Our Little Jeorgia

These past (almost) 5 months we have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know our sweet Jeorgia. Tonight while giving Jeorgia her bath I was struck at how different she is from our other girls, so while it was fresh on my mind I thought I would jot some things down.

1. blue eyes..Jeorgia is our first girl to have blue eyes
2. reddish hair...she is our first girl to have any reddish tint to her hair
3. loves to be swaddled...she has been our only child who loves to be tightly swaddled to be able to fall asleep..at the doctor's request, I am trying to wean her from that.
4. loves baths...Jewel and Jane may have "liked" baths, Jeneva hated them, but Jeorgia LOVES them!
5. loves to be massaged...none of our other girls tolerated, much less liked, being massaged
6. sleeps on her tummy...this past week I broke down and laid her down on her tummy to go to sleep (after noticing how comfy she was when I was massaging her back one night). I have NEVER put a baby on their tummy to sleep. She LOVES it! She sleeps so soundly. I am taking all the precautions (pacifier, tight sheet on bed, limited bedding, fan on, checking on her often, etc.)!
7. has lots of tummy trouble...thankfully she is growing out of it, but for the first few months her tummy bothered her a lot...it showed up in her spitting up a lot and stiffening her body while crying with pain with her tummy hurting. None of the other girls had tummy problems like that.
8. lets others hold her...at least so far she is really good at letting other people hold her...in fact, I think she enjoys being social...she is definitely our first baby to "like" other people.
9. likes a dry diaper...not that our other girls didn't appreciate being clean, but she really can be cheered up quickly with a clean and dry diaper.
10. is in the 5th percentile in weight...she is definitely our smallest baby from birth.

So, I wonder how different her personality is going to be from the others! It is really fun to see her personality so far even at 5 months. Other things she is doing right now are rollling from her tummy to her back, grabbing things (including her feet) with both hands and sticking them into her mouth, beginning to go a little longer than 2 hours between nursing sessions, and being super smiley if she can get someone to give her eye contact and a smile.

We are blessed to have her in our little family. We all love her so much! With the busy-ness of this season, I just didn't want to forget these few things that define her first few months of life.

Where have we been!?!?

OK, this will need to be the post of many updates....

July 6: Jeorgia Rose Fetterly was born. She was 7 lbs. 14 oz. and 20 inches long (I think). She lost 14 oz. really quickly in the hospital and did not begin gaining over the next 2 days and was below the 10% loss parameters that doctors like to keep the baby within, so the third day, they asked me to give small amounts of formula. She gained an ounce or two and they let us go home. A couple days later (after small formula supplements) she had gained to 7 lb. 6 oz. So they let me drop the formula...however Jeorgia stayed at 7 lb 6 oz. for about 10 days (I had her weight checked just about every other day). I was nursing her ALL the time. With careful use of formula, pumping, and nursing, she finally began to gain weight. I dropped the formula, and continued to pump. Then she was able to gain an ounce a day over the next few days without me pumping or supplementing. This brought us right up to our MOVE! She was weighed a couple days ago and was at 10 lb. 4 oz. which averaged her gaining about an ounce a day since our move. Praise the Lord!

July 29: Our ABF packing trailers arrived. Thanks to MANY friends, we were able to finish packing up the house, and then the following day, we were able to load the truck (again, with the help of many friends). We borrowed some blow up mattresses and stayed in the empty house until the following Tuesday. Somehow, with a big thanks to Mimi Hobbs, we were able to get the house cleaned by Wednesday afternoon.

August 2: We moved our packed vehicles and family over to a guest house that our friends the Prathers graciously allowed us to stay in the last couple of nights.

August 3: We finished cleaning out our house, packed our vehicles for the road trip, enjoyed a lovely evening at church where we were able to say goodbye to many dear friends, and picked up my mom from the airport.

August 4: We set out early on a one way trip to Arkansas. We made it in a long 15 hour day. Jimmy drove the cat in his car. My mom and I took the 4 girls in the van. It was a long day, but we made it by the grace of God. God knows what we can bear, and he knew we couldn't have done it without my dear mother. She was so helpful that day and over the next week as we attempted to get settled and unpacked. That evening we stayed with our dear friends the Hamlines. We were so exhausted and it was so good to sleep that night. I had cried so much the day before, I had a huge headache the entire day. So I can definitely attest to God sustaining me as I drove for 15 straight hours!

August 5: We moved into our rent house (which we had not seen until we arrived). It is smaller than what we were used to, but it definitely meets our needs for now. Several friends came over to help us unpack our truck that evening.

August 7: This was our first Sunday back at BCLR. As thankful as we were to be there, it was a hard day as well. I knew that I wouldn't feel quite settled until my girls were settled. Jane cried when I tried to take her to her SS class, so I let her go in with Jewel that day. Jeneva wouldn't stray 6 inches from me....she was overwhelmed with it all. Thankfully, after a few weeks, the girls seem to be settling into their new life here, but we still have tears sometimes about them missing those they love in Tallahassee.

August 13: After a full week of unpacking, caring for little ones, enjoying my momma, getting new licenses, etc., we brought my mom to Nashville, AR to spend some time with her parents. It was a sad day to leave her. We all loved having her with us. We also celebrated Jeneva's 2nd birthday at my grandparent's house.

August 14: Jeneva turns TWO! Our sweet little Jeneva celebrated her 2nd birthday. We kept things pretty simple. I bought her cake and brought it down to Nashville to celebrate with family. On her actual birthday, we went to church and then that evening had our long-time friends the Johnsons over for dinner (to help us finish up Jeneva's cake).

August 15: Jimmy started his job at UALR. This was a crazy week for me, with him being gone every day all day, but we managed just fine.

August 22 (I think): We started homeschooling. It took us a little time to get into the swing of things with a newborn, toddler, Kindergartener, and 2nd grader. Jewel had to buckle down and understand more and more is expected from her as she grows up. Now, she is doing really well, but it still takes her about 5 hours each day to complete her lessons.

Over the next few weeks, we spent a lot of time going to parks, showing girls places around Conway, hunting down our engraved bricks both at UCA and CBC, going to well baby visits, and more.

September 7: Awana began for the girls. They had been greatly anticipating this. Jimmy is the teacher of Jewel's group. With two weeks under their belt, their Awana books and vests awarded, they are ready to go! They are loving it! I started a ladies Bible study in I Peter that I think will really enjoy (once I can get my two little ones to go to nursery)!

That brings us pretty much up to date. There is definitely more that I could write, but that is all for now!

Overdue Update

Well, once again, I abandoned blogging for quite a while! I am going to try to give a little update and then also get back on track with some picture posts. Baby: First of all, I don't think I have announced some big news...this Fetterly family only has GIRLS...#4 is going to be another girl! :) So, it will be kind of fun to have Jewel and Jane a little over 22 months apart and Jeneva and Girl #4 a little under 23 months apart. That will be great for matching clothes/ hand-me-downs! :) Pregnancy: I am going to do my best not to complain, but pregnancy is definitely NOT my favorite season of life. Gratefully, I am passed my extreme fatigue and queasiness which seemed to subside around 14 weeks or so. This past week (week 25) I re-introduced coffee (one of my major food aversions) back into my diet successfully. I have somehow been able to only see the doctor TWO times with this pregnancy (which I am happy about). I requested to combine my first two appointments (an orientation and the first ultrasound/visit), cancel my next appt which was just a routine urine, weight, and blood pressure check, and make it to my next appt for the ultrasound which told us the gender of the baby. Now here I am at week 25 getting ready for my third visit. Thankfully, my doctor understands the inconvenience of lots of appts and told me last time to just schedule my next appt 6 weeks later (since I was an old pro at it)! I did find out that I have a fibroid cyst in my uterus that will probably begin causing me some pain within the next few weeks; however, it is supposed to not hurt the baby at all. I guess it will just be removed when the baby is born. Job: We have been praying (and asking others to pray) that God would make our choice clear about moving or staying here. Well, in His providence (and much to our surprise) He did not allow Jimmy to get the job in Conway, Arkansas at UCA. However, Jimmy will be interviewing with UALR (The University of Arkansas at Little Rock) this week for a tenure tracked position. Although, originally, this wouldn't have been Jimmy's first choice because of his love and history with UCA, it looks like it actually might be a good position for him AND would be closer to our old church family. I will (hopefully) post some pictures in the next few days. We recently took a road trip to Pennsylvania for Jimmy's grandfather's funeral, and I may have a few pictures from that trip.

Announcing...

Jeneva Grace Fetterly

born August 14, 2009 at 5:50 a.m.

weighing 8 lbs. 11 oz. and measuring 20.4 in. long

Preparing for the Big Day...

For me, Thursday was spent readying my house for my mom's arrival and preparing to check into the hospital the following morning for my scheduled c-section. I was able to wash all of the sheets in the house, wash and put away the laundry, pack my suitcase, clean my bathrooms, sweep the floors, and tidy the house. After making a taco dinner (isn't that what you are supposed to eat before you have a baby!) and finishing up packing and tidying, I headed to the airport with my sister to pick up our mom. She arrived a little before her 9:20 arrival time, so we were actually home before 10 o'clock! At around 10, I thought that I better eat a few crackers (4 Ritz crackers to be precise) since I was told to not eat anything after midnight (BIG MISTAKE!) We all got settled into bed a little before 11 p.m. I was a little unsure if I would be able to get to sleep since I was only 5 short hours from heading to the hospital!

Change of Plans...

Around 11:45 I woke up to realize that my water broke! That sort of put a kink in our plans! If I were only having contractions instead of my water breaking I would have just stuck it out until 4:30 a.m. when we were planning to leave for the hospital. But, after calling the hospital, I decided to go ahead and check in to the hospital so that they could monitor the baby. Shortly after my water "began" breaking (I say this because my water continued to gush out every few minutes for the next couple of hours), contractions began. So after checking into the hospital, I spent a few minutes in triage and was then moved to a "laboring" room.

Four Little Ritz Crackers...

While in triage I just "openly" admitted to eating 4 Ritz crackers (I wasn't even asked about that!). So because of those four little crackers, I had to "labor" until 5:00 a.m.! They really didn't want me to have anything in my stomach for 8 hours prior to the c-section. So, I had a completely sleepless night "laboring" when I knew very well that it was for no reason since I would be having a c-section. I knew there was no chance I would deliver the baby quickly since I was only dilated 1 centimeter. Because my doctor wasn't "on call" that night, I also knew that a different doctor would be performing the c-section, which made me a little sad...especially since the c-section was going to be performed just a couple hours prior to its scheduled time.

The Operating Room...

Around 5:15 a.m., everyone was FINALLY ready to do my c-section. The doctor had finished a delivery and the anesthesiologist had finished doing an epidermal. Once I got to the OR, the anesthesiologist gave me a spinal block to numb me from the waist down. In addition to being so lightheaded and nauseous, my heart began racing which sort of scared everyone. My heart rate came back down and things continued. Jimmy was brought in and the doctor began scouting out how he wanted to cut me open! As with the delivery of all our babies, Jimmy was very lightheaded during the whole procedure. I think at one point he had more people making sure he was OK, than I had people watching me! I mean, he even got a cup of juice brought to him! At one point the anesthesiologist told Jimmy to sit down, remove his mask, and look down...unfortunately at about that point the doctor dropped my placenta on the floor which was not really what Jimmy needed to see! :)

Little Girl #3 Enters the World...

At 5:50, we heard little Jeneva Grace's first little cry. Comments about how big she was and how healthy she looked was pretty much all I can remember. I was so happy that the table where they cleaned her up and suctioned her excess mucous was right where I could watch everything. After allowing me to take a close look at her and give her a kiss, they swept her off to be weighed and measured. Jimmy went along with her while I hung out in the OR being put back together.

The Recovery Room...

After leaving the OR, I met Jimmy and Jeneva in the recovery room. We hung out there a while until our room was ready and they were able to monitor my vitals for a little while. I guess we were in the recovery room for at least an hour or so, because I know that I nursed Jeneva for about 45 minutes.

The Hospital Stay...

It was nice to finally get to our final room where we would be staying the remainder of our time in the hospital. Shortly after getting settled, my mom brought Jewel and Jane up to see us. The girls were SOOOO excited. Jane was so happy that NOW she was "a big sister just like Jewel!" They both were interested to see what color eyes Jeneva had. And they were both beaming as they were allowed to hold their new baby sister. I think that they even held Jeneva before Jimmy did. He graciously declined each time when someone would offer to let him hold her. He was just really lightheaded from the Operating Room experience, and I think he didn't want to pass out and drop her!

We spent 3 nights in the hospital (4 if you count the night waiting for the c-section), We checked out Monday morning. I was really pleased with the hospital staff. Most of them were great! With this hospital stay, I decided that I was going to be friends with any pain medicine that was offered to me. In the past I have been so overly concerned that any medicine I would take would affect the baby through my milk. However, this time I decided that is was important for me to recover as comfortably as possible. I was sad to get my last dose of IV drugs Sunday night, but I transistioned to oral medicine pretty well. Jeneva lost 10% of her body weight while in the hospital. She went from 8 lbs. 11 oz. to 8 lbs. 6 oz. to 8 lbs. even to 7 lbs. 12 oz. On Tuesday at the doctor's office she was back up to about 8 lbs.
Coming Home...

I have been doing pretty well at home so far. The worst thing, which I fully expected, has been the pain in nursing. It is, however, getting a "little" less painful. The saddest thing so far has been that Jewel has had a little cough over the last couple of days which has limited her closeness to Jeneva. We rigged a little mask for her to wear while she holds Jeneva. The day after we returned home (Tuesday), we brought Jeneva in for a checkup. Her bilirubin score went up a bit (but was still in the low risk category), but she also gained a few ounces (which was great since she had lost 15 ounces while in the hospital. Nursing is going well, except for her tongue positioning. The lactation consultant felt that her tongue was "borderline" of being a problem, but we are just working with it. I think that it has caused a little more pain on my part due to poor latching on, but I think she is still getting plenty of milk. She is my sleepiest little girl by far. I have to wake her up to eat...which is something that I have never had to do. It almost goes against all that I believe to actually "wake a sleeping baby!" :)

Welcome home, Jeneva Grace! The girls made cute signs to hold as they celebrating our arrival home from the hospital. They have been so excited for Jeneva to sit in her swing so that was pretty much Jeneva's first stop when she came home! :)

Napping with Nana...

Jewel with her mask. She was so happy to hold her new baby sister...but her new baby sister wasn't so sure about it! :)

One Week Old...

At one week we had Jeneva's weight checked again. She had only gained about 1/3 of an ounce so the past couple of days I have been nursing her at least every 2 hours during the day and every 3 hours during the night. I think that she has probably gained a little weight as of today. Her stools have transitioned from greenish black to brownish yellow so I am pretty sure her bilirubin has come down. Monday I will get her weight checked again and as long as she has gained something I won't bring her back to get checked at the doctor until her next scheduled appointment.

Jimmy cut off a huge leaf from our backyard. We only had about a minute to try to take a pic before Jeneva decided she didn't like her new spot.

Baby Update

Today I had my first ultrasound. It was a lot of fun. Jimmy and the girls were there as well. The girls have been excited for a long time about getting to "see" the baby. The nurse who did the ultrasound printed out pictures of the baby for each of the girls saying "Hi Jewel" and "Hi Jane!"
Oh yes, there is just ONE baby...for those of you who are wondering! I was starting to wonder after how quickly my belly was filling out. I know it is probably due to the fact that I have had two babies already and my belly just knows the routine already! :)
I have been praising God so much this past week because my queasiness seems to finally be subsiding. I am still tired, but it is SOOO much easier to function during the day when I don't feel like I have a stomach bug.
I think that I only gained 1 pound this past month--don't expect regular updates on that! :)
I am now in my 14th week and am "trying" to enjoy these middle months since they will most likely be the best (if there can be a best part of pregnancy).
My next appointment will be at 18 weeks, and they will do an ultrasound to try to determine the sex of the baby!