Outside

Veronica, outside in the playpen. I love this little outfit on her, even though it's holiday themed. It's hard to find red clothes for babies that aren't also holiday-ish. Just FYI.

46 Weeks

She is not 42 weeks here, she is 46 weeks. Lord God. I guess I lost some weeks in this picture taking project? I don't even know which way is up anymore but I thought this was a cute picture.
She looks like no one else here but her.

Toilet

Bruise

Can you see her bruise here, on her cheek? She is always falling SMACK on her face. Today she is pulling up a lot, and she has been babbling a lot more recently, it's super cute. What is not cute is that she is STILL up twice a night and I am OVER it. I have to keep feeding her though, because she's so tiny and every time we think she's eaten solid food, I pick her up out of her chair and it's all under her.

45 Weeks

You can really get a good look at Chomper, here, which is what we call her bottom front tooth. We think we can see Chomper has a friend, but we're not sure. We've been putting her in the pack and play out in the yard to get her some air. She doesn't love being in the pack and play but I think she likes to be outside. She's been pulling up on the pack and play, and shouting away at Anthony and Maria this afternoon. We also took a walk, just the two of us, before and it was really nice. It's never just me and her.

Big Standing Girl

Maria was so excited to see her standing up! They laughed and laughed with each other. Unfortunately, Maria can sense when she is being cute and she knows that I am going to videotape it, so I just have still photos.

Yes?

This is what happens when you try to vaccum the living room while Mike is at church. Anthony leaves the door open and Veronica jammed on that Key Lime Pie. Sheesh.

Bad Light, Blurry

But she was so cute in the bath I have to post something. She took a long morning nap yesterday and didn't wake up until 11:30. I figured rather than put her down at 2:30 to get her up at 3:00, I'd just have her sleep in the car. Ha ha ha ha - I should know better than to assume that one of these children is ever going to sleep when I want them to. So she stayed awake the whole time going to get Anthony and then stayed awake until bedtime. She was sleepy but plucky.

44 Weeks

She eventually snatched that Pop Tart away from Maria, getting it all over her. She is doing well at 44 weeks, crawling and doing some standing. She pulls herself up to standing but only on short things, like the trampoline, or the vacuum. She is sleeping 12 hours and waking up one time, but sometimes she is more awake than others when she's finished nursing. For right now, I put her back in her crib when she is finished, but if I move her in with Maria, I don't know if I'd put her back just to yell and wake up Maria. We decided we'll start tracking her sleep and once she sleeps for a week in a row just waking up once, we'll bite the bullet and move the girls in together. I am SCARED but what can we do? I can't have her living in the closet forever!

Monday.

Birth Story

In honor of her being out as long as she was in, here's her birth story. I started writing it shortly after I got home and I just have been adding to it, but let's face it, I can't remember anything, so I better post it now.

Veronica Lucy Beck, May 14, 2009

I went to my Mom and Dad's and picked up my Dad at like 7:00, he dropped me off at the hospital and I went in by myself. The check in was super easy, I chatted with the woman about the wicked rain and storms the night before. She walked me up to my room and I met the nurse, Erin, who gave me my robe and instructions to get in it. I sat around and watched tv and chatted with her - she was getting married in September and her ring looked a lot like mine. She also went to Purdue, she told me, and I told her that we could just keep that to ourselves once Mike got there. Ha.

So Mike got there and we sat around some more. The anasthesiologist came in and introduced himself, we talked about nausea and fluids. He thought I should get another bag of saline or something, and told the nurse. Then my doctor came in and met Mike (which is so weird because with Anthony, Mike and I went to every single one of my appointments together and this time, he was meeting my doctor for the first time the day the baby was going to be born! Erin gave Mike his surgery clothes including a thing to wear over his glasses so he "didn't get blood in his eyes" - yuk. She gave me a hat and off we went - I just walked across the hall and into the O/R. The doctor gave me my spinal, I had the NICEST nurse help me with it. You have to put your chin to your chest, with your back all the way on the edge of the table, round out your back, and keep your shoulders down and it's tricky to do it all at once. But she was super nice. Then the doctor had to tell me TWICE to lie down - I forgot, they make you lie down right away so you don't fall down. Almost immediately my legs went numb, he asked me if I could lift my legs and I tried and then I said "I guess not?" and he said "nope!" so I guess it worked. Then they let Mike in, I kept thinking of how they almost forgot to get him with Maria, so I was ready to ask for him.

I felt SUPER relaxed, almost like when I had really low blood pressure when I had my first epidural with Anthony. I kept asking Mike "do I look okay?" I felt like I was really pale. The doctor said I was fine, though. It was nice and calm in the O/R, the radio was on. The anasthesiologist told me that my doctor had made the incision and off they went. I kept telling Mike to look at me and then I told him that he could look if he wanted, although - ugh - how gross it must be, all those organs! My doctor said something like "oh, he's turned this way" and they shifted, kind of. I guess the baby's head was sort of sideways and they had to pull it down. Then the anasthesiologist told me "they've got the head out!" and then someone said "oh boy!" and I thought, well, it's a boy, but then my doctor said "it's a beautiful girl!, Joanne!" We really had it in our heads, during all these appointments, that it was a boy, so we were really surprised! Mike and I were so happy and relieved, I thought immediately of that circumcision that I didn't have to order.

Mike had to sit by me for a minute - ha I just remembered, the anasthesiologist asked me, before Mike came in, "is your husband a pretty tough guy? He's not going to faint?" I told him, no he wouldn't faint, he was tough. Ha. But then they let him get up and he took pictures and brought them over and at one point the nurse brought Veronica over to me and showed her to me for what felt like a good amount of time. They stitched me up and then the pediatrician came over and talked to Mike and me about how Veronica's Oxygen saturation wasn't as high as they would like to see it. He said 'his gut' told him she'd be okay but he'd like to take her to the nursery and put her on Oxygen and Mike and I were like "OKAY!" I mean, what would we say?

I don't really remember recovery - I guess they gave me some ice chips? And maybe the doctor came in? I have no idea. I remember going to my room and meeting the nurse, Kris. Maybe it's the morphine? I don't know but I'm not sure about time. Mike made phone calls, I remember. Mike went to see the baby, but I couldn't see her until later. At some point, I went in a wheelchair with my catheter (ew) and IV to go and see her. She looked like a GIANT, especially compared to those wee babes in the nursery, some of whom had been there for weeks.

I had a rough recovery, that morphine made me itch like crazy and and at some point, I scratched my face up pretty good. Early Saturday morning, the nurse took out my catheter - and this is funny, but it's three times I've had this and three times they take it out in the morning. I always meet the new a.m. nurse and then she reaches up inside me and takes out the catheter. I have no pride left AT ALL. Anyways, I forget if I said this on V's blog, but I never could get her to nurse in the hospital until the last night. This excellent, angelic nurse named Jen helped me. She brought V in at like 2:00 in the morning and said she was hungry and we just tried everything - droppers and bottles and formula and breastmilk and EVERYTHING and finally, finally, she just started nursing. It was amazing - I had such a hard time with Anthony and not such a hard time with Maria, but a lot of pain, still, and then with Veronica, it was just perfect. It was the third time and it was a total charm. Like her. :)

Here's Where I Told Her Start Sleeping Better or You're GONE!

 
Just kidding.

43 Weeks

Now she's been out as long as she was in. Last night she slept pretty good, just up once. But if she wakes up once, she gets up super early. Blah blah blah blah sleep blah blah blah tired blah blah blah why me blah blah. :)
Edited to add she is 43 weeks here, not 39. I am v. crazy and don't know what day it is.

Trapped!

 
She did it. She is really, really getting around. Today I had both girls upstairs while I took a shower and I had to block the stairs with a basket, which of course Maria moved out of the way. Veronica is not standing yet, but - well, she can stand if you prop her but she doesn't stand up on her own yet. That's fine by me, as I don't want her standing in that portable crib anyway. I have no idea when I'll move her into the girls' room, I laugh when I think that I used to think I could move her after a few months. Today I told Maria that V would move into her crib and she could move into her toddler bed and doesn't that sound great? "Nokay", she told me happily. :(

Cute

 
 
 

Crawling

 
 
 
Veronica and I were alone for a while today, as she got up from her nap moments before Maria went down for hers. I really don't like that, I'd rather they both nap so I could have a second in the day where there is not someone attached to me, but today we had fun and I got some cute pictures. She is in the pajamas Mike's mom got her for Christmas, they are super cute, from the Gap. She slept well the night before last and crappily last night. Actually, everyone slept badly last night, there was one point where I think all of them yelled within a 30 minute period. She was up only twice to eat but it was at 10:00 and .... 3:00, I think, and then she was up before 6:00. So ... crappy! Crappy crappy sleeper. Cute. But crappy.