8 Months

#ProjectVandMe

V: You have changed SO MUCH this month. You are weighing in at 15lbs on the dot. You moved up to size two diapers this month. You are moving all over the place, and learning to master the crawl. You take a few "steps" and then roll onto your stomach like a seal. It's the best. You are eating more and more solids now. You sleep in your crib like a champ. You are a great sleeper in general (...and let's hope that never changes). You hold your bottle when you eat. You are just the cutest little thing and we LOVE you SO VERY much!

Me: I look back at pictures of Vienna and can't believe how fast she changes. I love getting to be with her everyday to watch her grow. On a more gloomy note, Austin left for Rwanda this week and it hurts my heart. We miss him like crazy and look forward to our FaceTime sessions. We're trying to stay busy! I have changed my eating habits over the past few weeks and I feel better already. I'm recommitted to work hard to lose that prego weight. I am going strong in my scripture study. I see the difference it's making in my daily life, and I love it.

LOTS of pictures this month...

 

6 months

Happy Half Birthday, Little V! We were in Arizona visiting Aunt Casey and Grandma Russell on the 4th, so we didn't have a chance to do your monthly photo shoot. SOOO we did it today. In your PJs... but compensated with a large bow.

V: I feel like you have progressed so much this past month. Okay, you haven't grown any taller (eek!) but you now weigh 13 lb 12 oz. Up to the 9th percentile now! It's better than the 5th! You are rolling all over the place when I set you down. You are sitting on your own. We started sleep training you. It's a work in progress... ha. (Note to self: vacation while sleep training= bad idea.) You are eating solids everyday now. You love the veggies and still aren't too sure about most fruits. You are smiling and laughing all the time. You are still extra excited to see me or daddy in the morning or after naps. You are back to pooping multiple times a day. You love phones and screens. #momfail. You lift your legs like you want to crawl but aren't quite there yet. You don't use your binky as much anymore - more to chew on now than anything. You are still putting everything in your mouth. You are the brightest little light in our lives and we love you infinitely.

Me:
I'm about done breastfeeding. You are still feeding from me in the mornings, but the rest is formula now. Nursing has such a steep learning curve. I'll know better for next time, when we have another kid in 10 years... joking... or am I? I'm still going pretty strong on my NYs resolutions! I've slacked a little on the working out, with having company over and being out of town. Getting out of my routine is tough but I'm pushing through. January is always a hard month, but it's February now and we're happy as can be!

Bow change.

5 Months

V:
Little V, you are 5 MONTHS OLD! How did that happen??? You loved spending time with the Russell's for a week over Christmas. Grandpa got you to full on giggle numerous times. (We were all a little jealous.) You love to smile, play with rattles and blocks, and stick every toy object in your mouth. You are eating solids! We have given you rice cereal, carrots, squash, apples, and bananas. You cringe at apples and bananas - which is HILARIOUS. We will stick to veggies for now. You are rolling from back to front. Getting close to sitting on your own- still a little unstable though. You are officially 13 lbs!!! Maybe you will be a little higher on the percentile scale next visit.  Fingers crossed! You are in size 1 diapers. You still fit in your 3 month clothes, but we've started putting you in 6 month stuff too. You bring us so much joy and we love you so much!

Me:
I always fall into a little slump in January. Christmas is over. Family goes back home. It usually takes me a week or two to get back to normal. I'm working on it though! I made some great goals for the year and I am extra excited about them. It's only day 4 of 2017 and I already feel myself coming out of the slump. I love my little family and couldn't be more grateful.

#projectVandMe

And just for fun, here's a little nugget from my recent studies.

"Since the beginning of time, love has been the source of both the highest bliss and the heaviest burdens. At the heart of misery from the days of Adam until today, you will find the love of wrong things. And at the heart of joy, you will find the love of good things.

And the greatest of all good things is God."

-Dieter F. Uchdorf

Oct 2009

Struggles & Goodness

I use this space kind of as a journal, but because it's also broadcasted to world I don't always openly share my struggles. I should though. Struggle is a natural, even necessary part of life. 

Recently, Austin has been working late. I haven't been exercising or eating as well. V hasn't been sleeping as well. I haven't been getting out of the house as much. I haven't done a great job of studying my scriptures. (Wow, I sound like a hot mess....) To top it off, we had Vienna's 4 month appointment yesterday. She got her shots, which are always a traumatic experience. And she's now dropped to the 5th percentile for weight. *Cue crying face.* I swear we are feeding her!! She's just such a tiny thing. I guess all of these things combined has made me a little more on edge and grouchy. And I hate being grouchy! It's no fun for me or anyone around me. 

Soooo, what can I do to fix this? 

First off, Vienna is taking a nap going on 2.5 hours.... THANK YOU, CHILD!!!! That's helping. But really, I often am reminded that we can't always change what's happening around us, but we can choose how we want to respond. I can choose to be happy and positive! I can choose to focus on all of the blessings and good things in my life - which are abundant. So that's what I want to do right now!

I love my little family.

I am so thankful for a husband who works hard to provide for us so I can stay home with our baby girl.

I love this time of year! 

I love my Savior, Jesus Christ, who brings light and hope everyday despite any trouble. #LightTheWorld

I can't wait for my family to arrive on Friday, and to spend a whole week with them!

I enjoy my calling as a primary teacher in our church. Teaching the kids every week is truly a blessing.

I'm loving the baked goods these days.

Even though it's freezing temperatures outside, I love cozying up inside with my husband and an episode of our favorite show.

Thankful for great friends who make us laugh!

Aw, so much good to focus on. Its amazing how focusing on the good in a short post like this can turn your whole attitude around!! I can honestly say I feel better already. Let's hope I can carry this through when V wakes up and the struggles start again ;) 

Focus on the good, people! It's what Jesus did, and he is the ultimate example. He is the ultimate example of light, love, hope, and happiness. I'm not sure if this random, babbling post will even make a difference to anyone, but it did for me. Yay journaling!

Merry Christmas, everyone! 

#reallife

4 Months

V:

You are slowly but surely growing out of 0-3 month clothes, and graduated to size 1 diapers over Thanksgiving. You had your first real laugh, not just a chuckle, and it was at DADDY! You love all things light, color, & sound. You love your feet. You like to pull them up to your mouth and suck on them. You are generally still sleeping through the night, with the occasional "newborn" night. Just to keep us on our toes haha. You love mama, and I'm not mad about it. You are putting everything in your mouth. You are drooling at all waking hours. You are so happy, squirmy and squealy. And we love you so, so much!!

Me:
I'm realizing with every stage of baby and motherhood, new challenges arise. I'm making it a goal to fully enjoy every stage. Struggling with not being able to get outside in this winter cold. The one car situation is a bummer! Struggling to exercise... ugh! I need to get back on track!!  Overall though, happy and grateful for my little family and life :)

#ProjectVandMe

Vienna's Birth Story

At 12:45am on Thursday morning I woke up to cramping. I had experienced cramping like that before so I didn't think much of it until it woke me up again a short time after. At that point I thought they actually may be real contractions so I started to time them - 12 minutes apart, 10, 11, 12, 11... This went on for about an hour or so before I decided to wake up Austin. We had our hospital bag packed with the basics but I thought we should get the last odds and ends packed, because we would probably have this baby today! We were getting all excited as the contractions gradually got longer and closer together. TMI coming your way.... I threw up at some point that morning and it was awful. Once I did I knew it was actually happening. Poor Austin had to clean out the sink for me. But hey, at least I made it that far. It could have been the carpet haha.

Around 4:30am we called the hospital to see if we should come in. My contractions were only a few minutes apart at that point, but only lasting 30-45 seconds. They told us to wait until they were lasting a minute or so. When they got to be 2ish minutes apart we decided, beep it, let's just go in (even though they weren't consistently a minute long).

We got to the hospital around 5:30am and they checked me in. I was only dilated to a 2. I had been dilated to a 1 ever since week 36 of my pregnancy, so that was a little disappointing. They got me on monitors and said they would check me again in an hour. If I had progressed at least to a 3, they would keep me at the hospital. If not, they send you away to labor at home. I wanted nothing more than to stay at the hospital and have that baby, but when the hour was up I had only progressed half a cm and they sent me home. I was a little grouchy about it because the nurse kind of seemed like she was on the fence about discharging or keeping us. She said we would probably have the baby today but she needed to send us home still. The upside was they gave me a shot of morphine for the pain! They told me if I wasn't in official active labor that the morphine may settle the contractions down. It did and I was able to take little naps between the contractions. I didn't really want to sleep because I knew if I was able to sleep I probably wasn't in active labor.

As the day went on I needed a distraction so I started to work on some things around the house. By mid afternoon the contractions started to pick up again. This time I was feeling them in my back. They started to get more and more debilitating and gradually closer together. The nurse at the hospital told us the "411 rule" for when to come back. Having contractions every 4 minutes, lasting at least a minute long, and have this going on for at least an hour. This was one of the worst parts of the whole experience. There isn't much anyone can do while you're laboring and having contractions. You're kind of on your own! Luckily, Austin was there to rub my back and support me when needed. Around 4, he had to take a phone call and told me to come get him if we needed to go to the hospital. During his phone call, the contractions got pretty bad. I was on all fours just trying to keep it together haha. An hour or so later I found myself in the hallway laying down and crying during contractions. I knew my body, and felt like it was time. We decided to head back to the hospital... They were 2 minutes apart and lasting almost a minute each. 

The drive to the hospital took 30 minutes because at that point it was rush hour. Greaaaaat timing. Once we got to the hospital I was a dang mess. They got me all checked in, checked me - dilated to a 4.5/5! Wahoo! They said they would keep me. Thank my lucky stars... Haha. I was asking for my epidural and they said it was coming right up. But first, I needed to get my IV in. It took 5 jabs up and down my arms and hands, lots of blood squirts, and 45 minutes to get it in. Talk about frustrating! For me and the nurses. My contractions were like 1 minute apart at this point. Once they FINALLY got it in the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural. I was nervous for that for a number of reasons: the possible complications, the pain of putting it in, the possibility of it not working, etc. But it barely hurt at all and kicked in within 10 minutes. Finally! Relief! At that point it was 6:30/7pm and we were so excited about our little girl arriving hopefully that day. The doctor came in to see me at some point in all of this and I honestly can't remember if he broke my water before or after I got the epidural.  After I got it though, we turned on the TV and tried to distract ourselves for the next few hours while I progressed. We wanted to have the baby that day because the date was 8/4/16. 8/5/16 just didn't sound as cool. I kept watching the clock and began to doubt it would happen that evening. The epidural numbed my lower half completely and gave me the shakes pretty bad. I really didn't like how it made me feel but it was way better than the contractions.

Finally, at 11:25pm I was dilated to a 10 and it was pushing time!! I felt pretty exhausted and even voiced to the nurse how worried I was about not being able to push. She basically told me I'd get a kick of adrenaline and I didn't have a choice at this point haha. (I think it was a huge blessing the pushing part was relatively easy for me. It was a lot easier than I imagined. I could still tell when I was having a contraction but it wasn't painful at all.) The nurse told the doctor we were about to push and he said to proceed without him. It was just Austin, the nurse, and me pushing for about 15 minutes or so when the nurse said, "I can see her head! She's got lots of dark hair!" That got me pumped. I told the nurse again how I wanted to have the baby that day - mind you it was 11:40ish at that point. Chances were slim since the average first time mom pushes for 1-3 hours. YIKES. I was not having that. Neither was Vienna. Come 11:50 the nurse stopped me and grabbed the doctor, Vienna was coming. When the doctor came in he said I was going to need an episiotomy. I wasn't thrilled about it but at some point in the next few minutes he made the cut and I didn't even notice. Once again, I voiced how much I wanted her to come that day (Haha 10 minutes to go and counting). The doctor and nurse were not convinced. They underestimated me though.

After over 24 hours of labor, at 11:58pm Vienna Brin Cornilles was born! 2 minutes to spare! *fist pump* The doctor was a little surprised I got her out that fast especially because she was posterior. Hence the back labor... I got to hold her right away and Austin was a freaking champ, cutting the cord and all. She had a major cone head but in that moment the world stopped. We couldn't believe it! She was finally here. 6 lbs 8oz and 18 inches of pure perfection. We are completely smitten... and being the first grandchild on both sides, she is going to be one spoiled little girl. We love you Baby V!