Gwyneth goes to work!

Today I took Gwyneth to Williams & Olds to meet my co-workers.  Unfortunately not everyone was in the office but Gwyneth enjoyed meeting those that were there.

Gwyneth and Stacey.

Gwyneth with Pamela and Jamie.

She got a little fussy soon after we got there since it was time for her to eat.  Luckily, being the good mommy that I am, I had a bottle ready.  Stacey and Lisa both enjoyed feeding her. :)

I have missed seeing everyone so it was good to catch up and let them meet Dunebuggy.  For those that visited Gwyneth soon after she was born, they were amazed at how much she has grown!

Gwyneth chilling in my office.

Pamela and Gwyneth.

I look forward to working with everyone again, but I am not looking forward to leaving Gwyneth.  August 1st will be here way too soon!

They grow up fast...

Gwyneth is getting big so fast!  I can see a change in her almost everyday.  She is still packing on the weight and is filling out.  My guess is that she weighs around 11 pounds now, but we won't have an accurate weight reading until our next appointment on July 1st.  I knew she was getting bigger but it wasn't that obvious until I took her to see my friend Sarah's newborn.

Sarah and Baby Lukas, one week old.

Sarah gave birth to Lukas John Holmes exactly one month after Gwyneth was born.  Gwyneth and I had the opportunity to visit with Sarah and Lukas when he was just one week old.  Seeing Lukas as small as he is next to a 5 1/2 week old Gwyneth really brought to my attention how much she has changed.  Her arms and legs were much thicker than his and her head was much larger too.  Everyone tells you babies grow up fast and of course I believed them, but it didn't really hit me until I saw it with my own eyes.

This week has been a week of firsts for Gwyneth.  Monday she started making sounds and coos that we hadn't heard before.  Prior to Monday her sounds were limited to crying but now she is making all kinds of noises!  Most of her vocabulary consists of vowel sounds like "oh" and "ah."  When she "talks" we repeat back to her the sound she made, as if we are having a conversation with her.

Another first for Gwyneth this week was the use of a pacifier.  We have attempted to get her to take a pacifier for the past two-weeks with no luck.  She was just not interested in it and when she did take the paci it was only a matter of seconds before she spit it out.  Yesterday, she had a breakthrough and took to the paci with no problem at all!  It may be a problem down the road when it's time for her to give up her paci, but I am willing to deal with that battle then for a happy baby now.

Last night Gwyneth had another first, she slept in her bassinet without having to be in her bouncer!  For the past few weeks, the only way we could get her to sleep at night was to swaddle her, lay her in her bouncer, turn it on vibrate, and bounce her to sleep.  The bouncing would sometime only take five-minutes, but there were times I had to bounce her for 30 minutes or more!  Gwyneth loves laying on her changing pad when she has her diaper changed so Mrs. Stepp had the idea that we put the changing pad in the bassinet to see what would happen.  We tried it last night and Gwyneth slept like a...well, like a baby.  It worked so well that I went to the store and bought another changing pad just for her bassinet.  Hopefully this is the start of many peaceful nights to come!

One Month

The weekly blog updates are very different now.  Instead of sharing pictures of my baby bump I now get to share pictures of our sweet Gwyneth as she grows!  I can't believe she has been with us for a month already.  I apologize for not keeping up with the blog, but as you can imagine I have had my hands full lately.  Now that I am starting to get the hang of things around here I will have more time to keep everyone updated.  I may not get as many blogs out as I would like, but I promise a genuine effort for at least one per week.

Gwyneth is one month old!

Everything has gone as well as can be expected since we got Gwyneth home, she fits right in here in the Stepp household. :)  Joe has yet to pay any attention to her and Baylee has done surprisingly well.  Brandon and I constantly joked about how Baylee was going to hate Gwyneth and how she was going to snack on baby toes.  I was very worried when we first introduced them but Baylee handled herself well and has yet to show any signs of aggressiveness towards Gwyneth. She has not been aggressive but she most definitely is jealous of all the attention our new little girl is getting.  We are trying to balance Dunebuggy and Baylee time so that she doesn't feel too left out.  It's funny, it feels like we have two children!

Baylee lounging in Gwyneth's bouncer.

Baylee participating in bath time (ignore the messy counter :) ).

Gwyneth has had two doctor's appointments since she was born.  The pediatrician said she  looks great and at her last appointment she was up to 8 lb. 15 oz.  She is packing on the weight and turning into a chunky little baby!  Soon we will have our own little Michelin man. :)  Her next appointment is July 1st and Brandon and I are not looking forward to it.  She will be getting her first round of vaccinations and we are dreading having to watch her get shots and cry.  Everyone says it happens so fast and that she won't cry for long...I hope they are right!

Gwyneth looking just like her daddy!

When she was born, her skin had a dark complexion that can only be described as purple, and she kept the darker complexion for several days.  Brandon began wondering if Gwyneth, which is Welch and means pale or fair, was an appropriate name.  As the days have gone on, she has certainly lightened up and is now living up to her namesake.  We've taken to calling her the Pale Princess of Poo Poo.

Gwyneth getting her first bath...she liked it.

It's been amazing to see how much Gwyneth has changed in just a month!  She was once unable to focus on much of anything in front of her and now you can see her staring at things.  You can hold something in front of her and she will follow it with her eyes as your move it around.  I love just sitting with her and watching her stare back at me.  It's like she is studying my face and trying to figure out who I am.  I can't wait to see how much she changes over the next month!

Of course the sleepless nights and the blowouts in her diaper weren't unexpected. We knew they were coming, yet still they have somehow been shocking in their magnitude and their frequency.  We've been told by multiple parents that the negative parts of these days will fade with time.  It is tempting to look ahead to that day when the extreme tiredness is but a memory, but at the same time that means that she won't be a nine pound precious little baby anymore.  We know various people with babies that are four, six and ten months old, and they all seem like baby behemoths compared to Dunebuggy.  I hear great things about babies when they can hold their heads up and they actually recognize you, but it is still hard to give up our tiny princess.    

Gwyneth Harper Stepp

Miss Gwyneth Harper Stepp was born Saturday, May 7th at 9:52 pm.  She weighed in at 8 lb. 2 oz. and measured 21 inches in length.  She is the most precious baby and Brandon and I are so in love with her.  I can't believe she is already 2 weeks old!

 It wasn't an easy delivery as most of you already know, but it was well worth it and I would do it again in a heartbeat. It began Friday night, May 6th around 7:30 pm.  Brandon and I were sitting at home trying to decide what to have for dinner.  I had been having the usual random contractions throughout the day but could tell they were starting to feel different and were coming more frequently.  We began timing the contractions around 8 pm and at that time they were about 9-11 minutes apart.

We decided to get Chinese food so Brandon placed our order with our favorite place here in Rocklin and soon left to pick it up.  In anticipation that this could be the night we would go to the hospital I began looking through our hospital bag to see what we still had left to pack.  When Brandon got back we continued to time the contractions and they slowly were getting closer to one another.  I started to not feel so good so I didn't even eat my food.  Brandon says I committed a crime by letting Chinese go to waste. :)  

I took a shower and continued to pack our hospital bag as the contractions were down to about 5 minutes apart.  Around 11 pm my contractions started to slow down and seemed to stall.  Brandon and I decided we would go to bed and knew I would wake up if things started to progress.  I had been laying down for no more than 10 minutes when the contractions came back and were much stronger.  I laid in bed watching the clock timing the contractions for about 45 minutes before I woke up Brandon and told him that I thought it was time we got ready to go to the hospital.

We timed the contractions for another hour, they got down to 3 minutes apart and were getting stronger with each contraction.  I wasn't able to talk or walk when they came so I knew this was the real deal.  We called labor and delivery at Kaiser Roseville around 2 am, on Saturday, May 7th.  They confirmed that we should head their way so we packed up the Jetta and left.  It was exciting but also a bit scary.  All I could think was, we are leaving this house just the two of us and we will be coming back with a baby!  Our lives were about to change forever, in a good way of course.  

When we got to the hospital they sent me back while Brandon got a pass.  After filling out the paperwork for admissions we sat in a small room waiting to be evaluated before we could officially be admitted.  The nurse evaluated me and said I was 4 cm dilated, this was 1 cm more than I was at my appointment just 2 days ago.  That to me sounded promising and I thought to myself "wow, we are going to have this baby soon."  Little did I know that Gwyneth had no intention to come anytime soon.  We had a long road ahead of us before she would enter this world.

We were admitted at 3 am and taken to our delivery room.  I will spare you all the details and instead will give you the Cliff Notes version of our hospital experience with just the highlights.  I was able to somewhat manage the pain for the first few hours.  As the contractions got more intense I began to rethink my plan to go medication free.  It wasn't until the nurse checked me at 7 am and told me I was still around 4 cm that I realized this was not going to be a fast labor.  It was then that I requested some pain medication to be administered through my IV.  The medicine didn't do much for the pain really just made me feel more relaxed.  

It was around 9 am when I caved and requested the epidural.  My nurse had been so supportive of my birth plan but as soon as I requested the epidural she quickly got the nurse anesthetist to come administer it.  The epidural was only working on one side of my body so the nurse anesthetist had to make an adjustment to it.  This seemed to help although throughout my labor the epidural would wear off and I would feel the contractions just as painful if not more painful than they were before the epidural.  It seemed like every 2 hours I had them in there working on the epidural because of the pain.  Luckily they were able to inject pain medication directly into the epidural line which helped relieve the pain fairly quickly.

The midwife checked me again around 2 pm and at that time I had only dilated to 5 cm.  This was a bit discouraging considering my contractions appeared to be off the chart when watching the monitor.  With such strong contractions we thought I would be progressing much faster.  The midwife then suggested we start Pitocin, another medication that I had hoped to avoid, to see if that would help me progress faster.  At that time they also decided to administer an internal monitor in my uterus to help them get a better reading on the intensity of each contraction.  It wasn't until then that we discussed the possibility of a c-section.  The midwife had high hopes that the Pitocin would help progress my labor and said she would be back at 5 pm to perform another cervical check.  If the Pitocin did not work then the chance of having a c-section would soon become a reality.

Brandon laid down to nap on the couch and I tried to rest myself but my mind was racing and I couldn't stop watching the monitor.  My contractions were about as half the intensity that they were earlier in the day and at times appeared to be getting further apart.  I began to get discouraged and prepared myself for the very real possibility of a c-section. Soon I started to feel my contractions again as I had been every two hours.  This time the nurse anesthetist decided to replace the epidural to see if that would help.  He also upped the dose of medication as my body seemed to not respond to the regular dose.  This seemed to ease the pain for the time being but I didn't get my hopes up based on my experience with the epidural throughout the day. The midwife got held up with another delivery but stopped by our room around 6 pm to perform a cervical check.  I expected to hear that I was still 5 cm but was thrilled when she happily said I was dilated to 9 cm.  I knew then that our little Gwyneth would be here soon!! 

The midwife left and planned to return at 7:30 pm for one last cervical check in hopes I would be 10 cm.  It was around 7 pm that my contractions started to get very intense and I was in severe pain despite having the epidural.  Brandon paged the nurse and soon both the nurse and midwife entered the room.  The midwife performed a cervical check and I was fully dilated.  It was time to have a baby!  My midwife also informed me that my OBGYN was on call and had just arrived at the hospital so we were thrilled that she would be able to deliver Gwyneth.  

I began pushing around 7:30 pm and approximately two and a half hours later Gwyneth Harper Stepp was born at 9:52 pm.  It was such an amazing moment when they laid her on my chest.  Just minutes before we were just Brandon and Tracy, and there we were now a little family of three.  Brandon performed the usual double check that she was a girl and counted all her fingers and toes, she passed with flying colors.  For the first hour of her life she was one unhappy little girl and was unconsolable but after she got all cleaned up and had her measurements and shots she was a perfect little angel.

Thank you to all our friends and family who were checking in on us during our hospital stay.  We are so happy to be home with our precious baby girl and can't wait for all of you to meet her!  Our lives have been forever changed and we look forward to all the wonderful experiences to come.  Much love to all from the Stepp family!

-Brandon, Tracy, and Gwyneth

39 Weeks

Today is 39 weeks and we are still waiting on Dunebuggy.  We had what will probably be our last appointment with the OBGYN yesterday.  Everything still continues to look good.  Dunebuggy still has a nice strong heartbeat of around 150 beats a minutes and I definitely made some progress since the last appointment and I am now dilated to 3 cm, 70% effaced, and at 0 station.  During the exam the doctor stripped my membranes....don't freak out, it sounds way scarier than what it is!

The procedure was done during her regular examination and didn't hurt a bit.  In fact it happened in just a matter of seconds.  A simple explanation of membrane stripping is the separation of the bag of water from the uterus.  It can help jump start the process of going into labor naturally.  For a few hours after our appointment I was definitely having more contractions and they were getting more intense as time went on.  I began to think last night was going to be the night!  But in celebration of Cinco de Mayo we picked up Chipotle and once we began eating the contractions seemed to fizzle out.  I guess Dunebuggy is just not ready to come out and play just yet.

I have continued to have contractions on and off since last night but they are still very sporadic.  As I've said before, we are on Dunebuggy time so we'll just wait until she is good and ready.  The doctor didn't seem to have any indication as to when she will come, obviously this is not something you can predict.  Both our midwife and our OBGYN are on call this Saturday so maybe we will get lucky and will head to Labor & Delivery while they are there.

Here is a picture of my large belly at 39 weeks!  This may be the last belly shot...

I am also excited to show you all the beautiful quilt that Shelby put together for Dunebuggy!  This all began at the shower she threw for me in March where she had my mom and sisters send her squares for the quilt.  We also made squares for the quilt at the shower and then she put it all together to make an amazing quilt that I love.  Thank you Shelby!!

The Waiting Game

As we get closer and closer to Dunebuggy's due date I am becoming more anxious and a bit nervous.  I can't believe it is just 11 days away!  For the past 8 1/2 months we have been been planning and preparing for this, yet the reality of Dunebuggy actually being here is starting to really sink in.  I am so very excited about her arrival yet at the same time nervous about how it will all go down.  I think the idea of not knowing when and how it will happen is what has me so nervous.  Every night I go to bed wondering if this will be the night I wake up and tell Brandon we need to go to the hospital, but then I wake up and it is just another day.  I think it is natural to want to have everything planned but this is not a situation where that is possible.

In the meantime I have been distracting myself by catching up on some reading.  I have several baby books that I have been meaning to read but just have not had the time.  Today I started reading Babywise.  It's a book that several friends, both here in CA and in AL, have highly recommended we read.  The book is an in depth guide to Parent Directed Feeding (PDF) which helps manage your infants sleep and provides structure during a somewhat unstructured time in your child's life.  From those that I have talked to, you are either for the method or against it, there doesn't seem to be much of an in between.

The general idea of PDF is that you consider both time and hunger cues when determining when you feed your infant.  Some methods suggest you feed your child at a set time regardless of whether they are hungry or not and others suggest you feed them at the slightest sign of hunger regardless of the time lapsed between feedings.  I am only halfway through the book but the PDF method seems logical and based on the success of our other friends who have used this method or are currently using it I think we will most definitely give it a try.  Only time will tell if we are successful in implementing it and whether it will work for us.

On a side note, I think I have failed to mention my "pregnancy snoring" in previous blogs.  Some women may develop a bit of a snoring problem when they are pregnant and unfortunately I am one of them.  This has turned out to be more unfortunate for Brandon as lately it is affecting his sleep.  My snoring is on a whole new level this late in my pregnancy and I woke up last night to find I was in bed alone.  I guess the snoring was so intense that Brandon decided to move to the couch in order to get some rest.  I feel horrible that I am keeping him from getting a goodnight sleep.  From what I hear the snoring stops as soon as the baby is born and I certainly hope that is the case for me....for Brandon's sake!

As we get so close to Dunebuggy's due date, each blog I post has the potential to be the last pre-Dunebuggy blog.  I of course will continue the blog after her arrival although it may take some time to break away to do so.  Brandon and I would like to thank all of our friends and family for their support during this exciting time in our lives.  We would also like to thank all of you for following our blog and your kind comments.  We love you and will keep you posted on Dunebuggy's arrival!

38 Weeks

Today is 38 weeks and we are another week closer to meeting Dunebuggy.  I am so anxious to meet our sweet little girl.  This morning we had an appointment with our midwife, and I have made a little progress.  I am still 1 cm dilated but am now 50% effaced and Dunebuggy has moved down to station -1.  Heather went with me to the appointment this time around.  I was excited for her to hear Dunebuggy's heartbeat and to be at what could possibly be my last appointment.

Brandon and I attended our last class with Kaiser last night on newborn care.  We still don't know everything we need to know about taking care of a newborn but we got a brief overview of some important things like: changing a diaper, swaddling a baby, and giving baby a bath.  The instructor was the same woman from our breastfeeding class and she really got on Brandon's nerves this time around.  It's probably a good thing that it was our last class because I am not sure he could handle attending another one of her classes.

It has been a huge help having Heather here this week.  We have really made some progress on the nursery and it is just about complete.  We spent most of the week washing stuff and organizing, something I had put off due to tax season.  The nursery looks great and is just waiting for Dunebuggy now.  During all of our hard work, we did manage to book some much needed pedicures for ourselves.  Hopefully my toes will stay nice and pretty until Dunebuggy arrives which could be any day now!