Evenings with Hannah

Hannah's growing fast! We have her sleeping in her crib at nights now, which has actually made way for more sleep on her part and on our part! She is also a tummy sleeper. I don't care what everyone says about SIDS risk factors--if a baby likes sleeping on their stomach, they should be able to sleep on their stomach and not be forced to sleep in a way that's not comfortable for them. Because if they're miserable, so are mom and dad.

In the evenings, Daniel and I bathe her sometime between 9:30 and 10:30, depending on when she's going to eat. Then, when she's ready to eat, I'll nurse her and then put her to bed. Then I go to bed too! That'll give me around 2 hours of sleep before her first middle-of-the-night feeding. I usually feed her two or three times in the middle of the night--always around 2 and 4:30, and sometimes there's a feeding before 2. All depends on what time she goes to bed and how much she ate. So, we're making progress!

Having my mom around for the last few days has been absolutely awesome. She's really helped me get on somewhat of a routine with Hannah, especially at night, which has been huge. It's amazing how much Daniel and I don't know about being parents of a newborn (really, there's not much we know about parenting in general). So she's been able to show me a lot about soothing Hannah, how to keep her occupied and happy during the day, and some little adjustments we can make with her to keep her content. So, thanks mom for all of your help!!!!

Mom and I went outside with Hannah for a little while today and I got some cute pictures of my little girl--too bad I can't upload any to show you. :) When I can, I will. Sorry that I can't right now! I'll update again when I have more to talk about!

Hannah's Progress

We went to the doctor yesterday to have Hannah weighed, just to make sure she was gaining weight--she hadn't gained any weight since our hospital discharge at her one-week appointment. Well, in the last week, she gained 8 ounces, which is awesome!!! Our doctor told us that they like the babies to gain at a minimum an averageof 20 grams a day, and her average was 32 grams. Way to go, girl. Now, the consequence for that is that she eats ALL THE TIME. Last night, she ate every hour and 45 minutes. So mom didn't get much sleep last night, to say the least. Oh well.

In other news, my mom is visiting for a few days. She got here yesterday, and it's been great so far. She'll be here especially to help me out the first few days that Daniel goes back to work (starting Monday), so that should be huge.

Also, I'm not sure when I'll be able to post pictures for a little while. We somehow managed to break our CF card reader, so we can't get pics off the camera for now. Boo.

'Til next time!

Week Two

Well, here we are in week 2 of Hannah's life! Things are going well. Nights aren't too sleepless, and we've managed to find a system that allows at least one of us to get good sleep. Below is Hannah's favorite sleeping position. As long as she's in the boppy, she'll sleep anywhere--provided that she's well-fed. :)


And again, here's our little beauty sleeping:


Last Saturday, Daniel's mom and his two grandmothers came to visit! That was very neat, and I'm glad that his Grandmas got to come and meet Hannah (since I don't know when the next trip home is going to be). They only stayed for a few hours, but it was a good visit.
Here's Grandma Nee Nee:


And Grandma Garrett:


And we can't forget about little Gypsy! She has been so good since we brought Hannah home. I was expecting her to go nuts and be super territorial and mean, but she's done well. It's obvious that she gets lonely and misses all the attention that she used to get, but we're trying to spend more time with her. I guess this is good practice for when child number 2 comes around. :)


A common occurrence in the Garrett household can be seen below :) And understandably so!


We head back to the doctor on Friday to see if Hannah is gaining any weight. Let's hope she is!! Also, my mom is going to be coming up on Friday to stay until Monday or Tuesday. Daniel goes back to work on Monday, so I definitely would like to have my mom here for that first night/day to see how that goes. I guess that'll be the real test, because Daniel's going to need to get some good sleep and I'll be with Hannah all day long. I'll let you know if I lose my sanity :)

I'm trying to think if anything special happened this week.... Umm.... I went for my first work-out post-partum today, which was super nice. It was good to be moving around again. I look forward to more of that in the coming weeks! Okay, nap time!

A Few Firsts

There's our little beauty! Well, we've had a few firsts in the last 2 days or so, and I thought I'd share them with you. The first was our first official trip out of the house since being home. I didn't have many shirts that were conducive to nursing without having to take the entire thing off, so we went to Old Navy to see what kinds of things they had to offer. I got to use my sling for the first time, and it is awesome!!! It's going to take some practice getting Hannah in and out of there on my own--right now I really need Daniel's help. But she is so happy in there... I guess because she's bundled in very tightly and it reminds her of being in the womb. And of course, while in the store, we got lots of Oooohs and Aaahs over our little cutie. I do admit, she is pretty attractive. :) So, here's the sling in action! (This was our practice run before leaving the house)

My small group was having a social night out last night, so Hannah and I ventured to Cheeseburger in Paradise for dinner while Daniel went and hung out with his small group guys at Buffalo Wild Wings. It was nice to get out and see everyone. I got to meet a friend of one of the girls in my small group named Kelly--she was really neat to talk to. Hannah also did well.... she slept in the carseat the entire time, so that was easy.

Next, Daniel and I decided to give her a bath last night....... umm.... bad idea? She did NOT like that at all. I think it made her really cold. But Daniel did a great job with her. Once we dried her off and got her clothes back on, she was happy. I think it cost us our sleep for the night, though, because she was not at all interested in sleeping until about 7:00 this morning. You can see just how happy she was below :) Again, once she was dry and clothed, she was happy. The last picture is Daniel with her once she was back to normal and the traumatic experience was over.



I also have to mention that Hannah HATES getting her diaper changed (Daniel's in the middle of changing a poopy diaper).... I don't think it's the actual changing of the diaper that she doesn't like. I think it's the removal of her clothes that makes her cold that she hates. Because once you put her clothes back on and she feels that body heat again, she's happy as she was before. Because she's so small, we dress her in a onesie, with a sleeper over top of that, swaddled in a blanket, with a hat. We have to make sure that we keep her body temperature up. So I think when it's diaper time, she gets super cold--and who likes that anyway?

We go to the doctor for our first visit tomorrow, and I'll let you all know how that goes. Hopefully she's gaining weight and staying healthy. I'll keep you posted!

Our First Few Days

Hannah with her eyes open!

Here we are at home, being parents! Our first few days have really been enjoyable. Sure, sleeping is a little more difficult than before (Hannah is most alert around 4am), but it's been very cool. I'm recovering well, Daniel's doing an amazing job as a dad and with helping me out with making sure that I rest and am not overwhelmed, and Gypsy seems to be enjoying her new sister. We also have some amazing friends who've brought/cooked some amazing food for us--thank you guys!!!!!!!

As far as breastfeeding goes, my milk has come in, no doubt about it! Hannah has been eating well and peeing/pooping a lot, which is good! Because she was so small when she was born, there isn't much room for error as far as her weight is concerned, so I'm really glad that she's eating so well. Before my milk came in, we had to supplement with formula to make sure she didn't lose too much weight. But now that the milk is here, it's all systems go! Also, because she is so small, she has a hard time with proper latch, so we're using a silicone nipple shield that goes over the nipple to help her latch on there and eat well. Within a few weeks, we should have her off of the shield. I've also been pumping with a hospital grade pump to make sure that the milk is coming in well--it makes them feel much better afterwards. :) Engorgement hurts!

Hannah is a sweet, sweet baby. I can't tell much about her personality, but I can tell you that she's only upset when she's hungry and has a dirty diaper--or is about to have a dirty diaper. We can always tell when she's about to poop/pass gas... she gets squirmy and sometimes will whine, like her tummy hurts. We're going to start giving her Mylicon when we feed her for now... I think the nipple shield may contribute to gas. She also doesn't like to be by herself. At night, we're having to keep her in bed with us for now because she won't sleep alone in the pack n play. Daniel and I alternate who gets to sleep/who gets to stay up with her if she's alert. If she's ready to sleep at night, she sleeps in the crook of Daniel's arm. Very cute. :)

Here's a video of her with the hiccups. I think it's cute. Enjoy!

Welcome to Our World

Hannah Meredith Garrett made her grand entrance into this world early Friday morning at 1:40am. She weighed 5 lbs, 9 oz. and is 18 3/4" long. She's a beauty :)

Here's the basic birth story. If you want a more humorous and detailed one, you'll have to chat with Daniel, haha.


I had been having mild contractions every evening starting on Sunday. They were usually about 7 minutes apart, and nothing serious. I went to the doctor on Tuesday, as you probably read, and he did an internal exam. He told me that I was 2 cm dilated, 80-90% effaced, and Hannah was at 0 station, so she was about ready to come out! He also told me that he anticipated that labor would be quick--and he was right!

Thursday morning I lost my mucous plug. But usually mucous plugs are just mucous with an occasional streak of blood... mine was like a big, large, nasty blood clot (sorry if that's too much information for you). Basically what that meant was that I was continuing to dilate. Once I saw that, I knew labor was coming soon. I was scheduled to get a reflexology pedicure to help bring on labor a little soon on Friday morning, but I rescheduled that to Thursday around lunch time because I was afraid I wasn't going to make it on Friday. So I got the pedicure, and the lady pushed on a few pressure points that can help your pituitary gland release oxytocin. Maybe it worked.... or at least helped. :)

Thursday afternoon, starting around 5 or 6, I started to having contractions every 5 minutes apart or so. They weren't horrible. I mean, they were intense enough that I couldn't ignore them, but it didn't stop me from doing anything. Believing that labor might be imminent, Daniel and I went to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner, while still having contractions every 4 or 5 minutes. Then, we went to Kroger to get some groceries, because we didn't have hardly any food in our house and I didn't want to come home from the hospital with nothing in my fridge to eat. Contractions were still 4 - 5 minutes apart and relatively strong, but again, not enough to keep me from doin my thang. :)

After we got home, the contractions slowed down to about 6 or 7 minutes apart, but were getting slowly stronger. Around 11:10pm, I was having another contraction but was uncomfortable in the position I was in, and while trying to get comfortable, my water broke. It felt like a water balloon popped inside my body! It is quite possibly one of the weirdest sensations I have ever experienced! We called my doctor, and when he called us back, he asked me how I was feeling--whether or not I really wanted to go to the hospital. I told him I was fine, happy at home for now. So he told us to wait until contractions were 3 minutes apart, and then to call him and head to the hospital.

Well, the contractions started kicking up again about 15-20 minutes later. This time, though, they were 2 1/2 minutes apart and were very uncomfortable. Because my water had broken, I was kinda leaky (and by kinda, I mean extremely), so I went upstairs and sat in the bathtub. No, there wasn't any water in it. :) I just wanted somewhere to sit that I could leak and not have to worry about it. It was also nice because the angle of the bathtub put plenty of pressure on my lower back during contractions, which helped relieve some of the discomfort. After about 6 or 7 contractions like that, I told Daniel that we needed to go to the hospital... I couldn't sit at home any longer. It took probably 10 minutes to get out of the door and into the car because the contractions kept coming closer and closer together, and I would have to stop wherever I was during them and have Daniel drill his fist into my lower back (he did a wonderful job!). Daniel had the car all ready to go, including putting plastic bags down on the seat so that the amniotic fluid wouldn't ruin the seats.

We arrived at the hospital in about 5 minutes, and I got wheeled up to Labor and Delivery while Daniel parked the car. Once here, at 12:40am, the contractions would start about 30 seconds after the preceding one, and they were almost unbearable. They got me in the bed and had to take my blood pressure and put on a fetal monitor and some other things to see how everything was going. That was SOOOOOOOOO uncomfortable because I had to lay down on my back, which made every contraction worse. Finally, about 25 minutes after we arrived, Dr. Wolanski came in there and did an internal exam to see how far dilated I was. Guess what--10 cm! Time to push! I was like, "WHAT?!" So, when the next contraction came, he explained to me how he wanted me to push.

With each contraction, I would get 3 - 4 good pushes in. The only thing that kinda stunk was that the contractions were so strong and were so close together that I felt like my "break" in between them was rather small.... not much time to relax. But Daniel was very good at reminding me to relax even when I felt like I couldn't. About 30 minutes later, Hannah was born!!! That was the best feeling in the world, I tell ya. Aaahhhhhh she was out. :) And it's amazing, because once the baby is born, it's all over. So, she was out and she was beautiful!! Here are a few more pictures.

Goodbye Mucous Plug

Welp, lost the mucous plug this morning (don't worry, I won't post any pictures, cuz it's pretty nasty...). We'll see what Daniel has to say about it.. I took a picture of it with my phone and sent it to him in a text message. :-D Hehehehehehehe....

So in the evenings, my contractions are about 7 minutes apart and last around 50 seconds. I have them for a few hours and then they go away. Hopefully we'll have some real labor soon so that baby can make her grand debut!

I was supposed to go get a reflexology pedicure tomorrow afternoon, but I suspect that I might not be able to make it to that, so I rescheduled it for today at 12:15. I'm very much looking forward to that. :)

If anything happens, I'll let you know!

Doctor's Appt. Update

Here are my stats from today's appointment:

2 cm dilated

80-90% effaced

Baby is at 0 station

Guess she'll be coming soon!  Dr. Wolanski said that based on what my body is doing and how she's positioned in my pelvis, he anticipates that we're going to have a "great delivery"--he anticipates labor will last about 12 hours and that I shouldn't have to push for very long.  He said that she is sitting very nicely in my pelvis and was very pleased with the whole thing today.  So that's exciting!

The only stinky thing is that I've been retaining a lot of fluid, and that has made my blood pressure go up.  It's not high enough to be concerned, but definitely something to keep our eyes on.  So I guess I shall go douse some more water and hope that the retention diminishes some. 

there's the update!  Yay!

Bathroom Break

I just wanted to say...








That I got out of bed and went to the bathroom 5 times last night. FIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





That's all. If I have anything spectacular to write after my appointment today, I will do that.

Labor Day

So... I experienced my first bout of "real" contractions last night! Clearly nothing productive came of them, but it was at least good to get a glimpse of what the sensation will be. It was weird because I started off just feeling bad... I don't know if I was dehydrated or what, but I got really nauseous. I felt like I needed to eat but the thought of food made me want to puke. I was pretty gassy too. Later, my stomach would tighten and I'd have what felt like a menstrual cramp in my lower back and lower abdomen. It would last for about 30 - 45 seconds or so, increasing in intensity until about the half-way point, then it would die down. I had a few episodes of that, but again, nothing productive and it only lasted about 30 - 45 minutes.

Daniel made the joke that it would be really funny if I went into labor on Labor Day--It would be a real Labor Day for me! But, so far, no laboring on Labor Day (and no shared birthdays either... Keagan's birthday is today).

I go back to the doctor tomorrow and I can ask him about my little episode when I'm there... I'm sure he'll just say it's my body gearing up for the real thing. I also get tested for Group B Strep tomorrow. I really hope it's a negative test, because if it's positive, it means they'll have to give me an IV during labor so they can give me antibiotics.... and I was kind of banking on not having an IV at all... actually, I was kind of banking on not getting to the hospital until about an hour or two before Hannah's born. We'll see. Pray that if I do have it, that it'll disappear within the next 24 hours. :) Does anyone know if there's another treatment for it besides antibiotics through an IV during labor?

Alrighty, well, today is my big return day from a bunch of stuff I've received from all my showers. I had my final shower yesterday afternoon, so I figured I would wait until that one was over to return the things that I need to return. The unfortunate thing is that a lot of people don't understand the concept of gift receipts, so I'm going to have to beg and plead for some of these stores to take their merchandise back... Hopefully they'll be gracious to a girl who's 9 months pregnant!