2011-04-09

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Months 2 & 3 - Oh that smile!

Month 2 and 3

Month 2 was a bit of a blur, I was finishing up my degree (and graduated!! Whoo hoo!) My brother came for a week to visit and see the girls and then it was Christmas and new years. WHIRLWIND!

Chileshe’s first Christmas was nice! She was so quiet Christmas eve when everyone was over that at times I forgot she was there! I kept saying, Oh yeah I have a new baby. LOL She is so calm and happy. She loved all the snuggles and her big sister liked opening double the presents!!

Chileshe looks SOOOO much like her sister. It is ridiculous! I think that is what we had the most fun comparing in these last few months. She is so much like her big sister but also SO unique and beautiful in her own way. Her features are much daintier than Malaika’s.

Malaika always had big lips and eyes and per her doctor a big head. Haha! Chileshe has the same features but smaller. Her lips are perfect and tiny, and I love how little her hands are. She also has a TON of hair. I can put the hair on the back of her head into a pony tail already.

I will make a quick list of things she is doing and things I want to remember;

Tummy time… I have NEVER seen a baby that loves tummy time like she does. She could lay there for an hour and still coo and watch her big sis. She is also very active on the floor. She has her head realing and moving from side to side. By the end of the third month she rolled over one time, just as quick as she rolled over she rolled right back on her tummy and has not done it since! (I was on the phone with my mom when she did it)

Drooling – She is a DROOL MONSTER! She doesn’t like to wear bibs so I just change her clothes at least twice a day. But that is not a huge problem since she has enough for 4 babies! I think she might teeth early because she is biting on everything.

Smiling – Yes the dimples are amazing, and YES she gets it from me! Haha! I love to see my babies smile. Chile has two big dimples on her cheeks and then two tiny ones on the corners of her mouth. She is JUST the cutest thing when she smiles.

Laughing – Edwin can get her to laugh so easily. I have to work really hard. He is definitely the “Play” parents while I am the “nurturing” one. They go to him for fun and to me when they need some snuggles

Sleeping – She is an amazing sleeper. If I sleep on the couch with her she can sleep for 8 to 10 hours. I was worried at first and would try to wake her up to feed her but I decided to just let it happen and try to sleep too. Edwin and I have decided that we are horrible at training our kids to sleep on their own. I just cannot do it yet! If I sleep without them I have so much anxiety that every noise I hear I wake up and check on them. We ALL sleep better if I sleep with her on my chest. But she is starting to move a little too much so I need to get over it soon. (stay tuned, for the fourth month, we are finally making progress) .

Eating – She loves her bottle. She is eating 4 oz bottles right now and about half and half formula and breast milk.

She is starting to reach out and grab things . She gets so determined and makes funny faces when she is focused.

Such an easy baby, I think we are ready for just one more!

Chile- 1 month - gentle spirit

Well, here we are at 16 weeks (4 months by my calculations but Edwin says we have to wait until February 2nd. Chileshe is growing and developing so fast I can hardly keep track.Here are the month break downs. I hope I can remember everything!

1 month -
This time was spent getting to now her and basically just watching her while she slept. It is amazing how much time you can kill just staring at a newborns face. They make so many cute faces and little grunts and coo's that you just want to remember every minute.
Adjusting to two kids was not as difficult as I thought it would be. My main concern before having Chileshe was that I would not know how to love her like I LOVE Malaika. I new that I would love Chileshe but I had such a connection with Malaika, she has been my sidekick for three years!!
As soon as Chileshe arrived though, there is this little compartment in your heart that grows and contains all the love you need! It is amazing and such a cool experience to love two little people as much as I love my girls!


Chileshe is such an easy baby. As a very new newborn she just needed snuggles and food and diaper changes. If she

cried you knew that one of those things were needed. The rest of the time she was sleeping and could even sleep in

her cradle during the day! (WHAT!?) I was dedicated to

breastfeeding this time around and really wanted to give it

a try. For the first 2 weeks I did breast milk only. She had weekly check-ups at the doctor and by the first check-up she had already lost to much weight. We had to continue to go to appointments twice a week until she gained back to her birth weight. They said I had to give her formula as well as breast milk. I was sad but not overwhelmed like I was with Malaika. I just decided to do my best and after two weeks she was back to her birth weight. Thank you Similac!
Her sleep schedule was fairly easy.
sleep from 5-9 - wake up eat and changesleep from 10-2 - wake up eat and change
sleep from 3-7 - wake up eat and change
sleep 8-10 - usually sister would wake up and

start making noise =0)

This was the first 4 weeks and she was also fairly easy to get back to sleep. The one thing I really noticed about her is her gentle spirit. She is SOOOO happy and easy. She did not have long drawn out cries and basically just calm all the time. We even took her to Red Robin for Malaika's family birthday dinner and papa's pizza for her friend party and she never cried once. Just slept... it was weird LOL

She was sooo tiny and dainty and BEAUTIFUL!

Malaika has adjusted so well and LOVES being mommy's helper. She is even willing to help with diaper changes. She gives Chile lots of kisses and loves to touch her face. She is such a good big sister!
The biggest adjustment for us has been WHERE to sleep. Malaika still sleeps in our "big" bed sometimes and we had tried to adjust her to her toddler bed before Chile came.

The first night home she was NOT okay sleeping in her toddler bed. She wanted in on all the action and baby "fun". SO I ended up sleeping on the couch in the living room with Chile and Malaika and Edwin sleep in the bed. (uh hmm... she is 4 weeks old and I am still sleeping on the couch.... We are sooo not good at the independent sleep thing)

I dream of a day when Edwin and I can sleep in our gigantic bed all to ourselves and dream sweet un-interrupted dreams... HA!

Stay tuned for month two, hopefully before she is a year old.

Chileshe has arrived!!!

Chileshe’s Delivery (I know a little late)
We were scheduled to induce on the 2nd at 7:30 a.m. at Tuality Hospital. My doctor advised me when we set up the induction that she would most likely not deliver my baby unless the induction process was fat and I had the baby by 5 or 6 p.m. I was supposed to call the birthing center at 7 and let them know I was scheduled for 7:30 and they would let me know if there were any available beds. (This is the same thing we had to do for Malaika’s birth. ) I was prepared for them to tell me that there were no available beds and to call back around noon. That is exactly what happened. IMAGINE! Luckily I was prepared and did not have a freak out moment this time and I just hopped in the shower and went about my dad as usual. I knew they would get me in sooner or later. Around 11:30 we received a call and they asked if I could get in within the next 15 to 20 minutes. I loved it when the lady immediately said, “So I hear you want to have a baby today?” YES YES and YES!
Susanna had spent the night the night before so she could take care of Laika until my mom could get to the house. So we packed up the car and gave her hugs and kisses and off we went. Malaika was actually pushing us out the door. I think she was excited to have alone time with her favorite aunty.
We got to the hospital around noon and they admitted us into this HUGE suite. It was GIGANTIC! After all the paper work and blood tests and IV were put in the doctor came to talk about my options. At my last apt. (The day before) Dr. Bird had said I was measuring at a 3 almost a 4. That was exciting to me because I knew Pitocin would give me the kick I needed to start labor. BUT when I was checked by the nurse she said I was MAYBE a 2. (Oh, and for the record, I cannot stand nurses with little tiny hands. They were actually bracing themselves on the bed rail to check me. I had 3 different nurses come in because the two before said they could not “find” my cervix. UM? I know it didn’t walk away.)
They had called the doctor to check me and I thought they were going to send me home. But she checked and said I was a solid 3 and they needed to get started. (Take that small handed nurses! Haha Can you tell I felt victorious!)
They started the Pitocin around 1:30 and checked on me every hour or so. The contractions kept increasing. Around 7 they started noticing Chileshe’s heart rate dropping with each contraction. They were a little bit concerned so they started coming in every 20 minutes or so to check on us. The pain was increasing but I felt really good. I was dilated to about a 5 around 8 o’clock. (Oh and by the way I prayed that my night nurse would be gentle and have nice long fingers. The LORD absolutely loves me and sent me a long fingered angel of a nurse. She was so kind and GENTLE, no bracing herself and shoving her entire arm up my hoo ha. SHEESH! The constant checks from the day time nurses were almost as bad as the delivery itself!) The nurse advised me that Dr. Hendrickson, the Doctor on call was going to come in to break my water (If I wanted that) in about an hour. She said I could either have my epidural now or after the water was broke. I decided to have the epidural before the water breaking because with Malaika, as soon as my water broke she was on her way.
The anesthesiologist came in about 20 minutes later and inserted the epidural. I was actually really nervous about it. I always have these weird fears that if the epidural worked so well the first time (as far as side effects go) then it was bound to get me the second time. Well, the first epidural did not work. I felt no numbing of pain and well, I Felt everything! You are not supposed to if you have an epidural. She kept asking me if it was working and I kept thinking it would eventually kick in. So we waited … She left the room and I started crying, I told Edwin I could still feel everything but I felt bad asking her to come back and re-insert it. I was also scared to go through the procedure again. What if I annoyed the anesthesiologist and she comes in and does a hack job the second time? EEK! Edwin calmly told me that we were paying a TON of money for this epidural and if it was not working we needed to let them know. I of course wanted to get my money’s worth. LOL She came back in and re-inserted the tube and this time it was amazing!
About a half hour later the Doctor finally arrived to break my water and put things into motion. I knew as soon as my water broke delivery would be quick. With Malaika they broke my water around 6 and I had her by 8 (ish). It was now 10:00 and I was MORE than ready to have this baby. The Doctor said everything looked clear and fine and she would be back to check on me in a few hours. As soon as the doctor left I could feel pressure and some pain in my core. I tried to relax and watch some TV (Modern Family was on) BUT I could not concentrate at all. Around 11 I started shaking uncontrollably (just like Malaika’s delivery teeth chattering and all) GOSH I HATE the shakes! Edwin made fun of me after the delivery because I kept apologizing to everyone because I was shaking so much. I think I would win the award for the NICEST woman in delivery EVER! With each Contraction came a wave of shakes. I could feel her moving down and I told the nurse I was ready to push. She had me do a practice push (I don’t think she believed that I was really ready). I gave her one push and she said… “Uh, hold on I need to page the doctor. Do not push while I am gone!”
When she came back with the doctor she was surprised that it was time already. They set everything up and said I could start pushing. I remember looking at the clock at 11:40 and I was like, “Oh Edwin I think we will have this baby today on the 2nd. “ The Doctor dashed my hopes and said ; “Well, pushing takes a while so it will probably be a little longer.”
I showed her! I pushed her out in 3 rounds of 3 pushes each and at 11:51 pm on February the second Chileshe Amyra Mwango joined the Mwango clan (8 lbs. 7 oz. and 20 inches long)! She is AMAZING and beautiful and I could talk about her for hours! They put her right up on my chest and they actually left her up there for a while. They cleaned her and I was able to just look at her beautiful features. It is so rewarding after waiting for so long and all the hard work you put into labor to see such a beautiful face and know that this little baby is a part of you. I tear up thinking about what a blessing my kids have been to my life, they literally change you from the moment you look into their little face. You want to BE more for them and GIVE them everything you can. Your desire is no longer selfish but abundant. Nothing can compare!

Week 39 - We are ready!!!

Well, here we are in week 39 and I feel like I am twiddling my thumbs. I have ALL the clothes organized up to 12 months and I have purchased everything else possible. The house is as clean as it can be with a toddler running behind me undoing everything I have "done". LOL

I had my 39 week appointment on Monday and the doctor said that I was definitely 3 CM dilated but I was still measuring thick. It is so nice to go to a doctor appointment and have progress. I have been waking up with contractions all week around 2 am. (which is weird hat they are always at the same time) I usually lay there for a minute and try to time them and then get up and go to the bathroom and get a drink of water. By the time I do all of that the contractions have gone away. I told my doctor that the contractions were making it hard to sleep through the night and part of me was thinking about an induction if she thought I was a good candidate.
NOW let me say I have been SOOOO against having an induction this time around. With Malaika we had a lot of family drama going on and I really needed to have the induction and have all of my family around when she was born. With Chileshe I have not had a real reason to induce and I kind of want to see what labor feels like when you can do part of it at home. BUT I guess when you hit 39 weeks you could really care less what happens as long as you are healthy and baby is healthy. I am just ready to move forward with our little family and see what she looks like!!!

At my 38 week appointment I had my membranes stripped and I thought for sure that would bring on the contractions but I had no such luck. So the doctor stripped them again this week (CAN WE SAY PAINFUL!). She did advise me that she could induce Tuesday (which was today) but she also recommended that I wait and see what happens after the membrane stripping. She thinks I am going to have a Halloween baby.
Initially I said yes to the Tuesday induction, then Edwin and I discussed the pro's and con's and felt like we should wait a week and see what happens. So next Tuesday will be Chileshe's eviction notice.

I have felt fairly good this week. I gained 3 pounds bringing my grand total to 17 pounds this pregnancy. I am tempted to close my eyes next week so I can stay under 20. =0) I can't believe it is already October!

Stayed tuned for the Delivery...

Week 37 - the waiting game begins

So, I really don't mind being pregnant. The minor aches and pains cannot compare to the alien like stomach movements at the end of each day. I can have the toughest day, and then I feel a little person move inside of me and I realize this is SOOOOO worth it. I had my 37 week appointment yesterday and I am almost done with the doctor rotation. It will be good to see my doctor again next week. So the highlights of this weeks appointment were;
* Gained 1 pound - That puts me at a total of 12 pounds this pregnancy
* Baby's heartbeat was fine and she found it down low so she is still in position
* This was my first internal exam and she said I was 2 CM dilated and 25% effaced
*She could also feel the bag of waters and Chileshe's head. (SO COOL!)
* They asked me if I wanted to have the flu shot and I said, OF COURSE! (Now my arm hurts like I had a serious weight lifting session. )

My next appointment is Monday and they will check me again. hopefully I will have progressed.

Last night I woke up to a few contractions. They were coming pretty regularly but my stomach was not hard like a rock. But these suckers were painful. Once I got up and went to the bathroom and drank a glass of water they went away.

I was making fun of Edwin this week because he is in TOTAL nesting mode. He is cleaning out drawers of paperwork and organizing cupboards in the kitchen. Last night we pulled the totes of baby clothes down and I sorted through them. I am trying to get a little bit ahead of the game on these clothes. It is one of the most annoying tasks. We also have an extra playpen, breast pump, and jogging stroller that I am going to see if my internship location would like or need.
Well, that is all I can think of right now. I need to go study for my final tomorrow night (biomedical ethics - gotta LOVE it)and then I need to relax! I have my last day of my internship on Thursday and I am SOOOOO excited to have finished all of those hours in such a short period of time. I will miss seeing the girls, but I know they are going to text me constantly. I will be posting a blog about my first maternity photo shoot that I did with one of the girls and her sister. They let me practice on them and it went REALLY well.

Week 34- Baby Chileshe, we are almost done!

Since I left you all in suspense at week 14, I thought it was about time I let everyone in on my "never-ending" pregnancy. (At least that is what this week feels like)

I currently have 2 days left in week 34 and I am not going to be sad to see it go! I have been a sore, emotional, irritable, and a pathetic MESS this entire week. It all started when Chileshe decided to flip into position, which I am VERY thankful for since Malaika was Breech up until the end. The consequences of her flipping have brought the constant reminder to my lower back that I have a baby growing inside of me.

All whining aside I am so excited that we are nearing the end of this journey and I get to meet my sweet little baby in a few weeks! This pregnancy has been COMPLETELY different from my pregnancy with Malaika.HEre is my mental list;
* In the beginning I had a lot more morning sickness

* With Malaika I had bleeding and a lot of complications and with Chileshe I have had a pretty uneventful pregnancy.

* I would say I have been a little more emotional this pregnancy. But you would probably have to ask my husband or my mom since they are the ones who have to deal with me crying.

* Had one ultrasound at 18 weeks and found out we were having a GIRL! The doctor told me I will not have anymore ultrasounds soooo we are hoping they were correct when they told us a girl. (18 weeks is a little early) If not then we have a TON of pink clothes to give away!

* Had my Rho-gam shot for the RH negative blood type around 24 weeks.

* Edwin is getting more excited as we draw near to the end. He is really excited to have two little girls!

* This baby is a MOVER and a SHAKER! She is constantly doing flips and kicks and jabs. With Malaika I had to drink Orange juice and lay down and pray I would feel 20 kicks. I have not had to do that once with Chileshe. She is awake when I wake up in the morning. When I eat she kicks, when I go to the bathroom she kicks, and when I go to bed at night she rolls around! It has been really nice to not have to worry about her and I kind of like the feeling.

* I think we have decided on the middle name...maybe? I won't say yet because we have changed our mind SOOOO many times.

* Had an AMAZING baby shower and feel so blessed by all the friends and family in our lives!

* Pretty much have everything washed and organized. We just need to set up the cradle and playpen.

* Still working on getting Malaika into her own bed. We have our good weeks and then our bad weeks. But I do kind of like having her around so much. I just miss snuggling my husband!

* So far I have not had any outrageous cravings EXCEPT: Hash-browns! For a good two weeks that was all I wanted and one night I almost cried when I burned them. LOL
Watermelon is a constant and I think it is the reason I do not gain very much weight in pregnancy.

* As of my appointment on Monday I have only gained 9 pounds this pregnancy!!! THANK YOU JESUS! The doctor told me to expect about 2 pounds per week from now on so I am bracing myself to see that scale move up.


That is pretty much all I can think of right now. I am really thankful for my husband and his hard working bones. I have been able to be a stay at home mom throughout this entire pregnancy and I feel so blessed to have this time with Malaika and time to focus on school. I graduate this December with my Bachelors in Healthcare Administration and then I am looking at a Master's program in Public Health to start winter term. God just keeps providing for our family and helping things work out!

I will try to keep everyone posted in these final weeks and also post pictures ASAP!