1 Month

Jayne is one month old! 

She is now...

8 lbs. 6 oz. (25th percentile)

22.25 in. long (90th percentile)

35.7 cm head circumference (25th percentile)

Our 1 month old! (We have a Lalaloopsy doll next to her to compare size... I'll put it next to her each month so it's easier to see how much she's grown! PS I stole this idea from my sister... thanks Donelle haha)

I still can't believe sometimes that we have this little girl in our lives, and I really can't believe that it's been a month! Time has flown by. It's been a crazy month. I've never experienced so many emotional moments. There have been lots of hard times, lots of tears, but mostly happy tears and good times! I love being a mom to this little angel. She is precious and makes us so happy. 

I love spending my days with Jayne! We have had some struggles sometimes with nursing, but things are definitely improving! She has been a great sleeper during the day, and is also awake quite a bit, and has been sleeping 4-6 hours through the night straight, and then will sleep another 4 hours or so after that. Yay! I'm starting to get her on a schedule, so hopefully soon she'll be sleeping 8 hours straight. It's crazy though because I think there has only been one day where I was really tired during the day. I thought I would totally be getting less sleep during the night. I guess my body is in mommy mode now and doesn't need lots of sleep! It is definitely hard to stay awake though for middle of the night feedings haha. Luckily she's been sleeping longer through the night, so I usually feed her around 11 and she sleeps until about 5 which is when daddy is up getting ready for work anyways. And then sometimes she'll go right back to sleep until like 9... which is super nice for me to get some more sleep too :) 

It's been a fun week spending time with Payton, Donelle and Nick! Payton is seriously so freaking cute. It's so hard living so far from them! They live in Texas... so we don't see them very often. Payton and Jayne are 8 months apart. We got matching onesies for them at Target and took some pictures the other day. I love the difference in size! Haha and I love that Jayne is swimming in the onesie and it's newborn size! She is long and skinny! After I wash it I'm sure it will shrink a little and fit her better. 

 Cutest sad faces! haha I think they were sick of taking pictures... :)

Thomas took these pictures of Jayne probably a week ago. 

 I love these bunny slippers! 

 I love when she stretches and it makes her shirt come up so I can see her cute little tummy haha 

 Jayne has a new cousin! Thomas' sister, Maria, had Neum on August 21st. He is 12 pounds! He is so cute and cuddly!   

 Jayne loves her daddy! She really does. And he is obsessed with her. 

 We have given Jayne a bottle a couple times. Thomas loves feeding her. I pump so that she'll take a bottle for when we have to leave her with people. 

 I love this cute little halter dress!

 We went to Organ Stop Pizza the other night. Payton and the other cousins LOVED it. 

 And Jayne slept the whole time haha. How do babies sleep through all that noise?? 

 Big yawn!

 I love cuddling with this girl! 

 This flower is huge! haha 

 Daddy helps burp her sometimes. This girl burps SO. MUCH. Feeding takes forever sometimes because of it! It's getting better though :) 

 Payton loves In-N-Out! 

Jayne had to get a shot today at the doctor :( So sad! 

Everyone is telling us how it seems like yesterday their baby was born. They say it goes by so fast. I don't want it to go fast! I want her to stay little for forever! No, I'm excited for when she's a little toddler running around and destroying the house (hopefully she won't be too naughty haha) but I'm loving this newborn stage. I love that she sleeps a ton and is just so cuddly. It will be hard when she gets older and doesn't want to cuddle as much. But each stage will be fun for different reasons. I'm excited to watch her grow up and learn.

Letter to Jayne

Dear Jayne,

Yesterday you turned 3 weeks old! I can’t believe it’s already been 3 weeks since you came to our family. It has gone by fast, but it also feels like you have been here for forever! Your dad and I can’t imagine life without you! You make us so happy! We never can seem to kiss you enough. We love you so much! Your dad and I smile at every noise you make. You sneeze lots, and it is the cutest! It’s usually 3 tiny sneezes in a row. You love to smile in your sleep. Who knows what you’re dreaming about… But it must be good! We love just holding you and looking at you. Your dad is so sweet with you. It is my favorite thing to see you and him together. I love talking to you. You love when people give you attention. You are already a social butterfly! I love saying "Mommy loves you sweetheart!" to you, because I love to call me your mom. It makes me so happy! I just love taking care of you. I love feeding you (you are the cutest when you eat!), watching you sleep, cuddling with you, and just being with a sweet little girl all day. It's crazy thinking that you were in heaven just a few weeks ago. You bring such a sweet spirit into our home. It feels different now that you're here. Our home seems more perfect and peaceful. I love that you bring that feeling into our home. Your dad and I love your long fingers! Everyone comments on your "piano player hands". I'm sure you'll be a piano player one day, because your daddy will definitely teach you to play!  
 I love dressing you in all your cute outfits! This watermelon onesie is adorable on you. I can't wait for more clothes to fit you... You are still so tiny! Even the newborn stuff is kinda baggy on you. You are just a skinny little girl :)

 I love when daddy is watching you while I'm getting ready or doing the dishes, and I come in and find you both asleep. It is the cutest.

 I love seeing other people hold you (except sometimes it's hard for me to let someone haha) and watch you socialize with people. You love to look at people and try and talk back to them!

 I love your cinnamon roll belly button!!

 I love your profile. You are such a beautiful girl :) You have the cutest little nose and lips. Daddy says you have momm's ears and lips.

 I love watching you during tummy time. You love being on your tummy!

 I love watching you suck on your pacifier. You are pretty good at keeping it in! Sometimes you even hold it in with your hands. It is adorable!

 I love all the faces you make! you love to scrunch your forehead. Silly girl

 I love when you smile in your sleep :)

 I love all the positions you sleep in! It always makes us laugh.

 I love this huge bow on your head. Haha it's awesome.

 I love these pj's on you. You look like a burrito!

I love when I tickle your feet and it makes you point your toes. You are gunna be a dancer like mommy :)

Your daddy and I love you so much Jayne! We have loved you since we knew you were coming into our family, but we didn't even know we would love you this much. You are our world. We can't wait to watch you grow up, but we are also wishing you could stay little for forever! We love you sweetheart!

Love,
Mom

Jayne's First Bath!

About a week ago, Jayne's umbilical cord came off, so we could finally give her a bath! She (mostly) loved it! She was pretty chill the whole time. She cried only for a second. We are seriously obsessed with this little girl... She is the cutest!   

 She cracks us up with her faces she makes and how she always has her hands in such funny positions by her face! 

 Her DIMPLES!!! Love love love love.... 

 I just want to kiss her all day!  

Thomas took this picture last week. It's nice having a husband who is learning about photography and who has a super nice camera :) 

We just love our little Jayne-y girl. She is such a good baby. We have had some rough nights recently because she decided she likes to be wide awake in the night haha. But overall she has been a good little sleeper. We love being parents :) 

I'm a Mom??!!

Sometimes I look at Jayne and just freak out (in a good way!) that I'm her mom. It gets me so excited! I am obsessed with our little girl. To me, she is everything, and is the most beautiful girl! Thomas and I are loving getting to know her. Every little noise she makes or a cute face she does, we are loving it all. Being a mom is even better than I thought it would be. I have more energy than I thought (thank you Jayne for being a good sleeper! please keep it up... haha), and I love just cuddling with her and spending time with her. Feeding is going great. She is a good little eater! It was a little struggle at first getting her to latch on correctly, but we figured it out and it has been great since.

 Thomas was trying to changer her diaper... but I don't think he even finished... the nurse took over haha 

 Thomas is the best dad. He loves to hold Jayne. Seeing them together melts my heart... I love these two more than anything! 

 Sometimes she sucks her thumb in interesting ways... haha

 Her hands are pretty much always by her face

She's getting pretty good at sucking on her paci! 

Thomas and I put together this video of Jayne :) 

Jayne's Birth Story

Jayne Manning

Born on July 30, 2013

12:03 AM

7 lbs. 5 oz.

20 in. 

Here is the long story of how our sweet girl, Jayne, came into the world :)

Let's start with Sunday night... July 28th.

It was pretty much exactly 11 pm when I started feeling contractions. They weren't consistantly a certain time apart from each other, it varied from like 10 minutes or less apart, but they were consistantly coming. I tried to go to sleep, but I knew there was no way I would be getting sleep that night. I tried not to wake up Thomas and tell him, but I was too excited haha. They weren't very painful, but I knew they would start getting painful pretty soon. I stayed up on facebook and read my book. I did try to sleep, but yeah by then they were starting to be too painful to try and sleep though. They were definitely still bareable though. Around 5 or 6 Monday morning, Thomas and I were talking about whether he should go to work that day. I wasn't sure how long of a day it would be... The contractions weren't super painful (yet), but were getting closer together. We decided it would be better if he stayed home. I wanted him with me through these contractions! I definitely needed him. We went on a walk at like 6 around the neighborhood to maybe help things progress more. We came home and watched The Office, then I was going crazy laying in bed while these contractions kept coming. I wanted to do something about it! Time needed to go faster! So I told Thomas that I wanted to walk around Target. We got there a little after 9. We walked around for a while until we got bored... then I was hungry so we went to Wendy's and I got chicken nuggets. Haha good stuff. By now the contractions were like 5-10 minutes apart, but I was able to walk and talk through them. I knew it was still early to go to the hospital. I didn't want to go home though, so we went to Walmart. We walked around there for a while, then came home. We started watching The Avenger's while I layed there and tried to rest/get through the contractions. They started getting pretty painful. I had to squeeze Thomas' hand to get through them. (He was amazing through all this by the way... I definitely needed him) They were getting to be around 3 to 5 minutes apart, and I was sick of being home, so we decided it was time to head to the hospital. I kept in mind that I might be turned away... I had no clue... We got to the hospital probably around noon or 1. They took me up to triage, where you wait and they check you to see how the contractions are going, how far dilated you are, etc. The nurse checked me and I was at a 4, so she told me to lay there for a little bit, and then walk around the hospital for an hour. The contractions were definitely getting worse by this point. I was still able to walk through them though. We ate in the cafeteria because we were both so hungry again and I knew if I got admitted this would be the last time I could eat for a while. After walking around for an hour, we headed back up to triage. The contractions were consistantly getting more frequent and intense. I was in quite a bit of pain at this point. The nurse checked me, and told me I was still at a 4!! I was like are you kidding me?? These contractions are doing nothing apparently?? I was devastated. I almost cried. She told me that I was in very early labor and this could go on for days even. She said either I could go home and she could send me with pain pills, or I could wait there a little longer. I said YES I want to wait here longer! I was convinced by now that I needed to stay. These contractions were super painful at this point. I cried through them and felt so helpless pretty much. After laying there for maybe 30 minutes to an hour, the nurse checked me again.... and I was at a 5!! YAY!!! She said I would be admitted and asked if I wanted an epidural right away. I said YES PLEASE! They did blood work and gave me an IV. I was waiting there for forever until finally they took me into the hospital room and gave me the epidural. I was so nervous. I heard it was a huge needle.  (I never saw it actually...) The doctor that put it in was awesome. He reassured me that nothing would go wrong. He told me I would feel some pressure. I was like umm... what pressure?? It didn't even hurt! When they put the IV in it hurt way worse! The hard thing though was getting through a contraction while having to sit there so still. Thomas was holding my legs and trying to help me through it. It was so hard. After a couple minutes once the epidural was in, the nurse told me I was having a contraction and asked if I could feel it. I was like seriously?? No way! I couldn't feel it at all. Epidurals are great. They really are. 

Once I got the epidural, Thomas and I just hung out there in the room waiting until I was at a 10 pretty much. Once they put the epidural in I was about at a 6. Thomas and I watched Spiderman. I tried to rest, because I knew it might be a very long night... Who knew how fast I would get to a 10? By around 7 or 8 PM (I wish I knew the time better... I was clueless) they checked me and I was at a 7.5. It took me like an hour or 2 to get to an 8, so they decided to give me a low dose of pitocin to help speed up things up. Oh, and I remember telling the nurse that I felt pressure, and kind of felt like I needed to push, but I guess Jayne was just moving more down because I was only at an 8. After a couple hours, I started feeling pressure again. It felt like my body was trying to push. I waited a while, but then called the nurse to have her check me again. She was like oh wow yep you're at a 10! (Who knew how long I was at a 10?? But it's ok because I wasn't in pain at least) Thomas was asleep by the way, and had been for the last like hour. He woke when he heard the nurse say I was at a 10 and ready to push. Haha it was awesome. He was so excited! We both were. I was scared though, too of course. I didn't know what it would be like! They got me a mirror so I could see Jayne coming out. I am SO glad I asked. It was seriously amazing. For a while it was just me, Thomas, and the nurse in there. Thomas held one leg and the nurse held the other. Thomas counted to 10 while I pushed. We did 3 sets of 10 during each contraction. Sometimes I had to wait though because Jayne's heartrate was a little low. I had an oxygen mask on. I started pushing a little after 11:30. I was starting to get frustrated, because I felt so exhausted and that I was pushing my hardest, but I could see because of the mirror, and I could only see the very top of Jayne's head. I felt like she wasn't even moving at all. After more pushing, I was able to get her head out a little more, and the nurse went to get the doctor. Before I started pushing, the nurse told me that once she got the doctor, it would be about 10 minutes before the baby was out. I was excited, because I knew I was almost done! The doctor came in, and I pushed more, and she told me that I would tear pretty bad if she didn't cut me. Jayne's head was just not gunna fit through there... So she cut me, and then pretty easily after that, Jayne finally entered the world :) Watching her come out was AMAZING. I loved it. They pretty quickly layed her right on my chest. It was love at first sight. Cheesy, but true. I cried just looking at this perfect baby girl. She was so precious! Even covered in yucky stuff, I thought she was beautiful. They let me hold her for a couple minutes and then took her to weigh her and clean her off. The doctor had to sew me up... 

We had an awesome birth photographer, Hillarie Laver, come in right after Jayne was born to take pictures. My parents and Courtney also came pretty quickly after.

We love our little girl so much. She is perfect in every way. Thomas and I are obsessed with the cute little faces she does and the noises she makes. Pictures soon to come!!