Merry Christmas!

We had a good Christmas this year. We decided not to make the trip to Washington with such a new little one so we had a nice time at home with just the four of us. Chloe all ready for bed in her reindeer pjs.

The girls and their dad on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning (this is pretty much how Chloe looked throughout the main event).

Jillian playing with her new kitchen set.

A monkey for a monkey!

Still sleeping away.

A baby stroller (I'm waiting for the day she tries to put Chloe in it).

"Here is a rattle for you."

Posing in their pjs.

Pointing out each other's chins.

The Christmas Day outfit, complete with a reindeer on the bum.

No Christmas outfit is complete without a hat...

...even if said hat is big enough to fit your two year old sister!

Headband

Sometimes your headband just doesn't seem to sit quite right...

Matchy Matchy

My Grandma Tanner sent the girls these cute matching dresses so of course we had to take pictures of them matching.

They look so cute! Thanks Grandma! We love the green dresses!This is what dear Chloe usually looks like when she is near Jillian. Jilly can't help but love her baby sister. I think it stresses Chloe out to be loved/manhandled so much. This is our first family picture will all of us in it. I don't know why it took us over two weeks to get a picture of all of us together. And it's not the greatest since we had to put the camera timer on to get it. But here we all are after church in our Christmas dress (Sean's wearing a penguin tie if you can't tell).

2 Weeks Old

Chloe is two weeks old today. She had her two week well check at the doctor and here are her stats: Chloe weighs 7lbs 7 oz and is 19 inches long (a week ago she was 6 lbs 12 oz and 18 inches). The doctor was very happy with her growth. What is funny to me is she is still smaller than Jillian was at birth.

The doctor mentioned that Chloe still looks a little jaundiced to her but not to worry about it unless one day she suddenly looks like a pumpkin. I guess there is a protein in some women's breast milk that can make the bilirubin hang around longer and she thinks I have that protein (makes sense since Jilly was jaundiced too).

The doctor still heard the heart murmur but we're not going to do anything about that until after the two month check. I did mention that Chloe wheezes when she breathes at night and the doctor thought it could be caused by a floppy trachea which probably will correct itself with time. I don't think "floppy trachea" is an official medical term but that's what the doctor called it. I'm so used to having a very healthy baby so little Chloe is quite the adventure. Luckily, most of her medical concerns are just concerns and not major problems. At least not yet. We love our little Chloe and are so happy to have her in our family!

Chloe's First Bath

In reality, Chloe's first bath was actually her third. They washed her up right after she was born and then once again in the NICU the day before we came home so she was an old pro once we got her home and bathed. This bow was permanently attached to her head. I had to scrub to get it off (poor kid!).

Chloe decided that bathing is traumatic so she did some self-soothing. Still sucking on that thumb!

All clean! We're training Sean to do hair early with this one!

We're home!

I realized that I never posted about us coming home from the hospital! Sheesh. I blame it on post-pregnancy hormones (which are just as bad or worse than pregnancy hormones in case you were wondering).

Chloe was released from the NICU on Sunday after having an echo cardiogram (ultrasound of the heart). The doctor heard a heart murmur so wanted a better idea of what was going on. Chloe has a hole in between her upper portions of her heart. Lots of people have a hole there when they are born and never know it. The hole eventually closes in most cases. Chloe's hole is larger than most so the doctors are concerned that it might not close. It is something that only time will tell. At her two month appointment, if the murmur is still present, we'll do another echo and go from there.

We saw the pediatrician yesterday for Chloe's first visit. She is 6 lbs 12 oz (in the NICU she was down to 6 lbs 3 oz so she's gained back her birth weight plus some), 18 inches long which puts her in the 18th percentile for weight and 3rd percentile for length. Anyway, she's small but we already knew that. Everything else looks good, the doctor was concerned about her bilirubin levels but they went down so no bilibed with this kid!

On another note, my child is an escape artist. I had her completely clothed and swaddled with both arms in the blanket when I laid her down. When she woke up I found her like this:

I'm going to have to keep my eye on this one!

No Pictures Please

Flowers

Sean isn't one to buy flowers for me. In fact, I think he has bought flowers a total of three times since we've been together (I'm sure with much prodding from me). So I am always surprised when someone does get flowers for me. My mom brought me some beautiful flowers while I was in the hospital. They definitely brightened my room! I didn't get a picture while they looked fresh.

Yesterday, Sean's work sent us a bouquet. I did get a picture of these. They are so beautiful and fragrant! And they're mostly pink. Perfect!

Thank you for all the beautiful flowers!

Sisters

I knew that Jillian loved babies but I was a little surprised at how much she would love her new sister. Jillian loves to come up and hug and kiss Chloe. We have to watch her close because sometimes she loves Chloe a little too vigorously.

Jilly likes to touch noses with her baby sister.

Kiss kiss.

Helping Grandma Porter feed Chloe a bottle.

Jilly is smitten with her baby sis!

Chloe's Here!

Little Chloe Michelle Galland made her way into the world on December 2, 2009 at 6:50pm via c-section. She weighed 6 lbs 10 oz and was 18 inches long. She has tons of dark hair and looks a lot like her sister (it might be because of all the hair). She is currently in the NICU because she had some breathing issues on Thursday morning. Chloe is doing fine and hasn't had any other breathing episodes but they're keeping her because they are concerned that she's not eating enough. She has been eating well this morning so we're keeping our fingers crossed. Hopefully she'll be able to come home soon.

Induction day

As long as Labor and Delivery has a spot for me, I will be induced tomorrow morning. I'll be 41 weeks. That is how much I went over with Jillian before I was induced with her. Seems like my kids are in no rush to get out.

No baby yet

After assuring everyone that we would be having a baby today no matter what, we are home from the hospital sans baby.

Let me explain: Sean and I went into the hospital dutifully an hour and a half before my procedure. I got hooked up to the monitors, the IV got started, got some blood drawn and took the pre-c-section drugs, plus got a shot to stop any contractions. This took about an hour. The doctor then came in with the ultrasound machine to check out where the baby was hanging out and low and behold her head was down. That took everyone by surprise, especially the doctor. The doctor then told us that my options were to wait until labor started on its own or we could just induce. Since I was still only dilated to 1 cm, Sean and I decided to wait for nature to take its course. The doctor did tell me we could induce any time after today if we decide to but it would be easier if we waited until conditions were more desirable (i.e. being dilated to a 3-4 cm). Right now I'm a big fan of not being in the hospital for 24+ hours before the baby comes. I'll try to keep everyone updated but for right now we're just waiting for baby to decide it is time for her grand entrance.

Oh, and the nurses felt bad that they poked and prodded me before they even checked the ultrasound. Maybe that means they won't charge me for all the stuff they did do to me (wishful thinking!).

Turning

I've been reading up on how to turn a baby on your own, just in case something popped up that sounded like it would work. Most of the things they tell you to try are pretty darn funny. For example:

1. Do a headstand in a pool. .

2. Put your earbuds from your iPod down your pants, next to your pubic bone.

3. Lay your ironing board on your couch, lie down on it upside down, run a flashlight down your stomach from the top of your uterus to your pubic bone. Also, you can put an ice pack at the top of your uterus and stick your earbuds down your pants while in this position.

4. Clip a clothespin on the outside of each pinky toe (this has something to do with pressure points).

5. Visualize your baby turning around and putting her head down into your pelvis.

There are plenty more, some more amusing than others. I can see the benefit of some of the methods but others seem a little ridiculous/impossible to me. Like doing a headstand in a pool, I couldn't do that even if I wasn't 9 months pregnant! I thought about trying some of these but haven't invested much time into self-turning this child. Especially since they tell you to try these starting at 35 weeks (I'll be 39 on Wednesday). Seems like it's a little too late to take matters into my own hands.

External Cephalic Version

I'm going in next week to have this baby turned around, at least that's the hope. I'm scheduled for 9 am on Wednesday morning for a external cephalic verson. If we're successful in the turning then the doctor will induce labor that day, if not, then on to a c-section. Either way we'll have a baby here in less than a week. Now, what to do with Jillian?

38 weeks

I had my weekly doctor appointment today. I saw the nurse practitioner. She checked me out, things were good until she realized that she couldn't feel the baby's head. So she decided to do a quick ultrasound just to check things out. She got the machine ready and had me gooped up and was waving the wand all around my stomach where the head is supposed to be and said, "Good, there's the head, right where it should be." Then she kept moving the wand around because she saw something unusual. "Oh, that's not the head! That's the abdomen!" Turns out my lovely little lady is breech! The NP went out to get the doctor (who was there thankfully!) and we went over my options. Next week we are going to try to turn the baby around and if that is successful they'll induce right then. If it's unsuccessful we'll go right into a c-section. Either way we'll have a baby sometime next week. Right now we are just waiting for the doctor's office to call me to let me know when to come in to have this baby! Not how I wanted things to go, but as long as she's healthy then we'll all be ok.

Trick or Treat!

Halloween time! Sean is a Jedi warrior, Jillian is Tinkerbell (or if you ask her, a butterfly) holding Sean's lightsaber.

"Let me help you with your hood, Dad."

Jilly and her friend Aubrey, who was a kitty-cat.


Jilly got holding out the bag and saying, "Trick or Treat" pretty quickly. We had to catch her saying it when we got home.

Family

Sean, Jillian, and I went to my Tanner Grandparent's house this weekend. We were there to meet my aunt's fiance. A lot of the family came to have a dutch oven dinner (yum!) and to carve pumpkins. This is the family with our creations:

Back Row: Linda, Alan, Roy, me

Front Row: Rebecca, Whitney, Sharon, Bella (the dog), Gene, Sydney

This is the nice picture. We aren't looking at my camera because we're too busy mugging for my uncle's camera. He's a professional. We had a great time seeing the family! Love you guys!