Smiles

Lily has learned how to smile! She smiles all the time now. I read somewhere that a newborn will copy you if you stick out your tongue. It is true! I even got it on video. Lily has become so much more fun to play with lately.

Last nights tropical storm

Last night we were supposed to be hit by Tropical Storm Ernesto. Or maybe we were hit by T.S. Ernesto, I don't know if it actually hit us or not, but either way....it wasn't very strong. I think the thunder storm we had last week was stronger! Brandi came over to ride out the storm here and we were all closed up in the house just in case. Lily went to sleep around eleven and Brandi and I stayed up and watched movies. When I went to bed after 2AM, I was dreading the lack of sleep I had just set mysef up for, but much to my suprise.....Lily slept almost through the night. She woke up around 6:30AM, I changed her, and fed her then she went straight back to sleep. It was a miracle. She finished her bottle, burped and then fell instantly sound asleep. I went back to bed expecting to be up again in about two hours. I woke up at 10:45AM wondering if Brandi or Ross had gotten Lily because surely she wasn't still asleep. I checked on her and SHE REALLY WAS STILL SLEEPING!!! I took a shower and then checked on her again. She was now awake but not crying or anything. Just laying there in her bed all bright eyed and cute. I said "good morning sunshine" and she looked right at me and smiled the biggest smile! I love being a mom!

Professional photos

Yesterday I took Lily to have her picture taken. Wow it is expensive! I went to Sears with my coupon for "no session fees and a free 5x5" and ended up spending almost a hundred bucks! For some reason I thought it would be rather cheap....wrong. I even told the chick to give me the cheapest thing and turned down all the extras that I was offered. And then tonight, I talk to David and find out that Sharah (his girlfriend) is in the process of becoming a professional photographer AND she will be here in two days! Damn I wish I knew that yesterday! oh well. at least I have some FABULOUS pictures of my sweets.
Anyway, enough bitching about the money I have to tell you that Lily was so funny getting her picutre made! She really gave the photographer a tough time. She would stare at her and stare at her and then as soon as everything was ready she would look away. And we have more proof that she is advanced. Take a look at the picture where she is on her stomach. It took about 10 takes to get that one because she kept trying to crawl off the pillow. She is only 6 weeks old, can't hold her head up yet and is trying to CRAWL!!!! She'll be at Harvard soon!

Hurricane Ernesto

I have lived in hurricane prone areas all my life, and have been in several. Eva, Erin, Opal, Charlie, Katrina, Rita & Wilma. This time, with Ernesto threatening Florida, I feel completely different. Now it isn't just me, I have a newborn to consider! My dad and Ross both think we should evacuate. But if you see the future-track, it includes the entire Florida Peninsula! I have friends and family all up and down both Florida coasts, but are they really any safer than here? What if it misses here but hits wherever I evacuate to? Then we would be in a hurricane AND away from home. So, we have decided to stay. We aren't in a flood zone and we have hurricane shutters. We already stocked up on batteries, can goods, diapers, and dog food. Later today we will go get gas and water, then tomorrow stock up on ice. I just hate that Ross will have to be at work. They don't close the bar until the power goes out. So, like in Katrina, he may be still at work when it hits! Hopefully Brandi & Godzuki will come over.

Spoke too soon

I knew I shouldn't have bragged about how good Lily had been about sleeping throughout the night. The past couple of days it doesn't seem like she sleeps at all unless we are out somewhere. She only seems to sleep when there is no way that we can sleep at that same time. Like at the grocery store! We are both exhausted.
Well, a little of the exhaustion is self induced because I had to go to a trade show yesterday. I guess I didn't HAVE to go, but it was important for me to go in order to grow my business. Things have been going really well with my website. If things keep up at this pace I will be making big bucks by Christmas! I opened the store the same week as Lily was born, so it is 6 weeks old. Each week I have sold more than the last, and this week I have sold over $700 worth of merchandise and there is still one day left of my work week. My goal is $2000.00 a week. I am getting to the point where I am very low on inventory, so this is why the trade show was so important. I picked up only two new products but they are ones that I am very excited about. I am going to add Bahay Bags to the addictedtorockabilly.com site and college themed purses and totes to sell at ebay (auctionbums2006). Of course FSU, and also UF, UM, Ohio State, Penn State, and Texas. That should keep me busy until it is time to roll-out the Halloween costumes!

Success!!

I doubt that it will happen again for awhile, but last night Lily slept so good! She went to sleep at 11Pm, and did not wake up again until 6:45AM. Then she had a nappy change, and a feed, then right back to sleep until 11AM!! WAHOO! I woke up when Ross came home from work at 5:30AM and couldn't believe that she had slept that whole time. And to top off my great beginning of a day, her diaper rash has started clearing up....AND the diarrhea has gone away!! oh happy day!

Playtime

Brandi went to Vegas for Sam & Tony's wedding and brought Lily back that cute Viva Las Vegas Elvis onsie....so cute!

I got bored and started pulling out Lily's toys that she is too small to play with. Veronika & Ned got her this Bumbo chair that Nichole keeps singing the praises of. The box said that it is for infants who can hold their head up. Well, what about infants who have moms that hold their heads for them? Seems to work ok. I don't know how much fun it is for her, but it gave me 10 minutes of entertainment.

Doctor

(picture is Marje and Ross way back on August 3)
Lily has had a mild case of diarrhea since last Tuesday. I wasn't really that worried about it because she wasn't showing any signs of dehydration, but because it had been so long, we took her to the doctor just in case. Of course, she is fine. Doc said we shouldn't worry as long as she is eating well, and everything else is normal. The worst part is the horrible diaper rash that she has developed because of it. Her poor little bum is so raw and she wails every time we have to clean her up. It hurts me to hear her scream like that too. One of the "mommy changes" that I have developed is that I cry every time she does. This evening we went down to the beach for our walk and she got cranky and screamed the entire car ride back. I must have looked like a moron to anyone who saw me driving along with tears pouring down my face. Oh yeah, back to my story, the doctor said that Lily is growing well and even a little ahead of the average (Her Granddad in Zim has been telling everyone that she is advanced....now he is proven right!) She weighs 9lbs 12oz. She weighed 8lb 2oz at her 2 week check up.
Oh yeah, I can't believe that I didn't write this first...Lily is learning how to smile! She doesn't do it all the time, but every now and then if she isn't tired or cranky, you can get her to smile at you by putting your face really close to hers. Before now her smiles have only been gas. She is working really hard at holding her head up on her own too. She now prefers to be held up on your shoulder so she can practice. The bad thing about this is that every now and then she loses control and head butts you in the mouth or spits up down your back. :)

Zelda, Kenny and Zits

Zelda is driving me crazy! I know that Jack Russells need alot of attention but this one has gone off the deep end. Ross plays with her constantly (She gets more attention than Lily and I combined!) and I take her for a long walk or a run 6 days a week. She has a doggy door and a yard to play in, but all this just simply isn't enough for her. Today I took her running with me and she ran 2 miles, and then was bugging me to play catch with her 5 minutes after we got home!! Right now she is in my lap because she was crying for attention. Doesn't she understand that I am TIRED!
Ross got a new camera from his mum, so that one with Lily looking like Kenny from South Park is Ross's doing. I was at work so I am not sure if he was having trouble dressing her, or if he just thought she looked funny. Either way, I thought it was cute.
Lily has acne! I had acne really bad during my pregnancy and was so happy when it cleared up, until I realized that I gave it to my child! Everyone (including her doctor) says that it is normal, but I don't like it. I want her to have beautiful baby skin like the babies in magazines!

2nd post today....I'm catching up!

I don't know how well you will be able to see these pictures, but they are amazing! They are pictures of Lily compared to pictures of Ross and I. I was trying to determine which one of us she looks like, but comparing these pictures only made it harder to determine the answer to that question. The first 3 are Ross and the rest are Me.

Five Weeks old today

(These pictures are from two weeks ago 8-3)Wow time is flying by! Lily is eating loads and pooping loads too! I remember when I was pregnant and had 5 weeks to go and it seemed like FOREVER but now that the countdown is working in the opposite direction, the clock seems to be running much faster.
David and Sharah were supposed to be arriving for a visit today, but unfortunately Sharah had a family emergency and they had to postpone. We are sad about that :(
Yesterday I had my last post-pardom (is that spelled right?) doctor visit. Everything is good. My doctor promised me that my strange scar swelling would go away. I was really worried about it too because I found articles on the net about it and they called it the "cesarean overhang" and had pictures of all these women's scars where it never went away. I am keeping my fingers crossed that my doc is right. Another good thing is that she gave me the ok to excersize again! We took a family run last night around the neighborhood. I had Zelda on a leash, and Ross pushed Lily in the stroller. I came back to the house and did sit-ups and push-ups too. It felt so good to work out again. The part that sucks though is that I am so fat that my belly jiggles when I run.....yuck! More motovation to keep it up. This afternoon when I got off work I went running up and down the beach and now I am so stiff. I LOVE IT!

Sleep torture, sucking fingers, and hats

Don't get me wrong, Lily is WONDERFUL and most of the time she sleeps very well. However, Every now and then we get sleep tortured. Look closely at the picture of Ross and you will see Lily's little body beside him. Here is how the sleep torture goes. Lily goes to bed, I quickly clean up and try to get myself to bed asap. A half hour passes and Lily wakes up screaming. I get her out of bed, rock her for awhile she falls fast asleep again. Lily back in bed, I get back in bed. another half hour passes and we go through the entire procedure again. Then we get to the point where she doesn't even need to be rocked. She will go back to sleep if you just put your hand on her and move her a little. This is torture! Somehow it isn't exhausting for her, but as you can see by the look on Ross's face, it is very tiring! We have tried putting her in our bed but it is so squishy that she rolls over into us and I am afraid that I will suffocate her so there is no way to sleep like that either. So, we have to make a palate on the floor in order to sleep with her.

The finger thing. When I was a kid I didn't suck my thumb, I sucked two fingers. It HAD to be those two fingers. Not any other. My parents finally broke me of it when I was about 4 by taping my index finger to my middle finger and my ring finger to my pinkie like star trek. I have caught Lily doing this twice! Crazy huh?

The hat. I ADORE it! The little outfit was a gift and it even has matching undies! It is a little too big for her, but I couldn't resist. She wore the hat the whole day too. That is, until Ross got a hold of her and then it disapeared. He thinks it looks stupid. He dislikes it so much that he wouldn't take these pictures to work with the rest of them! What do you think of the hat?

What the books don't tell you

I must have read a dozen books on pregnancy and childbirth, and none of them talked about what I like to call "the aftermath". I guess people are just supposed to know what a wreck pregnancy leaves your body in. Maybe because I don't have a mom, but no one warned me about all of this. I must have missed that memo.
I am just shocked at the condition of my body. Sure, I expected that I would be fat and I expected that it would take me awhile to get back in shape, but I didn't expect this!
1. Every ab muscle has disappeared completely. If I lay on my back and poke my belly, I can feel that I do not have a single abdominal muscle left. I have never had a washboard stomach, but I have always been able to feel at least some muscle under the fat. Not anymore.
2. Hormones effect hair growth. I swear my legs are hairy again 4 hours after shaving them.
3. If you have no ab muscles, you cannot suck in your gut.
4. a C-section scar swells up. Not only does my fat gut stick out of my clothes, but so does my c-section scar. I am serious! You can see the swollen lump through my clothes! it is the weirdest looking thing! It is disgusting. My doctor tells me that it will go away eventually, but it could take months....Great!
5. Fat clothes don't even fit! I feel mighty stupid wearing maternity clothes while you are pushing a stroller!
6. Hormones effect eyesight. I went into the hospital with perfectly fine sight and came out so blind that I can't read street signs anymore.

Not everything is bad though...
I have come out of pregnancy with some good changes too.
1. I have realized that I really don't need to be wasted to be social.
2. My nails grow longer and stronger than they ever have. For most people this happens DURING pregnancy, but I guess I am a late bloomer.
3. My acne has cleared up.

I guess that once you have a baby so much attention is focused on her that everyone forgets to tell you about these things. I am writing them here so that maybe we can have some pregnancy aftermath awareness!!

Lily is 3 weeks old already

Time has been flying by! I have been so busy and I love it! I was so bored during my pregnancy and now I am too busy to read my emails. This week my dad came to town to meet his first granddaughter. He arrived on Monday and left on Thursday so it was a hectic week. Fun though. Wednesday night Marge (Ross's Mum) watched Lily while Ross, my Dad, Brandi and I all went out. My first drinks since Halloween went down a little too smoothly. We all got good and drunk. It was so much fun, but Ross and I realized that we are not going to be able to both get that drunk at the same time until Lily gets older. In the middle of the night we each had to take turns holding her while the other one vomited. It was quite a circus act.
With Marge's extra help around the house I have still been able to open my new webstore even! I haven't done as much with it as I would like to, but thank goodness that I have a laptop and wireless internet. I hold Lily with one hand and try to manage web-building with the other. It is a slow process but it is working. Exciting too. I haven't started advertising yet, but I have actually had quite a few sales. Each week my sales have doubled from the week before so if I can keep that up (or at least just keep a weekly increase), it may just pay off afterall.

My two loves!

Isn't this the sweetest thing?

11 days with baby....my boobs hurt!

Breastfeeding sucks! My nipples are so sore that they hurt constantly. Newborns have to eat every 2 to 4 hours and I am beginning to think that is all I do. Thankfully I have this great book that Missy bought for me months and months ago about breastfeeding that has a journal part and a daily chart to keep track of everything. I realized at the hospital that I was going to have to write everything down because I was constantly being asked "how long since she fed?" and I was constantly answering "uh........well......um......I think it was about..." And in order to be able to determine if she is eating enough, you need to keep track of how much she pees and poops. This journal thingy is great too because there is also a chart to keep track of everything I eat. I can't fit into any of my clothes and I am still wearing maternity clothes, so that will turn out to be useful too. At the doctor's office last Wednesday I weighed 158 pounds. Pre-pregnancy I weighed 128........I think I went way overboard on the pregnancy weight gain!
Hopefully Lily and I will get this breastfeeding technique down soon so my boobs won't hurt so much. Everything I read says that if baby "latches on" correctly than it isn't painful and then they go through the steps of a "proper Latch" but obviously we haven't gotten it down right.
Wish us luck!

Experiencing Childbirth

They say that childbirth is a miracle, I cannot think of any better way to describe it. It was definitely the most spiritual experience that I have ever encountered. The cycle of life is the most amazing thing. I cannot explain the joy that I was feeling at the moment that this picture was taken. As I write this Lily is one week old and this is her original due date, and I cry every time I see this picture. I had it very easy because I didn't have to do labor, but I was so scared none the less.
I had to start fasting at midnight Wednesday and we went to the hospital at 9:30AM. They sent us to the family waiting room and left us there with no more information or anything until 12:30PM. At that time a nurse (her name was Lillian!) came and told us that there had been too many births that day and that they would be moving my surgery back to 5PM. I begged her to let me have something to drink because I was SOOOOO thirsty, and she caved and gave me about an ounce of crushed ice (so generous). By this time my Aunt Charlotte, her boyfriend, and my cousin Sandy had arrived so we all went back to my house to kill a few hours. I went to sleep because I was so weak from lack of food or water and they all went out to eat. I got the best sleep that I have had in months because I didn't have to get up to pee every 15 minutes.
At 5 I called the hospital and they said for me to wait a few more minutes to let them find out weather or not they could do the procedure. At this point I am dying of thirst. Finally, when I called back at 6 they said come on in and we'll operate. Off we went.
As we are walking into the hospital I start to panic because unlike earlier that day, I am now wide awake and VERY scared of the operation. They shuffle me around a little because it seems that most of the nurses are unaware that I am supposed to be there. This of course sends me into super-fright because I really want everyone to know exactly what is happening. A c-section may be no big deal to them, but to me, it is a very big deal!
They put me in a gown and after two attempts, put in an IV. This makes my entire arm cold, but completes one of the things that I was scared of. The next thing that I was afraid of comes next....the catheter. Yuck. This pinches a little, but not nearly as bad as I was expecting. Now, more waiting. About 30 minutes later my doctor comes in and says "ok, are you ready?"
By this time I have cried buckets and poor Ross has had to work so hard to reassure me and keep me calm.
Then the hard part. They wheel me into the OR and move me to this very narrow little bed with planks for your arms that stick straight out the sides like a horizontal cross. I have to sit up and curl my back for the epidural. I kept thinking about the fact that I VOLUNTARILY spent three hours letting a tattoo artist put needles in my back so I shouldn't freak about this one. Yes, it hurt. Hurt like hell. And it made me twitch, but about 30 seconds later I started losing feeling in my feet. ahhh relax a little. Within a minute I could no longer move my legs. From here everything moved very quickly. Ross was next to me stroking my head and made me feel so good about everything. I felt like I was going to vomit so he held a pan under my chin. They adjusted my meds and the vomit feeling went away. I then had a hard time breathing and they adjusted something else and that went away.
The only thing I can feel at this time is what feels like people pushing on my stomach in all different areas. I felt this for about 10 minutes or so then I felt this spiritual out of body experience. Literally. I felt Lily coming out of my body! But not physically. I just knew it in my heart. Then I hear the doctor call the time of birth. Then I hear her cry.
I can't explain what I felt here. The best feeling in the world.
I see here over at a table over to the side and they are cleaning her up. They brought her over so I could see her and all I could do was cry. I couldn't move any part of my body and I couldn't hold her, but they put her close enough for her to touch my cheek and I could kiss her. This is the most special moment of my life. Everything else I have ever done is unimportant.
It took another 30 minutes or so for them to sew me up and then they turned off the meds and I began to be able to move my arms and after they moved me to the rolling bed they let me hold my baby. I got to hold her as they wheeled me to recovery and she had her eyes open looking at me the entire time. The rest of the world disappeared.
Once in recovery they took her to the nursery and Ross went too. The drugs knocked me out.

It's a Girl

Thursday, July 13, 2006
8:46 PM
7 lbs 9 oz
17.5 inches

Nesting, Belly Lines, Veins and heartburn

I think Ross is nesting more than I am. I feel like I am set up and ready, as far as the house goes. I have a to-do-before-Thursday list, but it mostly entails things like exchanging duplicate gifts and finishing thank you notes and getting my website orders up to date in order to leave it for a few days. I am not feeling the overwhelming urdge to decorate or clean as I keep reading about. I think Ross is though. He is a VERY neat person anyway, but this past week he has over cleaned and tackled little home projects that we both have been setting asside for months. But of course, his mum is arriving the same day as Lily, so maybe he is also trying to prepare to show off his house to his mum? Either way, he doesn't say much about being excited, but it is easy to see that he is feeling some rush from all of this.

I am dying to know what my belly will look like after the surgery. I keep reading that it still takes awhile to shrink back down and to expect to look about 5 months pregnant when leaving the hospital, but I have gotten so used to this giant entity that hangs out in front of me, that I forgot what that was like. Couple of weird things too. There is this thing called the Linea Niegra (I may be spelling that wrong) that is a dark pigmented line that goes from the belly button to about where your pubic hair starts (not a hairy line, it is your actual skin). Aparently, everyone has this, but it only shows up on pregnant ladies and is supposed to go away after birth. I never got this, but if you look at my belly shot, I DO have one, it is just from my belly button UP! I completely have a backward child! Maybe it is because her father is from the other hemisphere! :)
Another gross thing about my belly. You can see all my viens on the sides. Sure hope that goes away.
Lots of people at this stage of pregnancy experience the baby "dropping" and it is supposed to change the discomforts a little. It is supposed to put more pressure on the bladder, but at the same time releiving the out of breath feeling and the heartburn a little. Well, because Lily is sideways, she can't drop. So, unfortunately, no relief of the heartburn. I would gladly trade off a few more bathroom visists to get rid of some of the flames inside my esophogus!

6-30-2006

Sorry about the delay, I just haven't downloaded my camera lately, this was from June 30th.

This is the way I dress around the house all the time. Poor Ross, he may never find me attractive ever again. This is a tank top that was small, back when I was small! And as you can see, I am wearing it inside out because I am completely unwilling to put out the effort to dress properly.

I'm having a celebrity birth

We just got back from the doctor's office and it is now official. We are having a C-section. They scheduled it for a week from tomorrow. Thursday, July 13th. I am overwhelmed with emotions right now. I am happy that I don't have to go through labor, but I kinda feel like I am cheating. I am nervous about the surgery because I have never had a surgery before. I am frightened that I have to be awake through it too because I am very squeamish about blood and medical stuff. Ross is worried about the money, but I have been broke and in debt for so long that I am used to not having anything in the bank. I am also feeling a rush of nerves because now I no longer have almost 3 weeks to prepare, I have a week! There is so many little loose ends to tie up.
One of the nights that I have to stay in the hospital, Ross is actually going to have to work! His boss took off the whole month of July, which wouldn't be too much of a problem except that his girlfriend who is with him, is also a bartender! AND the other girl that Ross usually works with planned her vacation for the weekend of the 14th so she would make sure to be there to cover for Ross the weekend of the 22nd, but now that the baby is coming a week early, there is no one left to work for Ross. Luckily there is only a conflict on the one night while I am still in the hospital because I think I will really need him more after we come home.
The other conflict is that the 13th is the same day that Marge is getting here from Zimbabwe. She would have been flying for something like 36 hours and arrive to us already having the baby. We are scheduled for surgery at 12:30 and her flight gets in at 4:00. I hope she doesn't mind Brandi picking her up from the airport because I am not letting Ross leave my side!
I don't know if I am really ready to take care of a baby yet! I know I should have been thinking about all this way before now, but I feel like everything just kinda hit me!

Week 37

Baby Shower

WOW did I get a bunch of stuff this weekend at my baby shower! It was great. Brandi, Sam and Veronika put on such a great party for us. Ross didn't get to stay the whole time, because he had to work, but so many people came and shared the afternoon with us. We got TONS of presents....way more than I would have ever expected. We really have some VERY generous friends and family and I really have my work cut out for me writing thank you notes.

I am also so super happy that several of my friends made long journeys to come down. Chris flew down from Atlanta, Nichole from St. Pete and Rikki from Lake City!!! I was really feeling the love this weekend.

Ross and I haven't bought a camera yet, so I am waiting for my friends to send me their copies of the pictures. The ones here are from Rikki. I will post more as soon as people pass them to me.

Hope everyone has a nice and safe independence day celebration. I am going to skip it this year because I really don't want to fight the crowds at the beach and the traffic and the drunks. Zelda and I will probably kick back with a pizza (Ross has to work).

oh, and more exciting stuff. I made a post on Craig's list to try and find a rocking chair and someone is willing to sell me theirs for only $25.00! I have been looking high and low for a rocking chair for months now. All the stores have now-a-days are gliders. I also didn't want to spend a bunch so I have been scouring the yard sales and goodwills. I am thrilled that I finally found one.

Wednesday we find out weather or not we will be scheduling a C-section, so check back!