Fourth of July Weekend

It has been so nice having Berto home for an extended weekend. It means I got more sleep, which I love. Who doesn't? We have been bouncing around from town to town all weekend, which was fun, but also defeated the purpose of having a relaxing weekend at home!

Thursday we headed to Boulder for some fun on Pearl Street and at the creek. If you haven't been to Boulder, Colorado - you have got to get there. It is full of street performers, fun restaurants, parks galore, hiking, and fun shops!

"I like big bows and I cannot lie"

Boulder Creek

Pearl Street

Then Friday night we headed up to Evergreen to hang out with my family and do fireworks up there! 

Then Saturday we went to our neighborhood festival at a park (biggest waste of time ever - but Aiden wanted to go) and then we had a fun BBQ with our neighbors! I didn't get a lot of photos of fireworks because I was busy covering Leila's ears so she wouldn't wake up! 

Last year Luke had so much fun with fireworks, this year he was TERRIFIED! 

Tomorrow I will be back to share all of Leila's newborn photographs taken by the lovely Taylor Meyer of Taylor Meyer Photography! 

I also am SLOWLY finishing up our master bathroom! I bought two new mirrors and need to get someone to take the giant one out! Hopefully I will have a post of this soon! 

Aiden's Fifth Birthday

This year all we did for Aiden was a family birthday party. Because Leila was due so close to his birthday, we gave him the option to take the cash it would cost to have a birthday party or actually have a party, and he chose to take the cash and go shopping (smart boy!)

I cannot believe he is FIVE!

Three year interview.

Four year interview.

Five year interview:

1.     What is your favorite color? Red

2.     What is your favorite toy? Nerf Guns

3.     What is your favorite fruit? Peach

4.     What is your favorite TV Show? Steven Universe

5.     What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Pizza

6.     What is your favorite outfit? “The one I’m wearing”

7.     What is your favorite game? Angry Birds

8.     What is your favorite snack? Capri Sun

9.     What is your favorite animal? Turtle

10. What is your favorite song? I made it up, its called “World of Booty”

11. What is your favorite book? Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

12. Who is your best friend? Jimmy

13. What is your favorite cereal? Cheerios

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Pool

15. What is your favorite drink? Toothpaste

16. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? A flashlight

18. What do you like to eat for breakfast? Cereal

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Pizza

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A spy

Shoes mom? Really?

Happy fifth birthday, little man! 

Leila: one month old!

I seriously cannot believe how fast time has flown by! Do I really have a one month old already?!? I guess that speaks to how awesome of a baby she has been, I can only hope that will continue!

June 29, 2015

Weight: 9 lbs. 1 oz. (at three weeks old)

Length: Approximately 22 inches

This month has flown by and she has already grown so much. She switched from size newborn diapers to size one diapers when she was two weeks old. She was having major blow out issues, so we knew with her height it was time to move up a size! She is also in size 0-3 month clothing and filling them out quite nicely! 

Some nicknames we have for her are: Beadies, Leil-y, and Bah-leila

Heath issues: this poor girl has some serious acid reflux problems. She grunts like a baby pony all of the time. At three weeks old we were able to put her on a prescription for it, and it has helped slightly, but not as much as I would like. Although I am still nursing her, at night we give her Enfamil A.R. to help her sleep more soundly at night because it is a heavier formula and helps with her exorcist - style vomiting from her reflux. 

Sleep: She sleeps very well. She has a 5-6 hour stretch. Then a four hour stretch. Then a three hour stretch. We loosely use the baby wise technique to help her sleep for longer stretches at night. 

Diet: 95% nursing, 5% formula. She eats about every 2 hours during the day, which I think it what helps her sleep better at night! 

Baby gear love: She loves pretty much everything. The swing and her bouncy chair is what she chills in most of the day. And she sleeps in her Rock N Play at night, which we will continue to do until she stops throwing up so much. 

Likes: being held, sleeping on her tummy during tummy time, her Wubba Nub, being swaddled, her daddy, watching her big brothers when they talk to her, her carseat, car rides, being bounced in her bouncy chair.

Dislikes: Gerber formula, being flat on her back, not being able to burp, pooping, having a dirty diaper, being gassy, and puking. 

This past week she also started smiling back at us and she has an adorable little smile. She also "laughed" which just consisted of breathing really loudly and close together followed by a big smile! 

She also went to her first wedding when she was three weeks old. We had so much fun spending time with just her and forgot how easy it was to only have one child! She was with me while I was getting ready (and the rest of the bridal party) and she was having a rough time and couldn't poop. I had to have Berto come back to the house we were getting ready at to help so I could finish getting ready, and once he got there and reached into her carseat, she just held his hand and was perfectly content - it was adorable! 

first bath at home

puking on dad

loves hanging on the couch

I can't wait to see how much she has changed by next month. Six weeks is usually when they start smiling all of the time and are a little more lively! I forgot how much fun it is to have a newborn! Now, if I could just get the older boys to behave - things would be MUCH easier! 

Things I am loving: third baby.

Every time you have a baby, you figure out new things that work and new things to buy that are helpful. I thought I would share what I am loving right now for Leila. These are things I never used with Aiden or Luke, but probably could not live without with this little bean!

1. Boon drying rack. This is awesome. I am able to put all of my pump parts and bottles on this!

2. Medela bags and connectors. These little connectors allow you to pump right into the bag and avoid washing extra bottles when you just poor them into a bag anyway!

3. Butt Paste. We had always been a fan of Triple Paste, but at 40% zinc oxide, this stuff is MUCH better than Triple Paste (14% zinc oxide). 

4. Honest nipple balm. This stuff is pure magic. Although it is $14 for a tiny little container, it is SO worth the money.

5. Summer Infant Video Monitor. My mom and dad bought this for us this time around and has truly been awesome. After Leila got her clean bill of health, she was sleeping in her own room. I feel so much better being able to see her. Also, babies often cry in their sleep, and seeing her means I don't have to get up and disrupt her in her room when she is actually still asleep. 

6. Honest soothing bottom wash. If you haven't already gotten the idea, poor Leila has a raw booty from pooping so much. This stuff is supposed to help with the rinse and wipe!

7. Pampers Sensitive Diapers. Pretty self-explanatory. 

8. Cool Gear water bottle. When you are nursing, you are THIRSTY! These water bottles from Target keep your water cold for the majority of the day with their little ice cube thing!

I think that is all for now! 

Our first week "home."

Our first week home has been a whirlwind to say the least. It went by SO fast. We got home from the hospital on Saturday evening to introduce the boys to Leila. They were so excited to meet her (despite Luke's face) and excited for their presents from their grandparents and Leila!

"Wait, I am the middle child now?"

We were sent home on the premise that we would have blood work done on Leila on Sunday morning to make sure her bilirubin levels have gone down. Well, after being sent to the closest hospital, finding out their lab was not open on Sunday's, then going back to the hospital she was born at, we got her blood drawn. They pricked her three times to get the vile from her heel that they needed. We got a call Sunday evening saying her levels had risen and we needed to go back into the hospital to do phototherapy. It was DEVASTATING. I had to go all by myself because Berto had to watch the boys. I quickly showered, repacked a hospital bag for her and I, and headed to yet a different hospital with a very special pediatric ICU. We got there around 7:30 p.m. and started phototherapy at 9:00 p.m. 

This night was so, so, so hard. I could barely sleep. I had to pump and nurse her and she was so uncomfortable in the little nursery basket they have them in. The bili blanket under her was not comfortable either. I was barely able to hold her, only to feed her and then she had to go right back into the basket. I went to bed around 3 a.m. and woke up at 6 a.m…. I was exhausted. Berto finally got to the hospital at 9:00 a.m and brought a much needed coffee. They checked her level around 10:00 a.m. and it had gone down to around 12 so they took her off of the light therapy. We had to wait 6 more hours to recheck to make sure there wasn't a rebound. At 4:00 p.m her levels were at 13.3, which wasn't bad. So we were finally going home!! We literally packed so fast and got out of there so quickly before they changed their mind. 

She continued to have to have blood work daily through Friday (with the exception of Thursday). I was so terrified her bloodwork would come back high again, and it did. It was not high enough to send her back to the hospital, but high-risk none the less. We had to wait through the weekend and finally had our appointment yesterday and got the clear to stop testing! I am so so relieved! 

Here are some photos from her first week home…

We go back to the doctor Friday for her two week check up! Hopefully she is back to her birth weight by then. Her tongue was clipped on Thursday so she is able to nurse much better! 

We had three neighbors bring over dinner this week, my parents make a dinner and bring a dinner, and some wine from my brother and his wife… we are so thankful for everyone who has helped us and brought meals! 

Oh, also… something I am SO excited about! My neighbor is a professional photographer (Taylor Meyer Photography) and she took some pictures of Leila and the boys and they are SO SO SO beautiful! I highly recommend you all checking out her page! Here are the previews:

Have a good week! 

Leila Caroline: A birth story.

All of my babies have had very easy births and going into this "third baby" experience, all of my doctors had said third babies are unpredictable and do what they want. I should have believed them!

We got to the hospital on Thursday and got all checked in and ready for Cervadil, thinking I would get pitocin on Friday morning once my cervix was completely thin. I was already 3 cm dilated when we arrived and 60% effaced. Because I was having contractions on my own, I did not need the Cervadil (yay!). By 9:00 p.m. I was able to get the epidural and the Pitocin. At this point, I thought she would be there in less than 5 hours because that is how my labors were with both of my boys.

As the night went on, nothing was happening and contractions were actually dying down despite being on Pitocin. I stayed at 5 cm all night, and only moved to 6.5 cm by 6 a.m. I was connected to all of the machines, but the blood pressure machine was the death of me that night. It checks blood pressure every 15 minutes, and if something is not right, the alarm goes off and the nurse has to come reset the beeping. Well, my blood pressure drops every time I fall asleep. So every time I fell asleep, the beeping alarms went off. I asked if they could take the blood pressure machine off, but because I had an epidural, they couldn't. So, ZERO minutes of sleep Thursday night.

Friday morning my doctor made it in to break my water at 8:00 a.m. Around 10:15 I felt a lot of pressure and asked to be checked, and they said I was only 8 c.m. Ten minutes later I asked them to cheek again and they laughed at me, but did it regardless. Her head was VERY close to just being on the bed, that is how much she had descended. They told me to not laugh or she would come out, called my doctor over from his office (a few minutes away), and one push and she was here at 10:33 in the morning!

|sensored|

My husband was able to fully pull her out, which was a new experience this time around. She screamed for the whole hour they were drying her off. She HATES not wearing clothes (good girl!) and wanted to be super cozy and warm. After doing extended cord connection and skin-to-skin, the cord was cut and the nurses came in to check her about an hour after she was born. After her hour of screaming, she has been pretty calm ever since.

On Friday night, these poor souls had a baby that screamed ALL. NIGHT. LONG. It kept us up all night and after not sleeping one minute Thursday night, I was exhausted and irritated their child was keeping me up. Needless to say, I was so happy to be leaving on Saturday morning. But then, Leila's blood work came back saying she had high bilirubin levels and we couldn't leave. They had to cancel our discharge paperwork and we had to stay until at least 5 p.m. to do more blood work. Fortunately she was slightly below the high danger zone at 6 p.m. and they let us go home with the exception we would come back Sunday to have her blood drawn again. She HATES having her heel pricked (who wouldn't) and it has been done 5 times now and she is OVER it!

Trying to lower her bilirubin levels

On the way home

There was an adorable outfit picked out from Gymboree for her, but we took it off once we weren't going home to save it. Then, hours later when she "passed" her test, and we were allowed to go home, we didn't want to disrupt her because of her hatred for being changed and naked, so she wore a non-going-home outfit home. Oh well, such is life!

She has a tongue tie and more blood work this week, so we have a very busy week of doctors appointments and spending time with family! We have been so thankful to have my sister in law and brother in law watch our boys for us while we were in the hospital. As well as the friends and family that visited us while we were there. Then we have had family come over today and bring lunch and dinner, and my mom cleaned our house. What more could you ask for? Oh, the sweetest of sweet baby girls!

We are seriously over the moon in love with her!