Watch Me Grow - One Month

I thought it was only fair that Lauren get her own little round of updates during her first year. Let's be honest, there is no way I'll be able to keep up with a weekly update like I did for Kaitlin, but monthly should be just fine.

What has Lauren been doing this past month? Well let's see...eating (a lot), sleeping (sometimes a lot, sometimes not at all), pooping (A LOT) and every once in a while she lets out a little "goo" "gah" or other insanely cute newborn jibberish. I'd forgotten how monotonous newborn life can be.

Eat. Poop. Sleep. Repeat.

Since I have a very busy toddler running around the house we have been able to get out of the house every once in a while. So far Lauren seems to like the carseat more than her sister ever did, and will even *sometimes* sleep while I am out running errands. But girlfriend also likes to eat. And when it is chow time, it's chow time - no excuses!

At her two week appointment she had already surpassed her birth weight so we know she is getting enough to eat. She has to be close to (if not over) 8lbs by now, and she had grown to 21".

It has been a challenge being thrown back into the depths of newborn baby land but all I have to do is smell her sweet skin or kiss her sweet chubby cheeks and all of those night wakings and endless rocking to sleep is instantly forgiven.

She's Here! Welcome Baby Lauren

It's been a minute, right? It's been so long in fact that Kaitlin is now THREE and she is a big sister!

Lauren was born on June 5, 2015 at 4:41pm, weighing 7lbs 3oz and measuring 19" long. She has been the sweetest little baby right from the start, I cannot get enough of her! Big sister Kaitlin is doing well, amazed at when she is actually awake for a few minutes and yells, "Look Mommy! Her eyes are open!"

Welcome Baby Lauren, we are so happy that you are here!

She's here!! Welcome to the world...

She's here - she is finally here!!

Ok, so I'm a little late in posting the news considering tomorrow she will be one week old - hopefully you'll cut me some slack seeing how I'm a new parent and all ;)

I'm not going to lie, labor was not fun. But the staff at Texas Childrens Hospital and our Doctor were all wonderful and made the process a little bit easier to deal with. I was meant to be induced on May 18th in the evening. All day I had been telling the baby that it was time to come out now - and she listened! By the time we checked in to the hospital I was already in early labor on my own, so we didn't have to induce. I was so pleased at that news.

And then Friday night turned into Saturday morning. And then morning turned in afternoon. And then afternoon turned to evening. And then evening turned to night. 

And still no baby.

Man, I was so hungry (I wasn't allowed to eat anything eight hours before the induction time, and only allowed ice chips once I was checked in).

Besides having the baby the only thought on my mind was GIVE ME SOME FOOD!!

Typical, right??

Our first picture of Kaitlin sent out to friends and family - taken minutes after birth!

We were getting to the end of of our rope (and on our third round of nurses) when finally it was time!

(I'll spare you the details)

And at the very end I got to see this amazingly perfect little face and it was all worth it.

So, how have we been doing since then? Pretty good I would say!

We were able to stay in the hospital for three nights after she was delivered which was a god sent. The nurses and lactation team were angels and it was so helpful to have them on hand for whatever our needs or concerns were. It was also helpful to have the nursery close by so that Dad and I could get some sleep and try to get some energy back.

We finally checked out on Tuesday night and spent out first night at home as a new family of three.

Boy, was that interesting.

To say there have been ups and downs, good moments and bad, laughter and tears would be the understatement of the century. But slowly, we are getting there. We are learning about Kaitlin and she is learning about us. The biggest thing that I (we) have to remember is that it's going to take time.

It will take time to learn her hunger cues.

It will take time to learn how much she should and shouldn't be sleeping.

It will take time (for both of us) to get the hang of this breast feeding thing.

It will take time for all of us to operate as a threesome. 

Luckily, time is something we have plenty of.

I'm going to be starting another Weekly Update page - Watch Me Grow!

Starting with tomorrow I will feature a weekly photo of Kaitlin growing bigger and cuter every day.

I figured you have seen enough of my belly (and it's not nearly as cute now).

So stick around - we have a lot more to share with you!

PS - I have decided that babys fingernails are the cutest things I have EVER seen. I mean seriously, how are they so small and perfect??

What's in a name?

Probably the most common question we get asked after "Do you know what you're having?" is "Do you have any names picked out?" With good reason of course. People want to get to know this little being I have growing in my tummy, and after finding out the sex the next natural thing to want to know is what are we going to call her.

We have decided to keep the name a secret. We aren't telling anyone - not even our parents or our closest friends. We were happy to share the news that we are having a little girl, but this piece of news we are holding on to. We've decided to do this for a couple of reasons. The first reason is because we want to maintain some element of surprise. We don't want the world to know everything about this baby before she gets here (which might sound strange coming from someone who is writing a blog about being pregnant...). So now she has two surprises going for her - when she will be born (sure she has a due date but what baby actually listens to that) and what her name is going to be.

The second reason we don't want to spill the beans is because we don't want people judging her name. An old colleague of mine said while she was pregnant that they weren't telling anyone the name because as soon as they did, people would pass judgement on the babies name - and he wasn't even here yet to defend himself! I had never thought about it like that before, but realized that it is totally true. Whether its positive or negative you just can't help but have an opinion about a babies name when you hear it for the first time. You will probably associate it with someone that you know/knew with that name, and immediately have a stigma attached to it. Lots of people have told us straight up if they do or do not like a name when we have made an off hand comment about a name we had once considered. People are a lot quicker to offer their opinions when it's just a name that you are thinking of.  They are less quick when that name is actually attached to a little tiny person. I mean, would you really say to someone "Oh you named your baby Cupcake? I don't really like that name." Of course not! You're more likely to say something like, "Oh you named your baby Cupcake! How cute!" Sure,  you will still have your opinion about the name Cupcake, but you're more likely to keep it to yourself. 

And you know what - all of this is absolutely fine. I don't get mad or upset when people share their opinions on babies names - heck I do it all the time, even now when I am going through it myself. It's only human nature and you are entitled to your opinion. It's just that for us and our baby - we would rather not hear those opinions until you have an adorable little face to match that name to :)

The last reason we have decided not to share our leading baby names is that we haven't really decided yet. We already know the middle name so all we have to solidify is the first name - ie the most important name. We have a short list of names that we really like, but we aren't really committed to one front runner yet. It is such a massive decision - I feel an incredible amount of pressure to pick the perfect name that will be suitable for a baby, toddler, teenager and respectable adult - that more often than not we just push the conversation aside. When we do want to talk about it our conversation usually goes a bit like this - 

B: What do you think of randomgirlsname?

T: Yeah I like that, it's pretty

B: Yeah, its nice.

*long pause where our fear of name commitment sets in*

T: So...whats on TV?

It feels like such a BIG decision, I know that if we were to pick a name now I would just second guess myself every day until she is born. There are so many elements to think about and consider - how does the first and last name flow together? How does the first, middle and last name flow together? What would her nickname be? Is there any way at all that her name/nickname/initials can be made into a joke or teased by other kids? No wonder easy names like John and Elizabeth are so popular.

In all reality I think that we will end up with two or three top names that we love and we won't confirm the name until the baby is actually born. I think it will be a lot easier once we see her little face to decide what name fits her the best.

How about you? Did you tell people what name you chose for your baby before he/she was born? For the love of God please tell me how you managed to pick a name! Did you have a lot of negative opinions? Share your story with me so I know we aren't the only ones!