Happy baby

Our happy little Maeva is three weeks today. She is so playful already. Last night when Jake got home from work at 12:30 am she woke up in such a happy, smiley mood that we couldn't get ourselves to put her to bed until 1:30. We have been enjoying this parenting thing way too much!

Today we went to visit some friends that just had a baby. When we put her in her car seat we had to loosen the straps because she had grown too big. Then we saw her up next to the brand-new born and almost cried because of how big she is getting.  Our friends out here always comment on how she looks like her daddy, but she definitely has a lot of Orton in her, too. Especially those eyebrows.We love this little sugar muffin and can't wait until July when we take her to Utah to meet the family. Until then, here ya go:

 

2 weeks

 Maeva is 2 weeks old today (happy birthday to both of her grandmas by the way!). I cannot believe how fast she is growing and changing. I am absolutely loving being her mother.  She is such a great baby and I can't get enough of her.

Maeva one week old:

Maeva loves her daddy, and boy does he love her.  They just love to look at each other. When she is crying, all Jake has to do is hold her like this and talk/sing to her. She just loves it. I know she isn't supposed to socially smile yet, but sometimes I really think she smiles at us. 

 Grandma Orton made her this incredible quilt with her signature "Sunbonnet Sues." Isn't it beautiful?

 Baby shoes are a weakness I have... The ones she is sporting below as well as the cute outfit are from Mima!

Maeva has a very strong little body.  I noticed this when she kicking the crap out of my insides... After she was born, we noticed right away that she already had incredible neck strength.  She would be resting on my chest and use her arms to push up to look at my face. She could hold her head up for quite a while!
When we gave her tummy time she would almost look like she was going to roll over or get up and crawl around. We thought she might be a little advanced strength wise, but we did not imagine that at 8 days old she would roll over! When she did, Jake and I started laughing, but we thought she had probably just gotten lucky. We put her back on her tummy and she did it again! When it looked like she was trying for a third time we got out the camera:

rolling over:

She has done it a few times since then, and still has to really work up to it.  We have to keep a close eye on this one! Maybe as she gets older it will get harder for her to do it. Anyway... no wonder my ribs hurt so bad! 

About Maeva:

Blue eyes

Dark red hair
Height: 21 inches (75%)
Weight: 8 lbs 12 oz (60%)
Head circumference: 36.5 cm (70%)

Smiles in her sleep ALL the time

Loves to look at our faces and turns towards our voices

holds her head up for a surprisingly long time

 rolls from tummy to back
sucks on her fist to soothe herself

Superstar sleeper- eats about every 4 hours at night

Loves to go on walks and be outdoors

 

Heeeeere's Maeva!

We are so excited and proud to announce the arrival of our sweet little Maeva Jeannette Hopkinson! Her middle name is supposed to be Jeanette (one 'n' because it's my mom's middle name) but apparently Jake misspelled it on the birth certificate, so there you have it! Maeva was born April 5, 2012, weighed 8 lbs 2 oz, and was 21 inches long. I know, I know I am a little late for the blog announcement (she's almost 2 weeks old!!), but things have been busy around here!

Birth story:

I apologize about all of the detail, I just don't want to forget anything about this day.

 Since nothing else seemed to get me into labor, we scheduled to be induced 8 days from my due date. The hospital was supposed to call me between 5 and 10 Wednesday evening so they could give me a pill to start softening my cervix to prepare me for pitocin the following morning. We waited and waited and played card games and waited... The phone call finally came! The nurse, however, did not have good news for us. She let me know that they were out of room that night and they might have to set me back another day. Something about having to save beds for people actually IN labor... Can you believe that?? Selfish laboring women. So we were once again very disappointed, but we weren't too surprised because Maeva was just having too much fun keeping us in suspense. Mom and Jake scolded me a little for being a pushover  so when they called again I made Jake talk to them- he's a lot more persuasive than I am. He worked his magic and before we knew it we were on our way to the hospital! We headed in around 11:00 pm on April 4th.

It turns out that the pill (yeah, I have no idea what it's called...) did the trick.  Around 3:00 am on April 5th I began real labor. I was in a lot of pain, but I was grateful for it because it meant it was FINALLY happening! Before they knew I was going into labor they gave me a sleeping pill so I could get some rest before it got too bad. Bad idea. Yeah, I slept some, but I was still waking up to the pain and having to pee. I couldn't walk to the bathroom because I was so shaky and sick.  Apparently I was pretty out of it, too. I thought I knew what was going on, but now that night is pretty much a blur. The baby's heart rate wasn't looking the best, so they put me on oxygen.

My contractions began to come so close together and each time I would have one the baby would become stressed.  They were worried that the baby wasn't getting enough time between contractions to rest. Although I had planned to have a natural birth, we decided to get an epidural to help slow down the contractions and of course to help with the intense pain I was experiencing (By the way, I don't remember being in THAT much pain. I just remember being extremely weak and shaky and feeling like my ribs were broken. But like I said, I don't remember much about that night).

As we were waiting for the Anesthesiologist my water broke! I remember that. As I was sitting up to get the epidural more water splashed out... and more... and more. All over the floor, my nurse, and Jake. The nurse was so surprised about how much water I had.

I slept a little more once the epidural kicked in. By the time I woke up I had a new nurse who was amazing. She was concerned that the baby was stressed because the cord might be wrapped around her neck and thought she might be posterior. She started helping me change positions every 5 minutes or so to help her move further along. My right leg was completely dead so she had to move it for me.

At 8:00 I was dilated to a 5, making good progress. Around 8:30 am I sent Jake to get breakfast. He hadn't been feeling well, and I didn't want him to go passing out on me or anything.  At 8:45 my nurse decided to check me again. I was surprised when she said, "Wow, ok, you are fully dilated and we are going to start pushing in 15 minutes!" That came a lot quicker than I was expecting! I knew Jake wouldn't be much longer, but part of me worried that he would miss it.

He came in a couple of minutes later and I casually told him what was happening. He was so excited but still had to eat something. In his haste he spilled most of his food. The nurse came in and helped me do some practice pushes.  Since Maeva was posterior and possibly had the cord wrapped around her neck they wanted to get her out quick. They brought in the vacuum extractor and gave me an episiotomy (I still tore further by the way- big baby+small mommy=3rd degree tear). I had 4 nurses, the doctor and Jake all cheering me on as I pushed. In about 3 rounds of pushes Maeva arrived at 9:34 am.

I was able to hold her for a moment while Jake cut the cord, but since she was struggling to breath, they took her across the room to help her. They brought her to me for a couple of more minutes before they rushed her off to the neo-natal care center. Jake stayed with her for about 2 hours until we all met up again in my recovery room.

I just wanted to hold her and snuggle her and look at her perfect little face. After the nurses did a few more things to me (catheter, checking vitals, etc) I finally got my wish. Jake and I are so smitten by this sweet little lady. I am so grateful that although she had a traumatic entrance into the world, she is healthy and happy. We never even imagined how much we could love her.

After a couple of more uncomfortable nights at the hospital, we finally got to bring her home!

(Above) Mima (Jake's mom) made and sent Maeva this adorable blanket.

(Below) Grandma Orton helped so much while she was here. We are so grateful for all she did!

Maeva, we are so happy to have you in our lives. We have experienced so much joy and love since you have been here. We cherish every moment we have with you. We can't take our eyes off of you because of how beautiful and happy you are. I am excited to watch you learn and grow, but please don't grow too fast.

 We love you so much, Maeva. 

Love, Mom and Dad

"...Before the Birth"

 Before I post about the arrival of our sweet little Maeva, I need to record some fond memories of the week prior.  My mother flew in on Wednesday, March 27th (my due date was the 28th).  Because of all of the "pre-labor" action I had been experiencing for the past month, we all figured I would be a little early.  Boy were we wrong.

Mom was only scheduled to stay a week, so when the baby still hadn't made much progress by the 28th, we tried to schedule an induction asap. They refused (apparently it's the law or something..) to induce me before 41 weeks, so the earliest day we could schedule it was April 4.  So, as you can imagine, we did EVERYTHING we could to get this baby going before then so Mom's trip would not be in vain.

We tried to have an enthusiastic attitude by describing every activity as "The ____ before the birth," which was usually said in a British accent (thus, the title of this post). So here are some pictures of "the cardinal walk before the birth," "the trip to the museums before the birth," "the nature walk before the birth," etc, etc.. Although it seemed somewhat frustrating at the time, we had a lot of fun showing mom around good ol' Raleigh.  It is a beautiful time of year here, so we went for drives to see the beautiful blossoming trees, walked the temple grounds, and visited some historical sites. We also had nerf gun competitions, played cards, watched Psych... you name it.

 My birthday was on the 29th, so we had a little celebration! We called it "the meal at Texas Roadhouse before the birth."  Side note- Maeva's due date was a day before my birthday and my due date was a day before her birthday... does that make sense? I was due the 4th.. anyway I thought that was cool.

 Every day we went on a one or two mile walk.

When it still didn't happen, mom extended her stay. She is a busy and popular woman back at home, so we really appreciated her spending an extra week to help us out. To thank her we went out to get pedicures together (while Jake got a massage). We all needed a relaxing day before the birth...

 Thanks so much mom for all of the memories and help! It was so fun to have you all to ourselves for a couple of weeks!

Just for my own memory's sake, I need to record some things we tried in order to put me into labor (that never actually worked, by the way).  Mom is an avid "googler" and would come up with new things to try each morning:

Lots of walking
running up and down the stairs
yoga poses
eating balsamic vinegar (yum!)
foot massage/acupressure (one of my favorites)
being very active (shop till you drop, etc)
relaxing
sleeping
bumpy car rides
spicy food
visualization
Praying (several texts/calls to family members to pray as well). 

I know I am forgetting things.. We had so many laughs through this experience. Almost every night seemed to bring on more contractions, and one night they were 3-5 min apart for about an hour.  Right when we decided to go to the hospital, they stopped.  It got to the point where we seriously considered naming her Patience... She has taught us a lot of it. Oh, boy is she worth it! We are so in love with out little Maeva.

My next post will include a lot of pictures, as well as the birth story.  

Nature Nerds

 

 Wow, this past two weeks it has been fun to see the season change from winter to spring! There have been several thunderstorms (which are nothing like thunderstorms in Utah) and after each storm, it gets greener and greener! You know the "Spring" song on Seven Brides for Seven Brothers? We feel like we are living that song with everything blooming and animals run around two by two. We need to learn the words, because we try to sing it every day. We walk a couple of miles every day down our street, and we always discover something new. We have become real nature nerds. Here are some things we discovered on our nature walk today:

Below: Cardinals! They are so beautiful. We have learned their different songs, so we can spot them easier (oh, you thought I was joking about the nature nerd thing?). And no, they aren't that difficult to spot because of their vibrant colors. Did you know it's the males that are so bright?

The Eastern Towhee. This is in our "back yard."

We don't know what kind of lizard this is, which is strange because Jake knows his lizards. hopefully it's not poisonous..

 The trees change every day. Springtime is so amazing here because of all of the trees. These purple ones are my favorite.

 Break time at the pond...

 And of course, the turtles. The water looks really gross right here because right now pollen is everywhere (this is around the edge of the water). Everything is yellow right now- all of the cars are caked in pollen, and you can even see it the air. I had our windows open for a half hour today and I had to dust the pollen off of everything. Thank goodness I don't have allergies!

Those are all of the critters we captured with our camera. We also saw a snake, woodpecker, and a blue tailed skink. I'm surprised we didn't see any rabbits because they are everywhere. I wish we had our camera yesterday because we spotted a couple of anoles (lizards that change colors) and caught one of them. I tried to convince Jake to let me keep him, but we ended up setting him free. 

We have really been enjoying the beauties of North Carolina. We have truly come to appreciate God's creations and it brings us so much happiness. I'm so grateful to be out here, it's been so fun to explore and experience new things with Jake. 

Now we just need to get this baby here. We are excited to have Mom Orton come on Tuesday! If I could have this baby sometime between now and then, that would be perfect, so pray for us. 

Last few days of... not being parents

In attempt to kick myself into labor (not due for 9 more days, but the sooner the better at this point!) I have been cleaning with very little resting since Jake left for work (3:00-9:00). This is a big deal, because as of late, I haven't been able to stand for longer than 10 min without my legs aching and swelling. So, as I sit here trying to allow the swelling to die down I decided to write a little bit about what's going on around here.

It's such a beautiful time of year in North Carolina. It is so green and the trees are blooming in all sorts of different colors. It's also been in the 80's all week, and I just have to say how thankful I am that I'm not this pregnant during the summers here!! Jake and I have really enjoyed watching the changes of the seasons in a new place. In just a couple of weeks we will have been out here for a year. What a year it has been! And do you know what I just realized? We have lived longer in  this house than any other place so far in our marriage (and we don't plan on moving for at least another year)... We have never quite made it a year.

Anyway I am really excited to tell about our fun date last Saturday, but I will have to post pictures later when I get them.  A couple in our ward planed an "Amazing Race" date and there were all kinds of great challenges for the teams to complete. Since I was 11 days away from my due date, Jake and I didn't plan to compete, but we volunteered to help with some of the challenges. However, there was an odd amount of couples, so Jake and our friend Chris, whose wife is also very pregnant, joined the fun. They were quite the couple! I was a little disappointed that Jake would be running around town without me on our date night, but I was so excited that he was going to be racing! The poor guy isn't able to get out much these days without his big pregnant wife needing this and that, so it was refreshing to see him get so into it. His enthusiasm, of course, was contagious! He came back soaking wet with blue fingernails, and I'm still not entirely sure what all went on during that time...  After the race, there was music, dancing, refreshments, and of course the awards ceremony.  It was amazing! Next year I wont be pregnant and Jake and I will dominate. What a great way to get to know people in our ward! It was definitely a much needed exciting date full of laughter and social interaction... I had forgotten what it was like to party!

Now we are just ready to get this baby here. Well, ok, Jake has been ready (impatiently, I might add!) for about a month, but now I'm with him- I'm done being patient!  My mom is coming on the 27th, and I want to make sure the baby gets here before or soon after she does. We will see what happens, but any day this weekend would be perfect... so lets just hope and pray it works out the way I plan....

Well that's about it around here. Hopefully by next post we will have  an exciting announcement!

baby, baby, baby.

Well, I have been waiting to write a new post until I had something to write about other than baby, but it's just not going to happen! That's my life right now, so get used to it. :)

 Some friends from my ward here threw me a baby shower. I am so grateful for all of my friends here, as well as the ladies that had to introduce themselves to me at my shower! So many of them don't even know me, and yet they are ready and excited to help me as a new mom.  What a comfort it is to know I am so well taken care of even though my family is so far away. We had a lot of fun, and I got some great stuff!

So suddenly my other pictures don't want to upload.  I was going to include a picture of our night of SNOW! Yep.  It happened.  We got snow last week. We ran out and tossed a few snowballs to Charlie and then snuggled by the fire.   The next day was about 70 degrees, and my nose got a little sunburned, so I think winter is over. That's my kind of winter.

4 more weeks till this baby is due! I am definitely feeling big. It's getting harder to get around- I've slowed down quite a bit in the last couple of weeks.  I'm not swelling up much yet, which I am grateful for. Overall, I'm feeling pretty good and all is looking well! I am having a hard time knowing when to bring my mom out to help.  I don't want to fly her out too early, or too late. How do you plan for these things? Anyway, we are so excited. We finally got a glider and other than smelling horribly of mothballs, it works great! I think we are settled on a first name, but can't find a good middle name.. Any suggestions? Sorry, the first name wont be announced until she comes! Just to keep you in suspense a little longer.  By the way, how often are they wrong about the gender? Jake and I keep having dreams that we end up having a boy... Well, I guess we will see!