6 Months Old

Lots changing with Zola as she passes the six month mark. One thing, however, that hasn't changed is how much she smiles. She smiles all the time, and her smile is the most beautiful smile in the world. It's also very easy to get her into laughing fits by tickling her.

One downside lately is that she is sick all the time. She's had a cold for I believe three weeks now. It all begin the day after she started daycare, and it hasn't gone away. There's always snot running out of her nose, and she's coughing frequently. I guess it's good in a way to get her exposed to some germs.

Exciting news! Her first tooth is beginning to poke through! It's in the front on the bottom side. Likely related to this, there has been extra drool lately, and also more frequent bowel movements.

Also some breaking news: as of this morning, she has begun saying "ba, ba, ba" continuously. She had done hints of this before, but now it's much more frequent. She has also been trying to say things such as "I love you". She hasn't said it super clearly yet, but she is getting close.

Zola is still getting the hang of crawling. She has no problem continuously rolling over and scooting backwards, but hasn't quite gotten the hang of going forward. She's getting up on her knees and lunging forward briefly, but not doing the full crawling motion. I dreamt last night that she was crawling, so that must mean it will happen soon. In the last two weeks, Zola has mastered sitting upright. As long as she isn't drowsy, she can sit upright for long periods of time without falling over.

There still isn't much hair on Zola. She probably won't have much hair until two or three years old. The lack of hair makes things confusing for some people because they don't know if she's a boy or girl. Heck, even when we dress her in pink, people say "What a cute little boy!". She also is still quite large for her age. Even though she's six months, most of the things she wears are 9-12 months or 12-18 months.

Here are a few pics from this month. Sorry, we haven't been as frequent in taking pictures. We definitely need to pick things up.

Add caption

Zola doing sign language for "eat".

We stopped by the Billings Weather Forecast Office on our vacation to MT. I worked here as an intern from 2004-2006.

Four and 2/3 Months Old

Zola continues to change every day! That being said, I know the saying is that kids grow up faster than you can imagine, but for me, it seems like we've had her forever. It feels like it's been a year, not five months.

Still her most distinguishing characteristic is her beautiful smile. She smiles all the time. Even when really upset, she will smile back at you if you smile at her.

Zola has begun to eat solids within the last week. We've given her a wide variety of foods: squash, peas, carrots, bananas, rice cereal. She seems to like it all. Of course, that's still just a tiny part of her diet. Zola also likes to chew on her tongue.

One little downside is that she can't seem to sleep through the night any more. Over a month ago, she could make it through the night, but now she gets up for a feeding once and sometimes twice. I guess her brain is just too darn active. To get enough sleep, we definitely need to get to bed soon after when she goes to bed.

Zola is "talking" more and more. A few times a day, she gets in a mood where she is "possessed", and screams and yells like crazy! It's not an upset noise, but rather her experimenting with her voice. She has said things that could pass for "ma, ma" and "I love you", but nothing super obvious or clear.

Zola is interacting more with the cats and dog, and they are interacting more with her. Nimbo likes to give Zola little kisses on the lips. Zola loves trying to grab the cats. Unfortunately, it's not a nice gentle stroke, but a rough grab, where she'll pull a nice clump of hair out of the cats.

Zola is now turning over from her back to her stomach, and vice versa. She is scooting a little, but not really crawling yet.

Peekaboo!

Zola loves her Jumperoo

Zola goes crazy when Daddy tries to kiss her

Cute pic of Zola and Daddy

Another cute pic of Zola and Daddy

Yummy Carrots

Yummy Carrots

Zola and Cabbage Patch doll both waving at the camera

Cool sunglasses and headband thanks to Todd's parents

Since Mommy and Daddy drink Diet Pepsi, naturally Zola is interested in it too

Four Months Old

Zola is up to four months now! She is undergoing rapid changes now. Pretty much every day I notice something new.

Zola is expressing quite a bit of interest in food lately. She stares down our food and drink. We've given her little nibbles of things and she doesn't protest. Pretty soon we'll have to either start feeding her some food, or stop eating in front of her so she doesn't get mad out of jealousy.

She also seems to be teething. She has really started chewing on things all the time. There's basically no time when there isn't something in her mouth. She even chews her tongue, which looks really funny.

Zola has started protesting when we take a toy away, or when she drops a toy. Of course, we don't take away a toy just out of spite; usually, it's to hand her a different toy because the first one is dripping in drool. She is really good at picking up toys, putting them back down, and switching between hands. She also can take a pacifier out of her mouth and put it back in. Zola is increasingly reaching out for things she wants: a toy, a bottle, daddy's nose, etc.

Zola is still very long and slender for her age. We go into the doctor this week to get better measurements, and unfortunately for more shots. She still has a mark from her shots a few months ago. Zola is still very slow on the hair growth. There's some hair, but not much. She probably inherited this from mommy and daddy, who both were bald babies.

Zola is still unbelievably smiley. I can turn her crying into a smile within five seconds by singing. She also is laughing more and more, sometimes really loudly.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the last month:

Zola cuddling up with daddy on the couch

Zola loves playing with toys while on the bumbo

The mosquito, one of Zola's friends

Zola smiling wide at her friend Wrangell. He's several months older than Zola.

Wrangell having a taste of Zola's head

At Forest Fair

Mommy put a bow in Zola's hair even though there's still very little of it

The fingers rarely leave her mouth

Three Months Old

Zola just turned three months old on June 30. Almost time for college! Zola is really changing fast now. She is laughing out loud and squealing in delight, and smiling all the time, even when she's crying sometimes. Although Zola is still calm when breastfeeding, her disposition while bottle feeding has changed, which makes things more interesting for me. She moves around a lot while bottle feeding; her mouth is a moving target.

Zola is really getting vocal lately. She's trying to talk often, and she's usually trying to say "I love you" because that's what we say to her all the time. It does sound vaguely like "I love you", but not enough to officially call it her first words yet. I tried to get her to say "weather", but so far she's not as interested in saying that.

Zola enjoys playing around in her Jumperoo and Bumbo. She can sort of turn herself over. She isn't sleeping though the whole night yet; she still gets up once and sometimes twice, but at least she does sleep about four or five hours straight.

Probably her most distinguishing trait is how cute she is. I know parents are supposed to think their own baby is the cutest in the world, but Zola really is! In Wal-mart today, I saw another baby and thought how ugly that baby looked compared to Zola. But then again, people in Wal-mart generally look funny anyway. Zola's smile is just so amazingly cute. She often curls up her hands under her chin while smiling. I try to imitate Zola's smiles, but mine are nowhere near as cute.

Anyways, here are some of my favorite pics/videos from the 3rd month.

This is my personal favorite Zola picture at this moment

Cute

Daddy loves taking Zola for walks with Nimbo in the Moby wrap

Not that Zola needs sunglasses...they just look cute on her

Nimbo loves licking Zola

The Jumperoo!

This was actually Zola's first time really laughing out loud (at least for Daddy)!

Playing on the Bed in a Hotel Room

Grandma and Zola

Grandma and Zola

Grandma and Zola

Two Months Old!

Zola is two months old today! Almost time for her to go off to college! Well, not quite. But she has changed a lot over the two months.

Probably the most distinguishable thing about Zola is how much she smiles. She is smiling more and more, usually in response to our smiles, but sometimes on her own. She also sometimes sticks out her tongue in response to ours.

She is cooing quite a bit. Sometimes the coos sound like things we're saying to her, but I can't exactly say that she's said her first word yet. I am saying "meteorology" and "weather" to her a lot in hopes that one of those will be her first word.

As far as fussiness goes, I'd say she's about average. There are a lot of times when she's fussy for no apparent reason, but walking around and holding her on her stomach or facing frontwards will stop the crying. We're beginning to be able to distinguish the different cries, including the sounds she makes when she's pooping! And by the way, boy does she fart a lot! She is beginning to sleep longer periods, as much as about eight or nine hours straight. But generally, she isn't sleeping through the night yet.

We were wondering how much trouble people would have with the name "Zola". Generally, people can spell it easily, but remark how unique of a name it is. That was our goal: unique but easy to say and spell. One person remarked that "Zola" sounded like a Girdwood name without knowing we lived in Girdwood! We are a bit worried that we might have picked a trending name because on the popular show "Grey's Anatomy", the main character has adopted a baby named Zola, and the baby will probably be a main character in upcoming seasons. And Grey's Anatomy is a show that is popular with women of baby-rearing age. So we'll see. The most common names "Zola" is mistaken for are "Zoe" and "Lola". I guess Zola is kind of combination of those two names.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the first two months:

2 months

2 months. This is such a funny expression.

1.5 months. Having fun in an elaborate outfit.

1.5 months

2 weeks old at Easter 

1.5 months. Grabbing her first rattle.

2 weeks old. Sleeping during a hike in the Smoky Mountains.

1.5 months

1 month. Sitting upright with help from Todd.

2 weeks

2 weeks

Just after birth

The Birth Experience

What a wild ride! Labor unfortunately did not at all go the way we expected. Just about everything that could've gone wrong went wrong! That being said, we are oddly not disappointed since Zola Snow came out perfectly healthy, and is doing very well with breastfeeding.

Pre-Labor
We were getting fairly stressed out as it became later and later after the due date. On Thursday, March 24, Jenevra had a "balloon catheter" put in her uterus to attempt to start labor, or at least soften the uterus. It seemed to work at first, as she started having legitimate contractions as evidenced by this photo:

Jenevra's balloon catheter contractions

Unfortunately, about an hour after the contractions began, she gave birth to the balloon catheter and the contractions eased to mild ones. Over the next few days, she tried feverishly to reintensify labor by walking, climbing lots of stairs, talking to Zola, eating spicy food, another balloon catheter, and acupuncture and acupressure. The acupuncture was about 10 hours before the water broke, so maybe that did it?

Natural Labor
Jenevra's water broke at 2am Tuesday morning, awaking her out of a dead sleep. Unfortunately, it was two hours too late to allow us to give birth at the birth center. We "risked out" of the birth center at midnight Monday night because that was two weeks after the due date. Still, two midwives would accompany us to Providence Hospital to assist us along with the nurses and doctors during the labor.

We arrived at Providence around 4am (two hours after the water broke), after stopping by the Birth Center and doing a quick checkup there. We had been staying the night in town at Jenevra's mom's place so that we didn't have to drive all the way in from Girdwood.

Jenevra early on at the hospital

The contractions were going really strong by about 6am (four hours after the water broke). Jenevra labored without any drugs for 19 hours after the water broke. Her favorite positions...not shown in pictures :)...were in the shower on the birth ball, and on the toilet. The shower at Providence Hospital was super annoying, as the birth ball in the shower plugged up the drain so that she had to stand up every 10 minutes. Jenevra was in her own world, her eyes closed and only occasionally responding to questions in the short time between contractions. There was super loud construction going on right outside the labor room, which I thought would annoy Jenevra, but she didn't seem to notice.

After 19 hours, Jenevra was still only about 5cm dilated, but had not changed for several hours. She was getting exhausted, especially considering the labor began in the middle of the night after only three hours of sleep. So, unfortunately, it was time for an epidural to save up some energy for later.

Intervention

Intervention began with an epidural, which we had wanted to avoid at all costs. Along with the epidural came continuous monitoring.

One of our midwives Sara helping with Jenevra's heavy monitoring

Right after the epidural came some panic. At the moment, I didn't know exactly what was going on, but basically the baby's heart rate dropped and Jenevra's blood pressure went way down. They had Jenevra somersaulting into different positions to try to help the baby. Meanwhile, they were trying to get an IV into Jenevra, which was going horribly, as it ended up taking them about 10 tries to get a good poke. Jenevra's arm still looks like a rotten banana.

Eventually, things stabilized, and then they introduced pitocin since still no progress was being made. Then we noticed the baby's heart rate dropping after the stronger contractions, so the pitocin was eased. Amnioinfusion was also used to try to get the baby out, but that didn't work either. 

About 12 hours after the epidural, Jenevra had the urge to push. Unfortunately, the push came with Zola still not far enough down. This, along with the fact that Zola's heart rate was dropping after each contraction, made them give Jenevra some drugs to get rid of the pushing urge. 

Finally, after trying everything, a c-section was the only option left.

Right before the c-section

Jenevra saying goodbye to Zola in her belly with her hands shaped like a heart

C-Section

I was allowed to sit by Jenevra's head during the c-section. There was a big blue curtain blocking us from all the doctors/nurses doing the procedure. The first thing we noticed was the burning smell. Yes, that was them cutting through Jenevra's skin. Then, there was a bunch of pulling and tugging. I thought Jenevra was in pain at the time, but afterwards, she said she felt it, but it didn't really hurt. It took longer than it was supposed to to get Zola out, because she was stuck really good! They had to use forceps to yank her out, leading to additional bruising on her head on top of the typical bruising from labor. Zola also had a nice conehead. They carried her over to a table to weigh her...

Weighing Zola

...and then they took Zola next to Jenevra's head before taking Jenevra away to recovery.

Jenevra saying hi to Zola for the first time

I was afraid that the c-section wouldn't be "magical", but I still felt the magic, and we both cried when Zola came out.

What Went Wrong that Lead to a C-Section

The doctors, nurses, and midwives did absolutely everything possible to prevent a c-section, but it was meant to be. Zola basically was slightly sideways and ended up getting stuck at the cervix with her head lodged into the side and Jenevra dilated to 9.5cm (fully dilated is 10cm). No matter what we tried, Zola was not budging any further. Also, the cord was wrapped around her shoulder, which explains why Zola's heart rate would drop after most contractions. Also, the doctor mentioned it was possible that Jenevra's pelvis wasn't wide enough. We thought that was just a myth, but he said it could've been a contributing factor. Even if the water had broken two hours earlier and we could've used the birth center, we still would've ended up transferring to the hospital.

A Very Interesting Twist

Zola was more likely a 40-weeker or maybe even 38 weeks, not 42 weeks and two days! This can be discerned by skin quality, the size of the baby (Zola was 7 lb 5 oz), and some other things. But they are almost certain that the due date was off by at least two weeks. Yikes!

Immediately After Birth
For most of the first two hours after birth I just cuddled skin-to-skin with Zola while Jenevra was in recovery. Zola basically slept the whole time. We opted not to give Zola a bath soon after birth because we didn't want to wash off the vernix, a waxy white cheesy substance all over her skin which helps moisturize the skin and improve skin quality.

Me with Zola right after the birth

Finally, after two hours, they brought Jenevra up to a hospital room where we were waiting. Typically, for the first three or so hours after birth, babies are relatively alert, maybe trying out breastfeeding briefly and getting some colostrum, then they take a long nap. However, we were forced to keep Zola awake for about nine hours. This was because it's hospital protocol to check blood sugar for any babies over two weeks overdue. Again, Zola on paper was over two weeks overdue, but it was immediately obvious she wasn't. So, Zola just barely failed the first blood sugar test, so we had to stuff her with colostrum and sugar water for several hours, while all three of us were ready to sleep. Finally, after roughly nine hours, her blood sugar "passed", and we were allowed to doze for the first time in a few days.

The First Few Days (in the Hospital)

We stayed in the hospital after the birth for several days. It was mainly to check on Jenevra's slow healing from the C-section, though there was a lot of testing on the baby too. Zola was doing quite well and was healthy by all signs, though Jenevra needed extensive help just getting up and moving around (she's still pretty sore and will be for a few weeks). We only got a little sleep at the hospital, not necessarily because we had a new beautiful baby, but because the nurses came in all the time to check on us! But it was nice in a way to have the attention, and the room service meals for several days. We also got visited by several friends.

Happy family in the hospital bed

The hospital room was awfully small, but at least it was away from the loud construction that was present next to our labor room. The nurses were pretty nice, though something really funny/scary happened one morning. The nurse accidentally hit the "code blue" button, which means someone isn't breathing. And then it took her a minute or two to find the "cancel" button. People came running frantically into our room from everywhere! Jenevra started crying because she realized how freaked out most of the nurses/doctors in the building would be hearing something like that from the mother/baby unit. Our doctor who did the c-section came in and talked with us to make sure we were okay, followed by the spiritual advisor who made sure we weren't traumatized! But mostly, we thought it was funny.

Another funny thing happened on our departure day. Apparently, we were released around 11am, but we had not been told we could go. So, six hours later at 5pm, someone finally asks when we would be leaving! We had been twiddling our thumbs assuming that they were putting together paperwork for us to be officially released!

I'll end this post with a video of me teaching Zola about meteorology. Her middle name is "Snow", and interestingly, after a snow drought it finally snowed a few inches right after Zola was born.

Getting Close!

It's been way too long since we've posted, but to tell the truth, pregnancy is boring! Well, this is Todd writing here, so maybe it's more exciting for Jenevra.

Zola's only about a month away. She's head down and healthy as far as we can tell. Jenevra's feeling well and still swimming a few times a week. She just started feeling small practice contractions. We both have a feeling that Zola will come a little earlier than the March 15 due date based on the uncertainty of the conception date and the fairly large size of the baby.

We're pretty sure we've decided on a middle name finally, but I won't say it yet as Jenevra's not here and I want to make sure we're 100%.

The cats are preparing me for Zola's arrival. A few minutes ago, Climate (our orange cat), jumped from the chair to the computer desk, colliding mid-air with me carrying cereal, knocking the whole bowl of cereal/milk to the floor. I can imagine cleanups like this will be a common occurrence from babydom to toddlerhood.

We're continuing to listen to a bunch of pregnancy and newborn podcasts on our commute. Also, we're 3/4 of the way through a birth class, start a hypnobirthing class tomorrow, and have a one-day breastfeeding class. Do we get a college degree for this? Of course, taking classes can't compare to the experience of actually giving birth, which unfortunately I (Todd) will never experience.

I promise way more pics/videos will be posted here once Zola is born and things are more exciting!