3 months of Lucy on-the-go!

In three months, this baby has been on more adventures than some adults! ;)

I'm back to work, which is an adventure in itself! Lucy is getting 100% of her Gran's attention and loves every minute, I'm sure! I didn't realize how much my school kids needed me until I got back and it's easy to see why I came back. My school family is getting back into our routines and the kids loooove hearing about Lucy and seeing her pictures- which is good because I love looking at them during the day. ❤️

So Lucy, she's been to the ice skating rink, an NFL game at Lucas Oil Stadium, Thanksgiving with all the family, helped get the house ready for Christmas (ha!), celebrated the return of Gilmore Girls with a girls night, cheered on the Louisville cardinals from home and at the YUM center, attended Christmas parties, visited Aunt C in Ohio and attended a college ice hockey game (Cheered for U of L, Ohio University won and we decided we were ok with that). 

That's not all...... Lucy had a Daddy's Night while momma went out to dinner with PTO friends, she attended Emma's singing recital, Abby's gymnastics meet, Braden's band concert and Emma & Brooklynn's school Christmas program- and she was a GREAT audience!! She thought the performances were just for her and focused accordingly. 

She's a sweet little elf, even as she is fighting with a nasty cough as of today.  And we found out today she is 14 pounds, 6 ounces!!! She's still grinning and talking and on the go!! 

The Holidays are Here!

    We are so excited to celebrate the holidays with little Miss Lucy! We have her Thanksgiving outfit ready and her Christmas P.J.s picked out. The tree is up- this is the earliest we have ever decorated but we were so excited! 

 Everyone always says, "They grow so fast!" Well...Lucy is growing exactly as fast as she should! She continues to eat well, sleep well and smile so much. She is now 12 lbs. 12.5 oz and 24 inches long. She is stretching out her footie P.J.s that we are starting to pack up and put away. :(

 I am back to work and life is just fine! My students were excited to have me back which made the transition easier. I also had a fabulous guest teacher for my leave so my class did not miss a beat while I was gone. Being gone during the day is hard. It just is. I miss the cuddles and the unlimited attention I could give Lucy, but I am also proud of myself for helping to provide for our family, serving the future of our community and being an example of a working momma. I know she is in the best hands while she is with Gran and that gives me peace. It also makes the weekends that much sweeter. I just kiss her face a million times more when we are together. 

I learned quickly that leaving when she is asleep is 1,000 times easier than leaving when she is smiling and talking to me. 

 It also helps that she will drink from a bottle.....because there was a week when she preferred screaming her face off instead of taking a bottle from anyone. She had already been drinking from the bottle for 3 or 4 weeks. We tried different bottles/nipples, different people, temperatures, times of day, me out of the house, me in the same room, etc. It was rough. It was also 2 weeks before I went back to school so I was slightly concerned she would starve to death (not really, but ugh). After a week of worry and screaming unless I nursed her, my mom (Gran) tried again with the Nuk brand bottles and that crazy baby fought it for a bit and then decided it was okay. She will now take the bottle like a little piggy and burps like a man.  I am not going to lie, she wasn't the only one who cried that week.

The best part of going back to work is seeing my friends everyday. I work with the BEST people in the world that are always looking out for me and they checked on me all week...and continue to do so. <3 Love to my friends that text and called me, I love you!

After her 2 month shots, she was a great patient!

Lovin' Life with Lucy!

The past few weeks have been full of fun! We celebrated Lucy's first month with us, my birthday, and our first family trip! 

We did it. We took a five week old camping. Not only did we survive, we actually enjoyed ourselves! We had a great time- we were also in a camper, no tents for us! We have been to Lake Rudolph's HalloWeekends for years now and so we also got to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters and ride the "haunted" hayride. We joined the fun as pirates with baby as our parrot, a very sleepy parrot. Lucy even got to meet Santa Claus!! When you are in Santa Claus, Indiana- you get to meet the man no matter what day it is! Santa loved Lucy (who wouldn't!?!) and Lucy loved talking to Santa too. 

                   

 My birthday was fabulous! Gran kept little Miss so Matt & I could go to dinner and a movie- Topp't and Miss Peregrines. Loved the pizza, loved the movie. I only once thought, "I'd like to smell Lucy right now..." during the movie. That's not weird, right??!  
We also enjoyed ice cream cake, my favorite! I got a necklace with her initial L, a pineapple and her birthstone. <3 Matt also showered me with flowers and some iTunes fun! :) 

Baby Lucy continues to show us her love by sleeping 5 and 6 hours at night. It is a beautiful thing. The only inconvenience is that I am often waiting for her to wake up to empty me or I will get up to pump to relieve my discomfort. A small price to pay for awesome sleep!! Nursing is now something I look forward to, which I had a hard time imaging those first weeks...It is so sweet. 

She is growing just right and we will visit her doctor next week for her one month check up. We are having fun dressing her in clothes that she can't argue with us about. We take about a thousand pictures a day...check Instagram for almost daily updates, feel free to unfollow me if I'm driving you crazy! ;) 
There are only 21 days left before I return to work, so I am gladly spoiling this little girl absolutely rotten, I will not hesitate to admit it. 

6 weeks of sweetness....

The first two weeks with Baby Lucy!

     She's figuring us out...we will keep trying to figure her out. :) 

First bath, sweet girl didn't cry at all!

After her bath, comfy cozy.

When we think we've got her figured out, she changes! Just in these first couple weeks, she has changed so much. She is losing her chubby cheeks and we are working hard to keep those. She eats all the time... and then some. She hated the pacifier until she took it yesterday at the parade. We held our breath thinking if we commented on it, she would toss it. She loves to be on her belly, and is rolling over from her back to her belly to get comfy. It is insane that she is only two weeks old!! She loves riding in the car, except the days she hates it. She does not mind headbands but we will see how long that lasts. She just figured out she has hands and loves to stick them in her mouth. She is such a sweet girl...until she's screaming. She makes the most adorable baby sounds. She continues those baby sounds all night long and she may be moving out of our room any day now! (Except I can't imagine not having her in her bassinet next to me.) 


   She sleeps so well, usually 5 to 6 hours a night! Most nights feeding is a quiet and dark activity and she goes right back to sleep. Right now, we are celebrating these victories because I know they may not last forever. 


I will mention that in the excitement of planning for labor and preparing my body for the main event, my preparation for feeding this baby was not a worry for me. I read a million articles and tips about labor and birth. Then I read a million more and talked to moms about baby's first weeks. I read a few articles about breastfeeding...and then we went full force into nursing and I read all the articles trying to figure out if it was normal that I couldn't breathe when she latched on for the first two weeks.... 

Turns out, its normal. :) Now that we are in the third week, I no longer want to scream when she starts eating. It took practice. It took patience. It took me realizing that me and this precious girl are now a team. I need her to empty me- I found out what a clogged duct feels like and whoa....that was not fun. She needs me to comfort and feed her. So we work together. Feeding her in the middle of the night is almost as much as a benefit for me as it is for her. She is gaining weight, still not up to her birth weight- but c'mon, she's doing all right. ;)  If you are a new mom, just know breastfeeding gets better. If you know a new mom, tell her that breastfeeding gets better!!! It was so great to have people that could give me pointers or just reassure me that we were doing it right. 

My recovery from the c-section was just fabulous! The Saturday after Lucy was born, we went to the Fall Flea downtown and bought a small table for her room. On Tuesday, she had her first doctor's appointment and I had mine too. I got my staples removed and went on my way! After her first week home, I mowed the grass. (I may have gone a little too far, lol) I am out and about and love it! I made pumpkin rolls today!! 

I have absolutely loved introducing her to all the people that helped us make her possible! She is already so loved. We love visitors so if you have a chance, text me and we would be glad to visit!!

I just know this girl is going to be amazing. She already has the best support system and pretty cool parents. She is going to make a difference. Heck, she already has. <3

Drumroll please!!! Introducing Ms Lucy Kathryn Bratcher!

She's finally here! As much as I was enjoying pregnancy, we were all ready to meet Ms Lucy. She took some prodding and poking to make her entrance into this world. I am impressed with how comfortable she was and how hesitant my body was to get her moving. I plan on letting our fertility specialist know what a fine job she did preparing my body. ;) 

We were scheduled for induction on Tuesday, September 13th at 5:00pm as long as nothing had happened yet. We waited and waited and waited some more and nothing. So Tuesday at 5:00 was the plan. It was the plan until the hospital called that day at 1:00pm and let me know that they were full. They were so full that they asked me to wait until 7:30 to call and see if there was an open room. So after waiting 3 years, 1 month and 13 days for a baby.....what's a few more hours, right? So at 7:30 we call and the staff says that they will call us back..... we wait until 8:30 with no word, so we call again. At this point, I am ready to wait until the next day to start. There was no medical reason to rush, which is why the hospital knew I could wait. So when we call at 8:30, the hospital lets us know that they can have a room ready at 10:00pm. So we hang out until they are ready and go at 10:00. 
It was quite the evening...... that's a lot of anticipation on top of excitement and anxiousness. 

So at 41 weeks and 4 days, we are at the hospital getting ready to induce. We didn't get things started until about 11:30, so it was almost Wednesday by then! Without too many details, this was almost the worst part.... it was awful. So we hung out and napped until the next day when we started the pitocin to get contractions started. That was a whole other adventure and another whole day. By 10:00pm, it was time to push- so push I did...until almost 12:00..... At this point my doctor gave me a list of options. I was doing everything right and Lucy was not in distress- yet.  I could keep pushing, take a break and try again or get prepared for a c-section. Ms Lucy was sure making me work for it!  After weighing my options, a c-section was the best choice for me. I was prepped and in the operating room by 12:15. By 12:28, Lucy had made her appearance along with comments from the hospital staff and doctors such as, "Good call on the c-section!" "She's the size of a toddler!" "Wow, we've got a big baby here." And my favorite, "The moment of truth, she weighs....10 pounds and 15 ounces!!" All while "Uptown Funk" played in the background


Thursday, September 15th. 

 So I am oh so glad I went with the c-section. :) When I got it together, Matt had taken care of Lucy and she was ready to be cuddled. What a sweet, sweet moment it was. I wanted to know, did she have tons of hair, did she have my short little thumbs, whose nose is that? All the fun questions answered! It was unreal. So we stayed up all night admiring her awesome-ness and it was perfect. 

The next day was all over the place. We were seen by every doctor, nurse and hospital staff in existence but every single one commented on how sweet and beautiful (and big) she was. Everyone loved on her and kept us comfortable. The staff was awesome to say the least! We were well taken care of, for sure. My favorite question- "Did you know she was going to be this big?" and my response- "My doctor estimated 8 pounds..."
We were discharged on Saturday afternoon. Home is the best place ever after using a hospital shower and sleeping in a hospital bed.  We are doing great and moving & grooving! Lucy has figured our where the food comes from, we are learning she can be a little demanding. ;) 

Big thanks to several people who made us dinners to warm up, it has been amazing to have one less thing to worry about. Thanks to all who have checked on us, we love you!!! 

Also, just know Matt is an expert diaper changer and carseat buckler among other talents now. He is rocking this role of super- dad! I couldn't have survived the hospital without him waiting on me hand and foot! He is the best. 

More to come later!!!
#ThinkPositive
#BabyLucyisHere
#TheLifeofLucy

Luuuucy.... What are you waiting for? ;)

So here we are, 41 weeks and a day..... still waiting. 

     I checked in with my doctor on Friday and we are looking good. Too good. 
The fluids keeping Lucy healthy are just right, my blood pressure is great and her heart rate is wonderful. So we wait... with no medical reason to induce, we decided to wait her out again. 

     Last week, Dr. Lewis gave us the option of inducing on Tuesday (just 4 days past the due date) but we decided to wait because we had a ultrasound done and everything was looking good. At the time, I wasn't super uncomfortable so I figured- why rush her? I had "made a deal" with Lucy that she had to wait until September- she followed directions. :) So now it is time for a new deal...Let's go Lucy. The new deal is, you have to be out before we get to 42 weeks (Friday). So no matter her preference- we WILL have a baby by the weekend!! There is an end in sight to this stage. 

37 weeks, 39 weeks, 40 weeks

41 weeks! 

    


 Now, I am starting to feel a little uncomfortable... its like I can feel how heavy she is! I can't seem to stand up as quickly as I could just last week and rolling over is proving to be more difficult everyday. I am excited to think how healthy she will be and we are taking bets on how much hair she will have- with all this extra time to grow. 
 I am just imagining a very relaxed, calm and easy-going girl that is in no hurry to be bossed around. And I am okay with that. 

     I want to remember that we weren't just waiting at this point. Bouncing on an exercise ball while eating pineapple just didn't do it yesterday. Walking with the intention of getting things going wasn't much help either... I have purchased some raspberry leaf tea but haven't gotten to drinking it quite yet. We are ready!!!!

#LetsGoLucy