Cyrus 7 months Sitting

Here's a video of Cyrus sitting all by himself!

Cyrus thinks Daddy is funny :)

Cyrus will often start belly laughing for what seems to be no reason. We caught it on video last week when he got particularly tickled at Justin making dinner. This little man cracks me up!

Cyrus Eating Solids

Here's another video of Cyrus having some plums. Justin had coined this the baby caveman talk while he's eating.

Cyrus Rolling Over

Hi Everyone!

Here's a great video of Cyrus rolling over at 3 months!

Traveling

For those of you that don't know, Justin and I both travel for work. Before when we only had the pug, this wasn't such an issue as we mostly enjoyed our time alone when the other was traveling. Distance does in fact make the heart grow fonder :) However, now that Cyrus is here, I no longer enjoy my time away like I used to. This week, I'm in Austin, TX for a seminar event and a few client visits.

Traveling is hard for a few reasons. First, I miss Cyrus and Justin. For those of you without children I can't explain with words how it feels to be away from your child. On top of that, we are also breastfeeding, so while gone I'm attached to my pump as often as I would normally be feeding Cyrus. This again is not ideal, especially when you have a crazy schedule. You end up pumping in places you wouldn't normally even use the bathroom (gross airport terminals) and become extremely talented at multi-tasking to the nth degree.

While I know it's tough on me to be gone, it's also tough on Justin and Cyrus. When you have a set routine that is designed for two people like we do and one of those people are absent, it makes for a lot of work for the other person. Luckily Justin is an amazing dad and handles it well. This is my third trip post-maternity leave and so far Justin and Cyrus have done pretty well, thanks to a lot of prep before I leave by Justin and myself to make things as easy as possible.

Will this continue? I hope not. I'm hoping to move to something at my current company without travel, but I don't have anything set in stone yet. Stay tuned!

MIA....but we're back!

So I've been very slack about posting lately, mainly due to taking care of an infant, a husband, a pug, and working full-time. Did I mention I'm traveling again too? Not for much longer hopefully as I'm looking at a few different positions internally, but for right now we are making do.

Cyrus is doing amazing. He's now 4.5 months old, 12 pounds, 25 inches long, and enjoys lots of un activities like:

"talking" to his buddy Van at daycare or anyone that will listen :)

giving slobbery "kisses"

smiling and laughing

touching EVERYTHING

grabbing things he wants

sitting up when propped up on his hands (sometimes)

rolling over both ways

trying to scoot around on the floor

Here's a recent photo:



What a cutie :) He's also got two bottom teeth and is working on a few more. We are having so much fun and are excited to introduce our little guy to a large group of friends this week in Chicago at the annual Folk trip! We will be flying, so please pray for us to have safe and smooth travels as this will be Cyrus' first flight.

I'll be posting some video footage of the rolling and laughing as soon as I can figure out how to compress them :)

Cloth Diapering

We are planning to use cloth diapers with Cyrus. We chose to use a one size pocket diaper made by BumGenius (see this link: http://www.bumgenius.com/one-size.php). The company says the diapers fit babies approximately 7-35 pounds. Cyrus doesn't quite fit in the diapers, but we try every few days. Here's our most recent attempt:

More Photos!

Here are some recent photos of Cyrus:


Laughing baby

Sitting with Mom and Jabba

Swinging in his super fancy swing from Moogie

Here's the link to the full album on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2225916&id=21303672&l=9b886bc9ee

Hope you enjoy!

The hospital photos that were taken of Cyrus turned out very well, so we decided to order the reprint rights. Here's a sample:

Here's a link to the entire album on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2228278&id=21303672&l=f28e2a7ffe

Birth annoucements should be arriving soon!

First Doctor Visit

Cyrus had his first doctor visit on March 15 with Dr. Graham at Coastal Pediatrics, which we love. Link to their practice is here:


https://www.coastalpediatricassociates.com/default.asp


Cyrus weighed 6 lbs 9 oz, which is what his hospital discharge weight was. Dr. Graham said he looked great and was very alert for a newborn.

We had our second doctor visit on March 22 and Cyrus weighed 6 lbs 13 oz. Dr. Graham again said he was doing great and gaining weight, so no problems there. We go back at 2 months for his checkup and his DTap and RV vaccines.

We've decided to go with an alternative vaccination schedule that A) limits the number of vaccines he gets at a time and B) limits the number of vaccines with mercury given to one at a time. Here's some information for those that might be interested:

http://www.askdrsears.com/thevaccinebook/

We also decided not to circumcize. We did plenty of research and decided that there was no medical advantage for having the procedure, so we opted out. Needless to say that has made diaper changes a lot less scary :)

Look for more updates soon!

Link to Photos on Facebook

Here's the link to the full album of photos on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2225916&id=21303672&l=9b886bc9ee

I'll be posting more photos later tonight, so check out the album tomorrow for even more photos!

Welcome to the World, Cyrus!

Baby Cyrus is here! Here are a few photos for your viewing pleasure:

BIRTH STORY

Several people have asked for the birth story of one little Cyrus Allen Sellers, so here goes....

I woke up Sunday morning around 5am with contractions. Seeing that this had happened SEVERAL times in the last week, I went back to bed, knowing that if they were the real thing I would be woken up again soon. Justin and I got up around 9am and I was still having contractions, so we started timing. They were around five minutes apart and were intense but not awful. We called and cancelled brunch plans with some friends just to make sure we didn't have any water breaking incidents at a nice place and then ran to the grocery store to grab a few things, not knowing when we would be going again :)

We went on several walks and through all of this the contractions were still 4-7 minutes apart, increasing in intensity. We called our Doula, Mandy, around 1pm to let her know we thought this was the real thing and talked through some things to do for speeding up labor. Not that anything helped. The contractions started to get more intense, and Mandy came over to be with us around 7pm. We labored at home for awhile trying to get the contractions closer together and as intense as possible. The oh so wonderful back labor started about then. For anyone that has not experienced back labor with no pain medication, I can honestly say it is the worst pain I've ever had in my entire life. We worked on some positioning for the next while, and decided around 11pm that it was time to head to the hospital.

We got settled into the room at the hospital and were greeted by our nurse, who was actually a huge natural childbirth advocate and natural birth mom herself, which made us happy. They said I was around 4cm dilated, which was pretty disappointing with all the time I had been laboring. The back labor was pretty tough and I definitely doubted if I was going to be able to do this as planned, but at some point I think he finally turned from being posterior which helped. I labored all night, and when my doctor came in at 7am to check in on me I had progressed to around 8cm. We decided to break my water to see if we could speed things up. Although this wasn't something we wanted to do, I had already been leaking and it seemed like the path of least resistance, so I said okay.

Even with breaking my water, I still had no progress at 10am when Dr. Williamson checked back in. At this point she was starting to get worried and suggested that maybe we use a little Pitocin to get things moving so that I could still deliver naturally like I wanted. They started the drip around 10:30am. DEAR GOD. This was moment #2 when I definitely doubted being able to give birth naturally. Luckily it only took 30 minutes of Pitocin-induced contractions to get to 10cm and we were ready to push.

I pushed for about 20 minutes or so and Mr. Cyrus Allen Sellers was born naturally after 27 hours of labor at 11:39am. He weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce and was 20 1/2 inches long. His head was 14 inches around. We're thinking this might have been part of what took so long ;) He has a head full of hair and big blue eyes and couldn't be more perfect.

We are doing great; I only had a small tear so not many stitches and everything else has been completely normal. I was pretty exhausted after his birth so I slept most of the day Monday other than when Cyrus wanted to nurse. I'm having the normal soreness and things you have after giving birth, but nothing too painful and I have a great husband around to take care of me :)

For those that don't know what a Doula is, please see Mandy's website here:

http://www.riteofpassagedoulas.com/

I cannot say enough how AMAZING Mandy was throughout the entire pregnancy and birth process. I definitely could not have made it through the labor process naturally without her and am so glad that she helped to facilitate the birth we wanted. If you are anywhere near Charleston and having a baby, I would HIGHLY recommend her services.

Nothing.....yet

Just an update for everyone that may be wondering if there is any baby news. I've been having irregular contractions on an d off for the past few days, but nothing that is regular or too close together. I have been walking every day and things seem to increase during and after walks but things seem to slow down once I stop the walk. We will definitely let everyone know if and when things progress; stay tuned!

Getting down to the Wire!

We are in the home stretch now and I have weekly doctor appointments from here until Baby Cyrus decides to arrive. Last Friday's appointment went well and the doctor says we are progessing perfectly. I am 1cm dilated, 70% effaced, and the little guy is at a -4 station. What that basically means is we are making progress on getting ready for labor but he still has some more room to drop before we really get started on anything. So far things haven't been too bad, although I have had a few bouts of insomnia this weekend. We will keep everyone updated as things progress!

Handmade Gifts

We have been so fortunate to have several family and friends make some wonderful handmade gifts for Baby Cyrus. I thought I would post some photos to share with everyone else. Stacy, a close family friend made this beautiful crocheted blanket, hat, and booties set:



Justin's mom Kenna has been really busy knitting a ton of blankets which I'm very exicted about. Here are a few of them:



One of Justin's coworkers made this crocheted blanket before we knew if it was a boy or a girl. The photos don't do it justice!



When I received this gift from Justin's Nana, I couldn't believe all the details on the bag. This diaper bag has a TON of pockets and places to store things that you can't see in the photo. I'm so glad to have a diaper bag big enough for an overnight trip!

While I am starting to sew, I am in no way ready to start knitting or crocheting so these gifts are even more appreciated!

Baby Bedding

As some of you know, I've decided to make the bedding for Cyrus' crib. I found a great group of quilting fabrics by Michael Miller with a Rocket and Robots theme :) I found a bedding pattern at the fabric store and have been working on it since. The next four fabrics are what will make up the front of his crib quilt:

I haven't quite decided what I'm going to use this next fabric for, but I'm thinking of incorporating it into some curtains:

This pattern will be the outside of the crib bumpers:

This will be the bed skirt:

Here's a view of everything together:

I have everything cut out and pinned and have started stitching the quilting squares. I hope to have some updated photos this weekend to show everyone the progress!

The Nursery is Coming Along!

A few weeks ago my friend Sarah was wonderful enough to come over and help me paint the nursery. Don't worry, we used no VOC paint and I cleared it with my doctor prior to painting :) The greens are pulled right from the material I am using to make his bedding (see other post) and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out! Ignore the piles of stuff; we're still working on the organizing :)

Baby Bump Photos

I know it's been awhile, but things have been busy preparing for Baby Cyrus' arrival. A few people have asked for updated photos of how the bump is coming along, so here they are!