Easter Fun

 

Doesn't this girl look excited for Easter? 

It was an eventful Easter weekend, and I think we all ate enough Reeses eggs to last us until Halloween (or maybe Mother's Day:). We started the weekend off with a community Easter egg hunt on Saturday. It took Melody a while to catch on to picking up the eggs. She loves kicking balls, so she thought the Easter eggs were meant to be kicked too. Her haul was much less than the other kids, but she was just as excited when it was over. You would think having Easter later in the year would mean better weather, but alas, it was pretty windy and on the cold side. That's just Denver weather for you, always unpredictable. 

The Easter bunny came that night, and brought Melody her first pair of dress up shoes. The girl is obsessed with wearing other people's shoes so I thought these would help. She's still not convinced they are better than my shoes, but we are working on it. 

We went to church in the afternoon and had an amazing sacrament meeting. After church we got together with David's family and had a traditional Easter dinner, aside from the fact that rice was served instead of potatoes, but it's not a Main family meal without the rice. To top it off, I made sugar cookies and brownstone cake for dessert. Overall it was a great weekend and a nice way to start the week. David has finals this week and next week then we're off to Portland for eight weeks, yay!

Evil Knievel

  

How exactly does she get up there? We aren't quite sure but this is how we have found her on several occasions. And this was just the beginning. She has now found out how to get on the counter, up a step stool to push the water button on the fridge, and to the ledge at the top of the couch. When I learned I was having a girl I was so excited because girls are mild mannered and love to sit and play. Only boys are rambuncious and fearless right? How do you baby proof a house from a climbing baby? I have yet to figure that out.

After we took the picture above, we put Melody on the ground and she attempted to get up again. As you can see she is not always 100% successful (Please excuse our laughing).  

The Doc

Does anyone else have the hardest time deciding when/if to take your baby to the doctor? The last few weeks have been filled with sick baby drama.


Visit #1 (three weeks ago): Melody had a fever for four days, a bad cold, and wasn't sleeping well. So I bit the bullet and took her into the doctor. Diagnosis: it's just a cold. Mom got to take the walk of shame out of the office feeling like a paranoid first mom.


Visit #2 (Yesterday): Melody had a fever for four days, a runny nose, a congested cough and wasn't sleeping at all. Despite feeling like I would take the walk of shame again for the second time in three weeks I went to the doctor. Diagnosis: Double ear infection and RSV (I didn't even realize babies her age could still be affected by RSV).


Lesson learned: As much I hate going to the doctor, I guess it's better to be safe than sorry.

The Semi-Annual Update

Ok, I wish the title of this post was not a joke, but given my blogging history I don't think it's a stretch... but that is about to change. I got a new computer this week (whoopee!), meaning I don't have to wait around to use David's computer which is always at class or being used to study. 

Since my last post, David had his first clinical, we had Halloween, Melody's Birthday, and Christmas. Lots of photos to catch you all up on, but I will just post a few highlights.

Melody picking our pumpkin for Halloween.

 

We celebrated Melody's first birthday at the end of November. Her favorite part of the party was getting dirty in her birthday cake.

This girl loves her new chair. She mostly uses it to climb onto something more dangerous.

My most recent picture of our almost 15 month old.

Count on more posts to come. I am trying to set a realistic goal of one post every two weeks. I gotta ease myself into the blogging world!

Walking

Picture Overload

What a great six months it has been! Yes we still have a blog, and yes we are horrible about updating it. Since Melody was born much has changed.

I went back to work full time after 12 weeks of maternity leave. It was a tough adjustment. Luckily we had a wonderful resource for childcare and a friend from our ward watched Melody while I worked. Working full time was not the ideal situation for our family so I worked out a situation with my work where I am now working part time from home. We feel so blessed for that opportunity.

David finished his second (and hardest of the program) semester in May and is now in summer school. He is pretty burned out at this point, but clinicals start in August and we are both very excited, as we will be going to Boise for the first clinical.

And dear Melody has been with us for a whole six months now. It's amazing how much they change in that little time. Just when we think we are used to her routine, she changes it up. We thought we had solid foods down, then it was like she forgot how to eat and we had to start all over. We thought her nap routine was set but that changes on a weekly basis. It keeps us on our toes.

Here are some highlights of Melody in the last six months:

Just one of the many faces she gives us. This is her "I'm not to sure about all the pictures you're about to see..." face.

Bath time is fun, especially with Dad as the mohawk specialist.

She loves Saturdays just about as much as we do. A good excuse to hang out in bed letting it all hang out.

She hates her Bumbo.

Blessing Day

Okay this was staged, but she generally assumes this position as Mom and Dad get ready for the day.

She has mad fort building skills. Dad is very excited about this.

Another one of her great faces. She is meeting her cute cousins for the first time.

Melody loved the time she spent with Dad during Spring Break.

Our happy girl.

First attempt at solid food = success

Second attempt at solid food = failure

This is a result of parent neglect. We thought she was playing and turned around to her completely out. I guess she gave up on us putting her to bed that night.

Easter picture with her cousin Hailey.

Movie night with Hailey

Don't be fooled, right after the picture she dropped the bottle and spilled all over herself.

Trying to crawl.

David and I were really bored one night and this was the result. At the time it was very funny.

Helping Mom cook dinner.

Most recent photo at six months. Stats: 25 inches, 16 pounds, 10 ounces.

Happy Memorial Day!

She's Here!

Melody Christine Main was born last Tuesday November 24th at 7:27 pm and we are so happy to finally have her here! She was a healthy 8 lbs 3 oz, and was 20 inches long. Melody was due November 19th so we chose to have her induced on the morning of the 24th. I had mixed feelings about being induced, but if we had her any later my dad would not have been able to come with my mom to see her. It was ideal timing because he and my little brother had time off for the Thanksgiving holiday and were able to come see us for a few days. We went to the hospital Monday night and the doctor gave me a medicine to make my body "ripe" for induction, whatever that means. I was only dilated to 1.5cm and not effaced, so they did this to make the induction run smoother. David and I spent the night in the hospital and I was having steady mild contractions all night, but nothing that was helping me progress. At 8 that morning they started the pitocin and at 9:45 when I was dilated 3cm the doctor came in and broke my water. After that things really started progressing. With my water broken and the pitocin going strong, I was having contractions every 1 1/2 minutes and they were STRONG. I was soon begging for an epidural and within an hour I was in heaven. There is no better feeling than when the epidural starts working and the computer shows contractions that you have no idea are happening. From there I dilated about 1cm an hour and by 5pm I was at a 10. It's surprising how fast the day went by. Previously when I heard of people being in labor 10+ hours I thought it would be unbearable, but it really went by so quickly. At this point I thought I was in the clear. Everyone I had talked to said pushing was the best part because it's quick and you can barely feel it anyway. Well this is where things got much worse for me. As we started the delivery I started feeling the contractions, but wasn't too concerned because it was helping me push. After about half an hour I was exhausted. The nurse would only let me push for 3 out of 4 contractions to help moderate the baby's heart rate, meaning there was one contraction I had to suffer through, feel everything, and not push even though I was dying to do so. I soon received more epidural because my pushing was becoming ineffective with the pain of the contractions I was fighting. Somewhere around 45 minutes into pushing I started losing touch with reality. I couldn't open my eyes, and was so exhausted I would fall asleep in between pushing. I was so oblivious to the world around me. I kept asking when it would be over but no one could tell me. They could see the tip of her head from the beginning, so after an hour and a half I was feeling hopeless with no sign of progress. My biggest fear going into the hospital was an emergency C-section but I was so out of it I would not have protested at that point. Finally after two hours of pushing, she was born. I didn't feel her come out so when they asked if I wanted to hold her, my response was, I have to deliver her first then yes I would like to hold her. To my surprise they quickly pulled her up and there she was on my chest eyes wide open. It was surreal. David cut the cord and they moved her to clean her up. It was then that my doctor explained why the delivery was so difficult. She came out facing up rather than down, which made it much harder for the forehead to pass the pubic bone. When she was born her forehead had a bump the size of a golf ball. As you can see in the picture below, she was pretty happy to enter the world.


We spent two days in the hospital, including Thanksgiving day. My parents came to the hospital on Thanksgiving and we had a semi-delicious cafeteria Thanksgiving dinner. My mom stayed until the following Tuesday and helped with the cooking, cleaning, and everything else. I am now working on this mom thing by myself and can guarantee that I will not be able to maintain the degree of cleanliness we attained while my mom was here. David has been busy finishing up his first semester at school. Our timing could not have been worse with his school schedule. Five more finals to go, then he has five weeks off for Winter break. I am taking a full 12 weeks maternity leave, so we will have a lot of time together to figure this whole parenting thing out. Melody is doing well, sleeping almost all the time and eating like crazy. She is already back to her birth weight plus some and given her appetite will likely be a chunky baby soon enough. I can't wait. We will keep you all updated with how things are going and hopefully post more pictures. Here are a few we have taken so far.

Melody and Me in the hospital.

Melody's first ride in her carseat. She looks so little in that big carseat.

Melody's favorite place to be is her changing table. We get the best faces when she is chillin on the changing table.

Isn't she so stinkin cute?