Piper- TWO months

I don't understand how Piper is already TWO months old (actually even older than that since I've been super delayed in blogging about it)! Sweet girl is so much fun & her amazing personality comes out to shine more and more each day! I still haven't got around to taking her picture with her two month sticker (whoops) but oh well, I post at least one picture of her a day, I think we all know what she looks like LOL. Thank you to my dear friend Jessica for letting me steal her blog template :)

Here are some pics of P from the past month. Love my happy baby so much!

weight: Piper had her 2 month appointment last Wednesday & weighs a whopping 11.3 pounds! She's our little chunky monkey.

length: 22.4 inches

diaper size: Size 1. I go back and forth between favoring pampers and huggies. I change my mind just about every day. Those are the only two diaper brands we've tried so far. We do have some Luvs I will probably open up soon.

clothing size: 0-3 month & 3 month

nicknames: P, Pipes, sweet girl

health: Doing good! I will admit I'm nervous about this going downhill now that she has started daycare.

sleep: Varies by day. She has slept through the night once and can usually go 5-6 hours before waking up, but that doesn't mean she always wants to. A lot of the problem is she falls asleep after eating about an ounce and then I have to decide if I should wake her up to eat more or put her in her bed. Usually bed wins! Last night we were up at 11:45 (1 oz), 1:00 (2 oz), 3:45 (2 oz), & 5 (2 oz). I hate when she wakes up at 3:45 because we're usually finishing up right when its time for Sean to get up and get ready for work which ends up keeping Piper up until about 5.

diet: Soy formula plus she gets about half an ounce to an ounce of pear juice a day.

baby gear love: We would not be making it without our Baby Breeza. If you're formula feeding I HIGHLY recommend it. There is nothing better than Piper waking up at 2 & all I have to do to make her bottle is hit the start button and I get the perfect temperature and the right size bottle. 

baby gear hate: So last month we were all about Piper's rock n play but we haven't used it in a few weeks. Piper has torticollis and while I don't think her rock n play caused it, it definitely didn't help it. Once we discovered she was extremely favoring one side when she sleeps and noticed that side of her head becoming flatter we switched her out of it to sleeping flat. It helped, but she still is going to have to do some physical therapy to stretch out her little neck muscles :(

likes: Her blankie! Also likes her car seat, sticking her tongue out/licking the air (seriously LOL), being held where she can look around at everything (little miss nosey rosey), sleeping on her tummy, & snuggling with mommy and daddy.

dislikes: Piper likes most things so far! I guess the biggest thing is she likes to be held when sleeping or laying flat on her tummy. She's not so into her boppy pillow or her swing. She's low maintenance ;)

milestones: Piper is a champ at holding her head up! This is just because shes nosey & wants to be able to look around.

things we have done in the last month: The biggest has definitely been starting daycare! But we also had our first Thanksgiving & have met Santa twice ;)

Piper- One Month

I can't believe my sweet baby is one month old! We can't imagine life without  her & I'm' so grateful that I have another month off with my sweet girl. Here are some facts and tidbits about Piper at one month. 

I weigh... 9.5 pounds!

I wear newborn size diapers. 

I wear some newborn clothes and some 0-3 months. 

I sleep pretty good. I used to wake up every two hours to eat but last night was our best night yet! I ate at 10, 3, & 7! Hoping this keeps up + gets even better!

I've just recently switched and am eating about 3-4 ounces at a time!

I had been eating 2 ounces every 2 hours but as stated I'm starting to eat a little more so we're going a little longer in between feedings. 

I  love my rock n play, the kitchen light, eating, & kisses from mommy and daddy!

Piper's Birth Story

My happy little family

<3

So in love

Such a good daddy

Piper's coming home outfit my wonderful sister made :)

Waiting for the first time at the hospital

My very last bump pic!

Well there will be no 40 week post for Miss Piper! Somebody decided she wanted to come 4 days early & that was quite alright with me :) I got extremely lucky with not only my pregnancy but with Piper's birth, which is something I prayed for before we even knew about our Piper. So even though it was a mostly easy labor, it's still called labor for a reason. So here are most of the details surrounding her coming into the world! Fair warning, this is LONG!

Wednesday, October 12th, I had my 39 week appointment with my dr. I was a little worried when we got there because Piper had slowed extremely in her movements to the point where I spent an hour and a half before I went to the dr trying to get her to move without much luck. So my dr listened to her heartbeat and declared it good, but we still went ahead and hooked up to a stress test monitor to see her movements. All was declared good and we finished the appointment. As I mentioned in my 39 week post (& multiple others) I was starting to get a wee bit over pregnancy. Which sounds so terrible esp considering I really had no major issues but sleep was really becoming an ordeal and I LOVE my sleep. We talked it over with my dr and decided to induce Piper on Monday, October 17th (her due date), if she didn't come before then. My dr seemed optimist we'd see her before then & she turned out to be right!

Wednesday night we went to serve at youth at our church like always. It was a little bittersweet because I knew it would be my last Wednesday helping out for the foreseeable future. Towards the end of the night we split into small groups. While Sean was leading ours I had several sharp pains in my belly but didn't think too much of it.

Once we're home I decide to take a hot bath to see if that helps the sharp pains. It didn't really and then I decided to try to go to sleep. But I really couldn't because I kept feeling like I had to pee. So I would get up and not be able to and then have a ton of pressure down south. Around this time Sean went to sleep (it was almost 10) and I started to clue into that maybe what I was feeling was contractions.

At this point I downloaded an app that could track the contractions for me and just kind of settled in to see what was going to happen. By this point it's 10 and this is when I count labor as "starting" for me. I proceeded to track them until almost 2. I talked with my friend Kayla about them until about midnight and then she went to sleep. Around 12:30 I started talking to my friend Ashley about them and she went into freakout mode when I told her it'd been about two hours. The problem was the timing between them wasn't very consistent and I didn't want to go in and be sent home.

I called L&D around 1:45 and explained that I was having contractions every 4-5 mins and had watched them increase since 10. They told me I could come in and get checked. I decided to wait till 2 to wake Sean just to make sure. He was so cute when I woke him up.

Me: hey I think we should probably go to the hospital
Sean: *eyes widen* did your water break?!
Me: well no but I've been having contractions since 10 so I think it might be a good idea

We get to the hospital around three and my friend Ashley meets us there. At this point my mom and sister (who it was planned would both be in the delivery room with us) knew we were at the hospital but were waiting it out to see if it would amount to anything. We get settled in and they check me and I wasn't any further along than I had been at my appointment earlier that day, between a 2-3 & 80% effaced. So that was discouraging especially because we could see that my contractions had increased in pain and number. They decided to have me walk for about 25 mins and check again.

At the next check I still hadn't changed and was given two options. I could go home and come back when either my water broke or my contractions were stronger or we could wait another hour and do more walking and be checked again. But if still nothing had changed would have to go until something else happened. So even though I really didn't want to leave we chose to just go then because I really didn't want to waste anyone's time.

Sean and I decided to stop for donuts on the way home but I was feeling pretty nauseated and didn't want to eat. So we head towards home and are no more than a block from our house when my water broke. At this point I essentially burst into tears. I couldn't believe we were just going to have to turn around and go back and I was terrified my water hadn't really broke and we would be sent home again. Sean tried to immediately turn around to head back but I freaked out and said I wanted to go home first. We pulled over in a church parking lot and I told Sean I needed to get out. At this point water is still basically pouring from me and I made Sean smell it to make sure it really wasn't pee. LOL He confirmed it wasn't so we went home. I changed which was dumb. I was even warned not to change but your brain just doesn't work! Immediately soaked through that and just said whatever. We grabbed a towel and went to leave.

Once outside again the first of the after water breaking contractions began. It was very intense and caused me to start to throw up. So I'm standing to the side of our driveway heaving without much luck of anything coming up because I hadn't ate since before church the night before. I joked with Sean as we went to leave when I was done that I sure was glad he loved me because I knew I was looking a hot mess!

We make it back to the hospital around 6 without any major complications. Because of my nauseousness they gave me a small bucket to hold in my lap for being wheeled back up to labor and delivery (which I never used to throw up in thank goodness). Y'all I became attached to this bucket, think Tom Hanks and Wilson his volleyball in Castaway!

For the next two hours I got blood drawn, an iv put in, and checked (I got to a 4 in the almost hour we'd been gone) all before getting my epidural WHILE having horrible contractions. Let me tell you right now, I have the highest respect for those who go through childbirth completely naturally! Whether you 100% chose to or you had no other options doesn't matter you are AMAZING!!! I was dilated to a 6 by the time I got my epidural and I know there is just no way I could have labored on through all that!

Sean was such a trooper. During that two hours it was just us at the hospital and I know I was not a lot of fun. I was having off the charts contractions about every two minutes and basically wanted to die every time I had one. This isn't an exaggeration for me,  but I also have a low pain tolerance! I didn't want to be touched or talked to really. Back to the bucket, I held it in my right hand the whole time until I got my epi. At one point Sean tried to take it from me because I was essentially just holding it up in the air and I semi freaked out! It had become something for me to focus on during contractions haha and I very much needed it!

The time before the epi and after are like night and day. Once the epidural was in I was a much happier person! My mom got there right after I got it and my sister arrived soon after that. At this point it was around 8 and then it was just a waiting game. Our pastor came by and prayed with us and then later brought us some snack goodies. Mostly we all just sat around talking. I tried to take a small nap since I'd been up over 24 hours by this point but it's hard to rest when you're so excited.

A little before 12 my nurse and nursing student came in and checked me and I was at a 10 so we practice pushed. Y'all, LOL. With my epi I couldn't feel anything so the first practice pushes were a big waste as I did nothing. They came back after 12 and I'd say around 12:30 I'd kinda figured out what to do and we got down to business.

Pushing really wasn't that bad for me either. I could feel some pressure with the contractions which would let me know when to push. I did end up getting pitocin to help make the contractions closer together so we weren't just sitting there for like 5 minutes in between. They also turned my epidural down so that I could push better. When my dr came we were worried I wasn't progressing a lot and they might have to vacuum Piper out but luckily it wasn't necessary! 

Our perfect baby came into the world at 1:57 pm and I could not stop crying right after! I knew I would but it's still so shocking when you see your baby & are like this, I made this!! This feeling hasn't gone away in the past 4 days. We are so in love and awe of our perfect baby girl. Sean is such an amazing dad and my heart is just so full!!!

& that's Piper's birth story! Congrats to you if you read the whole thing! LOL

39 Weeks

 

glasses glare.... 

Weeks: 39 Weeks people!! One week (maybe) to go!

Baby: As big as a watermelon... what!? This must be a tiny watermelon! 19-22 inches long & 7 pounds. Idk how legitimate these numbers are anymore, time will tell!

Total weight gain: Last week I was at 45 total. So between that & 50 I'm sure and I ate a massive amount of potato soup this weekend, so my bet is on 50 lol

 
Maternity clothes? Si.
 
Stretch marks? Still nothing! Feel like I'm gonna jinx it and have a ton pop up this week lol
 
Sleep: I wake up literally every hour after I fall asleep and go potty. Every single night. So that typically has me up about 7-8 times a night LOL so that's fun.
 
Favorite moment of the week: I did a lot of shopping for Miss Piper last week! Rhea Lana's was good to us and I can't wait to have my squishy home and in her cute little sleepers.

Miss anything? I'm seriously counting down till I get to eat my entire package of celebratory cookie dough that's in my fridge when we get home from the hospital.
 
Movement: Yep. A little slower these days because she has literally no room.
 
Cravings? Still just the usual. Although I would still love love love some chicken rings if anyone knows where to find any!
 
Anything make you queasy or sick? Nope!
 
Gender prediction: Girl :) there's been some jokes lately about what if you have her and turns out she's a boy. My answer is always that I will just cry and cry and cry haha no offense to any possible future Bennett boys, but currently you're not welcome! I'm ready to welcome a sweet Bennett girl!

Labor signs: Dilated to a 2 & 70% effaced. Friday & Saturday night I had some contraction like pains for about an hour each but then they would go away of course so we'll see.

Symptoms: Same old same old.
 
Belly button in or out? Out.
 
Wedding rings on or off? Off. I'm so ready to wear them again!

Mood: Pretty good!
 
Looking forward to: Seeing what this week brings for us! Hopefully our sweet girl :)

Freak-out moment of the week: Hmm. I think I was good this week.

Thankful for: Modern medicine. I commend all those who go about labor naturally, but that is not my birth plan at all! I'm slightly terrified something will go wrong and I'll have to go the natural way, but I'm trying to remain positive and tell myself I can hold out till I can and will get an epidural LOL

38 Weeks

Weeks: 38 Weeks people!! The end is in sight!

Baby: As big as a swiss chard. I only know what chard is thanks to Parks & Recreation lol 19-22 inches long & 6.5 pounds. Idk how legitimate these numbers are anymore, time will tell!

Total weight gain: Last week I was at 43 total. So if you're paying attention, that means I gained 5 pounds in a week. So fun. I go back Wednesday. I'd say we're close to 50 now.

 
Maternity clothes? Si.
 
Stretch marks? Still nothing.
 
Sleep: Without wanting to jinx it, this actually improved this last week which was wonderful! For my reflux, I stop eating at least 3 hours prior to going to sleep. I take tums when I get home from work, Pepcid after dinner, Tums before bed, and eat saltines before bed. + I still sleep reclined. All of this combined with the fact that Piper is a little lower seems to be doing the trick LOL
 
Favorite moment of the week: On Saturday night Sean's mom, Kayla, & I went shopping at rhea lana's! Does Piper have a lot of clothes already? Of course. Did that stop me from getting her more? Of course not. lol But i got her a lot of cute outfits and came in $1 under budget so I'm calling that a win lol

Miss anything? TMI, but I super miss not going to the bathroom literally every hour. And sometimes that's with me holding it for a bit lol
 
Movement: Yeah. She's still my little wiggle worm.
 
Cravings? I've still been pretty into ice cream. I got a blast from sonic on saturday & had them mix oreos & m&m's and omg it was so good!
 
Anything make you queasy or sick? Nothing this past week thank goodness!
 
Gender prediction: Girl :)

Labor signs: Still just Braxton-Hicks contractions & round ligament pain. I would say both are def picking up though. When I went to the Dr. last week I was dilated to a 1 & 70% effaced. Hoping more progress has happened this week, although Piper is on strict commands from multiple people to wait until next week lol

Symptoms: Same old same old.
 
Belly button in or out? Literally just the top half is out LOL
 
Wedding rings on or off? Off.

Mood: It's amazing what not throwing up in the middle of the night can do for your mood lol
 
Looking forward to: Meeting Piper!! Knowing it's so close is so exciting and terrifying all wrapped up in one.

Freak-out moment of the week: I swear if I see 1 more animal cruelty post on fb!

Thankful for: Having time to get prepared for P's arrival. I'm a planner (shocking to all of you I know ;) ) so I've been mostly ready for the last month but I feel like at this point she can come and we're going to be as ready as we could be! It's nice that now we're just waiting for her and not scrambling to get everything finished.