Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
The box is still popular
After dinner tonight we had some fun with Stasa in the playroom. She's so creative with her toys and still loves playing with her duct taped diaper box we gave her for Christmas over a year ago. (Toldja she'd love it, Jennifer.)
The box is a present box, it's a car, it's a boat, it's a baby bed, it's pretty much anything and everything she wants it to be. Tonight it was her car and it was Tom's job to drive her around.
Then it was just silly play time.
We played with Lexi for a little bit, too.
The box is a present box, it's a car, it's a boat, it's a baby bed, it's pretty much anything and everything she wants it to be. Tonight it was her car and it was Tom's job to drive her around.
Then it was just silly play time.
We played with Lexi for a little bit, too.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Exercise, Stasa-style
Stas loves playing with my exercise/birthing ball, but isn't able to get up on it by herself. Yesterday I spent some 1-on-1 time with her and we played on the ball. She really likes laying on it and having me roll her back and forth - little lunatic. Before I helped her on it, she was trying to climb up on it herself. Clearly she wasn't successful.
After that, she decided to play office with our paperclips and binder clips.
After that, she decided to play office with our paperclips and binder clips.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Oh, Stasa. Poor Stasa.
The entire time I was pregnant with Alexia everyone would ask "What does Stasa think?!" and I'd always tell them she really has no clue what's going on. I mean she would lift my shirt, point to my belly and exclaim "baby!", but she would do the same thing to Tom and anyone else. I don't think she really got it until we actually brought Lexi home with us.
Friends and coworkers told me how seeing Stasa with Alexia would melt my heart and they were right. It does melt my heart everytime Stasa gives Lexi kisses or asks to hold her or brings her a blanket. Stasa really is a caring and loving child and wants to share that love with everyone. But she's also a 2 year old toddler that's been the center of our world and now we've brought a bit of "competition" home with us. Talk about rocking your world.
I have to keep reminding myself it's only been a few days and who can expect a toddler to understand a big life change like this in just a few days. But there have been times this past weekend where I've forgotten all of that and wonder what we got ourselves into. It started our last hour at the hospital. Tom left to take some stuff down to the car before I was discharged and left me with both girls. The minute he walked out, Alexia started wailing, needing a diaper change. While I'm changing and trying to comfort her, Stasa runs over crying and yelling at me, saying "I poopy TOOOOO! Mommy, I poopy, too!!!!" And then she climbed up in the bed, laid down next to Lexi and insisted that I change her, too. And of course they were both still wailing at this point. It didn't help that Stas didn't get a nap at all that day.
She wasn't much better once we got home - refused to eat dinner, threw random items at me and Tom, insisted on climbing in the swing and bouncer...thankfully she went down for bed without any problems.
The next morning she woke up, climbed in our bed and gave everyone a kiss, including Lexi. But then she was back to insisting that we change her and tried taking all of Lexi's blankets away. She got better as the day wore on, but was definitely still struggling. Today's she's back at daycare and we're hoping being back in her regular routine will help. All of that said, I think she's going to be a great big sister once she gets used to the idea of having Lexi around.
Friends and coworkers told me how seeing Stasa with Alexia would melt my heart and they were right. It does melt my heart everytime Stasa gives Lexi kisses or asks to hold her or brings her a blanket. Stasa really is a caring and loving child and wants to share that love with everyone. But she's also a 2 year old toddler that's been the center of our world and now we've brought a bit of "competition" home with us. Talk about rocking your world.
I have to keep reminding myself it's only been a few days and who can expect a toddler to understand a big life change like this in just a few days. But there have been times this past weekend where I've forgotten all of that and wonder what we got ourselves into. It started our last hour at the hospital. Tom left to take some stuff down to the car before I was discharged and left me with both girls. The minute he walked out, Alexia started wailing, needing a diaper change. While I'm changing and trying to comfort her, Stasa runs over crying and yelling at me, saying "I poopy TOOOOO! Mommy, I poopy, too!!!!" And then she climbed up in the bed, laid down next to Lexi and insisted that I change her, too. And of course they were both still wailing at this point. It didn't help that Stas didn't get a nap at all that day.
She wasn't much better once we got home - refused to eat dinner, threw random items at me and Tom, insisted on climbing in the swing and bouncer...thankfully she went down for bed without any problems.
The next morning she woke up, climbed in our bed and gave everyone a kiss, including Lexi. But then she was back to insisting that we change her and tried taking all of Lexi's blankets away. She got better as the day wore on, but was definitely still struggling. Today's she's back at daycare and we're hoping being back in her regular routine will help. All of that said, I think she's going to be a great big sister once she gets used to the idea of having Lexi around.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Home!
She scratched her poor face to pieces. I've since clipped her nails down to let her skin heal.
Stasa loves holding baby Lexi and sometimes tries to grab her without help.
Sleepy peaceful Lexi
Stasa loves holding baby Lexi and sometimes tries to grab her without help.
Sleepy peaceful Lexi
Alexia's birth story
Wednesday night I started having somewhat regular contractions, but nothing too strong or too close together. I took a hot bath to see if they would lessen or go away and when they didn't I decided to try to get some sleep in case they worsened overnight. I woke up around 1:00 AM to more contractions and slept off and on until about 4:00 AM when I decided to get up and start timing them. Since they were still pretty regular (though only 10 minutes apart) I suggested that Tom work from home and we kept Stasa with us, too. Finally around 8:30 I called the doctor to see what I should do and they asked me to come in for another cervical check. I hoped to have some sort of progress, but didn't want to jinx it so we left our hospital bag and everything else at the house. Of course that's when I learned that I was already dilated 5cm and Dr. Gopal asked if I wanted to have a baby today - YES! She told us to go home, get Stasa settled and then head to the hospital.
We checked into the hospital around noon and ended up with the same Labor and Delivery nurse that we had with Stasa. Small world. AND Dr. Pickford was on call - just like last time. Dr. Pickford told us that it would be best for her to break my water so the contractions would pick up, only when she went to break the bag we found out my water had already broken on its own, I just didn't realize it because the baby's head was acting like a suction.
I already knew I was going to get an epidural so we had the anesthesiologist come to place the epi before the pain got bad. Well, the epi made the contractions sloooooooooow down, so they started a bit of pitocin to get them going back to back. I quickly went from 5 cm to 9 cm and then I started feeling a lot of pressure and pain, so they called the anesthesiologist to give me a boost. Then they cath'd me to empty my bladder and BAM I was 10 cm and ready to push.
After only 2 pushes Alexia Lee was born. She was 7 lbs 14 oz and 20 3/4" long.
I was told it was a "dream delivery" and ended up not tearing or swelling at all, which will make for a fast and easy recovery.
We checked into the hospital around noon and ended up with the same Labor and Delivery nurse that we had with Stasa. Small world. AND Dr. Pickford was on call - just like last time. Dr. Pickford told us that it would be best for her to break my water so the contractions would pick up, only when she went to break the bag we found out my water had already broken on its own, I just didn't realize it because the baby's head was acting like a suction.
I already knew I was going to get an epidural so we had the anesthesiologist come to place the epi before the pain got bad. Well, the epi made the contractions sloooooooooow down, so they started a bit of pitocin to get them going back to back. I quickly went from 5 cm to 9 cm and then I started feeling a lot of pressure and pain, so they called the anesthesiologist to give me a boost. Then they cath'd me to empty my bladder and BAM I was 10 cm and ready to push.
After only 2 pushes Alexia Lee was born. She was 7 lbs 14 oz and 20 3/4" long.
I was told it was a "dream delivery" and ended up not tearing or swelling at all, which will make for a fast and easy recovery.
Friday, March 25, 2011
It's a girl!
Alexia Lee Merkel was born March 24 at 4:18 pm. She weighs 7lbs 14oz and is 20" long. She's perfect in every way and we're all in love with her.
Pictures and birth story to come!
Pictures and birth story to come!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
State of the Uterus
Baby's heart rate: a healthy 145 beats/minute
Dilation: 3+cm
Effacement: 50%
Blood pressure and weight gain was good and everything looks favorable for me to go into labor on my own sometime this week. However, if I'm still pregnant by Monday we'll go in for an induction at 7:00 am. Either way we'll definitely meet this little one by Monday!!
Dilation: 3+cm
Effacement: 50%
Blood pressure and weight gain was good and everything looks favorable for me to go into labor on my own sometime this week. However, if I'm still pregnant by Monday we'll go in for an induction at 7:00 am. Either way we'll definitely meet this little one by Monday!!
Monday, March 21, 2011
Still pregnant
Twelve more days until my due date!
This week I'm wrapping things up at work and am mostly doing short-term projects that I can finish in a day or two or stuff that someone else can easily pick up in my absence. I've also got just 1 last homework assignment and a final quiz left before my Chemistry class is over. Other than that everything's ready for the baby's arrival. Our hospital bag is packed (except for the few toiletries we'll need to take with us), the car seat is installed, the house is clean, the laundry is done, and the bills are paid. We even tackled our home office and cleaned that room up and finished filing our personal papers.
We recently decided to go as paperless as possible and have scanned in just about every bill, medical record, and file that we could. We're only keeping hard copies of our tax documents, deeds, and anything else that could be needed in case of an audit or something. It's freed up so much space in our filing cabinet, which we in turn needed to use to store our work files since I've lost my office space and Tom will soon lose his this fall.
Booz Allen has decided to convert most of our DC Metro offices into hoteling space. It basically means that if you're a certain level you won't have an assigned office. Instead we'll have to log in to a reservation system and choose a different office each day. Since the majority of our staff are on a client site 98% of the time it makes a lot of sense for them to not have permanent offices. For someone like me who's in the office 4 days a week, this is going to be a real pain in the ass. At least we can reserve up to 5 days in a row and we get to choose where we'd like to sit - so I could potentially end up sitting in a nicer office than the one I had. Or I could be stuck sitting with a recruiter who's on the phone all.day.long. We'll see how it goes. I'll still work from home every Friday (and possibly more days) and Tom will probably start working from home 2 days a week, which is why we had to get our home office in order now.
So back to baby business. I have another doctor appointment this Wednesday and am hoping I'll have had some progress since last week especially since I've been having contractions off and on and have lost more of my mucous plug. Either way we'll definitely have a game plan mapped out by the end of the appointment. I can't wait to meet this baby!
This week I'm wrapping things up at work and am mostly doing short-term projects that I can finish in a day or two or stuff that someone else can easily pick up in my absence. I've also got just 1 last homework assignment and a final quiz left before my Chemistry class is over. Other than that everything's ready for the baby's arrival. Our hospital bag is packed (except for the few toiletries we'll need to take with us), the car seat is installed, the house is clean, the laundry is done, and the bills are paid. We even tackled our home office and cleaned that room up and finished filing our personal papers.
We recently decided to go as paperless as possible and have scanned in just about every bill, medical record, and file that we could. We're only keeping hard copies of our tax documents, deeds, and anything else that could be needed in case of an audit or something. It's freed up so much space in our filing cabinet, which we in turn needed to use to store our work files since I've lost my office space and Tom will soon lose his this fall.
Booz Allen has decided to convert most of our DC Metro offices into hoteling space. It basically means that if you're a certain level you won't have an assigned office. Instead we'll have to log in to a reservation system and choose a different office each day. Since the majority of our staff are on a client site 98% of the time it makes a lot of sense for them to not have permanent offices. For someone like me who's in the office 4 days a week, this is going to be a real pain in the ass. At least we can reserve up to 5 days in a row and we get to choose where we'd like to sit - so I could potentially end up sitting in a nicer office than the one I had. Or I could be stuck sitting with a recruiter who's on the phone all.day.long. We'll see how it goes. I'll still work from home every Friday (and possibly more days) and Tom will probably start working from home 2 days a week, which is why we had to get our home office in order now.
So back to baby business. I have another doctor appointment this Wednesday and am hoping I'll have had some progress since last week especially since I've been having contractions off and on and have lost more of my mucous plug. Either way we'll definitely have a game plan mapped out by the end of the appointment. I can't wait to meet this baby!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
The next big rock star
When Stasa came home yesterday the first thing she spotted was my painted nails and asked nicely for hers to be painted, too. Little diva. So I painted her nails the same color as mine and she sat still and even blew on them to help them dry faster.
After her pampering session we played while Tom finished his workout. She still LOVES that diaper box we duct taped (it's now over a year old) and will play with it all of the time.
She also loves to pretend to call everyone on her phone. "Hewo? Hewo? ::gibberish:: Bye Bye!"
She eventually got tired of playing in the box, ran down the hall, and asked to play in the guest room where the guitars are. I can't wait to get her a guitar of her own - she really enjoys makingnoise music.
American Idol
I love her blue eyes
Telling me that the guitar is Stasa's and not Daddy's
Ah, a new game she likes to pretend. She grabs pillows from the closest bed and tells us "g'ight" and pretends to sleep.
After her pampering session we played while Tom finished his workout. She still LOVES that diaper box we duct taped (it's now over a year old) and will play with it all of the time.
She also loves to pretend to call everyone on her phone. "Hewo? Hewo? ::gibberish:: Bye Bye!"
She eventually got tired of playing in the box, ran down the hall, and asked to play in the guest room where the guitars are. I can't wait to get her a guitar of her own - she really enjoys making
American Idol
I love her blue eyes
Telling me that the guitar is Stasa's and not Daddy's
Ah, a new game she likes to pretend. She grabs pillows from the closest bed and tells us "g'ight" and pretends to sleep.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Do not trust this angelic face.
She may look cute and innocent, but that little darling will tun on you in a heartbeat. Take last night for instance. She went to bed without a problem. We eventually made our way upstairs to bed and settled in for a peaceful night of sleep...or so we thought.
1:30 AM
Crying...more crying...still crying
I go into Stasa's room to see what's wrong and she's crying about her blanket and is halfway out of bed. I tuck her back in and feel around blindly until I find her blankie and then lay down with her to calm her down and hopefully get her back to sleep.
Quiet. Finally. I go back to my bed and settle in to go back to sleep. I'm just falling asleep when I hear little feet padding into our room. At this point I'm too tired to get back out of bed so I just pull her into our bed thinking she'll fall asleep once she's snuggled in.
Ha, was I wrong. As soon as she was settled in the bed it was like BAM play time. I have no idea how she was that wide awake, but I was not amused. It wasn't until around 4:30 or so that her tossing and turning finally woke up Tom, too. I can't even remember how many times I said "lay down, Stasa" or "it's sleep time". Around 5:30 I realized she wasn't wiggling around anymore and was laying still. I chanced it and peered over her - ASLEEP!
Only now it was 5:30 and I usually get up at 6:00 to start working. Eff it, I thought. I'd rather sleep. I slept until 7ish and got up to try to work, but realized I was a walking zombie. Since Stasa was still passed out in our bed, I crawled back in and fell asleep. We both finally woke up a little before 10:00 and while I still feel somewhat like a walking zombie, it's better than no sleep at all. Stasa, of course, woke up fully refreshed.
She may look cute and innocent, but that little darling will tun on you in a heartbeat. Take last night for instance. She went to bed without a problem. We eventually made our way upstairs to bed and settled in for a peaceful night of sleep...or so we thought.
1:30 AM
Crying...more crying...still crying
I go into Stasa's room to see what's wrong and she's crying about her blanket and is halfway out of bed. I tuck her back in and feel around blindly until I find her blankie and then lay down with her to calm her down and hopefully get her back to sleep.
Quiet. Finally. I go back to my bed and settle in to go back to sleep. I'm just falling asleep when I hear little feet padding into our room. At this point I'm too tired to get back out of bed so I just pull her into our bed thinking she'll fall asleep once she's snuggled in.
Ha, was I wrong. As soon as she was settled in the bed it was like BAM play time. I have no idea how she was that wide awake, but I was not amused. It wasn't until around 4:30 or so that her tossing and turning finally woke up Tom, too. I can't even remember how many times I said "lay down, Stasa" or "it's sleep time". Around 5:30 I realized she wasn't wiggling around anymore and was laying still. I chanced it and peered over her - ASLEEP!
Only now it was 5:30 and I usually get up at 6:00 to start working. Eff it, I thought. I'd rather sleep. I slept until 7ish and got up to try to work, but realized I was a walking zombie. Since Stasa was still passed out in our bed, I crawled back in and fell asleep. We both finally woke up a little before 10:00 and while I still feel somewhat like a walking zombie, it's better than no sleep at all. Stasa, of course, woke up fully refreshed.
It's always fun playing outside
Since it was relatively nice on Sunday we took Stasa out in her wagon for a bit and then to the playground to burn off some energy. If given the choice she'd have us stay at the playground for hours - she never seems to run out of energy. She was not at all happy with us when we said it was time to go. I can't wait until we fence in our entire backyard so we can just let her run free.
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