Six Weeks Old!

We are Moving!!

Wow, what a crazy month is has been! If having a baby weren't enough, we have just packed up our house in Memphis and moved to Nashville!

About a week after Mary Hayes was born, Ben interviewed for a job in Nashville. When he went for the interview, I thought "IF he gets it, they will offer it to him in two-three weeks, then he will start a month or so after that.... We'll have plenty of time to get the house ready, pack everything up, find a place to live, and say goodbye to our friends." Well, God had other things in mind! Ben was offered the job on the spot, and they wanted him to start ASAP. He asked to start Feb 1 and they said okay. That was about 3 weeks. Three weeks to do all the things I thought we would have two months to do. Not to mention we had a one week old daughter that had to be factored into this!

Ben turned in his resignation at his job in Memphis, his parents came and helped up start packing up the house, and we had one free day to come find a place to live. I was worried sick about the whole housing situation, but the Lord led us to a great little townhouse. It's much smaller than our house in Memphis, so alot of our things are in storage, but it's a great place to live until we sell our house and get to know Nashville well enough to know what part of town we want to buy in.

We moved in two days after MH turned a month old. Today she is six weeks! Wow time flies!!

We are slowly adjusting. I have good days and bad days. I really miss our friends in Memphis, but I know in time I will make friends here too.

Ben is liking his new job and I'm so thankful for that. I'm excited to see what this chapter of our life has to hold!!

One Month Old!

1 Month

Weight: 9lbs 1oz

Length: 21 1/2 inches

Head Circumference: 14 1/2 cm

Dear Mary Hayes,

I cannot believe you are one month old! I tell your dad all the time that it just feels like we left the hospital yesterday, and at the same time, it f eels like you've been with us for years. You have brought more joy to our lives in one month than I ever could have imagined. You are the most content and sweet baby. You rarely cry and you're just happy to be with us. You do not, however, like to be left alone! If we put you in the swing then walk away, you only last a minute or two before you start crying. But if we are in the room with you while you're swinging you will stay there for hours.

You're a champion sleeper! During the night when I was feeding you every three hours, I would have to literally wake you up to feed you from a stone cold sleep. Once the Dr. said I could just let you sleep as long as you wanted, it became rare for you to wake up more than once during the night. I'm very thankful for this because, as you will learn when you're older, your Mama loves her sleep :) You're also a great eater (again, like your Mama!). The first week or so after you were born you had some trouble eating, and we had to feed you through a syringe! It was very time consuming, but I  didn't mind because I just wanted you to gain weight and be healthy.  When you were born your tongue was tied and this made it difficult for you to eat. But a week after you were born we had your tongue tie clipped and you were able to eat so much better after that. Don't worry - the clipping of your tongue didn't hurt! You didn't even cry. I was so proud of you!

When you were in the hospital, your dad and I had so much fun loving on you. We stayed as long as they would let us because we were both a little nervous to take you home! One day you will look at these pictures and laugh, because you will know right away who put that  Tennessee hat on you and who put the pretty pink dress on you :)

The day we took you home I was nervous, and excited. I was showered, dressed, and all packed up by 7:00 that morning, but they did not let us leave until 10:30am. The nurses at the hospital would not let us leave without you being in a carseat. Your dad, of course, thought this was such a silly thing - and you  did not like it one bit! We did not want to give you a pacifier, but when we put you in the carseat, you were so upset I gave you a paci to see if it would calm you down. You stopped crying immediately! I couldn't believe how tiny you looked in your seat, and I was so nervous to have you in the car I rode in the backseat the whole way home with you. You didn't cry or anything, you just sucked on your paci and looked around.

The first two weeks of your life, each of your grandparents  and all of your aunts, uncles, and cousins came to visit you.( I didn't get pictures of everyone!) Grandma Cara, Grandpa Bob, and KayKay visited you in the hospital, and everyone else came once you got home.

Noah and Eden LOVED you. Eden called you May Hayes most of the time, but one time she called you Harry Mayes. I hope that name doesn't stick :) When I was giving you a bath, Noah looked at you and said "She looks like a weirdo." When I asked him what a weirdo looks like, he pointed at you and said "it looks like that."

KayKay was so excited to be with all of her grandchildren at one time. Noah did not want to get in the picture, but Eden loved kissing you and singing to you. I hope y'all grow up to be great friends.

You are so beautiful. Baa (Aunt Abby) and I had so much fun taking hundreds of pictures of you!

Dad loves spending time with you. The picture where you're wearing your tutu was from his birthday. He was so proud to show you off at his birthday party. He also likes looking at pictures on the iPad with you.

We went on a walk in the park before you were even a week old! The weather was so warm, which is very unusual for December, and I had been lying down for 5 days, so we decided to take advantage of the great weather and go for a walk. One day you will know how much this thrilled your Doc. :)

Your first bath. Oh my, you screamed and  screamed during your first bath. As a matter of fact, you screamed and screamed through every bath until your cord fell off and you were able to actually get in the water. Now you love your baths. You smile and kick the whole time.

One morning I woke up and fed you. When you were finished I was sitting there talking to you and you started smiling. These pictures are of your first smile. It was so unbelievably cute :)

One big thing that happened during your first month was that we moved to Nashville. It kind of saddens me that you will never know Memphis, but I know that you will have a great life in Nashville. Charlotte and Madi lived across the street from us in Memphis. They were so excited the whole time I was pregnant to meet you and play with you. They came over quite a bit the first month you were home to visit you, hold you, and talk to you. You even went over to their house and "played" while mom and dad packed up the house. They were very sad to see you move. 

My sweet child, I love you more than you will ever know. I have so many hopes and dreams for you and I cannot wait to see you grow up. 

I love you!

Mama

 

Welcome to the world, Sweet Mary Hayes: Part 2

So after talking about it, praying about it, (crying, crying, and crying about it) and talking to my dad we decided to go ahead and stay.  We knew if she hadn't moved at all in five weeks, the chances of her moving in two days was pretty slim and this was I would get to meet my sweet daughter just a little bit sooner :)

At this point it was 4:30pm. They told me they would start cervidil at 6:00pm and I wouldn't be allowed to eat once they started that until the baby was born. Ben said he would run out and grab us some food. Well - it was Christmas day. Have you ever tried to find food on Christmas day? After driving around he found the one place that was open on Christmas day:  Waffle House!  He grabbed some waffles to go and brought them back to the hospital. You would have thought that after all the food we ate that morning, there is no way we could have possibly eaten more. But we did!

The cervidil started at 6:00pm and then it was just a waiting game. A sleepless night of waiting and chatting up the nurses when they would come in and check on me.

Monday, December 26, 2011


Monday morning rolled around and this message was waiting on the board in my room.

Don't you love Today's Plan? Happy Birthday Mary Hayes! I loved how optimistic my nurse was - haha! 

After a night on cervidil I had dilated a whopping 1.5 cm : DEPRESSING! At 6:00am they started me on pitocin. I was convinced this was my miracle drug and I would start contracting and dilating, and I would have a baby before the end of the day.  I did start contracting and thankfully they were pretty bearable. Around 11:30 they broke my water and those contractions that had been bearable moments before? Yeah, miserable now!  It didn't take long before I was calling for my epidural. Once that was in and working I was one happy, pain free girl!

The day went by pretty quickly. We had visitors in and out all day and both of our parents were there and waiting to meet their granddaughter. At 3:00pm they checked me and I was at 4cm. From 6:00am to 3:00pm I had dilated 1 cm, and Mary Hayes was still VERY high up. The doctor said he felt like at the rate things were progressing we were looking at having the baby around 4:30-5:00am the next morning.  There went my hopes of meeting my daughter that day.

6:50pm they checked me again. Mary Hayes was still WAY high and I was now 4.5cm. It had been almost 13 hours since starting pitocin and I had only dilated 1.5cm. At this point they told me they felt it was best to do a C-Section. The doctor, again, felt that she was just so big she would not come down and I would not go into labor anytime soon. And with my water being broken we would enter into a time where there was risk of infection. Something in my gut had told me all along it would end this way. When they told me the week beforehand that she was so big I just kinda knew I would have a C-Section, and even though it was  NOT what I wanted, I had a peace about it and I knew it would be okay. Ben was not as calm about it. He asked the doctor if we could wait a few more hours and just see what happened. They told him that a few more hours wouldn't make a difference and we should go ahead and do the C-section. Again we talked about it, prayed about it, and yes... called my dad.  Once we both felt a peace about it we told them to go ahead and get started.

Here are some pictures that Ben took on the way to the operating room and while he was waiting for them to come let him back.

At 7:41pm  my sweet Mary Hayes was born! And remember that BIG baby I was supposed to have? She weighed 7lbs and 8oz!! When they told us the weight in the delivery room I literally said "WHAT?! Are you serious?!?" haha!  I sent Ben with the camera to take pictures, he snapped three or four and was right back by my side. He said he couldn't stand to leave me alone and would wait until they got her cleaned up and brought to us.

After they got her all cleaned up they brought her to us. I was not able to hold her, but Ben got to hold her right by me so I could see her. She was crying when they brought her over, and as soon as she was in Ben's hand and we started talking to her she stopped crying right away and just watched us. It was the most precious thing I had ever seen!  We had about 10 or so minutes with her before I was taken into recovery and Mary Hayes was taken to the nursery.  The hour I had to wait in the recovery room was TORTURE! I was DYING to be with my baby.

Ben and I spent about 30 or so minutes with her then our families came up to meet her. It was such an amazing and, despite things not going as I planned,  perfect day. God was in control of the entire process and knew just what my little girl needed to get here safe and sound.  We are SO blessed to have a perfect and healthy little girl. She is very very loved.

Welcome to the world, Sweet Mary Hayes: Part 1

It was Christmas morning, and one day past my due date. I woke up that morning and per my usual morning routine, I laid in bed with my hand on my stomach, waiting to feel the kicking and punching of my little girl.  Five minutes passed with no movement, ten minutes passed... and no movement. I woke Ben up and told him that I was worried because I couldn't feel her moving. He reminded me that this happened from time to time and once I ate I always started feeling her. With this reassurance in mind I got up and got dressed for the day.

Ben's family was in town for Christmas and we had decided we would go to The Peabody for their Christmas brunch. This was the first time I had ever spent a Christmas without my family, and the first time we had ever spent Christmas at our house, so doing something different and out of the ordinary for us, like brunch at The Peabody, sounded like just the right plan.  We all consumed glutinous amounts of food, which I was sure would get the baby moving. The fried green tomatoes, omelets, fruit, salads, various meats, a plate full of deserts, and several glasses of orange juice and/or coke would either have her jumping around in there....or in a food coma... either way, I just KNEW I would feel her soon.

The Chip clan at The Peabody - I was large and in charge!!! 

We headed back home to open gifts, all the while I kept my hand on my stomach just WILLING her to move, to give me some kind of reassurance that she was safe. The day before she had been kicking and punching so hard, so to go from such strong movement, to NO movement, was so very scary.  Once we got home I went upstairs to lie down for little while.  My thought was that maybe I needed to get still and be on my left side and then, for SURE, I would feel her move. After 15 minutes or so....still nothing.  I had been doing a fairly good job at keeping my fears at bay, praying that the Lord was keeping her safe, and all was going to be alright. But at this point, with my hormones all over the place, I broke down. I just knew now in my gut that something was wrong... but at the same time I thought "maybe this is normal...maybe she's just so big she has no room. It is, after all, past her due date."   My dad is a physician and has delivered babies for 30+ years, so I called him and said "Dad, I haven't felt her move all day. This is normal....right????"  Then I heard him utter the words I was dreading to hear. "No, it's not normal. You need to get to the hospital immediately." I began crying and (stupidly) asked "can I wait and hour and let everyone open their Christmas presents first?" - I'm sure he wanted to reach through the phone and slap me! It wasn't that I cared anything about the gifts, I think I just thought that if he said yes, then this was not really an emergency and everything would be okay.  He quickly assured me that, no I could not wait and hour and open gifts, I had needed to get the hospital. 

Ben went downstairs and told everyone what was going on. I had not said anything to anyone else about not feeling her all day, so I'm sure they were just a little bit shocked! We grabbed our bags, loaded up in the car, and I optimistically said "we'll be back in a few hours!"  

We got to the hospital, got all checked in,  and then they hooked me up to all the monitors. After a few agonizing minutes we finally heard the *thump thump* of her heartbeat. I immediately burst into tears of relief. They monitored my blood pressure and her heart rate for awhile, and checked me to see if I had dilated any. Of course, I was still only at 1cm - the same place I had been for five weeks straight! The doctor ordered an ultrasound and said he felt like her decrease in movement was due to how big she was and she had probably just run out of room, but the ultrasound would tell us more. 

**REWIND**

Have you noticed how I keep referencing her size? That's because a week prior to this they had done an ultrasound at the Dr's office because I was measuring bigger than I should have been. The ultrasound technician told me that my baby, the one that was measuring 6lbs 5oz two weeks before, was now measuring 8lbs 12oz. The Doctor told me that her size explained why I wasn't dilating, she felt like Mary Hayes was just so big her head didn't fit well enough to drop and cause me to dilate more. She then told me that if I held out until my due date or after, MH would most likely be over 9lbs.  THIS is why her size kept coming up! 

Back to the story:  The ultrasound was done and Mary Hayes looked perfect. She was wiggling around in there but just was not kicking or punching, which is why I couldn't feel her. Once again I was told that it was probably due to her size and there was nothing to worry about.  Sighing a huge sigh of relief I was thinking I would be heading home soon.  Then the doctor came back. He told us that since I was past my due date, and I was scheduled for an induction in two days if she hadn't come before then anyway,  he didn't see any reason for me not to stay and go ahead and induce since I was already there.  My first reaction was "no. this is not part of the plan" we told him he would go on home and come back in a few days if need be.  Then my blood pressure started spiking. They came and took blood and the nurse said the doctor was worried about my blood pressure and trying to find a reason to get me to stay. 

Ben and I talked about it, prayed about it, and then called my dad to get his opinion on what we should do. 

I'll fill you in on the rest tomorrow! Sorry for the lack of pictures, it was such a crazy day I didn't even think about pulling out my camera! I promise more pictures  in tomorrows post.

Mary Hayes' Nursery

After nine months of dreaming about, planning, and agonizing over what to do with  Mary Hayes' nursery, it is finally finished! I am in love with how it turned out. There are a few tweaks left to be done, but for the most part it is exactly what I wanted. 

(excuse the spacing of the photos and such, I have had so much trouble even getting them posted!)

 

My mom and I (okay, mostly my mom) made the bedding. I found the damask fabric online but was not in love with what they had paired with it.  I found these coordinating fabrics in town and we went from there. I am pleased with the results and love that my mom and I were able to work on this together. 

I love how the monogrammed chair turned out! I went back and forth over whether or not to monogram it, and then what color to do the actual monogram in - but I'm so happy with how it turned out!

The grouping of pictures on this wall are pictures I had in my room when I was a little girl. I can't remember off the top of my head who the artist is. I could go look, but that would require me to walk up the stairs and that isn't happening right now :) The iron stroller and coat rack in her room were also mine when I was a little girl. I love being able to pass these things down to her. 

 I  wanted the room to be sweet and girly without being PINK!  I decided to use pops of pink throughout the room, and I love how this old window turned mirror gives that pop. 

Well blogger is being crazy and won't let me write underneath the pictures posted below,  so I will end the post here. I cannot wait until my daughter is here to enjoy her room.

Merry Christmas!

And her name is...

As soon as we found out we were expecting, I immediately started thinking about names.  Of course at that point we did not know if we were having a boy or a girl so I was thinking about names for both. I would tell Ben the names, and he would give a thumbs up or a thumbs down but I think it was hard for him to really get into it without knowing the gender.  I, however,  was all about finding a great name.

I had no problem coming up with great boy names. I've had one name I've loved for years for a little boy, but a girl name I was coming up short. I really wanted her to have a family name, and while Ben liked the idea of a family name, but it was not a must for him. I was named after both of my grandmothers;  first name after my dad's mom, and middle name after my mom's mom. I may not have always loved my actual name, but I LOVED the heritage and ties that it held.  I wanted this for my daughter.

I made lists of all the family names on both sides, and was not impressed with the girl names we had to choose from.  I mean, some weren't so bad, but I just wasn't inspired.

So after six and half months of countless texts with friends and family members,  trolling baby name books, and so many lengthy conversations, we have chosen, what we think, to be the perfect name for our baby:

Mary Hayes

Mary comes from Ben's side.  Both of his grandmothers, his great grandmother, his aunt, and his sister are all Mary or Mary Something.  So this seemed like a great choice.

Hayes is my mother's maiden name.  I had thought previously that I would save this name for a little boy one day, but after much discussion we decided it was a good girl name too.  

We will call her by her whole name, Mary Hayes.  I am so excited to finally have this decided.  Now I can stop calling her "baby girl" - I'm sure she appreciates it :)  And most importantly, I can start having things monogrammed - no southern girl should be born without a closet full of monogrammed clothing!