Sadie's First Christmas

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas. Juan and I were so excited to celebrate this year as an official family. We decided to spend Christmas with both Juan's family and my family since Sadie is still a novelty. It was a long day, but I am really glad we did it! My cousin Erik dressed up as Santa this year. Sadie didn't seem too impressed. She also didn't like the Christmas tree as much as I thought she would. She's intrigued by all other lights...kitchen light, bathroom light and the TV, but when we had our little tree lighting ceremony we got nothin' out of her. She took one look and looked away!  Sometimes we say she's stuck-up.  :)

Here are some pictures from Christmas. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of Christmas with Juan's family. Sorry guys!

Where's Sadie?

 Sadie was the main attraction...which means I got a little break :)

 A Cubs sippy cup...YES!  I think Juan was more excited for this than Sadie

 Our first family Christmas photo

 Sadie with the boys

 We're going to have a lot of fun with this picture when they get older!

She was a trooper

Catching Up

We came home Thursday afternoon, a little over 24 hours after Sadie was born.  I remember it being really windy and much colder that it has been.  Juan decorated the front of the house with balloons and a huge welcome home sign.  Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to take any pictures, rats!  But it was the sweetest thing.  Juan is so thoughtful and cheesy like that!  :)

The first few days were a whirlwind. We were still sleeping on the pull out couch in our living room because the upstairs was airing out from all the painting. Sadie would wake up every half hour or so to eat, so sleeping wasn’t really an option. We quickly learned what it was like to be delirious.

Sadie’s first doctor appointment was that Saturday. She had lost a lot of weight - went from 7 lbs 9 oz down to 6 lbs 6oz. The doctor suggested supplementing formula every third feeding. But that quickly turned into every feeding because although I fed her every hour in hopes of increasing my milk supply, she still wasn’t getting what she needed. And she wasn’t crying anymore!  I think this may have been where breastfeeding started going downhill. I’ve had a few people tell me the baby sort of has to “starve” the first few days until your milk supply increases. Is this true??  I attempted pumping for the next SEVERAL weeks, but found it to be really exhausting and hard to keep up with. So I decided to call it quits.  I felt guilty at first because there are so many benefits to breastfeeding, and I wanted Sadie to get the best of everything. But I tried, and that’s all I can do. Thankfully a few weeks later a wonderful friend of mine who is still breastfeeding her baby said she would pump a couple times a day for me! So Sadie is getting some breast milk daily. :)

At four weeks she was 9 lbs 7 oz and 21 inches long. She started sleeping better too... but the little princess DEFINITELY loved sleeping in our bed.

Sadie started smiling somewhere between 6 and 7 weeks. She started sleeping through the night around then too, often sleeping up to six hours straight! And wake her up to eat? Psh! She wouldn't miss a meal if her life depended on it.

I recovered rather well. Besides being sore and winded the first few days, I physically felt like I was back to normal. Emotionally though I had a few post partum "issues." I wouldn't call it depression but I definitely battled my emotions more than normal.

Thanks to my mom for coming over on a weekly basis for the last few months to help remodel our room and Sadie’s room, and to help me clean. And for coming over our first full day home from the hospital. I got to take a break from domestic responsibilities and she even hand scrubbed our socks! I haven’t done that like ever! Thanks Mom, you've helped make the transition so much easier.

A HUGE thanks to my grandpa for his brilliant carpenter skills and willingness to help us finish the mess we started. He was at our house by 7:30 AM and often stayed until 5 pm, determined to finish before Sadie’s arrival.

And to my dad for helping us put in our new floors. We really could not have done it without you guys!

Juan's "secret weapon" to comfort Sadie was to take his shirt off...it actually worked!

She is such a sweet sleeper :)

Found her thumb

Oh Sadie you are so loved!

Newborn Pics

Sadie's newborn pictures taken by my friend Michelle Hamstra (website and blog). The session took about 2 1/2 hours! She didn't really like being messed with, and for the first 3/4 of the session she cried, ate, pooped, and peed on Michelle's blanket...and me!

Our naked model :)

Juan's favorite, no surprises there.

Birth Story

Tuesday, October 19, seemed to be an ordinary day, except that Juan decided to stay home and finish the remodeling we started on our room and Sadie’s room. I started feeling a little campy mid morning, but didn’t think anything of it since the pain was barely noticeable and inconsistent, and my due date wasn’t for another 3 days…the first baby is always late, right?

Around 4 pm something was definitely going on. The cramping was more consistent, but still barely noticeable. I told Juan about it, but we tried not to get too excited and shrugged it off thinking it was false labor caused by dehydration or working too hard. He made me pack a bag anyway, and I remember thinking, “Could this be the day we meet Sadie?!?” By 9 pm I was having consistent uncomfortable contracts. I called my midwife, and she told me since I was able to hold a conversation with her for more than a minute I should wait to go to the hospital. She suggested I take Tylenol, try to get some sleep and call her when things were getting “intense”…whatever that means.

I crawled into bed around 10:00 pm and kept waking up every 4 minutes or so with really uncomfortable contractions. “Is this intense enough to go in?,” I kept asking myself. I was so exhausted that as soon as the contraction ended I’d drift away into a light sleep wondering how long I was going to have to do this before it was time to go to the hospital. But when I woke up at 12:30 am to a really hard, painful contraction and my water breaking I knew it was time!

I immediately woke Juan up.. it was like a scene out of a movie. He woke up so fast, threw the covers off, asked me a million questions, and then started shaving…yes, shaving! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Here I am pants at my ankles, trying to get into dry clothes, hugging the toilet vomiting, experiencing the worst pain yet (the contractions got significantly worse after my water broke) and Juan was happy as a clam shaving. I wanted to yell “Are you serious?! You are shaving now??!! I’m about to have a baby, and you’re shaving?!” but I couldn’t get anything out except the chicken noodle soup I ate for dinner.

We arrived at the hospital somewhere around 1:30 am and they wheeled me from our truck up to the labor & delivery unit. If I wasn’t in transition before, I definitely was now. My contractions were so bad. I was shaking, throwing up, couldn’t talk through my contractions, and modesty was definitely not an issue anymore.

I was in triage for quite a while waiting for my room to be ready and my midwife to arrive. Finally, it was time to go to our room. Juan hurried off to transfer our stuff to the ABC (Alternative Birthing Center) room while the nurse and I walked…waddled there slowly. Less than 5 steps out of the room and I had to lean over because the pain was so intense. The contractions were one on top of another and I was barely getting a break enough to take a few steps. I finally made it to the room, but had to wait a little longer for the tub to fill up.

Getting into the water was nice, but I kept sliding down while I was pushing making it hard to get good ones out. After what seemed like an eternity of pushing and hearing Juan and my midwife saying they can see Sadie’s head, I was ready to give up. I thought, “I can’t get her out! Oh God, I cant do this anymore!” I was so exhausted I couldn't imagine going through one more contraction let alone pushing. But knowing it was the only way for the pain to end, I kept at it. I decided to get out of the tub and try the birthing stool for a while. Although it burned a little more to be out of the water, I feel like the birthing stool really helped get Sadie down the birth canal. After a few pushes she was crowning and I was back in the tub to give birth! “Ok Yvonne, this is it. It’s time to get your game face on.” Just two more BIG pushes and Sadie was out! My midwife placed her on my chest right away and after seeing her face I thought she looked so strangely familiar. Not because I thought she looked like Juan or me, but because, well, I can’t really explain it. Anyway, after a few moments of cuddling, Juan cut the umbilical cord and they took her to get weighed and measured. All I kept thinking was, "Thank God its over. Wow, I just had a baby!“

Although there was a period where I was wrestling with the idea of asking for an epidural, I am so thankful that I pressed on (with the support of Juan and my midwife) and Sadie was born without any medication. It was quite a traumatic experience, one I thought for a while I’d never want to experience again. But seeing Sadie now, smiling, giggling, and growing into the cutest “little mama” the trauma fades and her likelihood of not being an only child increases :)

Right after she was born, still in tub.

Proud parents

Uncle Matthew came to visit!

Proud grandmas

New Beginnings

It's a new year, and with a new year comes the endless attempts to make ourselves better people with less bad habits and more good ones. It's a noble gesture but one I have yet to accomplish :) No more than 30 days into a new year and my resolutions are long gone. This year I decided to make a resolution I actually want to keep... to document Sadie's life. So here it goes....

Sadie Love Quintero

Born Wednesday, October 20 at 4:13 am. She was 7 pounds 9 ounces and 18 inches long.

Our sweet Sadie