From Bump to Baby

My apologies everyone, I'm re-posting this because it doesn't seem to have posted correctly the first time! I think the photo might have been too so it didn't upload right.

Amelia is amazing. We're home from the hospital now and she fits so seamlessly into our lives that it feels like we've been waiting for her, saving her seat at the table before we knew there was someone else coming. It feels so much better to be home alone, just us three, after being woken and poked every couple hours in the hospital and we're able to spend all our time drinking her in and smelling the top of her downy soft head. Thus far my girl is a champion nurser, she actually worked so diligently at nursing, and screamed so loud when she wasn't immediately rewarded, that she made my milk come down on the second day when most women have to wait until day four or five. The nurses didn't believe me until they saw the milk themselves, but it was no surprise to me and E. No one makes this baby wait.

I'm working on her birth story but it was such a long experience that I don't know when I'll have the time to write it all down. I'm so grateful though that after a somewhat torturous second night with her in the hospital, Amelia appears to be an incredible sleeper. That second night, while E and I were still running on basically no sleep, Amelia was famished and my milk wasn't in yet, and they had just removed my epidural and gotten me standing after my c-section was so tough. Amelia screamed, E hid under his sweatshirt on the pull out chair muttering miserably and I tried to stand and rock Amelia despite feeling cut in half. The nurse kept coming in to assure me that it was normal, that her caloric needs at 24 hours had surpassed the colostrum I was producing and all babies had a tough time at this point, but it didn't make things any easier. She was so worked up and hungry that she couldn't nurse and E was so exhausted that he told me to give her back sometime around 4am. Sometime during that early morning she finally exhausted herself enough to latch and we were all able to get some much needed sleep.

Now that we're home, it's hard to believe that this is the same baby. We're staying downstairs, sleeping on the chaise of our new couch since I can't climb stairs, and Amelia sleeps in her rock and play next to my head for 5-6 hour stretches at night. She cluster feeds during the day, she's pretty much always attached to my boob as she was in the hospital, but we're doing so well and everyone is able to rest. E is a rock star daddy, he's changed pretty much every single diaper she's worn since birth, keeps me fed and helps haul me up and down off the couch. I'm taking my Motrin and Tramadol faithfully to stay ahead of the c-section pain and moving is still really tough, but she is so worth it. We discovered in the hospital that having a full bladder makes the pain a thousand times worse so I'm trying to get myself up and to the potty even when it doesn't feel like I have to go, I'm still weirdly numb to my bladder from the epidural and catheter.

 With E's help, I was able to walk backwards up the stairs to Amelia's nursery to take the final photo of my bump.  After 38 weeks of photos I wasn't going to mess this up so I was getting up those stairs c-section or no! I'm still having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that this tiny human was inside my body and is now here in the world, in my arms, a whole new person alive on our planet. She's incredible.

31 Weeks

Somehow, time keeps rushing by and we are getting closer and closer to baby arriving. Last Thursday marked 31 weeks and if baby actually makes their appearance on time, we'll be meeting our little bean in less than 10 weeks! 

According to our every 2 week check ups, baby is doing really well. Active, growing, doing all the things a baby is supposed to do. There is still a good amount of room in there for moving and lots of fluid so we've got a lot of position changes going on. The baby usually doesn't hang out in one spot for too long, not when there are somersaults to be turned and a bladder to bounce on.

I'd love to show you pictures of an in-progress nursery, sweetly painted with furniture being assembled, but the truth is our house is still in the electrical stage. We have made really good progress though and are at the point where things start happening really quickly. We passed our rough electrical inspection for all the rooms except the 3 that weren't ready to be inspected yet. Both the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms were patched AND painted, holy crap two mostly finished rooms, and the second round of inspections is this Thursday. Once the last 3 rooms get signed off on, low voltage stuff can be run, patching can be kicked into overdrive and the floor refinishing crew can do their thing. This month is going to be a flurry of activity and I think we have a really good shot at actually moving, with nursery furniture, in the early part of December.

Although we have a lot of stuff in storage, we've got a pretty big shopping list going of things we're going to need. The biggest is definitely the sectional for the living room, followed by nursery furniture (crib, two dressers, lamps, bookcase, rug, chair), side tables and lamps, a desk and filing cabinet, bookcases for the living room, possibly some chairs. We're going to have more space than we've ever had and while we don't have to furnish everything at once, I'm very aware that if I don't do it now, it's not likely to get done once the baby is here.

I've got another appointment coming up at the end of this week and will hopefully have photos of fully painted bathrooms to share!

Bumpdate - Another line complete!

I've been so busy trying to coordinate things for the new house, I can't believe I forgot to post our bumpdate photo with our 24 week update!

E and I have been super vigilant about taking our photo each week, it's become part of our Thursday routine. As you can see, it's pretty obvious that I've got a baby in there so most strangers feel pretty confident making that assumption when I'm out and about. Interestingly, everyone seems to assume that I'm 34+ weeks pregnant and must be due sometime soon, perhaps next month? I get a lot of funny looks when I tell them no, I'm actually not due until next year.  Our little bean is clearly enjoying making their presence known to the world.

Although the new house is keeping me busy and exhausted, I'm still dealing with some anxiety about the baby's health. I have complete faith in our PGD and PGS, but with baby's fluttery kicks my fears have shifted from miscarriage to stillbirth. Those fluke events that take babies at full term without any warning. I'm not feeling movement regularly enough to rely on it as a marker for baby's health but when I don't feel kicks I still get anxious. Thanks for the logic brain, just another reminder that the nerves don't go away ><