So I've been very hesitant to give Lillian a pacifier because I've read it can mess up breastfeeding. I thought Lillian would probably really like a pacifier because she is constantly sucking on her hands even when I know she's not hungry. She actually was sucking her fingers in utero around 32 weeks during our 3D ultrsound. However, I didn't want to cause any problems with the breastfeeding so I was really hesitant.

On Wednesday, a family friend of mine was over with her 6 month old son and two girls who are 4.5 and 3. I was asking her about allowing them to have pacifiers because I knew she breastfeed all her children without problems. She said she would definitely give Lillian a pacifier. She explained that with her first daughter she gave her a pacifier, and then when it was time to break the habit she simply got rid of the pacifier. With her second daughter, she didn't do a pacifier and the little girl started sucking her two middle fingers. My friend said the problem now is that she can't take away the fingers, so she can't break her daughter of the habit.

I thought that was a really interesting perspective, and something that I hadn't thought of. So I took the plunge and fully integrated the paci into Lillian's life. I give it to her when she starts sucking her fingers and she seems to really like it. As far as interfering with breastfeeding, the one thing I've noticed is she is sucking a lot harder now. My nipples really don't appreciate that, but it doesn't seem that she has changed her latching. So fingers crossed that it doesn't cause any issues.

Lillian had a newborn photo shoot a week ago. The photographer did an amazing job! Here are a few of my favorites for your viewing pleasure...








Isn't she just too cute for words?!? (ok, I know I'm a little biased!)

Things are going really well on the home front. My sister Kelley is in for 10 days to help me out. Its such a blessing to have her here. We're having so much fun together, and she is a total natural when it comes to babysitting!! I've been able to get so much done around the house since she arrived.

Lillian continues to grow and pack on the pounds. I'm going to try to get her weighed at the doctors this week so we can see how she's doing, but I am pretty she sure is close to 8lbs now. She also is sleeping for longer stretches which is helping me out BIG time. On friday night and Saturday night she slept for 5 hours straight! It was AMAZING! I felt soo refreshed when I woke up. I was a little worried she shouldn't be sleeping for that long so I called the lactation consultant who said it was fine, so let's hope she does it again soon!

Breastfeeding continues to go well, but its amazing how much contradicting information there is out there about it. I was trying to google the answer about the 5 hour sleeping period and there were equal amounts of sites which said I should wake her every 3 hours as there were who said to let her sleep. And god forbid you try to do some research about schedule feeding vs on demand feeding... every website is more opinionated than the last. Lillian generally eats on a 2.5-3 hour schedule, but sometimes she stays up for the whole time between the two feedings and sometimes she goes to sleep for the whole time between the two of feedings. I am trying to sort through all the information and see what is best for us but its hard with no unbiased sites out there. For now, I guess I'll just keep trying to get through each day.

Hope everyone had a great president's day!

So we got through week one of Lillian being at home. I can't believe its only been a week because last Saturday seems like a lifetime ago. All in all, things have been going surprisingly well. We are blessed to have a lot of family around, so help abounds. My father, a retired surgeon turned chef, has been cooking dinner for us every evening. In addition to that, we've had a bunch of people dropping in which has been great company for me and allowed DH to go run some errands. This week is going to be a rude awakening because he's going back to work so I'm going to be home all alone!

Lillian has been doing wonderfully. She definitely had a week of firsts. On Wednesday, we had her first doctor's appointment. When we checked out of the hospital, she weighed 6lbs 10 oz, and I'm happy to report that on Wednesday she was up to 6lbs 14oz. So her weight is headed in the right direction! It didn't surprise me too much, because she is a total chow hound. I am fortunate to not have any problems with my milk supply, which is good because I have one hungry daughter! She's eating every 2-3 hrs except in the evenings when she is going about 4 hours between feedings. On Wednesday night, she finally switched her days and nights so after each night feeding she went straight back to bed. It was marvelous. We also gave her, her first bath, which was an experience. She didn't cry as much as I thought she would, but she kept kicking off the towel we had covering her to keep her warm.

We were so lucky to have two big visitors this week! Two of my four sisters were able to come in town to meet Lillian. The first was in town for her professional conference. It was perfect timing!!!


The next flew in friday night to surprise me! I thought she wasn't going to be able to come in until April, so I was super surprised to find her at my door Saturday morning with breakfast :-)



Hope everyone had a great weekend! I'll leave you with a few pics of Lillian, because she's just so stinkin cute!!

I wanted to share Lillian's birth story before my current lack of sleep causes me to forget it.

As you all know, I was planning to deliver naturally with Midwives who I had been seeing most of my pregnancy. I loved the midwives and was really looking forward to giving birth with them. When I found out Lillian was breech, I was moved over to an OBGYN that partners with my midwives. He was an old colleague of my mom’s (who is also a Dr), so at least I had some background with him. I tried to come to terms with having to have a c-section, and with the help of some online friends I was able to calm most of my fears. Feb 2, 2011 arrived and I was excited to meet our little girl.

DH and I arrived at the hospital at 4:30am. I was the only patient scheduled that early so I was alone in the pre-op area. They brought us back immediately and the prep started. I had to change into my hospital gown and rub down my stomach with a antibacterial cloth. Once that was done, the nurses started an IV so I could get two bags of fluid in me before the surgery. They then started going over a barrage questions which helped pass the time. Before I knew it, it was 5:30 so the anesthesiologist came in to talk to me. We went over how the spinal block was going to be administered and how I would feel after it had been administered. After talking to him, it was almost time to be brought back. DH got his scrubs on and I was wheeled back to the OR.

When I arrived in the OR, the anesthesiologist was waiting for me along with my OBGYN and a host of nurses. I started to get pretty nervous at this point and was shivering quite a bit. The anesthesiologist decided it was time and had me sit up so he could administer the spinal block. The administration of the spinal block was actually fairly painless. He administered a local anesthesia which felt like a little bee sting and then administered the spinal block which I didn't feel at all. They then helped me lay back down. Slowly my legs got heavy and when I couldn't lift them anymore the procedure began. Shortly after it began, they brought DH in.

Having a spinal block was totally weird. You can't feel pain, but you can certainly feel that something is going on down there. You also get very cold so the top half of me was draped with warm blankets and I had a tube that blew hot air on top of them. I actually felt very cozy. After about 18 minutes, the doctor told me that I would feel them bearing down by my ribs and that Lillian was going to be born. They invited DH to stand up at this point to see her being born.

At 6:48am, they pushed her out and she was delivered in the breech position. She started crying almost immediately which was a big relief. I, of course, cried. It was a pretty amazing thing to hear. They didn't peek her over the curtain for me to see so I didn't get to see her right away, but DH followed her to the warming station with a camera in hand. He watched as they wiped her off, suctioned her lungs, ect. He snapped a few photos and brought them over to me so I could see her. Finally, after getting her ready for transport to the nursery, they brought her over to me. I only got to see her for a min and then she was off. That was kind of disappointing but I was happy DH was able to be there with her.

It took them roughly another 50 mins to put me all back together. Once they were all done, they wheeled me back to a post op recovery room. I got there roughly at 8am. I asked that they call the nursery to tell DH I was back. He was under strict instructions from me to bring my baby to me as soon possible so we could start breastfeeding. The minutes kept ticking by and I was getting really anxious. She didn’t get to me until around 8:45 (turns out she was being used as a example for nursing students so the teacher was going really slowly explaining everything).

As soon as she got there, they tried to have us start breast feeding. They worked on getting her latch onto me. It wasn’t working well and I was getting really frustrated. I was worried too much time had passed and that we wouldn’t be able to get her to latch. They kept calling lactation, and the nurses tried to help me in the mean time. I was getting so discouraged. Finally the lactation consultant showed up and was able to get her to latch immediately. After a short feeding session, they took her back to the nursery for a bath (DH had asked them to postpone that so I could get her sooner) and I was wheeled into my recovery room.

It wasn’t the birth experience I had wanted, but was definitely an amazing experience none the less.

Right after delivery...



Here we are 48 hours after delivery...