Saturday Swim

This weekend brought with it another wonderful opportunity to spend time in the pool. Azora is already miles ahead of where Ziggy was at this age because i have been splashing her much more in the bath and she is naturally more confident and happy in the water. Here are some pictures and a little video clip of our antics!

Kneesy Crawling

Azora has been doing this for a while now - getting her knees up under her tummy and trying to go forwards. I want to feel frustrated for her but she is generally so happy that I don't. Any day now, she'll be whizzing around the place on all fours!

Azora moves in to her own room!

There is still a bit work to do, but this morning we finally got crib into her room. After putting up an impressive fight, I eventually got her to sleep in my arms.  More impressive is that I also managed to transfer her to the crib and she stayed sleeping.  10 minutes so far and counting!    zzzzz

IKEA are delivering the sofa bed, rug and side tables this afternoon.  I am going to move her name bunting and start work on designing some butterfly cushions, and window decals - to help block some of the sun - it shines in all afternoon from two directions and gets very hot.   I am also going to move her two drawer units back in to the closet but that needs a lot of rejigging with our clothes and her changing station etc.. so might be a bit longer!  

More photos to follow!

  

Azora's 6 month check up

Azora's 6 month check up went well.  She is perfectly normal weight-wise, and in all ways.  

Dr Okonkwo was pleased with her food eating progress, yay!  

I asked what milestones and developments we should be looking for and highlights are 

• crawling
• holdling objects and passing from one hand to the other
• sitting up unassisted
• continued variety of new foods and textures

She's doing well on all these counts, especially close to crawling with her tummy off the floor and sitting up for longer.  And, I think I have already seen her passing her pacifier from one hand to the other.  

She's giggling a lot more now too, but I think that's more thrilling to us as parents than her pediatrician!!

Temperature being taken

Weighing in like a big girl - sitting upright!

Another view of her sitting nicely on her own!

Daddy cuddles!

Azora falls asleep at Smith and Wollensky

Towards the end of a meal with friends (no kids), Ziggy got up and was running around, chasing feral cats and watching the cruise ships. Azora, had been fed but was getting fussy and wriggling. Marcos was holding her when suddenly she was hit with the sleepy stick! Daddy cuddles work every time!

Azora goes swimming

After dipping her toes in the water, i went to Target and bought her a nice baby float. Ziggy had one like this too but we don't have it anymore so she got a nice pink one for her. She liked bobbing about on the water in the shade of a parasol and was very good at kicking her legs! Now we just need to get her a swimsuit so that she doesn't have to swim in a onesie, poor little thing!

First pool portrait of the family!

Side sleeper

A day after learning to roll over, and Azora has a whole new way to sleep!

Smiles!

This afternoon, I discovered that Azora likes it when I whistle! I did have other footage of her smiling from a week or two ago, but I lost my phone before I managed to upload it. Officially, I would say that she started smiling 2 and a half to three weeks ago around May5th. ish....!

Insect swatting

She's starting to be aware of things going on around her. Here she is starting to play with the jingly dangly toys on her little chair. Concentrating VERY hard!

Tummy Time 1month, 4days

Displaying some pretty impressive neck/back strength here - GO AZORA!

One month today!

Here are the stats from Azora's one month well-baby appointment this morning Weight: 9lbs 5.6oz: 50%ile Length: 22" 90%ile Head: 38cm 90%ile All in all, good news all round, and it looks like we are going to have a tall thin genius in the family!!

Sleeping Beauty

Here is a little video of Azora peacefully sleeping one afternoon. Aged 19 days.

Azora Jane Lawson: April 1st 2013

At our last appointment with the OBGYN, he said that I was in 'early labour' and that the baby's arrival was imminent.  As a contingency we made an appointment for 7am on Monday 1st April (baby's due date) for an augmentation in case she had not already arrived.  On Sunday morning, when Ziggy and Marcos was in the pool at SwimGym, I called him to go over the options and say that I wasn't really thrilled with the idea of interfereing with nature.  He said that I could wait for a day or two but he wouldn't advise much longer and catuioned against waiting too long, while 'in labour' and said that the bigger the baby gets, the more liklihood of an interference like a C-Section.  So, we kept the appointment for the following morning but decided to do everythign we could to get the baby out naturally before they started to administer Pitocin.

After Swim Gym we went to Lincoln Road for a hearty and spicy Mexican meal at Rosa Mexicano - I ladelled jalapenos on everything, we walked, a LOT, and then exhausted came home for a nap.

At about 4pm I woke up with two contractions about 20 minutes apart which were stronger than those on Wednesday, so we started timing and went for another walk in the park.  By about 6 when we were getting Ziggy's supper ready Dr Michael called and said that if I were to come in that evening they could try Cervagil first before Pitocin in the morning.  I agreed to that and said to him that I had been having quite a few contractions already that evening.  He said that they may not need to do anything after all.

We arrived in hospital and were settled in to the delivery room at about 9.30.  Contractions were by this point coming regularly but with Marcos' help I was able to get through them without too much difficulty.  We had a talk with the anesthetists about the epidural but as with Ziggy I said that I am scared senseless of needles and didn't want one unless it was absolutely unbearable.  She was surprised but left us alone.  Dr Michael also tried to talk us in to it but I stuck to my guns.

We were left alone in the room watching Keeping up with the Kardashians for two hours before the nurse checked to see how dilated I was.  We were delighted when she announced that I had progressed 2cm, realising that this was it - our baby was finally coming!

By this point the contractions were taking longer each time and getting closer together.  Our system of counting down each time was becoming ineffective because of this and so I asked to have the Demerol through the IV line.  While the nurse was giving it to me, I felt woozy almost instantly but sadly did not notice any positive effect on the contractions at all.  Except maybe that I didn't 'fight' them so much...?

From about 11.45 onwards is a big blur for me, it felt as though I went from having contractions every 5-6 minutes to being in one long and agonizing one constantly.  I was crouched on the bed gripping the rail for deal life while the nurse tried to hold the monitor on my tummy.  Eventually, she and the doctor decided to give that up and get an internal monitor on the baby which required them to break my waters.  From there the next time I remember was saying that I had to push, being forced to lie on my back (not what I wanted to do at all) and then being handed my little baby girl.

She came out crying loudly and the relief was immense.  So so happy to finally have her in my arms and for us to be able to cuddle her!

She was born at 12.35, making that the most intense hour of our entire lives!!

Here are some pictures from that day!

Feeling VERY pregnant!

Eyeing up some non maternity clothes in Forever21

Ziggy overseeing the guacamole making

Extra extra spice!

Walking in the park

Handsome boys in the beautiful evening light

Eating some ice chips in hospital and watching TV.  Feeling pretty cheery still at this point

The moment at which we realised that our daughter would be born on April Fools Day (and Easter Monday)

I remember being hunched over this rail gripping on for dear life for a LONG time. I was gripping so tight that at times I thought I might levitate!

Make it stop make it stop make it stop make it stop make it stop make it stop make it stop make it stop make it stop 

Almost time.....

Here she is!!

Much more pink than I thought she would be (Ziggy was blue/grey like a dolphin!)

Happy

LOOK!!  It's our baby!!

Clearing her nose

It's our baby!

Waaaaaahhhh!

What a relief!

Skin to skin kangaroo cuddles

It's ok little one, I've got you

shhhh shhh shhhhhhhh darling

Keeping warm

Azora's first weigh in - a very respectable 7lbs 14 oz!

I started getting some weird twitchy spasms, so they hooked me up to some oxygen

First feeding

Hair down for facebook!

Time for a kip!  The nurses laid her footprints out on my bed like this - sweet!

First portrait!    Other birthday stats:  Length 51cm, and head circumference 35cm

Some trippy baby artwork in our recovery room!

Baby in a vase dressed up as a bouquet

Azora Jane Lawson

Knackered - all I wanted to do was sleep!

Swaddled well in her hospital bassinet.