12 Weeks

At twelve weeks, Georgia is growing to be quite a big baby. We weighed her last week and she was a little over 13 lbs. She is also getting to experience all sorts of new things. We put up our tree and decorated it (over a one week period). She loves to sit and watch the lights. She has also learned a new trick. She will stick her tongue out and start trying to suck her top lip in. The first time Shawn noticed it he said she looked like an old man with no teeth. It was pretty funny. I have some videos of it, but I need a better one before I post any.

This is Georgia next to the tree.



This is Georgia with her new favorite toy, her hand. She will suck on it for a long time. It makes a really loud noise sometimes.



Georgia in some of her new 3-6 months sized clothes! She is getting big.



More hand sucking. Notice how fat her arm is compared to her hand.



We had a Gunter family get together when my cousin Lee was in town. This is a picture of all the cousins (except Ann). Lee is in the black sweater next to me. She lives in Pittsburgh and we only see her once or twice a year.



This was our first family portrait session. We were taken back an hour after our appointment time so Georgia was getting hungry and was very fussy. I was ready for them to just stop taking pictures and give up but they kept taking and taking until there were like 80 pictures to look at.



She was actually happy for some of the pictures. This was one of the few where she was awake and not crying.



Then we took her to see Santa. This was a wonderful Santa with a real beard. He was great with kids and loved holding her. They even got a picture of her holding his finger. I thought this was the cutest one.



Once Christmas is over I will get more pictures posted and perhaps a video of Georgia sucking her top lip.

Two Months

Monday Georgia was two months old. Then on Wednesday she was 9 weeks old. In addition, she also had her first sick doctor's visit. I had gone in to work to get some stuff to work on and to drop stuff off that I had done. When I got back my mom told me I should check her temperature and sure enough she had a fever of 100.2. So I called the doctor and got her an appointment for that afternoon. She had been coughing all day and just been fussy. She ended up just having a head cold, but with the fever he wanted us to keep checking her temperature and giving her baby Tylenol. She still had a fever that night but the next morning it had finally gone away and never came back. She still is sick. I can tell because she is sleeping more during the day and she still gets fussy for no apparent reason. This seems to be something that we are passing around because last Friday I woke up sick, then Wed. Georgia got sick, and today Shawn woke up feeling sick.

This week also had another milestone, our anniversary. We've been married for five years and it seems both to have gone by so fast and to have been a long time as well. We've already been through so much that it is hard to believe that we've only been married for five years. For our anniversary we went on a double date with our friends George and Shanna. We went to Cracker Barrel to eat and then went to the zoo for the Lights Before Christmas. It was really cold but we had a good time. My dad watched Georgia for us. He is one of the few people she will take a bottle from.

This week we also got our pictures back from Georgia's first portrait session. Then we all went and had family pictures made for Christmas. She was not happy when we had the pictures made because they took us back an hour after our appointment time and she was hungry. We did end up with some good pictures, but not as many as we could have gotten.

We finally got back the pictures that were taken at the hospital. The girl that took the pictures had somehow forgotten to place the order. Here is a composite page. She looks so tiny in these!



One day Shawn decided to be funny and put a diaper on Georgia's head while he was changing her.



This is one of her portraits from JC Penney's.



This is another one. I think she looks really different in this picture.



This is another one with a different background.



This is a composite with, as the photographer put it, "all her little piece parts."



And finally, this is her two month picture. I never knew how hard it would be to take these pictures. This month we took about 11 pictures before we got one we both liked. Last month it was about 5. Everyone else that has done it made it seem easy!



Next post will have the pictures we just did of all three of us.

Little video

I took a little video last night of Georgia while she was sleeping. This is what she does when she gets hungry. I thought it was cute.

8 Weeks and Thanksgiving

Last weekend we went to have Georgia's picture taken and she did great! We'll get them back on Monday and I'll post some of them then. A few weeks ago I put on her Clemson dress for game day (sadly we didn't win) and took pictures of her to show off her team spirit. We put a bow on her to see how she would do with it and she did pretty well.

For Thanksgiving we went to Shawn's aunt's house for lunch and ate with his parents and his aunt, uncle, and cousins. Then we went home so I could cook a sweet potato casserole to take to my mom's house. Then we ate dinner with my parents and my brother. After we ate (and I nursed Georgia), we went to my cousin's house to see the Gunters. Many of them hadn't seen Georgia and were thrilled to meet her. My uncle even held her! Most of the pictures I took were pretty fuzzy, so I'm not going to post them. I'll try to get better ones at Christmas.

In other news, Georgia finally took a bottle on Tuesday. My dad had been working with her a few times and she took a little milk from a bottle the week before. But then on Tuesday she drank a full 4 ounces from him in about 5 minutes time! This was big news because we had wanted to go see the new Harry Potter movie and it was longer than what she would be able to go without nursing. So, on Wednesday we took her to Shawn's parents house and left them with a bottle and some milk and away we went. First of all, the movie was really good and I can't wait to see the last one. Secondly, Georgia did really well. She took a bottle from Shawn's mom not too long before we got back. The funny thing is that she won't take a bottle from Shawn. I think it is because she so strongly associate's Shawn and I together that she thinks if he is around that she should be nursing. One day she may take a bottle from him, but for now all I ask is that she take a bottle from anyone that needs to watch her while I'm gone.

In all her Clemson glory!



Going for a walk (this is the view from the front of our house, you can't see most of the construction stuff).



This was after going to have her pictures taken at JC Penney's. She was tuckered out.



This is her Thanksgiving picture! She managed not to spit up on it until almost 8:30 that night.



This is a black and white that Shawn took for Thanksgiving.

6 Week appointment

Today was Georgia's 6 week appointment with her doctor. She weighed 10lbs 12 ozs (75th percentile) and was 23 inches long (90th percentile). They measured her head, but I can't remember that measurement, just that she was in the 50th percentile. I guess that means she has a small head for her body, but it seems perfectly proportionate. On the downside, the lady at the front desk had calculated wrong the date she could get her shots so we were there one day early. That means we have to go back Friday for her first set of shots.

Lately Georgia has been cluster feeding in the afternoon and evening. It seems to be that she is storing up for the night time. She has been sleeping longer and longer at night. Last night I finished nursing her around 12:15 and she slept until I woke her up around 4:30 to nurse her again. For those of you that have not breastfed you count from the time you begin nursing to the time that you begin the next nursing session. So last night she went over 5 1/2 hours between nursing sessions, which is great for her age. The down side is that before we get to bed at night she only gives me around a 30 minute break between feedings, sometimes I get an hour between. In the morning when I first wake her up and bring her downstairs she will go about 3 hours between feedings. So that is mainly when I get my naps in. I bring her downstairs when Shawn is still at home and can help bring her stuff downstairs. The last two mornings I had only been in bed for an hour when I got back up to eat breakfast with Shawn, so I left her upstairs and brought her stuff downstairs. That way when she wakes up all I have to do is get her and bring her downstairs.

This is Georgia and her daddy, asleep together. I see this frequently, especially on the weekends.



This is how Georgia ended one of her nursing sessions, but sticking her hand in her face.



We finally saw the birth announcement for Georgia on the news last week. I recorded it because it was right before Shawn got home from work. Since I recorded it we took a picture of the tv screen.



This is Georgia with her Curious George monkey that our friend George gave to her. We took this picture because George came to see us.

1 Month and Halloween

Georgia was one month old on Friday and we took a picture in the same place we took one the day she came home from the hospital. She has grown so much since then. We weighed her today and she was about 10.4 pounds! We have attempted to measure her and we got about 23 inches long as our estimate. So she is growing tons. She is getting a lot better control of her head and will stare at you for a long time when you talk to her.

Thursday Shawn left work early because he had a tooth bothering him. He had a cracked tooth that he had needed to deal with for a long time, but we never had the money to get the work done on it. He went to a dentist and turns out the tooth was very badly infected. The dentist office made him an appointment to have it pulled by an oral surgeon on Friday. So that went pretty rough for Shawn. He was awake and to end up getting him numb they had to give him 30 different shots in the jaw and gums. Then it took about 30 minutes of working on the tooth to get it out. Shawn was so pitiful when he got home and was miserable for the rest of the day and night. He didn't sleep well and his bleeding didn't stop until the middle of the night. The next day he was still in a lot of pain and slept when he could. He felt better on Sunday, but stayed home today because he ran out of pain medicine Sunday afternoon and started feeling really bad. I called today and got another prescription for him, but it was different. He started out with Tylenol 3 which had codeine in it. While he was taking it he itched all over, so they gave him a prescription for Demerol. That, apparently, causes severe nauseau so we had to get a prescription for Phenargen. Once he took that he didn't throw up anymore, but now is fast asleep. He is taking off work tomorrow as well, but then he has no more days to take (the timing was terrible since he just took off two weeks when the baby was born. So hopefully he will feel better after tomorrow or he will be very miserable at work.

So, Sunday we went to church for the first time and were bombarded by people wanting to see Georgia. She was very popular. After church we went to my mom's to eat lunch like we do every Sunday, then we went to Wal-Mart (Georgia's second trip there). We came home and chilled for a little while before going back to church for the Fall Festival. She had a Halloween sleeper outfit she wore. We didn't have to worry about keeping her happy because other people held her for the most part. We ate food and caught up with people we hadn't seen in a while. In a strange coincidence, a couple that Shawn has known since he was a kid were there with their kids. Their daughter is friends with a girl from our church and they came to our church after that family invited them.

This is Georgia at one month.



These are two very sleepy people. One is under the influence of pain medication.



This is Georgia on her way to church.



After church, chillin at grandma's house.



This is Georgia's Halloween sleeper outfit.



At church, posing in front of the "General Store" photo set up during the Fall Festival.



When we got home Georgia spit up all over her outfit so I put her in her other Halloween outfit. She eventually spit up all over that outfit too, but it was in the middle of the night.

4 Weeks

Yesterday was 4 weeks postpartum. As of last week when we weighed Georgia she was 9.4 lbs, so she has gained a pound! As for me, I have lost about 25 lbs and have between 10 to 15 lbs to go to be where I want to be.

Fun story, yesterday while changing Georgia's diaper, she peed. Now this is nothing new, but this lead to a new experience. I wasn't able to cover her back up fast enough to keep the pee from getting everywhere and consequently needed to give her a bath. I put her in her baby tub and washed her hair. While I was rinsing her hair out, she pooped! So I freak out a little, and then I held her up while my dad took the infant sling out of the tub. The poo had stayed in it, so I finished bathing her in the bare tub and all was good. But it was a shocking thing to deal with at the time. It was bound to happen eventually, but it was too bad that Shawn missed out on it.

Here are some pictures from the last two weeks.

Just chillin.



Holding her daddy's hand.



She loves to have her hands up by her face.



In the stroller when we went to the Riverwalk.



Shawn with her in the stroller.



Waiting for her bath.



Covering up with her towel before her bath.

2 1/2 Weeks

At 2 1/2 weeks, we now have Georgia taking her first prescription medicine. From what we told the pediatrician he said that she seems to have a mild case of reflux and put her on Zantac drops. The upside is that she doesn't seem to be spitting up as much, but the down side is that she hates the medicine and spits it back out if we are crafty when we give it to her. She still seems to have an upset tummy at times so I'm not sure what that is all about. She also has gained back all the weight she lost and as of last Wed. she was 8lbs 3ozs. We don't go back until she's 6 weeks old.

Saturday night we experimented with putting her in her crib in her room. Up until then she was sleeping in the pack and play in our room. However, we knew that with Shawn going back to work that we would need to move her so that he could get more sleep at night. The great thing is that she isn't as fussy at night and I'm not having as much trouble getting her back to sleep when she is done feeding. (The same cannot be said for day time).

This is the second time we put her in the swing (the first time she was just not feeling it and was crying).



Shawn wanted to take some black and white pictures of her. This is after she had eaten.



This is right after getting a diaper changed.

Georgia's Birthday!

So, last Wednesday I woke up like every other day, planning on going to work. Not even five minutes after I got out of bed my water broke. I went downstairs to tell Shawn and eat breakfast before calling the doctor. After I ate I called and he told me to come in right then. Since he didn't know that we only live two exits up the interstate from the hospital and could be there in less than 10 minutes, I took a fast shower (even though he told me not to take the time to do so). We gathered all our bags and got in the car. Once we got there we went in the emergency room entrance and told them my name and that my water had broke. They sent someone to transport me upstairs to the maternal assessment floor. Once there they checked me and saw that my water had in fact broken. Once they got me to sign some paperwork I was taken down to labor and delivery and set up in a room. The thing about Lexington Medical Center is that they have "new" rooms and "old" rooms. If you come when they are crowded or on the weekend, you may end up in an "old" room. Well, I lucked out and got a "new" room, meaning it was bigger and nicer. Once in the room I met my nurse, Izzy. She hooked me up to monitors and started my iv. Then Dr. Ervin came in and checked me. At this point I was having pretty mild contractions that weren't really bothering me too much. Both of our parents had gotten there and were taking turns coming in to see me (except his dad, I don't remember him coming back into the labor and delivery room). Around lunch time Dr. Ervin came back in to insert an internal monitor for contractions. Once this happened, they turned up the pitocin drip and things started happening pretty fast. Less than an hour later Izzy checked me and I was over 5 cm dilated (I was between 3 or 4 when we got there). These contractions were causing some serious pain so she turned up my iv for fluids because you can't get an epidural until you have a complete bad of fluids in your system. Once that was drained they called the anesthesiologist in to give me the epidural. That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be (Izzy turned down the pitocin so my contractions wouldn't be that bad). After they both left and my mom and Shawn came back in, the contractions picked back up again (the pitocin got turned back up before Izzy left the room). I thought perhaps the epidural was just taking a while to kick in, but then it never got any better. After I told Izzy, she got anesthesiologist to come back and turn up the dose. It seemed that my right side was more affected than the left side so they got me to lay on my left side (which just meant that I was even more uncomfortable). Once they gave that dose time to take affect they checked back with me and I still had no relief whatsoever. They decided to try giving me another upped dose and if that didn't take they would take that epidural out and insert another one. Well, needless to say that didn't take either and by this time I was at 9 cm. They called the anesthesiologist back to the room, but before she could get there, I felt a very strong urge to push and Shawn had to go out in the hall to find Izzy. She came back in and looked, and suddenly I was in position to push. She called for Dr. Ervin, but before he could get there I had already started pushing (he thought I had already had the baby because when he walked in the room Izzy was clearing out the bulb syringe they use to suction out the baby's nose and mouth). So, once he sat down I pushed for less than fifteen minutes and then Georgia was there! All together I had her in about 8 1/2 hours after my water broke. Once they suctioned out her nose and mouth she started screaming. They wiped her off and Shawn cut the umbilical cord. They gave her to him while they stitched up my episiotomy (they did that right before the last set of pushing). It seemed to take a while to stitch me up, and since the epidural never took I felt most of it. Dr. Ervin gave me more local after he realized that I was feeling it but that never fully took effect either! While he was doing that my mom went out with our cameras and showed pictures of Georgia to everyone in the waiting room. Once Dr. Ervin was done stitching me up I got Georgia and began nursing her. After I was able to nurse her for a while and they were done cleaning everything up, they took her to the nursery with Shawn and I was able to get up and go to the bathroom (one of the perks of not having the epidural take, you can move around almost immediately). Once that was taken care of they moved me to my mother/baby room and I got settled in. A few hours later they brought Georgia back in to me. I learned that she was 7 lbs and 15.9 ozs (they just wrote 8 lbs on everything), 20 1/2 inches long with a head and chest measurement of 13 inches.

Honestly, after I delivered Georgia, I felt pretty much ok. I was sore, but there wasn't much pain. They kept bringing me Motrin and Darvocet while I was there, but I don't know they it did much. I was able to move around slowly from the time I was done getting stitched up. I got up on Thursday morning and took a shower. Georgia was nursing like a champ and not being fussy at all. We had her pictures made Thursday morning and she had her hearing checked not too long afterward. Her picture can be viewed on Lexington Medical Center's website. By Friday morning we were all getting the ok to go home and just had to wait around for the nursery to discharge Georgia. We got home around 1:00 in the afternoon and have been doing pretty well ever since.

Since being home Georgia has gotten the hiccups several times (almost always when Daddy was burping her), had many many sneezing fits, had her first bath, and gone to the pediatrician (that was this morning). Before we left the hospital she has lost about 7 or 8 ozs, as of today , she had gained almost all of it back (she was 7 lbs 13 ozs).

This is me and nurse Izzy after I had gotten into my labor and deliver room.



This is me and Georgia once she had come back from the nursery.



Georgia in the car after we had gotten home.



All three of us at the house. We cleaned up the house after we got home because we knew that people would be coming over.



This is the outfit Georgia came home it.



Georgia wearing her first Clemson outfit (too bad we lost the game).



After her first bath at home.



After getting dressed following her first bath. She really didn't like being naked!



All dressed up and ready to go see the doctor!



Georgia did have a touch of jaundice, but it wasn't bad enough for her to be kept at the hospital or for them to send a light home with us. So she looked a little yellow in some of her pictures. But she looked good enough when we were at the doctor's office today that he didn't even test her blood again.