The Faces of Cadance

One of the best things about babies if their faces. It changes so rapidly that capturing their expressions can be hard work, or really lucky. Here are some faces we've captured of Cadance

This is her normal look. About 95% of the pictures we take look something like this:




This is her Happy face:


This is her tired face:

And her sleeping face:



We call this one evil eyes:




And this one "So now what do I do with it"



And last but not least, this is her "I'm so humiliated" face:


Cadance is doing really well. We've had 3 babies born in our ward in the last week, so comparatively Cadance looks huge. She is moving her head around really well and gaining a lot of strength in her neck. And, as the picture would indicate, she has discovered her tongue, but isn't quite sure what to do with it yet.

Steve and I had a great Thanksgiving break. He is working in his last rotation of the semester and is excited to have 2 weeks to relax. I am loving spending time with Cadance and am figuring out the whole mom thing. Speaking of, does anyone have any suggestions on getting groceries from the car to apartment with a baby. What I've come up with so far is carrying her inside and then locking the door, getting some bags and taking them inside, locking the door again, etc. until I'm done. But, maybe there is a better way.

My Favorite Part of the Day

Cadance currently loves to lay on a blanket and look around. She's becoming more aware of the world. I love watching her.

The Famous Ladybug Costume

In mid march Steve and I told our families that we were expecting a baby. As expected both sets of parents and siblings were thrilled at the news. Unexpectedly, a few weeks later my wonderful mother-in-law informed me that she had purchased the cutest ladybug outfit for our daughter to wear for Halloween. This was funny for two reasons: she purchased said outfit 6 months in advance and we didn't know the gender of the baby. So, the costume was ours if a girl and not if a boy. We did have a girl and so this year she wore the much anticipated ladybug costume. We took her to the ward Halloween party and she was a big success.

A Fatty Baby

Cadance had her 2 week doctor's appointment today. She gained a lot more weight than I had anticipated, but it's between the 50th and 75th percentile, so she's normal. But, she's definitely eating well and gaining weight. I have a feeling we're going to have a fatty baby on our hands.

Here are her stats:
8lb 8oz
21 1/4 in

And some pictures from today

Reality

So here we are 10 days into parenthood and Steve wanted to make sure I recorded this piece of reality. I naturally wanted to share it


We took some pictures as a family when she was a week old. This is one of them

One of her favorite things is the bouncer seat. We refer to it as her frog

Our Story

Monday morning the 11th I started having contractions. Never being in labor before, I didn't know how intense they were or how imminent delivery would be so I tried to go about my day as normal. I visited a friend and ran some errands. I went for a walk and cut out coupons. Steve came home from his shift at 1pm. He was excited that contractions were happening, but at that point they still weren't that intense or regular. We went for a walk and then we took a nap. It was at this point, about 2pm, that I noticed a consistency in the contractions, but I still really had no idea how long I would be in labor, so I suppose I still tried to distract myself. I went for another walk and read the comics from the Sunday paper. When Steven woke up from his nap we decided to watch a movie. He went out to rent one, but my the time he came home I didn't think I could any more. I took a bath instead and Steve started timing my contractions. From what we knew they weren't what we needed to go to the hospital so we continued to hang out. "Hang" I suppose is kind of a loose term, my contractions were about 4 minutes apart and 40 seconds long. I purchased a labor ball early in the pregnancy and found leaning over it relieved some pain. Steve sat behind me and massaged my hips. At about 6:45 my water broke. It was kind of explosive, like a gush, almost like a water balloon popping. This was a shock to both of us, but Steve started to pack up and I cleaned off as well I could and we headed for the hospital. Knowing as little as I do, I didn't know how far along I was. I still thought I had hours left of labor and didn't know how I could do much more. We got to the hospital about 7:30 and the nursed checked me about 7:45. Again, to our surprise I was completely dilated and ready to push the baby out. They rush me to labor and delivery and after about 30 minutes of pushing out came our beautiful daughter.

Since then, she has done extremely well. She passed her first doctor's visit. She's been eating well and sleeping well, almost too well at some points. She is a joy to be around.

Tortilla Incident 2010 aka I would really like to not be pregnant anymore

Friday was my due date. It was a fine day. Actually, I was very excited about the fact that it was my due date and for the first time was particularly pleased with people asking when I was due. "Today," is a great answer and people get really excited when you say it.

I kept myself busy during the day by running errands and decorating for Halloween. I watched a movie and went walking. Then, the late afternoon came and I decided it was time to start dinner. Chicken tacos was on the menu. I started the chicken poaching, grated some cheese, chopped up lettuce and tomatoes and then pulled out the package of corn tortillas.

My thought was to go more on the tostada side, so I lined them up on a baking sheet, brushed them with some vegetable oil and put them in the oven. They cooked, but never really got crunchy so I flipped the oven to broil, took the chicken from the poaching liquid to cool and then sat down at the kitchen table and looked through a stores ad.

It's amazing how quickly you can lose track of the time. Also, it's amazing how quickly corn tortillas go from yellow to black. I don't know how long I sat at the table, but I realized it was for too long and when I jumped up and looked at the oven smoke was literally pouring out of any available crack.

The sheet of "tortillas" was placed outside, the vent was turned on, the screen door was opened, living room fan turned on, and all other doors in the house were closed to hopefully channel all smoke out. I would like to say that the smoke cleared in a few minutes and all has returned to normal, but when Steve arrived home I was sitting out by our parking spot to avoid smoke. When he asked what I was doing I responded, "I was thinking today would be a great day to go out to dinner." When we returned two and a half hours later the smoke was cleared but our house smelled like two chain smokers lived inside.

This morning the smell was slightly for the better but not gone. After cleaning the oven tonight I have a feeling that this week will involve lots of febreeze, couch and carpet cleaning. If I go into labor sooner rather than later I can only hope my daughter is a fan of the fire pit at the beach smell.