Meals on Wheels

Aurora and I have been so lucky to be able to spend our first week at home recovering, getting used to nursing, and generally taking it easy. But I’ve been SO much hungrier post-baby then I ever was when I was pregnant. Luckily, my friends at work signed up to bring us food. Chuck needs to keep working and is no cook, so having nutritious meals delivered has made every aspect of this whole adventure so much easier for all of us. Here’s a recap of our food deliveries so far:

Monday – Daniela grabbed fish tacos & cheese enchiladas from Chuy’s.

Tuesday – Bianca brought a tray of mac ‘n’ cheese from Central Market.

Wednesday – We had spinach lasagna, French bread, a garden salad AND almond gelato thanks to Tara.

Thursday – Haley delivered manicotti and a huge roll of garlic bread.

Friday – Devon & Melissa came together with two days of meals. Devon brought a Greek salad, tabouleh, hummus and pitas, chicken for Chuck, and one amazing orange pound cake for dessert. Melissa made the best eggplant parmesan I have ever tasted.

Saturday – Bianca & Aaron came over at lunchtime, and while Bianca held Aurora, Aaron made his famous squash and pesto casserole right in our kitchen! I love squash.

Sunday – Kelsey & Jim stopped by with smoked mozzarella pasta salad, roasted potatoes and veggies from Whole Foods.

Monday – Daniela took a 2nd turn coming to visit, this time bringing yummy homemade lasagna.

Tuesday – Jennifer brought us manicotti, French bread and cookies!

Not only has all the food been delicious, but I’ve loved looking forward to having visitors each day and sharing Aurora with each of you one-on-one. I’m not sure how I’ll make it 10 more weeks without you guys… I guess I’ll just have to bring Aurora in for lunches in the LAF kitchen.

My First Outing

This afternoon I decided to take a trip to HEB on my own. I’d just fed Aurora and knew that she’d be out for the next two hours, and thanks to Bianca for giving us an HEB gift card, I figured I should take advantage of the beautiful day and head out into the real world.

The strangest thing about going out was that I feel so different and I’m still so sore, but suddenly everybody looked at me like my old self and treated me like any other person moving too slow - cutting me off with their carts and looking right past me. When I was pregnant, people looked at me like I was special. They'd hold the door for me and ask when I was due and whether I was having a boy or a girl. The times we've gone out with Aurora, people treated us like we were doing something really special, and wanted to know how old she was and what her name is. Today when I asked for help out to my car, the lady looked at me like “you’re kidding, right?” I think I need a sign that says “I just had a baby 10 days ago – I’m still special!” Oh well. Maybe we should just treat everybody we meet like they're special, but we don't.

I stocked up on wipes, grabbed some water, soda, juice, fresh fruit, cereal and milk (I am so hungry first thing in the morning), as well as some coconut almond chocolate chip ice cream. It’s already half gone.

Here’s a photo for you – me with the most special part of our little family:

A Good Night

Last night was our best night of sleep yet. Aurora’s fussy hour has slowly been shifting earlier and earlier in the evening, and last night she was done crying by midnight. We all went to sleep soon after (Aurora in her bassinet next to us), and she didn’t wake up until just over 3 hours later. Daddy picked her up and brought her to me while I set up my nursing pillow, and she fed for 20 minutes straight (yay!). A new diaper and we were off to another 3 hours of sound sleep before her next feeding.

During that 2nd feeding, I watched as the clear sky turned ominous, lightening started to strike in the distance, followed by clapping thunder, pouring rain, and a hail storm! I opened the bedroom door to let Tater hide under the bed, but the baby didn’t even notice. Chuck loves storms, so he woke up to snuggle Rora and called it a “magical moment.”

Aurora didn’t wake up again until 8:30am, when I fed her and gave her to Chuck for some snuggle time. They’re still snoozing, but I decided to take advantage of the quiet morning – took a shower, tried on more pre-pregnancy pants (they fit!), and decided to document our good night. I don’t know if all these details are interesting or not, but I figure the blog is as much for me to journal my experience as it is for you to share in it!

I hope you’re all having a good weekend.

Sleeping Cutie

Okay, so we’re going to call this a milk coma. If you are a mom and have experienced this phenomenon, any friendly advice you can offer is greatly appreciated, as this whole nursing thing is new to us…


Basically, once Rora’s been feeding for, oh 8-10 minutes, she totally conks out! I can tickle her feet, pump her arms and legs, rub her cheeks, burp her, change her diaper – sometimes she is just out for the count! I know she’s only a week old, but my goal is to give her full feedings, and our pediatrician said feedings should last 20-30 minutes. She also said Aurora was gaining weight fine, and I don't think milk production is an issue – so maybe her tiny tummy is just filling up fast.

I might check out the "Baby Bistro" breastfeeding support group at Seton, just to make sure we’re doing everything right. Until then, any tips or tricks in general are welcome!

One week old

Who says all babies do is eat, sleep, poop and cry? They also squirm!!!



Sue Potts told me awhile back that everything your baby does is cute – that in fact, I’d think my baby’s poop was cute. I believe I looked at her like she was a bit silly when she said that. But boy was it a true statement! You might be wondering, what’s so cute about poop? It's not so much the poop itself, but faces she makes when she realizes she’s pooping! The diapering is much easier than either of us expected it to be, but I’m not sure I’d describe diapering as adorable. Oh, and don't worry - she's not pooping in this video. Just making cute faces.

Life in the Nursery

We’ve been pretty much living in the nursery these last few days. We have it set up with everything we need, including Chuck’s laptop and Wacom tablet so he can actually work while hanging out with us. Did I mention how lucky we are to have a daddy working from home??? He claims he hasn’t been getting enough work done, but I swear – he types something, looks up at Aurora, draws something, picks her up and snuggles for a few minutes, goes downstairs for some water, gazes at her features for awhile then grabs the camera (you get the idea).

We did take a little walk through the neighborhood yesterday and introduced Aurora to a couple of the neighbors, and we've been hanging out on the balcony here and there for some fresh air. Overall, it's been a relaxing day, and a pretty neat week.

4 Days of Firsts

Friday I had my first hospital stay, my first I.V., and my first baby. Now I’m finding everyday is filled with firsts! Daniela was our first visitor at home, The Bachelor was the first TV show Aurora watched, and last night was the first time I pumped (my milk came in big time!). Today we had our first visit to the pediatrician and our first family trip to Babies R Us. We bought her a couple of preemie outfits, because all of our 0-3 month stuff is too big on her skinny legs!

According to the pediatrician, Rora’s doing great. She was born at 6 lbs 11 oz, but by the time we left the hospital she was down to 6 lbs 4 oz (which is pretty normal). Today she’s 6 lbs 9 oz, and the doctor was pleased with her weight gain. In fact, the doctor was pleased with everything about Aurora, and said she’s beautiful and perfect… a little jaundiced, but probably not enough to warrant treatment.

No Nurses, No Room Service

And somehow our first night at home went great!

At the hospital, the nurses were just amazing. They were so attentive, making sure mommy and baby had everything we could possibly need to recover. Room service was nice – they had so many vegetarian options that I never ate the same thing twice.

Chuck was even more amazing, changing almost every diaper and keeping Aurora safe and happy so that I could take it easy. Here at home, he’s the one who has to be right next to her sleeping so that he can always hear her breath. And this morning he happily snuggled her while I showered and took some time to figure out how my body’s doing. The soreness is healing, and my milk’s already coming in – so now my tummy is small again and my breasts are getting even bigger!

Aurora certainly has her fussy moments (and hours), but she’s a really good girl. She cries a lot when gas bubbles get stuck in her belly, and when she’s gassy or trying to potty… I can only imagine that learning to digest is hard work!!! So we do everything we can to help her feel better and get some sleep too. She’s a sleepy baby right now, and we all slept pretty well last night, considering.

I know what you’re thinking… where are new pictures!? None today, but I’ll try to post pics as often as possible from here on out. Now that I’m not working for awhile, I will consider blogging my main “job”!

Welcome Home Aurora!

Thanks to Daniela’s comment and many phone calls and emails over the weekend, you probably all know the news – Aurora Ruth Wadey was born on Friday, April 18th at 7:16pm, just 5 hours before her official due date.

Labor was pretty easy and seemed to go quickly, but the hour and a half of pushing was tough. I was lucky to have Chuck and Kim Barnett supporting more than just my legs. Afterwards, the doctor spent awhile stitching me up, and I’m not going to lie… recovery from that has been the hardest part. But we’re home and all doing great. I think the pictures tell the story better than I could, so here they are!

Click here for More Photos

Labor Day

Amber is now in labor. We've checked into the hospital. The doctor just came through and broke her water. The doctor reports that she is 6 cm dilated. That's up from 4 cm a few hours ago. Usually women dilate at 1cm/per hour once the water has been broken. Add another hour for pushing... and our estimate is that Blueberry could arrive between 5-6pm this evening. Looks like she'll beat her due date after all. The epidural and pitocin is on it's way.

So far this has been calm and easy. Amber is cheery and doesn't seems to be in much pain. Daniela is visiting and we've spoken to a few friends and parents on the phone. Daniela brought me food and it looks like she'll win the baby pool by guessing the correct birth date.

Thanks Austin!

April 17, 2006, Chuck and I finished the drive from LA to Austin and signed the closing documents on our house. I remember the first time I met my next door neighbor, June, she seemed surprised that it was just me and Chuck moving in. She said "that's a lot of house for only 2 people!" giving me the "when are you going to have kids" look.

It's been a great two years. We moved out here without jobs, just knowing that it was time to try something new. We were ready to buy our own home, and Chuck had always wanted to freelance out of his own home-studio. As much as I knew this move was the right thing to do, I don't think either of us could have predicted how well everything would really work out. I was lucky enough to find a job I love working with amazing people, and Chuck's freelancing took off more quickly than anticipated and turned into a great full-time job working from home.

Of course, owning our own home was the first step in "getting ready" to start a family. We knew we weren't ready two years ago, but everything certainly has come together for us and it's exciting to be embarking on this next stage in our lives... any day now!

Another date with Dr. Belt

Today’s appointment went fine. I actually lost 2 pounds from being sick over the last week, and other than that nothing has changed. The baby hasn’t dropped, I’ve made no further progress with dilation or effacement, and my OB doesn’t think I’ll be having this baby this week. She set my next appt for April 23rd, and is convinced I’ll still be pregnant by then – at which point we’ll have a non-stress test and another sonogram to check fluid levels and figure out if we need to induce or just give it more time.

But like I said, Sunday’s a full moon! I'm sure this baby and this body of mine have an agenda of their own. I’ve spoken to SO many women whose doctor’s told them something similar, and they went into labor very soon after… we just cannot predict it (if only we could!).

Sue wants me to take long walks and prove my doctor wrong by letting gravity get this baby into position and outta here, so I walked for almost an hour and a half after work today (at the mall... I needed dinner and a new pair of sunglasses). And Kelsey wants me to blog everyday now to ensure everybody always knows if I’m in labor or not. Hmmm… well Kelsey, this blog’s for you. Whether I can think of something to blog EVERYDAY from here on out, I don’t know… but I promise to let you know when we’re in the hospital, even if it means Chuck writes a guest blog.

Maybe tomorrow I'll post my birth plan. Maybe not!