Fashion Show

Phoebe turns a month old in a couple days, can you believe it? She's almost 11 pounds, she can lift her head briefly, and she nurses like a pro! I'm especially excited that she nurses so well, because it took Gwen three entire months before she would cooperate. That was so stressful. But the only problem we've encountered so far with Phoebe is her bellybutton. It bled for a couple weeks after the stump fell off. It's fine now. She also loves to be cuddled by mommy, so it's hard to put her down, but you can't complain about cuddles! She's a great night time sleeper, too. She came home from the hospital, and that night she slept five hours straight before I woke her up to eat. She even sleeps in her own crib! She's so different than how Gwen used to be. Phoebe's an easy going baby. It's a good thing, too, because my mom just left this morning. This is the first day alone with our children. I'm a bit nervous. My mom did so much while she was here, I hope I'll be able to keep up with everything. Anyway, here are some pictures we took of Phoebe in various outfits. We had a baby fashion show one day and got some really cute bright eyed pics.

Update on Phoebe typed with one hand with baby in arm

Phoebe turned a week old yesterday. I can't believe the time has flown by so fast. Phoebe's bruising has almost completely disappeared and her swelling has subsided considerably. She's so cute and chunky, we can't stop taking pictures of her. She's such a good baby. At night she can sleep for five hours at a time without waking to be fed. I get nervous, so most nights I wake her to feed her. I get pretty good rest. I've been able to heal pretty well, and I'm in very little pain. Today, I even got to walk down the street with Gwen and Logan for some exercise. I can't wait to completely recover so I can get on the floor and wrestle with Gwen. She's a hyper little girl, and I think she thinks I'm boring. But we're adjusting pretty well to having a new member of the family. Phoebe's so relaxed and cries very little. So far she's the complete opposite of Gwen. We love our little baby girl.

Chocolate Pudding

Gwen loves chocolate pudding, apparently. She got more on her face than in her mouth, I think.

Hospital Pictures

I am very swollen in most of these pictures. I'm also drugged, so don't judge too harshly, please. I love my two daughters! Gwen doesn't know what to think of the new baby. It seems as if she doesn't notice her very often, but when she does she smiles and says, "Baby, baby!" We're trying to get her to say Phoebe, but she has no interest in that word yet.
She's a full day old in this picture. I got to spend the entire night with her, and boy does she love to be cuddled! I loved spending so much time bonding with her. She seems to know when I'm not holding her, and she fusses until she's curled up on my shoulder. I love my little/big one.

I got Logan up early in the morning (he spent the night at the hospital with me) so I could walk around, and he couldn't take his eyes off his new baby.

My little girl was so bruised! She went through an awful lot, but she came out beautifully! Can't say the same for me, though.

My momma with her newest granddaughter! She was there the entire time with me, and she even got to cut the umbillical cord. I'm so glad she came. She's been helping me out so much, allowing me to rest and heal while she cooks and takes care of dressing my babies and feeding Gwen (and Logan and me!)

I Guess It Wasn't False Labor!

On the night of February 12th, after my false labor pains, I told Logan that I wanted to go to the hospital to have the baby's heart beat checked. I was worried that all the sporadic contractions I had been having were harmful to the baby, since Gwen didn't fare to well with them when I was in labor with her. Logan didn't want to go at all, because he was sure the baby was fine, and he didn't want to spend hours at the hospital. I gave him my best puppy dog eyes, and he finally took me. As we were filling out our hospital papers, I began having weak contractions again, but they, of course, faded away once I was hooked to contraction monitors. The baby's heart beat looked just fine, and after a couple of hours of being monitored, they told me I could go home. But, five minutes later, they said they wanted to monitor me over night because, as it turned out, the baby's heart beat had dipped just a tiny bit. By this point, I just wanted to go home. I wasn't contracting, I was very uncomfortable lying on my back for two hours, and I was none too pleased that the baby's heart beat was acting up. They admitted me into a labor room just to be monitored, and once I was hooked to a monitor, my water broke!

From there, my contractions picked up, became regular, and became extremly painful. I got an epidural as my doctor suggested to, since I was attempting a slightly risky VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean.) I love epiduals! I didn't feel a thing, and labor flew by after that. I dialted very fast. My water broke at around 12:30am and I began pushing at 8:30am. When pushing began, I didn't think I would be able to get her out. I could move her down, but she wouldn't crown. My doctor suggested to use a vacuum, and I agreed, even though I really didn't want to use one. It's a good thing we did, or else I would have been pushing for hours.

I gave birth on Friday, February 13th at 9:44am to a 9 pound 11 ounce baby girl named Phoebe Elizabeth! Everyone, even the nurses and doctors, cried out when they saw her. They all began betting the weight right away. I can't believe I was able to give birth rather easilly to a baby over 9 pounds! She's my little chunky girl, and she's beautiful! She was very bruised, since it took an hour and a half of pushing to get her out. And since she was so tired, she didn't want to breathe as strongly as the nurses wanted her to. So for a couple of hours, I wasn't allowed to hold her because she was on oxygen. But her levels became normal very fast, and I was allowed to room with her and take care of her. Thank goodness for Logan! I tore very, very badly, and am still heavilly medicated because of it, so Logan was there all night to hand me the baby to be fed, and he changed all her diapers. He was so great.

We came home today (Happy Valentine's Day!) because I could! Since there was no c-section, I was allowed to eat right away after giving birth, and I could go home the next day! I wasn't going to stay in the hospital for longer than I had to. I am in a lot of pain still, but I was in a lot of pain there, too. I have to go feed the new baby now, so here are a couple of pictures to adore until I can post more.

False Labor

This morning I started contracting and it lasted for about 4 hours before they died away. How frustrating! Makes me kind of mad! I'm still contracting a little tiny bit, but the contractions aren't at all regular, and they aren't as strong as they were in the beginning. Ho hum. Maybe this false labor means that real labor is not far away. I hope I hope.

Oh, and I caught a cold yesterday, and Gwen started sneezing and coughing today. I'm scared that I'll have a full out cold by the time I do go into labor. I hope it goes away fast.

Extremely Excited.

I went to my doctor today, and he said I could go at any time! My due date isn't for another 10 days, but he thinks I could go early. I hope so! I'm ready to have this baby! We finally set up her little travel cradle that she'll be sleeping in for a while, and it's extremely cute and aching for a baby! Can you tell I'm really excited? I don't have a cute story to share or anything, I just wanted to post that I could go into labor any day! Ahhh!

My mom is here. She got here yesterday. I'm so thankful! She wasn't able to make the birth of Gwen, but this time she came very early so she wouldn't miss it. This way Logan won't have to take so much time off work, especially if I have to have another c-section. Still excited!

My sister-in-law is being induced tomorrow! She's quite a few days late, so it's great that they're starting her tomoorw. She's having a boy named Hayden. My first nephew. I'm very excited for her too. I think it would be awesome if we had our babies the same day, but I doubt my uterus would cooperate. It'll probably be a few more days for me. But still! Only 10 days! Ahhh!