Six Weeks Old

Can't believe Felicity is already six weeks old! Time does go by to fast and you know you are new mom when you dream that you are feeding your baby and wake up with a huge wet spot on your shirt. OOps! I have literally been waking up confused at times utterly convinced I fed her and can't figure out why she isn't in my arms. I get a little scared and then realize it was all a dream. I was actually asking Brady in the middle of the night last night if I had just fed her and I thought he was now holding her. He was actually just holding onto a pillow. Yikes!

I have had a draining couple weeks, as I know every mom can, but I feel like my difficulties have finally had a turning point and the three of us have had some break throughs this week! Thank you Jesus!

I am currently writing this post as my daughter naps quietly in her crib, that she fell asleep all on her own! Yes, that's right! This has been our biggest and most encouraging break through. We had been walking, rocking, bouncing, lunging, you name it to get her to sleep. Felicity would try so hard to resist even though she obviously needed it (aka. she was super fussy), so our little "go to sleep dance" would usually take 45 minutes to an hour before she would actually fall asleep. Needless to say I spent most of my day (Felicity does much better in the middle of the night- luckily) doing that and then praying she would not wake up once I set her down. Then probably about 80% of the time she would. Sigh!

So, let's just say it became necessary to figure something out. A friend had given us one of the Baby Whisperer books amongst others. I had heard a few people liked her stuff and I decided to give it whirl. Brady and I read her book over the course of a week and started to implement her techniques this last weekend. AND!!>>>> they actually worked for us! It looks like our daughter (knock on wood, for the time being) can actually fall asleep on her own and we did not have to let her cry it out! Thats what I was most happy about. I just did not want to have to resort to that (although I understand why people end up doing that. It was our next option if these techniques didn't work). We are still working on taking good solid naps, but progress is progress and I am not going to let that get me down. :) We are both a little sad to not have her in our room anymore, but we know it is best for all involved.

Felicity's reflux medicine is now working, which has been a huge relief. We are so glad not to see her in pain anymore. I hate having to give her medicine everyday but it is worth it so that she feels good.

Felicity continues to get bigger! She is now about the size I was when I was born. Yikes, sorry Mom! :) She also seems to be responding more to her surroundings. I think they say that babies don't start smiling in response to things yet, but we are convinced she is responding to us from time to time. What joy! We also continue to feel like we are getting know her better. Luckily for her, we are starting to be able to know her cries and what she is asking us for.

Thanks for all of your support and prayers for us new parents! We are so blessed by all of you!

Getting ready for one of those naps I am learning to do on my own!

So serene!

One of our favorite Felicity faces!

Video: Felicity's cousin Reilly giving her kisses. Melt your heart cute!

My First Month

Out little girl will be a month old on Sunday! The first month has flown by. The nights don't always go by so fast, but it is hard to believe we have been parents for a month already.

Felicity is growing like a weed. She is a little over 8lbs at 4 weeks and now fits into her cloth diapers. (Woohoo! FYI- Disposable diapers are expensive!) She has gained nearly 2lbs since we left the hospital and more than a pound from her birth weight.

The last couple weeks have been a little more difficult as we have realized Felicity has acid reflux that is pretty bothersome to her. We have recently put her on a prescription for it and hoping that it takes care of her pain. The poor girl has been having heart burn! It is too hard to watch her be in pain so... I usually cry with her. :)

Felicity has had her first bath and is doing some tummy time every day. She really likes her tummy time mat and gives little newborn squeals every now and then. Wish I could say she enjoyed her bath as much as her tummy time mat. She wasn't so sure about being in her tub.

Our human size dog, Margot, has done great with Felicity. She loves to come over to sniff her but rarely licks her. The licking is a big surprise because if you have met Margot you know she loves to shower people with kisses. Margot has been a little confused at night when Brady and I are up walking around with Felicity. She sometimes goes to the back door like it is morning... we tell her to go back to bed. Sometimes when Felicity is crying Margot does come over to check on her, which is pretty cute. Margot has adjusted much better than I thought she would. No signs of jealously so far.

Mommy and Daddy are adjusting too. We slowly but surely feel like we are figuring things out. Week by week we feel like we are getting a little better at caring for her. It has been stressful at times because we just love her so much and want to do it right! (even though we know we can't and never will do it ALL right:)

Bringing Home Baby

We just can't stop oooing and awwwing over our little girl! We brought her home the Saturday after she was born. It was nice to have a couple days in the hospital getting our head wrapped around the fact that she was really ours. We were both a little apprehensive about taking care of her on our own at home, but it turned out it was much nicer being at home. Everything just feels right being at home with her.

Our friends and family were so sweet to help us welcome our little Felicity home. We had two banners that said "Welcome Home Felicity." One was outside as pictured above and the other is inside our living room. We still have the one inside hanging up. I have enjoyed keeping it up because is reminds me of all the love and support we have from our family and friends. We feel so blessed by you all!

Felicity's first week was pretty easy despite the lack of sleep. She had some jaundice, which made her really sleepy. Our biggest challenge her first week was keeping her awake enough to eat. He doctor said the more she eats the more she poops which will help get rid of her jaundice. So we had her eating as much as we could get her to every two hours for her first week of life. I took her to get weighed at exactly one week and she was over her birth weight and her jaundice was way lower! Woohoo! It felt good to leave that appointment knowing she was eating enough to gain plenty of weight. She had gained 8oz in 4 days.

Our second week has been a little more challenging. I am pretty sure her jaundice is almost all gone because she had much more difficulty going to sleep. The lack of sleep is also beginning to catch up with both of us, especially me. I have been pretty weepy and easily overwhelmed this week. Welcome to parenthood I guess. She continues to bring much joy and thankfulness to us despite the challenges. It hard to believe she was ever not here now. Our love for her grows each moment that passes.

This is one loved little girl, just as all babies should be. The Lord has blessed her with a lot of love around her. She has no idea how blessed she is yet!

Let me introduce to you, Felicity Virginia Loyd!

Despite our lack of consistency of posting I made it to our due date and a little past before we had out little girl. Our little Felicity Virginia Loyd was born on August 18, 2011 at 8:18am and weighed 6lbs 12oz and was 20.5 inches long.

She made her grand entrance after about 18 hours of labor, and all I have to say is giving birth is hard work! My water broke in at my midwife appointment around 10:30 am on the 17th. She told us to go home get our things, eat some lunch and head over to the hospital. Although we were 5 days past my due date I was in shock the whole way home. I was not having regular contractions yet. We made it over to the hospital around 2pm and things slowly progressed from there. I did not start having regular and more intense contractions till later that night. Things are getting a bit hazy but I think it was close to 10pm when things started to kick into gear. My nurses and midwife were so amazing and I had an even better coach! Brady was the perfect coach. I know I could not have done it without him!

Around 6:30am I was feeling so exhausted and was in a lot of pain. I hit that wall people talk about and sure enough my midwife checked me and I was ready to start pushing. Woohoo! Everything changed when I heard that! I felt like I could do anything. Brady and I both felt a rush of adrenaline! I pushed for a little over an hour until we met our daughter. Our midwife was kind enough to let Brady catch her too. I just remember pushing and then hearing everyone tell me to look at my daughter... I opened my eyes and had to open them wider and wider because I couldn't believe she was actually here! She had strong cry that our family and friends could hear outside the door. There were tears of joy all around!

Once everyone was able to join us in the delivery room we announced her name which we had been keeping a secret. Felicity Virginia Loyd is named after one of her great grandmother's whose middle name was also Virginia. Felicity was chosen because we both thought it was a beautiful name that is not over used. I hope she likes it as much as we do!

34 Weeks

Missed another week. Everyone makes mistakes.

Melissa continues to find herself pretty exhausted most days. Apparently growing a human takes a lot of energy. I got to experience a little of what it is like to be 36 weeks pregnant at our birthing class a week or so ago. We had an "empathy belly" that I got to wear. I was pretty tired after wearing it for only a few minutes. It just reminded me of how amazingly strong Melissa is and has been through this whole process!

Melissa is also finding it a bit more difficult to get and stay comfortable at night. Last night I woke up to her just sitting straight up in bed...just sitting. It was like a scene out of a bad horror movie. I was just waiting for her head to spin all the way around or something. I asked if she was okay and she said she couldn't decide which side to sleep on.

The baby's room is coming along. She now has a changing table, glider and crib with mattress. Melissa sewed some curtains for her room as well. She still has a couple other projects for the nursery she plans to get done before our passenger's arrival as well. I think she's right in the middle of that nesting stage.

We went to the doctor again today and everything looks great. The baby's heartbeat is good (about 135 beats per minute), she is laying head down and Melissa's belly was measuring at 35 cm, which is right where she is supposed to be. Everything looks great! Let's hope and pray that all of that continues for the next 3-7 weeks (hopefully not 7).

We'll try to be better about posting every week for the next 5, but I make no promises.

Grunts and Sighs

Eight more weeks! That's only two months away. Crazy to think that we'll actually get to meet our little girl that soon. Melissa is still feeling pretty good, although she does seem to be getting more tired more easily. I really can't imagine why...

We went on a tour of the hospital where we will be delivering. It was really nice-more like a spa/resort/hotel than a hospital. They recently redid this whole wing of the hospital so everything is brand new. It was nice to see where we'll be headed shortly and fun to think that the next time we leave there, we'll have a baby girl with us in the car on the way home. Seeing the hospital made it feel even more real-we really are going to have a baby!

I have fallen into a nice little routine of feeling the passenger moving each night as we get in bed. She always starts moving around when Melissa lays down at night. The funny thing is, Melissa has her own routine of grunting/sighing as she's laying down and getting comfortable. "It's just getting really hard to move." I get a nice little chuckle out of it every night. After that each night, I get to feel my little girl moving around as I fall asleep. I'm not sure I've known a better feeling. I'm sure I'll continue to think that many times in the coming future.

Two Months Is All!

Two whole weeks have gone by. Man, sorry to be such bad bloggers, but the bright side is we have a lot to share this week. We have had a packed couple weeks. For instance, last weekend we celebrated Melissa's birthday on the 3rd at my grad school graduation ceremony, followed by moving on Saturday, and Melissa's first baby shower on Sunday. In there somewhere was another midwife appointment that Melissa's mom, Nana, tagged along so that she could hear the sound of her grandaughter's heart beating. Next appointment my mom, Grammy, will come along to do the same.

We are slowly but surely unpacking and becoming very aware of all we want to get done before the baby arrives. As of today we are only 2 months away from our due date. That is crazy! It feels like we just found out we are pregnant.

Melissa's best friend, Cherie, and my sister threw the baby shower for Melissa. Melissa had a great time and felt very loved. She said they made everything special and beautiful. Our little passenger should be well taken care of.

Out little passenger continues to grow. Melissa says she can tell she is bigger because she feels those punches and kicks and other movements all the time now. We are pretty sure we have her name figured out, but I would be in SO much trouble if I told anyone.

All that to say, we've been kinda busy and it's been two weeks since the last update which means...don't be expecting any updates once the little passenger arrives.