Thanksgiving and 4 month update

Jordan is doing so great! We started a new daycare right before Thanksgiving and she loves it there! It is literally 5 minutes away from my work which is very convenient for driving and gas consumption purposes. It's also nice knowing she's so close in case anything happens and I can go see her anytime I want. It is wonderful for her to be around other babies and she is always so smiley and happy when I drop her off and when I pick her up.
We had a great Thanksgiving, went and visited with my Mom's side of the family for a little bit, then headed over to my sisters house and ate a large meal there. Here is a picture of Jordan and my cousin David's wife, Janice, on Thanksgiving.
Jordan is getting such a personality, it is so fun to see what gets her to smile and laugh. Although it never works the 2nd time, so we're always looking for something new. Here is a video of her laughing, it is SUPER CUTE!

Jordan's 4 month check up went great, she is 13lbs 12 oz and 25 1/2 inches long! She is so long I can't believe it!

My Aunt Jeanne from Alaska was here visiting so she got to meet Jordan. We had lunch at the hotel she was staying at in Seattle, the Edgewater, it was beautiful!
We also put up Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving, so our home is very festive! Brian and Jordan began their annual tradition of putting the star on the top of the tree.
Jordan is almost 5 months already, I can't believe it! We will have another update after Christmas. Thanks for checking in!

My Oh My...How Time Flies...

Well, this is way overdue for an update. Since I went back to work on 10/19 life has been so fast paced I can barely keep up. Well, now it's a lot better but those first few weeks were crazy. It's still difficult sometimes to find enough time each night to just get the necessities done.

Lets see now...what happened during Jordan's 3rd amazing month of life? It may be hard for me to remember because it has been so long. She definitely started "talking" a ton! It is so cute! Oh yeah! She rolled over from her tummy to her back the day before I went back to work. I was super excited about that! Here is a quick video of her rolling over.

My BFF Kathy from Alaska (whom I've known for 19 years), came down and visited with us for a few days and got to meet Jordan. Kathy and I went to Craven Farms in Snohomish to do our very first corn maze ever! We had a lot of fun and I even put Jordan in the front pack facing out for the first time. She seemed to really like looking at all the corn! Haha...but halfway through she got bored and wanted to go to sleep so I turned her back to face me and she napped the rest of the time. Here are some pics of our adventure. (Don't worry, I did put a blanket around her feet!)

Brian also wanted to go to a corn maze so we went to The Farm in Snohomish and did the Evergreen State Corn Maze. It was so much fun because it has real highways and landmarks that you find and help you navigate around the maze. It was very chilly that day so we put Jordan's hat on her, she is sooo cute!
It was also Halloween and Jordan was both a penguin and a ballerina. Yes, that is how awesome she is.
That's pretty much the major highlights of month 3. Look forward to a 4month update tomorrow because she has her checkup so we will find out how much she has grown.

2 Month Update

Wow, I can't believe how much Jordan has grown and changed in the last month! She smiles so much and makes cute noises like she is talking to us. It is so amazing I get teary eyed everytime! She is starting to get such personality!
Jordan had her 2 month check-up yesterday. She weighs 12lbs 10oz and is 23 1/2 inches long! So she has gained 4lbs since July 31st and 2 1/2 inches. Amazing! She also had to get her first round of shots. It was so hard to see her in pain, but she only cried for a few minutes, then I fed her and then she slept....ALL DAY! Pretty much all day, she woke up to eat of course but she went longer between feedings than she usually does. But today she is back to her normal self.

She is still sleeping in her bouncy seat, which the doctor says is OK because we are still in survival mode. We are trying to get her to sleep in her bassinet in the bedroom, but that is a work in progress. Starting at 5 or 6 weeks she started to get really fussy in the evenings from about 4/5pm until 11 or 12. The only thing that would calm her down was to put her in the front carrier and walk around the house cleaning and doing stuff. Just in the last 4-5 days she has gotten a lot better! She has started to like using the exercise ball to calm down and she loves rocking in the glider chair in the nursery. She never used to like either of those. She also enjoys hanging out on the changing table. That's where I get most of her smiles out of her!

Brian and I rearranged the nursery last weekend, and I really love how it is set up now. I am about 90% done, just some minor things left to do and organize. I will have it done when I go back to work.

I will be going back to work on October 19th, so I am starting to prepare myself for that. Jordan will be 3 months old that day! It will be tough because I've only been away from her 2 times since she's been born. Once I went grocery shopping for an hour, and Sunday Brian took her to run errands for a couple of hours.

That is mostly what has been going on this past month. We still go to parent-baby class every week. Here are some photos.

The 1st Month

Wow! Everyone always says time flies once you have kids. I've never really understood it until now! It really really does! (It's hard to see, but her onesie says '1 Month').

Let's see...where to start. Jordan's 1st 2 weeks were a bit stressful. She was born during our heat wave and was extremely lethargic and was absolutely impossible to wake up to eat. She lost 10% of her body weight in the 1st 5 days of life, which is the max amount that the nurses/docs want to see. So we had to start supplementing. I pumped breast milk, we would fill a syringe with the milk. The syringe had a teeny tiny tube connected to it which Brian would put on the tip of his finger and insert into Jordan's mouth. He would put his finger on the roof of her mouth to stimulate her sucking reflex which basically forced her to eat. It was such a hard time for us to go through this. I was so emotional and crazy from all the hormones and all I could think was, "I can't feed my own daughter! I'm a horrible mother!" Which I know isn't true but that is how it felt at the time. Brian had a very difficult time as well since he was the one that did the feedings like that, while I held her. We would sit there and hold back our tears while we fed her. We had an appointment with the pediatrician when Jordan was a week old to do a weight check and she still wasn't gaining enough. The nurse suggested we find family that has AC in the house, or even stay in a hotel for a few days until the heat wave passed. We are so lucky and grateful for my sister Beth and her husband Darryl. They brought over an AC unit that we set on a side table and stuck in our sliding door in the living room. This helped SO MUCH! Almost immediately Jordan started waking up more often and feeding more often and started gaining her weight back. At the 12 day weight check she weighed 8lbs 10oz, just 5 oz shy of her birth weight! That was a long story, but it really was what consumed our lives those first 2 weeks.

We had many friends and family bring over food and snacks, which was AWESOME! Seriously, the next time a friend of mine has a baby I will totally sign up to be chef because it was very helpful! Otherwise we would've been eating fast food for 2 weeks! Gross!

Brian went back to work after 2 weeks which was very difficult for him. We went and visited him at lunch a couple times and that was fun! I have been attending weekly Parent-Baby classes at the hospital which are free for new moms until babies are 3 months old, which is when I will be going back to work anyways. The classes have a topic each week that we go over and talk about and then we go around the room and introduce ourselves and our babies and it is like an open forum to discuss milestones we've achieved for the week or problems we are having. It's a great excuse to get out of the house and be around other women with new babies! It's very relaxed too, so we can feed or change the baby, and if the baby fusses it's no big deal.

Jordan isn't on any sleeping or eating schedule yet so every day is a little different. She sleeps pretty good most of the time. She will do 3 hours stretches and even did a 5 hour stretch one night! She is starting to grin and "coo" which is absolutely adorable! We play on her playmat a little everyday and she likes her penguin friend the most! (See pic below) We try to get out of the house even if it is just a walk next door to the grocery store. We are visiting my sister and nephew at least once a week to help my nephew get used to her being around since my sister is the one who will be providing daycare when I go back to work.
We just purchased a baby carrier a couple days ago so we can carry Jordan around when we go to the store or on walks, etc. I used it while walking around Costco and loved it. She totally falls asleep after 5 minutes of walking around! I even wore it around the house last night and was able to do some cleaning/organizing.

A funny story to leave you with. About 2 weeks ago I was picking up Jordan and she was flailing her arms about and scratched my cornea. It got so bad I couldn't even open my eye and it hurt so bad. I went to the doc and had to wear an eye patch for 24 hours! It totally sucked, but it was a funny experience. Brian put some stickers on my eye patch for decoration so that was fun, haha.

Jordan's next checkup is towards the end of September so we will see how much weight she has gained and how many inches she has grown. She no longer fits her newborn clothes and we are now in Size 1 diapers so that is exciting!

PS - I'm still not done with the nursery, which is OK because she isn't in her crib yet. Hopefully I will finish it before I go back to work!

Thank you everyone for checking in on baby Jordan!

And Life Begins...

On Sunday July 19th I woke up and was just hanging out in the living room while Brian was cleaning the kitchen. I was actually cutting out the letters to hang in the nursery above the dresser. While I was sitting there I thought I felt a "pop", which from reading some pregnancy message boards I was aware that you could hear/feel your water break. So I'm sitting there thinking to myself, "Did my water just break?", but nothing ever happened, so I just kept on working. That happened about 10am. About 10 minutes later I decided to get up and help finish cleaning the kitchen. Well as soon as I stood up it was quite apparent that my water had broke. I kinda freaked out a little and ran to the bathroom and had Brian bring me some towels. We then called the hospital who said we needed to come in as soon as we packed our bags, which weren't ready since it was 16 days early. So Brian scrambled to throw some bags together while I patiently hung out in the bathroom. We arrived at the hospital around 11am and were admitted shortly thereafter. When the doctor checked me I was about 3cm dilated, 90% effaced but the baby hadn't dropped yet. I had just had an appointment with the doc on Friday and she had said she didn't think Jordan's head would fit into my pelvis. Apparently she was right. So this began discussions of should we try to attempt labor since I was 2 weeks early or should we go ahead with the c-section. The reason we were considering a c-section was because previous growth ultrasounds had estimated her at being a 10lb baby if she was full term. The last ultrasound I had on July 9th had estimated her to already weigh 8lbs. Family and friends started arriving after lunch and after talking to the doctors and weighing benefits and risks we decided to go ahead with the cesarean. It was scheduled for 2pm. Around 1:40 they came into the room to get me prepped and wheeled off. Jordan Elaine Tobin was born at 2:26pm weighing 8lbs 15oz and 21 inches long. The doctor said it was probably a good idea that I went this route because it most likely would have been a very difficult labor. The surgery itself was not as bad as I imagined. Getting the spinal was the hardest most painful part, but as soon as that was over it was fine. Brian and my sister, Beth, sat next to my head the whole time and Beth took some amazing photos when Jordan was first born. Recovery hasn't been too difficult. The hardest part is not being able to do much for myself, but the nurses all said that I've been doing great and recovering very quickly. We got to come home on Tuesday afternoon which was scary because now there is not a button to push if we need help right that second. Our first night home was overall pretty good, we are learning what Jordan likes and dislikes and figuring it out pretty quickly. We have follow up appointments on Thursday for me and Friday for Jordan so we will find out if everything is continuing to go smoothly, which I think it is. Brian and I are both so in love with this baby girl, her eyes make your heart melt and every little move she makes or sound that comes out whether it be a cry, a hiccup, a burp or a fart is just so darn cute! Stay tuned for photos and updates!

The start to a great month...

Today I went to Siemens Medical in Issaquah and was able to receive a free (they actually paid me!) 3D/4D Ultrasound of baby Jordan. It was a really neat experience and now I can't wait to meet her even more! Here are a couple of pictures...

She has chubby little cheeks! And a cute little nose and perfect lips!

In other great news...Last Thursday I had to go take my glucose tolerance test which I was worried about but I got a letter in the mail today that said everything came back normal and I don't have gestational diabetes. How awesome is that?!

So everything is still going great. Brian and I went and picked up our new couch and chair tonight which will fit perfectly in our new apartment we are moving to in 12 days!

It's been a great May so far!

Baby shows daddy new tricks - written by Brian

We have passed the 100 day marker and are getting more excited every day to add Jordan to our lives. Last night we were cuddling on the couch and I FINALLY, FINALLY got to feel Jordan rockin and rollin! For a while Drisana had been telling me that Jordan was really active and that she could feel Jordan moving and even see it happen.
Well a couple of weeks ago I saw Drisana's stomach move but whenever I touched her tummy, Jordan stopped moving.
Finally last night, little Jordan showed me how strong she is! She pushed on Drisana's tummy and made my whole arm move!!! It was amazing. In total I felt our baby girl move 5 times, each one making me super happy!

The strongest of her movements felt like one of those wierd massage chairs that you put over your existing chair, where it feels like kneeding. It was suprisingly strong and a little frightning but I loved it so so much!

Hopefully she will continue to move for me because it is freakin awesome! And maybe soon Drisana will let me play Tech N9ne and Eminem for little Jordan.

Bye Bye for now.