Storytime

I love the fact that Livy loves playing with Lucy. Although Lucy can't do anymore than just lay there, Livy wants to play with her throughout the day.

Typically play means laying out a blanket on the living room floor and both girls laying on it. Or my favorite, Livy reading Lucy stories.


No wonder Livy gets tons of smiles from Lucy! I hope their friendship continues over the decades.

Will work for Sleep!

I know that lack of sleep is common with a newborn, but boy am I tired! Lucy has a habit of getting up at 4am. From 4 to 6 she is dozing, so obviously still tired, but only content if nursing, being held or in the bouncy seat. Can I just say that I've had it with this four o'clock business!

As I sit here in the wee hours of the morning, I am trying to remember what I did with Livy to help adjust her little clock. It's common for newborns to have their day and night mixed up and takes time to change it. Livy had a good sleep pattern at this point and was sleeping through the night at 6 weeks. I would love for that to be the case with Lucy but as this point I don't want to see the clock say 4am for a LONG time.

So here is where I plead for help from anyone who can refresh my memory on how to change an infant's sleep pattern. I remember reading several books during my last trimester with Livy to do just that, but I am too tired to remember what they say.

Dancing in the Rain

Olivia has an extremely active imagination for a 2 1/2 year old. From the time that she could walk, she has been busy pretending or mimicking of one sort or the other.

Recently Olivia came across her umbrella and decided to play with it. I should tell her that we don't play with umbrellas in the house, but honestly with a new baby and major lack of sleep, I didn't care. She opened it up and headed down to the playroom.

One evening Olivia decided to show us her dance, one she copied from Classical Baby. To the music, Singing in the Rain, Olivia danced, twirled, and did several moves with the umbrella. All, I should say, were done entirely by her.

I look forward to what she will surprise me with next.

Doing What I'm Good at!

As I sat for a small break from children, Lucy down for a nap and Livy watching a movie, I was determined that I would accomplish something. That's the hardest thing with a newborn is the lack of time (or desire some days because you are too tired) is not being able to work on projects.

With our annual family pictures in a few weeks, I wanted for once to have bows for the girls to wear. Too many times, while taking pictures, I find myself wishing that I would have thought about making bows.

I made two burgundy velvet bows to match the girl's Christmas dresses, a white one for Lucy's Blessing, and a princess one for Livy that I've been putting off for months.

A few of the LARGE bows that I have made this year. I have plans for several more!

Lucy with her new bow!

Livy with her new princess bow. (It has Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty on the ribbon.)

Lucy's Story

Lucy at one week

Some people like to hear about birth stories. Perhaps it's because I'm a mother, but I like to hear about other people's experiences. So for those who want to know, here is my story about Lucy. (For those who don't, I'll have something more exciting (an organization project) post soon!)

Thursday, October 29^th had seemed to be another regular day for me. I spent the day in my comfy clothes, resting on the couch doing the typical things I had done for the past 7 weeks. Bed rest certainly wasn't fun for me and I was honestly bored out of my mind. Although if I had been able to move about and do things, I probably wouldn't have. I was simply too tired to do anything.

That afternoon I decided that I should probably take a shower and get cleaned up for the day. At roughly 4:30p when I got out of the shower, I realized that my water broke. I felt a little frantic at first. This was a whole new experience for me. With Olivia, they broke my water at the hospital. I knew that I needed to finish packing my bag and get Livy ready to go to her grandparents.

I was honestly in no rush to get to the hospital. Even though my water broke, I was having no contractions. So while I finished packing, Eduardo took Livy out to deliver Halloween goodies to her friends. Before dropping Livy off, Eduardo also made dinner and bathed Olivia.

After dropping Livy off we headed to the hospital. We got there at about 7:40p and got checked in and headed to our Labor & Delivery Room. It took a half hour for our nurse to come in. It was a good thing that I wasn't in true labor yet.

After setting up the monitors, we found that I was having contractions, but they were too small to feel and wasn’t helping me progress. It was then decided by the on call doctor, to start me on a Pitocin drip to help get my labor going. This is something that I really did not want to experience. I wanted to go fully into labor like I did with Livy. I did not want to be started. (Of course at this point, I was grateful that I wasn't going to be induced on a later date and that this was the day my baby was meant to come!)

They started the drip at 10:30pm and it kicked in about 10:45/11:00pm. By 11:30 pm the contraction were sever enough that I decided it was time for my epidural. I progress very quickly once I have hit heavy labor and knew that it was only a matter of time before I would be complete.

It’s odd how calm and relaxed epidurals make me. They make me so relaxed that I want to sleep and rest. Naturally it wasn't a full rest since I was still able to feel the pressure of the contractions but couldn't feel the pain.

Finally at 1 am the nurse comes in to check on me and asks if I could feel the pressure of the baby’s head. Yes, probably for the last half hour or so. She checks and I'm complete.

But it's not time to push. We had to wait for the on-call doctor to arrive and to get set up. I was okay with this because I was still in a complete drug like state from the epidural.

Finally at 2am it was time. We waited for one contraction and in that one contraction I pushed. That's all it took! The nurse commented that I probably could have had her an hour earlier if I hadn’t rested so much. The total labor from start to finish was 3 hours.

I did tear a tiny bit but once the doctor looked at it she decided it was too small for stitches. She told me, like what Olivia's doctor had said 2 years ago, that my body was meant to have babies!

Lucia weighed 6 lbs 10 oz and measured 20.5 inches long!

We both have recovered well and slowly adjusting to our new lives. I look forward to when Lucy knows that night is for sleep and day for play, but that will come soon enough.