4 months old

4 months old!  

This baby girl just won't stop growing.  At her 4 month appointment she weighed 15 lbs 6 oz and was 26 inches long; 90%tile for weight and 97%tile for height.   

On her 4 month birthday she showed us how she can roll from her back to her tummy and now as soon as you lay her on her back she immediately rolls to her tummy.  At times she even thinks about attempting to army crawl and at her appointment her Dr commented on how strong she is and predicted an early crawler!! AHHH, I'm not ready for my baby to be so old :(

She is starting to sleep thru the night more often, which I obviously LOVE but she doesn't let me get too comfortable with sleeping all night and still decides to make me get up every now and then.  

Still battling that dang reflux but she is still responding well to her meds (we tried weaning her off of them and she wasn't ready...it was rough). 
Her clogged tear duct keeps clearing up then coming back and repeating.... but, we're hoping it has cleared up for the last time just days ago!  Here's to hoping!

She LOVES watching football with daddy and is getting less stingy with her giggles (best sound EVER!)  She has found her thumb and is now a thumb sucker.  She still drools all. the. time and Dr said she is working on teeth.  Again, NOT ready for my baby to be so old!  But, her feisty, stubborn personality comes out more and more everyday and she shows us how determined she is to grow up.  

Love you Goose!

3 months old

Already? 3 months old!  

This girl is growing like crazy!  Each day it seems like she is doing something new and showing us just how determined she is to grown up.  She can now hold her own toys, loves to 'coo'sand babble and yell when she doesn't get her way (oh boy!), has found her hands and LOVES to suck and suck on them then gets her fingers and sticks them as far down her throat as she can thus gagging herself all. the. time.  There seems to have been a 'happy' shot included in her batch of 2 month shots, this past month has been SO much happier!  Still battling the reflux and still on the meds but seems to be doing better all the time.  She is still getting up once a night around 4am sometimes 5am, and a few times 5:30 or 6.  Mom really likes those nights :)  I have been subbing at the school every now and then and went into to work on her 3 month birthday while daddy babysat.  When I came home for lunch she decided she was old enough to roll from her tummy to back!

It is so fun to see which milestone she will hit next and when she decides to show it off.

We love you Lucy girl!

2 months old

2 months old....already??? :(  

Little Lucy girl has decided it is time to start to chunking up.  At her 2 month appointment she weighed in at 12 lbs 6 oz and is 24 inches long, 97%tile for both height and weight.  Her reflux has been bad.  Really bad this last month.  The Prevacid seems to help and also the rice cereal her Dr is having me put in a bottle for her once a day.  With that she spits up quite a bit less and the Prevacid seems to remove some of the acidity so she isn't in quite so much pain.  We're hoping things continue to keep improving, like I said, it's been a rough month.  But, when she's happy she is starting to 'coo' more and more and loves to blow raspberries.  She, of course, still LOVES her bath and some evenings that and car rides are the only way to keep our sanity :)

We sure are in love with our little Lucy Goosey!

1 month old

I don't know where the time has gone but little Lucy has already been in our arms for one full month!  Weighing 9 lbs 8oz, she is just a petite little thing that is just now growing out of Newborn sized clothes and into 0-3 month clothes.  She has been such a happy baby and is starting to smile more and more, and not just in her sleep.  But, she has started getting a little more fussy and some reflux has kicked in :(  To celebrate her 1 month birthday we spent the weekend at the Idaho State Fair at her first of many horse races (which while at she had one of the biggest blowouts yet and she was NOT happy about being stripped down and sponge bathed in front of everyone in the fairgrounds bathroom).  We also spent our first night away from home at a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa Merrill's and on Sunday got to go to cousin Lexi's baby blessing (they are only 3 weeks apart).

Happy 1 month Lucy Mae!  

We are so in love with you.

Newborn pictures

When Lucy was 1 week old I took her and got some newborn pictures done.  She did great, for the most part, and we were able to get some adorable pictures of her before she woke up and was fussy.  

I may be biased, but I  think she is just the cutest baby EVER ;)

I was so happy the photographer was able to catch this happy sleepy smile :)

 Thanks to KatyMontrossPhotography for the adorable pictures!

We did go a few days later and get a few family pictures taken by Katy again but Lucy did NOT want to cooperate for those ones. Poor Katy had to just click when she could and hope for a decent picture.  Plus that was the first day of Lucy's clogged tear duct so her poor little eye looked HORRIBLE.  And I was still ridiculously swollen the week after she was born so of course I don't like me in the pictures, 

BUT... they work for our first family pictures :)

 

Lucy Mae Merrill

Lucy Mae made her grand entrance 
Thursday August 7th 2014 at 10:42 pm 
weighing in at 8 lbs 3 oz and 21 inches long. 

 
It all started that morning when I went to my 39 week Dr appointment.  Luckily Dillon was able to take a few hours off that morning to go with me.  We knew it was a slight possibility that we would be induced so we took the basics with us, just in case, since we were delivering in IF (45 mins from home) but we didn't expect it to be a reality.  At my appointment I was 90% effaced and at 1 cm.  Baby girl's heartrate was slightly on the low side, still in normal range (range is from 160-120) but at the very lowest at 120something.  Doctor told us he would induce if we wanted but ultimately it was up to us.  We debated back and forth and didn't want to force her to come if she wasn't ready and if I wasn't ready, but Dr Leavitt told us he wouldn't give it as an option if he didn't think we were ready.  He left us to think about it and when he came back we asked him if her heartrate was a concern and he said no, but that we might as well just get her out.  He told us he would be out of town the next day so if I went on my own he wouldn't be there to delivery but if we got induced and it went into the next day he just wouldn't leave and go out of town (what a sweet doctor :) ).  So....after going back and forth we decided just to go for it.  He sent us right over to the hospital and I was hooked up to Pitocin by 10:10am!  It was really happening.  I couldn't believe it!

Last belly pic, 39 weeks

Going for a walk to kill some time and to keep things going

Soon to be mom and dad just hanging out

 My body was responding really well to the Pit and I was having good, regular contractions.  At one point I was having too many so they turned the Pit down.  Dr Leavitt said he would be there at noon to break my water.......at about 2:30pm he still wasn't there so the nurse checked me and I was at 3 cm.  She said that it was late enough at that point that he probably wouldn't be there until after office hours.  Sure enough right around 5:30pm he came in, broke my water, and checked me....still at 3 cm.  He had the nurse turn the pit back up and said he would be back at 9pm to check me again.  He said that most women progress about 1 cm an hour so he was guessing delivery to be sometime in the early morning hours.  Only about 10 mins after he broke my water the ease I had experienced of laboring all day was over and things got real intense real fast!  I was trying to be brave and trying to be strong but about an hour later I couldn't handle it anymore and asked for the epidural.  At 6:45pm the epidural was in place and quickly started working, thankfully, and I was able to get some rest.

 Around 9pm things started feeling different and I could feel pressure that I hadn't felt before.  I was still, obviously, numb but I could still feel this weird pressure and Dillon went to tell the nurse.  She said that it was probably a good sign and Dr would be there soon to check me.  The pressure kept getting stronger and more frequent and things just felt...different.  Finally at 9:30pm I convinced the nurse to check me and I was at a good 8cm.  She told me she would call Dr Leavitt and let him know.  He still wasn't there by 10:15 and I knew things were getting real and I told Dillon that I felt like if I pushed, she'd be out.  The nurse came in and I again got her to check me and low and behold I was at 10cm and ready!  She said she would go call the Dr and tell him to come faster and would come right back and help me through a few practice pushes.  If they went well she would have me stop and wait for Dr, otherwise we would practice til he got there.  She came back, a contraction hit, I pushed, the nurse told me good job and then told me to stop and Dillon said he could see our baby girl :)  Just then Dr Leavitt walked in and quickly walked back out saying he'd go get dressed.  Moments later he came back in and a contraction hit and the pushing began.  Dr could tell there was going to be tearing so he did a quick episiotomy.  After only 3 contractions of pushing with the Dr baby girl was here!!  

The Dr and nurses kept commenting on how huge and healthy her cord was!

She did have the cord around her neck and was born with her hand in a fist up by her face so despite the episiotomy I still had 3rd degree tearing.  I didn't even care tho, my baby girl was here and I got to love and cuddle on her while Dr stitched me up!!  

Hanging out with daddy for the first time!

My mom was watching my niece Payzli the week Lucy came so Z was lucky enough to be the first cousin to meet her!  Despite a long boring day spent at the hospital and it being so late at night, Payzli was in heaven  when she was finally able to come in and meet her brand new cousin :)

The next few days were spent hanging out and enjoying all our visitors! 
THANK YOU to all those that came to see us!!  We tried getting a pic of everyone that came but we did miss a few.  Sorry for those we missed, we still love you :)

Grandma Merrill

Grandma Brough

Cousin Payzli

Mom's friend Nissa

Uncle Landon

Uncle Logan

Aunt Tosha

Driscoll family (her and her cousin Lexi are only 3 weeks apart)

Great Grandma Carter

Dad's cousin Jesse

Dad's Aunt Careen

Aunt Lacie and cousin Sofia

Sofia LOVED baby Lucy

Aunt Lacie and an apprehensive cousin Lukas

Luke loved her more from a distance :)

Aunt Lacie

Uncle Jake

The kiddos with Lucy and the 'Lucy doll' they brought her :)

 And we did of course get to spend some time together as just our little family of three :)

Daddy on diaper duty

First bath :)

Eating our special mommy/daddy "Stork Dinner" from the hospital, which actually wasn't too bad.

Lucy girl just slept and hung out and let mommy and daddy eat

Love these two!

Love my baby girl!

First family picture

 Sat evening, after making us stay all day to monitor little Lucy's feedings (neither her or I was a natural at the whole breastfeeding thing) we were FINALLY able to take our baby girl home!

Dressed all cute but oh so tired and ready to go home

So tiny!

As if I haven't said it enough....we are SO IN LOVE with our Lucy girl and are extremely grateful for a relatively quick labor and easy delivery and that we are now home with a (mostly) happy and healthy baby girl!!