First Week of Daycare

Maylee is being watched by our neighbor Allison who is a stay at home mother with three young girls.  It is so nice to be able to just walk across the yard to drop her off and pick her up.  Her first week went really well.  Maylee takes a bottle and sleeps great for Allison.  Her little girls really like Maylee.  I think having Alison watch Maylee for 4 half days towards the end of Kevin and me staying at home with Maylee helped with the transition.  We also started practicing with a bottle after she had a great established latch and was about 2 weeks old.

We had arranged for a lady up the road to watch her.  However, when I called this lady to see if they could meet and get to know each other she informed me that she decided to go back to work two weeks prior.  I wanted to say "You didn't think about calling us since you knew we were planning on you for daycare since August!"  Kevin and I panicked since many places don't take newborns.  We probably just dodged a bullet with that situation since Allison is working out so great!

Family Pictures - Maylee is 9 weeks old!

Great Great Aunt Ruth

Here is a generation picture of Maylee, Grandma Julie, Great Great Aunt Ruth, and me.

Strong Maylee!

Maylee has always been very strong.  When she was burping on my shoulder at two weeks old, she put both hands against my chest, pushed back, and then looked both directions over her shoulders.  Here she pushed herself up off her Boppy Pillow.  Cinder was also very impressed with Maylee and had to get a closer look.

8 Weeks Old - First Shots

Maylee had her two month appointment for a check up and to get her first set of shots..a total of 3 in her legs.  She got Tasmanian Devil band-aids. She weighed 10lbs 10oz and was 22.5" long putting her in the 50th percentile in both categories.

That day she was kind of fussy and her legs hurt her a lot.  She also woke up in the middle of the night, but not to nurse.  Since then she has gone back to sleeping through the night.  I'm glad Kevin took her to the appointment because I was in tears just from him telling me about it. 

I returned to work the previous week (a short school week due to conferences) and Kevin stayed home with her that week and the following.  Our thought was she would be a little older before putting her in daycare and she would get used to the idea of me not being with her all day long.  Then she would have to get used to not being home all day long once we start daycare.

Showering with Maylee

Maylee hates her baby bath tub.  The water is warm but when the air hits her wet body she gets really mad!  After the tub experience, we switched to showering with her.  She loves the sound of the shower and the skin-to-skin contact.

She is showing off her big muscles!

Party Pooper

Doesn't this picture just make you smile and laugh!

That is what Maylee was doing.  She does a little cough for a laugh, which sounds very different than a true cough.  The diaper was designed by Great Aunt Connie and the backside said "Even my poop is cute!"  The onesie came from Cousin Lori on Kevin's side.

Favorite Pics at 6 Weeks Old

These are some of our favorite pictures when I was taking them for her birth announcements.

Cinder LOVES Pumpkin!

Grandma Julie gave Maylee a pumpkin about 8" in diameter.  We put it on our retaining wall.  When Cinder was outside with Kevin she smelled the pumpkin then jumped up, bit it, and carried it into the yard.  She was so excited about her new treasure that she went into "Hammie Mode" and ran around with this pumpkin in her mouth.  Then she decided to settle down and eat it.  Fearing she would have orange runny pooh, we would hide it from her to ration the pumpkin out over the next three days.  It just made her gassy!

1st Halloween

Maylee was a ladybug for Halloween.  We joined Wendy's side of the family to celebrate so Kevin could go to the Vandal game that weekend too.

Sweet Tart

Grandma Julie calls Maylee Sweet Tart because "sometimes she is sweet and sometimes she is tart."  :-)

Maylee's Friend Brynlee

Kevin's high school friend Katie gave birth two weeks early to a baby girl.  Brynlee was just over 5lbs but dropped below 5lbs after post-birth complications.  Thankfully, Katie and baby are doing well now.  This picture was taken when Brynlee was two weeks old and Maylee was six weeks old.

Week 6 - Maylee Sleeps Through the Night!

We are so thankful that Maylee sleeps through the night now.  She feeds about every 3hrs during the day with her last feeding around 10pm.  She is usually out for the night around 11pm and sleeps until 6:30 or 7am.  You know she is in a deep sleep when she cocks her head way back or way over to the side and her mouth is open.

Maylee's Calming Recipe

Week 5 of her life was life changing for us all!  I went to free mother support classes with a lactation consultant available on Tuesdays before I had to return to work.  I enjoyed meeting other moms and knowing I'm not alone with my experiences.  Moms of older babies shared ways that work to calm their babies and I brought these ideas home with me.



Crying after she wakes up = feed me now!
Crying after she eats = change my diaper (even if the last change was only 5 minutes ago)
Crying and the diaper is not wet = I'm tired and need help falling asleep
Crying & heavy kicking of the legs = I don't like what you ate mom so now my tummy is upset.  I need Gripe Water and lots of bouncing.


Ingredients:
*1 crying baby
*1 swaddling blanket (our favorite is the Miracle Blanket because it has no Velcro that startles her or wakes her when she is asleep)
*1 Sleep Sheep (Her favorite sound on the Sleep Sheep player is the last button which is whales singing - she'll grow up to be a marine biologist)
*1 Soothie pacifier
*1 exercise ball to bounce on while holding her
*1 CD with the shower playing (One day she went totally silent when she heard the shower running.  We were wasting a lot of water so I recorded the shower running and burned it onto many CDs.  Now we can listen to the shower in any of our vehicles and if different places of the house)

When she is tired, we swaddle her tightly, bounce on the exercise ball, help her keep the pacifier in her mouth to suck on, and give her something to listen to.  If she is kind of quiet we play the whales singing.  If she is really mad and screaming, we play the shower on a louder volume to calm her.

When we put her to bed, she sleeps on her side with a sleep wedge.  We place the Sleep Sheep player set to the whales singing (times out in 45 minutes) above her head.  She falls into a deep sleep every time!  In the morning she sometimes she starts to fuss so we will reach into her bassinet and turn the whales back on.  She will continue sleeping for another hour or more.  We love the Sleep Sheep!!!

No More Garlic!! (Atleast for awhile)

One evening at camp, I had two servings of spaghetti and two pieces of garlic bread.  That night was horrible for all of us!  Maylee just cried and cried due to her upset tummy.  A little camper is not an easy place to calm an upset baby.  Kevin didn't get much sleep that night for hunting the following morning.  She finally slept from 2:30-5:30am but was up again and crying the next day.  Her spit up looked like cottage cheese and she would kick her legs so much. The only thing that sort of helped her quiet down a bit was to stand up and bounce her heavily with her in an upright position. 

After this night of hell, Grandpa Bruce walked and bounced her around camp after he got back from hunting so I could sleep.  When Grandma Julie came up to camp she also helped us a lot.

Since then, I have cut out garlic.  I've never liked garlic by itself but we use garlic salt to season things.  It is also in many of the foods we eat such as spaghetti sauce, alfredo sauce, and even Campbell soups.  She became a much easier baby to live with after cutting it out of my diet.  I'm better at reading labels...still need to find a salad dressing I would like with no garlic.

She was an easy baby for the first two weeks of her life.  At two weeks old she started nursing more off of me and I think the garlic seasoning in my food started really bothering her.  So from Week 2 to Week 5, she was very fussy during the day.  At night she usually did pretty good of sleeping 3 hours at a time, but daytime was a different story!  I'm just glad we figured it out.

Cinder at Hunting Camp 2009

Cinder and her ball at camp.

 

Cinder thinks she is a lap dog!  She also likes to curl up in a chair and sit around the campfire like we do. Sometimes I wonder if she thinks she is a human too.

Cinder and Kev totally out from a busy day (Kev from chasing elk and Cinder from chasing balls).  She is like a kid when she is tired.  Cinder whines and needs her daddy.

Maylee & Cousin Sarah at camp

Cousin Sarah loves hunting camp! You don't have to twist her arm to go when she knows Baby Maylee, Cinder, and smores are at camp. When Maylee was awake, Sarah was right there to talk to her and help with her socks and snaps. When Maylee was eatting or sleeping Sarah would throw the ball numerous times for Cinder.  Sarah is a good cousin to both Maylee and her ball crazy sister!

Maylee & Uncle Kevin at Camp

Uncle Kevin drove from Portland on his two days off to spend time at hunting camp and to see Maylee.

Maylee & Daddy in Camo

Maylee was a good alarm clock for her daddy when he needed to get up and go hunting.  Three mornings in a row she woke us up at 5:25am and his alarm was set for 5:30.

Maylee & Mommy at camp

Maylee wore her Vandal dress with bloomers every Saturday up at camp while we listened to the Vandals play.  We decided that the cute bloomers were bad luck because they lost when she wore them.  Yet, the Vandals came from behind and won a few games when we took them off of her.

Hunting Camp Oct 2009

We went to hunting camp four weekends in a row.  Both Maylee and Cinder loved camp.  Maylee liked being in her "bear" suit outside breathing in the fresh air and being held by family and friends.  Cinder liked all the people at camp who she could beg to play Chuck-It with or get food from.  We would put the Chuck-It stick up on the camper awnings when we were tired of playing and Cinder would sit and stare at it for 20+ minutes!  Every Monday and Tuesday after a hunting camp weekend, Cinder would do nothing but sleep.

Farmer Maylee

Sleeping Farmer...

Mad Farmer (must be raining on her crops)...

Farmer Maylee is 1 month old in these pictures.

Meeting Uncle Kevin & Aunt Shelly

Maylee met her Uncle Kevin and Aunt Shelly for the first time when she was 10 days old.  Maylee was very excited to see Aunt Shelly's engagement ring!  It is so beautiful!  They got engaged on 9-9-09 on the top of Mt. St. Helens (the day before Maylee was born).

The Day of Bud's Funeral

Maylee is 9 days old in this picture.  This was taken the day of Grandpa Bud's funeral.  To avoid germs, Maylee was watched by my mom while we attended the funeral events.  Our pediatrician recommended changing clothes after hugging people at the funeral and before we held her because clothing can carry germs.  This day was bittersweet for many family members.  God's plan must have been to have Maylee's birthday after Bud's passing to help the family heal and look forward to the future.

A Favorite 1st Week Pic

Maylee is only 5 days old in this picture! This is one of my most favorite pictures of her.

Maylee's First Bath

Maylee's first bath was actually a warm washcloth wipe down when she was 4 days old.  She hated being cold but loved being wrapped up in her towel.

First Night Home with Maylee

After not getting much sleep at the hospital due to having to share a recovery room with an immature high school couple, all three of us crashed our first night at home.  We were thankful to have the help of my mom in the middle of the night so Kev and I could get some better sleep.

Maylee's Labor

I did not feel well during Open House on Wednesday evening (9-9-09).  That night I slept only 15-20 minutes at a time due to discomfort.  By 4:00 am I had already decided I was not going to teach that day.  At 6:00 am I asked Kev to stay home with me so he could drive me to the doctor's office because I was too uncomfortable to drive.  I had not felt the baby move on Wednesday and wanted to make sure everything was okay. 

We got in for an appointment at 11:30 and by noon I was put on a stress test.  The test showed normal heart rate and no contractions.  We returned home where I tried everything to get comfortable and Kev worked around the house.  I laid down and took a mini nap around 6pm and shortly after went to the bathroom only to have my water break!  I still didn't believe I was really in labor so I laid back down until Kev came upstairs.  Then we decided to go to the hospital.  It wasn't until we were going over the pass and I started watching the clock in the car that I realized my waves of discomfort were coming regularly every five minutes.

We got to the hospital at 7:45pm and the nurse said that "You will be pleased to know that you are already dilated to a 5.5!"  After one round of antibiotics, the IV was capped and I labored in a warm bath from 9:30-11:00pm.  During contractions, Kev would apply pressure to the pressure points in my hands, our doula applied pressure on my legs, and I focused on my breathing and vocalization.  After every contraction, Kev offered water and our doula massaged me.  At 11:00 I was fully dilated and moved to the bed for pushing. 

Maylee was born at 11:30pm on the dot!  I remember looking at the clock when pushing, thinking the baby's birthday can not be 9/11.  She was placed on my chest and Kev got to announce if our baby was a boy or girl!  He thought she was a girl all along, but I had no intuition of what the baby would be.  Maylee was 8lbs and 20.75" long.  I can not believe I delivered an 8lb baby with no drugs or screaming, however I did tear.  She was born with beautiful skin and latched on right away.

Before going to a Pampered Chef party with all our extended family members, my mom called at 6pm that night when I was napping at home to see how we were doing.  She was a little surprised to receive a call from Kev at 8pm that we were at the hospital and dilated to a 5.5!  Wendy's parents made it up to the hospital an hour before Maylee was born.  Kev's parents came up the next morning.

Maylee Annika is the first grandchild on both sides so I'm sure she will be very spoiled!