The fun and amazing thing to me as I watch her learn new skills is that she has to figure out all the things that we take for granted: holding her head up, grasping objects, deciphering patterns, talking, sitting up, etc. The list goes on. There are probably hundreds of things that you and I do easily every day that she has to actually train herself to do.

Being here to watch her learn to do these things is a blessing.

As you can see, she is nicely entranced. We were inspired to get this swing by our visit to Colorado, when Susan let us borrow a swing. It did wonders for extending her naps and allowing us a little baby holding break. The lights and mobile are more for when she is awake. ;)
The other thing we used quite a bit in Colorado was a bouncy chair. This was great for active/play time because she could be upright but still relax. The bouncing motion seemed quite soothing to her as well. She fell asleep the first time we put her in it. Of course, that never happened again, but she seemed to like it all the same.
So, mommy went on the hunt for a nice bouncy chair. Of course, Baby Bjorn has fabulous chairs. The thing I liked about them were that they didn’t have the bells and whistles that the swing had (gotta have less stimulating options) and they kept her more upright, which I think helps with the whole spitting up extravaganza. The thing I didn’t like about them was the pricetag! Holy balls on a stick! Those suckers are expensive. Of course, they say you can use them until the kid is about 28 lbs, which is into toddlerhood (more as a chair than a bouncer at that point). Anyhoots, I was able to pick up a gently used one for much cheaper. She’s not super into it, but she’ll sit in it and look at the toy bar and such. As is evinced here:

See that dislike of having her photo taken? Yeah, she gets that from me. She doesn’t smile in this chair as much as her other ones. I wonder if that’s because the toys are less interactive. She really likes when I move her toys and make them talk to her. Or the mobiles–those are a big hit. These toys just sit there. Three little wooden bears. Since she’s not quite able to reach out and bat them, they don’t really do much for her. She’ll watch them for a while when we spin them, but they’re just not as fun.

Well, Liora certainly has a lot of stuff. I guess it’s nice that we’ll have stuff to pass on to her sibling in the future. (Farther into the future–keep your pants on, grandparents.) Or to lend to other people. It seems like there are tons of babies popping up all over the place. On our block there are 13 kids with 2 more due by September. Liora sure will have a lot of friends if we stay in this neighborhood!

Luckily Loki didn’t seem to mind her using him as a pillow… for about 3 seconds. Then he ran away. Plenty of time for a super-cute photo op!

Here’s a pic from our lunch time. I think she really liked being outside.

Tonight, we decided we should probably give our little stinky baby a bath.

Her reaction to the bath can be summed up pretty nicely in this one picture:

Actually, she kinda liked it, unless she got chilly. Then we would just turn on the tap and give her a bit of a shower from it. That calmed her down very nicely. She did great and we were able to get her nice and clean. Atkins gave her a little lotion rub afterwards, I fed her and she fell asleep nicely.

Stay tuned for more Liora adventures! I am sure we’ll get some pics of her in the airport and on the plane as well. :)

I took these pics today. She is becoming even more aware of the world around her. It started with the mobile (in the video below) and our faces. Now you can really tell that she’s focusing and reaching for things. Atkins said she can even see the dragonfly mobile above the crib now. It’s so amazing how far she has come in a relatively short amount of time! A month brings an incredible amount of development for a wee baby.

Let us know what you think!

Our birth plan involved keeping things as natural as possible and I was looking forward to laboring in the tub. Unfortunately, once we made it up to the delivery room, the fetal monitor showed that Pickle’s heart rate was dipping at certain times. Since things were not 100% normal, I was unable to use the tub. The midwife decided to break my bag of water and speed things along. Once that happened, they noticed meconium, meaning the baby had pooped in the amniotic fluid. This can cause problems, obviously. Once the water was broken, my contractions got a lot more painful. That was when I decided to go for the epidural. Our entire birth plan was shot, and I was in quite a bit of pain. They put the epidural in and it was like a whole new world! My pain was basically gone. Each contraction brought a much less painful sensation. Unfortunately, Pickle’s heart rate was dropping after each contraction, so the doctor decided it was time to go for a c-section. After about 24 hours of labor, I was dilated to 7.5 cm, and was going in for surgery. I had prepared myself a bit mentally for the possibility of a cesarean but I was still scared when they rolled me into the operating room. It was a good thing I had gotten the epidural, otherwise I would have been put under general anesthesia.

Once we were in the operating room, the doctor delivered Pickle in a very short amount of time. Atkins was able to peek over the surgical drape, and he was the one to announce that we had a little girl. Since she had meconium in the fluid, she was taken immediately by the neonatal specialists and I never even heard her cry. While I was being sutured, we discussed names. Kind-of surreal, really. Our midwife came back and forth from the room where our new little girl was being assessed and told us that she was absolutely beautiful. She also mentioned that she had really long feet, which made us laugh.

The first time I was able to see my beautiful daughter was as we were both being wheeled out of our respective rooms. I was on my gurney and she was in her incubator. She had wide-open eyes and the cutest little pouty mouth. The doctors were worried about her respiration so she was to stay a while in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) so they could monitor her breathing. She was breathing well on her own but with a little increased effort.

Sometime during Saturday night, our little girl had a seizure. The staff saw her right arm moving in an erratic manner. They gave her an anti-seizure medication and ordered several tests, the first of which was a CAT scan. The doctors told us that they were concerned that our tiny girl had a stroke in utero. When the CAT scan came back normal, they ordered more tests, including an MRI and an EEG. EEGs monitor brain waves and are measured using electrical leads at various points on the head. The EEG picked up some abnormal brain waves. Also during her time in the NICU, her heart rate was being observed and became concerning because it was getting very low. So, more tests were ordered, including a 12-lead ECG, an echocardiogram and a Holter monitor.

Everything came back normal. The seizure activity stopped. While we were waiting on all the tests, they were running pathology on my placenta (which they didn’t even tell me they were doing, but I’m glad to know they did) and they found some evidence of inflammation on the baby side. I had never had so much as a cold during my pregnancy, so this inflammation remains a bit of a mystery. They were concerned about infection, however, so they decided to keep her on IV antibiotics for 7 full days.

The cardiologist diagnosed her with sinus bradycardia, which means that her heart rate is a normal rhythm, just slow. When she was in deep sleep it would dip down into the 60s. (It’s funny, though, because as I was in labor, my heart rate was about 52. Everyone kept asking if I were athletic and if that heart rate was normal for me. I always laughed when they asked if I were athletic, as would anyone who knew me. haha.) Though as the time progressed, her heart rate did not get below the low 80s. As for the seizures, the neurologist thinks it may just have been due to her traumatic birth. As for the traumatic birth, well, we don’t really know what caused that.

During this time, Atkins and I had to decide what to name our new little daughter. Of course, we had decided on a boy name, but hadn’t quite pinned down the girl’s name yet. We had two choices that we liked. Liora stood out to both of us. I liked the way it sounded, especially with Meyer as the last name, and the meaning “light” also struck me as fitting. Wren was a name that I always liked, and I found out that Atkins liked it a lot too. So, we started saying it, never really fully committing until the birth certificate representative came in. We decided to make it official and Liora Wren Meyer was transcribed into the ages.

It’s funny now, looking back on 41 and 4/7 weeks of calling her Pickle. We joked that she would be called Pickle for the rest of her life but as soon as we saw her, even before we had named her, we realized that she wasn’t Pickle anymore. Pickle was a mystery, a living entity in my body that we could never really see. This is Liora, our daughter, a small person in her own right and no longer an unknown.

Now we get to spend the rest of our lives getting to know Liora: her preferences, her likes and dislikes. Will she be girly? A tomboy? Will she like dolls or stuffed animals? Will she be a Daddy’s girl? The questions are endless.

Whatever she decides to be, she will be our little Liora, the light of our lives. And we are happy to finally have her home with us, where she belongs.

So, here’s some pics. I also tried a couple of panorama shots, so I’ll set those up up front. It’s easier to see how everything comes together. These are taken from opposite corners. It’s a pretty small room, though, so there’s a lot of overlap. The camera couldn’t get everything, which is why I took some other pics as well.

Here are other pics taken with a little more height so you can more easily see the decoration.

Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to put pictures side-by-side on this damn blog, so you’ll have to deal with them as-is. ;) You can click on each one and bring up a slightly bigger version, so you should be able to see some good detail.

So, you may have noticed that I said the nursery is ALMOST 100% done. What could possibly be left, you must be asking yourself. haha. Or not. Maybe you didn’t even see that. Anyway, the only think I’d like to do is put the baby’s name up over the crib on the wall. Yes, I know, everyone is doing it, but I don’t care. I think it’s cute. Well, the only thing stopping me from doing it is that we don’t have a baby yet! :) Once the baby comes, I’ll work on getting that done. That means it’ll probably happen in the next 6 months or so. Considering that I’ll be a tad busy there for a while. haha.

Hopefully the next blog post will show Pickle on the outside of the tummy. I’m 5 days overdue as of this post, so it really should be any day now. :)
Keep an eye on the blog! (I’ll probably have Atkins type a little something up as I will likely be sleeping.)