She’s Here!

Less than a day old. Look at that face!!

She finally made it! Atalie Joyce Wallace was born on Monday, August 25th at 10:10pm. And no, I did NOT have to be induced. I woke up early Monday morning with contractions. Praise the Lord! I’ll save the rest of the story for a special “birth story” post, but we’ll just say it was a long day and worth every second. 

With Dr. Huebner, who oversaw the delivery
(a midwife actually delivered Atalie)

We spent the first three days in the hospital. It was a blissful state of day running into night and hanging out getting to know our new little one. Besides the nurses asking multiple times a day if she had pooped yet, there was little to get frustrated about. Although the nurses did have some great things to say. I need to do a post on all the different “advice” we were given while in the hospital, some of it was pretty funny. Our room was like a hotel room with a huge walk in shower and kitchenette. All the lights and thermostat were controlled on an iPad (it sounds cool until you are in a state of exhaustion trying to turn on the light by the bed in the middle of the night). The food was amazing, I’m not kidding. Steak, chicken, fish, pizza - it was all delicious. And the desserts, oh man, superb. I’d heard that Redleaf had good food, but it exceeded my expectations. Steven ordered most of his meals from a delivery service because though my meals were free, it was expensive for him to add on a meal.

Our hospital room. Yes, I know, it’s fancy. (And that’s Louise, our doula)

The wing of the hospital we stayed in. Would you guess this is a hospital?

We got back to Nanjing on Friday after spending a few hours at the US Consulate that morning to get Atalie’s passport and citizenship all sorted out. I was so nervous how Friday would go, but everything was super smooth (besides being at the Consulate’s Office forever), and Atalie slept basically the whole day making it super easy. She wouldn’t even wake up to eat, I had to “zombie feed” her as I like to call it. She’s talented, what can I say! One high speed train later and we were in a cab headed to our home. 

Atalie’s first Burger King experience, she slept through the whole thing

Since being home, the weeks have flown by. How has it already been two weeks since we got back? My full time job right now is producing milk and making sure Atalie eats and sleeps. The first week was a little hard adjusting to life with a newborn, but everyday got better. She actually cried more in the hospital than she did her first week at home. All I wanted to do all day was stare at her. It’s still hard to believe that she is ours. We made her, I grew her, birthed her and the hospital let us take her home. Madness. Beautiful madness. 

After that first week home, our sweet little newborn started to have fussy spells. Over the past week and a half, there have been a few really hard days. Overall, she does great and usually gets into her groove eating and sleeping. I can’t say she is more or less fussy than other babies - in fact, based on what I’ve been reading she’s pretty textbook, normal newborn fussiness. It seems about every other day or so she has a prolonged spell of fussiness. Tuesday this week was pretty bad, I had at least five meltdowns. Fortunately, when the worst is over she’ll take a really long nap and twice now I’ve been lucky enough to have her do that at night. Last night, she was fussy and catnapped from 6:00pm until midnight. But when we finally got her to sleep at midnight she slept 5 1/2 hours!!! I actually woke her up because I really needed her to eat (if you know what I mean). 

Our friend, Nikko, came over and took newborn pictures for us

And breastfeeding is improving. We definitely still have our challenges, but she is getting better at latching and I’m getting more patient. We weighed her ourselves at two weeks old (we haven’t been able to make it back for a check up for her yet) and she already put on over a pound! Pretty impressive. So, I think it’s safe to say that breastfeeding is going quite well. By the way, you should see Steven’s design for weighing the baby at home…I’ll give you a hint, it involves a duffle bag, large tupperware lid and a luggage scale. 

Gotta get snuggles with both the baby & Sam

How I spent most of the first week at home (notice Sam also got some cuddle time)

My mom gets here tonight and I’m ready for the daytime reinforcements. Steven has started going back to work this past week and it’s just easier when there is someone else at home. I’ve also learned to switch my mentality from “I should get something done today” to “if I don’t get anything done but hold and feed my baby, that’s ok”. It’s made the days I don’t get anything done easier to swallow, although I haven’t really had much to get done (besides laundry). Friends have been bringing us meals, our fridge and freezer are full and Steven has been awesome at keeping up with dishes. 

Our first family selfie, taken just after arriving home

Life is different with Atalie here, and I love it. It’s hard for me to imagine life without her, even on the hard days. The sweet moments we do have are pure bliss and help to make the hard days bearable. I love getting to know her, loving her, rocking her and falling asleep with her in my arms (sometimes unintentionally).  

One of those blissful moments

Steven getting work done and snuggling with Atalie, a true multi-tasker

Pregnancy Milestones

I’m terrible at keeping records or tracking progress, especially with this pregnancy. We’ve only taken three “belly photos” at 14, 17, 19 & 20 weeks. Oops. That’s ok. I’m not really that person who documents everything anyways. There are, however, a few “milestones” I would like to keep track of. When trying to think of a way to track them, I thought “why not use the blog?” Yeah, why not? So, there you have it. Instead of having information scattered between apps on my phone that I’ll never look at - let’s put it all in one place! 

Milestones so far…

1) “Morning sickness” is over. Thank the Lord! It wasn’t until after week 16 that I was able to eat most foods again (and some still make me sick), but for the most part I would say I’m almost back to my normal self. I definitely don’t eat as much as I did pre-pregnancy, but I eat enough to stay full and snack more often…so I probably do eat just as much (just not during meals). Sometimes at nighttime I still feel nauseous if I eat a big dinner, but I haven’t “tossed my cookies” in several weeks and I would say that’s a very good sign! Also, taxis and buses (my main modes of transportation) have an instant effect on me - as soon as I step on the bus or enter a taxi I feel nauseous. Bummer. 

2) Cravings. These come and go. One day I want chocolate cake, the next day I don’t - I guess that’s why they’re called cravings! My latest craving has been corn tortillas. Wow, I want them so bad. I actually found some online from a store in Shanghai which ships to Nanjing. Going to be ordering those this weekend. I’m also craving candy - which I normally never want. Swedish fish would be my first choice, but since those are not to be found anywhere I have settled for fruit snacks and some sour gummy worms I randomly found. Crisis averted. I don’t want chicken. Beef anything sounds good (so weird). Lately I’ve been wanting Indian food, we might have gone to our favorite place twice this past weekend. Totally worth it. 

3) Sleeping is getting hard to do. I really like to sleep on my stomach, but my growing belly is making that increasingly difficult. Between that and getting up twice a night to use the bathroom, I’m not sleeping as much as I would like. I’ve heard others say it is God’s way of preparing us women for a newborn…He just thinks of everything! ;-)

4) I can feel the baby move! Yes, last week on Monday, I had just taken a nap and was lying in bed checking email when I felt this weird “flutter” in my abdomen. I’m 100% positive it was the baby. Since then, I have felt the baby move throughout the day (usually when I’m sitting still or lying down). Only once did I have my hand on my belly and felt a kick from the outside as well. Being able to feel the baby move has really changed my attitude towards this pregnancy. Instead of focusing on all the ways I feel crummy, I am now filled with wonder at this life inside me. So amazing! 

5) Speaking of the belly, I can no longer wear belts. Yes, this belly is growing! Though I’m not fully in maternity clothes yet, belts are a no-go. Yesterday I had to finally bust out the rubber band trick on my skinny jeans. And for those of you “dying” to see a belly photo, I included one for you. It’s my awkward-is-she-preggo-or-fat belly. I can’t wait until I actually look pregnant with a round belly and can secure a seat on the subway or bus! One of the perks of being pregnant in China. 

6) Tingling feet. I think this is a pregnancy thing. At least I hope it is, because if not I might be losing my mind. Sometimes I get these painful itches on my toes or the bottom of my foot (like a sticker is stuck in my foot) and other times my foot feels like it is tingling, but it isn’t constant, more like a cell phone on vibrate is ringing next to it. In fact, the first time I felt my foot tingling like this I went looking for my cell phone on the floor. Yup, it was that convincing. 

So there you have it - a few big milestones! This week is half-way through (whoo-hoo) and tomorrow we have our next ultrasound which will hopefully tell us if Peanut is, as the Chinese say, a Prince or a Princess. We are also hoping to finally have some good pictures of this little one to share. 

Now, please excuse me while I get back to my Nutella and pretzels...

Something to Look Forward to - An Exciting Announcement

Great things take time. Like having a baby. We never anticipated having a miscarriage, and last August we thought we'd be having a baby this April. Well, the miscarriage happened and with broken hearts we picked up the pieces, put our trust in God and moved forward. We had no idea how long to wait before trying again. Our doctor here told us four to six months, then when I pushed him, he said when "my body recovered". Uh, ok. My theory was, and still is, that God created my body to have babies. So, whenever we were able to get pregnant again would be okay because God wouldn't design my body to get pregnant when it wasn't ready. 

Well, it didn't take quite as long as we thought. The first week in December we found out that we are pregnant again! Apprehensive after the first pregnancy, we waited until 11 weeks to have our first appointment, but so far everything looks great - except the fact that I am crazy sick. It's not fun, but it's worth it because in August we will be able to hold this little baby that is part me & part Steven and celebrate with God this life He has entrusted to us. Big happenings are coming to our household!

Currently, I'm 15 weeks pregnant, baby (dubbed "Peanut" for the time being) is the size of an orange or a russet potato depending on the source, and I'm having trouble eating anything after 2pm. The only cravings I've had are chocolate cake, spaghetti and corn tortillas. You can't even get corn tortillas in China! I think part of the reason I haven't had many cravings is because my subconscious knows that most of the things I'd be craving are inaccessible here. My staples are cereal, Doritos, goldfish and fruit (although not citrus fruit, because it all tastes really sour - what's up with that?). I'm thankful that I've been going through the first trimester during a holiday because naps have become a daily necessity. And I'm looking forward to the second trimester "you'll feel better" stage everyone keeps telling me about. 

We have been waiting to start a family and are excited to begin this new adventure. There is so much to look forward to.

Happy 2014!

Image courtesy of HD Wallpapers Arena

It feels weird to write 2014.  Well, every year it feels weird to change that final number on the date.  Although I have to say that I don't write it as often as I did when I was in school.  Remember when you had to write your name, date, class and assignment number on everything?  Anyways, Happy 2014!  

This year has went by so fast.  I feel like we did so much!  I guess time does fly when you are having fun.  And because time flies, the blogging does not - am I right?  Has it really been since November that I actually wrote a meaningful blog post?  Oops.  I actually have several draft posts going, just nothing I've felt inspired to finish.  Which kind of sums up my personality I guess (it's that Perceiving preference of mine).

Do you have any resolutions for 2014?  Any changes you want to be making?  I am terrible at goal setting and never see resolutions through.  2013 was the first year I completed the One Year Bible (in previous years I always got stuck somewhere between August and October).  This year the Hubs and I decided to read a chronological Bible.  I'm really excited about it.  We chose Reading God's Story and so far it's wonderful reading.  It breaks the Bible down into three Acts with Scenes included to bring to life the overall story line of the Bible.  I enjoy the introduction at the beginning of each Act & new Scene and like how the publishers (editors?) interwove the New Testament and Psalms into the Creation story.  The translation is different from what we've read before, but we have heard good things about it and so far I like how it reads.  We are trying to read it together out loud at night.  I enjoy reading the Bible together, but it doesn't always work out.  This year for Christmas we attempted to read an Advent devotional together and only got to December 14th.  I'm hoping we keep up reading the One Year Bible together a little longer than that. 

Classes are starting to wind down in preparation for Chinese New Year.  We are headed out for a vacation from January 10-20, a little early but we didn't want to be traveling during the Chinese New Year holiday (on January 30th this year).  I'll be sure to throw up some more posts about the end of our 2013 as now I have more down time.  

Cheers to a wonderful 2014!