Grace 11 months old

Grace is 11 months old now. I am not even going to try and catch up. She is no longer swaddled, no longer nursing, and crawling (army crawl/scoot), pulling up, cruising, and has taken a few steps here and there. She is talking/communicating like crazy compared to Caden!


She signs: more, ball, all done, eat, milk, drink, baby (started signing at 10 months)

She says: MaMa, DaDa, ball, uhoh, dog, milk, baby, more and she mimics just about everything we say. (Started saying words at 10 months, the first being UhOh which may have even been around the end of 9 months)

If you ask her what the Lion says she will roar and if you ask her what the cow says she says, "Booooo."

She points to things and loves books. She recognizes and points to a few things such as teddy, dolly, baby, lion, etc. She turns the pages too which I love! (Turning pages since around 9 months)

She is sleeping through the night now, too... I gradually reduced the amt of milk offered to her at night when she would wake up to eat. Then one night slept through and has done it since, other than when she was teething. She started sleeping through at around 10 months.

She takes two naps per day. One in the morning usually sometime around 9-9:30 and she typically sleeps about 45-60 minutes. I wake her after 60 minutes now because the morning nap should start phasing out soon. I want her long nap to be the afternoon one. Usually her 1pm nap lasts about 1.5-2 hours, sometimes up to 3 hours.

Her favorite thing to do right now is to practice walking holding onto a push toy or, preferably, the hand of a willing adult. She is a very happy, very social baby. She loves other people and will "talk" to them like she is speaking in sentences. She smiles a lot and loves to dance and clap. She is especially fond of music. She even sings sometimes herself and we can even tell which song she is singing. Her favorites are the "Baby Signing Time" theme song and "ABCs." She loves big brother Caden and they play SO well together. He really watches after her and protects her from eating "dangerous" things. He tries to get her to do what he wants, like play in his batman forts. She lights up when Daddy gets home from work, points at him and starts saying DaDaDaDa!! It's adorable. When she sees me (after I've been gone) she gets equally excited, but typically starts to cry and reach for me. I wish I got a happier reaction, lol.

Grace- 7 months old!

Too much time has gone by, yet again. And a lot has changed with my baby girl!

At about the 5 month point we started to have some sleep issues. She started to wake periodically in the middle of the night instead of sleeping until 4 or 5am like she had been. I let this go on (and get gradually worse) until she was 7 months old (last week, lol). I think her sleep issues are (because we haven't completely fixed them yet!) attributed to the lack of structure to her day. Sure, she has consistent naps (2 in the morning both in her car seat as we drop Caden off at preschool and pick him up and then a 3rd nap at 1pm that lasts about 2-2.5 hours). But I don't think sleeping in the cars east qualifies as "quality" sleep. I've been working very hard the last few days to structure her daytime sleep a little bit more. Of course she's not taking long naps, but we are making progress. :) I've moved her to a four hour schedule. She wakes up at 7am (hopefully, lol) naps at 9 and naps again at 1. If the 1pm nap is short (1 hour or less) then I try to get another nap in the late afternoon/early evening time. I aim for a 7pm bedtime. That is just the goal and that time varies by 30 min on either side depending on how her afternoon nap went. I know that if I have a 3rd child I will be happy I made all these seemingly pointless notes about her sleep schedule (or lack thereof!). :)

In eating news we are still nursing but I've had to start supplementing with a good bit of formula. I don't see that as a failure at all. Nursing has never come easily for me, with either child. With Caden I beat myself up about it, but with Grace I've given it my all but haven't let myself get to the point of exhaustion just for the sake of nursing. I'm proud that I've made it this far and I have a freezer full of milk to keep her on it for another month or two after I quit nursing. I have a feeling that we will be weaning over the next month. I'm not exactly sure how it will look for us yet though. Along with my sleep resolution I also am trying to structure her feeding times a bit. I was supplementing in between nursing but have decided instead to start offering formula immediately after nursing her to try and get her on a consistent liquid feeding schedule.

I introduced solids a week before she turned 6 months old. She wasn't as enthusiastic about eating as Caden. She took some coaxing to open her mouth and we had to let her sort of suck on the spoon to get her to swallow and keep the food in her mouth. After a week or two I introduced oatmeal (we started with rice) and she seemed to like it better for a few days. Then she became difficult to feed so I introduced peas. She loved them the first day, but has refused to eat them since. She has quite the gag reflex, lol. Then we moved on to sweet potatoes, apples, squash, pears. She tolerates them but doesn't eat much. Cereal or oatmeal are almost impossible to feed her. At 7 months of age I'd go days sometimes without even offering her solids because it was such a battle to get her to eat. And what little she was eating was not filling her up in any way. Finally I decided to try bananas. She LOVED them! She also swallowed them very easily with little mess. That made me think that she might like her foods with a more solid consistency. So I started experimenting with the fruit and oatmeal combos and had great success! So, just in the last week I have finally started to offer solids twice a day (lunch and dinner) and she is finally eating them! I stir in oatmeal to the stage 1 runny stuff and she gobbles it up. She definitely prefers fruits though. Here is a photo from her first feeding:

Toward the beginning of her 6th month she started to sit, assisted. I couldn't walk away from her, even with the boppy around her, for the first week. By week 2 she was fully sitting with the boppy and another week or so later she was fully sitting, although if I walk away I always leave the boppy there for her. It's funny because as she was approaching 6 months I was saying that she was no where close to even attempting sitting and then snap... she did it. She still hates tummy time, more now than ever it seems. She can't roll herself over and because of that also can't roll herself onto her tummy from her back. I think, like Caden, she is at a disadvantage to learning to roll because of being swaddled in her crib. On that note...

We are taking away the swaddle in stages. That also started last week (it was a very busy week for Grace!). I tried napping her unswaddled and it didn't go well at all (I even nursed her to sleep unswaddled). I've been watching her on the video monitor and noticing how when she is put down awake and trying to soothe herself to sleep, she can't and looks like a penguin rolling and flopping around in her crib. She's very upset too. So I resorted to nursing her to sleep for all of her naps and at night. I knew I was starting a bad habit. The solution is to get her unswaddled so she can learn to self soothe. One day I braved up and decided to endure some tears and leave one arm out of her swaddle. She cried for 3 minutes and was asleep! I decided from that point forward I was not turning back and her left arm would be out permanently. That night (I was nervous!) she didn't bat an eye! She was still up twice a night to eat, but that is normal for her at this point (her night feedings are at 7pm, midnight, sometimes 2 and 3 am, and always again around 4 or 5 am). A week later and she often puts herself to sleep with zero crying! She talks and holds her dolly and goes to sleep! Next mission: the right arm!

Speaking of talking, we are now babbling! It is so cute to hear those little consonant sounds come out of her mouth. She said MaMa yesterday, but it wasn't to me. It was the first time I had heard the "M" sound. She is the happiest, bright eyed baby. She smiles so big and just melts your heart. She lights up when she sees John. She usually cries when she sees me (or fusses) because she wants me to pick her up. She is a mama's girl big time! She loves Caden and often watches him and laughs and laughs. He also adores her and loves to talk to her and play/interact with her. I should enjoy this while it lasts, right? It won't be long until Grace is mobile and starts to take Caden's toys or mess up his play. Love those kids!

Grace's hair is adorably messy. It's still curly. It's so cold out now that I usually blow it dry. She will sit in the bumpo chair and let me put the hair dryer and roll brush to it. I put her hair in pigtails the other day for the first time and it was so cute! Most nights I have to spray No More Tears Detangler in her hair and brush through the knots. Who would have thought she would have as much hair as she does!?! I love it! But it also drives me bonkers! It usually looks messy and stringy more than it does cute and curly. lol. Well, that's Grace's update in a nutshell. :)

Grace and Caden Thanksgiving Day 2010
My mom made their adorable outfits!

Nana and Gracie Thanksgiving Day 2010
Grace was a few days shy of 6 months old

The following pictures were taken by my sister-in-law, Misty, on the day Grace turned 6 months old. Aren't these pictures phenomenal!?!

Gracie - Four Months Old

I'm overwhelmed at the thought of trying to "back post" about the last four months so instead i think I'll just pick up where we are now. :)

Grace was/is an easy baby in a lot of ways. She's four months old now and is still hovering right at the 50th percentile in everything. She was 13lbs 11oz at her appt yesterday and 24 inches long. I am planning to wait a while to introduce solids, although i was given the go ahead if needed. I figure that I'd like to nurse her as long as possible and since we're already struggling in that department solids could just make it worse. She was on a perfect babywise schedule and then she turned about 2.5 months old and Caden started preschool, which meant all of her morning naps were in the car and therefore just short catnaps. Since that time I've just let it fly! :) She takes 3 solid naps each day. Two in the morning and one around 1pm. The two morning naps are typically short and the 1pm nap is usually at least 2 hours. She stays awake for long periods of time, usually at least 1.5 hours and often 2 full hours of wake time. At night she has been ready to sleep through the night for some time. If she wakes it is usually b/c she's come unswaddled. She's stuck in a 4/5am rut, but I'm not ready to break her of that just because I need that feeding for my supply. I often times will actually wake her during the 4 or 5am hour if I happen to wake up and realize she has not woken yet. We put her to bed at 7pm and do a dreamfeed at 9pm.

She's rolling from tummy to back, although she doesn't do it much anymore like she did at first (she was about 3 months when she started). She usually just sucks on her hands when she is on her tummy now. She loves her thumb and fingers. She alternates between which she is in the mood to suck on. She is a very happy baby, always smiling and her eyes light up before she smiles, just like her lip turns down before she starts to cry. She has beautiful, light blue eyes and dark curly hair that just keeps growing and is a mess to tame! She's definitely started to find her voice lately and is cooing at us and talking a lot. Not babbling much yet, but every now and again she'll kind of moan to herself. She loves Caden and he is so good with her and loves her (and the many new toys she comes with). We put her in the bumpo at about 3 months and the exersaucer about a week ago. She is an absolute joy. Pictures to follow!

Grace, 3.5 months old

Grace (3 months) wearing Caden's soccer shoes! And Caden showing off his cantelope, lol.

Grace 3.5 months with Mama!

The day Grace found her thumb.... 3 months

Grace and Nonnie (can you see where she gets her blue eyes!)

Grace Elizabeth Nichols

Grace Elizabeth is here! She arrived 3.5 months ago and I'm just now getting around to updating the blog... two kiddos will do that to you I suppose.

So... let's go back to the beginning.... 40 weeks rolled around and I was still pregnant. Dr T scheduled an induction for me for Thursday, May 27th. I was bound and determined to get her to come on her own before that. On Wednesday morning before my induction I was up bright and early at the gym pushing myself harder than ever before willing labor to start... didn't happen. That evening we decided to make a tradition out of being induced and we all went out to eat (with my mom and dad) at Logans (the same place we ate the night before Caden was induced). Ironically, we even sat at the exact same table! Although I had no recollection of this but was told my by family it was, indeed, the same table. Caden went home with my mom and dad and John and I headed to our empty house to try and get at least some sleep before the big day.

I was tired and hopeful that I would get more sleep than I did the night before Caden was born. I didn't have nerves this time around.... but wouldn't you know it. I was awoken by consistent and intense contractions that started sometime during the 1am hour. I started to think I was going to go into labor on my own after all.... but after a few hours (of sleeplessness as I counted contractions) they went away. So I got up early and got showered and ready for the hospital. We arrived there shortly before 5am. It's funny how at the three month point after her birth I remember pretty much nothing about the drive to the hospital that morning, but I can (for some reason) remember every detail of the drive to the hospital on the day Caden was born.... we listened to our (then) new Elliot Yamin cd on the way with Caden and I have no idea if we even had music on the day Grace was born. That makes me kind of sad....

We arrived at the hospital and had to wait in the waiting area for a while, maybe 45 minutes or so... Finally I was called back. They had a terrible time giving me my IV, and in true Amanda form I got so sick and dizzy.... By far the worst part of the entire day (for both of my children's births) was the IV. This was the first time anyone has ever had trouble finding my viens... go figure. At 7am they started pitocin (or as John spelled it in my journal patosan, which is a slightly more accurate spelling than the potusum I was given at Caden's birth, lol). At 8am they checked and I was dilated 4 cm with contractions about 2 min apart. I could definitely feel them this time around. I never felt a single one with Caden but boy did I ever this time! At 8:35 they broke my water (and I had already progressed to roughly 5 or 6 cm). The contractions were intense, but never unbearable. I was finally given my epidural at about 8:57 and my best guess would be that I was measuring about 7cm or so at that point because 30 minutes after the epi I was measuring 8cm (9:35). Here is the breakdown:

8:00 4cm

8:35 water broke, 5-6 cm (this hurt SO badly this time, didn't hurt with Caden)

8:57- epidural

9:35- 8cm

11:10- still 8cm

11:28- 9cm

12:04- 9.5cm, 100% effaced but station -1 so Dr T had me "labor down" (meaning they sat me upright and let me labor while he helped do a hysterectomy on another patient... always on call if I needed him though). I started feeling intense contractions again b/c sitting upright blocked the epi from working completely so I reclined again for a few minutes at 1:19 and they checked my progress... I admit I was nervous the epidural wouldn't get back through my system fast enough before they had my push... but it did.

1:19- 10cm and station +2.... Nurse started to get things ready and Dr T came in and had me push one time... it appeared Grace was going to come quickly so they had me wait a minute to get everything ready before I pushed again. I pushed through 3 contractions and she was here at 1:59pm! I pushed for 1 hour and 20 minutes with Caden and I felt the urge to push, but no pain. With her I felt nothing... I even remember asking if I was making any progress at all because I couldn't even tell if I WAS pushing! Fortunately she arrived into this world very quickly, in a matter of minutes really. I'd say I pushed, at most 10 minutes but probably much less. She hardly had a cone head at all thanks to barely pushing! She weighed in at 7lbs 13 oz and was 18.5 inches long. She had tons of curly dark hair and she came out crying and kicking! :) She also came out lapping the air and rooting... so precious! :) We couldn't believe the amount of hair she had! It was well over an inch long at birth, and so thick!

Welcome to our family baby girl!!!

You are so beautiful and we love you so much!!

39 Weeks Pregnant

Today I am one day shy of 40 weeks! I must say I am very surprised to still be pregnant! I really thought all those abnormally frequent Braxton Hicks would mean an early labor. And then finding out I was already 3 cm dilated at 38 weeks was just icing on the cake. But, little Gracie is just not ready yet.

I went to my 39 week appointment on Tuesday. I was still 3 cm (this time a full three instead of just barely three). My cervix had moved foraward though, but that was about the only change. I'm weighing in somewhere between a gain of 18-19 pounds (it fluctuates a good bit these days, yesterday I was 19 pounds up, today only 18)... I scheduled an induction for Monday and after a lot of consideration, I called and cancelled it. It wasn't long after that my phone rang and it was Dr T himself. He said he needed to see me for a 40 week check up on Monday since I cancelled the induction (I'd figured that so I had already scheduled an apt for Monday) and that he didn't want me going past 41 weeks because the placenta stops functioning as it should, etc. Well, I turn 41 weeks over the long Memorial Day Weekend so he said at the latest he would let me go until Thursday, May 27th. So most likely I will be induced on Thursday, unless of course Grace decides to come on her own which I am really hoping she does!!!

For the past week or two we have been walking a LOT, plus I'm still doing my aerobics class at the gym. I've been drinking Raspberry Leaf Tea, bouncing on the exercise ball... all the old tricks to bring labor on and this sweet girl is just not budging.

Here are a few pictures from some of our evening/afternoon walks this week (39 weeks)...

38 Weeks

I am 38 weeks, 4 days pregnant today. That is the exact day that I gave birth to Caden. I went to visit Dr T two days ago and things are looking really good. She is head down (yay!) and I am about 3 cm dilated. I must admit that I question whether she was ever really breech the 2nd time. He only ever felt my belly to try and guess and honestly, the lumps and places I feel kicks and bulges haven't changed a bit in the last few weeks. None the less, I was relieved to see that little head on the ultrasound screen on Tuesday! :D

I'm feeling really good. All of those strong and frequent contractions I've been having for the last several months have seemed to diminish now that I'm ready to have this little girl. I'm not sure what's going on. I'm happy to know I am at least 3 cm dilated already, but I have this feeling that Gracie isn't coming any time soon. I've been trying all the old wives tales (at least the ones I can tolerate as I don't think I will be drinking any castor oil anytime soon) and she is still sitting up so high and I just don't feel like I'm about to "pop." I'm actually feeling better now than I did a few weeks ago, haha. I still have zero swelling (that has a lot to do with the heat which today might be the first day we hit 90 degrees so we will see how long that holds out), the arches of my feet haven't fallen like they did with Caden, I barely waddle (or at least I don't think I do, not all the time that is), I'm far from miserable, etc...

I've gained around 18 pounds and I'm proud to say I'm still going to the gym 3 days a week. Plus, now I'm walking every night to try and meet my sweet daughter sooner than later! Below is a comparison picture from my pregnancy with Caden. Gracie is on the left, Caden is on the right. I was 38 weeks 1 day with Gracie and 38 weeks 3 days with Caden (the day before I was induced). I have fun comparing my bellies....


And then here is a picture of Caden making me laugh. The boy hates having his picture made but couldn't resist jumping in a few with me. Not the most flattering picture of either of us, but I feel like it gives something to compare the size of the belly to.... :D

37 Weeks

I am exactly 37 weeks and 2 days pregnant! I'm definitely ready to meet my little girl and things are definitely getting more uncomfortable but I would by lying if I said I was miserable. Sure, miserable compared to "normal" but compared to most other pregnancies (and even mine with Caden) I'm far from miserable. This has been a very easy pregnancy. I really only feel about 7 or 8 months pregnant, and I suppose there is a reason for that as my teeny tummy is only measuring about that size. I'm not swelling, bloating, or anything like that. My complaints are few, but here they are none the less:

Grace is putting pressure on nerves that cause sharp shooting pains to go down my thighs. This only happens occasionally (like every 4 or 5 days) and once it starts to happen it will last an hour or so at most. She's letting me get pretty good sleep at night these days though, so I'm grateful for that. It's not the most comfortable sleep, but it's at least sleep! I'm still having a lot of contractions, although some days are more intense than others. I have had hours where I will have them every 10 min or less and then they just kind of go away. It will be hard to tell when I do go into labor I think until I get to the point where they are pretty painful. Dr T said to go to the hospital when contractions are 10 min or less... when I told him that was "normal" for me he said to make it 5 min or less. About the only time I "waddle" or have any major discomfort is when I'm having a contraction. Other than that this pregnancy has been very easy on my body.

I've finally picked up on gaining weight. At 36 weeks I had still only gained about 16 pounds, but in the week since I've added 2 more to that making my grand total 18! I'm much happier knowing that I'm closer to the 20 pound mark. I will say that a good bit of that weight was because I started eating a lot more, but I hope it helps Gracie to put some weight on as the doctor and nurses are all saying she's going to be a "small baby." Wish I knew exactly what that meant... small as in 5 pounds, or small as in 6 pounds? I just want her to be healthy and strong.

My belly is still quite small. Last week (at my 36 week appointment) my belly measured 32 weeks. Dr T said it was nothing to worry about b/c the number was going up (I was measuring 31 weeks at the previous 34 week appointment). Today I only measured 30 weeks. That has me a little worried, but the nurse said it was okay. I forgot to ask Dr T if it was okay because I distracted him talking about Grace's position when he came in the room to see me.

Last week, at 36 weeks, Dr T was feeling on my belly just checking the size of Grace when he said he thought she might be breech again. I was hoping for a confirmation of that today, but instead he just felt my belly again and said that she still felt breech and that we would do a scan next week (at 38 weeks) to get an exact position. He told me if my water breaks to get to the hospital immediately because with a breech baby the cord could fall out and that would be very dangerous for Grace. He also said that depending on the scan results next week he would be willing to try and turn her, but that it's very painful and not very successful... The good news is that she still has time to turn head down again and I'm hoping and praying that she will. I know that if she doesn't then there is nothing wrong with having a csection, but my heart is really set on having another vaginal delivery and so I'm having a hard time being content with whatever happens...

34 Weeks

Went to the doctor today and Gracie is no longer breech! The nurse said she would most likely stay that way, and then Dr T came in and said not to get too excited that she could be breech again tomorrow because it's still "early days." Ha, ha! I'm going to try and focus on what the nurse said, but I also realize that ultimately God is in control of it all and he knows what is best for both Gracie and me and I am learning to "be content whatever the circumstances."

In other news my belly is still measuring small, although the nurse wouldn't share exactly how small (and I didn't press for answers). Dr T said that as long as there is consistent growth each week (which there has been) then it isn't something to worry about. I've gained 14 pounds so far (with Caden at this point I was around 25). Everything is looking good!

I took a quick picture today and compared it to my 34 Week picture with Caden. The difference, to me at least, is staggering! I'm 34 weeks with Caden on the left, and 34 weeks with Gracie on the right....

Easter 2010

Caden Talks about Baby Gracie

That's right, Gracie! We have a name, Grace Elizabeth.

So the story. My friend Jennifer had her sweet baby girl, Sydney, almost two weeks ago. Today, Caden got to see Sydney for the first time and I pointed out that Mrs. Jennifers belly is gone. The expression on Caden's face was so funny. I saw the lightbulb go off in his head. It was too cute. So on the way home from school, after seeing baby Sydney, we started talking about Baby Gracie. Some of our conversation:

Caden: Mommy, you have Baby Gracie in your tummy.
Me: That's right Caden, and she will come soon!
Caden: Baby Gracie wants to come out of your tummy?
Me: Yes, she sure does!
Caden: The doctor will help?
Me: Yes, the doctor will help Mommy have Baby Gracie.
Caden: You have a ball in your tummy?
Me: I have Baby Gracie in my tummy and it makes it look like a ball.
Caden: Where did your belly button go?

LOL, just when I thought he was finally starting to understand things he throws the whole "ball in your tummy" thing out there. :D