One month

It's hard to believe that at this time a month ago I was getting ready to meet our beautiful daughter! It's gone by way too fast for me. 

Here's some of the highlights and updates from the past month:

-Riley went on her first road trip

-went to her first baseball games

-went to the zoo and the bay for the first time

-got her first cold

-got her first fever

-after a couple sore weeks she finally got the hang of nursing

-she is now enjoying her baths(until I get to her head, she's not a fan of that)

-she does not like her neck touched

-she can put herself to sleep when we have her laying on the ground for a nap occasionally

-she hasn't had any problems taking a bottle or going back and for between nursing and taking a bottle

-she doesn't really like a pacifier but will occasionally take one

-she really likes to suck, even if she isn't hungry

-she has started to grip our shirts or anything she can get her hands on

-she smiles a lot! Especially after she gets her diaper changed in the morning 

-she likes not having any clothes on 

-she makes lots and lots of cute noises, and just started making some in her sleep

-she has tons of faces that she pulls

-her favorite place to fall asleep is on one of our chests. She pulls herself up until she has her face/head pressed into our neck 

-she still sleeps in our room during the night, but I try to put her in her crib for at least one of her naps during the day

-she's normally up to eat 3 times at night 

(12, 4 and 6 is her average)

-she falls asleep really easily if she has her back pat just a little

-in the past week she has fallen asleep in about 10 seconds 3 different times, it's been great

-she likes looking at a picture we have hanging in our living room

-she isn't very consistent when she eats during the day. Some days she wants to eat every hour-hour and a half and other days its every 3 hours. It makes it kind of hard to know how much she'll eat when I have to go back to work

-she holds her head up a lot, especially if she is put on our shoulder to burp. She's getting stronger every day

-her hair has gotten a little bit lighter and longer. Short pieces are starting to grow underneath the longer hair

- her eyes look like they'll probably blue

-she has baby acne, as of a couple days ago

That's all I can think of right now. She is really a good baby! She doesn't cry or fuss a ton, unless its for a reason. She loves to be held and we love to hold and cuddle with her. She is so perfect!

We're driving down to San Diego on Wednesday and are going to bless Riley in my parents ward next Sunday. Tony's family are going to be in Carlsbad and my brothers family is in San Diego from Texas, so it ended up being the perfect weekend to do it.

I have to go back to work July 10th and I am not looking forward to it one bit! I hate that I can't be home with Riley, but I am grateful to have a job to help support us and that I love my job! Hopefully one day I'll be able to stay home with her

This month has been so great, I love being a mom to this sweet baby girl! She is so loved by both her parents! 

Happy anniversary

A year ago today Tony and I were sealed in the San Diego temple for time and a eternity! I can't believe it's already been a year. We never pictured us have a baby by this point, but we wouldn't change it for anything! 

I am so incredibly thankful to be married to such an amazing man. He makes me happier than I thought possible! I fall more in love with him every day!

Happy anniversary baby, I love you so much!

Two week check up!

This morning I took Riley in for her two week check up. They had to prick her heel for the PKU which is a test that they'll send into the state that tests for preventable mental retardation, among other things. She did really good, but she definitely didn't like it.

She had her two week weight check. She weighs 8 lbs 13.5 oz (58th percentile), she's 20 3/4 inches (59th percentile). Her head is 14.6 inches (67th percentile). One of her tear ducts is closed so I have to massage is 4 times a day. I guess it's pretty common but if it doesn't open by 1 year they'll have to go in and fix it. So she'll have tears in that eye almost constantly because they just won't drain. 

Riley has a little bit of a cold so the dr gave us some drops to help loosen the mucous up and hopefully she'll be able to breathe a little bit better. Other than that he said she looks perfect!

Riley has been so much more alert the past few days! She just looks around all the time. She doesn't usually cry too much, just if I don't feed her right when she wants me to....which is all the time. She had been doing really good with latching on for a few days but its starting to hurt a bit again. She goes through phases of how often she wants to eat. One day she was eating every hour and a half but would fall asleep after 10 minutes, some days she'll go three hours between feedings. Sometimes she'll eat for 25 minutes but normally it's only about 15-20. We're still learning but it's getting better which I am very thankful for.

Being in San Diego was so nice. We went to two baseball games, the zoo and the bay. Other than that it was pretty relaxing which I think we needed. The drive home yesterday was miserable....10 1/2 hours because of traffic. It was so nice to get home though. We'll be back in 3 weeks to bless Riley in my parents ward. And hopefully then we'll be able to do a bit more

Here's one picture this morning of Riley and Tony's mom, Amy at the dr's this morning

My family

We were finally able to get a family picture tonight at the bay! I had been planning to have my mom take a bunch but it was too cold and windy that I didn't want Riley to be out in it without a blanket, especially since she's already sick. So this is one of the only shots we got. I sure do love my little family!!!

Picture update

Here are some of the pictures of our cutie since we've been in San Diego. I'll update more after her dr's appt on Monday

 

Riley Quinn

We welcomed our sweet baby girl, Riley Quinn, into our family Wednesday, May 29, 2013! She weighed 8 lbs 1 oz, 20 1/2 inches long and has lots of dark hair! 

The day before at my appointment I was dilated to a 5 and her head was right there. The dr was surprised she hadn't come but they scheduled for me to be induced that Thursday, 41 weeks in my pregnancy. I was pretty bummed she hadn't come by that point but I knew I'd have her soon! I went to work and filled out my maternity leave form, got a couple things done and left until July 10th! 

I'd started having contractions throughout the night but they started being consistent around 6 that morning. They were about 9 minutes apart. Tony went to work and I told him I'd call him if they got any closer together. Around 9-9:30 I called Tony's mom to give her a heads up that I might need her to give me a ride to the hospital because they were about 6 minutes apart and I figured it would be easier to just meet tony there rather than him coming all the way home. I told tony that I still had to wait until they got to be about 5 minutes apart and didn't know how long that would take. About a half hour later they were 5 minutes apart so my mother in law took me to the hospital and we met up with tony. 

Thy checked me and I hadn't dilated any more from my appointment the day before. They said if I didn't progress in an hour thy were going to send me home...it didn't sound too promising. Then about 20 minutes before they were going to send me home a nurse came in and told me I was being admitted....I was so relieved. A little while later my dr came in and broke my water and started me on pitocin to help my contractions be more effective in helping me dilate. I definitely started to hurt then. Tony was joking around trying to make me laugh and I was not in the mood ha. I got an epidural and that didn't hurt nearly as bad as them trying to start an iv(the blew one vein so my hand is all bruised, couldn't get it the second time and finally got it the third time). Once the epidural started working I could still feel the contractions on one side. I kept praying that it would spread because I was in a lot of pain. I was a whole new woman once that epidural started working on both sides! Much happier....which I'm sure tony appreciated! At about 5:30ish I was fully dilated but Riley's head hadn't fully descended so I couldn't start pushing. And the nursing staff was changing at 6. At about 6:15 the nurses came in and started setting things up. I had great nurses that told me exactly what I needed to do! I started pushing at about 6:25ish and Riley came at 6:41. I couldn't feel a thing! The dr kept commenting on how much hair she had as she was coming out. Once Riley came out they handed her to me and I couldn't help crying, I finally had my baby girl! She was funny colored but so beautiful to me! Tony had been standing by my head and after the first push he had to go sit on the couch so he didn't pass out haha. But I loved looking at his face after he saw her. Tony was so great through it all. 

They took Riley to clean and measure her while the dr stitched me up. I had a second degree tear as well as a tear on my urethra...that's been fun to deal with, not. I'd been wanting skin to skin contact as soon as possible and to breastfeed, but things didn't quite work out the way I wanted it to. I was able to breastfeed within about 45 minutes though. After about an hour or so they moved me into another room for the night. 

It was so great watching tony with her. He loves her so much! He's really good with her! I fall more in love with him evey day seeing him with Riley. 

Recovering at the hospital was alright. I ended up passing out the first time I got up to go to the bathroom and I was a little weak for awhile. Overall things were pretty good. I had a hard time figuring out how to breastfeed. This little one had a very hard time latching at first. We're still struggling getting her to latch correctly on one side, but once we get it she eats like a champ! We were able to go home Thursday afternoon, so I wasn't in the hospital for 24 hours after delivery. The experience really wasn't as horrible as I thought....I'm just so grateful I had an epidural! Best thing ever! 

Coming home has been really good. I've been a bit of a hormonal wreck a few times. I feel bad because tony wants so badly to make things better when I cry but there isn't anything to make it better sometimes. I know it's hard on him when he can't help. Riley had to get her bilirubin levels checked twice because the kept rising, but the dr said she's okay now. At her 3 day weight check she hadn't lost or gained any weight which is good. 

Getting used to breasrfeeding has probably been the most draining for me. Even though she's doing really well I never realized how hard it would be to devote so much time to it, on top of trying to recover and rest. I know it will get easier, it's just hard right now. 

I got sick this morning and I think it affected Riley too. She kept eating almost every hour and then she'd poop it all out. I think we both just had a rough day while dad was at work. Once tony got home Riley started to feed normally and then she slept for 2 hours or so, which meant that I could finally sleep! I really needed it. This evening has gone so so much better. We left Riley with Tony's mom for about an hour while we went to the store. It was so weird not having her with us. 

We're going down to San Diego this weekend and I can't wait! I'm so excited to see my family and have them meet Riley! I'm not looking forward to the drive down, but it will be worth it!