Lennen's 5 month update.

Lennen is 5 months and is really starting to become fun.  She is talking a lot lately and loves to growl and blow bubbles.  She sits good by herself for a minute or two but when she gets too excited she topples over.  She is a super smiley baby and will give anyone a grin, unlike Emery who always gave people dirty looks.  She LOVES watching Emery run around, dance, jump on the bed, or anything that is active.  She whips her head back and forth to try and catch all the action and giggles when Emery does an especially cool trick :)  At her 4 month appointment (which happens closer to 5 months because I got a little behind) she was 14 lbs 6 oz and 23.5 inches long.  She has huge thighs and lots of rolls on her arms and belly.  She puts everything in her mouth and loves to bat at toys on her play mat.  She has a fabric book with crinkle flaps and it is one thing that she will play with for a long time and doesn't get bored of.  She's super ticklish but doesn't quite know what to do when she's being tickled. She smiles and giggles unless it really tickles and then she tenses up and grunts.  She also wants to try food SO bad.  She dives for my food when I'm eating and holding her, and gets her little lips smacking.  Sometimes she'll make a really sad complaining noise and just look at the food and then at me, and back at the food like "come on mom, I wanna try that"  I'm holding out on her for a few more weeks though, sorry Len.

 4 Months

 5 months

 She loves playing with her toes!

 Watching Emery jump on the bed.

Lennen is 3 months old!

This post is a few weeks late but I wanted to write down a few things about Lennen at this age before I forget.  Even though she's too little for her full personality to be known, there is still a lot that we already know about our sweet little Lennen.

• She is a GREAT sleeper.  She prefers to be wrapped up, have a binky, and be put in her bed to go to sleep.  She hardly ever falls asleep while nursing or being rocked but goes down with no fuss if you just put her in her bed.  It's pretty nice, and SO different from Emery.  Sometimes I miss cuddling a sleeping baby though so once in a while I let her fall asleep in her bed and take her back out for some cuddle time :)
• She loves the T.V.  As hard as I try, she will find a way to contort her body so that she can see the t.v. screen and as soon as she spots it she gets a big ol grin.
• She loves tummy time and bath time.  If she's having a really hard time, a bath or laying her on her tummy usually calms her down.
• At her two month appointment she weighed 11 lbs 8 oz (39%) and was 22 inches long (11%).
• She is full of smiles and has given us a few giggles when she's being tickled, but as far as jabbering goes she is pretty quiet.  She has cooed for us a few times, but she is no where near as vocal as Emery was.  It'll be very different if we have a quiet child, since Emery talks non-stop.  
• She loves to sit up.  If she is in her car seat or bouncer, or even just laying on your lap, she is always doing crunches trying to sit up
• She is a morning baby.  I usually wake up when I hear her start rustling in her bed, but she will just lay in there content until I'm ready to get up, and as soon as I sit up and look at her she is all smiles.
• She is mostly a pleasant baby and we love her very much.  I love the feeling a newborn brings into the home.  They are so innocent and special and bring a happiness that nothing else can.

We love you Lennen, we're so glad you joined our family :)

Lennen's Birth

This labor and birth were pretty different from Emery's.  I went in on Thursday October 17th, which was my due date, for my weekly checkup.  I hadn't been checked up until that point because I didn't see any reason to.  I had her check me at that appt though and she said I was a three.  After I left I started feeling a little crampy but sometimes that just happens when they check you.  We went about our day pretty normally.  I got a haircut that night and then went to a girls' night to do our nails.  Aaron came over when we were done (it was at the Rosenbaums) and we ended up staying till after midnight just talking.  When we got home we went to bed and I got about a half hour of sleep before contractions started.  Unlike Emery's that were really steady once they started, these ones were sporadic, sometimes 10 minutes apart, sometimes an hour and a half.  But they kept me from sleeping so I got up, got a bag packed for me and for Emery, ate some cereal, cleaned, and kept trying to sleep.  But every time I layed down they got more consistent so sleep did not come.  Aaron stayed home from work even though I still wasn't sure I was in labor.  I gave Emery a bath and we just took it easy.  About 10:30 I decided to sit down and actually time my contractions because I hadn't really done that yet.  They were coming every 10 mins by then and lasting about a minute long.  So we packed up and headed out. We snapped these pictures first, my only belly pics of this pregnancy.

 When I got there I was only at a 4, which surprised me since my contractions had sped up to 2 minutes apart.  They wanted to monitor me for an hour in triage before giving me a room, but I wanted to get in the tub.  They decided I was probably in labor and decided I could go into an actual room.  I don't think very many people get in the tub because the nurse didn't know how to run it and so the water was 60 degrees when I got in.  I stayed in for about 2 minutes because it didn't help at all with it being that cold.  I was shivering and couldn't relax through the contractions so I opted for walking around.  This picture is when I was at a 5. 

 

 From 3:00-5:45ish I didn't progress much, so my midwife suggested breaking my water.  I said ok and she did.  Then she walked out for a minute and with the next contraction I started to feel like I needed to push so I called her back in.  She ran in and said "ALREADY??!!"  She checked me and sure enough, with 1 contraction I went from a 5 to a 9.  She hurried and got suited up and ready while I breathed through a few more contractions until I was all the way dilated.  I had the same problem with my cervix not thinning out quite enough that I had with Emery though, so I had to hold off the pushing again for a few contractions.  That is by far the hardest part of labor for me.  Holding off pushing when your body is basically forcing you to push.

 Im pushing in this picture.  I pushed just a few times and she was here! It was right in the middle of shift change so I had 3 nurses there and they all kept saying they should video tape my labor for birth classes and make me the poster child of labor because I basically rock at having babies :)  I love love LOVE having my babies with no medication.  I love being in control of my body and knowing exactly what's going on and being in charge rather than having everyone else tell me what my body is doing, when to push, etc.  I also love that 10 minutes later I can get up and walk around and not be hooked up to a bunch of stuff and have my legs numb for hours after.

 Baby's here!!!

 Lennen was born at 6:36 pm on October 18th.  She was 18.5 inches and weighed 7lbs 1oz. 

 I'm also the annoying mom who doesn't let them take my baby anywhere without tagging along.  So a couple hours after she was born we walked down to the nursery and I helped them give her her first bath.

 Emery had been to Gardner Village with Shanna, Lori, and Kara so she stopped by on her way back to see her baby sister.  She only stayed for a few minutes because it was after 10 and we were all tired.

 Sue was my midwife and she was great!

Having a hospital birth this time instead of a home birth was definitely different, but I knew it would be.  It wasn't as intimate or as calm of a surrounding, but I was really surprised at how open they were to letting me make all the decisions and just letting things run their course.  I will say though that I much prefer a water birth, it helps a ton to be in the water. 

Back to the blog

It's been probably a year and a half since I have posted on this blog, I don't know if anyone read it anyway but I have been realizing how sad I am that I don't have things from the past year and a half written down, and how quickly you forget the special moments if you don't have a record of them and decided I really want to be better at jotting down a few things here and there.
So here is my attempt. 

Vacation Time!

We took a spontaneous trip to California at the end of April into the first part of May.  Aaron's mom offered to let us use her time share and his sister Kara and her family decided they would come too and we could all drive together.  Then Lori decided she better not miss out so she booked another condo...then Shanna decided she should go too so it was almost an entire family vacation, we were only missing a few people. 
Emery was a champ on the way there.  She got fussy a few times during the week, (we had about an hour drive to and from Disneyland) but all around she was happy.  We spent a few days at the beach, 2 days at Disneyland, went to the Mormon battalion site, played in the pool at the condo, and spent a tiny bit of time doing nothing but sitting on the balcony enjoying the sun.

 Panning for gold at the Mormon Battalion

 Coronado Island.  It was a little chilly

 DISNEYLAND!!

 Yummy mexican right outside Disneyland.  Don't let Emery's smile fool you, she wasn't a very happy camper after 10 hours of Disneyland.

 oops I uploaded the wrong pic...emery hated the sand, I had a pic capturing said hate but accidentally got this one instead.

 We tried to give Em a bath after the beach but she was SO tired she just cried and cried so we got her out, strapped a diaper on her and let her crash in her caseat.

 Getting ready for the Toy Story ride

 Tuckered out.

 The whole gang

 This neck pillow was the envy of everyone in the car and was constantly fought over.

Easter

 I can't figure out how to rotate this picture :)

Emery's first Easter was pretty fun, she was just starting to take a few steps so the Easter egg hunt was cute.