Babies of the Night

Hello all!
Sorry for the tardiness with this update but things have been a little sleepy around our household lately.  Our baby-girl who was so good at sleeping through the night has rediscovered the pattern of nighttime waking, feeding and playing.  The last few weeks has been closer to the first few weeks in terms of loss of sleep than any of us would like to admit.

The other morning, Jason was up with her, rocking her to try to get her back down and she just wanted to be awake and play. So he laid her down on a blanket on the floor of her room and got a pillow and blanket for himself to lay down too. When I went in to check on them, he said groggily that they were "camping".  She just looked up at me, beaming big smiles in the moonlight, wiggling and being silly. Someday camping will truly be fun but for now, we need to get some sleep!

I think some of the night time activity can be attributed to teething too (I wish those darn things would show up already!).  We are changing up her diet now with the introduction of some foods and I'm supplementing her breastmilk intake with homemade baby formula. That is all going well and I can already tell her sleep is improving.

Regarding her new skills -- she has completely mastered rolling over and she is very near mastery of sitting up solely on her own. She needs just a little back support these days.

Her personality is really blossoming too - she loves to laugh and giggle at us. She "blows bubbles" and makes silly noises.  We're having a blast with her and though teething and some of that fussiness isn't a lot of fun, we are looking beyond that to when she will be more mobile and able to communicate with us.

We had a 6 month photo session the other day so I will have some new pics to share soon. Here are some candid shots around the house.

Love always, Claire

Easter Bunny

Hello all!
I hope this update finds everyone well. We're doing great here and enjoying the beautiful Spring season here in KC.

Olive and I had a fun play-date last weekend with a friend and her 6 month old who is a beautiful and sweet and BIG baby boy.  I think play dates at this age are really meant for moms to hang out and socialize! We're not yet chasing our kiddos around but it won't be long!  Both being new moms, we were reflecting on the crazy adjustment to parenthood and how it's impacted us personally and in our relationships.  We both agreed that after you get past the first few weeks/months where there is just so much change/turmoil combined with so little sleep, it gets TONS better!

You basically find a new version of "normal" and eventually you forget the freedom you once had when you were single or married w/o kids.  You establish the routine and it eventually feels like less work.  You may even figure out how to get out the door in less than an hour in the morning (I'm down to about 50 minutes, YAY!).  I've come to value the sharing of advice and ideas from other women, especially when the advice is not judgmental or too tied to your outcome. 

And I absolutely love nursing the baby-girl... It wasn't always a favorite thing.  In the early days, it was like a job. Every few hours, on command, I would whip the boob out. It seemed like I was constantly feeding her!  Now, I value that time as our special quiet time-out together (I put away the smartphone, iPad, no TV, etc. so it is just us)  It's the time when I smell her, play with her hair, tickle her, clip her nails and notice how long/heavy she is getting!  Of course it isn't always sweetness and light (sometimes there is hair-pulling and spit up involved too! :) - but it is always good, it is nurturing and that's probably why I love it so much.

Another thing that I really enjoy is seeing Olivia interact with her Daddy. She and Jason have a really special bond that is so wonderful.  And it's really cool to see that side of him, silly voices and impressions and all.  He loves getting her to do the "belly laugh" -- it is really funny!

Our pediatrician told me something out of the blue on our first visit when Olive was 10 days old that I will never forget -- "Remember, motherhood is not martyrhood."  I take that to mean several things, depending on the message that I need at the time.  (1) ask for help and you shall receive; don't over-burden yourself, (2) sometimes you have to let things go and trust, (3) don't feel sorry for yourself; we all have jobs to do and (4) kids grow up, you will always be their mother, but she needs you so much now. Remember this time will not last forever.

Here are a few current pics of the Babygirl. She is coming up on 5 months in a few weeks!  She's currently rolling over and sitting up with assistance.

In the picture above, Dad is holding an Easter egg with her name on it! Next year she will be toddling around and maybe even finding her own eggs :)

Take care all, ~claire

4 months and growing strong!

Hi all,
Giving an update on Olivia as she passed the 4 month mark last Thursday.  She is doing great and growing well. She's a little in the light side of the spectrum weight wise tipping the scales at a little shy of 13 lbs but 95% in the height range.  I asked the doctor if he'd ever seen baby-girls daddy to see where maybe she got it from!?  We are already in 6-9 month clothes lengthwise but they are pretty roomy!

Her personality is really starting to show. She enjoys doing a call and response babble/shriek/coo combination, especially with her dad.  In the mornings, she is just all smiles and ready for the day to begin!   She has started rolling over so that is lots of fun too. Sucking fingers and playing with toes are also favorite pasttimes.

We frequent a few spots in town for dinners and she's actually developed a bit of a following - most of the servers at the Tavern in PV and Waldo Pizza know her and have enjoyed seeing her develop over the past months.

With Daddy at Waldo Pizza

My mom came over Sunday night to watch KU make it to the Final Four (Yay!).  Olive was downstairs watching the game with mom, and since I didn't hear any cheering, I figured KU was not doing well.  But it turns out mom was cheering silently so she would not wake the baby! :)

We're looking forward to a fun Spring season with various home improvement and gardening projects.  I hope this message finds our friends and family well. 

Take care ~Claire, Jason and Olive

Olive update

Hi all!
I hope this message finds everyone doing well.  Olive is kicking and squirming her way towards 4 months of age and doing great. Lately she has been entertaining her parents with giggles, smiles, chirps, screeching and other gymnastics of the tongue.

We took our first airplane ride last month (exhale!) on a short hop flight to Denver to spend time in the mountains with my family.  Baby-girl was wondering what mom was so stressed about! I'm happy to report that the dirty diaper Gods smiled upon us.  We made it all the way from our front door in KC to Denver and to lunch in the city before we had to deal with a major blowout. Thank you very much!

While normally an eager traveler, as a parent I seem to have lost some of my travel mojo. Just packing for the trip took me forever and left my nerves a little thin (in the end, I packed WAY too much stuff!).  I guess like everything else with parenting, you just need to adjust and relax about some things.  And with traveling, you need to plan for extra time. Accept the fact that you are now the person/group of people that you previously tried to avoid being behind in the security line!

While we were in Vail, Olive was a little young to hit the slopes but she got to model some of her warm snuggly outfits (its almost been too warm this winter in KC to really wear them!).  She also got to check out the village in this sweet ride - mom figured out a good use for the cupholder too!

Here's another recent pic of the baby-girl mugging for the camera.

 Our little beauty is still a champ in the sleeping department.  She's gone through a few growth spurts where she wakes up hungry a few times at night but for the most part, she's figured out the many benefits of a good nights sleep! Bravo!

 

Here's to wishing everyone a wonderful Spring season with many new beginnings and blessings for us all.
~ Claire, Jason & Olivia Cunningham

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello!
I hope this message finds everyone doing well.  Jason and I are excited to spend our first Valentine's Day with our new little sweetheart, Olivia Marie (aka Olive) who is 12 weeks old today! I know that doesn't sound very old, but I can't remember what life was like before her.  What did I do with all of my free time!? 

I'll start with a few words about how she's doing - she's growing fast and still sleeping incredibly well.  She loves to make faces, silly sounds and giggles, especially in the morning. She loves bath time too.  She hasn't starting playing a lot with toys but she has some favorite blankies.  She prefers human interaction and watches our lips when we talk to her.  

She is quite a photogenic little one too!  Our home and offices are teeming with pictures of the baby-girl.  Here are some photo highlights from the 8 week session that we had with Little Bird Photo (Catherine VandeVelde).

Though we've had a really mild winter so far here in KC, we're all looking forward to Spring with the flowers and trees coming into bloom.  It will be fun to get out with her in the stroller or backpack when we can.

Here's wishing you all a wonderful Valentine's Day, filled with love of family and friends. 
xoxo Claire

Eight week update

Hello everyone!

I hope this message finds our friends and family doing well!  Jason and I are excited for a fabulous 2012 with lots of new milestones and challenges.  We've been "in the trenches" these past two months, trying to figure out this parenting thing, but luckily, I think we have a baby girl who is really sweet and forgiving about anything we may have screwed up so far!

I am continuing this blog for those who are interested in updates on how Olive is doing. We hope that someday she will read these things as a record of the early days of her life.

We took our first family trip to Colorado over the Christmas holiday to meet my family -- it was a wonderful time.  Olive was really good in the car both ways - we stopped halfway in Hays to stay with Jason's cousin Brandon and his family. The weather getting there was pretty treacherous with snow and ice but we made it safe and sound.  It was fun to have so much snow to play in while we were out there!   

Everyday we took a walk with Olive and Morton up this trail near the house to a place called "Mother's Rest" to enjoy the view and take in all of the beauty of the mountains.  Olive loved the house (Burnbrae) where we stayed and was constantly looking around to take everything in.  Each night, we made a fire and stayed up late talking, then we would put her down to sleep.  The day after Christmas was the first night where I would say that she slept extremely well and we all woke up really rested!  That must have been her Christmas gift to me and Jason because ever since then she has been sleeping 5-7 hours on average through the night!  I have no complaints about this baby's sleeping habits!



With "Scotty" her nightlight

Some observations about her personality and words I use to describe her at this age include peaceful (when she's not being squirmy), flexible, "organized" (that's the word the lactation consultant used), and confident (because she is good at self soothing and going to sleep).  She is great with breastfeeding, fine with taking a bottle, and will suck on her pacifier or her fingers/thumb as a diversion but doesn't seem too dependant on those things.  She has been good for our babysitters and daycare providers and loves to have different people hold her. Did I mention that she LOVES being held? She prefers sleeping flat on her back and has been in her own room/crib since about 3 weeks of age.  We had planned to keep her in the bassinet in our room longer but she likes her own room.

  

All smiles in the morning




Taking a bottle from Grandma

As you can see, we are completely smitten with this little one. It is crazy how quickly they change at this time. We are getting lots of pictures and just trying to soak it all in. Before we know it she will be crawling, walking, talking and the list goes on.

We wish everyone a fabulous 2012.  Take care ~ Claire, Jason & Olivia Cunningham

Adventures in Childbirth

Hello all!
It has been quite a wild ride since my last blog update.  Baby Olivia Marie Cunningham arrived on 11/22/11 at 4:25 AM and we are all doing great! As far as the birth story is concerned, like so many things in life that don't go exactly according to plan, I am continually grateful that God has a "master plan" and that we all came through this OK with angels watching over us.

In preparation for the birth, Jason and I took a birthing course called the Bradley Method.  The information we received there, especially related to the possible complications and interventions, really helped us through the wild day(s) and night of Olivia's birth. Though we didn't end up with the natural birth that were hoping for, I am certain that she came into this world in the way she was meant to come.  And I am very thankful for the excellent care that we received at Research Medical Center.

It all started on Saturday night 11/19, the day after my due date.  My water broke at around 6 pm but labor did not start. Usually water breaks with labor but when it happens before labor, this is called PROM (premature rupture of membranes). We did some things to naturally stimulate labor including acupuncture, but I never felt anything but irregular pre-labor contractions.  Since the water was all clear, the midwifes agreed that we could wait until Monday morning to see if natural labor would start before considering  medical interventions to augment labor.

Fast forward about 30 hours and we STILL were not in labor but I saw meconium (yellow staining) in the waters which indicates that the baby could be in distress. At this point, we headed to the hospital knowing labor would be induced. My birth plan was to labor without painkiller, however when they gave me pitocin to augment/induce labor, I knew that plan might not be so viable. Anyhow, I labored for about 12-14 hours on pitocin before getting the epidural.

As labor progressed, we discovered some issues with the baby's positioning in the womb - when I labored in a side lying position (Lillian's Pose) on my left side, it was extremely painful, however this was the position the midwives said I needed to be in to get the baby's head lined up properly on the cervix. The baby was so active in the womb and hard to track on the fetal monitor, however once they gave me the epidural, they put in an internal fetal monitor to see exactly how she was doing.  They then realized that the side lying position I was in (which caused me severe pain/binding) was also causing severe fetal distress. 

The doc's and midwives continued to work with the pitocin levels to generate contractions (think approx 8 hours of this) while monitoring the baby's vitals. Progress was seen - I think I made it to 7 cm and 90 effaced before it became clear that the baby was not tolerating the labor well - her heart rate would go down and stay down at scary levels for minutes after some of the bigger contractions. In addition, I was not tolerating the meds administered during labor well either.  For several days after the birth, my biggest complication/health challenge by far was extreme burning of my esophagus due to vomiting violently for hours (probably from a reaction to the pitocin) which made it almost impossible to swallow anything. 

In the end, they called for an emergency c-section - medical reasons cited were Failure to Progress and Fetal Intolerance to Labor.  One more wrinkle - the anesthesiologist had to give me another spinal tap because somehow my epidural IV space had closed up. Very odd.  Anyhow, the good Dr. Sullivan came in on a moment's notice and cut me open to bring our sweet baby girl into this world.  The most wonderful sound imaginable is the sound of a baby crying vigorously in that operating room! 

Here's a picture of me and Olive after quite an ordeal!  Nice to get some rest for a change.



Jason was the first to get to bond with Olivia.  After they cleaned her up, he was able to go to her and just the sound of his voice calmed her down immediately. 

This is such a cute picture of her holding his hand during her initial health evaluation. She was just minutes old and already holding daddy's hand!

After all of the procedures and twists and turns with the hospital stay, we actually got discharged a day early (on Thanksgiving) so we could drop in at a few family functions.  But mostly we all have been resting and recouperating since then. 

Olivia is a picture of good health and vitality.  Breastfeeding is going great - at her dr appt two days ago, she had already regained what she lost from birth weight and was up 3 oz. :)  Jason and I are absolutely smitten with our little Thanksgiving baby and happily adjusting to parenthood. 

Love Always, Claire