Molly at 7 Months

Dear Molly,
Time, please slow down! You are growing too quickly right before my eyes. I am trying to soak in every rub of your fuzzy head, your milky breath, the way your face looks when you smile with your eyes closed, your tiny fingers grabbing on to mine.

Milestone-wise, you just cut two more teeth (top middle), for a total of four. You are not sitting unaassited yet, but you are trying to crawl! You just started solid foods a month ago and eat like your mother -- ferociously. :) While we give you mostly purees, you're likely to snatch a fry off my plate and try to down it. Pizza crust was a hit. Since you started solids you have been spitting up less!

leepwise, you're still catnapping, but you sleep good at night - about 9/10 hours. You are wearing both 6 and 9 month clothing though you're still a peanut. 15 lbs at your 6 month appointment, and 15 lbs 8 oz. a month later. Socially, you love everyone. Big smiles wherever you go -- very easy going unless you're tired.

You are very amused by your sister, and especially love when she dances and cheers around the house. You also love your toys, jumperoo, and a good bag of wipes. I'm so excited for your first holiday season. I never had a baby this age this time of year. :)

I love you so much, sweet baby of mine. A year ago we didn't know if we were even having a boy or girl, and now here you are -- our dream baby.

Molly at 23 Weeks

Weight: After a 2 weeks growth spurt, she has had about 2 weeks of non growth spurts, so I'm really not sure! I'm guessing somewhere between 15-16. She seemed to chub up for a minute, but is lengthening out again. She has her next well visit in a few weeks. 

Health: Another cold -- this one has been waking her up several times a night! Development wise, she's really mastering grabbing and using her hands. We're close to finding our toes! And she really loves her mama's boobies; it's lately her favorite place of comfort. My supply has been on the lower end the past few weeks which has me nervous that it may be slowly going down. 

Sleep: Bedtime is now around 9/9:30 and she is in her crib as of two weeks ago! While she handled the transition rather well, we're now waking up several times a night -- hopefully because of the cold and not because of a regression. She sleeps in her zippadee zip swaddle and rolls from her back to belly. She'll somewhere roll herself around to bang on the sides of the crib. Still catnapping. 

Clothes: 3-6 really solidly. 

Social: Still really happy.

Crying: Hunger and fatigue. She fights naps like crazy anymore unless she's nursing. 

Molly at 19 Weeks

Weight: 13 lb last week at her 4 month well visit. Dropping in percentile to 24th, but pediatrician is not concerned. She's 80th percentile for height. I'm trying not to stress about it. 

Health: She developed a little cold the past few weeks, and we have cut two teeth already which is way earlier than Lucy did. Unfortunately she uses those little teeth to bite during nursing. Eep! 

Sleep: Still a catnapper during the day. About 5 naps a day. Sleep is more unpredictable these days -- can I blame four month sleep regression and teeth? She sometimes won't go down until 10:30 again, and sometimes a 3 am wakeup to nurse. She did pull a few 7:30s the few days after her four month vaccine.

Clothes: 0-3 can still fit, but I'm moving her up to 3-6. 

Social: Loves smiling at people, and especially loves her sister who is constantly entertaining her with dances and cheers.

Crying: Hunger and gas pains, though that seems to be fewer now.

Molly at 12 Weeks

Disclaimer: Writing this at 13 weeks! OOPS.

Weight: 12 lbs 2 oz last week. I keep bringing her in for weight checks to keep the gain in order. She's gaining on the lower end, which has me an anxious mom -- especially as we're 90% breastmilk.

Health: Jaundice gone! I'm so relieved we didn't have to go to the Pittsburgh specialist. She looks like a different baby. Now just anxious about weight gain. Such a spitter still! But she's a happy spitter so we just deal with it.

Sleep: Still a catnapper during the day. About 5 naps a day. Bedtime has bumped up during our first week of daycare to about 9:15 ish which I'm not sad about. For most of the week she woke up a little before 6 am which is perfect.

Clothes: 0-3

Social: Started our first week of daycare, and she's doing great. She's such an easygoing baby, so I wasn't too worried about how she'd do.

Crying: Hunger and gas pains, though that seems to be fewer now.

Milestones: Very early stages of grabbing things. A lot more aware of her surroundings. Once she locks eye contact with someone huge smiles. Lots of chatting. And even though we don't have structured tummy time she holds her head up so well and pushes up with her legs when we hold her up on the couch. 

Molly at 8 Weeks

Weight: We haven't had a weight check for two weeks, but I'm guessing she's somewhere in the low mid 11 lb range. I've been starting to stress that she's not eating enough based on pumping output and how much she takes via the occasional bottle.

Health: I took her to the pediatrician about 2 weeks ago because she's been spitting up so frequently. While they weren't concerned about the relux, the PA noted her jaundice and requested another lab check with CBC, so we took off to the lab where they had to take it from her arm. She was still showing pretty elevated levels so they wanted us to take her to pediatric GI doc in Pittsburgh. Ultimately her color started improving, so another lab check just a day before our scheduled appointment showed her levels went down by a lot and we have to get it re-checked in two weeks. Praying they continue to go down and she finally kicks the jaundice totally. I was so worried thinking she had some sort of liver disease, but it seems like it was just a very prolonged cause of breast milk jaundice.

Sleep: Her first nighttime stretch still sits around 5-7 hours with bedtime around 9:30/10 pm. She's gotten better about being quicker with her MOTN feeding, but her second stretch of sleep is still very light especially when it starts to get light and the damn birds start chirping right around the same time. I added another layer of white noise last night which seemed to help and she slept until 8 am. We have less than 4 weeks to figure out a wake up routine that will let me maximize my own sleep and get myself ready before she wakes up. Fingers crossed we can pull it off!

Naps are a wreck. Frequent 20 minute naps are her jam.

Clothes: 0-3 are fitting decently now. Still gowns at bedtime, and some sort of romper for day/going out.

Social: We try to get out when we can -- now mornings we hop in the car to take Lucy to summer camp. The friends visiting have obviously slowed down, so we try to get out when we are able. Luckily there are outdoor festivals and things to go to that help get us out of the house.

Crying: Hunger, overtired. And gas pains make her so upset it breaks my heart. Fortunately it doesn't happen a lot.

Milestones: First social smiles have happened this month. A lot more aware time though she's not that interested in things for very long. 

Molly at 4 Weeks

Weight: We're finally back to birthweight at 3 weeks! She's now probably about 9 lbs 8 oz. She had lost over 10% of her birthweight so we had repeated weight checks. Apparently jaundice makes you too sleepy to take in the required calories, but I also think her birthweight was a little inflated thanks to the IV fluids.

Health: We had about 10 lab draws for biliribuin checks since her discharge as well as the weight checks. While she still has it at 4 weeks, it's not something the dr is concerned about. Lingering just like Lucy's did. I notice she looks a lot less yellow by nighttime and when I have her outside for periods of time. She is pretty exclusively breastfed, and we finally found a bottle she takes well -- the Comotomo. Expensive, but worth it for times I need to leave the house!

Sleep: I feel like she's doing rather well with sleep. The first week she would do a few 3-4 hour stretches starting around 11 pm. By week 4, we're now upstairs and her first stretch is between 5-6 hours. She has a pretty big awake time after that which I'm hoping we can work on. Her naps are getting shorter throughout the day unless we are out and about in the stroller, car seat, or wrap. Her naps are supervised in the rock and play downstairs for the most part. Bedtime is spent in the bassinet swaddled with white noise and her bink for extra support after feedings.

Clothes: Mostly newborn and mostly sleepers during the day and sleep gowns at night. She's not quite filling out 0-3 yet, but probably will in the next 2 weeks if she's like big sister at that age.

Social: I attempt to either have a visitor or get out of the house each day to soak in the nice weather and help ward off any PPD. She's been out in public since discharge and travels well. Sleeps better with a lot of ambient noise and motion, so when she needs some distraction I pop her in the stroller and walk around the neighborhood -- something I couldn't do with Lucy due to the time of year. I notice my mental health is better on days when we have things going on, though I do get worried I am throwing her off a "schedule" -- but let's be real, she doesn't have one of those!


Baby Gear Love:Carter's clothes - Still love everything Carters for comfort and durability especially at this age.

Pampers Swaddlers - Tried and true best diaper for newborns. Also loving Dove baby wipes - soft and not too wet.

Swaddle Me By Your Bed Sleeper - Barely an incline and makes me feel much better about SIDS than the RnP Lucy slept in.

Wubbanub - Thankfully she takes the bink which helps soothe when I'm not available.

Crying: Mainly cries when hungry or when getting her arms in clothes. Also when clusterfeeding and getting frustrated nursing.

Milestones: All of them! First bath after losing her belly button stump at 9 days old, lots of travels, lots of doctor visits, first Knoebel's trip at 3 weeks old. We may attempt tummy time and activity mat this week -- she's got decent head control already! 

Introducing Molly Katherine Brink: Birth Story

She's here!!

Her birth day started very early as we checked in L&D at 5:30 am to prep for surgery. The pre-op process was pretty seamless - IV and cath -- and some actual legitimate contractions that started about 40 minutes before I walked into the OR! I take it she was coming that day regardless.

This C-section was similar, yet very different from Lucy's. I felt a lot less pressure and pain physically, but that feeling of when I heard those first cries = the same euphoric feeling. As the doctor pulled her out, Wes was able to snap photos on my phone, and I heard the doctor say "Wow, look at those thighs!" They made a comment about the cord being twisted, but said it wasn't anything to worry about. They brought her over to the warmer but I couldn't really see her. Luckily Wes was there cutting the cord and taking photos of her getting evaluated and checked. The scale read 9 lbs 4 oz which honestly floored me a little. While we knew she'd be bigger, I was thinking somewhere in the 8's! They brought her over to me to do skin to skin as I got to lay eyes on her for the first time. There are really no words for the first time you get to meet your baby. She was all chub, roly poly thighs and arms.

Wes and Molly were able to go to the recovery room while I was getting stitched up. After I was wheeled into recovery, Molly and I were able to breastfeed for the first time. I was so thankful for this and the OR skin to skin time as Lucy and I were separated for what seemed like aeons until I was in postpartum.

We stayed in the hospital until Thursday afternoon, receiving many visitors and learning about each other. Big sister got to see her about 4 hours after. To help myself recover I sent Molly to the nursery overnight for small clips so I could rest. It was insane how much I missed her when she would get wheeled back to me -- this little meatball who I knew for all of a minute. I loved moving my hand over her soft head, arm rolls, chubby thighs and the familiar feet that I often pushed down with my hand while they were in active in utero. She took to nursing rather well and loved resting on top of my bare chest.

Toward the end of our stay, two health issues popped up for her -- billirubin levels and losing more weight than typically recommended. I spent day 3 and 4 with her on this plastic mat biliblanket which made nursing incredibly harder. Also on day 3 of our stay I had more pain and sore breasts. By discharge I was anxious to go home and worked up in tears over her weight loss and jaundice issues. But we got to all leave together Thursday afternoon -- a milestone we missed out on with Lucy's birth. Bringing her home was so surreal -- there was an entirely NEW person living in our house making us a family of four finally.