New blog

It has come to my attention that this blog just isn't working the way it should. I can't get people to comment because that seems to be working incorrectly and I feel like I have fiddled with it so much that it is beyond repair. Plus it is linked with my (old) personal e-mail and I want Jimmy to have the opportunity to post as well.

So I set up a new e-mail address for both of us and started a new blog. All of the old posts are there, so don't worry if you feel like you have missed something-- it will all be there. I wouldn't want you to feel cheated. 

Please let me know if it is working alright. I really love your feedback.

Here is the new blog: Puddle Jumping: Family Edition

That is where I will post from now on. Hope to see you there!

It's in the blood

Yesterday we took Lucy to her first Red Sox game. New England sports events are very serious and important things that must be introduced early in a child's development. Not only did they hand us a baseball card for our little Red Sox fan in the making, but she actually particpated in the wave. You will have to get Jimmy to tell you the story. It is one of his favorite things about yesterday's game.

 

The only negative aspect of the game, as far as Lucy was concerned, was that we happened to be in a row where the vendors would stop and yell. So, if she was beginning to lull off to sleep, she was suddenly awakened by "peanuts! Sport's ba..." And no, I left the 'r' off on purpose. We are in Boston. There are no 'r's here.

 

I don't want any peanuts!

I think it was success.

I would also like to include a picture from yesterday afternoon's festivities. All of the Cooprider children were home this weekend, including Anne. So we took a picture of all of us. It will be some time before we can do that again. Joe leaves for his mission in about a week.

I have decided I need to do a better job at telling stories, so my posts aren't always so disjuncted and random. But for now I will end with this: it is fun to be a Cooprider (and a Schillemat!).

water and such...

We have had many occasions to introduce Lucy to water. Bathtime is her very favorite time of the day. If she is cranky, she breaks out in smiles as soon as we put her in the bath. In fact she calms down as soon as she hears the water turn on. It makes me want to put her in the bath all day sometimes.

Grandma Schillemat introduced her to Center pond. She seemed quite indifferent about the whole thing. But the water wasn't that cold and she did a good job at remaining pretty calm.

Jimmy took her in the Grandma Coop's kiddy pool yesterday. The first try was right after her nap. Jimmy was a little too excited and she was still groggy and hungry. Needless to say she let out a scream that sounded like she had just been stabbed with needles. We tried again after she was fed and little more pleasant. She flinched a few times, but wasn't upset.

Not to mention she has touched some ocean water and Granite Lake water with her toes. Slowly but surely we will make her a water lover yet.

Besides her natural affinity for water, we have noticed as of late, her pleasure in facing outwards. Meaning, she really loves to be held facing forwards, looking at the world around her. I think it tires her out as well. So we tried the home-made moby wrap (thank you Melanie!) with her facing forward. She likes it. Tomorrow we are going to a Red Sox game and that will be the fashion we will be stylin'.

I feel like I have extra limbs when she is facing out like this. Jimmy like to call me 'Octo-Mom.' Yes, it is reference to the original Octo-mom...Though I only have eight limbs and not eight same-aged children.

And naps...well, we are trying to get her to take naps in her crib. It has been rather successful. For the first few weeks, well, pretty much up until last week, I couldn't get her to take a nap anywhere but on me. Though there were some flukish (albeit incredible cute) times when she would fall asleep on the living room floor (see picture below). It was very difficult to do anything, including going to the bathroom or taking a shower. This past week I have tried to catch her before she gets too crabby, swaddle her, rock her a little and put her in her pack and play. Normally it takes a few tries to get her to sleep, but she has taken some extended naps. It is heavenly! She is gettting better naps, and I am getting some time to take care of myself. No, we don't really have scheduled naps yet. I am afraid that will take another month or two to really pin down. But we are moving away from always sleeping on me (which is partially sad, because I do love me a good snuggle!)

By the way, it has been insanely hot these last few days. Not the temperatures of the Midwest, but the humidity certainly has rivaled the country's highest. Today I went for a run and I felt like I was running through slush, warm slush. It was difficult. Yes, I am running again, but it is very slow going. I don't always run that far, and I am pretty sure I could walk faster than I am running. But it is a start.

And that is all for now. I feel so accomplished...

Things I like about Lucy

She now sleeps from 10 pm to 5 am

She has really cute chunky cheeks

She smiles and sometimes it is even when she is looking at me

She  has a very unusual affinity for architecture, specifically beams

She has long and very active legs

She has VERY blue eyes

She makes a mullet look cute

And...She is my daughter!

blessing and beach

I have received a few e-mails notifying me that the comment function on my blog doesn't work. I am not sure why, but I will look into it. Sorry!

In other news, Lucy was blessed in church on Sunday. It was a nice event. Both sides of the family were present. Lucy apparently let a little scream during the blessing, but everyone collectively rocked her back to sleep. She was sporting a blessing dress from Grandma Schillemat and a blanket from Grandma Coop. I thought she looked very pretty.

She may not look happy, but she sure looks cute!

Dressed up with Daddy

The whole gang

Along those lines, I have given up on headbands for a while. They don't stay on her head. 30 minutes into church both her headband and shoes were gone. I gave up. She just isn't terribly aware at this point, and if something falls off while she is sleeping I don't feel that it worth waking her up just to make her look cute. Let's face it, she is cute without all the clothes. Maybe I am just one of those moms who isn't terribly concerned with designer baby clothes. I am pretty sure out of the 6 weeks she has been in this world most of the days she has been wearing a onsie. That is just how it goes I guess.


On Monday we went to the beach with some friends and my sister. We went early enough that we didn't hit the too much traffic and the beach was relatively empty until about 10am. Lucy was not really old enough to enjoy the sand, water or sun, but it was good to get out. She ate when we got there and was a little fussy until she fell asleep and enjoyed the ocean from my arms. Jimmy had a good time digging in the sand and playing with his friend Davis. You can tell they have been friends for a while.

Lucy and Mommy

Dad is definitely a kid at heart

Aunt Jo and Lucy -- the beach bums!

Daddy playing in the sand with Davis

Family picture at Salisbury beach

It is so much easier to update this blog when I have pictures of a cute baby...just sayin'....

My new favorite picture...

Okay...I actually have a few!

5 generations

The Schillemats had a family get-together this weekend to celebrate my great grandmother's 100th birthday. The secret to my grandmother's longeavity? I think she would tell you that it was because she danced. She says she used to listen to music when she was a little girl out in the countryside and dance with her sister. She is quite a character, and quite an amazing woman. I am glad that Lucy knows her.

5 generations of "Schillemat" women

We also finally purchased a stroller, which Lucy seems to like. We have the rest of the summer to figure out how we are going to get all of this stuff back to Virginia. Lucy has accumulated quite a bit of gear in the last month.

Today I took Lucy to the doctors for her 1 month appointment. Before I tell you her stats, I would like to say how nice it was that she was in a good mood this morning. It was the first time just Lucy and I went out, and it went very well. I realize this will not always be the case, but it was thoughtful of her to help me transition into motherhood without a major meltdown. I felt so good about driving with her that we stopped at the store on the way home.

But onto the appointment. Lucy is now 9 lbs 12 oz, 22 inches long, and very healthy. This last week she had some rough patches with gas, but after talking to the doctor about some gas drops, I think we will be able to help her feel better. We are learning....

just because she is cute....

I guess it is time to update the world...it has been 4 weeks since Lucy was born. Needless to say I still feel like I have no clue what I am doing, but we have a great support system helping us. Lucy is fantastic. I mean really, who can't love a cute baby like Lucy? She is sleeping pretty well. There have been a few nights where she has slept for 5 hours straight. It is very nice of her. She is also one strong growing baby. At her last appointment she weighed 8 lbs 12 oz. I think it is all going to her cheeks.

We finally got our car back. Perhaps I didn't relate the car story on this blog, so I will give the short version. The first outing with Lucy and our car resulted in a shattered driver-side window while we were driving down route 2. We have no clue what hit our car, but everyone was okay. After a couple weeks of insurance estimates, we finally got our car back.

But let's be honest all you really want to see are pictures. Here you go!


Happy girl!

Are these not fantastic slippers?!



She looks so big in this picture...

All bundled up

Why are you taking so many pictures of me?!








And by the way...Happy Father's day!

Lucy Pearl birth story

I thought I would share a little bit about my birth story since there were some who seemed interested. I wrote this a few days after the experience (on my birthday in fact) and I must say it is a little sappy and may be a little too much detail for some of you. Also excuse the poor writing technique. Take it as you may, this was my experience...

I guess it is time for me to write a little birth story. It is my birthday today, so I am going to take a little time to myself to write a little description of my experience of giving birth.

I would like to start back on the 21^st early in the morning. I woke up with twinges of contractions. They felt like cramps in my lower back and stomach, similar to menstrual cramps. They were about 10 minutes apart, and not terribly painful. Jimmy and I stayed in our room and I got up a few times to kind of push out some of the crampiness. I must admit it was making me a little bit excited because I knew that this was something different than Braxton Hicks contractions, i.e. they hurt a little bit more than general tension. The contractions started around 2:00am and ended around 5am. I knew this because I feel asleep without much problem.

We lazed around most of the rest of the day, I felt slight contractions, but still nothing terribly painful. At 4:00 pm I called the doctor mostly as an opinion because we were heading out to my cousins wedding and didn’t want to go into labor while there. The doctor said I had probably had some false labor and that I should just be aware of the signs. We went to the wedding, ate WAY too much candy, and headed home around 9:00 pm. We went to bed anticipating another round of false labor.

At 1:30-2:00 am the contractions started up again. Jimmy thought it might be nice to walk them out a little bit more, so we moved down stairs and turned on a movie. During the contractions I would walk back and forth in the living room and do some stretches on the birthing ball. It was at 3:30 am, about 30 minutes into the movie (The Princess and the Frog...in case you were wondering) and half way through a contraction, that a very unfamiliar but knowing important gush occurred. According to Jimmy my eyes kind of lept out of my face. My water had broken. But it didn’t break and stop, it gushed two more times while we were still at home and continued in the hospital. Jimmy called the hospital and they advised we make our way to the hospital.

I cleaned up the best I could, grabbed our hospital bag and we headed to the hospital around 4:30 am. I remember commenting about how great it was that there was no traffic to make Jimmy or me anxious. We arrived at the hospital around 5am, and parked in the garage since I still felt well enough to walk. We walked in and the 1^st nurse had me change and prepare to be initially checked. Mini Coop at the time was being a little bit fussy in womb, and her heart rate went way down, and the nurse within 15 minutes of the hospital suggested two changes to our birth plan. First was constant monitoring, but thankfully they had wireless connections so that alleviated my concern of being confined a bed for labor. The second was that the baby would have to be suctioned before she could be put on my chest. She had swallowed muconeum because she was seemingly stressed.

I guess that I was also a little disappointed because they hooked up an IV right away but thankfully it was short-lived and was changed to a saline block for most of the pregnancy. Yes, I worked hard to stay hydrated!

The next 24 hours were a blur of contractions that ranged from 4-10 minutes apart. I went through 4 different nurses which all did a relatively good job of keeping me moving. I even had the opportunity to use the tub, which flooded while I was having a contraction. It was humorous mostly because Jimmy didn’t even notice. Did I mention how wonderful it was to have both Jimmy and my mom helping me throughout the entire process? Not to mention Karen, who waited outside in the waiting room throughout most of the process. I felt much loved. The second to last nurse helped me into several labor positions to ease the baby down, and even reminded me a breathing technique that kept me from hyperventilating and throwing up.

After 24 hours, the nurse checked me again and I went from 3-3.5 centimeters. Not much at all. She said the baby had moved down, but because I was getting tired, my uterus was having a hard time contracting and everything was slowing down. This was a very difficult thing to hear. I am pretty sure throughout the next contraction I was crying only because I felt like I had done so much and achieved so little. It was then that I looked at Jimmy for some guidance. I had hoped to have a purely natural childbirth, but little mini coop wasn’t coming very quickly and my body wasn’t helping. So we asked the nurse for some advice and she suggested a drug to help take the edge off the pain, and then use pitocin to regulate the contractions. After praying with Jimmy we decided it was the right thing to do. I was exhausted and I needed something to give me hope that I could finish the process that I started. I still feel a little upset that I didn’t do it exactly as I had planned, but I acknowledge that it was the right thing for me.

After the nurse administered the pain medication I was able to rest through some manageable contractions. Jimmy also slept while my mom helped me breathe through the little pain I was feeling at the time. About an hour later the pitocin kicked in and thus began the regulated contractions with the normal amount of pain again. They hurt, but they had purpose, and that made me happy. The only strange part of the labor at this point was that I was literally falling asleep during my contractions. So for 2 minutes between a contraction I would rest. Strange but true. In the final hours of labor I was switched to one final nurse, who was sweet and very understanding. I was getting close and I knew it, and when she checked me I was 6 centimeters, but very low and well on my way to having the baby.

Through more contractions and a regulated breathing technique I was checked again. I had begun to feel the urge to push, and wanted the nurse to see how close I was. I didn’t have to say anything, she just knew to check. I was 9.5 centimeters, still not time to push. Through every contraction I screamed that I wanted to push. Jimmy, my mom and the nurse urged me to breathe through the pain. It was extremely hard. It was amazing to me, from start to finish, how much of a voice I seemed to have. Meaning, I really did know how to express my pain. Jimmy said he had to leave a few times, just because I was in pain. He really was the most amazing support person.

When I was told I could push, there are no words to describe the relief I felt. I knew that now I would have purpose. With every push I was getting closer to seeing my baby. It took 45 minutes for our dear mini coop to arrive. The doctor, now the second one I had seen, even had me feel the head as I was pushing. Yes, I could feel the head. Jimmy watched the whole thing, although there really was now way he couldn’t avoid it. There were no shields. With some pretty major burning, finally mini coop emerged from by body and was carried away to be suctioned. As soon as they were done they put her on my chest for the magical skin-on-skin. It was amazing. Within a few minutes she even started to nurse.

Those moments were unreal and undeniably imprinted in my mind. I am not sure I will ever forget holding her for the first time. After the in and out of several nurses and my mom, Jimmy and I had a moment to discuss the name of our firstborn child. We had talked about both Susan and Lucy. We liked them both. In the end we chose Lucy with the middle name Pearl. I think it suits her quite nicely. She is the most amazing gift I have every received and I am indebted to Heavenly Father for entrusting me with this honor and responsibility.

To finish this account I was to honor my husband Jimmy and my mother Kathy. When I think about the word support I think about them. There were times I was walking down the halls or sitting in bed, that I didn’t think I would be able to finish was seemed an almost insurmountable task. I knew that ultimately the baby would come out, but in all fairness when one is in pain, it doesn’t seem that way. Jimmy is an amazing husband. He cares for me in the most subtle and important ways. He never left unless I said he could leave, he never stopped caring for me. There was even a moment when I asked him how he was doing, and no one could believe it. It was because he deserved every bit of credit that I received. I would not have had this baby so successfully without him.

And that was how little miss Lucy Pearl Cooprider entered the world and joined our humble family.

Lucy is a keeper, beautiful and healthy and a wonderful addition to our family.

We like her...

Lucy Pearl

Lucy Pearl
May 23rd at 9:58 am
7 lbs 6 oz 20 inches

It is an understatement that we love her! We are so glad to have her here. It is the best birthday present ever (yes, today the 27th of May, I turn 27....).