from my ultrasound) that sweet little Haddie girl is already 7lbs11oz so if I don't deliver her soon (i.e. before 37 weeks) she will not be able to be delivered vaginally and therefore I must have a c-section which I hope to avoid at ALL COSTS.

So, here I am, writing from my recliner and trying to talk this little baby into coming into the world on Tuesday because that would work with every one's schedule, including my Dr.'s--haha...so now it is just a waiting game.

PS- from the ultrasound, this little chunk in my belly has the chubbiest cheeks and the pouty-est lips...I am so in love!

I know I have said I would post a pic of my belly for some time now...actually, I think I was planning on posting when I was 14 weeks pregnant...and here I am, 20 weeks and 3 days pregnant. Crazy how time flies...

These are a couple pics from a lil while ago; I think I was almost 16 weeks in the first pic and I thought I was big then...sheesh.


This pic is when I was almost 17 weeks pregnant...I think there was a big jump from 17-20 weeks!
Here I am tonight...20 weeks and 3 days pregnant. I can't believe it has flown by so quickly...I also can't believe I am going to be approximately double this size. And here is a pic where hubs had to help me up off the ground after it was taken because it's clearly getting too hard to move from the ground to standing on my own...
I am still feeling her move all over the place and I absolutely love it, I am pretty sure there isn't a better pregnancy feeling than movement! And, if I haven't mentioned it before, her name is Hadleigh Ann and we can't wait to meet her!

As you can probably imagine, I am so very eager to get our sweet baby girl's nursery set up. Actually, I can't stinkin' wait!

I could possibly be the hardest person in the world to please so I have been having an impossible time picking out the bedding. I think little girls (and boys!) are so special and individual, so I can't imagine grabbing a bed-in-a-bag that could truly match everything I feel about this tiny baby.

My criteria for the bedding was this;
1. LOTS of colors! I wanted to be able to match solid color crib sheets with whatever we chose
2. NO CHARACTERS! END OF STORY!
3. No butterflies, bugs, animals, etc.
4. Flowers were ok if they were abstract and not strategically placed in rows and or columns
See? I'm a freak. I found some that I liked, and some that I looooooved, but they were either in only brown and pink or $500 for a 4 piece bedding set.

Solution? Ask these incredible people that I am lucky enough to be related to and or friends with to make it for me!!! Yaaaaaaaay!!!



Luckily, my sister is friends with (so I, in turn, am friends with...) the very talented Stephanie of Providence Handmade and she has graciously agreed to work with us and create our own bedding for our sweet little H.A. (I am not sure I am 100% ready to reveal our name...)!



I asked her yesterday if she would maybe consider helping us out...my sister is amazing behind the sewing machine, me...not so much, but she said she would definitely help us out! Sa-Weet!!! Not only is she doing this pro bono, she also put together this LOVELY collage of everything we should include in the room, aahh, the benefits of having an interior designer friend!!! Check out this bad boy--

(Sorry! I can't figure out how to make this bigger!!! )
Needless to say, we can't WAIT to get started!!!

This little girl in my belly likes to move it-move it, she likes to....MOVE IT!

I am feeling her all over the place and it is NUTSO, but 'nutso' in a fab way! Both of the ultrasound techs that saw me recently told me that my sweet little girl is a wild woman in the womb...my mom, obvi knowing me, said, "well, what did you expect??" I guess my mom is saying something along the lines that I was always busy and on the move...God help up all if this baby is just like me!!!

This was, by far, the best mother's day I have ever had, but I am certain it won't be the best ever.

A GIRL!!!! We are oh so very excited! We had an ultrasound today and it was confirmed, I have no penises growing inside of me. I can't even begin to tell you how much I loved watching that little girl on the us. We have a dvd of the whole thing so we can watch it whenever we want.