One Month - All 4 Girls

Rowan - One Month

Length: 22.5 inches (95%)

Weight: 9 lbs 1 ounce (45%)

Sleep: She is a champion sleeper. She really started doing a 5-6 hour stretch at night from the first night in the hospital. After two all nighters, I really needed a slight stretch of sleep at home that first night. When she did 6 hours again - I was shocked and so thankful. 6 hours = 6 hours between feedings. So if I feed her at 9, put her down at 10, she wakes at 3. So it's only 5 hours of sleep. And she has had quite a few nights where she wakes every 3 hours. (so 2 hours of sleep). And she has had a few nights of just not going down. BUT more nights than not include a 5 hour between feeds stretch and usually falling asleep pretty quickly. 

During the day, if we swaddle her and walk around or rock her for 10 minutes, she will usually fall asleep. If something wakes her up - walking or rocking will usually get her back to sleep. This is crazy to us!! Haha. The other girls would not sleep. We would walk or rock for hours and struggle to get them to nap. People would be like "have you tried a paci?" or "what about a noise maker?" And we would say YES - WE TRIED IT ALL. Now we get it. If they had a Rowan as a baby, they were probably thinking "what is wrong with these people - that they can't get them to nap. Swaddle. Noise maker. Rock. It works." 

I also noticed that a ton of my anxiety post-baby with each of the 3 was likely sleep deprivation related. I am feeling so much better than I ever did one month postpartum - mentally. And I think it all has to do with sleep. I am also trying to do less caffeine, so that I can fall asleep during the day and get a little nap in when R naps. I am realizing that sleep really is key. 

Eating: She's a great eater. Not much to say here. She eats about 7 times a day. Every 2-3 hours during the day. Eats at 830pm, up anytime between 1-3am, up again at 6am. 

Milestones: She has given us quite a few smiles. It is our favorite. We have to work hard for them - but we all love seeing her smile. 

Clothes / Diapers: She's in 0-3 clothes and size 1 diapers. She was in newborn diapers and came home in a newborn outfit - but outgrew those pretty quickly. I think we have a little while in our current clothes and diapers. 

Best Moment of the Month: When the girls met her for the first time. My favorite! We have a video on Instagram and Facebook. Emma yelling "she has red hair!" and Sloans shy smile as she's so proud of her baby sister. I could just melt. They love her so much.

Parent of the Month: Me. I wanted to make sure we were getting some vitamin D and she had her days and nights correct - so I would sit in the shade with her. Poor girl got a mild face sunburn. I thought she was hot, but then we compared her face to her arm and she was much pinker. Oops! She's so fair she even got burned in shade. So now we limit our shade time to make sure it doesn't happen again. 

Favorites: not a whole lot needed the first month. We use the boppy to hold her and while breastfeeding. We put her down in the leachco podster. She has an owlet breathing monitor every night bc I would worry too much without it. She's been in her crib since the first week. We do put her in the dockatot for the second chunk of night sleep since it's harder to get her back to sleep then. But we will likely take that away so she doesn't get too reliant.  Swaddle blankets and she sleeps in the swaddle up where her arms are by her face. Other than that, we haven't used much of anything else! 

Rowan's birth story

Rowans birth story actually starts two nights earlier. On April 15th, I went to a neighborhood outdoor wine night. I started to feel pretty bad - and thought it was from sitting too long. With the massive belly, I can't breathe too well when sitting - and that will start to get to me. I headed home right away. Dan and I joke that I can't get out of places - I always chat and say bye a million times - and this time I pulled a Dan and just peaced out.

When I got home, I was convinced I had a horrible stomach bug. I never threw up but felt HORRIBLE. I couldn't lean over the toilet, or curl up because of the big belly. Laying down I was spinning and nauseous. Dan thought I was in labor - and I said "I hope not - I can't imagine contractions on top of this." We finally found some zofran so I could get a little sleep. Still felt bad the next morning - but got up for work.

Later that afternoon, I wasn't as nauseous and got some soup down, but the lower half of my stomach was super sore. It was really weird and, at 41 weeks pregnant, I started to worry something was wrong. I called my OB (hoping he could get me in for an appt before the weekend just to check on the baby - it had been a week since my last appt anyway). He told me to head to labor and delivery. I was NOT going to walk into L&D and them be like "you're here because your stomach hurts?!?" I joined my next work meeting. By 4 or 5, Dan told me to just go in. We could make sure the baby was fine and head into the weekend without worrying. Finally I did. I brought nothing with me and walked right in. Passing all the stands people were saying "good luck!" and "Congratulations!" and I was thinking "will pass you guys again in an hour when I head out of here."

When I got to L&D they had me change into a gown. It was SO GROSS. It had stuff all over it, including a foil lid to a yogurt stuck to it. I asked for another gown, thinking - now they hate me. I am the high maintenance girl with the stomach pain (not a legitimate reason to go to L&D) who now needs a new gown.

The on-call OB was there checking on the person in the room next to me, so I didn't have to wait long. She came in and said "technically you are having contractions - so even though last night probably was a stomach bug, you are 41 weeks. Let's break your water and see if we can get things going." 

Not at all what I expected! I immediately said "I would really appreciate that." I texted Dan. He didn't see it. I called my parent so they would be ready to watch the girls (first time that it wasn't a middle of the night call with them 4-9 hours away!). 

I had my bags packed, so Dan just had to bring them. I knew things would be slow, so there was no rush. He was shocked to find my text about an hour later - haha. 

The rest, there really isn't much to tell. She insisted I get an epidural first (since I knew I wanted one) because she didn't know how fast Rowan would come. After that, she broke my water around 10pm. We had to just hang out, waiting. I could tell Rowan was still really high. And I knew she was "sunny side up" so was hoping she would turn before delivery - as that can make things more complicated. 

My OB was so positive - "I am sure she will just flip, and drop, and come right out when she's ready." In the past, those statements always jinxed things and my babies would do the opposite. The nurse was a little more worried: "I think this is a REALLY big baby." 

As morning came, Dan and I both were getting a little nervous. This was my longest labor so far - and I just thought that since she didn't come on her own, and hadn't come yet - that she just wasn't going to come out. 

The epidural started to wear off and contractions were very intense - so I pushed that epidural button quite a few times for some more pain relief. Its a delicate balance because my blood pressure drops every time - so I can't push it much. My blood pressure was running around 70/40 the entire time - so dropping any lower made me feel AWFUL.

Eventually I felt a lot of pressure - she had dropped! And just before my OBs shift ended, Rowan came out after 20 minutes of pushing at 7:22am. She was NOT sunny side up - so she had turned at some point. Exactly like my OB said. 

She came out looking JUST like Emma and has red hair. Exactly what Emma requested. She was 8lbs 3oz and 21 inches long. So she was not giant like Sloan :). Same length as Olivia, one inch smaller than Sloan and one inch bigger than E. Second biggest baby, but only by a few ounces. 

Everything was so wonderful. Nothing scary. No crazy moments. When I saw her I realized all those kicks were not spiteful - haha - just her sweet self stretching. Immediately in love with this sweet baby. 

With all of the carb control during the last few months of pregnancy, I made Dan get me TWO large fries from Chick-fil-a, So I could throw away all those end pieces and still have a ton of fries - haha. 

We only stayed 24 hours. After being sick Thursday night, up all Friday night in labor, and woken every hour or more on Saturday night (poor nurse who had to come do a midnight CBC in my arm - I was not nice to her) - we wanted out! We had the most wonderful nurses. A huge struggle naming her - with a blindsided birth certificate lady when I burst into tears after signing the FIRST form. Trying to get out in 24 hours with all the checks, all the discharges, hearing screening, newborn screening, vitals, lactation, all the people who have to come in and sign off - we spent barely any time Dan and I discussing names or hanging with Rowan. It was in and out. But we were so glad to get home to our girls - and they were SO excited to meet her!