Sick :(

Last night Hannah didn't sleep at all. I guess that is what I get for her sleeping all night the night before. I think she didn't sleep last night because she was hungery and she isn't eating much because she can't breathe through her nose. She has lots of green snot and is sniffling all of the time. I am really upset. I have kept in the house like the doctor said for the last 5 weeks... I must of given her something. I am using my nursing/PNP knowledge to treat her. This includes saline nose drops and bulb suctioning which she HATES and keeping her upright in her bouncer. My biggest fear is that she will get RSV. I hate it that my baby is sick.

ALL NIGHT LONG

People are not totally truthful when they say "My baby slept all night at .... weeks." That is kind of impossible for a breastfeeding mom whose "milk man" still thinks that they baby eats every 2 to 4 hours. Last night we fed Hannah (I say we because Stu fed her a bottle and then I breastfed until she acted full) at 11:30. We all went to sleep at 12:00. Hannah was really wide eyed and didn't go right to sleep when I put her down, but she didn't fuss or make noises either. Around 6:00 I woke up because the "milk man" had probably visited me more than once (any breastfeeding mother knows what I am talking about). Hannah was still asleep! I had to look really closely to make sure she was alive. I was so excited, she had slept for over 6 hours!!! That is what they mean by a full night! We don't know what we did that made her sleep so long and we don't know if this will become a pattern (I sure hope so!). Yesterday at the doctor, he told me that she should feed every 2-3 hours during the day and 4 - 6 during the night. I hope she likes sleep as much as her mommy and will continue with 6! I loved it!

One Month Old

Today Hannah is officially 1 month old! I can't believe it and it scares me to think how fast she is going to grow up! Today we went to the pediatrician's for a well visit. Hannah weights 10lbs 4 oz and is 22 3/4 inches long! Wow!!! She is the 75th percentile for height and weight. The doctor also said she had big feet for a baby... Hum, I wonder who she is going to take after, her mom or her Dad? In addition to her gaining weight, we are noticing that she is having lots of skin folds on her bottom and legs and definitely has a double a chin! My mom reminds me that I was a chunky baby!

I didn't have any concerns to express to the doctor and he said she was doing very well. He told us we need to be massaging her hands and feet and smiling and talking to her to get her to respond. Just this week she has started focusing on us when we talk to her. She is smiling but not so much responsively yet. We will start working on teaching her to do that. She does smile a lot though. When he put her on her tummy, she just laid there. He said she was lazy! and needed more "tummy time." I think she was just sleepy because when she is on her tummy she is pushing up and lifts her head up and turns it to both sides. I guess she didn't feel like showing off today. Next month maybe she will show him what she can do.

It is REALLY windy outside! and blowing dust (kind of like a West Texas Spring day). So we won't be getting out again and my mom is leaving town tomorrow for the weekend so I guess I will resume my cabin fever.

Love Bug

Our Little Love Bug!

Hannah meets her cousins!

Parker checking out his cousin Hannah
Ellie feeding her baby cousin

Hannah's ready to go outside!

Hannah is 4 weeks old! Wow! This weekend her Aunt Autumn, Uncle Chad, and cousins Ellie and Parker came to visit! This was so much fun! It was even more fun to have them stay with us! Hannah loved meeting her cousins. Ellie who is four and a half loved Hannah and was such a big help. She held her and fed her several times. She even asked if she could stay 58 days with us and her cousin Hannah! Her mom and dad thought it would be a better idea if she came back in the summer and stayed a week. We wouldn't want her to miss school or ballet :) Parker who is nearly 9 months old gave me and Stuart a pre-view of what we can expect in a few months! He is crawling and pulling himself up on everything! He can open up cabinets and pull our night-lights out of the outlets! Our house is not quite babyproof yet! (I did get outlet covers and cover them before he came!) Having a mobile one is a lot of work! I think it is hard having a baby now, and mine sleeps at least 16 hours a day! He is really cute and although we saw him a month ago at Christmas he seemed so big to us! However, I should report that Hannah has more hair than he does. We really had a great time with Autumn and Chad, I hope they weren't too bored since I can't go anywhere. I have a whole new appreciation for them now that I am a parent. They also brought with them a whole bunch of play things including and excer-saucer, a swing, a bumbo, and a bouncer. This is really nice because I can bring them to my mom's house so she will have all of those things there for when she keeps Hannah.

I think I had the best weekend of anyone because I was able to interact with people! Having only been outside the house a handful of times, having Autumn and Chad around was especially fun for me. Friday night Stuart grilled steaks on outside (they were fabulous!) and I made a strawberry salad and sopapilla cheesecake that I had gotten the recipe from a friend who had brought us dinner after I had Hannah. Everything was great. Parker was able to use Hannah's highchair and impressed us with the way he eats bananas! (Messy! :) Another thing we have to look forward too!). Saturday Stuart and the rest of the family went to Cracker Barrel with Mimi and Pops and Saturday night Mimi and Pops brought over Shoguns! This morning we went over to Mimi and Pops' house and Pops made us a great breakfast (his specialty!) It was really warm out today (in the 70's) so I was happy to get Hannah out of the house for a while. She slept the whole time in her carseat, but it was nice. This afternoon we went over to see our friend Casey's new house and brought Hannah along. We are so impressed with Casey's handyman abilities and what he has done to his house! Hannah did great and I even fed her a bottle while I was over there. The weather should be nice this week and I am thinking about taking Hannah on her first walk! I will let you know :)

Introducing the bottle

Friday was an exciting day for us! Exciting for me because my mom came over and stayed from noon to five thirty while I was able to run some errands! I really really really appreciated being able to get out! I went to HEB to get groceries for the weekend, came home and pumped, then went to Common Scents and RSVP to order baby announcements. Hannah and especially Phoebe and Daisy loved having Grandmommy babysit. (Grandmommy had been sick for nearly 2 weeks and wasn't able to come stay with Hannah!)

In my breastfeeding books, I read about introducing a bottle. I had been really anxious to this so that Stuart could help feed her, I could enjoy a glass of wine, and so I could be gone a little bit longer. The books all say to introduce the bottle between 4 and 6 weeks. If you introduce it before 4 weeks she could have nipple confusion and not take the breast, if you introduce it past 6 weeks she may not take the bottle. I also read that you should have someone other than yourself introduce the bottle and you may have to try different types of nipples until you get it right.

I have been pumping little bits and freezing it but this time I pumped and put the milk in the refrigerator. Autumn had given me lots of bottles, so I just used one of those. My mom gave her the bottle on Friday afternoon and she took it like a champ! Since then, she has taken a couple of them... I was able to enjoy a glass of wine over the weekend, Stuart has fed his first baby, her cousin Ellie was able to feed her, and we were able to give her a bottle while we were out. It was really important that she be able to take a bottle since I have to start clinicals in mid-February and my mom is going to be keeping her. I am so lucky to have such a great baby! She spits up a lot, (on me!) but I think we will keep her!

New Pictures

Our Weekend

We had a really nice weekend this past weekend. Hannah has been sleeping much much better the past few nights. This makes Mommy very happy! She also had another bath last night and enjoyed this one much more than the first. She was 3 weeks old on Saturday. In the past 3 weeks she has really been growing. She is now 22 inches long! Her face is really round and her little legs are getting a little bit chunky! I love it! and I love watching her grow! I have been cooking dinner nearly every night, which Stuart really enjoys. I went for about a year, maybe a year and half without cooking. Hopefully I will be able to keep the trend up. Friday and Saturday nights Stuart and I watched movies, we have also been renting quite a few movies lately. Saturday he worked, I did some school and went to HEB. Sunday we cleaned out our freezer which had stuff that was nearly 3 years old in it that we hadn't eaten. I love looking in my new clean organized freezer, which now has stored breast milk filling it. Stuart's mom brought us over Dos Compandres for lunch again yesterday! This was a treat but I can't wait until we can actually go out to a resteraunt again. I enjoyed visiting with Mimi for a while. Later in the afternoon my mom, who is still sick and cannot be around Hannah, took me to see 27 Dresses! It was so much fun to get out and do something entertaining! It made my week! I have really been having a difficult time with not being able to leave the house. This cabin fever is making me a little bit stir crazy! This is going to be another really long week I am afraid...

Slide Show

Here are some repeat pictures... I am just working on adding slide shows :)

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A very rough night

For those of you who have ever lived with me or just know me well, you know that I like to sleep. I generally require around 12 hours of sleep. I have always enjoyed sleeping in (that's why I work the 3-11 shift) and taking naps. I have actually been feeling really good since having Hannah and have been able to get in my required amount of sleep by sleeping in until 11 or noon everyday. This is a major improvement over being pregnant and not being able to sleep at all. However, last night was rough and I did not handle it very well! Hannah would NOT go to sleep. I had gone to my parent's house and come home a little late and Stuart had been watching a movie, so we went to bed a little bit later than usual. I changed and fed Hannah around 11:30pm and we got in bed (put her in her cradle next to our bed). Stuart fell asleep immediately. Hannah did not. She fussed, and whined, and cried, and grunted, and would not go to sleep! So I fed her and changed her again, same response... I put her in bed with me on my chest, no change. I got up and fed her and rocked her... We tried again, still fussy! I even tried Mylicon drops thinking maybe she had gas. Ahhhhhhh! By 3:00am I was SO FRUSTRATED! I woke up Stuart while loudly trying to reason with my daughter that for the last 4 hours Mommy has been trying to go to sleep. Selfish I know, but 3:00am - 4 hours later, exhausted, frustrated, getting in and out of bed, feeding, changing.... I really didn't care about being selfish at that point. Stuart got up and got her Itsy Bitsy Spider bouncer out of the office and put her in it! And TA DA! It worked! She slept 3 and 1/2 hours in the soothing vibrating bouncer! Thank Goodness! Mommy was able to finally go to sleep! We fed again around 9am and then slept until about noon. But I am telling you, it was a rough night.

Bedtime

She is soooo cute!

My First Bath

Phoebe is curious!
Soaping up!
Naked baby!
Drying off
In my robe!

Last night we gave Hannah her first real bath! She did not like it at all. The dogs were very interested in what we were doing to their baby... Maybe we will like baths better when we are fed before the bath, I don't know...
(We did video tape her bath but I need a special cord to connect the video camera to the computer, so I will work on that. I am also trying to figure out how to add a slide show to the blog so there are not so many individual pictures)

Hello Aunt Susie and cousins Esther, Mo, and Georgia!

Just sitting around thinking about my aunt and cousins in NYC!

My mom likes to dress me up! (Even though all of my clothes are still too big for me!)

My family

I Love my Daddy

I sure look small in my Daddy's arms!

Mom sure knows how to swaddle...

My dog Daisy likes to hang out with me in my room.

Getting dressed for a day out!

Our day out!
How do you like my cute pink shoes?

2 weeks old

This weekend Hannah turned 2 weeks old! Have the days flown by or does it seem more like 4 weeks? We had a great weekend though. Hannah is doing much better at night. She sleeps about 4 hours at a time feeding about 1-2am and then again anywhere from 4-6am and then I get in another feeding and sleep til around 11ish. It is definitely working. I am also having a ball dressing Hannah up! Even though she still doesn't fit into anything, its so fun to dress her up and put on a big matching bow. Today I am ordering her some Valentines clothing online. Midland does not have any good baby stuff :( I wish we had a Children's Place, Janie and Jack, and Crazy 8. Even our Gap and Old Navy lack in the infant department. So back to weekend... Stuart cleaned all weekend, seriously! He cleaned every floor in our house. Our dogs bring in lots of dead grass and hair and our tile and wood floors just get disgusting! So Stuart did a lot of cleaning, I was able to get out a couple of times and go to Target, the mall, Barnes and Nobles, and Alberstons. Saturday my parents came over and brought lunch again and Dad was able to play with Hannah. Mom was getting a cold so she couldn't touch. Sunday Stuart's parents brought over Dos Compadres and they got to see Hannah. We like this lunch thing! My grandmother really wanted to see Hannah too on Saturday before she left town on Sunday. So, instead of having Grandma drive over in the dark, I dressed Hannah up in her jeans, shoes, and sweatshirt and we went over to Grandma's! We arn't supposed to be going out anywhere, but we made the exception to go by Grandma's for a short visit. Hannah was pretty awake and alert while we were there which Grandma enjoyed. Hannah's umbilical stump fell off Saturday night too so now she can have a real bath. This is our plan for tonight and we are going to video tape it! So hopefully I will be able to add some video footage to the blog this week. I have a lot to do this week, mainly get busy with school... But I am going to add some recent pictures and hopefully some videos of her bath and her nursery! Hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Out and about

The past few nights have been much better! We have even gotten nearly 4 hours of sleep at a time during the night. I am cautious to say we have days and nights back in order but I don't want to jinx anything :)

We are also still enjoying fabulous meals from our dear friends. Every meal has been wonderful and we have appreciated them so much!

Today we were able to get out. My mom came along to help. This was my first time really without Stuart and have decided I better work on my upper body strength! That carseat is heavy and lifting it up into the car is a work-out! Maybe this will tone my upper arms ;) I dressed Hannah up for her day out. She wore a cute striped onesie, blue jeans (which are a little bit too big still) and big hot pink bow, a little pink sweatshirt hoodie, and the cutest pink shoes! I will post pictures soon. We started our day out by driving through Sonic and picking up lunch for Daddy and Granddaddy. Both were very excited to see us as we dropped off their lunches. I hope in a few weeks we can do that more often and even stay and eat with them. After dropping off lunches we headed to the hospital to get our PKU (newborn screening) test. Hannah did very very well having her heal stuck for blood. She hardly cried. We were also able to visit with our friend Donna! That was fun! After the hospital we swung by the pediatrician's office for a weight check. Yay! Hannah weighs 8lbs! All that feeding is paying off. She was born weighing 7lbs 13oz, babies initially lose up to 10% of their body weight the first week of life, so at her first appointment she weighed 7lbs 5 oz. A week later, she has gained it back, plus some! That is comforting to know since it is sometimes difficult to tell how much milk she is getting. Hannah is great at traveling and falls asleep as soon as she gets in her carseat. She slept most of the time we were out, Mommy did not and is pretty tired! Its hard to take a nap when the baby is up though ;)

Sleepless nights

Stuart went back to work yesterday. I did manage well on my own for the first time. In fact, Hannah had her first babysitter! My mom came over and stayed with her for about 2 hours while I went up to the hospital to see Stuart's Mema who is recovering from a broken hip. This was the first time I had left her without Stuart being there. I didn't worry about her one bit being with mom who was loving every bit of it. If only my mom could feed her, we would be in great shape. Mom had a great time and the dogs really enjoyed having Grandmommy over too.

In preparation for Stuart to go back to work, he needed sleep. With Hannah still having her nights and days confused this didn't work out very well for him. Hannah thinks that during 12am and 4am it is time to eat, play, and be held. Mommy disagrees, but what can you do? I just pray that this resolves itself quickly, very quickly! So, Stuart is now having to sleep in the guest room until Hannah can sleep at least 3-4 hours at a time during the night. It is not her waking up to feed that is bothersome, it is the fact that after I feed, she stays wide awake! and fusses and cries and makes noises!!! Last night was better, she did wake up every 2 hours to feed but slept like a little angel when we were finished. Until about 4am when she decided it was time again to be wide awake, unsatisfiable hunger, and fussy. Thank goodness we get to sleep in as late as we want. I finally got up at 11:30.

My sweet girl

1 week old

Yesterday Hannah was 1 week old. Wow, did the week fly by! I guess it does when you don't get much sleep. Hannah has been sleeping very well during the day. Our pediatrician says that she needs 16-20 hours a sleep a day! Brain development occurs while she is sleeping. However, the 4 hours that she is awake and stimulated seem to be during 12am and 4am! Lucky for us :) So, needless to say, our nights are long. Thank goodness we are able to sleep in! I can feed her at 7 or 8 in the morning and go back to sleep for a couple of hours. You can't do that when you have another child, hummmmm. I have also been able to get out of the house. On Friday I went to the hospital to sign Hannah's birth certificate. Because she was born on the weekend and the holiday, we were unable to take care of that while still in the hospital. Saturday I went to Target and today I went to HEB. It is nice to get out for a while but I can't wait to get home to see Hannah! Stuart has to go back to work tomorrow :( I think he will miss her a lot too. Today Grandmommy brought Great Grandma over to see Hannah again. Great Grandma is going to spoil her rotten! The other day she brought over a stuffed kangaroo and today she brought some A&M booties! Hannah will be saying Gig Em! pretty soon. Hannah Grace Yeager, Class of 2030!!! I better start sending money to the Former Students Association ;) Hannah was also given a pair of pink baby scrubs by a friend from DOWDCO. They are absolutely precious! Do you think she will grow up to be a nurse like her mommy and grandmommy?

Our first day out

Thursday we went to see our pediatrician. This was our first outing with Hannah. We didn't have to go far, as the doctors office is right around the corner from our house! However, it felt great for me to be able to get dressed in real clothes and daddy dressed Hannah (she looked so cute!) and we went for our first doctors visit. We had an excellent report and will concentrate the next few weeks on her gaining weight. (I am doubting that that will be too hard). We felt so brave that we even drove through the drive thru to get some lunch on our way home!

As for now and for the next 6 weeks, we are confined to our house! No outings for 6 weeks! As a pedi nurse I will stick this one out for sure, we don't want to be in the hospital with RSV or anything like that.

The next few days...

The past few days have been better, we are getting into a better routine and we are getting this feeding thing down. Although, that is all we do, feed, feed, feed again. Thank goodness Stuart had the week off, he wins the best husband and best daddy award!!! He has just been wonderful! Cleaning up, doing some honey-do's, getting meals ready, doing laundry, changing diapers, keeping me hydrated, you name it! I LOVE him! We also appreciate everyone who has brought us dinner! I didn't realize how much of a gift that was to new parents. The meals have been WONDERFUL! We also appreciate all the calls, emails, flowers, and gifts that have been sent. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and families. Sorry that I miss so many calls, I am usually feeding or napping and I promise to return calls ASAP.

Happy New Year!

We were discharged from the hospital on Monday, New Years Eve. I personally think that mom's should be allowed to come home and unpack and get things together and then go back and pick up your baby from the nursery. While I was "ready" for her birth, I can't say I was totally prepared to bring a baby home. My mom was a huge help by running to Target and the grocery store for us while we settled in. Stuart went to Sams to get new air filters and batteries for our bouncer and swing and I unpacked from the hospital. Debbie Turner brought us dinner which we LOVED! And ate for several meals. It was probably the best meal we had eaten in a while!!! Grandmommy and Granddaddy also came over to visit. We must of forgotten it was New Year's Eve because we were in bed by 10:30pm, only to stay up all night turning on and off the heater, air conditioner, and fans; changing the sheets because of diaper changing accidents, taking the bumper on and off her cradle so she wouldn't suffocate, putting the stoppers on and off the cradle so it would rock and she wouldn't roll into the side! Then feeding and my milk coming in! It was a heck of a night. We turned our bedroom into her nursery dragging half the stuff from her room into ours. At one point I think we both just thought our lives had turned up-side-down. It has to get better everyday... I hope :)

December 29th! Welcome HANNAH GRACE YEAGER

Today we were BLESSED with a beautiful healthy daughter!!! Hannah Grace Yeager made her debut at 3:05pm weighing 7lbs 13oz and reaching 20 inches long. To say she came out perfect is an understatement!

I went to the doctor on Thursday for my check-up and was thrilled to find out that I was dilated to 2 cm and 50% effaced... I knew things were progressing but my doctor told me I had about a 25% chance she would come in the next week. I was really dreading an induction but was more then willing to induce ASAP if she hadn't come by 39 weeks! Waking up on Friday I felt kind of crampy all day and really had a feeling that this baby was going to come sooner than later. Friday night Stuart brought home the glider that my Grandma had given me and got it all set up in her room, the finishing touch we had been waiting for. We went to eat at Dos Compadres so I could have some hot sauce and hopefully progress this laboring along. I really couldn't even eat and even thought that we might have to go to the hospital sooner than I had thought. That night we went home and went to bed early hoping that we would have to wake up and go to the hospital. I woke up at 3:30 with consistant contractions. The first time ever they had been solid and consistant. I showered, finished packing and woke up Stuart. While he got ready I made the bed, played with dogs, and timed my contractions until they were about 5-7 minutes apart. Not wanting to let them get too painful, we headed to the hospital around 6:00am. We were admitted and GOING TO HAVE A BABY TODAY!!!! My epidural was started within the hour and we called our parents to let them know we were there and a birth was coming! I spent the morning just relaxing in the bed visiting with our family. We were also so happy that Susan was still home and able to be present for the birth of her new niece. Around 2:00 I was ready to push and the nurse called the doctor... with a few cycles of pushing (and without breaking a sweat!) Hannah Grace was here, full head of dark hair, pink as can be, and I just fell in love! I spent 2 nights in the hospital and we all went home on Monday to celebrate New Years Eve!!!

Christmas!

We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas! We sure did and celebrated it with both of our sisters coming into town and Stuart's sister's family! It was so much fun watching Ellie our 4 and 1/2 year old niece open her presents! We were also treated to a vintage fire truck ride through Grassland to look at all the Christmas lights! Pops dressed up like Santa was a huge hit!