Thursday, June 21, 2012

Mollie, 1 month

Mollie Lynn you are ONE month old!
 
 
What are you up to these days?
You weigh 9 pounds 6 ounces
You are 21 3/4 inches long
Your head is 13 3/4 inches.
 
 
You are about 2 pounds smaller then Matthew was at this age! You are still in newborn size diapers, and mostly newborn size clothes. You have no junk in the trunk waist to hold up any other size pants except newborn! You are much more long and lean then your chunky brother was at this age!
 
Your cousin Emalynn was born just over a week after you. She is beautiful! I just know that you two girls are going to be best friends.
 
 
Nursing is going great. You nurse every 3 hours during the day. I can stretch it to 4 hours if I need to, but by that time you are screaming like a baby bird who is starving!
 
 
Nighttime sleep is wonderful! You have your days and nights figured out. When you were first born, you were waking up every 3-4 hours to nurse during the night. I would feed you at about 11:00pm, 3:00am, and 6-7am, at which time I got up for the day. When you were about 4 weeks old, you started sleeping for 6 hour stretches at night (from 11pm-5am), and we are loving it! After I nurse you around 5, you go back to sleep for 3 more hours. Being a busy mom to 2, I am very thankful that I am only having to wake up once a night. I still wake up in the morning feeling rested and ready for the day ahead...as crazy as the day might be!


You are a very content, easy baby during the day...you sleep alot! However, since about 4 weeks old, you get fussy in the evening from 8-10pm. We call it "Happy Hour at the Stevens house"

As with Matthew, we are using the Babywise method for a sleep schedule. You stay on a 3 hour schedule during the day of eat, wake, and sleep. When you first came home from the hospital, you would stay awake for about 15 minutes. Now, you stretch your awake period to about 30 minutes at a time. You do tend to have a longer awake period of about an hour in the morning, and a 2 hour awake and fussy time in the evening.
You are still jaundiced. We checked a bilirubin level at your one month appointment. It is still elevated, but stable. Your color is slowly improving, but you are still pretty yellow!

You hate getting into your car seat, but once we get you tucked in you settle down quickly and fall asleep in the car. You're a much better car seat baby then your brother ever was and is!

You are a strong little girl! You have held your head up pretty much since birth, and have done it really well this past week.



You love to take naps in your swing. We are teaching your big brother that he can't sit in it with you though! I think you are going to learn to be one tough girl. You don't really like your bouncy seat.


You have the most beautiful dark blue/grey eyes. I am hoping they stay blue like Matthew's. You seriously have the biggest eyes! When you are staring at lights or looking outside, you will open your eyes so wide that the white all around your eyes will show. We joke that you have bug eyes!

Speaking of eyes, you sleep with your eyes open. It's weird and kinda freaky. Enough said.

You love to stare at lights, and just this past week have started to track movement with your eyes.


You love to be swaddled when you sleep or are tired. Unlike your brother, you will fall asleep on our chests or just in our arms, but you do sleep better and longer when you are bundled. At night we always swaddle you.

You are a cuddly baby and we love it!

Matthew "helped" to give you your first bath. You cried alot, but now you love them!


You had your first shower when you were 3 weeks old.


We all, including your big brother call you "Moll Moll" or "Sissy". It melts our hearts to hear Matthew say your name!


Molly Lynn, we love you so much and couldn't imagine our family without our sweet baby girl!

Monday, June 11, 2012

Mollie Lynn

Meet the newest member of our family and see what we have been up to
(any why I'm SO behind on blogging!)............
Mollie Lynn Stevens
Born Monday, April 23, 2012 at 10:43 am
8 pounds 7 ounces
20.5 inches long
Head circumference 13 3/4 inches
Perfectly created by our Heavenly Father and loved on by one blessed Mommy, Daddy and Big Brother Matthew! 


We Matt had a really hard time deciding on what we were going to name our baby girl. We had a list of about 6 names, but no decision. By the time I was 37 weeks pregnant, we narrowed our possibilties down to 3 names. Molly was my favorite, and the name I wanted from the very beginning, but I liked the other names and would have been completely happy with any of them. I gave Matt the final decision! When I was 38 weeks pregnant Matt told me that he would decide by the end of the week. So Friday night at about 10:30pm he told me that his choice for a name was Molly as well! Good thing we finally had a name we both loved because 3 days later we met our baby girl. We planned on spelling her name with a "Y" at the end. At the hospital, they write the baby name up on a white board when you arrive, and we told them that her name would be spelled with a "Y". While I was in labor, my mom asked if we ever thought about spelling her name with an "ie" at the end, since that is the way my name is spelled. We loved it! Mollie. Both of our mom's middle names are Lynn, so we knew from the very beginning that our first born daughter would be given the middle name Lynn.
Mollie Lynn Stevens
These are a couple of pictures we took on Sunday morning (the day before I had Mollie!) I look and feel awful in these pictures, but I'm so glad to have these last memories as a family of three.



At about 12:30 am on Monday morning, I woke up to go to the bathroom, feeling completely "normal". By normal, I mean 38.5 weeks pregnant, swollen, tired, huge....done.
But not in labor. Not yet at least.

 I stood up at the side of our bed, and I felt a gush of water. I wasn't sure if I had just had an accident, or if my water had truly broken! I woke Matt up, who was totally disoriented and confused, telling him I thought my water had just broken.
 Both times I have been pregnant, I always hoped that my water would break as the first sign of my labor starting. I thought that it would be some kind of glamorous,
 read about it only in the books kind of experience.
After experiencing it with Mollie, I realized that it really isn't all that glorious after all...!

After we determined that it really was my water that had broken (I kept leaking!) we got up and called the triage nurse at the hospital. They said that since my water had broken, I needed to come in and get checked. My biggest worry was that my labor was not going to start on it's own, necessitating an induction and not allow me to have the natural labor and delivery that I desired.
Thankfully, at 1:00 am I started having contractions about 10 minutes apart!
We called my parents and told them it was time!
As soon as my mom answered the phone, she knew it was time to wake up and be ready for a long, exciting night! They got ready and came over to our house. Matt haphazardly got his sub plans ready, we both showered, I packed our bags for the hospital and got everything situated for Matthew. When I had Matthew, I already had my bags packed and in the car. I had good intentions of having everything ready when I went into labor with Mollie, but it obviously didn't happen this time. I was just happy to have my diaper bag halfway packed and had a least made a list of things I needed to pack!

 My dad stayed at our house while Matthew slept, and just planned on bringing him to the hospital after I had the baby. Leaving our house was very difficult for me. All I wanted to do was go upstairs and cuddle my sweet little boy, knowing that he was no longer going to be my only baby, and now my time and attention would be divided between my two babies.

My mom came to the hospital with Matt and I. We arrived at the hospital about 3:30am, my contractions were about 4-5 minutes apart.. We got settled in our room, I walked the hallways and bounced on the labor ball. I was having back labor, so during my contractions Matt would put pressure on my lower back.

It seemed so surreal that we were in the hospital again, in labor with our second baby in 14 months!



 Matt's mom got to the hospital at 6:00am, eager to meet her 12th grandchild!
I was surprised at how painful this labor was and how intense my contractions were compared to being in labor with Matthew. That's what happens when your water breaks early in labor, compared to having the doctor break it late in labor!

I had so much support and encouragement from Matt, mom and mother-in-law that I was able to do it all 100% natural with no medication or epidural!


Thankfully, my contractions were never more then 4-5 minutes apart, yet I was continuing to progress and dilate, so I had nice long rests in between contractions...enough time to laugh, take pictures, text, and even give my hubby a backrub...it was a long night for him too, and I couldn't have done it without him!



At 10:30am the nurse checked me and I was fully dilated and ready to have a baby.
Matt and I just minutes before meeting our daughter!

She quickly got the doctor and after a very fast and very easy delivery, pushing only a couple of times, we met our beautiful baby girl, kicking and screaming at 10:43am.
What an amazing experience!




 A very proud Grandma...

 ...and a very proud Grammy!


Love at first sight

 Papa and Mollie

Grandma and Mollie.

A glowing Grammy!

Shortly after having Mollie, we got ready for Matthew to meet his baby sister for the very first time. He was very interested in her, and loved her from the beginning. He was so sweet, giving her lots of hugs and kisses. I couldn't have imaged it going any better! Of course, he really had no idea what was going on or that she would actually be coming home with us!



 Grandpa meeting baby Mollie

Big brother opening his present from his baby sister

 Our first picture as a family of four! So surreal!
 Grandpa, Grammy and their 2 grandkids. Such joy!

                    I couldn't be more blessed to call these two little bundles of joy my children!

We had a busy day, full of lots of love and visitors. I wasn't good about taking pictures of everyone who came to meet Mollie, but here are a few that I did remember to take:





I was feeling so good after I gave birth to Mollie, that I asked if we could go home that night. I got the okay to leave from my doctor, but the pediatrician wouldn't let Mollie go until she was 24 hours old. So it was either we leave without our baby, or we stay the night at the hospital. Obviously, it was an easy choice what we were going to do!

Mollie was very alert for the first 18 hours after birth. She has the most big, beautiful blue/grey eyes. She looked alot smaller then her big brother, but has a very similair nose and mouth. She has just a little bit of brown hair, and the longest fingers and toes.


I have to tell this story that my mom told me because I think it's too funny not to share. The night that we were in the hospital, my parents kept Matthew and our dog Lexi overnight. My mom gave Matthew a bath before bed, and then let him run around in the nude for a little bit afterwards. She looked over and noticed that he was squatting, red in the face, trying to poop! In a hurry, she put a towel underneath him, and sure enough he pooped on the towel. She quickly grabbed him and started to clean him up. In the meantime, she looks over and my sweet little dog is EATING his poop! Gross! Chaos at Grammy and Grandpa's house! Needless to say, Lexi got her teeth brushed when she got home.

The next morning, we packed up, left the hospital, got home and started our new life as a family of four...full of the ups and downs of having two babies 14 months apart!




When we first came home, Matthew didn't mind if anybody, including Mommy and Daddy, were holding Mollie, but he was very jealous every time his Grammy would hold her! He would want up in her arms and let her know that her attention was only supposed to be for him!
Grammy holds a very special place in Matthew's heart!



Matthew loves to give his sissy hugs and kisses


Matt was able to take the week off of work after Mollie was born. I can't tell you how nice and helpful it was to have him home, helping with Mollie and especially Matthew. Mollie is a very content and easy baby...she eats and sleeps! It's funny because when you only have one baby, it consumes your entire life and takes all your attention. But when you go from one to two kids, you realize how easy taking care of a newborn baby really is!









We spent our first few days as a family at home, relaxing together, playing,
and getting to know our sweet little girl.
 We went back to the doctor when Mollie was 2 days old.
She had lost some weight when she was in the hospital, so I was anxious to find out if she continued to lose weight, or was starting to gain it back. Thankfully he she was gaining weight!
When we left the hospital, they always check a bilirubin level on newborns. Mollie's level was marginal, but still in the "safe" zone. Over the next couple of days, I noticied that Mollie was starting to get slightly yellow and bronzed. When we followed up with our pediatrician, we also rechecked a bilirubin level. It was significantly increased, indicating that Mollie had a mild case of jaundice. The next 24 hours we fed Mollie every 2 hours (exhausting for us both!) to try to get her to pee and poop more to flush the bilirubin out. We rechecked her bilirubin the following day, and it continued to increase. Mollie needed to go under the bilirubin lights to help her jaundice. Thankfully the bilirubin lights were brought to our house and all of her weight checks and lab draws were done right at home. We started the bilifubin lights on Friday afternoon. Mollie did absolutely great. The hard part was for us! We could take her off of the bed of lights every 3 hours to feed, change, and quickly cuddle her, but then she had to go right back on the lights until her next feeding. We did that for 24 hours when they rechecked her bilirubin level again. We were so excited to find out that it had dropped enough that we didn't need the lights anymore!

Our little glow worm!

    We had a couple more blood draws to confirm that her bilirubin level was remaining stable.            We followed up with our doctor again when Mollie was about 2 weeks old. She was still jaundiced. Her bilirubin levels actually increased slightly. We rechecked her bilirubin levels over the next couple of days and they remained elevated but stable. Mollie has breastmilk jaundice.
It is harmless, and could take up to 3 months for it is resolve.
 Until then we get a sweet little bronzed baby with yellow eyes!




April 29th 2012, Mollie's first day at church and my birthday! We had her baby dedication at church, and then had our families over for lunch and cupcakes to celebrate my 26th birthday.




Grammy took the week off from work when Mollie was 1 week old. It was so nice to have the extra help for another week, and spend time with my mom! Of course, Matthew loved spending the week with his Grammy, and she loved spending the week with her grandbabies :)

After 2 weeks of having someone help me take care of the kids, it was finally my time to fly solo! Needless to say, I was a ball of tears by the time Matt finally got home from school and baseball. He not only had to deal with an exhausted, emotional wife, but also a busy 14 month old eager for his Daddy's attention, and a newborn baby. By the time the 4th week came along, we had found our routine and rhythm. Mollie was sleeping really well, and I was feeling rested. Matthew finally seemed to be adjusting to having baby sister around, the sun even came out a few times so we could go on walks and to the park, and I even had dinner ready every night! Life while we were just at home was finally feeling normal again. Trying to pack both kids up and leave the house was a whole different story, but somehow we always manage!

Mollie Lynn, you have blessed our family in unexpected ways! You have shown me a new type of love that I never even thought was possible. My days are busier then I imagined, so I am trying to cherish and breath in every moment and memory with because I know you will change and grow so quickly. You are a very loved little girl and I can't wait to spend my days being your Mommy!