Aunts, Cousins, and Poops. Oh My!

This past weekend we celebrated Grant's sister Gina! She is getting married to Javi this November and their engagement party was this past Saturday night. His entire family traveled from Atlanta and Tampa to spend the weekend so we did a lot of celebrating. Well, they did a lot of celebrating and I learned how hard and exhausting it is to plan 2 nights in a row around a newborn's schedule. Since we must get to 8 feedings per day, and I love the fact that Piper will seemingly sleep as long as I would let her at night, we are 'cluster' feeding her the last 2-3 feedings before she goes to bed. This means that we are doing the 1.5 hour long process every 2 hours (understand why I'm going crazy, right?) so that we can continue to have a 5 hour stretch at night. This has been going great (and has proven to be worth it), but when you try to throw in 2 nights out in a row....it's plain exhausting. {I now understand what all of my friends/family have gone through when I was so naive to how a 9lb baby that stays put can change your evening plans so drastically} But we did it and managed and we had a great time celebrating Gina and Javi!! And I didn't get a single picture of us from any of the celebrations...I guess that's what happens when you have a baby.

Avery wanting some M&Ms. That face!

Ashley and the family came into town Saturday morning to watch Piper Saturday night while we were at the party. We met them at the Soda City spring fling downtown on Main St. It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed some good food and vendor shopping. We came home for nap time and Ashley and I enjoyed watching March Madness on the back porch with some champagne. Why not, right? We all spent the afternoon playing on the back porch because the weather was too good to not be in it. It was such a fun and relaxing day for us. Avery is growing and developing so fast that I can't keep up with her! She is saying new things and understanding more and more every time that I see her. I'm currently 'Buck' and Grant is 'Guck'. She still LOVES her Guck and would pick him over me anyday! She also is getting so, so big {like heavy-big}! I could hardly put her down in the crib without dropping her. It's amazing to compare her to Piper and think that there is only 1 year and 3 months between the two of them. But for now she continues to think Piper is a baby doll and wants to always be near her. She calls her 'Ba-be' and 'Pi-her'. Brady also enjoyed seeing Piper. He is going to be a great big cousin!

Javi's mom, Alba, gave Piper some cowboy boots since her daddy always wears his boots. They are size 18 months and Avery seemed to think they belonged to her. This girl loves some shoes and she kept walking around saying 'booooots'.

Piper is now 5 weeks 4 days and while I don't want my newborn to grow up she gets more fun every day. She has started smiling quite a bit in reaction to us (not just when she passes gas or takes a poop). Also, if she is fussing her daddy can always get her calmed down by holding her and playing 'The Man' by Aloe Blacc. It is amazing. EVERY time. My mom has now put a quick link to the song on her phone because it works so well. Our crazy girl.

We continue to have fun visitors come and play and this week we had Graham and his 2 girls, Carrie and Hayes, come visit. It was so fun to see them look at Piper in amazement. There is just something about a baby.

Graham and Hayes

And just because it gave us the biggest laugh all week I can't NOT mention the first poop in the bathtub. As usual Grant was giving her a bath and I heard a loud scream that had a laughing panic associated. I knew right away what Grant was probably freaking out about and I was right. Too funny!!Piper didn't seem to mind one bit. 

Is something wrong?

Daddy's girl

            Piper Grace- we love you more than the whole world and back again.

Supporting Uncle Matt's baseball team

Piper and I strolled up to Henry's to watch the first round of March Madness with Daddy

St. Patrick's Day

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day which happens to be one of my favorite days of the year. Not just because we get to wear green and everyone seems to be in a good mood, but because it is the anniversary of our amazing wedding down in Rimini, SC! What an fun party we had...

Love these girls

We danced ALL night

Piper celebrated this year by going up to Henry's with momma and daddy on Saturday to eat lunch and listen to live music. She did great and slept through the entire celebration.On Monday, March 17,  I took her 1 month pictures in her fun St. Patrick's Day attire. I know it was 4 days late, but I figured I should go ahead and set a precedence that her 'monthly' pictures may not be on the exact date.

 Birdie kept Piper for us so Grant and I enjoyed our first dinner out at Mr. Friendly's. As usual the food didn't disappoint, but we really enjoyed spending some quality time with each other over a nice bottle of (half-priced) wine! I did laugh at the fact that we talked about her the majority of the time. I love talking about her and I love even more how much her daddy loves her.

Momma looks tired, but ready for a night out! 

We went back to the doctor today for our weigh in and Piper is finally back at her birth weight of 9lb 3oz meaning she has gained 4oz in 4 days which is what we wanted her to do. We are continuing the supplementing and feeding every 3 hours around the clock (yes, that means I have to wake her at night) and we will weigh again next Wednesday. Baby steps in the right direction. She is gaining personality each day! She smiles often and I just wonder what is going through that little head of hers.
 PG- momma and daddy love you more than the whole world and back again.

One month and all her glory

I keep telling myself that this first month of Piper's life went by really fast because there were only 28 days in the month. Right? Grant and I went to lunch on 3/13/14 and I said to him 'We made it! A whole month' and his response was 'Did you think we wouldn't?'. Of course I thought we would make it, but it does cause me to stop and pause and think about the past month and what we have accomplished, done, and haven't done. (I will clearly have to do these posts more often than 1 month because it is hard to recall everything, but I'll do my best!)

February is now full of special birthdays! February 16th, the day after we got home from the hospital, was my Mama's 80th birthday (my Dad's mom) and we weren't going to miss the celebration! Ashley was staying with us so she helped us get out and help Mama celebrate as well as let Piper meet a lot of family and friends at just 3 days old!

Mama and her youngest granddaughter

Papa loves his GIRLS

Brady turned 4 on February 26th and had his Horse Birthday party on March 1st. Me, Grant and Piper made the day trip to Charlotte to help celebrate the cutest 4 year old I know!

 We've had so many wonderful visitors who have come bringing gifts, food, wine, and arms to hold our sweet girl. We are so thankful for everyone who has extended their love and support to both Grant and me during this amazing time in our lives. We have enjoyed spending some quality time as a family of 3, but I surely love visitors especially on days where the weather isn't great and we can't get out and walk. We have enjoyed visiting Birdie's house and even hung out by her pool on Piper's 1 week birthday.

Although we love our pediatrician, we have seen her more than we really would have wanted to in our first month of life. Piper had an eye infection her first week of life. Her eye was gunked shut for a couple of days, but after using antibiotic drops we were good to go. She also is struggling a little with weight gain. She dropped to 8lb 9oz, but was back to birth weight at 2 weeks weighing in at 9lb 4oz. Grant and I introduced a bottle on March 3rd so I pumped in place of the evening feeding. I didn't pump as much as I should have and I started to worry about Piper not getting enough to eat. I took her in to check her weight on March 10th and she had lost weight and was at 8lb 14oz. We have met with a lactation consultant and think that my 3 bouts of mastitis set us back just a bit. We are giving her 1 oz of either breast milk or formula after 5 of her 8 feedings to make sure she has enough calories. We weigh again on March 18th so prayers for a growing baby!!

Momma and Daddy have absolutely loved this sweet girl who has come in and rocked our world. I love the snuggles that she gives me during the day and I have to remind myself that laundry and thank you notes can wait while I just soak in her smell and sweet sounds. And it is true that bigger babies sleep better. Piper was consistently sleeping a 6 hour stretch by 2 weeks and Grant and I were very appreciative. We even had a 7 hour stretch one night and we panicked. We are having to wake her to feed every 3 hours right now to make sure we get 8 feedings a day, but I'm hoping we can get the weight issue under control and she'll go back to her great sleeping habits. She did nap in her crib for the first time on March 11th.

Grant is usually in charge of bath time every other night. It gives me some time to do some other things and allows them to spend time together. Piper loves the bath! And I think Daddy enjoys spending that time with her just as much (I love sitting in the kitchen an listening to him talk and sing to her).  

Other firsts include going to the Gamecock Baseball game at 3 weeks old and taking her first picture with Cocky. Well kind of. She was in the Moby Wrap and was so well behaved. 

At 2 weeks, we took Piper to Birdie and Bogey's who babysat for us and we enjoyed a date night at Za's. Gigi and Pappy (my in-laws) have come to babysit as well to allow us to have a lunch date.

 So thankful for family close by

It comes as no surprise that we may have the most photographed baby. We are still working on getting an official 1 month old picture, but her newborn session (thankfully taken before her awful, awful baby acne) was a huge success even though she peed and pooped all over me! Kayla did a great job on these. 

Piper Grace- in one short month (literally short...only 28 days), you have made Momma and Daddy absolutely happy and have filled our house and our hearts. I get excited every time that I stop and remember that you are mine for forever. I thank God every night for you. What a miracle you are. We love you more than the whole world and back again. 

And then there were three....

On February 13th, 2014, eight days after our due date, our lives changed forever. You hear that phrase a lot, but I never understood how true it was until now. Our daughter, Piper Grace Gillespie, was born at 6:22pm weighing in at a hefty 9lb 3oz and measuring 21 3/4 inches long (Daddy kept trying to make her longer than that...I think he is hoping for a basketball player). Piper made quite the entrance being 8 days late and coming in the middle of an ice storm. Yes, an ice storm. In Columbia, SC. I think it happens every 10 years...maybe. On Wednesday, February 12th we made our way to Baptist hospital with literally no one else on the roads. They were passable, but barely. Ashley and Birdie wanted to go with us because they were afraid if they didn't go with us around 4pm they wouldn't be able to get to the hospital if I went into labor. We were all 4 giddy heading to the hospital and we left Brady and Avery (also known as Bravery) with Bogey for what would be over 24 hours and he did great! Upon admission, I was already in 'labor' and my cervix was doing it's thing on it's own so Dr. Laffite decided not to do any induction on Wednesday night and just proceed with the pitocin on Thursday morning. We hunkered down for the night. Ashley and mom took over the love seat that folded out and Grant climbed into the hospital bed with me. Egg crates and extra blankets were not available as most of the other hospital rooms were filled with nurses and doctors who couldn't go home because of the ice storm.

Around midnight, Dr. Lafitte changed his mind and ordered for me to take 1/2 tablet of Cytotec to start the induction. I took the medication and had to be hooked back up to all monitors. Needless to say, I got very little sleep. Around 3:50am my water broke (we later found out that it was just one membrane that broke as I had to have my water manually broken later by the doctor) and so we were all up from then on. Grant wasn't feeling well and was actually running fever so we were both thankful that my mom and Ashley were there to help. Fred was my L&D nurse and she was fabulous. They started pitocin around 8:00am and we delivered our sweet joy about 10 hours later and after a grueling day. My epidural was about 2 hours late as 2 of the anesthesiologists for the hospital didn't make it in because of the snow and ice. It also slowed my labor and caused some heart rate issues for Piper, but I'm not sure I could have gone without it. My contractions were very painful and I'm thankful that Ashley and Grant talked me through most of them. I started pushing around 4:30pm and we ultimately had to use the vacuum to get to meet our sweet girl. Dr. Guidice delivered Piper and was fabulous. I was so very thankful to have Grant, Ashley, and my mom in there to help me through one of the most difficult days of my life. Dad, Cyndi, Sandi, Larry, Gavin, and Charlie were all waiting anxiously in the waiting area. What an amazing day! God is so good!

The day after Piper was born (Valentine's Day- G and I ordered take-out from Cola's and had a 'romantic' dinner in the hospital room) there was an earthquake in Edgefield, SC that was felt all across the state. Although neither Grant nor I felt it, it was the first for many of our friends as well as our 1 day old daughter Piper who had already experienced a snow/ice storm and earthquake in SC in less than 1 day! She came into this world ready to shake things up!

We had a lot of fun visitors at the hospital including Piper's cousins!!

Avery loving on Piper

Gigi and Piper

GPa and his girls

Pappy! 

Julie came to visit

Caroline, Collins and 'the brothers'

Bogey

Birdie

Aunt Ashley

Big Cousin- Brady!