Little Boo!

Her Grandmother bought her this outfit and because she is growing so fast, I'm pretty sure it will not make it till October 31st. So we broke it out a little early. Once I put it on she was so dang cute I had to take pictures! Of course Mommy is making her Halloween costume. She is going to be a purple crayon. I made the majority of the outfit in about an hour and half last Saturday night. I'll post another picture when its all finished. Its not perfect, but she's only going to be in it for about an hour to take pictures. How perfect does it have to be for a 3 month old really.

The latest and greatest from the other half

Shelby has been really busy, and hasn't been able to update the blog like she used to.  I, however, am really busy but always on the laptop.  Here is what's new: Margaux has grown!  She gained 4 pounds and 3 inches in length, and her lung power has increased 10 fold.  She is smiling and reacting to us, which makes daddy really happy!  Dr. says she has a small head, which she gets from me (I have a pea head), but could grow into an enormous tater like her mother has.  Shelby is back at work most days, and probably would like to have more maternity time off.  Life is hectic and wonderful both, and this semester is flying by.  Got the email that they are sending me the diploma for my master degree.  Woo Hoo.  Still the second smartest in the house, but a very close second.   More updates soon.

Moving on

So Margaux is getting bigger and bigger. I just started packing away all her newborn clothes. I was also surprised to find she can wear quite a few of her 3 month clothes. She doesn't fill them out but they definitely fit her in the length. She has a really long torso like her Mom and Dad. She is also sleeping through the night. She started at 6 weeks old. She doesn't do it every single night of the week, but she'll do it about 4-5 nights. The other nights she will only get up once. I've heard we are really fortunate in that she is sleeping so well. I have nothing to compare it to, but I do feel she sleeps pretty well. I've also started moving her to her crib some nights. She has started smiling back at you (on purpose) here lately and she will coo. I love it! It is a precious little sound.

Matt and I celebrated our 5^th wedding anniversary over the weekend. This is going to be such a great year for us. We have the baby, Matt is teaching and receiving his Masters (that he finished in July, 3 days before the baby was born), and I'm still starting up my law practice. We had lunch out, shopped for Baby some things, ran by target, and let Daddy look around REI.

Things are going really well. I feel like I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off. And time seems to fly by, but I'm starting to get the hang of things. Breastfeeding/Pumping while being at work is tough. And none of my clothes fit. I talked to a friend over the weekend that is also breastfeeding and she is just now back to her pre-pregnancy weight. Her baby is 7 months old. I think that whole "it will help you lose weight" may be true for some folks, but not me. I believe it is more a of a carrot to dangle in front of you to get you to try it. I know it is best for baby M, but it is definitely something you have to work at. In the mean time, I have no idea what I'm going to wear to court if it takes me that long. I have a post-partum workout video that is a killer, I'm going to try to fit it in for at least a few minutes a few times a week. And when this weather cools off, I see a lot of walks in our future.

Anyhow I'll leave you with some Margaux pics.

Here is one of those smiles

Daddy and M

And here is my little brag that she looks like me.

Here is Margaux.

And here is Me!

You be the judge! but come on! she at least looks just like me when she is sleeping!

I quick pic

Margaux is growing like a weed... a mean flower. She is 1 month old now and we are getting the hang of things. The breastfeeding is going pretty well. It is definitely hard, but we are sticking with it at least to 12 weeks. Then I'll re-evaluate. My mother says if I can make it till then, I'll be going good. I'm not so sure. Margaux wakes up two times a night, once at about 12 and then again about 3 or 4. She fights sleep sometimes. She'll doze off and then catch herself falling asleep and let out a wail. This could be why her fussiest time of day is 7-9 p.m., but in the mornings she is a happy little monkey. She is such a little blessing

I have to go back to work for two days next week. I have some court cases that I have to attend to. I also have some the next week too. This is WAY TOO EARLY to be working. My baby is only going to be 5 weeks old. This totally bums me. But I'm going to be rushing home just as soon as I can.

Oh well... the boss will be calling for my attention very soon.
Here's a picture of the gorgeous girl.

The Labor Story

Well Margaux arrived 2 days late, but it worked out the way it was meant to.

Her due date came and went on that Saturday. I was uncomfortable but Matt and I got out and ran errands to keep me moving around. But on Sunday night I started having contractions that I noticed (and knew what they were) around 9:30, but honestly they didn't hurt so I could have been having them all day for all I knew. Then around 10:00 they started to hurt a little. They were about 3-5 minutes apart, and I would tap my foot through them. Other signs of labor showed up and I told Matt that it was happening. I was very excited to have the process start on its own. At my last doctor's appointment the Wednesday before I had not made any more progress in about two weeks. I was still between 1 and 2 cm dilated and 60 % effaced. I had been that way for 2 weeks with no change. We decided to give her the weekend and scheduled an induction for that coming Wednesday the 21^st.

About 11:00 pm Sunday night I told Matt, due to how close they were, we should probably make the 45 minute drive to the hospital to have things checked out. I'd never had a baby before and I had no idea how "intense" contractions were supposed to be. But I did know that close together might be something we should not ignore. We got there and they watched me for a few hours and at 2 o'clock Monday morning told me I was in early labor, but that it could last anywhere from 6-12 hours and that since my water had not broken I could go home if I wanted to and try to get some rest. I opted for home and they sent me with an ambien (apparently safe for baby, but I was skeptical and only took half) to help me sleep and relax while having contractions. It worked and I slept for 3 and half hours before the contractions woke me up. I monitored them, labored at home, called the family, and at 11:00 Monday morning told Matt we were going back to the hospital. They were still 3-5 minutes apart and hurt quite a bit more.

We got to the hospital about 12 noon and things really kicked into gear then. I was 100 % effaced and dilated to 3. At 12:30 the doctor came in checked me and broke my water to get things going. He said we would have a baby by dinner time. He started me on pitocin to regulate the contractions. Man did the contractions hurt after that. At 1:30 I got my epidural. At 2:00 they checked me again and I had dilated to 5 cm. One of the nurses noticed that I was grimacing and asked if I still felt any pain. I told her I could feel something sharp in my bottom. They thought that I probably needed more epidural because I was so tall (my feet were hanging off the bed). But before they upped the meds they checked to see if I had progressed any, this was at 2:45. The nurse looked and said I was ready. Seriously I went from 5cm to 10cm in 45 minutes. I pushed for about 20 minutes and we had a baby. I could not believe how fast it all happened. We arrived at the hospital around noon, just a husband and wife. About three hours later we were a family, with baby Margaux joining us at 3:10 pm on Monday the 19th.

Matt was the only family member in the delivery room with me. He was so good and completely exhilarated by the whole experience. He watched the whole thing and was so amazed. He saw her red hair before she was even out. As soon as her head was out, he started crying and telling me how beautiful she was. He was one proud Daddy. I didn't cry till I heard her cry.

A few hours later I had a bleeding problem that took a lot out of me and required extra meds and the epidural and IV to be left in till the next morning. They also kept me in labor and delivery longer. They weren't sure if it was a clot, a failure to clot, or a piece of the placenta still in my uterus causing the problems, but I bled out quite a bit. My blood pressure dropped, I got really sleepy, and I began to shiver and shake uncontrollably. Anyhow they took care of me and everything got under control with no other problems.

It's hard to believe this all happened 3 weeks ago. It feels like just yesterday, I was rubbing my belly.

Margaux is here!

Margaux has arrived. She showed up 2 days late, weighing 7 lbs and 11 oz. She was 20 1/2 inches long. She is tiny, cute as a button, and has her Mommy's red hair. More to come, when I'm not working with 2 hour increments of time.

Happy Due Date

Well I'm 40 weeks! There's really not much more to say. She'll be here soon, by Thursday for sure if she doesn't come before Wed.