Cecily's Blessing Day

Cecily was blessed while we were in Utah (8-2-14).

All of our parents were there, along with 4/5 (Becca had not arrived yet) of Peter's siblings and their families and 4/6 of my siblings and their families (Trevin passed and Lance stayed out in Boston), my dear friend Jenn, and several of my aunts, uncles, and cousins from the area (Sheryl, Steve and Amy, Sherry and Larry, Blaine and Judy, Jamie, Greg, Becky, Julene), and maybe some neighbors. I'm sure I've forgotten people, but it was nice to be surrounded by family and friends.

Three Months Old

We've turned a nice corner. Cecily has decided that her bouncy chair is all right sometimes and is starting to awkwardly pull hanging things toward her mouth. She also suddenly loves kicking her legs to rock the chair.

She smiles, coos, and even giggles (rarely still). But she's also quite high maintenance- cries when other people hold her, cries when she's in her car seat, cries when we're on a walk for too long (more than 3 minutes), and on an on. I call her our squeaky wheel- she may be fourth, but far be it from her to be neglected. I long for the day that I have more than 5 minutes to call my own, but I'm trying hard to enjoy her baby-ness while it lasts.

First Day of Cool

Miss Fifth Grader

Mr. Third Grader

Little Miss Kindergartner

Ward Campout: In Which Ivy Comes into her Own

Aug. 22-24 2014

Ivy decided that she had had enough of watching from the sidelines as Bryn and Calvin played with their posse of friends. So Saturday night she went around collecting as many 5-ish year olds as she could find and formed a club. They did important stuff like roaming in bushes and poking fires with sticks. It was epic.

Another great campout! I was glad for a cabin with the baby, and Peter slept in our small tent with the older kids. A fantastic play was put on by the older kids in the amphitheater, I hiked Patriarch Hill with Cece, and Peter played his guitar. We ate hot pizza in town after a day of cold rain, swam in the Waters of Mormon, and enjoyed hot breakfast (but also missed the traditional cold cereal, fruit, bagel, and muffin breakfast).

#5yearoldclub

This is her "fancy" pose.

This is his fancy pose (I think he's holding a gun). My absolute favorite.

Cece's first laugh

Cecily had a rough afternoon that involved a lot of cat-napping, screaming, refluxing, and crying. But like a rainbow after a summer storm, Cece graced us with her first baby chuckles this evening.

A Whole Entire Month

Cecily has been around for a whole month now. I can't believe how quickly and how slowly time has passed. Things have not been easy, but they could definitely have been worse. I look back on the time with my other babies, and I can't remember much, so I'm going to try to document this time a bit better.

Cece is very snugly, and loves to be held against a warm chest. All. The. Time.  She's quite sleepy, but see the previous sentence (she wants to be held, even for naps) . We're tired.  She also has had a difficult time nursing so we're supplementing a bit with formula. She readily takes a bottle, and that's going to be awesome in the long run.

I had a tondred of anxiety the first two+ weeks. I could feel it racing through my veins, but was powerless to stop it. Happily, it seems to have run it's course (for the most part).

Her night sleep is exhausting (of course). She goes down anywhere from 7:30pm to 1am, and wakes up to eat every 2-4 hours. Last night as I was feeding her at 2:30am and checking Facebook, I noticed that Lance was online, too, so we had a baby feeding online fist bump.

Cece's older sibling love her to pieces, and can't wait until she's more interact-able. They laugh and laugh at all the silly expressions she pulls, and think it's hilarious when she hiccups.

Clearly, I have a gift for this newborn photography stuff

Cecily Rose

Cecily Rose, AKA Cece joined our family May 27th at 12:47am.  She weighed 7 lbs 12.1 ozs, and was 20 inches long. She was the pinkest baby ever to be seen at Mount Auburn Hospital (and very loud). 

Labor story

The morning of my scheduled induction, the hospital didn't call at 6am as promised. I called around 7, and was informed that they were too busy to take me.  Disappointed, I sat back and wondered what we would do with our now free Memorial Day. Just as I was settling in to the idea of quiet day at home, the hospital called again and said to come on in.

There was a parade in front of the hospital right as we were arriving, and I had to walk a couple of blocks to get to there, as all driving routes were blocked. What if I had been in actual labor?!? 

I checked in and got settled in my lovely L&D room with a view of Boston and the Charles river. After making sure my blood was mostly clear of Heparin, I was induced around 12pm with two rounds of cytotec spaced 4 hours apart (since I was starting 0cm dilated). I was dilated to 2cm around 8pm, so they started pitocin. We watched Baby Mama and an episode of Psych. I found an exercise ball in the closet and made it my throne for the evening.

Around 11:00pm my contractions started to get serious. I was withdrawing more and more into myself, and then at 11:30ish my water broke as I was bouncing on the ball. It felt like a violent balloon popping. Luckily, Peter was able to remove my nice running shoes before the gush. Sorry exercise ball.

After that, contractions were horrible. Miss Cece was posterior (a family favorite position), and the doctor checked and I was at 4cm. My contractions were a world of hurt by then, and I ordered an epidural. Dr. Baker thought that might not be a great idea, since my contractions seemed so intense, and I'd "likely have a baby in around a half an hour." I laughed, knowing my labors were always long and figured I'd have a baby by 6am if I was lucky. 

The epidural doctor placed the epidural, but it only worked slightly on my right side by my kidney, and not at all anywhere else. By this time the contractions were making me want to climb up the walls. But what can you do- there's only one way through time and that's forward. Around 12:40 I was ready to push, and Cecily arrived to the oxygenated world at 12:47. I've never been so happy and relieved to be done with something in my whole entire life, and there was a beautiful baby squawking girl crying on my chest to show for it.