1 week

Miss Abby is 1 week today!  
It's hard to believe that just a week ago, I was huge, pregnant and making my way to the hospital.  
Her birth was so easy and I feel 1,000 times better a week after, than I did with Mady.

Abby is definitely showing us she has a little different personality than her sister.

Mady would never wake up for feedings.  We would have to tell her when to eat.  She was so passive.  She also slept 5 hours straight from the time we took her home from the hospital.  This was not necessarily a good thing considering her feeding issues that were later discovered.

This little miss is like clockwork.  
I don't even have to set an alarm to make sure she eats.  
She will let you know at exactly 3 hours that it's time for her next meal.

Instead of being passive during her feeding issues earlier this week, she was was agitated and wouldn't settle down.  

We have loved getting to know our Baby Abby!

Feeding issues Take 2

I often look at moms who breastfeed and wonder how did you get so lucky?  When I hear stories of moms who pump so much milk they have to give it away or their babies gain weight from the start, I am in awe.
Apparently, Abby wanted to follow in her sister's footsteps.

This time, however, we were on top it from the start.
Weight gain is something I don't mess around with.
After you've had a child who doesn't get to birth weight until after she's a month old, you're willing to do almost anything to see the numbers go up on the scale.

Abby weighed 5 lbs 12 oz at birth and at our doctor's appointment on Monday, she was 5 lbs 1 oz.  That's a 12% weight loss and most likely would have ended her up in the hospital but because we were meeting with the lactation consultant that day, the doctor let us have another 24 hours to get her weight up at least an ounce.

Of course, after that doctor appointment, and with my raging hormones, I was in tears.  The old fears of what Mady went through took over.
We met with the lactation lady (as Jeremy calls her) and she was someone that God placed in our lives at the right moment.  She was so encouraging!  We explained everything we went through with Mady.  The hour long process is took to feed her breast milk before ultimately switching to formula.  
She replied, "You don't have time for that.  I am more pro-family than I am pro-breastfeeding and you need to find something that works for your family."  
So we figured out a plan which included bottle feeding formula and whatever breastmilk I could pump.

The next day we took Miss Abby back to the doctor and she had gained 5.5 ounces!!  So we know we're on the right track.
Ultimately I would love to be able to breastfeed my kiddos but that doesn't look like its going to be possible with this chick again.  The formula road is not a bad road and Abby's older sister is a perfectly healthy little girl.  

Who would've thought my football playing husband would have 2 little girls struggle with weight gain?

A Baby Story

On Friday Miss Abigail Hope joined our family!  We have spent the last few days loving on her and her proud big sister Mady.
Friday could not have gone better.
Since we moved to Cheyenne, I had to find a new doctor and of course would be delivering in a new hospital.  I cannot speak more highly of my experience here in Cheyenne.  Hands down, this delivery was the easiest and most wonderful experience.  
From the guy who gave me my epidural and spent extra time explaining everything he was doing, to the labor/delivery nurse who was so much fun, and the doctor who was fantastic, everything went so well.
On Friday, I was scheduled to be induced and we went to the hospital at 7:00.  
Around 7:30, my doctor came in and started a natural induction process.  (No pitocin YAY!) 

It immediately started cramps and fairly regular contractions.  I was having back labor so by 11:30, I wanted an epidural.  I was only a 4 at this point and a little disappointed I wasn't making more progress.
After my epidural (side note: the doctor who put my epidural in actually did his residency at Wesley Hospital in Wichita!), things were good in my world.  I love epidurals and have decided I probably won't be able to have a natural birth and I am totally ok with that.
At 12:30, my doctor came in and broke my water and then at 2:00 he checked and I was at a 6 and said he would be back in an hour. I was excited about making progress since the morning had been rather slow.  
At 2:20, I started having uncontrollable shaking.  I never had anything like that with Mady so I had the nurse come in.  She gave me a popsicle thinking it was low blood sugar, but then decided to check me.  I was a 10 and the baby was coming fast!  I was having the "baby shakes".  
She ran out and grabbed the doctor right before he headed down for lunch.  
He came in and said, we're having a baby now!
The nurses literally had less than 5 minutes to get things ready and with 2 pushes, little Abby joined our family at 2:34 PM! 

I could not believe how fast she came!  We were all a little surprised including the nurses.  With Mady I pushed for 1 1/2 hours.  
She came out pink, wiggly, and adorable!  

We are so in love with our tiny little girl!

Fall Crafts

We have been trying to stay busy around here waiting for Baby Sister to make her appearance.  
I'm really impatient right now and the fact that she has dropped so low makes moving around a bit uncomfortable.
I also had back contractions on Friday and we went to the clinic to be monitored.  Baby's heartbeat was all over the place so they sent me to the hospital for more monitoring.  Thankfully, after being monitored in the hospital for a couple of hours, Baby's heartbeat settled down.  We also had another sonogram at the hospital which confirmed that she definitely is a girl.  She was showing off her lady parts for all of us to see:) 

Anyway, Mady and I have tried to stay busy doing things around the house.  Here's a few examples.
1. Coffee Filter Painting  (One of the easiest crafts since we always have everything we need to do it!)

 2. Sponge/Car Painting  (Mady really enjoyed driving her cars through the paint.)

3. Shaving Cream Bathtub painting

4. Halloween Window Stickers (these have been awesome!  I found these in the dollar section of Target.  Mady loves them and I have bought several packages of them!)

When Grandma and Grandpa visit...

We were so excited when my grandparents called and wanted to come up to see Mady and us in Cheyenne.  Since they heard Mady was making progress walking, they wanted to see it for themselves.  
So the first weekend in October, they flew to Denver, drove the 2 hours to Cheyenne and spent a few days with us.
The first day they were here, we got our very first snow of the season.  These next 2 pictures are of Mady and Grandpa checking out the snow.  These are some priceless pictures I'll always cherish.

 We braved the weather in the afternoon and ventured outside.  Mady wasn't a fan of the snow or the mittens. . She'll have to get use to it soon!

We had to get some nice pictures before church on Sunday.  Mady didn't quite cooperate very well...

Thanks for coming to see us Grandma and Grandpa! 

It's been awhile...

since I've blogged.  But it's been for a few reasons. 
 1. I'm in the third trimester of pregnancy and I have been really tired
                                           and
2. Mady has been perfecting her walking skills.  Yes I said WALKING skills!  I wouldn't consider her a full time walker yet but we're very close!  I will post a video as soon as I can get one.  Usually when I pull out the camera, it causes a fit and she refuses to show off her walking skills.

In the meantime I'll try to get caught up on a few things we've been up to the last month.  
Yesterday, we went to the pumpkin patch.  We had so much fun as a family!
We drove down to Wellington, Colorado to a place called Harvest Farm.  Check out the website here.  It's a great rehabilitation farm for men who have substance abuse problems.  

We first checked out the bunnies and the pigs.

We then went to the petting zoo.

And no tears this time!  YAY! 

Then our brave girl went on the barrel train with Daddy.  The barrel was a little small for Jeremy though:-)

After that we went through the corn maze.  Mady wasn't that excited about it...maybe next year.

And proof that I was indeed there....here's our family photo.

Mady's favorite thing was the corn bin!  We had to make her get out of it to pick out a pumpkin.  She kept signing and saying "more!  more!"

We ended our time picking out pumpkins for Mady and Baby sister.  

Mady and I were pretty tired by the time we left.  It was a great family day together!