Life According to Jake, Christina & Lizzy.

I don't have much motivation to pack things right now, so I thought I would take some time to blog about our new, little, adventure we are about to embark on. After living in our 1 bedroom apartment for a year, we are going to be moving about 5 miles away to a 2 bedroom apartment. I thought I would take some time and reminisce about the things that have happened during our year here.

1) This is the first place Jake and I ever lived together. We moved here right after we got married. After having most of our relationship be a long distance one, it was nice to be able to be together. :)
2) On October 22nd, we found out we were pregnant! (Hence the need to move)
3) One day, we were chased by random dogs running around the inside of our building. Jake had to hold them back while Sophie (our dog) and I ran to our place. We made it safely into our apartment, but the dogs kept scratching, sniffing, and growling at our door.

Ceiling caving in

The hole that was left

4) In January, our ceiling caved in. It took them about 4-5 days to fix it. I was 5.5 months pregnant and Jake was in Atlanta for a conference. We had to have a big fan called "The Tornado" in our living room to dry out the area before they fixed it. I ended up staying at my parents' house because our place was way too cold.
5) Around 2am on May 7th, I woke up with contractions that were about 7 minutes apart. Elizabeth was born at 9:58pm later that day. :)

We're excited to be moving to a bigger place and making new memories there with our daughter. :) Hopefully we won't have this ceiling cave in! ;)

What is a swaddle you might ask? Well, it's a lifesaver for many parents, especially us! Swaddling is the art of snugly wrapping your baby in a blanket for warmth and security. It can keep him/her from being disturbed by his/her own startle reflex, and it may even help him/her stay warm and toasty for the first few days of life until his/her internal thermostat kicks in. Most importantly it can help to calm your baby because it reminds the baby of life back in the womb.

We have also learned that, in addition to helping your baby sleep longer, the swaddle can teach you that your baby is secretly a little Houdini. We started off swaddling Elizabeth in blankets...but she quickly learned how to get out of them. She learned that if she kicks out the bottom, the whole swaddle falls apart rather easily.

We decided to bring out the "heavy artillery". We were given a Halo Sleep Sack. It swaddles the baby with VELCRO! Whoohoo! It's pretty much like a baby straight jacket. When I first wrapped Elizabeth in it, I turned to her and said, "Hah! Let's see you get out of that!"

She slept pretty well, but after about 4 hours, she decided to bust out of her Sleep Sack like the Incredible Hulk. Nothing can contain our little escape artist, Elizabeth! I can't imagine the fun-filled things she has in store for us as she grows up! hehe :)

After much excitement and anticipation, our daughter, Elizabeth Grace arrived May 7, 2010 at 9:58pm. She weighed 7lbs 12oz and was 20.5 inches long. She sure is precious. :)

She is almost 2 months old right now and I'm finally getting around to blogging about it and sending out birth announcements. hehe. Babies make life busy! Babies also make mommies sleepy! I haven't slept longer than 4 straight hours in over 2 months! It's so worth it though. :)

I had a pretty good birthing experience. I highly recommend NOT getting an epidural. I had read that babies born to mothers that had epidurals are less alert and some have a hard time figuring out how to nurse. I didn't want that to happen to my daughter. We made it through labor and delivery just fine. I discovered that your body has its own natural 'painkillers' that it releases. It's really pretty amazing. Afterward, even though I was exhausted from my 20 hour labor, I felt really good. It was like a sense of a major accomplishment mixed with all of the endorphins from labor. hehe. I felt like I could do anything! I would definitely do it again. :)