The final countdowwwnnn

Hi! It's nearly baby time here!

38 weeks and headed to the pool. I do have a maternity bathing suit but my belly was literally too large for it.

I did take off the socks eventually. 

I have an induction date set for next week at about 39 1/2 weeks, because it turns out that the sono confirmed not just the extra fluid sitch and that I have a bit of a porker in there, but also that the doctors are "concerned" about the size of this kid's head. By which they mean my ability to get said head out of me with one or both of us remaining intact, if I let him cook much longer. So that's super reassuring and I can't wait to see what that means for my labor and delivery! Haha! (weep)

In the meantime, I have finally reached the "OK, this is finally getting pretty not ideal" stage of pregnancy. But dudes, it took all the way to 38 weeks this time! That's not bad. And it's still only small potato complaints compared to last time. When I get up from the couch these days, my hips and lower back need about 30 seconds to resolve into a non-spasming mess, until which time I waddle-shuffle like a 90 year old lady. But I mean... the spasms do stop and then I'm fine. I can still bend down and lean over and pick up Juliette. My ankles remain normal sized. Things are fine, is what I'm saying.

The only two real complaints with this late-stage pregnancy have been that same pain under my ribs again, and heartburn to end all heartburn. Like, wake up with stabbing chest pains, dart frantically out of meetings to acquire Tums level heartburn. But dude, it turns out Tums are MAGICAL. How can that little disc of flavored chalk stop heartburn pain SO immediately and so effectively!? It's astounding! However, after strongly considering DIYing some sort of ill-advised hip holster for my Tums bottle to make sure I had them nearby at all times, it occurred to me that perhaps there is some sort of upper limit to the number of Tums one should consume daily. So I googled it and.. well. The suggested max per day was the MINIMUM I was consuming. Every day. So my OB gently suggested I pick up a bottle of Pepcid instead and just take 2 of those a day, and HOLY COW THIS STUFF IS EVEN BETTER THAN TUMS, YOU GUYS! I haven't taken ANY Tums at all since my new Pepcid love affair. I love problems that are solved this easily.

Less compliant is this pain in my upper abs. Last pregnancy, I thought it was my abs literally ripping apart because that is legit what it feels like. It's awful. However! This time around I'm seeing a different chiropractor, and when the pain started several weeks ago she explained that it's actually due to my ribs being compressed by my giant child. The muscles start to spasm because my ribs are out of place, and the fascia between my ribs gets.. bad? angry? stuck? I'm not sure. But earlier in my pregnancy she'd do an adjustment, then spend some time aggressively massaging the fascia between my ribs to loosen it back up and have it chill out. It hurt, but it was a good hurt, and was super worth it because it definitely helped keep the overall pain level way down.

The problem now is that the child has apparently compressed my ribs to a point where she can't fit her fingers between them to massage out the angry fascia any more. So she can give me an adjustment, and use a tool to poke around in between my smushed ribs a bit, and do some e-stim, but it's not quite as effective as it was when she was manually manipulating the heck out of that space every 2 weeks to try and de-anger it.  But it's STILL better than last pregnancy, because I am still getting some form of treatment for it (and started much earlier on the treatment) and now I am retroactively so bummed that I accepted that much pain last time around when it turns out it was something I maybe could have alleviated a little more. Oh well.

Long story short, I am a day shy of 39 weeks and I still feel better than I did for my entire 3rd trimester last time, and I am incredibly appreciative of that. I still even work out ("work out") once a week! (I mean. I basically stretch and do some balance work and then strength train my arms and back. BUT STILL.)

I did finally pack a hospital bag, and make a list of things I should probably write down more formally on a "birth preferences" card for the nurses (I don't write a Birth Plan because I firmly believe the one thing you can be 100% sure of for birth is that you can't plan what happens), and the baby's room is mostly ready. My mom is coming down this weekend so we have someone to stay with Juliette when we head to the hospital Tuesday night for the induction prep. (I'll be curious to see if the prep meds put me into active labor again this time around!) Now we just need to settle on a name for this kid and by this time next week, we'll be a 2-child household (!!!)

Doh.

I had some pretty (now-hilarious) grand plans to use this blog as Juliette's de facto baby album, since using an ACTUAL baby album didn't seem likely for me. But.. uh... yeah. I clearly did a SUPER GREAT JOB with that.

And now I'm a few weeks away from popping out another one.

And in the meantime, Juliette has grown into a very independent, very hilarious, and very on-the-go almost 18 month old:

(She is also eating or drinking in nearly every picture I have of her, since that is when she is most likely to be still enough for a non-blurry photo.)

(Also she still FREAKING LOVES eating. She eats everything! I know it won't last, but for now it's still so fun - she demands in on anything adults are eating in front of her, will try virtually everything, and then actually enjoys like 90% of it. She has eaten [and enjoyed] foie gras, beef tartare, octopus, eel, truffled quail eggs.. it's silly. And awesome.)

I don't know the best way to recap 18 or so months into one blog post, so I guess we'll just do some highlights from the past few months? Eesh. I'm so sorry, future kid[s] looking for details on your childhood[s]...

So! I left off at around 5 months. Juliette learned to sit up quite early, especially given that the weight of those cheeks probably made her awfully top heavy.

She was crawling by 6 months... but only backwards. So she got stuck under furniture a lot.

Once she figured out forwards though, it was on!

 ..except that almost immediately thereafter, she decided that bipdal was the only truly acceptable position for getting from point A to point B. Cue many months hunched over with sore backs while tiny fists gripped our fingers and Juliette stomped purposefully around, gleefully upright:

(I believe she had a grand total of like 3.5 teeth there, but still went to town on that corn on the cob)

The photo below doesn't serve a particular purpose in advancing this narrative, it's just a favorite from around this time.

Anyway! By around 11 months, she had had enough of our fingers and was tottering drunkenly around on her own like a fiend.

Then when she was 13 months old, in early October, we took her to Europe!

We had no idea what to expect from that trip and/or how bad of an idea it was going to be, but it was actually great. Baby jetlag is indeed terrible and should not be underestimated (especially since we were staying in places that were not compatible with any sort of cry it out methodology, so we had to just... stay awake with her so she wouldn't scream for the full two hours during which her little body was convinced it was Awake Time in the middle of the night).

But despite the jetlag excitement for the first several night, she did GREAT in terms of flexibility - we dropped her morning nap cold turkey in favor of touring around Paris each morning; she ate anything, anywhere, whenever we needed her to; we took a side trip to the Netherlands for a few days and she handled that like a champ; she really did sleep well, all things considered, AND even went back to her normal sleeping scheduled after just a day or two of adjustment once back in the States.

Back in the states, here she is at 14 months playing piano with one of her many boyfriends, William:

And then it was Halloween! I was *determined* to use my now-showing pregnancy as a component of a costume, since this will (in theory) be the only Halloween of my life during which I will be pregnant. So Juliette and I played up our respective bellies and went as truck driving rednecks. Clearly the obvious choice.

OK we should really speed things up here. Christmas happened again! It remains delightful with babies, especially since my MIL continues to outfit Juliette in hilarious/fantastic Santa themed outfits for the occasion:

Meanwhile, now, at nearly-18-months, she is talking non-stop. The only problem is we can only understand about 15% of it. She has a ton of individual words she can use properly in context. Many of them are food related, shockingly: 'nana, cheese, "ohnj" [orange], "bey" [berry], kakah [cracker]. "Bep," for those pouches of fruits/veggies, for some reason. She declares "CHEEZ" and demands you clink glasses with her (then drinks heartily, and goes "aahhhhh!!"). She has the basics like "mama," "mo" [more] and "bye bye" (although that has now been truncated to one sassy "byeee" more recently), "baw" [ball] and of course "NO!" She also has a weird affinity for accessories, and gets super hyped about 'ocks!!!! every day, as well as shuss! gacket! and hat!! (all of which are said, every time, with at least that many implied exclamation points). She LOVES taking medicine (!?) and calls it "mey-mey." She says "on" clearly, but has this little gutteral noise, like "ock" but with more phlegmy chutzpah, and that is used for virtually every other pronoun (off, out, open) so it's hard to know what she's requesting when she starts chanting it. And meanwhile, she is chattering in what sound like full sentences most of the time, we just have no idea how to decipher most of it.

She says "cat" and calls Oliver and Bella by name, although you have to reeallly know what to listen for with those ("Ah-ya-ya" and "BEH," approximately). She can tell you what sound several animals make, and can point to her eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, ears, belly, and toes when asked. She learned gentle ("gen-teh") very early because of our constant imploring of gentle pets to the cats, and says "peess" and "tack oo" very well - although please only when prompted, and thank you usually preemptively, when she wants something from you. Like she'll hold out a dirty tissue she just blew her nose with while announcing TAHK OO to notify you that you will be taking it from her. So polite. Ha.

And now, she can say "baby" (and knows what one is) and will point to my belly when we ask her where the new baby is... although I doubt she quite understands that a REAL BABY will be joining us, like... permanently.

And so! Speaking of this new baby! This pregnancy has been MILES easier and less fraught than Juliette's, thank the tiny baby jeebus. Although I am no less... giant. This is last week, at 34w.

I am now into week 35 and people have started asking when I'm due (clearly expecting me to say, like, "next week!") and then regularly following up with "OH. Are you sure there's just one in there??!" when I explain that I still have 5+ weeks to go. HAHA SO FUNNY YES YOU'RE TOTALLY THE ONLY PERSON WHO'S MADE THAT JOKE TODAY HARDY HAR.

(I also had my first aggressive belly-rub this weekend, out of both pregnancies! I went for a pedicure, and one of the nail salon ladies just swooped right in and didn't just like PAT my belly, but was legit RUBBING IT LIKE A LAMP. It was super weird and I did not like it.)

Anyway! I had a sono last week for the first time since... about 25 weeks, I guess? I was having my normal ob checkup and the doctor was measuring/feeling my belly and suddenly goes, "um, how big was your daughter?" When I told him (8 lbs, 10 oz) he nodded knowingly and said, "ah. yeah. you've got another big one in here." That was confirmed by last week's sonogram, which ADDITIONALLY confirmed that I've got another case of the Perhaps Too Much Fluids sloshing around in there, which is irritating because I once again tested negative for gestational diabetes (the usual cause of polyhydramnios) and because they assured me that having poly in my first pregnancy did not make me any more likely to develop it again this time. Meaning that if my fluid levels ARE actually in poly territory again, that would mean I developed it randomly BOTH TIMES despite having a ~2% chance each pregnancy.

I really can't complain though, because even if it is poly, is has presented FAR later in pregnancy this time, and has caused me far less grief. The excessive swelling of my extremities (that started by about 24 weeks last time!) has not been present this time, nor have the near-constant Braxton-Hicks contractions of the last pregnancy. With Juliette those kicked in by 24 weeks as well and were... kind of extreme. I regularly had an hour+ of B-H contractions 5 minutes apart with her. For WEEKS. And there was that awful thing where literally any time I was standing, I was contracting. Just one giant sustained contraction the entire time I was upright. That is not happening this time! It's much better!

This entire pregnancy really has just been... easier. I haven't had as many tests with stressful and questionable outcomes; I haven't been in nearly as much pain & discomfort; and this baby is far less... well, "violent" is the word that comes to mind. Carrying Juliette felt a bit like being assaulted from inside my own body for 10+ months. This just feels like.. I guess it feels like being pregnant. I understand now why most people don't dread pregnancy quite so much. They don't have to be terrible! This is obviously uncomfortable, but it's not this like dramatic Thing I Have To Put Myself Through that is 10 months of suffering.

Let's just hope that baby boy here isn't saving all of his methods of making us suffer until after he's out, I guess :)

FOOOOOD!!

When we went for Juliette's 4-month well child appointment, the pediatrician gave us a little hand out on introducing solid foods, and mentioned that while the guidelines had previously discouraged solids before 6 months, current practice suggests any time after 4 months is fine as long as the baby shows the proper signs of readiness.

Chris was like THIS IS AWESOME LET'S GIVE HER HUMAN FOOD TONIGHT! but I wanted to slow roll it a little more - she wasn't showing any indications that her current all-milk diet wasn't meeting her wants or needs, so I didn't think we needed to rush it. We compromised with agreeing to try solids for the first time at 5 months. I warned Chris that trying wouldn't necessarily mean SHE was ready - if her tongue thrust reflex hadn't gone away yet, for example, we would have to just wait a few weeks and try again.

Then as luck would have it, my mom and my sister were both in town (and in my house!) for the Women's March, which happened to coincide with Juliette's 5 month birthday... so Solid Food Day was a go.

And holy cow Chris could not have been more right - this baby was apparently DESPERATE to get her hands on real food. We started with sweet potato (just roasted one in the oven, then mashed up with a little breast milk to thin it) and this baby COULD NOT BELIEVE we were letting her eat this magical substance. After the first bite her eyes got huge, she started flailing all extremities in glee, and she made sure that every single morsel from the spoon my sister was using to feed her made it fully in her mouth.

(You may need to click through from a feed reader to see videos)

I... think we do not need to worry about tongue thrust with this one. How did she already know how to use a spoon??

More problematic was the fact that we can't shovel the food into her face fast enough for her.

Next up were bananas, which were met with the same level of delight and gusto:

(Yes, I still had my tree up in late January. I am both lazy and really liked it, which is not a combination that made for a timely removal.)

To be fair, she seems to enjoy literally ANYTHING she gets to put in her mouth, up to and including balloons and cats.

We were starting to think there was nothing we could give her that wouldn't be met with frantic dives toward the spoon for more (I mean, if even cat hair meets that lofty goal....?) - but then we tried avocados. 

The first several bites she mostly seemed... confused. Like, it had been made pretty clear to her at this point that Food Was Amazing, so how come bite after bite of this food was...  not? She kept valiantly trying spoonfuls, apparently giving the avocado the benefit of the doubt that it would start tasting delicious at some point soon... but eventually she had to come to terms with the reality that is avocados.

Sorry kid. Not everything is as magical as prunes (which, thankfully, she can't get enough of... since she followed up this intro to solid foods with an 8 day poop strike. MOAR PRUNES!!)

Considering how much both Chris and I enjoy eating, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that Juliette is this thrilled with food - but I am definitely relieved. I know this doesn't necessarily inform her eating habits or preferences as a toddler or anything, but getting to watch her experience each new food right now sure is awesome.

Juliette: the birth story

Y'all. This is super long. Read at your own risk.

So! Back when I was still pregnant, the last update I provided was a week out from my due date, when I remained exactly 0cm dilated with what they suspected was a large-ish baby and still an excessive amount of fluid. Turns out not very much changed over the course of that week... or as my due date came and went. I eventually dilated to "maybe 1cm" by a few days after my due date, but stayed stubbornly unprogressed after that, with no indication that my body had any plans to release the baby into the wild any time soon. My doctor decided he couldn't let me go more than 41 weeks with so much fluid kicking around in me, though, so they scheduled an induction for August 19th in case the baby hadn't made an appearance by then.

The baby, of course, did not make anything close to an appearance. I was a giant beached whale of a human by then: it was mid-August, in our disgustingly hot & humid part of the country, I was a week overdue, sore as hell, and still having contractions all the time plus one giant sustained contraction literally any time I was standing up.

I watched a lot of Netflix on the couch that week.

We were instructed to go to the hospital at 9pm the night before, where I would be administered Cervadil. This is basically a very uncomfortable tampon-like device that they jam up into your cervix which contains medication to soften your cervix, if you're one of the lucky ladies whose cervix has not "ripened" on its own and needs medical intervention before it will allow a baby through. For the vast majority of women, the Cervadil just stays in overnight; you don't feel anything (aside from the initial not-super-pleasant insertion, which had me attempting to crab-scuttle my way directly up the wall behind me in what I can only describe as an inadvertent primal fight or flight reflex). Then they pull it out the next morning and start you on pitocin now that your cervix has been brought up to speed. You're encouraged to get a(s) good (a) night's sleep (as possible in a hospital bed) in the meantime since who knows how long labor might last once the pitocin kicks it off? I even initially encouraged Chris to go back home after the Cervadil was administered, since my body was SO far from being ready to let a baby out that it seemed really unlikely that one of the really rare side effects - Cervadil actually kicking off active labor, which happens something like 1-2% of the time - would occur.

I'll give you one guess what happened within 3 hours of getting the Cervadil inserted!

OF COURSE I had the super-rare side effect that practically never happens, because OF COURSE. Luckily, after they jammed the Cervadil in, I told Chris I was maybe kind of sort of having second thoughts about him leaving me all alone in the hospital after all (despite it being my idea in the first place), so he was uncomfortably sprawled on the couch ("couch") next to my bed when, at 1:15am, my contractions had gotten strong enough that I for sure couldn't sleep and started pacing the room to see if that would help make them more manageable.

By 1:30am, I self-evaluated as a 6 on the pain scale... using the hastily modified pain scale in my head that assumed labor was going to be more painful than anything I'd ever experienced. On a pre-labor scale I was probably at an 8. The contractions were coming so quickly that I had no chance to recover between them - as soon as the acute pain of the contraction would start to decrease, super strong pressure would immediately build in my lower pelvis and then ramp up into a new contraction. It was... well, super unpleasant.

The thing is, they had taken the belly monitors off an hour after administering the Cervadil, and then gave me stern warnings that if I put them back on to monitor contractions, I would have to keep them on for the entire rest of labor - so basically, only ask to get the monitors back on if you're SURE something is happening because you're stuck in bed from that point on. And it was only 1:30! Three hours ago they had confirmed that I was still barely 1cm dilated and this baby was pretty much not coming out unless they yanked her out unwillingly... maybe I was just a weakling and these were, like, teensy little baby contractions that were kicking off pre-labor? Maybe they hurt more than I was expecting so I forgot how to tell time and they were actually 10 minutes apart and not two minutes apart, which is what my timing app was clearly telling me? It just didn't seem reasonable that I could be in active labor at this point.

By 2am I gave up though, and asked to be put back on the monitor because I couldn't even stand through the contractions any more, much less walk around. The monitors at least confirmed that I wasn't totally crazy, and my contractions were indeed very strong, and coming every 2 minutes (WTF!). The nurse calmly advised me that if I wanted an epidural any time soon, I should start an IV drip since I'd need to finish a bag before they could even call the anesthesiologist. I was torn - how non-hardy was I, that I was ready for an epidural less than an hour into labor!? On the other hand, GET ME AN EPIDURAL YES PLEASE &^!$^!%@$!&@^%!% OW OW OW OW.

It was around this point that I more or less blacked out from the pain. I don't remember any details of the next two hours, but apparently I spent most of it groaning into Chris's shoulder as the contractions just kept coming, exactly two minutes apart, for TWO HUNDRED YEARS (approx.) until I had finished my IV bag and an anesthesiologist could be located. I got the epidural at 3:45am, and I literally could not tell you if my anesthesiologist was male or female, because I now understood the term "blinded by pain." All I do remember is leaning over so s/he could insert the needle into my spine, and feeling ABSOLUTELY NOTHING because however much it hurts to get a giant needle jammed into your spine is roughly the equivalent of a mosquito bite at that juncture.

By 4am, I was a changed person. I could see! I could use the English language! I could talk! Heck, I could JOKE! EPIDURALS ARE AMAZING EVERYONE IN THE ROOM SHOULD GET ONE YAAAAY I LOVE DRUGS THANK YOU DRUG GOD YOU ARE MY FAVORITE. They suggested I should try to get some sleep now, but while the acute contraction pain was 100% gone (WHAT! HOW! MAGIC! I LOVE YOU DRUGS!) the super intense pressure that built up in my lower pelvis to usher in each contraction was still there, and still happening every 2 minutes like clockwork, so sleep was not exactly in the cards. I actually started to get worried for the baby - like, I know literally every woman who goes into labor has contractions that are specifically designed to push the baby down into the pelvis, but it just felt like I must be CRUSHING her little head against my pelvis. How was this not breaking her??

At 5am I had another cervical check, where I learned I was exactly.... 2cm dilated. Sooo that was kind of a let down. I really am kind of a pansy, it turns out, because I basically blacked out from pain during contractions at only 2cm. I was 90% effaced though, and the contractions were still coming every 2 minutes (I kept getting complimented on how regular they were, as if I had something to do with it) so I was encouraged to sleep again (haha) and they'd check in again later.

By 7:45 I had made it to 5cm and everyone was pleased with my progress - I hadn't been given any pitocin at this point since my contractions certainly didn't need any help, so they were happy to just leave me mostly alone and progress at will. I was on oxygen pretty much full time at this point - the contractions were stressing the baby out just enough that I had to keep an oxygen mask on to keep her calm.

Then, at about 8:45, I felt something... come out.

Now, you may or may not recall that one of the major concerns of polyhydramnios is cord prolapse. This is super super not good and needs to be addressed IMMEDIATELY if it happens - like, with an emergency c-section - because the baby's life is instantly in jeopardy. So when I very distinctly felt something push out of me, and when I reached down (as well as I could around my giant-ass belly) to feel around, and felt.. something... squishy? but firm...? I freaked. the. fuck. out.

I started screaming for Chris to get a nurse because SOMETHING IS COMING OUT OF ME OMG GO GO HELP SOMETHING. IS. COMING. OUT. OMFGGGGGGG

Turns out it was my water breaking. Except! I did not know this: there are actually two amniotic sacs, one inside the other. ONE of mine had broken, and the other one was just sort of hanging around, half in and half out, totally intact and full of fluid. Which is what I had poked when I reached down to investigate.

So, the whole polyhydramnios thing? My OB had warned me several weeks prior that if my water broke, I would not be among the women who weren't sure if that was really what had happened, like perhaps I had just peed a little? - that no, it would be EXTREMELY EVIDENT if it happened. And he was not kidding: only HALF my water broke, and every time a new nurse came in, they did a comical double take at the LAKE OF FLUID surrounding my hospital bed. When the doctor came in to assess the situation and ultimately break the second bag (since it was still there, sticking out of me, super in the way of everything) she warmed everyone to stand back because it was going to be... dramatic.

So! The rest of my bag was broken for me using what seriously looked like a medical-grade crochet hook, and a subsequent cervical check revealed that I was at about 8cm and fully effaced. The contractions had yet to let up the every-two-minute pattern so I was advised to keep on keepin' on at that point.

The crazy intense pressure I'd been feeling (every two minutes) in my lower pelvis ramped WAY down with all that extra fluid out of the way and felt much less like I was slowly crushing my baby's skull into pieces against my pelvic bone, which was nice.

By 11:45am I was fully effaced AND fully dilated, but the baby was still a bit high, so they wanted to let my still incredibly regular and strong contractions do some more work to move her down further before I started pushing. I think my doula had arrived by this point and was helpfully feeding me ice chips and reminding me to keep putting the oxygen mask back on, because by this point Juliette was starting to get a bit agitated, requiring full time oxygen and also only allowing me to be in certain positions (eg, on my left side) or else she'd make alarms go off.

At 1pm, they decided circumstances were favorable, and I should start pushing. The only problem was that I had no idea HOW to push. Everyone had explained to me prior to this point that it was a feeling of "bearing down" (or in plainer speak: pooping) but I couldn't quite figure out how to do the equivalent of pooping but focused on the front side of my pelvis. We'd wait for a contraction to start, then I'd start pushing (maybe?) and then afterwards ask the L&D nurse and my doula, "did I do it? Did that work?" because HOW ON EARTH are you supposed to know what it feels like? Also I couldn't really feel much down in that vicinity anyway (STILL LOVE YOU DRUGS, KISSES) so I couldn't tell if what I was doing was having the desired effect. I mean, a baby didn't pop out within 20 minutes, so was I pushing wrong? Pushing badly? Flexing the wrong parts? Actually pooping? I still have no idea.

By 2pm, pushing had not produced a baby, and for the first time in 12 hours my contractions slowed down, coming only every 5 minutes or so. They decided to give me pitocin because WTF body, this is not the time to take a step back, there is a baby IN YOUR DANG BIRTH CANAL waiting to come out. By 2:30, there was still no baby, although apparently her head was visible to everyone on each push, but she kept slipping back behind my pelvic bone between pushes. After this happened a number of times, the doctor very calmly but firmly told me it was time to try a vacuum assist because the baby needed to come out NOW. And if it didn't work, I would need an emergency c-section.

This is exactly the reason I wanted a doula there. I immediately looked at her, panicked, because vacuum assist? Emergency c-section? Is this what needs to happen now and should I be scared? She squeezed my hand, told me it would be fine and that I could do it. So I nodded at the doctor, and she started gathering the vacuum tools.

The way it actually works it kind of nuts - they literally stick a suction cup up your business and attach it to the baby's skull. It was very good that I had an epidural already.  Then when I pushed, the doctor would pull on the suction cup at the same time. She warned me that if the suction cup popped off, she could only attach it twice more; if it came off a third time, that was when the emergency c-section would come into play. She rammed a hand up my lady bits and attached the cup; we waited for a contraction; I pushed; she pulled. The suction cup popped off.

Take two: attach; contract; push; pull... pop.

Take three, HAHA NO PRESSURE JUST IF THIS DOESN'T WORK YOU GET AN EMERGENCY C-SECTION: attach; contract; push; pull; PUSH PUSH KEEP PUSHING AGAIN AGAIN PUSH PUSH and all of a sudden I understood the pooping analogy because it honestly suddenly felt like the most terrifyingly large and painful poop in the world was stuck halfway out of my body and OW OW GET IT OUT I SWEAR I'M PUSHING AGAIN GET OUT and suddenly we had a baby.

She arrived at 3pm and was 8lb 10oz, 22" inches long, and (I found out later) scored very well on her Apgars. 

She also somehow managed to poop all over me, the bed, my gown, and several pieces of equipment within minutes of her birth. It was kind of impressive.

Day 2

Day 157 (5 months, 4 days)

Baby Christmas! Juliette at 4 months

Christmas-ing with a baby did NOT disappoint. 

I've previously stated that every baby hat should be required to include ears, because little babies who look like bears or cats are the unequivocal best, but I may need to amend that statement to allow for baby-sized Santa hats, which clearly are also the best.

Juliette is too little to "get" Christmas, obviously, but she still had a lot of fun with her new presents. The best one was actually a hand me down we've had for quite some time but she was too little to use until now - a jumpy exersaucer we brought out Christmas morning as somewhat of a coincidence. But holy cow we could not have given her a better present - she is IN LOVE with this thing. She already wants to be standing at all times, and this gives her the autonomy to do so and ALSO jump around, and turn in any direction she pleases - she is in heaven.

She's in a really fantastic phase right now where she is learning things so quickly you can actually SEE her figure them out. It's so fun. Her current favorite thing to do is blow raspberries - my parents got her started on it when they were down for Thanksgiving, and she has been devotedly practicing ever since. It's often the first thing she does upon waking up (after a big good morning smile) and I've heard her practicing them alone in the dark, in her crib. All that practice is paying off:

She's currently EBF, but we got the OK from the pediatrician to start her on solids if we want. I'll probably wait until ~5 months since she seems fine with the current set up, but she has started grabbing for anything we're putting in our mouths:

Caviar and beer... girlfriend has good taste ;-)

Of course, she wants to put EVERYTHING in her mouth, so I'm not sure how much credence we can give to her apparent interest in human food.

She is a nearly universally happy, cheerful baby (especially now that she SLEEPS! I know it's not for everyone but holy crap I want to marry Dr. Ferber.. more on that in another post, hopefully) - she's impressively laid back and easygoing. She doesn't mind being held by complete strangers, she rolls with the punches when her routine is changed, and overall she is just a really pleasant little person.