1 month (and a bit) update

It's hard to believe Mandy is already over 1 month old! The time is flying by. We have had a bit of a step backward in sleeping...the past few nights she has been up a lot at night which is hard on Mom and Dad! She doesn't sleep much during the day either, so this could be a contributing factor as she just gets grouchier over the course of the day. When she is awake and rested she is very pleasant - she is "talking" and cooing a lot now and makes so many different facial expressions. We see lots of smiles, although right now they are random and not yet directed at anything or anyone. Hopefully in the next few weeks we will start to see some real smiles! Of course we believe she is the smartest baby who ever lived (our standard catch phrase is "advanced for her age") :)...but she does seem to be catching on to some concepts we thought she wouldn't understand for quite a while. We were playing with her Ocean Wonders Aquarium this week and she seems to have figured out that when she touches the aquarium, it makes a noise! At first it was random, but after a few minutes we could see her straining to get her arms over to the aquarium (of course her motor skills aren't too great yet, so this is more difficult than it sounds!). She was getting very excited every time she got it to make a noise, and once she even seemed to giggle a bit! She continues to gain weight at an astounding rate - her official 1 month weight was 9 lbs 14 oz - over a 2 lb gain from her birth weight!

3 week update

Mandy is now 3 weeks old and is doing great! She is sleeping longer stretches (5-6 hours) at night... however, we make up for this with more frequent feedings during the days. She has more awake periods as well, which is lots of fun. So far she loves music and is particularly fascinated by her mobile and her musical dragon. We've had several visitors, and have taken Amanda out lots of places (walks in the park, the mall, Canada Day at Rocky Point, Grandma & Grandpa's house, church, and even lunch at White Spot!). Her personality is also starting to become more apparent...in her "upset" face we can see what she will look like during temper tantrums at 2 and arguments at 13! She is gaining weight very well, and at 16 days had already surpassed her birth weight (8 lbs, 5 oz). Although we are tired we are enjoying (almost) every moment and trying not to let them slip by too quickly.

Amanda's Birth

Birth 3
Originally uploaded by JenJeff.

This wiggly little monkey is our beautiful little girl. Two years later her favourite word is SELF SELF! Ahh.. those days are gone.

At home

We were discharged from the hospital in the early evening on Tuesday, June 15th. Since we arrived home Amanda has been doing very well. She is an excellent sleeper, and despite some early challenges, is also feeding very well. She is a very pleasant baby and we've been surprised by how quickly we've adjusted to the new routine (if you can call life with a newborn a routine at all!). We've already made a few trips out to the mall, Doctor etc. and they have been trouble-free so far. Amanda loves to be in the carseat and has slept through most of our outside trips so far.

Amanda's arrival!

Jen was awakened at 3 am on Saturday, June 12th (right on Amanda's due date!) with contractions, although they weren't regular or too painful at that point. By the time Jeff got up at 8 am or so, they were becoming more frequent, and at around 11:30 am they were 4-5 minutes apart and definitely stronger, so we decided to go to the hospital to be checked out. Our timing was perfect, because by the time we got there the contractions were around 3 minutes apart and required a lot more concentration to get through. We were moved into a labour & delivery room, and things progressed very well from there. The nurses were amazed - we went from about 1 cm dilated at 1 pm to 10 cm by 5:30 pm - much faster than a standard first-time delivery.

Unfortunately, although we pushed for over three hours, it became apparent that Amanda was not going to arrive by the standard route. We found out that Jen has a pelvis that is an unusual shape, which makes it very difficult or impossible for a baby to get past the pelvic bones. Finally we made the decision to have a C-section. It took around 30 minutes to prepare for the surgery, and Amanda was finally delivered at 9:35 pm. In the end we had a beautiful, healthy baby and that is by far the most important thing! We are thrilled with our beautiful daughter and have been spending an inordinate amount of time just staring at her as she sleeps. She changes by the day and it's hard to imagine what we did before she came along!