Lucie's First Christmas

Pictures from Christmas Day

 Merry Christmas, baby!

Daddy and Lucie opening presents

Lucie playing with Beatrix Potter toys from English Jean

Lucie loves her musical inchworm from Lee, Derek, Lauren, Paige and Damon!

Lucie really enjoyed unwrapping the packages- more than we expected she would!

Lucie with momma and daddy on Christmas morning opening her present from Nicole and Paul

Lucie having a Christmas cuddle with Auntie Sam

Grandma helping Lucie open some of her presents

Super Bodie!  Best sledding cousin in the whole world :)

Videos from Christmas Day

 

Lucie opening presents on Christmas Day

Lucie and Bodie sledding on Christmas Day

How time flies!

It's hard to believe that tomorrow marks one whole month since our sweet Lucie entered the world.  At times it feels like it's been a year (usually when I am up with her at 2 am), but most of the time it feels like she has just entered our lives.

Since I have been so preoccupied with other things this past month, I will do a quick overview of how things have been going.

Sleep- this is by far the first thing people ask about when they meet Lucie, "how is she sleeping? Is she sleeping?"  She has been an exceptional sleeper this past month.  We've had a few rough nights, but more often than not, Lucie sleeps for about 3.5-4 hours when we first put her down at 10pm. She wakes up to eat and within an hour is back asleep in her crib.  Then momma gets another 2-3 hours of sleep before Lucie wakes us up between 5 and 6am.  I am thankful and say a little prayer every time I get 3 full hours of sleep because I know a lot of new mommas don't have that luxury.

Feeding- this has been the most stressful part of the last month for momma. We initially had some issues with Lucie latching poorly (which we were able to overcome), only to find out that this momma has a really low milk supply. I have been going to see a lactation consultant 1x weekly the last two weeks and with supplementing Lucie on formula as well as breast milk she has been steadily gaining weight, but it still makes me feel terrible that I can't produce enough milk to feed her properly. More important than anything is that Lucie is gaining weight and I totally am on that page, but I am still really hoping that with the work and interventions I might be able to increase my supply and provide her with this important nutrition for the next few months.  It's very disheartening because everything you read in books and on the internet says, "everyone can breastfeed and it's easy and all you need to do is keep breastfeeding to produce more milk". I realize I am a minority, but this general philosophy is so hurtful to people like me who are doing everything they can to make it work and for some unknown reason our body betrays us and will not cooperate.  My advice to the world: Breastfeeding is not always easy for everyone, so don't assume that because it might have been a breeze for you that it is automatically the same for the gal next door.  Let's call this one a work in progress... Lucie is eating well though!  As of 8/24 she weighed 7lbs 12oz which is an improvement.

Growing- Lucie is still rocking her cute newborn clothes, and probably will be for at least the next couple of weeks.  She has so many cute clothes that people have given her in the 0-3 month range for summer that I am really, really hopeful September stays warm so that she will have an opportunity to wear them :)  Lucie is getting very long.  I think they measured her wrong at the hospital because she's about 21 inches long now, and at birth they measured her at 17.5.  3.5 inches in just a month is a lot of growth, so I think that the hospital might have gotten it wrong.

And now, she's awake!  Must go.  I will upload some photos of our little princess soon.

Love to all!  Thanks for your thoughts and prayers- they are all felt and appreciated by our family!

DaddyBlog - Welcoming Lucie Rose!

Wow - That Baby Ticker is a few days off! 

"What shall we do Friday night?"

 There were a few things we came up with. "Let's go out for dinner. After all, it might be one of our last opportunities before Lucie arrives." Then Abbey sent me an email around lunchtime. "It's the Olympics opening ceremony. Let's stay in with pizza." Sold. It'll be nice to see how The Brits show off to the world.When I got home I decided to change into my USA T-shirt to watch the show. I'm a BritAmerican after all.

Three bites into her home made pizza Abbey says, "My friend at work told me that if I wanted to speed things along I should eat pizza." I smiled, and grabbed and took another bite of pizza, just as Danny Boyle's Olympic opening began. Ah, to see James Bond escort Queen Elizabeth to the opening ceremony. How more British can you get? My stomach did somersaults of pride! So did Abbey's and they became more and more frequent.

"I feel different." Anyone who has lived with a woman for any length of time knows this is not news. You just smile sweetly and say, "Really? How so?" In this case, Abbey grabbed her phone and called her sister Sam, playing down the difference. Sam knew this difference all too well.  Her mum was in agreement. Next thing we knew they were both at our door, and by 10:30 PM we was on the road to St. Mary's Hospital.

It was a long night. Hours went by. Hospital staff checked in every few hours to see if there were any signs that things were moving along. Abbey did laps of the hospital hall with Sam hoping it would help. I did a few myself. Are we staying or are we going back home? By 7am, it was decided we would be staying and we were taken to our delivery room.That's not a typo. It was a delivery room just for us! Couches, an extra bed if dad wanted to sleep, reclining chairs. It was bigger than our first apartment!

At this point we had both been up for over 24 hours with little to no sleep between us. Our nurse was a lovely lady called Mattie. Full of beans and ready for anything, Mattie talked Abbey through all of her pains and got her to a place where she could manage. We knew there was still a way to go but what we had been waiting for was going to happen. Today was the day!

Anyone that knows me knows I'm a softy. The right movie, (or John Williams score) and the floodgates open. It's a Middleton thing. A real trigger for me is seeing someone I love in pain and being powerless to help. I knew it would be the way when Abbey went into labour, and I remember crying more than once. Some of those tear triggers make me smile looking back on them. Here, in no particular order, are my favourite Abbey-In-Labour declarations:

"Oh God, Help me!"
"That's it I'm done. I guess she's staying in there!"
"What did you do to me!"

Around 1pm, things weren't moving. Mattie, who was by now one of the family, looked into Abbeys eyes. Maybe it was because of experience, intuition, being a mother herself, or all of the above that she knew we that Abbey couldn't take much more. I'll never forget the tone in her voice when she very gently said, "OK Abbey. Shall we just get this done? I'm off at 3, and we're gonna have a baby before I go."

When it was time to push my eyes were again full of tears. With everyone else coaching, Abbey gave it all she had, and on Saturday July 28th 2012 at 2:08 PM Central Daylight Time (8:08 PM Greenwich Mean Time) Lucie Rose Middleton was born! She weighed in at 6 pounds 15 ounces and was 17 and a half inches long.

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That's all for now. More will follow soon. Thank you to everyone for their love and support. (And forgive the typos! - Updates will contain corrections! :)

Nursery Photos!

It has been a long work in progress, but the nursery is officially done! Without further ado, here are the pics...

Standing in the doorway, this is the view to the left               

and this is the view to the right.

When you step into Lucie's room, directly on your left is the changing station.  We have her diapers, bum cream, wipes, clean onesies and her laundry basket all at hands reach.

Above her changing pad, we hung some tissue paper flowers to occupy and entertain our little Lucie bear!

You can see the door to her closet just beyond.  This girl is already VERY well outfitted!  Now she just needs to hurry up and get here so we can start dressing her up.

To the right of the closet is her crib.  We are hoping this is where she spends many comfortable nights, fast asleep.

The blanket set that inspired the animal theme for her room is pictured here up close.

For those times when Lucie isn't so calmly slumbering- every parent needs a reliable device to monitor their baby.  This is a toy that James has spent a lot of time playing with already, as you might imagine.

Under the window I hung what I am referring to as a book hammock.  She actually has lots of books already, they're just a bit too short to peer over the top of the hammock :)

If you continue turning to your right, you will find the feeding and rocking station.  The monkey on the wall above the small chest of drawers is a nightlight.

Lucie's bureau is just next to that, also already filled with clothes! The animals are 3D pieces of wood, painted in fun colors.

And here we have the full pictures again.  Archie LOVES the rug in Lucie's room.  Anytime the door is open to her room, he is in there lying on that rug.

Many thanks are owed to a lot of different people for their help and contributions to putting together this wonderful space for our little girl.  We'd like to thank (in alphabetical order): Auntie Sam, Grandad Terry and Ali, Grandma Jeanne, Henry's Momma and Daddy and Nanny Ann and Charlie.

Last but not least, we have our fancy pants stroller, including a straggler...

We really hope you enjoyed all of our pictures!  If you couldn't tell, we are so excited and ready for Lucie to arrive!

What a difference a month can make

Today marks the one month mark until our little Lucie's due date!  What to do with this month before her arrival? Here's our list:

• Celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary on July 12
• Celebrate Lucie's arrival at our Baby Shower on July 15
• Finish washing all of Lucie's clothes
• Prepare some meals to stock up the freezer
• Fit the car seat and have it checked at the fire department
• Loads of finishing up of projects at work

We are in a good place in terms of necessary preparations for baby, but there are lots of little things still staring me in the face.  The weather is supposed to be more in the 80s next week than 100s so hopefully that will give me at least a day to do some cooking and get the freezer stocked up and ready to go.

Now obviously I understand that Lucie is not guaranteed to arrive in a month, but it's a fun landmark nonetheless.

Growing Bigger Everyday

Our little gal is already growing up fast. This week she is almost 5 pounds and approximately the same size as a butternut squash.  She has her very own rock concert every night around 7pm where my belly is bouncing all over the place.  Tonight we were out walking Archie and the sun was setting in just the right place that James was able to capture the picture below.  I think it's pretty neat :)

I'm feeling hot, hot, hot!

It has been pretty warm the last few days (90s and even up to 100!). As a result of the increased temps my feet essentially doubled in size. Ugh! This is one of those pregnancy symptoms that I was hoping to avoid but lo and behold- my giant feet have erupted.

What they don't tell you is how painful it can be to walk on these suckers. I step out of bed and it's like pins in the bottom of my feet. Fortunately Archie is a fair weather dog and has zero interest in going for walks when the temps get too hot so my recent ailment has not impacted his walks too greatly.

James has been great and always offering to get me a drink or run to get something I need to avoid being on my feet much at night.  Just spending a few hours each night on the couch with my feet up has given me a whole new appreciation for all the mommas assigned to bedrest.  How hard it must be to sit or lay all day!

The temps are forecast to break next week so I'm sure the swelling will go down then.  My blood pressure has remained great (low even) so Lucie and I are doing well on the couch- eating ice cream, drinking lemonade and watching tv.

Love to all! And stay cool!