When she smiles....

My favorite thing in the whole world is seeing my little girl smile. Someone told me that it feels like they are "pulling on your heart strings" (I can't take credit for that saying, but it is 100% true!) Some days are smilier than others, and boy do I ever like the smilier ones! Sometimes she will just burst out with a smile while she is awake and even when she is asleep. But other times I probe her to smile by talking in a high squeaky voice, playing peek-a-boo, making funny blowing and clicking noises, tickling her feet and belly, touching her nose and saying "boop boop"... anyways it must be humorous to witness me going through the hoops to get her to smile but the effort put into getting a smile is worth every second!
Sometimes if you get her really going her mouth will get so wide with a grin that you can see her gums as she lets out these gurgling giggles that at times will turn into a full blown laugh! =) It is the greatest gift ever!!
Since I was a little girl my mom use to say I had a dolphin giggle. It always stuck with me and Robert agreed so he nicknamed me "the giggler". I am giggler #1 and he nicknamed Stella giggler #2, and all the kids we have to follow will be #3,#4 depending on how many kids we have!
I now have an obsession with dolphins since this is what our family is named after =)

THE GIGGLERS ARE NOW SIGNING OFF....

I'm an AUNTIE!!!

Welcome to the world Quinn Michelle Windsor... 7lbs. 13 oz!! Beautiful and healthy baby girl. My brother and sister in law, Richard & Robyn gave birth to their first child on Feb. 17 2009 around 5am! I am so happy to be an aunt and very excited in the closeness of Quinn & Stella's ages! They will be very close friends and cousins. It will be neat to see them grow, play & learn together. Quinn even has webbed toes that run in the Windsor side of the family! HOW CUTE!! I our next child has webbed toes too!! LOL


PROUD MOTHER OF STELLA ROSE WINDSOR AND PROUD AUNT OF QUINN MICHELLE WINDSOR!!

Chubby Chicken

Or as Robert likes to say "butterball turkey with arms"... Our little girl had her 2 month appointment a couple days ago and at 7 1/2 weeks she weighs 13 lbs. 14 oz... The doc looked it up and apparently she is in the 99th percentile for her weight, 93rd percentile for her length and 90th percentile for her head circumfrance....

My mom says I must have cream of wheat breastmilk. This is absolutly amazing since you cannot overfeed a breastfed baby, so she is just naturally built this way. The doctor also said that babies that weigh more than their peers are more than likely going to be tall, it doesn't have anything to do with their weight later in life.... So she is going to be a tall girl, like her daddy, maybe she will be a model. Obviously this gene didn't come from my side of the family lol.

She is doing great, sleeping a lot more at night. Lately she just needs a feeding before bed, and another one around 2am and then not another one until morning time (7ish)... We are getting better, but we decided to keep her in the cradle in our room until she is sleeping through the night and doesnt need a middle of the night feeding, so probably in April or so...

We are planning a trip to Florida beginning of March, we are looking forward to it and hope that Stella won't mind the plane ride. We hope it warms up in Florida for our trip because there has been freezing warnings there the last few weeks!

ANYWAYS.... WE LOVE OUR CHUBBY CHICKEN... OUR GIGGLER #2!! =)

Baby Stella's Routine

My daughter is about 2 months now and I feel that she should have some form of a routine. Some of you might think this is a bit overwhelming for a 2 month old, but I am an analytical person and I think we all succeed better in life with some structure so a 2 month old is no exception.

It is so hard because she has had no consistency for the last 2 months and going through different growth spurts can make for different needs. Sometimes she would get baths in the daytime sometimes at night, her eating patterns are anywhere from 1-4 hours in between, she sleeps at all different times during the days and nights.

So while trying to make for some normalcy and not wanting to hinder her own clock I have decided to regulate the evening routine:

-6pm bath time!!
-Read 2 books
-Last bedtime feeding
-put to bed in crib w/ her pacifier


Now this is the first night we are trying this routine, and the first night she is going to sleep in her own crib instead of the cradle in our room... cross your fingers that it goes alright, we have the monitors in our living room and bedroom so we can hear her no matter where we are. She was waking up in the night every 2-3 hours and occasionally will go a whole 4 and I LOVE IT. I hear of some moms that say their son/daughter at this age will pretty much go the whole night without a feeding (about 7-8 hours)... I really hope this new routine will help bring that on!

My hopes is that by her going to bed between 6-7 she will wake up for a feeding around 1am, go back to bed right away after the feeding and then wake up for the day (morning feeding) between 7-8am! But, of course this is a long shot, but the ultimate goal.

I was reading something online about the "E.A.S.Y" method for during the day, and this is the routine I started following today and it is going well. I don't want to push it this early on with a routine during the day so I just follow the E.A.S.Y steps....

E- EAT (NURSE)
A-ACTIVITY (swing, story time, toys, dance w/ her in my arms, put her in the carrier and walk around, and other interaction)
S- SLEEP (during the activity time when I see she is getting drowsy I put her down in her bassinet in the living room)
Y- YOU (me time while she is resting to get stuff done around the house)

and diaper changes... let me tell you there will never be a routine for those! lol
I will change her diaper whenever I can smell a dirty diaper or HEAR that she has dirtied her diaper (which are EXPLOSIONS that you can hear in all rooms of the house) and also just to freshen one up before or after a feeding, but most of the time I will change her and then two seconds later I will hear the explosion AGAIN and have to go change it.... THANK GOD FOR COSTCO!!!!! :)





UPDATE FROM LAST NIGHT (FIRST NIGHT ON ROUTINE)
Well, last night didn't go so well, but it can only get better from repitition..
BED AT 6:00PM
SHE WOKE UP FUSSING AT 6:45PM
ROCKED HER BACK TO SLEEP BY 6:55PM
FUSSED AT 7:05PM
ROCKED BACK TO SLEEP BY 7:10PM
FUSSED AT 7:15PM
LET HER COMFORT NURSE ON ONE BREAST FOR 5 MIN. UNTIL SHE FELL ASLEEP (consumed enough for a light snack) - she was back to sleep by 7:25pm
10:15PM FUSSING - DISCOVERED SHE NEEDED TO BE BURPED AGAIN, FELL BACK ASLEEP
1:00AM FUSSY - ROCKED BACK TO SLEEP BY 1:05AM
2:15AM FUSSY- FIGURED IT WAS FROM HUNGER, NURSED HER & CHANGED HER DIAPER AND ROCKED BACK TO SLEEP BY 2:40AM
10 MIN LATER FUSSED AGAIN, PUT PACIFIER BACK IN HER MOUTH AND SHE FELL BACK ASLEEP.
5:30AM FUSSY- NURSED HER THEN ROCKED HER BACK TO SLEEP BY 5:45AM
(6:15AM ALEXA, MY DAYCARE KID ARRIVES, STELLA IS STILL SLEEPING ;)
7:00AM STELLA IS UP FOR THE DAY!!!

---THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER RIGHT??---

How it all started 27 hours later

I went into labor on Saturday December 12th at 11pm. I remember feeling period like cramps a couple days before and they got a little more intense Saturday evening, I thought nothing of it and just thought it was normal "body preparing for birth pains" and that they would eventually subside.

Around 11pm I started to time them and realized I was getting the pains and tightening every 5-7 minutes recognizing these as not just Braxton Hicks contractions, but possibly the “real deal” I woke my husband (Robert) up from his sleep, and he said to wait it out a bit longer. I rolled outta bed and had a long hot bath and came downstairs to continue timing contractions and also to call my mom (who lives in Massachusetts) and let her know what was happening so she could be on stand by and to get prepared to leave for her 7 hour drive.

Around 2:30am on Sunday December 13th the contractions picked up to every 5 minutes and doubled in intensity. I decided to wake Robert up again and told him we should head over to Labor & Delivery because I was certain I was gonna have this baby sometime that day (the 12th...but, little did I know the amount of hours to come...)With reluctance Robert finally got dressed and we left with Hunter (our dog) and dropped him off at my in laws house on the way to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital they could clearly see the amount of pain I was in and didn't make me wait for the triage nurse, instead I went right up to the hospital bed for them to check me. They said I was dilated 2 cm and I was pretty thinned out, they said I would be having this baby soon, but because this would be my first birth it could take a while and there was no sense going through early labor at the hospital when I could be home until it gets closer and my contractions are between 3-4 minutes apart. I was agitated because I didn’t want to get sent home again.... We got back home around 4am and I stayed in the living room using my breathing techniques to get through each contraction.

Robert had to leave for work at 9am and he said to call his cell as soon as I felt the contractions getting closer together. I called him at noon because I couldn't stand it anymore and the contractions were between 3-5 minutes apart.

When he came to pick me up we decided to do a bit more labouring at his parents house (which is on the way to the hospital) just for fear that we would be sent home once again. We stayed there until 2:30 and the pain was intense. When we arrived at the hospital they checked me and I was 4 cm dilated and they decided to go ahead and admit me.

At this point my mom was still about 3 hours away so I was nervous she wouldn’t make it in time since I picked her to be my coach and really wanted her love and support through it all. They wanted to know if I wanted something to take the edge off of the contractions, and I said “yes” in desperation and got a dose of morphine. I thought well maybe just this little bit of morphine is alright and I will skip out on the epidural........

During labor I kept going from my hospital bed to the bathroom to have a shower and Robert would hose me down and take off my socks and hospital gown and put them back on about 20 times. Something sweet he said that I will never forget as he was hosing me down in the shower was " I am watering my two roses". (My middle name is Rose and our baby girl's middle name is Rose as well.)

Finally my mom shows up around 5:30 and at this point I believe I was still around 5cm and my water had not broken yet. They decide to break my water and when they did the contractions that were already pretty wild started getting considerably crazier. At this point I decided to get another dose of the morphine that was worn off already. I looked like the exorcist and through my contractions I would make these loud breathing noises as I rocked my head back and forth from side to side pretty violently like I was possessed the motion and pattern helped me through the pain.

Around 9pm I was stuck at 9cm and wasn’t progressing further but had this overwhelming sensation to PUSH the baby out! Doctor kept saying try to fight the urge but if it just happens then that is the bodies way of taking over to help you dilate that last centimeter. I couldn't’t stop it so in the middle of my breathing I could feel myself bearing down and my whole body was going into convolutions and the pain mixed with the morphine was causing my eyes to roll in the back of my head so I couldn't see straight!

The doctor then comes in around 12am on December 14th and says “you aren’t progressing any to get to the last centimeter so we are going to have to administer pitocin through an IV to try and intensify and speed up your contractions even more, and with that you will have to get the epidural, or we will have to do a c-section.” So that was that..... I ended up having to get the epidural after all, at 9cm dilated!! I basically felt that I did go all natural because I got so far without it. But, once I got the epidural it was such a relief! I could actually nap! My body was so relieved. After the pitocin kicked in things started to go pretty fast and furious. At 12:30am they checked and I was 10 cm dilated FINALLY!!!!

When I felt the pressure they wanted me to pull my legs up and start pushing. The problem was I definitely felt the pressure but found it hard to know what to push towards (hard to explain but I am sure you can imagine.) Anyways, I pushed and pushed with all of my might and she just wasn’t coming out! After 2 hours of pushing they mentioned something about using a VAC to suction her out, I didn’t want that so I found the strength somewhere within to push harder than before.... Her head kept crowning but she would then slide back in, the doctor eventually maintained a good enough grip on her as I continued to push. They were really good because they would say stop, hold, small pushes or big pushes so it would direct me to prevent any tears!

After 2 and a half hours of pushing and 27 hours later she came out and I was so overjoyed. My eyes were so swollen from pushing that I couldn't see the little girl I just gave birth to! It was so sad, I felt like Rocky! They placed her on my chest, I was squeezing her so tightly since I couldn't see her the nurse said “ I have never seen a women squeeze her baby so tightly” lol.

STELLA ROSE WINDSOR

BORN DEC. 14 2009

8LBS. 4 OZ.

21 1/2 INCHES LONG

& GORGEOUS!!

*Picture shows her right when she was born, saying "Heyyy look at all the room I have out here!!"