Eight Months

Thought I'd start with monkey photo this time.  Sweet girl is almost as tall as monkey is.  Not very smiley this month, but she is definitely showing some personality in this photo.  =)

 "Little missy" took off about 2 weeks after I wrote last month's post.  She is thoroughly enjoying her new freedom.  She loves crawling all over the floor, exploring, and trying to get whatever Hannah is playing with.  We do have 2 small steps in our house, one down into the living room and another into the play room, and she those can frustrate her.  She can actually go up the step sometimes if she has the right motivation, but she has no idea how to get down. =} She seems more determined than Hannah was.  If Hannah wanted to play with a cord or the TV she was usually pretty easy to distract.  I have to chase and redirect Abigail MANY times before she will decide to play with something else.  Sill girl!
 



Abigail still loves to eat.  She is now eating 3 solid meals of two ounces every day in addition to nursing 4 times.  The new foods we tried this month were:  bananas, pears, apples, peaches, and green beans (not a fan).  Interesting fact:  Hannah never liked pureed green beans either.  However, Hannah LOVES to pick them up and eat them now.  I will probably hold off giving them to Abigail again until she has teeth to chew with.  We have also let Abigail chase a few rice puffs around her tray.  She seems to like them, but has a hard time picking them up.  We'll introduce more finger foods next month.

Still no teeth!  Abigail has days where she is super grumpy and will refuse solid food.  Very unlike her.  I think her gums are swollen and they hurt, even though no teeth have broken through.  Hopefully they come in soon, so she can feel better.  She is usually a very happy girl.  And sometimes she poses for the camera!



Nathan and I plan to teach Abigail sign language just like we did with Hannah.  It was so nice to be able to communicate and once Hannah started talking her vocabulary took off because she knew so many words.  I have just started introducing a few signs to Abigail.  We'll see how long it takes her to pick up words.  Hannah of course loves to copy me.  She hardly ever signs now, but will still use "please" occasionally.

Abigail Lee McCartney

Sweet Abigail was born January 5, 2012 at 7:21 am. She was 8 pounds 9 oz and 21 inches long. We are already in love and she's only 5 days old! She seems to be a happy content baby so far, much like big sister. My c-section went well and I am recovering slowly. I feel much better than after having Hannah.


Sadly we are also having jaundice issues just like with Hannah. Abigail is a great at nursing, but her bilirubin levels keep going up. Starting this afternoon we are feeding formula only (which means pumping for me) and going for another check tomorrow. If her levels go up again then we have to start some sort of photo therapy. Sadly we've had nothing but rain since we were released from the hospital so we can't let her sunbathe in the window. Please pray that her numbers start to go down.

We are so thankful for my parents who kept Hannah the entire time we were in the hospital. It was nice not to worry about her. They brought her up to visit every day. So far Hannah is adjusting well to being a big sister. It's almost time for her next update so I'll post more details soon. Nathan and I are SO blessed with our sweet girls!


Yes, we plan to take monthly photos with monkey this time too. All the photos in the post were taken by my mom. So thankful she captured these memories!

Introducing Hannah Grace McCartney

Last night around 10:00 as I was trying to fall asleep I thought I felt a trickle of water. I woke Nathan up, called the doctor, and they said to go to the hospital to check things out. They didn't want me hanging out at home since she was breech. So off to the hospital we went, where they did some magic test to see if you're leaking amniotic fluid. The test came back negative so we went back home. Lucking it wasn't busy and we were back in bed a little before midnight. At 6:45 the next morning I woke up and everything was wet. I took a shower and then came out to talk to Nathan. He convinced me I needed to call the doctor again even though I felt silly since it had only been a few hours. The doctor said to go back to the hospital for them to check me again. They did the fluid test again and this time it was positive. So they tried to page my doctor and get things started. Apparently my doctor was out of town so they scheduled my C-section for 11:30 with the on call doctor.

At 12:13 pm Hannah Grace McCartney was born. Nathan tried to get the doctor to deliver her at 12:12 so she could be born on 12/12 at 12:12. As you can see from the photo she was definitely a breech baby because her legs want to curl up. I think they look like froggy legs.


After they stitched me up and brought be back to my room they brought her in for me to meet her. It was love at first sight! She was really fussy, would not feed, and could not calm down. So, they brought her back to they nursery and figured out she still had amniotic fluid in her lungs. This is common for C-section babies because the fluid normally gets squeezed out as they go through the birth canal. They laid her on her tummy to help her breathing and after a few hours brought her back to me. We did a few attempts at feeding but she was still pretty fussy. The doctors weren't concerned thought since she was only a few hours old.

By the next morning she was much happier and we were beginning to figure the whole feeding thing out. After each feeding Nathan would get her all swaddled tight (He is quite the expert!) and she would sleep.