Maternity Leave Almost Over!

Professional Photos taken of Lucy--6 days Old

Lucy grasping an object--1st time!

Although I do feel like I'm ready to go back to work in some ways, most of me wishes I could just stay home with Lucy indefinitely! This is really my last full week of maternity leave, because I leave for Dallas in exactly one week for my exam, and I'll be there for 2 days. When I get home, we'll leave the next day for Sun River, Oregon (all of us are going) for a pediatric dentistry conference. That should be a lot of fun. And then I start back to work 3 days per week on Monday March 10. Lucy will just have turned 3 months old. I know I keep saying this, but time is just flying by, and already, I can see how much she is changing! i don't want to miss anything she does! She is so so interactive with us...cooing, smiling, laughing all the time...she's checking everything out and is starting to enjoy some of her little toys. And yesterday was the first time that she grasped an object (that wasn't our finger)...there's a picture of her grasping her little rattle. We're finally more comfortable with uncovering her hands...she seems to be less interested in scratching her face these days, although she still has her moments!

The other pictures many of you have seen already over e-mail, but above are some of our favorite shots of Lucy from the professional pictures we had taken when she was only 6 days old.

Sleep has still been on and off. Last night was great...she only woke up once in the middle of the night to eat and went right back to sleep in her bassinet after. But she still has nights where it seems like she's waking up all night long. We really wanted her in her own room around 3 months old by the time I'm back to work, but we'll have to see in a couple of weeks how she's sleeping. This week is more of the same...playing, studying, and even working a little...I'll go in Saturday morning to the office to work and am volunteering up at OHSU on Friday morning for "Give Kids a Smile" day, working with the dental students.





Hope everyone has a great week...can you believe March is almost here?

Chillin in the Bumbo

Grandpa holding Lucy
Nap Time--we nap like this a lot
It's Bumbo Time!!!

Lucy is gaining a lot more head control which makes sitting in her Bumbo chair a lot easier for her. She's really been enjoying it. We usually turn on the musical, light-up star on her Baby Einstein gym, plunk her in her Bumbo chair and she's usually content for quite awhile, smiling, laughing and cooing. Above are some cute pics of her doing that very thing.

We're loving our cooing conversations with Lucy too. She is mimicking facial expressions and our coos, and sometimes we have conversations that can last 10 minutes or so just cooing back and forth. She likes to throw in a squeal with her coos every now and then too. This morning, she was in her bassinet after I changed her and I heard her cooing...so without her seeing me I coo'd back...and then she amazed me by mimicking me from her bassinet! We weren't even looking at each other and we were having a conversation. I thought that was pretty cool.

This past week, she enjoyed meeting her Grandpa Andy who was here for a few days at the end of last week. He also enjoyed playing with the Daisy dog.

She's been a little fussier than usual this past week which had us concerned that maybe her reflux medicine wasn't working as well for her, but I talked to a friend from the new Mom's group who said her baby acts similarly when going through a growth spurt. Lucy has been pretty sleepy this week too, and she did gain almost an ounce a day, so maybe it's just that. Yesterday she slept so much during the day that she was restless all night and didn't sleep well. Hopefully she'll get back on a good sleep pattern.

We're starting to think about transitioning her to her room and her crib around 3-4 months old which would be coming up soon, but she's still eating sometimes several times during the night, so we'll probably wait until she's sleeping a little bit better through the night.

Bethany is here today so I can study (my big exam is 2 weeks from today...I'm very nervous!)...and I'm working this Thursday. I can hardly believe my maternity leave is almost over and that my exam is almost here! Time flies...Lucy will be 3 months old in a few short weeks!

Happy Valentine's Day (early)

Not much to report from Portland, but I thought I'd post a couple of pictures from this past weekend. It actually stopped raining long enough for us to put Lucy in the Bjorn and take a nice walk! She really likes the Bjorn and enjoys looking at the scenery outside.

Everything went well with her 2 month check-up last week. She weighed 11 lb. 1.5 oz, height was 24 1/8 in. and head circumference was 16 1/4 inches. She's in the 90 percentile for height and head circumference and 50% for weight. She did fine for her vaccinations, screamed briefly and slept most of the day after, but didn't seem to be bothered beyond that.

My dad is up visiting for a few days, and he enjoyed meeting her this morning! She gave him lots of smiles and coos. Daisy is always happy to have visitors too.

I've been working a half day here & there to fill in at the office when needed. Tomorrow I have my first OR case at the hospital here...I'm a little nervous about that just knowing where to find things and paperwork etc., but I'm glad to be back to work a little bit and keeping busy.

Chris & I are going on our first date alone since Lucy was born, this Sunday evening and our friends Dianna and Aaron are going to babysit Lucy. We're excited we'll get to celebrate Valentine's day together, just a few days late. Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!

2 months old today!

Lucy is 2 months old today, and she's doing great. She loves to smile and coo...she's so interactive these days. She also loves to look at lights and really likes to lie in her Baby Einstein gym and stare up at the musical star that lights up. Tomorrow we go to the pediatrician for her 2 month check-up. I think she'll need 3 shots :(

I think we've all pretty much recovered from our horrible day Friday. This week has been pretty good. Lucy enjoyed watching her first Superbowl with dad on Sunday while I did some studying. Then Monday at the breastfeeding group we go to, I weighed her and she had gained 7.4 ounces in one week! That's over an ounce a day, which is super for her...like I've said, she averages only about half an ounce a day, so maybe she's having a growth spurt! She's an ounce shy of 11 pounds now.

Bethany came Tuesday and Wednesday this week, giving me a chance to grocery shop, study and I got that massage I was supposed to have last Friday. Because of little Freddie, we've gotten a headstart on baby-proofing the house. We have baby gates to block off the kitchen and the stairs and we've rearranged things in the living/dining area to be out of baby's reach. It's a good thing...we won't have to worry about all of that when Lucy starts moving around.

Chris & I decided to give up eating out (or really take-out) and sweets for Lent which will be quite a challenge for us. It's only been one day, and already I'm craving sweet stuff.

This afternoon, we go to the new Mom's group which is always fun. Look for Lucy's 2 month stats from the pediatrician in our next blog!

Really bad day

Lucy at the Mom/baby group this past Thursday

Bumbo Chair

This is a long blog, so make sure you have a few minutes to read through. Yesterday was a really really really bad day. I felt like there was a black cloud just following me around causing bad things to happen. The worst part about it was that it was supposed to be a really great day that I was so looking forward to. Bethany was going to come and watch Lucy for a few hours, and I was going to go get a massage and then study for a few hours (for my board exam in a month).



The first bad thing that happened (really minor in the grand scheme of things) is that I logged onto the computer and checked our bank accounts as I do every few days or so, and saw that a bank account that we rarely use and don't keep much money in was overdrawn because of an automatic deposit from OHSU that apparently was a mistake and was reversed causing the account to be overdrawn (we thought it was a small end of the year tax credit, but apparently it was just a mistake).



The worst thing that happened yesterday came next. I was sitting on the couch breastfeeding Lucy. Bethany and her son Freddie arrived and let themselves in as they usually do if I have my hands full with Lucy. For some really strange reason, Daisy started growling at them (she's been around them many times, so this was really weird), but I think she maybe did this because she couldn't see clearly that it was someone she knew and they just came in the house on their own without me opening the door for them. I scolded Daisy for growling, but she just continued to growl. This made me a little nervous because Freddie is a toddler and although she's never hurt a fly, I didn't like her growling. So I scooted down the couch to touch Freddie and let Daisy know he's our friend. There was a drink that I had stupidly placed next to where I had been sitting on the couch. When I scooted back down to where I was sitting, the drink tipped over. Without even thinking, reflexively, I quickly grabbed for the spilling drink. In that horrible moment, I think my quick jerking caused Lucy to roll off the breastfeeding pillow, face first, onto the carpet below. I was MORTIFIED. I've always worried and thought about how terrible it would be if I were ever to accidentally drop her or stumble while holding her, and this was my worst nightmare coming true. I don't know how I could have even let go of her for a second...all I can come up with was that I just did it as a reflex without even time to think. Of course she was crying, and I picked her up so fast, and she stopped crying really quickly. I was crying, but she seemed fine. She was smiling and acting like her normal self. There wasn't a mark on her, and she was moving all around just as she always does. I called Chris in hysterics, and he calmed me down, reassuring me that if she was hurt, she would be crying and upset, and she only had cried for about 5 seconds. She's cried much longer than that for something as small as her accidentally scratching her face. I knew she was OK, but I felt such terrible guilt for letting that happen. Even today, I keep replaying it in my head...I'm just so thankful she's OK...I know we were so blessed because she could have been seriously injured. She went through the rest of the day just happy as could be, eating well, sitting & playing in her new bumbo chair, and she even slept for 5 and 1/2 hours last night in her bassinet...this is a new record! And she was exactly 8 weeks old yesterday.



Anyway, after calming down and realizing she was just fine, I went to go pump some milk for her before I left for my appointment. Of course since everything I was touching that morning was somehow getting screwed up, my breast pump wasn't working (turns out I just didn't have everything connected properly).



I finally get out the door to leave for my appointment, pretty frazzled but looking forward to some relaxation, and as I'm leaving the neighborhood about a quarter mile from our house, somebody runs a stop sign at a 4-way stop and smashes right into the Subaru on the rear driver's side. My car spins around from the force of the impact and the back of the car hits a telephone pole. The tears just wouldn't stop flowing. I couldn't believe this bad string of events that happened. Thankfully, I was fine, just very shaken up. I felt very sorry for the other driver...she was a woman about my age. She was hysterical and so apologetic, admitting she didn't see the stop sign. As upset as I was, I couldn't be angry with her...after all, because of my mistake earlier that morning, I could have caused serious injury to Lucy, so I was definitely in the mindset of accidents happen and just thankful that her & I were unharmed. So poor Chris got his second hysterical phone call that I was in a car accident and needed him to come home. Of course he got there right away and took care of everything. My car needs about $5000 in repairs and it will take about 3 weeks to fix. The other driver's insurance company of course is accepting complete liability and is taking care of everything including the rental car.



As horrible a day as this was, I have to admit that it could have been so much worse. Lucy and I are both just fine, the car will be repaired at no cost to us, and even the small things with the bank account and breast pump are resolved. The hardest thing is just letting go of the guilt and the image in my mind of sweet little Lucy falling. Anyway, today has been relaxing. It is a very snowy day in Portland. Chris, Lucy & I had breakfast this morning with friends Dianna and Aaron and Chris is taking care of Lucy this afternoon to give me a chance to study. Above is a picture of Lucy happy as can be last night in her Bumbo chair. I hope my next blog will be a lot shorter and uneventful...thanks for listening (reading).