Sweet P

Well Peyton has been in a growth spurt for about 3 weeks now, eating around the clock. She is our little chunky monkey, especially watching her guzzle down an entire bottle in about 10 minutes!

She is getting so much stronger in holding up her head
She enjoys listening to music, not lullaby music, during our daily dance session
So observant and wants to be held up on your shoulders all the  time
We have spoiled her where she constantly wants to be held...but how can you not to a beautiful face like this!

Dance time!

Practicing her whistle lips

I had my 6 week check up this week and am doing great and back to "normal" if there is such a term!
Cade has been in Plano this past week and Peyton has kept me busy this entire time especially a night. Ill take it as she just enjoys our time together so much during the day that she wanted to continue the fun at night and not sleep! Apparently I never slept when I was a baby so the saying what comes around, goes around. Thank goodness for grandparents. My parents brought over lunch and breakfast for me and CeeCee came over to watch Peyton while I went out grocery shopping. Cade was able to come back a day early and Peyton slept for 4 1/2 hours--she was happy he was back to rock her to sleep.

You mean dad is gone for a week?

The next thing we have is our 8 week appointment where Peyton will be getting her first set of immunizations. I'm not looking forward to that but once we do this, we can start going out in public. Peyton has been wanting to go to the mall :) We are also focusing on what our halloween costume will be!

Gotta love little girls!

Happy 1 month Peyton!

Its hard to believe that a month has gone by. It seems like everyday there is something new she is doing.

Here are some facts from the past 2 weeks:

Week 3:
-Her hair is starting to have a reddish tint to it
-she lifts her head up for about 5 seconds without help but is still wobbly
-More alert when she is awake
-Enjoys going outside and swinging on the porch. (Mommy enjoys this too!)
-Legs are getting "chunkier" :)
-Still grunts, laughs, sighs and cries in her sleep. Cade and I lay in the bed laughing at times
          Cade's nickname for her is Squeaky because of all her noises

Can you see the red tint

Week 4:
-introduced a bottle for the first time (she took it well!)
-LOVES "Some Nights " by the band Fun. (we play this song and she stops crying)
-officially upgraded to 0-3 month clothes no more tiny newborn clothes unless we pack in those chunky little legs!
-enjoys us singing and dancing to music
-sleeps better at night and we can go to about 3 hours until we wake her up to eat if she doesn't wake up herself
-enjoys "white noise" at nighttime to help her fall asleep. She particularly likes rain and ocean waves.
-starting to roll to one side (yikes this is too early!!)

worn out from CeeCee

quality father-daughter time

we've upgraded to the tub!

She still loves having her hand by her face just like she did every time we had an ultrasound and she is wide awake at 2a.m.-3a.m. (just like when she would move around in my belly). I think she has observed my twisting my hair, which is a horrible habit I've had all my life that I can't seem to break, because she has started to "play" with her hair while eating I guess we can say like mother like daughter.

I developed mastitis this past week which is an infection in my breast tissue so I'll be on antibiotics for about a week. Apparently it can be a common thing for breastfeeding moms and nothing that harms Peyton. This past weekend I had to take it easy and Cade took over the majority of taking care of Peyton so I could recover.

Upcoming this week is Cade's last week at McKesson. He will now be working from home! He has 2 weeks of training to attend (a week in Plano and a week in North Carolina) so I have informed the grandparents about the needed help so I can have a break to do the necessities like taking a shower! Haha. I've been trying to work on knitting but I've realized that I don't have the down time I need to really work on it at this time, so Peyton and I are catching up on some much needed reading!

2 weeks old

Its hard to imagine that 2 weeks ago our little girl was born. We've done a lot in the past 14 days.
Our first pediatrician appointment was the Monday after she was born. The doctor was really pleased with her color and surprised at how "pink" she was. She lost some weight since being in the hospital and currently was 6 lbs 10 oz which the doctor said was normal for her to lose weight. We  had our list of questions to ask her and it wouldn't have been complete without pooping on the pedi scale! Our next appointment was scheduled for a week later to make sure she is gaining weight.

First bath at home....not really a fan

Second bath went a lot better. She likes her mohawk

During our first week, we had multiple visitors (friends and family) come by to visit Peyton and help us out. It was great to see how many people care about her. Cade is off for 2 weeks and we have realized how fast time goes by during the day with a newborn. We try to "sleep in" till 9a.m. then Peyton is up for the day. I know everyone says sleep when she sleeps and we try to but at times when you are up, you're up!
So our first week consisted of:
-eating every 2 hours
-changing about 16 diapers a day
-sleeping (well Peyton)
-taking 20 pictures a day of her

Fingers near mouth, we know what time it is.

Week 2
We had our follow-up doctor appointment and Peyton gained some weight and is 7lbs 2 oz (though with all the feeding I feel like it should have been more) and 20 1/2 inches. The doctor was happy with the amount of weight gain and how she is doing overall. She had follow-up screening tests and didn't even cry when the nurse stuck her! Our next visit is at 2 months where we get our first round of immunizations (I just hope she is as good then as she was at our last visit but I know its going to be completely different).

We also had our newborn pictures which from the sneak peek look fabulous! Peyton made sure to leave her mark on every quilt that we used!

Peyton playing with daddy. She rolled over to look at him!

Cade returned to work this week and it has been an adjustment especially for him because of the lack of sleep. It was nice to have us all together at home.
This week's developments:
-Peyton is more awake
-Grunts in her sleep
-Starting to smile while awake (and smiles while sleeping so she must be having good dreams)
-Our growth spurt has started early because at 1 1/2 hours she wanting to eat (its like clock work-she is never late!)
-CRY when hungry (no more needing to wake her up to eat) and cry when we change her diaper but she doesn't cry when she is wet
-loves to be held and walked around the house--she knows when you sit down and will wake up and cry

She loves making this face and always has a hand by her face

I love my nap nanny!

Peyton has arrived!!

Well after all the raspberry tea, mexican food, and walking we were induced on July 11th (40 weeks and 3 days). I didn't think I'd go the full time and my body was physically done being pregnant--I don't think I could get any bigger!

We are having a baby today!

Our induction was scheduled for 6 a.m. and at 8:30 they broke my water and I immediately began feeling contractions. I think I just needed that extra push. Around 10a.m. I got my epidural--which was amazing!! How anyone would want to go through delivery without it I can't imagine. The rest of the time was just monitoring my contractions and dilation. I could feel some pressure but was not in pain, even though my contractions were pretty severe on the diagram. Peyton was the most active baby that they had their that morning, the nurse couldn't believe it (that's our daughter :)).

After the epidural

My contractions were so close together they turned the pitocin off and I was not able to move my legs very well because of the epidural so I asked them to turn it off  as I didn't want to have a longer labor because I wouldn't be able to feel anything enough to push. A little after 5p.m. I started pushing, they called the doctor in and within 2 contractions our little girl arrived at 5:57p.m.

7 lbs 8 oz 19 1/2 inches

It was such an amazing feeling seeing her for the first time. I carried her around for 9 months and we talked to her every day and now she was finally here.
We had a great support system with us, all the grandparents were there!
 
 

The first night:
We did not sleep at all! We were on cloud nine with our little girl here and of course trying to figure out  everything. The nurses were amazing and so patient with us. As new parents we had a bunch of questions and our night nurse, Heather, stayed with us to help us through it.

We also celebrated our 3 year anniversary-definitely the best gift we could have gotten.

Day 2:
We had several guests come visit this day. Beki, Nicole, Sam, Stephanie, Melissa, Ivy, Cam and Mrs. Doughtie..Peyton felt very loved!

The rest of the day was taking our hospital pictures and a hearing test (she passed with flying colors). That night we took the advice of friends and family and decided to use the nursery so that we could get some sleep.

Changing one of many diapers!

Friday, July 13th:

We got cleared by the pediatrician to go home!

We are so happy and can't wait to share more of Peyton as the days go by and our family of 3!

The final month!

We have reached the last month of pregnancy! Cade and I talk about how fast this time has gone by. Now we are getting more people saying I'm about to "pop"..not sure how I really feel about that because I'm all baby but still have 4 weeks to gain.
Peyton's movement have NOT slowed down, she definitely does not get this from me as I did not move much when my mom was pregnant with me. I'm hot, ALL the time I only wish I could wear shorts to work. I never thought I would see this day come where I am fanning myself everywhere.
Our appointments are weekly now to see our progression. This past week, we had our last ultrasound to see what Peyton's position is and how big she has grown. She is doing so well, her head is down and she is 5 lbs 8 oz (77th percentile). The doctor said she would probably gain about 1 more pound so she is not going to be 8 or 9 lbs, which is what I feel like she is.

Saturday was our childbirth class at Memorial Hermann. It was great that we went so we knew the different stages of contractions and techniques to help elevate the pain. Afterwards we went to go see What to Expect When Expecting because we were in a baby mood. It was a really funny movie!

On Wednesday a tree fell on our house and did some pretty good damage to the roof. We are supposed to have it fixed by the time she gets here but we are on her schedule. It was something we did not need right now but life sometimes does that.

Besides the lack of sleep and it taking longer to get up off the couch, Peyton has made this pregnancy go very well. I could not complain. Now we wait for her arrival.

Here is the information of the hospital:
Memorial Hermann The Woodlands
Family Birth Center
9250 Pinecroft
Houston, Texas 77380

Memorable May

Peyton in 3D

 May was a very busy month for us, here are some of the activities we had:

-Maternity photos
-Work baby shower
-Mother's Day
-Cade and I finished up our classes for the semester
-Baby Shower at Sugarbaby's
-Shopping for Peyton
-Babymoon to Austin
-Start of our childbirth classes
-Peyton continues to grow and wiggle around

Maternity Photos
Just a few that we have so far. We will be getting the rest this week!

 

My work threw a fun shower for me. We played games where everyone guessed the size of my tummy (2 people were almost right one it), guess the baby food-I surprisingly won this event against 4 people who have young kids! We also played a game in which some of our physicians had to drink the juice out of the baby bottle as fast as they could. The guy who won bit the end of the nipple but that was not against the rules.

Mother's Day:
For the first time, we went with my mom and Cade's mom to Cafe Express, the weather was cool and sunny--a perfect day to sit outside. Their presents this year were geared towards being grandma's (they both got clothes that say I love Grandma or Grandma says I'm perfect). We told them to keep them at their house because there will be plenty of times for them to change Peyton at their houses. :)

Finishing up classes:
I finished my microbiology (with an A) so now I only have 2 more classes to finish up by the end of the year to apply to nursing school. Cade did so great this semester, he was taking 3 classes (which is full time for the MBA program), working full time and taking care of me. It was a bit much to do all of this but glad he got some of those classes out of the way. I think our household enjoys going to school. I took my HESI exam for nursing school and did really well. Thank goodness the absentmindedness did not effect me!

Baby shower at Sugarbaby's:
We were so excited for this shower. Nicole hosted it and did an amazing job!! The place was so adorable, perfect for a little girls shower. There wasn't much parking but everyone managed to find a place around the area. There was a bow making station, thanks to everyone Peyton has some pretty cute bows. I just hope she has some hair so she can start wearing them soon.
We played a fun game in which it was similar to the Newlyweds game but instead it was geared towards first time parents. There was a great turnout and Peyton got some really cute things.

Cade and I are now wondering where we are going to put everything! Sunday we went shopping with the gift cards we accumulated as well as returning some duplicates and things we didn't need (having about 14 pacifiers is a bit much). It was very successful, we bought the essential items we needed and only have a few more things to purchase.

Babymoon to Austin:
Seeing as now that we will have an addition to the family, Cade and I wanted to have one last trip just the two of us and since I'm not able to fly and we need to save money, we thought Austin would be a great place to relax for Memorial Day weekend. I think we finally decided that Austin is where we eventually live. We stayed at Lakeway Resort on Lake Travis-definitely a place we have decided to go again! The pool and view was spectacular and they had plenty of events for both the family and adults. Saturday we headed up to San Marcos to go to the outlet mall which we had never been. It was overwhelming and not a place you only stay for a few hours. I wouldn't recommend it 8 1/2 months pregnant either because of the heat and all the walking but I survived thanks to air conditioning.

  

Our next appointment is June 4th (35 weeks), after this we will be visiting the doctor every week up until the big day of Peyton's arrival. We can't believe Peyton will be here in only 5 weeks, time is flying by!

35 weeks: