Who's advice do you take?

Juliette had her second well check appointment today. She is growing nicely. She gained 8 ounces since last Monday. I'm totally confused on what advice to follow when it comes to feeding Juliette. He doctor said to nurse her every 2-2 1/2 hours and let her have 15 minutes on each breast. The lactation consultants at the hospital say to let her nurse when she wants and as long as she wants. It's totally confusing. Bryan and I decided to follow a combination of the two and see how that goes. Feed every 2 hours but let her nurse as long as she wants. We'll see how that goes. Who knows we'll probably try something different tomorrow. Today is the first day where I can truly say that we have gotten her to sleep out of our arms during the day. She has taken to her bouncy seat. It's just a matter of having one of us bounce her in it continuously. It is amazing how much her personality changes each day and how much we learn about her. We've pretty gotten down the difference between the "I'm hungry " cry and the "I made a mess in my diaper just for you Dad" cry.

Finally getting a hang of this whole parenting thing

Bryan and I have decided that at this point we can handle visitors to see Juliette. She keeps a very busy schedule of eating and napping but I'm sure we can work in all of her eager fans. Just let us know a day and time and we'll try to have her ready for you or will let you know when she is ready for you :) Thank you for all your support and well wishes.

Juliette / Bed

Sarah's been on my case about posting to the blog more. So three blog posts in a short time span should get me off the hook for a little bit. It'll be interesting to see if she reads my posts and comments on this one. If not, I can bug her about not reading the blog as often as she should :)

Anyways...last night was another first for Juliette. After feeding, Sarah put Juliette in the Pack 'n Play next to our bed and she slept for two hours straight, three different times. Sarah was finally able to get a good night's rest, and it was nice for her not to have to hold Juliette for her to fall asleep. What's even more impressive is that we had a lot of rain and wind last night - so much that Smudge got scared and had to sleep closer to us. Juliette? Slept right through all of it.

We're starting to think that Juliette has this baby thing figured out. Eat, sleep in bed, pee, poop, repeat. In all honesty, it's not that bad of a gig.

Juliette's First Walk

No, Juliette isn't walking yet. On Thursday, Sarah and I took her on a walk around the subdivision with everyone's favorite cocker spaniel, Smudge. She just slept the entire time, even with all the wind that we were experiencing (side note - it will be really nice when more houses are built in the subdivision, to act as wind blocks).

Smudge was excellent on the walk. For the first time, he wasn't pulling on his leash to go on the walk. Instead, Sarah was Juliette in the stroller went first, followed by Smudge on his leash, followed by me (shows you the order of power in the house, doesn't it?). We were curious how the first walk would be with the two of them, and we were proud of them both.

Daddy's Caddy

A couple months ago, while shopping at Meijer, I was checking out the clearance video game section, and found Tiger Woods 07 for $9. Granted, it's a 3 year old game, but I'm not going to argue for $9.

This past Wednesday, I finally mastered the art of playing the PS3 and holding Juliette. She sleeps in my arms, I can play video games. I started playing Tiger Woods again and, for some reason, I started doing really, really well while holding her in my arms. My drives went longer, my putts all seemed to go in - it was perfect. Therefore, while playing Tiger Woods golf, Juliette is now "Daddy's Caddy."

Hooray for pee and poop!

Juliette is so sweet. Yesterday, she managed to pee and poop on two separate occasions while we were changing her diaper. Man, that girl can pee. Since I'm breastfeeding Juliette, I've been somewhat freaking out about whether she is getting enough milk. Yesterday it seemed as though she wanted to be attached too me 90% of the day. But I'm beginning to realize that two hours can go by really quickly and that is why it seems that way. Today has been the first day where she has numerable wet diapers and she had her first soiled diaper that actually looked as it should. This was all very reassuring to me since I was pretty much in hysterics over it last night. Poor Bryan, not only does he have to deal with Juilette's crying but mine as well. So in the end, I am much more relaxed today. I get very happy when Juliette dirties a diaper. Yay for pee and poop! Tomorrow we are going to our Lactation consultant at the hospital to have her watch and help me breast feed Juliette. Hopefully this will put the rest of my breastfeeding fears behind me.

Bryan is a great DAD!

Last night during one of my attempts to put Juliette down in her crib after nursing, I saw the cutest thing. I went to see if Bryan was sleeping. I figure at least one of us should be getting a good night rest. I found him lying in bed twitching his leg. I woke him up to ask him if he was ok because I saw his leg twitching. He answered back with "I thought I was holding Juliette." He was trying to keep her calm. I thought it was the sweetest thing. Bryan is truly wonderful with Juliette. This morning I told him about the incident and he didn't even remember it. Even when he is sleeping he is a great daddy. Hopefully, I don't jinx things but right now is the first time Juliette has sleep out of one of our arms for more than half an hour. Hopefully, this trend will continue.

Juliette Pictures - Part 2

Check out the hat :)

Pictures of Juliette - Part 1

Sarah in the delivery room, getting ready for the excitement!

The proud parents
Happy mommy, relieved that everything went ok
Juliette's first solo picture

Miscellaneous Pictures:

First 24 Hours

The first 24 hours haven't been too bad. For everyone that says the first 24 hours are a piece of cake, though, you don't know our daughter. Typically, babies eat a little bit, and then sleep a majority of a time. Juliette likes to eat, and not sleep. She'll sleep a little here, a little there, but usually she is awake, constantly looking around. Sarah and I managed to get 6 hours of sleep, though, by having Juliette go to the nursery after her late-night feedings.

We did find out today that Juliette has a infection in her right eye - either a small case of pink eye, or the tear ducts in that eye are clogged. The doctor said this wasn't a big deal, but we might get some eye drops or gel to take care of it tomorrow.

This will be my last post until this weekend, when Sarah or I will get some pictures posted, which I'm sure everyone is waiting for :)

Juliette Marie Kennedy

So...yeah. The previous post was published at 10:38 am. 10 minutes later, when I was getting ready to grab some lunch, I got a phone call from, of all people, Sarah. She called me to let me know that she had gone from 5 cm dialated to 10 cm dialated in less than in hour, and it was time to start pushing. I rush up to the room and, sure enough, Sarah's in the bed with an oxygen mask on, and all the post-delivery items are being situated in the room.

Sarah started pushing around 11:10, and the only real delay we had was waiting for her doctor to come in. No one thought that she would be delivering as early as she was, so the doctor wasn't planning on coming over to the hospital until the afternoon. Oh well, no biggie. At 12:31 pm on Tax Day 2009, Sarah and I heard the following: "Your baby's out and she's peeing." So, the question of boy or girl was answered - we had a daughter (random thought - imagine if it was a boy, and he came out peeing, too. He'd be going all over the place!).

Juliette Marie Kennedy weighed 8 lbs, 3oz, and is 20" long. The recap:
Hospital at 4:10
Pitocin at 6:15 (2 cm dialated)
Water breaks at 6:25
5 cm dialated at 10:00
10 cm dialated at 10:48
Start pushing at 11:10
Juliette arrives at 12:31
Total time at hospital from pitocin to baby: 6 hours, 15 minutes (congrats, Sarah, on ticking off all the female readers of the blog that had much longer labors)

Baby Update

Turns out that the hospital has free internet access in the cafeteria. Now, I (Bryan) can post some updates on Sarah's condition.

We came into the hospital at 4:00 this morning, and finally got the IVs going around 6:15. Not more than 10 minutes later, I decided to go to the bathroom and I hear Sarah call out to me, "I think my water just broke!" Sure enough, it did. All she had to do was blow her nose.

Since that time, it's just been contractions and trying to get rest. The happy man (epidural) showed up around 9:00, and Sarah has been able to get some rest.

We're keeping a pseudo-log of what's been going on, so I can provide that in more detail later on. I'm going to get something to eat now, and I'll post updates when I have a chance (could be tomorrow).

I did not lay an Easter Egg.

Easter came and went without me laying an egg. I was kind of hoping for an Easter Baby. Now I get to hope for a 13th baby and then a Tax Day baby on the 15th.

Still no baby.

Bryan and I are still waiting for Baby K. I'm still getting around pretty well. The evenings are a little rough for me just because I'm usually pretty tired. Every morning, Bryan asks me if I think Baby K is coming today. My answer is "I don't know". A couple weeks ago, Bryan would say things "oh, don't bend down, I'll get that". Now, he's completely ok with me doing just about anything since he's hoping it'll start something with Baby K. This morning he suggested I do some toe touches and jump around.

Doctor Visit

We just got back from my OB. I'm now 2+cm, not yet 3cm and 80% effaced. We set up a date to be induced. If Baby K does not arrive on his/her own terms, Baby K will be forced to arrive April 15th. Baby K's heart rate was 150 beats/minutes. Everything is good.

The waiting game.

I'm finally done with work. Now it's just a matter of staying home and waiting for Baby K. I have an appointment this afternoon. So far I've spent my day sleeping in, watching tv, taking a shower and now I'm probably going to take a nap. I need to go to the store to buy some snacks and other food but I really don't feel like going out in the cold snow. Bryan really wanted me to go into labor last night so he wouldn't have to go into work today. We had fun yesterday shopping for the last minute baby items we needed that we didn't get at our showers. Thank you to everyone for all your wonderful gifts. We truly are blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. I'm taking it easy today since I pretty much worked my tail off this weekend on cleaning the house and doing all the shopping with Bryan. Bryan has been a dear. He made me dinner last night. It was very yummy.

One more day of teaching!

Tomorrow is my last day of teaching. Thank goodness. We all need a break at this point. After school yesterday, I went shopping for some nursing bras. I was moving soo slow in the mall. I was so exhausted when I got home, I just started to cry for no reason. I'm looking forward to that burst of energy before Baby K comes.