Dada feeds Maren her first bottle

The days keep flying by. Some days are easier than others. Some days are awesome!

Maren is now 5 weeks and 5 days old. She is still sleeping in our room in a baby bouncy seat. She tends to spit up copious amounts of milk if she lies too flat. We are thinking of evicting her from our room this week. (Maisy moved out at 6 weeks too). Maren tends to grunt a lot and it keeps me up, so I’ll sleep better when she’s in her own room. Sleep is precious around here. I’m just worried about what it will do to her sleep and wondering when I can give her crib a shot for night sleeping. She doesn’t sleep super long in it for nap time.

Cloth diapering is going wonderfully. I wish we would have done it with Maisy. It is so easy and economical! We just do a load of diapers every other day. It’s not too much work.

Maren has really started to smile and coo. It puts the biggest grin on all of our faces (Maisy included) when we see her smile. Maisy is still enamored with Maren. She is always there to cheer her up, share her night-night or help Maren with her pacie. Whenever she hears her cry, she is very concerned and wants me to go get her right away.

Play time

Maren does have her cranky moments and they tend to happen at night, usually during dinner. Having it dark helps Maren calm down, so we’ve had a few candle light family dinners.

Romantic dinner for 4

We had a very exciting day yesterday while we were buying our brand new VW Tiguan!! We love it and it has all the room our family needs. This is the first car Todd and I have bought together. We traded in our old Jetta that was 10 years old. It’s going to auction- they said we didn’t have to clean it out or anything- it goes to auction as is. The poor person that buys that car. They will never know…. we didn’t ever have it detailed.

Mama and Maren say adios to our special car

Family says goodbye to the Jetta

I know we should have a family picture with the new car, but we just haven’t done it yet.

We took the new car for a nice long spin out to Livermore to Joan’s Pumpkin Patch. It was great! It will be even more fun as the girls get older.

Family at Joan’s Pumpkin Patch in Livermore

We brought a picnic and had lunch pumpkin side. Maren didn’t dig the pumpkins too much.

Maren the unhappy pumpkin

But Maisy LOVED them!

Sister love at the pumpkin patch

Maisy also got to go on her first pony ride. Todd and I both expected her to freak out at the last minute and not want to go, but she hopped on like a big girl and giggled the whole way! We cannot believe how much she has grown.

Maisy’s first pony ride

Maisy has really developed her drawing skills and puzzle skills. She can put together 30 piece jigsaw puzzles and an entire United States puzzle without any help. She can identify a good portion of the states and can count to 13. She needs a little work on number recognition, but she’s doing great! Her vocabulary is enormous and she uses very grown up words. It’s cute and sometimes makes us ask, “Wait, what did you say?”

Life is slowly finding it’s rhythm again in our house. I’m really looking forward to getting Maren on a nap schedule. Morning naps now are hit and miss and she usually just ends up sleeping on me while I wear her around, but she takes a good long afternoon nap while Maisy does, so I can nap, clean up, pay some bills, make some phone calls or just have some me time. This nap however, is no guarantee.

Much love, Todd, Becky, Maisy and Maren

Matthews Family

Well I went into labor the night of my last post. Maisy’s labor- went rather fast- but not this fast! I had my membranes stripped earlier that day at 2pm, been drinking my raspberry tea, took some evening primrose and went to sleep. I woke up at 1 am on 8/31 with cramps then I realized they were contractions. At that point the contractions were about 10 minutes apart and not too painful. I got up, cleaned up the bathroom and kitchen and then the contractions got a bit closer together and stronger. I woke up Todd and we got Steven over to our house around 2:30am to watch Maisy. At around 4:30 my contractions were pretty strong, but not coming consistently. I would have one lasting a minute 3 minutes apart, then nothing for 5 minutes and the contraction would be SUPER strong, then I’d have a minor contraction a minute later, then nothing for 7 minutes where it would be WAY strong, then a minor one a minute later for 30 seconds, then a couple normal contractions lasting 50 seconds 4-5 mins apart. We were waiting for the 4-1-1 rule (contractions 4 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute, consistently for 1 hour). We called labor and delivery and they said we could come in if I wanted to be checked, but I would most likely be sent home. The contractions were very strong- so I decided we should go.

Right before we left for the hospital

I thought at least they can give me some meds to make this hurt less. Thankfully it was 5:15 in the am and no one was on the road. We headed for the hospital and after 5 minutes the only way I could get through the contractions was to give a slight push at the end. During one of those contractions, I thought I either peed myself or my water broke (my water broke). Thankfully Todd thought to call the hospital right then while we were in the car and about 4 blocks away to tell the hospital staff to meet us outside. After making him run a couple of red lights- we finally got to the hospital and Todd found the medical team and they swarmed the car. There were about 15 people standing around with all sorts of medical supplies. The doctor opened the door, Todd laid the seat back, the doctor pulled down my pants (I could feel her head through my pants) and I said “I can’t believe I’m having my baby in the F’ing car” followed with “I HAVE TO PUSH!” The doctor said I could and I gave one good push and out came Maren Alice. I said hello to Maren and the next thing I said was, “Todd, I think we need a new car.” They wrapped her tightly in blankets and Todd and Maren went up to L&D. They covered me up somehow and I walked to the gurney and the nurses grabbed our bags, where we met Todd and Maren in L&D where I finished the laboring process delivering the placenta. So I guess you could say I had a completely natural birth. I’m actually pretty proud of myself- I had NO IDEA I was that close to giving birth. I handled the pain a lot better than I thought I ever could.

Maren Alice Matthews was born at 5:30am, weighing 6 lbs 8 oz, was 20 inches long with a head circumference of 13 inches.

First picture

Whew! What a way to make an entrance. I wish I knew she was coming sooner and that the L&D nurse would have been more encouraging to get us there faster. I guess the moral of the story is- um contractions don’t HAVE to be consistent! Todd and I both wish that we would have remembered to take pictures of the scene.

Now to get the car detailed- ick!

The Delivery Room

Maisy giving Maren her baby bear gift

We are now all at home and thank goodness to all of our family and friends for their support. Steven was awesome getting out of bed in the middle of the night to come over to watch Maisy, Abby came over early in the morning to take over Maisy duty so Steven could go to work and Mom and Charlie came up to relieve Abby in the afternoon. It takes a village, folks! A million thanks. We are also very thankful that my mom will be staying until Tuesday!

Nana, Papa and Maren

Maisy has been very good to Maren. She still loves to hug a little too hard and is a bit too unpredictable, so we need to keep a close eye on her.

Mama and her girls- one of the best moments yet!

My milk didn’t come in right away so at our second day lactation consult she had gone down to 5 lb 8 oz, she lost 8% of her body weight. So they were worried she wasn’t eating enough. They had me feed her every hour and a half to two hours and then pump after as many feedings as possible to feed her the pumped milk with a little tube at the next feeding. We went back today and got the great news that she is back up to 6 lbs 4 oz. So now we can resume as usual. We go back on next Tuesday for a weight check in.

Nana and Dada give the first sponge bath

Maren hanging out on the couch

Dada and Maren

Todd has been spending a lot more time with Maisy. It’s been nice. Today they went for a Skuut bike ride down to the park. It’s amazing how Maisy suddenly seems soooo much older. Last week she seemed like my baby and now she seems like a full grown kid! I can’t believe how much she weighs in comparison.

Maisy on her Skuut bike

We’ll keep you all updated. Thank you everyone for your well wishes!

Much love, Todd, Becky, Maisy and Maren

Side view of new baby at 12 days 6 weeks

We had our nuchal translucency (NT) ultrasound on Friday, Feb. 25. The appointment was bright and early. Todd and Maisy were both able to come. Maisy was a perfect big sister and just hung out with Todd on the couch while we all watched the baby TV. It was a long appointment because the baby was being quite active, so it took a while to get the right measurements. It was fine with us, it meant we got a longer peek at the baby. The tests all came back fine and the baby is doing perfectly well. The baby’s heart rate was 140 beats per minute (BPM). I have another regular appointment on Monday and we find out the gender on April 15th!

Face shot of the new baby- I’m told the baby will get cuter

In other news, we ventured up to the mountains to visit Todd’s parents who had a vacation spot there. We made a long weekend of it. Unfortunately, it took us 8 and a half hours to get there (it should only take 3 and a half). There was a huge storm and we had to put chains on (ok TODD had to put chains on) and I could only drive about 15 MPH up the mountain. Slow going! Boy were we glad to finally get there, especially after a few slippery slidey times trying to get up some steep snowy passes. Todd was happy to get some ski days in with the boys and Maisy was happy to get to visit with her Mimi and Papa J. She got to play in the snow and go swimming at the pool.

Maisy all giggles with Mimi on the swing

Papa J and Maisy swinging

Maisy’s language skills are really blossoming. She understands pretty much everything and can speak in sentences. Her vocabulary is growing each day. She is becoming much more assertive and she will let you know exactly what she wants and how she wants it! We are working on “please”, “thank you” and “no, thank you”. She has suddenly become EXTRA picky about food. (No idea where that would have come from)! She pretty much just wants to eat waffles, fruit, PB&Js, applesauce and yogurt. I suppose she could want worse things. We still encourage her to eat other things, but if you aren’t careful or quick enough- she’ll send the plate sailing to the floor. We are not pleased with this trick at all. We are working on breaking this horrible habit.

Way messy yogurt face

Just today I also noticed two more teeth coming in (the canines). After she gets these two, she’ll have only two more canines to come in and then the big molars.

Maisy has now gone potty on her potty training toilet 3 times. Each time has been right before bath time, but she’s really good at letting us know when she needs a new diaper, so we are hoping it may be possible to get her good and potty trained by the time the baby arrives.

Today we turned Maisy’s car seat from rear facing to front facing. Although technically we could have turned her at a year old. There is mounting evidence that keeping a child rear facing for as long as you can is most safe for a baby. We decided that Maisy would like to see the world- her legs were also getting pretty cramped!

Family driving home from Tahoe with a big girl!

More next time!

Much love, Todd, Becky and Maisy

I didn’t think work would have had a car prepared for me so soon- but they did. I didn’t really know how to get home from work in car. I only knew how to get back and forth walking. Two friends at work volunteered to help me try to find my way home. (you can’t get there driving the same way you would walking because the path is too small for a car). We drove around for and hour and a half. Went down dirt roads we weren’t supposed to and got stuck in very small alleys that required about 20 minutes of maneuvering to get back out of. All in all it was a bust. The car ended up being driven back to work and a co-worker drove me home.

The next day I had to call the landlord to find the proper way. He told me the very unintuitive way home (we live down a dirt road that isn’t on any maps). A co-worker went with me to make sure it was the right way and it was. And I finally found my way home.