Carlie's 1-month update

Today, Carlie Isabella is already one month old! It's funny how it seems like she was just born yesterday, but at the same time we can't remember what it was like before she was a part of our family!

As of her 2 week appointment, she was in the 25th percentile for everything, but I can tell just from looking at her that she has grown SO much in those two weeks! Her face has really started to fill out and become more round & her body/legs don't seem nearly as scrawny as they did when she first came home. At her 1-month appointment, she was in the 25th percentile for height and 59th for weight and head circumference. She weighed 9 pounds, 5 ounces, was 20.25" long and had a 14.75" head.

Carlie continues to be a great sleeper! By her two-week appointment, she was back up past her birth weight, so I no longer needed to wake her for feedings. In the past week or so, she has started sleeping for 5.5-6.5 hour stretches at night, which makes for one happy (and mostly well-rested) Mama! This means that she's already down to just one nighttime feeding (around 3AM), after going to bed around 9 (although she tends to fall asleep around 8 on her own & I wake her again to feed her before I actually put her to bed). She usually wakes for the day around 6:30-7. She typically cat naps all morning long and then takes one big nap (2 or 2.5 hours) when Hadley naps around noon - that's great for me so that I can also rest or get caught up on things around the house.

During the day, Carlie typically eats every 2-3 hours, however she has been making a habit of cluster-feeding all evening from about 5:30 on. It sounds exhausting, but I don't mind it one bit if it means that she's going to continue being a superstar sleeper at night!

In general, Carlie is a really content baby, especially when she's got her paci. She has recently started to coo & we caught her first social smile on video today! She also doesn't seem to mind tummy time too much. Miraculously, she has rolled from belly to back at least 7 times in the past 1.5 weeks (yes, the first one was at 2.5 weeks old!). The first time or two, I thought it must have been a fluke because she seemed like she was pushing against a gas pain or something, but then it just kept happening and happening! Hopefully she'll keep practicing that one!

Carlie got her first sponge bath (May 6th) and tub bath (May 22nd) this month! She was not a big fan of the tub bath the first time, but seemed to enjoy it a bit more the second time.

She also had her first road trip to the shore this month for Memorial Day weekend! She did great and slept the entire way! Unfortunately, she didn't get to go to the beach, but we've got all summer for that!

We love our little Carlie-bug!

Photo by Keri Tex Photography

Hadley's 18-month update

Hadley is 18 months old now and she definitely not a baby anymore, but a full-fledged toddler! Our little Haddy-kins is just a little bundle of energy and is always on the go-go-go! Her newest fascination is with climbing on everything or anyone around her...Daddy, the couch, the ottoman, the kitchen stool! She also loves to run and "jump," and she's doing great at learning to throw and catch a ball. Haddy also loves to dance! At her 18-month well-baby checkup, she was in the 25th percentile in all areas. She weighed 21pounds, 11ounces, was 31" tall, and had an 18" head circumference.

Since my last update, Hadley colored Easter eggs for the first time, and also went on an Easter egg hunt at church and at Grammy & Granddad's house! She didn't completely get the idea, but once she discovered that there was candy inside some of them, she decided that Easter was pretty fun!

Hadley loves reading books and playing with her princess and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse figures. She also loves everything that has anything to do with water - the pool, the ocean, playing in the sink or the water table, or just taking a bath! Hadley had her first experience with playing in the ocean (and in the sand) over Memorial Day weekend and she had an absolute blast!

Hadley has adjusted well to her new big sister role. She gives Carlie about 20 kisses a day & loves to sing to her and rock her while she's in her swing. We have appropriately nicknamed her the Paci Patrol because she is always at her sister's side the second she starts to whimper or cry, so that she can pop her pacifier back into her mouth...even at times when we'd like to let Carlie fuss it out a bit.

The past month or so has really been a huge language explosion for Hadley. She has a vocabulary of over 100 words including some two-syllable words, and she has begun to string together two or three word sentences/phrases ('my baby,' or 'I kiss baby' are her favorites). She can appropriately answer questions about "how many?" or "what color?," but her answers are always "2" and "blue" respectively.

Hadley has also just recently (finally!) graduated to the big girl bathtub for her baths. Thankfully, it was a smooth transition which was mostly only put off for so long because we were procrastinating on getting a good bathmat for her tub. The hardest part of the process has actually been getting her OUT of the tub at the end of bath time! Usually we have to drain the tub while she's still in it, and even then she would find some reason to keep hanging out in there!

Carlie's Birth Story!

Carlie Isabella Scholl entered the world on May 2nd at 4:36am weighing 7lb. 5oz. & measuring 20.75" long!
And without further ado...here's a recap of little Carlie's birth story!

I went to the doctor's at 9AM on Tuesday, May 1st.  I was still 4cm dilated (for the 2nd week in a row), so I had the doctor (Dr. Pellini) strip my membranes.  He is known in the practice as being the 'professional membrane stripper', so I had high hopes that things would happen - he said he almost always sees results within 24 hours!  He also said that he was the doctor on call the next evening, so maybe he would see me then (I was happy about this since he is one of my 2 favorite doctors at the practice - there are about 10 doctors total at the practice). 

Around dinner-time on Tuesday (we were at Gregg's parents' house), I started having some contractions, but nothing with any real regularity.  We went home and put Haddy to bed as usual.  I was having a TON of back pain & sat at my computer on the exercise ball with a heating pad on my back.  My contractions were still not regular at this point.  We both went up to bed around 9:30, but I continued having contractions - Gregg got to sleep for about an hour and a half when I woke him up and told him that I thought we should call the doctor.  The contractions were between 7-10m apart at the time.  I called & was SO excited to get the call back from the doctor on call & discover that it was the same doctor who had delivered Hadley (Dr. Black).  She was amazing during Hadley's labor and delivery, sitting on my bed for 4 hours because she had no other patients at the time.  She confirmed that we should come in, so Gregg's mom came over to stay with Hadley while Gregg and I made our way to the hospital.  We had to wait in triage for quite a while (an hour or so), but at least I was being monitored & the nurse confirmed that they would most likely be admitting me, based on my contraction pattern.  I finally saw a doctor who checked me and said that I was 5cm - this was around 1AM.

They moved me to a regular room & checked me again around 2:30am and I was 7cm, so a doctor (not my doctor) broke my water.  The contractions were starting to get really strong and the pain was so much more intense and painful than I had with Hadley.  The doctor said that she would come check me again in two hours...After about an hour, I was feeling lots of pressure and I told the nurse that I thought I needed to be checked again, but much to my dismay, I was still only 7cm.  By this point, I was writhing on the table & seriously crawling out of my skin from the pain in my back (now I understand all the stories about back labor - it was awful).  Knowing that the dr. thought I would still be laboring for another couple of hours, I broke down and got the epidural around 4AM (I didn't need one with Hadley so I was hoping to avoid it with Carlie, as well).  However, I stumped the anesthesiologist because I felt absolutely no numbing from the epi.  He put a cold towel (and later, an ice cube) on my face, legs, stomach, & feet & I could feel them all absolutely the same.  However, it did take the pain away in my back & allowed me to relax a little bit (I was having a hard time breathing through the contractions because of the pain and tensing up against it). 

Lo & behold, about 10 minutes after I got the epidural, I was telling everyone in the room that I felt the urge to push - the nurse was telling me not to bear down, because she assumed that I was still 7cm, but the doctor must have known better (she had come in not long before, straight from a c-section) because she told me that it was ok to push...which is a good thing because I wasn't even pushing - my body was doing it involuntarily - it was the strangest feeling since I never had a strong urge to push with Hadley at all.  I pushed through maybe 5 contractions and Carlie Isabella was born at 4:36am, 7lb 5oz, 20.75"! 

Because I had some meconium in my amniotic fluid when they broke my water, the NICU team had to be present and take her right away to examine her...she remained in the room with us, but they had to suction & assess her to make sure she hadn't ingested any of the meconium, so I didn't get to hold her for a few minutes & Gregg didn't get to cut the cord, but she was healthy & had a good set of lungs, so all was well. 

We had a great stay in the hospital - after how rushed it seemed last time (because of the time of day that Hadley was born), it was nice to really get our two full days in the hospital, even though we missed Hadley like crazy! 

From the very start, Carlie has been an amazing sleeper!!! After our experience with Hadley basically never sleeping, I always kept feeling like it was ME and that I was doing something wrong, but the two girls could not be more different when it comes to sleep...in fact, I have had to wake Carlie up at night to feed her & the nurses at the hospital would tell me that Carlie had a rough night because all the cranky babies in the nursery were keeping her up (LOL - we actually were told that Hadley was the cranky baby keeping the other babies up when she was born!) - and they would say "I waited to bring her to you as long as I could - she was just sleeping so peacefully!"

 

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Hadley's 15 month update!

Our little princess is already 15 months! It is so hard to believe how quickly time is flying...my next update will most likely be my "Hadley's a big sister!" post and that's REALLY SCARY!

Hadley is such a big girl now - Gregg and I seriously look at each other everyday and ask, "When did she get so big?" It's amazing to watch her grow and change...and learn new things everyday! She has become somewhat of a technology addict over the past couple of months, so we really have to be careful to limit her "connected" time - she would watch videos and TV all day if you would let her, which is interesting to me since she otherwise hates sitting still at all! "Melmo," "/C/" (Cookie Monster), and "Hehehe" (Ernie - the sound of his laugh) are currently her favorites! She is still not much interested in entertaining herself, which makes for one tired (and sore) Mama most days, after sitting on the floor with her reading stories and playing with her babies all day!

What new changes have we had over the past 2 months or so since our last update? Let's see! Haddy's still not much of a talker, but there are a few words that are recognizable pretty much all of the time...Elmo, Nimmie (Minnie or Mickey Mouse), keys, stink (as in flowers or feet!), Mama, Dada, cat, dog, meow, moo, pawoo (what an elephant says), MumMum, Gam (Grammie), PopPop (for Pops or Grandpop or Grandpa Joe). Hadley now has six teeth (4 on top and 2 on bottom) with another two coming on the top, we think! Her hair is really starting to grow in now, so we can get a ponytail or two out of it, but only when we distract her with movies/videos while fixing it. Hadley can also open and close her own water sippy cup and Daddy is also starting to teach her how to slide down the stairs on her butt.

Hadley now consistently sleeps 10.5-11 hours a night with one good nap (almost always 1.5 hours) and sometimes a second 45 minute nap each day. She is still in size 3 diapers, but will be moving up to 4s once we are out of those, and she is wearing mostly 12-18m clothes & size 4-5 shoes! She is starting to enjoy being outside more (especially walking up and down the sidewalk in front of the house) and she loves to play with her baby dolls (especially putting them on her shoulder and making them burp!)! She has grown attached to one particular type of baby doll, so we've been stocking up on them & probably have about 5 of them all over the house & car, so that Haddy knows she can leave one behind and still never be too far from another! She is also learning to be a much better traveler in the car (we think it's mostly because she is now able to see out the windows)!

In January, Hadley had her first trip to the sick-side of the doctor's office with an ear infection and cold. She was so miserable the whole time and we felt so badly for her, especially the first few days before the meds kicked in. She couldn't breathe, so Mama had to hold her and rock her to sleep for a few nights until she drained out enough (with the humidifier and VapoRub) to be able to be laid down. Seeing your baby sick is so, so sad!

Haddy's stats from her 15-month well-baby appointment (which she screamed through the entire time) are: 29 inches long (+1.75 from 3 months ago), 20 pounds (+1lb, 14oz), and 17-3/4 inch head circumference (+ 3/4"), putting her in the 10th percentile for height and weight and the 30th percentile for head circumference...so she's still a little peanut, but definitely healthy (and up from her 5th percentile at her previous appointment)!

Hadley's Christmas Update

Now that Hadley's over a year, I won't be doing monthly updates, but I do plan to post when I think of enough significant things from her life to blog about. I would also love to start blogging about OTHER things, but we'll see how that goes - I know how much time I don't have on a daily basis!

Hadley had a WONDERFUL second Christmas! She seemed to love opening presents, but as expected, the boxes and paper were much more entertaining than what came inside! Haddy also did an amazing job with all of the changes in schedule/routine and considering that she was sick with her second cold (to go along with her second and third teeth coming through)! She did end up being rocked to sleep quite a bit, which (thankfully!) we've gotten out of the habit of doing except for occasionally at nap time, but it's really hard NOT to rock her to sleep when you're traveling, sleeping in a Pack n Play, and/or staying in a house full of people who are also trying to sleep!

Hadley was so blessed by the generosity of family and friends this Christmas (as were Mommy & Daddy)! So much so that I do believe we'll need to add on to our house just to contain all of the toys and clothes she received! What a blessed little girl!

Hadley got to see Santa (or was he Father Christmas?) at Goody'z restaurant this year! She was shy and a little clingy, but she didn't cry! She really enjoyed looking at his musical pocket watch! We also took her to see the train display at Uncle B's store - she really enjoyed that, too!

Haddy also started doing many new signs this month, and making more noises/sounds/words. She now signs "fish," and "please," (in addition to milk, more, and thank you). She has also started making up her own signs for things like "sit" (she pats her belly, mimicking how I pat my lap when I want her to sit on my lap) and "Captain Hook" (she makes her finger into a hook and waves it around). She also stretches her arms up for "so big!" and will consistently say, Mama, Dada (although she thinks SHE is Dada), dog, cat (in a cute high-pitched voice), duck, and she'll smell Daddy's shoes, scrunch up her nose & say "stink." Hadley has also started to put her hands in front of her face to play Peek-a-Boo & she will act out "If You're Happy and You Know It," "I'm a Nut," "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear (we sing Haddy Scholl, Haddy Scholl)," and "Patty Cake."

Hadley still knows what she likes as far as food is concerned, so Mama's still having to figure out ways to sneak in fruits and veggies other than bananas, peaches, applesauce, and peas. Meats and breads never seem to be a problem, though! Haddy is also starting to feed herself with a fork. She will put the fork right into her mouth if you pre-load it for her, and she will try to load it up herself, but she doesn't quite have the hand-eye coordination needed for that yet! She is also starting to be able to catch and throw.

Oh and one last thing - come this spring, Hadley will be a big sister to a LITTLE SISTER! Yes, Baby Scholl #2 is a GIRL and we couldn't be more excited (especially Daddy, since now he doesn't need to buy new stuff - LOL!)!