Still here :) 4 Months

WOW - life has changed.....IT NOW FEELS SO MUCH MORE COMPLETE!!! We have completely fallen in love with Blair. She is the WORLD to us. I have not been blogging her month by month, but hopefully when I get a chance, I can record some stuff on here. Here is a short catch up :)

Blair - at 4 months you can:

- Roll over from your back to your stomach (right now you only turn to your left side, you can turn to your right, but we have to help you.....wondering if you will be left handed like your Daddy)

- Laugh out loud - which we LOVE to hear!! You especially laugh when we come toward you like we are going to "get you". This is a game your grandparents like to play. Your laugh brings so much joy to our hearts. I said today I wished I could bottle it up and take it with me everywhere :)

- Sit up on your own for a few seconds, sometimes longer. You fall over sometimes, but we are always there to catch you. We are letting you sit in your bumbo to help you get more used to sitting up.

- Make high pitch squeals - sometimes because you are happy, sometimes because you are MAD!

- You are drinking six 5 ounce bottles with a tablespoon of rice a day about every 3 hours. Sometimes you do not want all 5 ounces. You also get a mix of 1/2 ounce apple/prune juice, 1/2 ounce water (1 ounce total) each day. You have been doing this since your 2 month check up. Dr Ray said it would be okay and would help you not get constipated.

- You love to touch faces. No matter who is holding you, you want to touch their face. It is so sweet!!

- You want to touch EVERYTHING you can get your hands on!! Anything that comes within hands reach you want to explore.

- You love your bouncy - your Daddy got it for you for Valentines Day (along with purple roses and a balloon that you absolutely LOVE to touch and play with).

- At your last Dr visit, you got 3 shots and one oral vaccine. You weighted 15 lbs, 4 oz and were 26 and 1/2  inches long (75th % weight, 90% height). You had a low grade fever and were very fussy for a day after getting the shots.

- You are wearing 3 month onesies, however you are wearing 3-6 month sleepers - you are LONG! You are in size 2 diapers.

- You are now out of your nap nanny and in a bassinet by our bed. It was an adjustment to get you to sleep flat, but you are now ok with it. You have started to rub your eyes when you are sleepy - it is SO CUTE!

- We love you so much and are still singing our praises to GOD for blessing us with you!!

LIFE CHANGER

She is here!!! On October 17, 2011 Blair Isabella Wheeler entered the world at 4:56 pm weighing 7 lbs 2 oz and was 20 inches long. I went to the hospital on Sunday Oct 16th at 8 pm and they began inducing my labor at 12 midnight. I was just at 1 cm dilated at this point (which I had been for about 2 weeks). After breaking my water about 9 am, I finally progressed to a 2....but never progressed past that point and at 4 pm, Dr Ballard said I needed a C-section. As Dr Ballard delivered her, she started counting...1, 2, 3, 4.....in my drugged state of mind, I thought she was talking about babies - and I was thinking OH MY!! But I soon found out it was the umbilical cord and she was counting the times it was wrapped around Blair's neck. GOD was watching over my little girl and she had no adverse effects from this. Dr. Ballard said the most she had seen the cord wrapped around was 3 times on 2 babies and both were stillborn. My life has been forever changed since 4:56 pm that day :) Blair is our whole world and we praise GOD DAILY for her. Here is her life so far in pictures:

My first look at her

Proud Daddy

Sweet baby girl :)

My parents and Brent's parents were full of joy!

Aunt Amanda

"Aunt" Ashley and "Aunt" Jen

The sign at work

Blair meeting Emma and Luke:

Meeting Great-grandparents (Cynthia's parents)

For her fist Halloween, Blair was an Auburn cheerleader (prob won't be the last one as an AU cheerleader - I see this happening again in her future) :) War Eagle!!

Blair had baby acne for a few weeks. During this time she had her pictures taken at Shauna's - if you have seen them, you would never know she ever had any acne. Shauna did a GREAT JOB!!! Here you can see some to the right of her nose.

Blair after a bath:

She looks like her Daddy and Brent just LOVES this!! He is amazing with her!

At one month she is already holding her head up some, eating 4 oz of milk every 4 hours waking up once or twice during the night. She will give us random smiles and LOVES to sleep on your chest. She weighed 9 lbs 8 oz at her first Dr appt and was 21 inches long.

She is so sweet and we LOVE her SO much!! Our hearts are full of joy.

 (Note: it has taken me 2 months to post this...hopefully, it will not take so long for the next one. She has changed A LOT since these pics!!) Also, I have 500+ pics taken since her birth...these are just a few I had time to upload while she is sleeping. Sorry if there are misspelled words, trying to do this as fast as I can before she wakes up!

Oh Baby!

Well...looks like Blair will finally be here by Monday night. We have been ready for her for so long...

I had this crazy idea that Tuesday (10-11-11) would be a GREAT day for her to arrive. Brent and I both were born on the 11th of a month. I thought that date would be easy for Brent to remember (note, he chose for us to get married the day before his bday so he would always remember our anniversary). So when I went to the Dr on Oct 4th, I just knew she would say I was ready and to come in the next week to have the baby....I was wrong...Blair was still not ready to make her appearance!

Skip forward to 10-10-11, I had HORRIBLE heart burn that night - which is something I have thankfully not had until this point. I don't even own any tums or rolaids and it is now about 10:30 pm. I wake Brent up to see if he might have some in his truck - no luck there. I found some zantac that expired in 2009 and decide at this point to take it. The pharmacist in me knows this med will not hurt me, but since it is so old, it might not help me much. I had a horrible time sleeping and got up multiple times during the night. Every morning, Brent asks me if I am ok (bc he has a nice drive to work) I tell him no - I think I am having contractions (the REAL ones). I have been having Braxton-Hicks for about 2 months now. He decided not to go to work and we start timing the contractions. They are about 5 minutes apart. Everyone has told me to eat something before going to hospital bc you do not get to eat again until after the baby is born. I eat breakfast then we head for RMC.

My contractions slow down some on our way there. I was thinking in my head.....I am going to get there and not even have a contraction that registers on the machine!! (side note: Tuesdays are my normal days to go the Dr, but last Tues when I went to make my next appointment, they told me my Dr would not be in the office until Thursday). So it is about 7:45am at this point, so we go the women's center, since I know already my Dr is not in her office. They hook me up to the machines and check me........................I AM STILL ONLY DILATED TO A ONE!!!!!! WHAT!?!?!?! after all these contractions!!! ONLY A ONE!!!! The nurse tells me they will monitor me for 1 hour and check me again.

During this time I cannot help but think "today is the 11th...." so my hopes are up!! After one hour the nurse checks me again - NO CHANGE!! WHAT!!! HOW CAN THIS BE??? My contractions were 2 to 6 minutes apart during this hour....surely something had changed!!! But no, not looking like today is Blair's day. A different Dr decided I can go home and try walking to maybe dilate more. I tell the nurse that walking would be a good idea, however with 3 blood clots in my leg...My Dr had said previously walking is not good idea for me.

We go home, I am still having contractions, but nurse said unless my water breaks, I have a fever or if I start bleeding, to just plan on keeping my appt with my dr on Thursday. NOTE: Dream of 10-11-11 is now over. I decide that is okay, I know God's timing (and Blair's timing) is not MY timing.

On Thursday I saw my Dr.....still no change. So now we are on to inducing Sunday night, have her on my due date of Monday. It really doesn't matter when she comes. I was just hoping sooner than later. I worry about her with my blood clots. I just want her to be safe and not affected by them.

Now it is Friday, in less than three days and we will see her :) CAN'T WAIT!!!!

Shower, Reunion, and Bed Rest

The baby shower was WONDERFUL!!! We feel so loved and blessed. So many friends and family came - it was wonderful to have so many loved ones in the same room. Thank you to everyone who helped make the day so special!! Here are some pictures:

 Took a pictures right before the shower with the hostesses that were present.

Several people asked me why the shower was decorated in purple since her room is pink and green. My favorite color is purple and I debated doing her room in purple, but just could not find a pattern I liked as much as the pink paisley :) So I requested the shower color to be purple.

Sept 3rd was the Class of 2001's 10 year high school reunion. It was at the Fox and Hound in Birmingham. I was a bit nervous about going since I was 34 weeks pregnant...but hated to miss seeing everyone, so we decided to go. I think I surprised a few by being SO pregnant!! It was great seeing my classmates.

This past Tuesday, my doctor put me on bed rest due to 3 superficial clots in my right leg. She did a Doppler scan and there is not a deep clot (the really bad kind). The superficial clots are not life threatening, however, there is a small chance they can dislodge and cause the deep clots. I am on antibiotics and aspirin. I can only get up to go to the bathroom. THIS IS SO HARD!!!! I am not used to being down like this. Brent has been wonderful - cooking supper and taking care of me. The doctor will reevaluate me Tuesday.

Short and Sweet

Short post today.....I am so excited about the shower Sunday!!!!!!!! I am looking forward to all the sweet baby stuff we have longed  for...for so long. But I think I am MOST excited about having so many people I love in the same room :)

4D

Again, time seems to be going by so fast!! I have not had time to blog. Here is a recap of Weeks 28, 29, 30:
Week 28:
                We went to the doctor this week. My doctor was on vacation, so I saw a different doctor this time. He was nice, but def a man. When I told him how much my feet were swelling, he told me that was just part of being pregnant. : / While my female doctor sympathizes with me and tells me how much her feet would swell too. She had told me at a previous visit to wear support stocking. They are very helpful and the days I wear them, my feet have not swollen. The downside is they are HOT!
                 I failed the glucose and iron test. My glucose level was 146, the cut off is 140. My iron was 8 and they want it to be a 12. I have to go back the next week for the 3 hour glucose test and got a prescription for iron pills. On a positive note.....we had 4D pictures taken :) She is beautiful!!!!!! I love her so much already :)

Week 29:
              The 3 hour glucose test was tough!!! I went in fasting (no food since the night before). They took blood from my arm (no finger stick this time!). 30 minutes later, they took blood from the opposite arm. They switched back and forth from one arm to the other for a total of 5 times!!! I am not a fan of being stuck in the arm... not fun at all. After drinking the fruit punch drink, I felt so sick. It took all I could to keep it down. After it was all over, I felt SO dizzy/lightheaded. I needed to eat SOON. We finally made it to the restaurant and I almost passed out before the waitress took our order. She was so sweet and rushed some crackers out to me. Needless to say, I hope I do not ever have to go through that again. (I found later in the week, I passed the test - YAY!!).
               I have been feeling REALLY emotional over the past few weeks. I was overwhelmed by emotion this week after Ashley M let me borrow her bassinet that Emma and Luke slept in. Well...more that just Emma and Luke - Ashley slept in it also when she was a child. Ashley said she wants Emma to have it for her future babies. After I got it home.....I reflected on how much it meant to me to have a friend who would trust me with a family treasure. It is a complete honor for her to share this item with me. Brent put it right beside our bed. (I am tearing up now! Brent is asking me what is wrong!!).  Thank you Ashley!!!



My nephew Braden had a birthday on Aug 1st. He is seven years old (where did the time go?!?). We celebrated with a skate party :) Here is a pic of Braden skating. He did not have time to stop for a picture:



Andrew on the other hand....had something else on his mind.....CAKE!!! LOL!! Love these boys!!!

Week 30:
             WOW 30 weeks!!! SO EXCITED!!! It feels like such a milestone...for some reason, I feel she is safer at this point. The doctor told me at 4 weeks, the only way the risk of miscarrying was zero percent was when I have the baby in my arms. So, at this point, I know there is a good chance for her to survive if I did deliver her early. Her room is coming together. I ordered her curtains and a lamp this week. I still have not found a glider. Well, I found one I LOVED at PB kids...but the ottoman was not available in the color I wanted (HOWEVER...it is PICTURED in the color on the website AND in the fall 2011 catalog!!!!). (pic from potterybarnkids.com)


On a final note (sorry for the long post!!)...She is moving like CRAZY!!! It used to be I felt her a few times during the day and then a good bit at night when I am laying down. Now...it is all day and all night. I LOVE IT. My next dr appt is in 2 weeks. My shower is in 2 weeks too....so a LOT going on right now.

About to give up on trying to comment!

Is anyone else having trouble commenting on posts????? I know Ashley M mentioned it weeks ago, but I am about to give up trying. This same situation has happened to me several times. Today, I was going to comment on Brandi's new pool (which is beautiful and I wish I had one :). After making my comment, I tried to post it and it asked me to sign into blogger again. I did this and it took me right back to the comment field....I had to retype in my comment and clicked "post"  - AGAIN it redirected me back to the login screen. After doing this a few times.....I just gave up!!!