Six Months!

Melody had her six month appointment on Tuesday, July 19th. She's 25 3/4 inches in height (50%), 18 lbs. 7.8 oz. (90%), & her head is 43 cm. (65%). I can't believe how big she is, and she was a preemie. She turned six months on Tuesday, July 12th. She started rolling over from back to stomach on Monday, June 27th, and she started rolling from her stomach to her back on July 19th. She also starting scooting herself around starting on Monday, July 18th. She was doing it a little bit before then, but she really started doing in on Monday. I can't believe how much she is doing in just a short amount of time. If I hold her in a sitting position, she'll hold herself up for a couple of seconds.

Melody at her first bite of baby food on Wednesday, July 20th. She prefers chewing on her bib more. She's sitting in her new seat below, and she seems to really enjoy hanging out with the family. :-)

Melody is holding her head up.

I took these pictures yesterday. Melody is getting so strong. I predict her rolling over very soon, and then crawling....oh man, I'm in trouble. ;)

Melody had her 4 month appointment yesterday!

Melody had her 4 month appointment yesterday. She was 4 months on May 12th. She now weighs 14 lbs. 6 oz., and she is now in the 70th percentile. She is also 24 inches, and she is in the 40th percentile. She's getting so big. She laughs and smiles a lot. I know I'm bias, but she's such a pretty baby. She is doing everything that she is suppose to be doing for her age which is great since she was born premature. She definitely has caught up.

I just love my babies!

I love how all three of them are smiling in this picture, and you get an idea of each of their personalities. I was trying to get a cute shot to put on a mug for the grandmas for Mother's Day. I think I succeeded. I'm not sure if it will get here on time, but we'll see. Otherwise, they will receive it next week. They are growing up so fast. I just love them so. :-)

Melody Smiling Her Way Through It All

Melody is getting over her double ear infection and horrible cough. She's still on oxygen, but I have an appointment on Monday to see if she can go off it. They did lower it from 1/4 Liter to 1/16 Liter. She is definitely being a good sport in all of this. My poor baby. I just want her to be better and healthy.

Melody is 3 Months Old!

Melody started off her 3 months with a bang. I went to the doctor today for Sebastian's well-baby check-up, and he wanted to check to see how Melody is doing. Her pulse was in the eighties, and he was concerned. She had a chest x-ray yesterday, but everything looked fine. No pneumonia or any other respiratory related issues. She goes back tomorrow to be checked again to see how she is doing. For now, she needs to be on oxygen. I'm so freaked out, and I want my baby to be alright. It doesn't help that I feel like complete crap. I have Bronchitis! Yuck!

Here's a picture of my sweet pea from our picture session from Saturday. We went to Kiddie Kandids for professional pictures, although we didn't get as many good pictures as I would have hoped. Get better soon, my sweet baby.

Sebastian Turns 2 Today!

Sebastian is 2 years old today. I feel like he was just born. He's such a talker, and it's so cute how he plays with his toys. He got some trains for his birthday, and a farm. He'll get more stuff on Saturday for his birthday party. We were going to go to the aquarium today, but Melody has been very sick. We'll wait until next week instead. We celebrating with grandma and grandpa with some pizza and cupcakes.

Melody's First Real Smile

Melody giving a true smile. She's been smiling on and off for a couple of weeks, but I was able to get her to smile for me on the camera. It's great to see her growing, and doing well despite being premature. Melody is 12 weeks today. I can't believe how quickly the time is going.

Cedric turns Four!

Four years ago on March 19th my first baby came into the world. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. My sweet boy is getting so big. Here he is with me when he was brand new. He still loves to snuggle with me, which I love. Happy Birthday, Cedric!

Cedric's latest stats: He's 38 3/4 inches(25th%) and 30 1/2 lbs.(10th%). He's forever my little guy.

Cedric celebrated with cupcakes the day before at his preschool.

Opening up his gifts.

Sebastian showing off one of Cedric's gifts.

Melody joining in the fun.

Cedric had his birthday party at his favorite place, My Gym.

Cedric and his friends that came to celebrate his big day.

Sebastian loved the zip line.

Cedric's birthday cake. It's a Caillou cake.

Cedric riding his new bike that he got on his birthday. He's riding it a week later.

Melody is 2 Months Old!

Melody is already two months old. I can't believe how quickly the time is going. Sebastian turned 23 months on the 11th, and Cedric will be 4 on the 19th. In a month, I will have a 4 year old, a 2 year old, and a 3 month old. Crazy!

Melody's two month appointment will be on Tuesday, so I'll post her stats then.

Smiles!

Melody is starting to smile more and more. I haven't seen a social smile yet, but she definitely looks at me with recognition.

I can't believe March is almost here. Cedric turns 4 next month. Crazy!

Sebastian turns 2 years old in April. Here he is showing his shocked look. My babies are growing up so fast.

A Comparison of All Three

I decided to make a collage of my children when they were all around 5 weeks of age. Maybe it's just me, but Melody looks like a girl and Cedric & Sebastian look like boys.

Melody's Due Date!

Today's the day that Melody was suppose to be born. I know most babies aren't born on their due date, but Melody's sticks out to me because she was a preemie. She's doing well and her skin color is normal looking. She was orange for awhile there.

A part of me is sad that she didn't make it to at least February, because I missed out on special moments I didn't have with her. John wasn't in the room, we don't have video of her first bath, she wasn't laid on my chest after she was born, and I didn't get to breastfed her right away. Don't get me wrong, I'm so glad she is here and finally healthy, but I can't change feeling a little sad. I know there are no guarantees, and bad things can happen to full term babies. It's just my last baby, and this wasn't a very easy pregnancy. Too many scares along the way. Thankfully, all is well, and my beautiful, baby girl loves to cuddle, and she's so sweet. I guess she was just too excited to meet us.

It's A Girl!!!!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011 I had an early appointment with my doctor's office where I found out the baby had gone from a transverse position to full on breech. I saw the midwife that day, and I told her that I was having some contractions but they weren't consistent. She didn't want to check me, because she didn't want to cause my bleeding to come back. She said I was behaving like I wasn't in labor, so she wasn't concerned.

Fast forward to later on that evening. My husband and I took the boys out to dinner, and I would feel the contractions coming more often. At 6:30, we were home, so I started timing the contractions. They were coming every 4 minutes and lasting about a minute. I let my body go through 6 just to make sure the contractions continued on this pattern. They had me come into labor and delivery. John and I waiting for my parents to come over to watch the boys. We left at 8pm, and got to the hospital about 8:30pm. They brought me up to L&D, and hooked me up to the monitors. The nurse had questions to ask me, and John and I were joking around with the nurse. They still hadn't checked me yet to see if I was dilated. One of the doctors on call could observe my contractions remotely via his phone. He didn't think I was in active labor and he was going to have me be sent home with some Ambien, but he asked the nurse to check me just in case.

The nurse checked me and needed to get the opinion of another nurse, because she wasn't sure. Both experienced nurses couldn't tell if I was dilated or if my cervix was just softening. I think the breech position was throwing them off. They decided to consult with the doctor on the floor. She checked me, and she said I was 9cm dilated and my water was bulging. My contractions were getting more and more intense, especially after they were checking me. My body started pushing....I couldn't stop it. My water exploding on the table. They kept telling me to stop pushing, and I told them just knock me out. They were rushing me to the OR for an emergency c-section. Right before we went in the OR, my body started pushing again, and I felt the baby's foot come out. I told them something was happening. John was back in the L&D room putting on scrubs. In the OR, the doctor had a hold of the baby's leg, and the nurses were pushing my legs back, and they were telling me to push hard. I pushed as hard I could, and I felt the doctor turning the baby to guide the baby through my pelvis. The baby came out with one big push. It was that doctor's first vaginal breech delivery. With all the excitement, nobody told me what I had. I asked, and they said it's a girl. John walked in a minute later, and thought I had a c-section. The surgeon said, "I'm not that fast!".

Melody Evangeline was born on January 12, 2011 at 9:53pm. She weighed 6 lbs. 9 oz., and she was 18 inches. She was a great size for being born 5 weeks/1 day early. She still needed to go to the NICU. John went with her, and I had to get stitches for a 2nd degree tear. Melody's leg was bruised from being born breech, but she was breathing on her own. She did have to go on the CPAP machine for a day, because she was grunting. She's also under the bilirubin lights for jaundice, and she was given an IV for extra fluid. They also gave her antibiotics for a few days in case she had an infection. Precautionary...thankfully her cultures were negative for an infection. It looks like she will only be having to be here for a week, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

John and I had our first date January 12, 2002. Who knew that nine years later I would be married to him and giving birth to our third child. Life is crazy!

I had a dream that I blogged about that everything in it seemed to be a premonition to this moment: http://babyboo2005.blogspot.com/2010/10/last-night-i-had-strangest-dream.html