Baby's First Bath & Rest of Hospital Stay

We waited what seemed like forever for the nurse to come get us to take us down to the nursery for your first bath around midnight. In the meantime we got lots of cuddles!

 

It was also a fun surprise upon getting to our room upstairs to learn that our nurse for the night was actually my college roommate, Staci. She had moved to Florida right after our freshman year and we lost touch for several years. I had seen on Facebook that she moved back a few months ago and was working at Bryan so it was really cool to be able to catch up with her. She took great care of us and left the sweetest note in the bassinet before we checked out of the hospital on Friday. I've missed her!

 

We also had to prick your heel for blood sugars before you ate the first 5 times because you were a LGA (large for gestational age) baby being 2 weeks early and weighing 8 pounds, 7 ounces. They needed to be more than 40 and were 55, 60, 69 and 65 so things looked good. Thankfully we didn't have to keep doing that - your heels must have been raw between those, all of the regular blood tests and the bilirubin test before we left.

 

Getting footprints is hard work on a baby!

 

Roo and Kilah switched around 11:00 so Kilah could come meet Lux,
so she got to come watch the bath with us.

Such a long, chunky monkey!

One very, very tired Mama.

Pretty content after getting dressed and warm after your bath!

Kilah holds you for the first time after bath.

The first night we asked them to take you to the nursery for a few hours so we

could get a few hours of sleep, so they did. It was much appreciated!

 

The next morning, Grandpa and Grandma Matthes came to

meet you before they went to work. Grandbaby #4 was here!

 

And before Roo went to class, she brought Big Sister to the hospital to meet Lux for the first time. She even had her dressed up in her Big Sister shirt and matching gold shoes. That's what I love about my sisters - they do things just like I would have.  <3

 

Big Sister wasn't too sure what to think at first. She was pretty timid, and for the first time in about 9 months she was really clingy to me. Up until that point she was pretty partial to her Daddy - probably because she knew something was up with me.

 

 

 



Peanut just having fun with her Daddy
before leaving for daycare.



The big announcement outside of
Landry's daycare room :)

And Aunt Alyssa stopped by to meet you!

 

The very generous gift from friends at Sutton Ryan
Dermatology. We absolutely loved this gift!

Aunt Kilah stops to see you again before class :)

 

Kurt, Ascha and Hattie come to meet you. Hattie will be a
big sister also in a few months!

Meeting Lynne for the first time.

And finally time for a quick nap with Daddy -
not sure who was more tired, Daddy or Mommy?!

 We are so excited to have you here and to be able to love on you all day long. You are the snuggliest, snoozy little thing there ever was! We love you, Lux Monroe!

***Lux Monroe: A Birth Story

***This post will be updated soon with our second love story and lots of pictures!

Welcome, Lux Monroe!

On April 2, 2014 at 8:20 pm, God sent us a quiet reminder of unmatched miracles and a fulfillment of his divine promises when he blessed us with another beautiful baby girl. Lux Monroe Matthes weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces and was 21 inches long. She is doing great; we are counting our blessings twice!

 

 

LA: 16 Months

At 16 months, you:

 

Blew your 1st kiss on 3/15/14 at Famous Daves to Grandpa and Grandma

Know what a fish says when we point to a picture of one

Stand well on own (with close supervision)

Have stood by yourself for several seconds at a time

Motioned/said "night night"

Roll onto your tummy most nights this past month

LOVES to empty things (drawers, bookshelf, etc), dolls (will now pat/rub/rock/cuddle!)

Will finally use regular sippy cups (not ones you have to suck, though)

Are 100% off the bottle (that is laziness on our part, not yours)

Use objects as a telephone

Are still rear-facing in carseat (until 20#, hopefully shortly)

Still wear size 4 diapers

Are starting to wear Gap 12-18 month clothing

Walk NONSTOP (although not independently), and do well with 1 hand of support

Still pee almost nightly in front of the bath

Are very brave and will figure out how to get anywhere on the couch to get the remote

Fake cough like a champ (proud Mommy right here)

Love to throw food over the right side of your highchair...still

Know where your "honk," piggies, tummy, and head are

Know what a lamb says but not always on cue

Babble "da da" or "daaaady" constantly

Love to pat Mommy's big tummy - you know something is up

Love to read books!
Signs for "milk" on 3/29/14
Holds arms out when I ask where something is like "I don't know?" (3/30/14)
Have started to get a little attitude and let us know when you don't want something

 

Crazy hair girl helping Mommy put away groceries.

And then helping Mommy sort mail. Such a great helper!

You love it when Daddy lets you play in the faucet
before bath. Trying to get your ritual of peeing before
bath out of the way with the diaper ON.

Such a ham in the bath! Your new thing is to grab Daddy's hand and to hand him
a toy one by one so he talks to you in his special voices for each animal. It is
HILARIOUS. I even overheard him saying one night that "that will look great
for the ball tonight." Oh honey, you do so well with girls ;) I teased him about
using the word "ball" for an event. You really never know what he is going to
come up with next!

 We love you, Sweet girl! You are going to be the best big sister!!



Baby #2: 38 Weeks

~ 38 Week Belly Bump ~

How far along? 38 weeks
Total weight gain: Somewhere between 25-30 pounds I believe
Maternity clothes? Scrubs to work and then mostly Daddy's t-shirts at night
Stretch marks? Embracing counting them.
Sleep: More and more difficult. Have had several nights of waking up after aspirating stomach acid despite a Zantac and several tums. Really wishing I would have gave in and asked for Protonix several months ago. Not sure why I was thinking I had to just tough it out. Also having to get up to go to the bathroom about 3 times a night now.
Best moment this week: The week started with quite a lot of excitement last Monday with some bleeding when I woke up, and then continued to get more exciting with a trip to L&D on Thursday evening. Monday's excitement lit the fire that I needed underneath me to get a lot of things checked off of the Pre-Baby To Do List and continued to be motivated by Thursday's happenings. It feels SO good to have everything almost completely ready. Roo and Kilah have literally been lifesavers this past week. Kilah stayed with us Tuesday-Sunday while she was on spring break and I absolutely loved every minute of it. Those 2 have helped us get so much done. I am 10 times more prepared for this baby than I was for LA...usually it seems like it's the opposite. When thinking our time was limited, I moved my hair appointment up from Friday to Wednesday (priorities, of course), Grandma and Kilah and I made lasagnas, porcupine meatballs, pizza meatballs and several loaves of banana bread for the freezer on Wednesday, and our pedicures that were scheduled for Friday evening got moved up to Friday morning as soon as Roo got out of class. It also felt good to check those necessities off of the list. :)

Miss anything? Sleeping without aspirating stomach acid.
Baby is the size of a: Pumpkin - and may have an inch of hair already according to baby development websites. Which reminds me how excited I am to see what this one has for hair - our last ultrasound did show that Babe had some hair! All this heartburn better be worth it!
Movement: Less - had to focus to get kick counts several times this week. I think Babe is fresh out of room.
Food cravings: Ice water. And somewhat frosted sugar cookies from The Cookie Company.
Anything making you queasy or sick: Mexican food
Gender: I am 60/40 thinking it is a girl, and Daddy is 80/20.
Name: Both are ready to go!
Labor Signs: See post about Thursday's happenings from this past week. We all thought we would have a baby by now! (But thankful to not have a 37 week baby).
Symptoms: Heartburn, lots of swelling of my lower legs/ankles/hands, fatigue, and having to go to the bathroom constantly.
Things People Say: Lots of comments about how I have dropped, or how tired/swollen I look.

Belly Button in or out? Slightly more out than in.
Wedding rings on or off? Just wearing the one band and it's pretty snug.

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy...and heavy.
Looking forward to: Being another week closer and to possibly having this sweet babe any day now. These past 4 days have been the longest 4 days of the entire pregnancy, and Daddy agrees. We have basically been sitting around waiting, hoping, and thinking that every night or every morning it could be the day. I finally had to convince myself to stop even thinking about it, because it was starting to make me crazy. A watched pot never boils, right? When we were walking the hallways Thursday night I really wasn't ready to have the baby because it really was only 37.5 weeks, but everyday closer to due date is making me feel much better. I haven't been anxious to necessarily get the show on the road, but it has just been hard to be patient after being told we would probably have the baby within 24 hours of Thursday evening. You wonder if every single contraction is the beginning of something and every night when I lay down I wonder if or when we will be waken with anything. I've been somewhat joking that at this point we will probably have the baby around Mother's Day. I'm anxious to go to our appointment tomorrow morning to see if anything has progressed, because I really don't feel like it has.

 

Pretty bummed this week, though, because I had to miss the Baby "Sprinkle" that Jenny and Chrissie hosted for Kendra, Alyssa and I on Saturday. I woke up not feeling well at all and was still having lots of contractions. I just didn't feel like I wanted to go sit at a shower around people at that point. Thankfully, I started to feel better as the day went on but I hated having to miss it.

 

Love and Prayers in Week 39, Little One!

Baby #2: 36-38 Week Appts

 

38 Week Visit

 

Just a quick update from the 38 week visit which was right at 38 weeks to the day. I had been really anxious for that appointment to see if all of the contractions were doing anything as I was getting more uncomfortable and tired of them by the day. I honestly didn't think we would make it to that appointment. Anyway, here are the stats from that visit:

 

My weight was up 29.2 pounds by their scale

Blood pressure was 120/78

Measured at 39 weeks

Babe's heartrate was 132

Cervix was 2-3 cm and 80% effaced and very soft

Babe was at -1.0 station

Bishop score = 7

 

I was somewhat disappointed that I wasn't dilated more than I was. I was also having anxiety about needing to have Babe before Thursday, the 3rd, because not only was my doctor leaving (he was on vacation for LA and was really hoping he could deliver #2) but my photographer who was planning to come take delivery pictures was leaving for the weekend. Big stress, I tell ya! :) I had such awesome pictures of Landry's delivery and was really hoping for them this round, too. So before he checked me I told him to be extra aggressive and try to stir things up a little. He didn't oblige and stripped my membranes and sent me on my way.

 

37 Week Visit

 

Group B strep from last week was negative

Trace protein in my urine (normal)

Blood pressure 120/74

Weight up 25.4 pounds total

Babe's heartrate was 135-140

Measured at 37 weeks

 

36 Week Visit

 

Weight had increased 6.2 pounds in last month (since 2/17/14 visit)

HgB was 13.2

Blood pressure was 114/72

Measured 35.5 weeks

Babe's heartrate was 162

37.5 Weeks: Trip to Hospital

On Thursday around noon, I started feeling a little different and felt pretty crampy in my back. I wasn't having contractions that I could tell a start and stop so I just wrote it off as me being crazy. And then around 3:30 I started being able to tell  starts and stops and timed what I could between patients. They were 7-10 minutes apart for the most part but there were a few 4 minutes apart. At that point I canceled my last filler patients and started debating what I should do. After some convincing from coworkers and Daddy, I decided to stop by L&D to see what was going on (my threshold was a bit lower this time due to heart rate decelerations with LA when things were starting). We arrived just before 5:00 and after awhile they got me hooked up to the monitor. They confirmed that I was indeed having contractions (by this point they were 2-4 minutes apart) and she checked me and I was 2 centimeters and 60% just as I was on Monday. She then had us walk the halls for a little over an hour and she hooked me back up to the monitor and checked me again. The entire time we walked I had regular contractions every 1-3 minutes but could still talk through all of them. After walking I was 2-3 centimeters dilated and still about 60%. Baby was at -2 station on Monday and 0 Thursday so it had moved down farther. The nurse said she was pretty sure this was early labor but since my contractions weren't strong enough to be changing my cervix they sent us home to eat and get a little rest, saying we would likely be back shortly and probably have a baby within 24 hours. They said I could go try to walk the baby out, but recommended I stay home until Babe was born and rest. We got home around 9:00 pm.

That night I had plenty of contractions but nothing at all severe or regular so I went in to work for a couple hours and got my Sam's club trip out of the way. Karinne, Kilah and I had pedicures scheduled for 6:00 Friday night so I moved those up to 12:30 so we could get them in in case anything happened. It wasn't until I was napping around 4:00 on Friday that I started having some more back aches and decent contractions again. I started feeling different and even lost my appetite to eat. Friday night was also uneventful.

On Saturday I woke up feeling pretty much the same with lots of contractions when I was sitting down and overall very tired. Nothing that was getting stronger or closer together, though.The only way I could really get comfortable was laying horizontally. Towards the end of the day I started feeling a lot better.

By Sunday I was feeling even better. I took a good 2 hour nap in the morning and then woke up feeling pretty great the rest of the day. I had several contractions but nothing that ever caught my attention. The first real contractions I had that day were around 9:30 on Sunday evening while updating the blog.

Looking forward to tomorrow's appointment and getting one day closer to that April birthstone :)