The Matthews Come to Visit!

Happy 2 Week Birthday Gracie!

Ever since Gracie was born we have become instantly popular by all our friends and family, as well as our doctors. Gracie had her first doctors appointment this week, and after all the anxiety of "are we doing things right?" and "is she supposed to be doing that?".... a lot of worries came to rest when Dr. Solomon said that she was perfect!!! Yup, that's right... perfect! But, we already knew that didn't we folks??? Mama had her doctors appointment as well, and is healing up nicely, but still needs to take things slow for a while... which proves difficult being that we are moving next weekend!!! Help is on the way though!!!

This week as I said in my last post, Stephen had to go back to work, so my mom came to visit and help all week, which was sooo nice! I got to take naps and go to the store without Grace, and learn some tricks of the trade. My dad was also able to "work" his way down this direction to see his granddaughter for the first time, and just didn't want to let her go... very sweet. My sister Chrissy also was able to come down for the weekend and hold her niece for the first time!! It was a great time for the extended family (the Matthews side) to meet the newest addition to the family. Only one missing so far is Auntie Becky and Uncle Jon to come see her, which will hopefully be soon!

We still want to say thanks to all our friends for bringing us dinner still, and Auntie Chris Haskin-Sommer for making us lunch and letting us eat with her at her pool, Gracie's first all day outing.

Grandma Linda put her patriotic outfit on, and took the cutest picture we have of Grace yet, I love her little face, and then look at her feet!

A proud Grandaddy holding his granddaughter

Auntie Chrissy holding for one of the first times!

This week has been a week of firsts for our little Gracie... Her first Dr's appointment, her first trip to Costco, pulled her first all-nighter (much to the dismay mommy and daddy) her first outdoor picnic (covered of course) Saw her Grandaddy and Auntie for the first time. On Sunday she will see her daddy play softball for the first time... I swear she smiled at me for the first time, but I think I am just eager and she was just happy to pass gas.

The more we have her, the more we love her. We just can't stop looking at her and melting with all her cooing and kaaing... we are parents absolutely in love with our daughter... and couldn't be more proud!

Just wanted to show some family shots of us and our little one. It has been a great time with her and our new family unit, but today her daddy had to go back to work... very hard for mommy to deal with!! Thankfully my mom is driving right now to spend the week with us as I write this. It is a perfect situation, she stays with me during the day, and when Stephen gets home she'll leave soon after so we can have our family time. My mother is the best mom ever!!!!! Just have to give her a shout out!!!!

Another shout out goes to all the wonderful people who have be

en bringing us meals... we are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and church family to help us out.

Being first time parents we are overly worrisome over everything...

Traumatic moments that happened in the last couple of days... (for us, not Gracie) is I opened her pajamas once only to find all this blood on her stomach!!! Then to see it was only her

umbilical cord that fell off.... but the sight of blood freaked me out!!! When giving her a bath, we noticed a lot of puss and didn't know if she had an infection... so we called everyone under the sun, then finally our doctor on a Saturday, only to find out it was totally normal... whew.... She also sleeps so much, and there is so much out there on how much a baby should sleep, should you wake her up to feed her, should you let her sleep? How much is too much?

Call to the doctor again, and she is fine! We just love her so much, we are totally afraid of anything happening to our baby girl.

On a funnier note, I am not the best at always bringing the diaper bag with me... just not used to it yet. I went to a friends house and everyone was playing musical baby, passing her around, and poor Brook Grube was picked by Gracie to be the first one to hold her when she peed through her cloths!!! All the sudden she looked at me, and then looked at her hand, only to find urine dripping to the ground! Since I didn't have anything, we lined the car seat with plastic bags and took her home. The funniest part is I swear Gracie knew what happened, she had this wide eyed look on her the whole way home as if to say "oh my gosh I am sooo embarrassed" it was soooo cute!!! She has a habit of peeing on Stephen too... she just loves her mama too much to do it to me yet I guess:)

Below are some pictures of family, Marina, Isaac and Zach Newberry, her only cousins, are absolutely in love with her, the funniest is Zach, this 16 year old football player, who tries to be this macho guy, was so excited to see her, and mad at his mom for not bringing him to the hospital when I had her!! Gracie and I both met Stephen's grandparents for the first time. They came all the way from Oregon to see their new gre

at-grand baby and new grand-daughter in law...

The First Week of Gracie!

Wow! Today, our little angel is officially 1 week old!! This has been a very eventful week, and both Stephen and I can easily say that this has been the absolute best week of our lives!! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful baby. She sleeps a lot!! Sometimes stretches of more than 4 hours at a time, she has taken to breast-feeding easily, and only really cries when she is hungry or pooping. She koos and caa's, and just melts our hearts when she makes any facial change like yawning, puckering her lips... even crying she looks just so adorable. She has us wrapped around her finger. Right now Stephen and I are taking shifts with her, she is up mostly at night between 9-1, so I will feed her, go to bed and that is Daddy time, when she is hungry again Stephen will wake me up and then go to bed. I feed her, then sleep, feed her, then sleep... her best sleep is from 6-10 am, which is really nice for mama, who

can catch up on some Z's!Here is a look on how this week has been for us:

First, lots of visitors at the hospital:

Our good friends (and soon to be neighbors) Juan, Shelly and Baby Olivia in our room....

Gracies Godmother Amy came and stayed a while:

We then made it out of the hospital... so nervous and excited about taking her home and start a real life as a real family!

Then when we got home, mama went to bed, and daddy wanted to hold the baby... I woke up to find this super cute scene of both daddy and Gracie passed out!

The Birth of Grace Elizabeth Baillie

I know a lot of people love to hear the story of how it all went down,(forgive me if you don't, I am going to go into  a lot of detail)  so I am going to start at 36 weeks when the baby was breach... My midwife sent me to an acupuncturist to help turn her, I know what you are thinking... an acupuncturist?  But let me tell you, going to her was pivotal in this whole experience!!  With the aid of the acupuncturist, little Gracie turned by 37 weeks (normal pregnancy timeline is 40 weeks), with that I did not have to worry about having a C-Section, (most doctors will not deliver babies vaginally when they are breech.)  Even after turning, I still continued to go see her weekly, she gave a "pregnancy tuneup" as she calls it, strengthening my kidneys and to give me more energy.  She also started me on some herbal supplements, which I believe helped tremendously during labor, one was primrose oil, which softens the cervix, the other was this "mothers blend" which strengthens the uterus, making your contractions much more effective....

Fast forward to 39 weeks....

Went to my weekly midwife appointment and was told that my blood pressure was really high, so immediately they hooked me up to the fetal monitoring system, which shows little Gracie's heart beat, and she was still going strong.  They then sent me to the hospital to take a Non-Stress Test, and that is when I starting to worry a little, being sent to the hospital!!!  I was there for 4 hours, getting lab work done, listening to the baby and monitoring me.  Thank God for Stephen, he is a wonderful support, sitting there, holding my hand the whole time, praying laughing and just keeping me relaxed.  I was sent home on bed-rest (which sent my mom flying to be with me, and she was here the next morning!) At home the next day, I had pretty bad headache, which was something I was supposed to look out for, which sent me to the hospital again... this time Aimee, my sister was with me, as well as my mom.  After another 4 hours of testing they sent me home again, continuing to stay on bed rest.  My mom was so valuable during this time, not letting me get up for anything, making me food, cleaning house and making sure Stephen and I dinner every night!

Thursday was my next appointment, my blood pressure was still high, so the midwife gave us a choice, inducing that night, or waiting over the weekend and inducing on Monday.  No matter what, they were not going to let me go past due with high blood-pressure.     After debating, we decided to just go ahead and do it that night.  It wasn't an easy decision, the last thing I wanted to do in this labor was to be induced, usually that leads to a series of drug interventions that I was trying to avoid.  On the other hand, I would have to be on bed rest all weekend and still run the risk of being induced.

The plan was to go to the hospital at 5:30 pm on Thursday the 9th and stay overnight.  They would give me cervidil that night to help my cervix efface, give me a sleeping pill to help me sleep, then that morning give pitocin to help me dialate.

After leaving my midwife, I called my acupuncturist and made an immediate appointment to start the induction process naturally, (something that midwife says sometimes helps a little bit, but I heard great things about it) After my treatment I felt immediate contractions, nothing that hurt, just my stomach really tightening!  Excited, Stephen and I went out to Carpos for dinner, went home to get our bags, then headed to the hospital!!!!

We brought movies, games and books to get us through the night... our last night together alone!!!  Our doula Anna Marie came to visit us in the hospital that night, and was there at 9 pm when the nurse gave me the cervidil.  She was going to come again that next morning, when it all was going to start, and we were just going over our game plan.  I didn't want to get an epidural, unless I asked for it 3 times that was not in the middle of an contraction, we went over breathing and pain coping techniques.  The nurse gave me a sleeping pill, and we were going to bed at 11 pm, anxious about what was going to happen that next morning!!!

Well, we didn't have time to be anxious, at 11:30 pm I felt my water break... more like a waterfall come out of me... and then it was game on from that point.

I starting having immediate contractions, no more than 2 minutes apart, often times double peaking, not allowing me to get a break between.  At 1:30 we knew that this is going to happen soon, so we called the family, Anna Marie and Amy Zweers to let them know that she is coming!!!  

I came in 2 cm dilated, at 2:00 I was 6 cm dilated... and going fast!  Anna Marie was amazing, this was her first time being an official "doula" and I would recommend her to anyone!!!  She helped me breathe, helped relieve my back pain, and told Stephen and Amy what to do to help me as well.  The help I had was amazing,  I am so blessed!!!!   The pain was intense, but it was manageable, I was really worried about being able to keep my energy up, the sleeping pill was starting to really set in, and I asked for an epidural, just to help me sleep so I could have enough energy to get through this.  The double peaking was kicking my butt, but I used all my breathing techniques I learned, which made me look silly, but it was working, so I don't care.  I labored mostly on the birthing ball, it was by far the most comfortable position, that and being on all fours.    We decided against the epidural, she was just coming too fast and I was almost done.... they did give me some fentanyl, which just takes the peak off the contraction, and makes me feel a little drunk... So... I was super tired thanks to the sleeping pill, and now feeling a little drunk, thanks to the fentanyl.  The fentanyl was perfect though, it helped me gain a little more strength going into transition.  

So, labor started at 11:30, it was now 4:45 and I started to push, and push and push.  They said that I was doing great, but once someone turned the light on, I realized that there was a lot more doctors and nurses there.  Grace was stuck in the birth canal, and they were worried about her getting out in time... They screwed a heart monitor into her head, and she was doing great, but she was not coming out... They then asked, well, told me that they were going to give me a episiotamy.... Snip, snip... I also found out that I had 3rd degree tearing as well.... and she still wasn't coming out!!!   I heard a lot of whispering and started to get scared... thinking that after all this, I was going to have to have a C-section after all....  Thankfully, after some more hearty pushing, and a vacuum, the lovely Grace Elizabeth Baille was born at 5:26 am on Friday, July 10th 2009.  She weighed 9.1 lbs, 22 in long and her head was 14 in diameter!  No wonder she was getting stuck!  She is off the charts big!!!  

I had quite an audience that night, though all people that I love dearly, and it was so nice for all of us to witness and experience this together...

My husband Stephen, my mom, Amy and Monica Zweers,  my sister Aimee as well as Isaac and Marina (the kids weren't there for it all) and of course Anna Marie!!!  Wowza, that was not the plan, but it all worked!

**** A side note our friend Jacob Agnone and his wife Alicia were giving birth at the exact same time in the room next door!  Welcome Mia Ryan Agnone!!!!