It was the worst of days...it was the WORST of days!

Yesterday was a really tough day.  Seriously, the worst day I've had in a long time and that includes the day I actually had a c-section after being in labor for almost an entire day.  It was a day where the realization that being a parent is a 24/7 job I am in no way prepared for slapped me across the face. 

Over the past month, Baby Knives has been a pretty mellow kid.  Not really fussy, only waking up to eat and then going back to sleep.  However, on Monday she turned one month old and apparently all of that was about to change as she decided to wreak havoc on her unsuspecting parents.

It was one of those days that I've honestly been dreading since we found out I was pregnant.  A day where no matter what we did, neither one of us could settle her down.  She would sleep for maybe 30 minutes at a time, then wake up fussy but not really hungry either.  It was a truly miserable day for all of us, plus my husband and I were already running on maybe 3 hours of sleep.

The day ended with me feeding her at about 10pm, rocking in the recliner in the living room, bawling my eyes out saying, "I love you so much sweetie, but I absolutely hate this!"  Thankfully after that she finally went down to sleep and my husband took the first "shift" with the monitor and I got to sleep for almost 4 continuous hours before swapping with him so he could get a few hours.

Today has been much better with her - for some reason she decided to completely change how she sleeps and wants to eat overnight and expecting us to keep up.  For the past month she's been perfectly happy eating about every 3 hours, sleeping most of the rest of the time in her swing with the white noise machine on.  Now she doesn't really like the swing during the day, but will sleep in it at night.  During the day she wants to be out on the couch in the living room snoozing in her boppy pillow for 2 hours or so at a time and only eating maybe every 4 hours, but much larger amounts.

Face. Palm.

This whole parenting an ever-changing newborn thing is wearing on me for sure.  And I know just as soon as we get used to this new phase with her, she'll grow and change all over again, more than likely putting us through the wringer.  So thankful for this guy and how awesome of a dad he is, I can't imagine trying to struggle through this on my own without him to lean (and sometimes sleep) on!

Baby Knives Update

Somehow our little girl is already almost 3 weeks old (as of Monday), how did that happen?  It's amazing how much daily life has changed without us noticing too much.  It's only when I stop and think that my life hasn't always revolved around feeding a baby every 3 hours and hoping her diaper yields the results we want without exploding that I feel a little overwhelmed at how much has changed.

Overall, we've been blessed with a pretty easy baby so far (knock on wood!), who only really fusses when she's hungry or needs a diaper change.  She is not a huge fan of her crib thus far, but will conk out for 3 hour stretches in her swing so score!  If anyone has any advice on how to eventually transfer a baby from a swing or bouncy seat into a crib, let me know...she'll eventually outgrow her little swing and we don't want to be screwed at that point.  For now we're investing in C batteries, I wish baby swings had adapters, it would save us a ton of money!

These days Baby Knives' favorite things are eating, sleeping in her swing and using up an extraordinary amount of diapers...thank you to everyone who gave us diapers as a gift!  She's a really snuggly little thing and I think once she's a little bigger she'll be happier sleeping on her stomach.  She's back up over her birth weight and we've been informed by her pediatrician that she's in the 95th percentile for height, weight, head size and awesomeness.  She's already trying to hold her head up by herself - yep, talk about advanced!

I start working again on Monday, thankfully my job allows me to work from home and I have the best boss ever (do I get brownie points for that...only if he reads this I guess!), so I'm hoping it'll be a pretty seamless transition working with Baby Knives hanging out with me all day.

In other news, our cutie of a niece, Layla, was born only a few weeks before Baby Knives and is now a month old - time is flying and I can't wait to get these two cousins together!

The Story of a Baby Named Knives

Tomorrow our little girl will be a whole week old - time is passing too fast already!  At 10:47pm, Monday June 18, Fiona Knives Rohrer was born...I look at her and still can't believe she's here and perfect and all ours.  Everyone told me I'd love her at first sight, bond with her instantly, etc...but until I held her in my arms that first time and looked into that tiny round face, I had no idea I could love anyone that much instantly.  My daughter is incredible - all 10 pounds of her!

The whole experience of labor and delivery wasn't what I expected - it started much more painfully than I was ready for (although how do you really prepare for that?!), contractions are no joke!  We went to the hospital at about 2am and they went ahead and admitted me.  After about an hour of walking around and trying to distract from the pain of the contractions, they started radiating around to my back and down to my knees.  Thank God for pain meds!

Labor slowly progressed and I got an epidural, which made the whole loooooong experience much better.  The hard part was only being able to have ice chips all day long - ugh.  I don't even want ice in my beverages for awhile!  I finally made it to 10cm around 9pm that night (yep - 19 hours!) and then the real work began.  After about an hour of pushing, I started to spike a slight fever and Baby Knives' heart rate was just starting to climb a little.  The doctor felt for her and realized she was much bigger than we originally thought and decided right away to do a c-section.

I honestly freaked out.  I've never had so much as a stitch or been admitted into a hospital before this and the thought of actual surgery was terrifying.  Tears kept leaking out of my eyes and dripping in my ears on the way to the OR.  Once I was in the OR and all prepped, Aaron sat right next to me the whole time, holding my hand and telling me I was doing great.  Finally (after what seemed like an eternity) they pulled Baby Knives out...which was the weirdest feeling EVER...and everyone in the room started exclaiming how big she was!  She cried right away and Aaron went to see her as she got cleaned up and measured.

 She was an extremely healthy 10.1 lbs. and 21" of baby girl with a ton of dark hair and the cutest little chin and chubby cheeks.  Aaron brought her over to me so I could see her and touch her little face while they worked on stitching me up.  At that point I was so exhausted I kept falling asleep on the table!

Recovery for me went really well, no problems and pretty quick too.  However, we weren't able to take Baby Knives home with us on Thursday because they were concerned she might have an infection and had her on IV meds...tiniest IV ever!  Thankfully she ended up being just fine and we got to bring her home on Saturday, so I could stop tearing up every 10 minutes missing her little self all snuggled up with me.

Last night was her first night at home with us and she decided she wasn't a fan of her bassinet and liked to sleep in her swing - I wish we had figured that out a few hours earlier, but at least we should probably get more sleep tonight (knock on wood!).