My Little Vacuum Cleaner

So, remember the last time you were vacuuming out your car with the long vacuum attachment? If your vacuum has a powerful suction, like mine has, you know how it tends to have a mind of its own and sort of latches onto anything with in reach. Well, that's how Pippa is. Especially in the middle of the night when she's still half asleep. I go in and pick her up, generally get a smile out of her, put her up on my shoulder and shloomp! She's sucking on my cheek! I pull away, because I really don't want a hicky on my cheek, and shloomp! Now she's sucking away on my chin! Its crazy! The whole process starts all over again when I go to burp her. It makes me giggle every night. That's my cute little vacuum cleaner!

As of late, she has also discovered her voice. She's been talkative for a while now, but she's finally figuring out that she can be loud. She's taken to being loud while making strange grunting noises, too. And she perfected her dolphin call long ago. A kind of squealing, clicking sound. I can't reproduce it. I've tried. She's quite pleased with herself when she makes these sounds, looking up at me with a glimmer in her eye. 'He he. Did you hear that one, mom?'

Very nice, dear.

Pippa's Birth Story

This is my birth story as written by my amazing doula, Marilyn Nolt.

Happy Birth Day to

Pippa

November 28, 2009

Sto called me at 1 p.m. to say Heather was having strong contractions coming every 4 minutes one day before her due date. Another call came at 1:47 p.m. when they were on the way to the hospital. Contractions had started mid-morning and got “real” at 12:30 p.m. On admission her cervix was 3 centimeters dilated.

When I arrived at the hospital Heather was peacefully and serenely resting on her side in bed, not giving a clue that she was in active labor. But she was. In fact within an hour, at 3 p.m. her cervix was 5 centimeters dilated. She preferred staying in bed and lying on either side. Sto was near by applying pressure to her back during contractions. She took sips of water or juice and made trips to the bathroom.

Right after we talked about the membranes rupturing, the bag of water broke at

3:15 p.m. Now the contractions were a bit more uncomfortable but she handled them beautifully. She was beginning to feel pressure and was spontaneously bearing down several times during a contraction.

The midwife asked her not to push yet so she did some panting to control the urges. Eventually the midwife told her to go ahead and follow her body to push. Heather was beautiful as she allowed her body to do the wonderful job of birthing.

By 4 p.m., the cervix was completely gone and she pushed while semi-reclined and then on her left side. Sto supported her leg and constantly affirmed her efforts. She pushed very effectively and there was a little head with a hand tucked by her head, and then the slippery little Pippa was received by Sto and placed on Heather’s chest. What a little sweetheart she was! She cried and then calmed to her parents’ strokes and voices.

What a joyous and unbelievable afternoon! The hunch that Heather may labor quickly like her mother was realized. Heather was superb in handling the hard contractions during a short amount of time. She stayed calm, rested and focused. It was an extreme pleasure to witness this miracle of birthing their daughter. Congratulations to Sto and Heather as they enjoy parenting beautiful little Pippa. And Happy Birth Day to Pippa!

Marilyn Nolt

Certified Doula

Kiss it up...to God, that is.

If there is one thing that motherhood has taught me, its that we can't control it all. And thats OK. Something I did not know about myself is that I am much more comfortable knowing why things happen and what can I do about it. Well, babies generally have different ideas! My new life motto is there is usually no reason why babies do something and it will be different next week. So don't worry about it, and don't get too comfortable!

But let me back up a bit...

Since this is my first post, I have a little catching up to do. Unlike some of my savvy mommy friends, I'm starting this blog late. I never really thought of myself as a blogger, but if you know me you know how opinionated I can be so it makes sense, really. Ha ha.

Philippa Josefa Poblete was born on November 28, 2009. 6 lbs, 1 oz, 19 inches long. She was one day early and my birth experience was truly amazing, as was my husband, Sto. But I'll save that story for another day.

We had a bit of trouble getting the hang of breastfeeding. I won't go into the details but let just say it took us until about 3 1/2 months to be truly comfortable with it. And a lot of pain and tears went into those 3 1/2 months! It was a very valuable experience to me, though, because I learned how much perseverance I can have when it comes to something important to me! I have emerged on the other side feeling stronger and wiser. I think motherhood has that effect on many of us.

Pippa is just about 5 months old now and so stinkin' cute that some days I feel like my chest is going to explode. We could not be luckier to have such a beautiful and mellow baby! She's a good sleeper (most of the time) and always has been. Its been so amazing to watch her discover the world bit by bit. Someone once told me that watching your kid grow up just keeps getting better and better. True story!

Well this is my introductory post. I'll try to fill in some of the blanks from the first 5 months over time. My hope is that as I chronicle our life, you will enjoy reading about us, and someday our kids will enjoy looking back over this and not hate me too much! Ha!

A Progression of Thumb Sucking

She has been working hard on it her whole life. I'm surprised it took her as long as it did. She finally got good at it around 9 weeks old. She really started sleeping better then, too. She became able to put herself to sleep SO much easier and started sleeping longer at night too! God bless the thumb!