2 months

Our baby is 2 months old!! It seems like she has been a part of our family forever- I can not imagine my life any more with out her. But then it seems like it was just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital. We are loving each minute with her and enjoying her so much! We could not get any smiley pics- she was all serious for her 2 month photo shoot! :)

my birthday

One of the church's here in town have a drive through live Nativity scene for Christmas. We went to see it this weekend and it was very beautiful! It is very cold here so I can only imagine how cold the people were out there! We caught it on the last night so it was not very crowded at all we just drove right through with no long lines or anything (- which I am getting a little spoiled when I get irritated with what a long line means here in our small town that is!)


I could not think of a better way to celebrate my birthday! That is the absolute sweetest smile and she has completely fulfilled my every wish! I love her!! She has found her hands and they go straight in her mouth! She is getting better self soothing her self at times with sucking on her hands but still not that into the whole binky thing. And as you can tell she is smiling more and more each day! We are enjoying every minute with her and can not get enough!! She has that cradle cap- we are trying the shampoo, a pr- shampoo treatment and baby oil so we will see if we can get that to go away soon! It looks to me like it would hurt but they say it just bothers parents! :) hope every one has a great week! sending all our love~G, J and MJ

Santa

We took Mallory to see Santa the day after Thanksgiving. She was pretty cute with him she just stared at his big white beard! Too cute!! Mallory continues to keep me on my toes- just when I get comfortable in somewhat of a routine she completely flips it on me. I am trying to let go of my OCD behavior and just listen to her of what she needs and when she needs it. She now smiles real smiles not just at gas and it completely melts our hearts. We tried weighing her by just weighing ourselves with and then without her and unofficially we think she is around 10lbs. She changes each day! Justin has gotten to spend more days during the week at home with us girls due to work being pretty slow which is very nice family time. We got our Christmas tree up this past weekend, Mallory was super cute sniffing it the whole car ride home with the tree in the car. I got the sweetest, most thoughtful gift in the mail this week from MJ and all the Jones girls- they sent me a jar with daily inspirational notes to open one each day! Thank y'all so much I have loved that so much and it has helped me with any low feelings that creep up! I love y'all- thanks again for looking out for me like that! Hope everyone is having a great week! Sending all our love~G, J and MJ

one month already!!

Our baby is already one month old!!! Goodbye new born diapers we are now in size one. Her newborn size clothes are too snug as well and she wearing size 0-3months now. Can not believe how fast time is going by and how fast she is growing, we measured her with ruler at home and she has grown 1 and 1/2 inches! She has been sleeping close to 4 hrs at night these past couple nights. It is amazing how much has changed in just a month. Everyone was totally right that it does get better and easier with each day. We went out to Justin's Aunt and Uncles house for Thanksgiving and enjoyed dinner with them and a lot of the cousin's. Mallory slept through her first Thanksgiving dinner but was up afterwards to enjoy time with the family watching the OSU basketball game. My mom got to come up and be with us for the long Thanksgiving weekend and we enjoyed every minute she was here with us -did not want her to leave! Thank you so much momma, we appreciate your help with everything so very much!!!

Mallory newborn pics

A couple of weeks ago we had someone come over to the house to take Mallory's newborn pictures. I was aiming for a time of day that she would be deep in sleep so we could get those adorable sleeping baby shots where they are all curled up and placed strategically in cute positions but that was just silly wishful thinking! I have learned not to plan anything when it comes to a newborn! :) I want to thank yall so much for all of the encouragment and support these past couple of weeks- it means so much to me! I have officially gone a couple days now without crying and without doubting myself! So I am definately getting better! I am loving every second with Mallory she is such a miracle and has completed our family in ways we did not know were possible! She is the love of our lives and is our entire world! She is getting stronger with her neck control and does pretty good with tummy time in small intervals. She is still backwards for the most part with sleep scheduele but we are getting there with that too! We hope you enjoy her pics and we send all our love!!!~G, J and MJ

Justin's the big 3-0

This weekend we celebrated Justin's 30th birthday on Saturday. His sister Janelle is here in town for a week and a half and her bday was a couple days before his so we celebrated her bday as well. (Mallory did her first road trip going down to Oklahoma City airport to pick up Aunt Janelle and she did pretty good for a whole afternoon/evening in the car.) It was pretty fun for them to be together to celebrate and I think they had a pretty good time together. Festivities are still stretched out even to this Friday for them as well, lucky dogs! This past weekend we had a couple of friends over to watch the OU vs Tech game to celebrate the big three-ohh. I dressed myself and Mallory in OU gear just because it was Justin's bday- we were both quietly rooting for Tech but our cheers went unheard as OU blew them out of the water- poor Tech.

This past weekend we also made a trip to Stillwater so Aunt Janelle could see the kids there since they could not come to Enid because Shana was studying for midterms. Mallory did very good on the trip there and even stayed asleep so I could eat lunch but the afternoon was not so good for her. After she ate she completely threw up which was a first for Justin and me as parents! These past few days have been pretty hard for me adjusting to motherhood. It is so hard when she is up for hours at night and nothing I do can soothe her, absolutely breaks my heart. I am loosing faith in myself of how good a mom I am these past few days. Everyone keeps reassuring me how much better it gets and I know it will it is just hard for me right now. I think Mallory got the short end of the stick in the mom department and needs a better one for sure!

sending all our love~G, J and MJ

2 weeks already!

Our adorable little red raider!

I can not believe it has already been 2 weeks since Mallory has joined our family. It has been absolutely amazing. I am beginning to feel a lot better and am loving being a mom! It was a rough first week home with being sore from surgery and the complete lack of sleep delirium I was in but this week has been so much better. My emotions are balancing back out now and I am feeling human again instead of like a crazy lady. She is now getting up every 3 hours to nurse instead of hourly so that is a huge game changer being able to catch a few more zzz's. I love just being able to be with her, I can just sit and watch her forever and still feel like I can not get enough of her! It takes my breath away to think we created her and just how amazing she truly is, I did not know I could love someone so much and so deeply. We went to her first doctor appointment a couple of days ago and she is doing good, her weight was back up and is in the 50th percentile. She began to loose it towards end of appointment from a hunger melt down- I had to sweep her off to the car to nurse I do not feel comfortable yet with the whole nursing in public as I am continuing to learn, I am sure that will change. She has been taking it pretty easy on us- she is a pretty relaxed baby- she is only fussy and cries with a few gas/poop problems that she has to work out and when she is beyond hungry. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers for us and we appreciate yall so very much!! Sending all our love~G, J and MJ

Our family of 2 is now of 3!:)

We went in to get induced this past Monday morning on Mallory's actual due date but things of course did not work out the way we planned but instead just the way they were supposed to. After over 24 hours on pitocin and then cervidil things were actually going in the opposite direction. Mallory's blood pressure dropped way low with each contraction that next morning so our doctor did C-section before too much distress happened for her. Turns out there would have been no way she would have come vaginal the way she was postitioned and with the placement of the cord so it all worked out for the best. I would have to say C-section was weird in the sense that I did not get to actually see Mallory and be with her for what seemed like forever which was pretty hard for me. Having to have a C-section was one of my biggest fears throughout the pregnancy but so thankful for such a great doctor and his team that made it such a good experience- as well as being cut open can be right? We had a long week in the hospital and finally got discharged late Thursday night. We have just been following Mallory's lead with everyting, she is such a good baby and has taken it pretty easy on us these first 5 days.

Where's Waldo and Wenda

We had a Halloween party Saturday night through work and it was a lot of fun. We dressed up as the Where's Waldo couple Waldo and Wenda. I thought a large shirt would work good but I was hanging out a bit as she has gotten a lot lower, but it worked just fine- at least I was covered!:)

almost there

We went to the doctor this week and still no changes with dilation I am still at a 2 and 75% effaced. But we did have changes with the cervix position, it is now at a -1 and she is still way down he again had to push her back up to check the cervix. Her heart beat was 144 beats per min this week. Luckily our doctor is on call this weekend so if anything happens he will get to be with us, but if nothing happens over the weekend we are set to induce! We have one set of grandparents here with us and the other grandma with an aunt and uncle in tow on their way soon. We are so thankful to have family with us for this special time as we wait for her big debut! It is amazing how one little girl is so loved and we have not even gotten to meet her yet. I am so excited and yet so nervous! It is all starting to feel so surreal that we will have our baby with us next week! wow!! I am scared on what to expect! Today was my last day at work so maternity leave has officially started which I can not believe I made it this far but could not go much longer for sure I am just way too big. My belly was totally getting in the way today- there was not a comfortable position at all. But I am so thankful I was healthy enough to work up until the end so I did not disappoint anyone at work and could help keep both hygiene schedules going smoothly for as long as I could. I know I will see everyone it is just sad officially leaving for awhile, and I am sure my hormones are contributing to me being so sensitive about everything! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers and we will keep you posted with everything!!! Sending all our love~ G, J and MJ

still waiting

Last night we went out on a hot date while it is still just the two of us. We went to a pub that has yummy bar foods and the catch is no one under 21 yrs old is allowed so we thought this would be a good time to get our fix while we can still smuggle our minor in with us. It was very good and just nice to be out with my husband enjoying each other! It is always weird though going out here because of course patients are everywhere- yep our waitress even! Just crazy to me that we can not ever get away from work while in town I think that is why we love and long for our trips to the city- just not to be recognized and have to talk anything dentistry!

This week I wanted to measure the circumference of my belly, we measured it at work with a tape measure we found there. I measure 47 inches around- my sweet loving husband immediately does the conversions in his head and bursts out "wow that is almost 4 feet around!", aww doesn't that make you feel good?! :) Ha! We will continue to keep you posted with any changes but so far nothing has changed- the girls at work have noticed my belly getting lower and I have noticed it is low as well that now it is getting hard to keep my belly covered by even the longest of maternity shirts!

We wish everyone a great relaxing weekend and send all our love~ G, J and MJ xoxoxo

no changes

We had a doctor appointment today, I was so excited and anxious to find out how far I had dilated from last week and to know if we were getting closer to having her here! But to my dismay no changes today- I am still at a 1-2 dilation! I could not help but be disappointed there was not any change. My doctor said most first time moms do not have the baby until after 39 weeks so he is not disappointed since we still have another week until that point. He still had to push her back up in to place in order to check the cervix today- he said that was really good that she is down like that we just need her to push more on the cervix to get the dilation continuing to progress. Her heart beat today was 13o beats per min- the doctor jokingly said we got a boy, like that is what I needed to hear to help my anxiety at this point funny guy he is!!! But I guess anything is possible and joke would be on us if it was a boy!

We sold the car on Friday, it is bitter sweet that it is gone. It is sweet that we do not have the high payment each month especially since I am about to be at home not working with our baby! But it is bitter because I know Justin loved that car and it was his big spurge upon graduation! (Thank you Justin for all your sacrifices and hard work in supporting our family! You are such an amazing husband and I can not wait to see as my baby daddy! :) I love you more and more each day!!!)

full term

So we have officially hit full term with Miss Mallory and have 2 weeks and 5 days now until her actual due date. We went to the doctor this past week and he checked for any changes. He had to push her way back up as soon as he started the exam to even get to my cervix to check it. I am dilated 1-2 cm and 75% effaced. Which in all actuality does not mean anything specific besides we are progressing towards her big debut!! I have been still having a rough time with heartburn and have the morning sickness all over like first trimester, but I do not mean for that to come out as me complaining at all since it is just for a little bit longer until she is here! I am trying to enjoy and take in every second I still get to have her in my belly and loving the movements she does make. I can now feel her more at my hip bones. It has been over 37 weeks and it still just amazes me that I have a tiny person in my belly! I am beginning to get nervous that I will not do a good job at delivering her. I am nervous I will not know when to start timing things and I do not want to be the annoying first time mom that goes up to the hospital too early or under false labor. My doctor keeps reassuring me that these are things not to stress about at all but of course I can not help it. But most of all I am so excited and just anxious! I can not wait for her to join us and for us to have her in our arms finally getting to see her face! We will continue to keep you posted with the progress!!! All our love~ G, J and MJ

Belly pics

Here are some of our belly photos I finally got uploaded on our computer to share with y'all! We had a doctor appointment this week, it is the beginning of having the doctor actually check me and the end of the ultrasounds! I had my strep B test done this week and the doctor checked for any dilation or progression of things. My cervix was only a fingertip so no dilation but he felt her head so she is still head down in position for her big debut! Our doctor did check her heart beat with the Doppler so we got to at least hear her- it was 144 beats per minute this past week. We are getting so excited and can not wait for her to be here!! Justin got the pack and play all together (that is what we are planning on using as her bassinet) and he got the car seat installed this past weekend as well. So now we are just waiting for her to join us! Nights are getting hard- tons of crazy uncontrollable heartburn that is like absolutely unreal!!! I am having a hard time getting comfortable and just ready to be snuggling up with her in my arms for sure!! I just can not believe how big I am and not just belly I mean everywhere- I never thought everything would get this swollen- I even have cankles! But it is all so worth it and I would not change a thing!












All our love~ G, J and MJ