Oh My, Mia is halfway to a year! It's so bittersweet!  I'm so thankful that she is growing and learning and we've all survived 6 months (ha), but im so sad she's not a little newborn anymore!

Mia is 5 months old!!!

Mia is 4 months old!!!

Mia is already 1/4 of the way to a year old, oh my!  

I guess I should do her 2 month post since she's now 3 months.  Story of my life :-). 

OMG, Mia is already a month old, how can it be?
She weighed 9lbs 3oz and was 21inches at her 1 month check up.


Mia is growing and changing so much! This has been an exhausting, but amazing month! She had her days and nights mixed up for a few days after we brought her home, but she figured it out. I started noticing that she was spitting up after her feedings and very upset, so I thought she had reflux. The doctor confirmed that she did have reflux and also colic (noooooooo). So we started Zantac and it has helped with the reflux tremendously! As far as the colic, we have learned to wait and give her a bath late and then swaddle her and feed her and she usually goes right to sleep. She is usually really fussy in the evening, but at least we know that there is nothing wrong with her! Her doctor told us that it was perfectly fine if we just put her in her car seat sit her in a room, and we walk outside and scream :-). I feel like we are finally getting the hang of each other. I'm loving staying at home with her and getting to see her grow!

Mia LOVES her bath!!! It's the only way we can calm her down other than holding her straight up and letting her kick off my belly (I know it's weird, but it works). She instantly stops crying the second we lay her on the sponge. She looks in the mirror and talks and occasionally knocks over all her bath stuff :-). She also loves to lay on her playmat and kick and kick and kick. She has started smiling and "talking" back to me, I just love it! She can roll over to her side.

She is now in 0-3 month clothes as of 3 weeks. I was so sad to pack away her newborn clothes! She's not so little anymore :-(. She has been waking up once during the night to eat and usually goes to sleep around 11:30. During the day, she eats 3 1/2 oz every 2 hours. She's also in size 1 diapers.

Mia had her first play date with her friend, Alice. Mia wanted to play, but Alice just wanted to sleep :-).

Mia Elaine Whitlock arrived Monday 3-18-2013 at 4:01p.m. She was 7lbs 10oz and 19 inches long.

Her birth story:
We decided with the doctor that it was best to go ahead and induce Sunday night since she was already 4 days past her due date. So we went in Sunday night at 10. I was actually really calm on the way to the hospital, Todd-not so much :-). I seriously thought he might throw up or pass out on the way there. We got checked in and went up to our room. There were 3 nurses waiting on us to get things started. I was actually having contractions every 2-3 minutes when i got there. I had no clue, so they had to call my doctor to make sure he still wanted to start the induction- he did since i wasn't feeling the contractions. It all went so quickly-everything was done and lights were out by 10:45. They gave me a pill to get things started at around 11. I didn't get much sleep because every time I turned on my side, they couldn't pick up the baby's heartbeat. Therefore, I had to lay on my back pretty much the entire night! I got the second pill around 3 and started to feel some contractions. They weren't terrible, but definitely enough to keep me from sleeping. Also, I couldn't go to the bathroom for 2 hours after each pill, I thought my bladder might burst each time :-/. They started the pitocin at 7 a.m. I pretty much immediately started feeling stronger contractions! They bumped up the pitocin every 30 minutes (I dreaded those times)! At about 9:30 a.m. (Pitocin was up to 30 at this point), I decided to go ahead and get the epidural (best decision ever)! I was trying to wait until my doctor broke my water, but he took too long :-) I told the guy doing my epidural that I would buy him a car, just give me the drugs :-). I jumped a little on the numbing shot, but didn't feel the epidural at all! Then, all was well! Seriously, I have no clue how anybody would make it through labor with pitocin without an epidural. I told Todd that I think I would have passed out! I was sweating from the pain! Then we just hung out for a little while eating my ice chips! At 1 the doctor came in and broke my water- I was 5cm. At 1:50, my nurse checked me and I was at 8cm. I was so shocked that I was already at 8. The rest is a little bit of a blur. When I got to 9cm, Mia was sitting on a nerve on my right side blocking the epidural :-(. So from 9cm to when I started pushing, I felt every contraction on my right side. It was painful!!!!!! They came in and gave me a bolus of the epidural, but it didn't help. They said they could give me morphine or Demerol, but I was too close to pushing. So I just held the bed rails and suffered through it. Thank goodness it didn't last long! They started getting things set up and at 3:30, I started pushing. Feeling the contractions definitely helped me push. I think pushing was the part I was most scared about. I just kept thinking, what if I can't push her out. I had already made it to the end, and to not be able to push her out would have been devastating! Also, I was scared I wasn't going to know how to push. Well, I had no problem with the pushing. It was hard though, it takes all your muscles and all your energy! I was definitely thinking I was going to bust a blood vessel, in my face! Todd stood up by my head and just told me i was doing a great job (he was also crying when i was pushing, so sweet). They told me she had hair when they could see her head! Also, i had 2 students in with me the whole day, it was their first day in labor and delivery. They were crying when she was born, so sweet. I couldn't wait to see her! At 4:01, our sweet little girl made her arrival. I can't put into words how I felt. All I kept saying was oh my gosh. It was very overwhelming! She was gorgeous and she was mine :-). I couldn't wait to hold her, I didn't care what got on me! She was grey when she was born so they let me hold her for about a minute, then they took her to suction her out and make sure she was ok. They had a hard time getting her to cry, she was just bright eyed and looking around. Later when she got her bath, she let them know that she could cry though :-). I don't remember a whole lot about the evening, it was all so overwhelming. She was gorgeous and I loved her more than I can explain!