Busy Weekend!

This past weekend was really busy! Saturday Sprout and I did a ton of running around. We first stopped at my moms to give her Sprout's 7 months pictures, then there were 3 mom to mom sales and we went to them all! I did really well if I do say myself! I got 4 full outfits, 4 tops, 3 Jackets, 2 sets of sweats, 1 dress, i pair of jeans, a pair of pjs, and 2 toys! All for less then $70!!1

 Also we went to my Nana and Papa's house to give them their pictures but to also with my Papa a happy birthday! While we were there we took Sprout outside to play since it was so gorgeous again. We took her on the slide and swing. She was not too sure about the slide and LOVED the swing!

That was all on only Saturday! Then Sunday we went out to Cody's parents to see them (and do a few loads of laundry. I will not miss not having a washer and dryer when we move!) We also we to sears to look at some things for the new place!

Finally when we got home Sprout has now pretty much perfected the art of  pulling herself up. As we were putting stuff away Cody comes into the living room and I hear him say " What are you standing up for? I know that is not how you were a minute ago!" It is crazy how fast she is learning new things! It looks like she will be walking by 9 months if not before. Just like her dad, has to beat when the Dr's say she will be walking by!

A First for Sprout

Today was such a gorgeous day outside! I decided to let Sprout have a first today. We went outside and played in the grass! She has never touched the grass before and was kind of scared at first (who wouldn't be? It's scratchy and pokey too!) After a while she got kind of use to it where she wasn't doing superbaby anymore. 

32 Weeks

Sprout is 32 weeks old today! I have been taking a picture every Thursday since she was born. I plan on making a photo book. I also don't know how long I am going to keep this up, I may just keep it up until she goes to kindergarten. Who knows, right now I am having so much fun with it, seeing how much she changed in the first few months and since around week 9 she has not really changed much. Which is funny since I never really changed growing up either! But any here is her weekly picture.

Sprout is eating: Everything in sight! We were given the okay to start table food and she is LOVING it! She had tomato soup, a bite of steak, chicken, and her first pasta today. New purees I have made for her are Pumpkin and Butternut Squash.

Sprout is moving: Like CRAZY!!!! Today I go in the kitchen to get a drink of water and make her a bottle and I walk back in and she is trying to pull herself up into a standing position! She doesn't want to sit at all if I am on the ground, if she is on the couch with me, or in bed! Pretty much any time she wants to stand.

Sprout loves: Playing with all her toys and just being with mommy. If I leave she will follow me. She is really enjoys playing with her ball right now. If it bounces off of her head she cracks up!

Sprout's night time is getting better. Now that she is close to 15 lbs she is starting to not need to be fed at midnight, three, and five! YEY!!! Which means she is sleeping more and if she wakes up she is usually able to put herself to sleep again. Now I know they are not supposed to have a blanket in bed until 1 year but in all reality she has had a blanket from day one since she had issues keeping warm. She loves her blanket and is always rubbing it!

My Growing Sprout

My little Sprout how have you grown so much in the past 7 months! You went from my little 4 lb 15 oz baby (who I was so worried you would have to go to the NICU the day you were born), to my amazing, vibrant, happy, smart, determined, strong, and inquisitive 13 lb 4 oz soon not to be an infant. ( Yes I am already crying as I type this thinking about you growing up) Today we got Sprout's 7 month pictures done today and they turned out AMAZING!!! Here are just a few of my favorites.

She was not a fan for the moment! 

Her hair looks so red! She has always had a tint of red hair but it looks full on red head!

Also I don't think her blue eyes are going anywhere anytime soon! Imagine that! Two brown haired, brown eyed parents create a strawberry blonde haired, blue eyed baby... CRAZY!!! 

So as a rule I generally don't like messing with Sprout's bed time/evening routine. It makes it hard on me in the long run and then I am the one who suffers. Her routine is very simple:

6:30 Dinner

   7:00 Play time

7:15 Bath time, Story time, Bottle

7:30 In bed and asleep (normally)

If she goes to sleep too late it makes it harder for her to get in her deep sleep. Oh and she will not sleep as long normally! 

The past few nights Sprout's routine has not been on time and it has been rough! BUT... last night Sprout decided it was party time until around 9:30 and then zonked out for the night and did not wake up until 6:30!!! She has never slept that long with out waking up in her whole life! I was so excited. Now I just need to stop waking up when she is asleep. 

This is how she fell asleep tonight. 

Sunday Dinner

Sunday dinners were never part of my childhood. I would like to change that with Sprout. I want her to remember when she was little the excitement of going to see her grandparents on Sunday and it be a day of family. Today we went out to my dads for dinner. It was AMAZING! This morning we also went to see my mom and Renea since they had not seen Sprout since before we left for vacation to North Carolina ( Need to remember to post about that too!).

Dad made chicken and stake enchiladas, and some new potatoes he created. The great thing about dad is when ever we come over he makes a TON of food for us so we have some to take home. I love this because it makes it easier on me during the week when dinner time comes around and I have no idea what I am going to make. The evenings are very fast for me. Cody is at work, I am watching Sprouts friend until her dad comes and gets her, I feed both girls dinner most nights and then sprout is ready for bath by 7 and in bed asleep by 7:30 (most nights). So it is a bit hard for me to make this elaborate dinner every night. So again another reason I love my dad and when he cooks for us.

Grampa and Sprout

 

Helping mom doing laundry.

 

Isn't she just too cute!!!

New topic (since I am ADHD and all it's kind of hard to stick to one topic)

Cody and I celebrated our one year anniversary yesterday!!!! Since he had to go to work by 3 we decided we would go out to lunch. Cody chose Finley's. YUM!! We ordered our food and Cody got some beefy tomatoes soup. Well we were given the okay to start giving Sprout table foods so I said to Cody he could try and give her some. She went crazy over it! She would not let Cody take a bit of his soup! She also finally started signing "more" (I have been working on sign language with her for about 2-3 months now and this is the first word she has signed!!!) 

Daddy and Sprout at Finley's

Did you have Sunday dinner growing up? Or any other Sunday traditions? Leave me a comment!

Sprout's Entrance

I have yet to write my birth story down. I don't know if it is because it was not in anyway how I pictured it and a part of me just was not ready to tell it or what. I am ready now. To start you need to know a few background things. 1) I was sent to MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine) fairly early in my pregnancy due to a genetic disorder I have. 2) I had high blood pressure through my whole pregnancy but since it never really changed they were not too concerned about it. 3) At around 20 weeks Sprout was measuring behind by a week and a half. I was assured that this is normal and all was well. ( We later find out that is not true).  4) By the time I was 26 weeks she was still measuring behind but on her own curve. And Finally 5) By 31 weeks she was over 2 1/2 weeks behind in measurement and that is when I started living at MFM it seemed. I had bi-weekly bio-physicals, a Growth scan almost every other week and I had 2 NST ( Non- Stress Test) a week I had to do.

So FINALLY here we go!

It was February 8th and I was 36 weeks and 5 days. I was at the dr's and had already done my NST. I was just waiting for my Growth Scan and Bio-Physical. I was expecting everything to be just fine as the one 2 days before was just perfect. When I got back in the ultrasound room they took my blood pressure and it was REALLY high. Normally they took my BP after the US as well because it would come done. Well after the US Sprout was measuring at 32 week. Almost 5 weeks behind what she should be! When they took my BP it was again REALLY high. The nurse said to me " Be ready to go upstairs." So here I am freaking out I called Cody and told him. I told him to keep getting ready for work just in case I was sent home after all. Finally after what seemed like a lifetime the Dr. came in and said that since I so close to 37 weeks, they were going to send me home and on Tuesday when I was full term they were going to start and induction. My induction was scheduled for 5 PM on the 11th.

So I get home and start packing for the hospital while Cody was at work.Over the weekend we got the apartment ready the rest of the way. I went to a local thrift store and went searching for a preemie outfit since Sprout was measuring at only 4 lbs and 6 ozs. so I knew her coming home outfit would not fit her ( Cody insisted I bring it to the hospital with us anyways) We went out to his parents place to see them and do some last min laundry, we had dinner with my mom and her partner. You know all the stuff you want/need to do just to make sure everything is done.

That Tuesday we went to Olive Garden for lunch with my Dad since I was preparing myself not being able to eat for the next few days. After lunch we headed to the hospital. We got there a bit early and sat in the truck just talking. At 4:50 we went and headed up to the 5th floor to start my induction. We were told by security to have a seat and they will come get me soon. About 15 minutes later the officer got a call saying it will be another 15 minutes as they are still getting my room ready. Finally at 5:30 we get in to my room. No one ever tells you they ask you a MILLION questions when you get in! so after they get done with all the questions they put in my IV and hooked up my belly, they let me know I can have dinner. I was very surprised to say the least. That night they tried Cytotec to kick start my labor. After my family left for the night Cody and I settled down to go to bed praying this has started my labor. At around 4 AM on Wednesday the Dr came and checked me and it did not work at all! So they tried another round of Cytotec plus they started me on Pitocin. I was having contractions but I could not feel them. They kept increasing my dose of Pitocin, I was at a 14 and still really could not feel them. At 5 PM the Dr. came in again to check me and she said I was maybe a finger tip dilated. UGH! So the next option was to break my water in hopes to kick start this labor that really wasn't happening on its own. So they break my water and holy crap! When they say it feels like you are peeing yourself, they were being nice! There was so much fluid that I went in to the bathroom  until it was done. After that was done I got back into bed and at around 8 PM in went the third Cytotec. I was thinking if it didn't work the first two times this time wasn't going to work either! They decided to take me of the pitocin over night and see what happened. In the morning I was checked again and still nothing. I was put back on the pitocin. I could feel some contractions at this point but not much. Finally at around 3 PM on Thursday aka Valentines Day, the Dr. came in and said that since I was not progressing that it would be the safest route to go ahead with a C-Section. I agreed as I was done with this fake labor I was in and all I wanted was to hold my baby and see if she was okay. So my C-Section was scheduled for 5:30.

We actually got in their early at around 5:15. It was so strange to me. I have never had anything medially major happen to me beside breaking my elbow. This room I went in to was so bright. With the white walls and all of the equipment that was silver the light was reflecting everywhere. The get me up on the table and I am sitting ready to get my epidural when all of a sudden I have a complete and total melt down. My nurse was AWESOME! She got me to calm down and just relax. They finally got the epidural in after about 10 minutes of trying. They laid me down and put up the curtain. I was so relieved to see Cody walking through the doors. Then at 5:52 PM I heard the most wonderful, amazing, miraculous sound ever! Genevieve Caroline Grace Smith came out with a loud, healthy cry. For the second time that day I broke down crying. I was just so worried that her lungs wouldn't be developed enough, she wouldn't weigh enough, or something else was wrong that she would have to go to the NICU. My itty bitty fighter did not have to go to the NICU for one minute! I am SO proud to be able to say that. Cody was the first to hold her and then he brought her over to me. People say there is no love like a mother's love, but for me that did not even explain the overwhelming of emotions I had at that moment when I first got to hold her as they were patching me up. After about 5 minutes I could feel that I was about to get sick so I handed her off to Cody and he took her and went to the recovery room. it took them almost an hour and a half to put me back together.

When I was finally out of surgery I went to the recovery room and all of our parents and my grandparents go to see Genevieve for the first time. Just the love in the room was amazing and I would not have changed my birth for anything now.

To a New Beginning

Hello all! I have decided to jump in to the blogging world. My name is Ashley, I'm 25 and I am a Stay-at-home-mom. Some other identifiers I relate to are wife, daughter
, crafter, baker and cook, teacher, and student. I want this blog to be a modern version of a baby book for my little one and future little ones. Also I want this to be a place for family and friend to keep up with our day to day lives that I don't get to see as much as I would like to.

Genevieve "aka Sprout" is now 7 months old. She was born February 14, 2013. She came into this world early, and of course like any of my future children, with a BANG! She was 4 lbs 15 oz and 18.5 inches long. I'll get to my birth story in another post, this post is for the new beginnings of right now.

We are in the middle of A LOT of new beginning! Cody and I just gained a new Sister-In-Law, we went on our first family vacation (North and South Carolina! So much fun!!!) , Sprout  had her first flight, Cody got a promotion at work, and we are moving in November!

New things for Sprout are starting table foods (Last night she had cooked carrots, brown rice, and pumpkin puree. She did AMAZING!) She has been doing a version of crawling for over a month now and yesterday for the first time she pulled herself up to standing in her pack-n-play. Which is not good since we still have her in the bassinet part of the pack-n-play. Guess I need to drop her down :( We are still working on sitting up without falling. The pedi said that it will take her longer to learn how to sit since she is already crawling. Sprouts way of seeing it is " Why should I just sit her when I can go and get what I want?"

We had to go to the Dr's to recheck her ears since she got an ear infection right before we flew to South Carolina. At 7 months she now weighs 13 lbs 4 oz! Which is so much more then where we started with her.

Thanks for reading! I know I have a lot to learn and much to say!

Ashley