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! :)