Week One with Haven

It's been a week since Haven and I came home from the hospital.  We have had a good week and everyone is adjusting well to the new family member and the changes to our routine with having a newborn.  

Haven's first bath in the hospital.  Just like the other girls, she wasn't a fan of getting her body washed ...

 But she sure loved getting her hair washed and having her head under the warm water..

The girls came to meet their new little sister in the hospital.  They were both so excited to finally meet her and couldn't get enough!  (They still can't get enough of her - it's too cute!)

 I love this one so much!

 Me and my 3 girls ..

They did a bilirubin test on Haven the morning we were leaving the hospital to check her Jaundice levels.  She was at a 15, which is one point into the high range. They had her sit under the photo therapy lights the morning before we discharged - she hated it, which meant I hated it.  Luckily, by the next day, her levels were decreasing and no more lights or tests were needed.

 Paisley is finding the baby in her and taking advantage of all of the new pillows, bouncy chairs and baby gear ..

 So precious!  When Haven cries, Paisley will go up to her and say, "shh, it's ok, I gotch ya, I gotch ya".  It's too cute and even more so because I think Paisley came up with it herself, that's not something that Ivan or I ever say.

With Emery and Paisley, I formula fed them.  I tried to nurse Emery for 6 weeks - nursing, supplementing and pumping and I never had a good enough milk supply, so I went to straight formula.  With Paisley, I nursed the two days in the hospital and went to formula the day we got home.  I decided to try nursing once again with Haven and so far we have been successful.  I did supplement with formula the first 5 days or so (which I believe had a good impact on decreasing her jaundice levels) but for the last week, I haven't supplemented and Haven is doing great.  I'm not sure if it's because of nursing, or just Haven's personality, or a combination of the two, but she wants to be held by ME all of the time.  Everyone says the first two weeks of nursing are the hardest and most time consuming, so I'm hoping it gets a little easier.  Obviously, I have to get things done other than just holding and nursing Haven all day and night, so I took a shot at baby wearing.  I've only done it a couple of times, but Haven seems to like it - she's close to me and I am hands free so I can get other things done.  I've even been successful at nursing while baby wearing - yay!

 Poor Carter - when we came home with Haven, I swear he gave me a look like, "really, you brought home another one of those things!"  Haha!  This was at 4:30a one morning on my side of the bed.  Carter nudged the bassinet a little further from my side of the bed and squeezed himself right in there ...

Welcome Haven Grace to the Family!

Haven Grace was born on July 13th at 2:11a after a quick four hour labor.  My due date was July 20th and I had an induction scheduled for July 17th if I didn't go into labor before then.  I had the bright idea to paint our kitchen cabinets two weeks before my due date, so for the week leading up to the 13th, the house was a mess and we were spending all of our time trying to get the kitchen finished.  On Friday, July 12th, I spent the entire day deep cleaning the house.  I will be the first to admit that I have OCD, but on this day, I was really overboard.  I even texted Ivan telling him that I will admit I had gone overboard.  I cleaned until about 5:30p and then took the girls for a quick trip to the library.  Then we went out to dinner and came home just to relax.  It was 10:15p and I was getting the girls ready for bed when my water broke.  Ivan was on the computer so I had to have Emery go get him.  He walked in, saw that my water had broke and we both had to get into action.  I hadn't packed a hospital bag for myself or the baby.  The girls didn't have bags packed.  Ivan called his mom and packed for the girls as I packed for myself and the baby.  We dropped the girls off and were on our way to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 11p - I was having contractions that were painful, but tolerable.  When I got checked, I was 4-5 centimeters.  They called for the anesthesiologist for the epidural and I got the epidural around midnight.  The anesthesiologist and nurse explained the first 2 hours of the epidural were the strongest but that they figured I would deliver within the next 2 hours - that was crazy to me!  As soon as the epidural kicked in, I was relaxed and tried to take a nap.  Did I mention that I had taken a Benadryl around 9p before my water broke at home to help me sleep - oops!  About an hour later, I was feeling the contractions again, so I called the nurse.  She had me lay on a different side to try to make the epidural kick in again.  By that time, around 1p, I was dilated to an 8.  The epidural never did take 100% but it definitely took the edge off.  By 2a, I was complete and feeling pressure.  The nurse paged the OB on call and it was a waiting game.  He finally got there and after 5 pushes, Haven was born.  It was an easy and quick delivery and both of us were doing well.

Haven Grace Gallegos

7 lbs 2 oz

19 1/2 inches

July 13, 2013

2:11a

Family and 36 Week Maternity Pictures

I took the plunge and got family and maternity pics taken.  I originally had no intention of doing them, but since I had maternity pics taken with my pregnancies with Emery and Paisley, I thought I might end up regretting it later on.  And, with this being my last pregnancy, I figured I better do it.  I think they turned out great and I'm glad I went for it ..

Emery and Paisley's New Room

In preparation for the new baby, we moved Paisley into Emery's room.  I wanted to just get another twin bed, but Ivan and the girls really wanted bunk beds.  I ended up caving and we got bunk beds.  I decided to get a full on the bottom for more room for when we have Makayla come to stay with us.  Let me tell you, I'm not sure if it's just because I'm pregnant or what, but the whole process of moving Paisley into Emery's room was a lot more work than I ever expected.  We finally finished today and it's been about a month long project.  I'm glad it's done and I love their room.

We transitioned Paisley from a crib to a toddler bed a few months ago (after she jumped out of her crib once, crazy girl!).  She did good in the toddler bed and never even got out of it.  When she would wake up in the mornings, she would lay in bed and call for us until someone came to get her.  Funny since she knew she could get out and knew how to open the bedroom door.

The first night the girls slept in their new bunk beds, they did really good.  Emery on top and Paisley on bottom.  They didn't get up once - but, we also had a really long day and they didn't go to bed until 11p.  The next night was a much different story.  They were both up 3 times together, then Paisley got up another 2 times.  I moved the baby monitor into their room and it's funny to hear Emery convincing Paisley to get up so Emery doesn't get into trouble.  It's been about a month now and they usually stay in bed once we put them to bed.  Just last week, Paisley had her first accident with falling out of the bed.  I woke up at 230a to Paisley screaming and crying.  Then, Emery was crying because she got woke up.  Paisley was on the floor with the legs under the bed - I'm still not sure how it happened, but luckily, she's only fallen out of the bed once.  Here's to many more memories with the girls sharing a room and hopefully growing up to being really close, loving sisters.

28 and 32 Week Updates - Baby #3

Here are my 28 and 32 week belly pictures.  I'm still feeling pretty good - surprisingly, the back pains have decreased in frequency (unless I push myself too hard and clean the whole house in one day) and I've been pretty active with the girls.  My acid reflux is still kicking my butt - just hoping that it goes away after the baby is born.  I actually came down with a crazy cold two weeks ago, just my luck to get a cold in June.  It lingered for over a week, but nothing I couldn't get through.  Then, on Tuesday, I got a horrible headache.  I thought it was just from the heat and not drinking enough water and went home, took Tylenol and went to bed.  But, by around 10p, I was miserable.  I was finally able to get to sleep, only to wake up with the same horrible headache the next day.  I went to Walgreen's to check my blood pressure, just to rule out signs of pre-eclampsia. Luckily, my blood pressure was fine.  I ended up going to see my OB Wednesday afternoon because I was in so much pain.  They prescribed Tylenol with codeine and again, I went home, took the medicine and went to bed.  About an hour later, I got worried because I still wasn't feeling any relief.  Another night with a headache.  The next day at work, my peers and I were all trying to self-diagnose me.  We decided that it could be a sinus infection or migraine.  I called back to the OB and they gave me an RX for a Z Pak for a sinus infection.  Luckily, by Friday afternoon, I was starting to feel relief and today, I'm about 90% better.  It's always the strange, random things that happen to me during pregnancy. 

I have finally started to feel like I'm making good progress in preparing for the baby.  All of the newborn to 3 month clothes are washed, folded and put away.  We finally moved Paisley into Emery's room so the baby's room and crib is free.  Now, I just need to get the bottles ready and bring out the swing and bouncy chair.  

We aren't 100% settled on a name yet, but I think it will be Haven Grace.  I also like the names Liberty, Journey and Jersey.  I just feel like those 3 names are a little too far out there and don't flow well with our last name.  As with the other two, we probably will wait until right before we leave the hospital to make a final decision on the name, so we'll see.  

The girls are still as excited as can be about the baby.  Paisley calls the baby, "baby Haven" all the time and it's too cute.  They both love to hug and kiss my belly.  Emery regularly makes comments about how big my belly is getting, but she's sure to include that I'm not getting fat, the baby is making me fat.  Nice, huh.

28 weeks

 32 weeks

Annual Trip to CA

We were lucky enough to make our annual trip to CA at the end of May.  We had originally planned on waiting until Oct/Nov to go - so we could take the new baby to meet the family and so the weather could be nice and cool.  However, I got an email from JetBlue with a deal that we just couldn't pass up.  So, off we went!

The girls on the plane ride - Emery is such a good kid - she watched her TV shows and snacked on cookies and sprite and was really good.  Paisley was good too, but a little more active - I had to do a lot to keep her entertained for the short, 1 hour flight.

 As soon as we got off the plane, we drove to Grandma Ruth's to visit with family.  We have been lucky the last two trips to have Grandma Ruth make us Kraut cookin's.  They are a German dish that don't sound all that appealing (hamburger, onions and cabbage mixture made in rolls and baked) but they are so, so yummy!  The girls gathered in the kitchen to cook and Emery helped roll out the dough for almost all 50 Kraut cookin's that we made.  She loves to cook, bake and just be in the kitchen!

 The next day we were off to Disneyland!

 Randy and baby Austyn ..

 Michelle and Issac ....

 Makayla, Emery and Paisley

 We got to meet Mickey Mouse - here is Michelle's cute little family ..

 The whole gang (minus Ivan, he stood this one out)

 The girls were so excited to meet Mickey Mouse - especially Paisley.  She's been in love with "Hot Dog" (what she calls Mickey Mouse) for the last 9 months or so.

 At the end of the night.  We had a great trip - the weather was perfect, lines were short and all of the kids were good and there were no melt downs.

 Paisley got a cute little Goofy hat ..

 Emery picked a pink Princess hat ...

 The next day, we just relaxed at the hotel and had a low key day.  When we planned this trip, I thought I would be 6 months pregnant and would be fine.  Well, once my due date was changed, I was 7 months pregnant.  I did OK at Disneyland, but I definitely needed the next day to just hang out and relax.  Ivan did a great job of entertaining the girls so I really could rest and relax.  He's such a good Papa to the girls!

 Paisley isn't a huge fan of swimming ... instead, she decided to make a little bed on the ground.  Yup, that's an empty lawn chair right next to her that she could have laid in.  Silly girl!

Paisley took a little nap to recover from Disneyland and swimming.  Emery was patiently waiting for her to wake up and I was lucky enough to catch this moment on camera!

 We were able to visit with Grandma Peggy, Shannon, Michelle, Randy and Austyn.  Here are the cousins giving each other some love - again, this picture is not staged.  They really do love each other and have a great time playing.

 The next day, we were off to California Adventure!  This day, it got up to 97 degrees - I was dying and miserable!  My body doesn't do well in the heat, when I'm not pregnant, so add that in, and I was pretty useless until about 3p when it finally started to cool off.  Like always, Ivan was a champ and took on both girls and I just walked along and tried to keep up.  Despite the weather, we still had a really good time.  We just may have rode The Little Mermaid and Monsters Inc 5+ times each since the lines were short and the rides were inside and air conditioned :)

Here is crazy Paisley - it was 97 degrees, and she had to have the blanket over her legs ..

 On the plane ride home - Paisley thought she was still at Disneyland and raised her arms for the plane ride.

As always, we had a great trip!  It was so nice for the four of us to just be able to spend quality time together for a few days.  We mixed in visits with my family, relaxing and of course fun at Disneyland and it was awesome!  Already looking forward to our trip next year ....