3-4 Months

• Sucks and chomps on dummy whole, sideways and bottom
• Holds hand of whoever puts dummy in
• Knows difference between Mummy & dummy
• Very clear when she's full and done eating - turns away and screams!
• Smiles at strangers and happily goes to people she doesn't know
• Happiest laying on her back, staring at the ceiling
• Aware of the camera and stops cooperating when she sees it
• People always mention the same things when seeing her for the first time
• Loves Grandma and Grandad Haw ("GG" and "G-Pop") - G-Pop calls her "Scoopy" as in Pooper Scooper
• Sleeps 10-12 hours a night with one feeding in the middle
• Found her thumb and loves sucking on it
• Whines/talks until she's out of breath - it turns into a low growl

4 Month Check-Up

• Palouse Pediatrics - Pullman, WA - Dr. Lennis Boyer 
• Height: 25" (75%)
• Weight: 15 lbs. 10 oz. (90%)
• Head Circumference: 43 cm (95%)
• Took booster shots like a champion - screamed for 30 seconds after needles, then was fine (until that night when she got a fever and had a terrible time)

Eleven weeks after Teagan was born, her cousin Samuel Kenneth Limburg arrived. Looking at them side by side was incredibly depressing – Teagan was an absolute giant! Where did the time go? But down the road when they’re older, I know that 3 months won’t make any sort of difference and they’ll be great friends.

When Teagan was only 3 months old, she took her first international flight – to Canada to visit her family!  Our day began at about 5:00 AM, then we took 3 flights and skipped 3 time zones to arrive at our destination at about 1:00 AM. What a day! We flew from Spokane to Seattle to Vancouver to Toronto. Teagan was an angel and slept for the majority of the time, prompting some to comment that she was the best “flying baby” they’d ever seen.When we were getting ready to board our flight to Vancouver, the gate agents huddled around Teagan and made such a fuss of her that people came rushing over, thinking that there was some sort of an emergency!

2-3 Months

• Happy all the time unless she needs a bum change, is hungry or tired
• Holds "conversation" - goes back and forth with people "ahh goo", "ooh" and inflects her voice up and down
• Extends and locks her legs when she's having her bum changed, making it difficult to fasten the diaper
• Almost laughs, more a huge inhale and exhale, but it's a beautiful sound
• Sits up well with a little help
• Doesn't love tummy time, but holds her head up really well
• Loves to be held, but also loves her space on occasion - lays on the floor and talks to the ceiling
• Loves to watch TV - will crane her neck to watch and listen, no matter what's on!
• Found her hands! Sucks on her whole fist or a few fingers, drooling all over
• Goes cross-eyed staring at her hands and watches as she moves them
• Found her feet! Was wearing pants with monkeys on the feet and sat staring at them for several minutes, realizing she could move them
• Knows what she wants - won't eat until her bum has been changed
• Has learned to pull away when she's finished eating (and sometimes before!) which helps Mummy know when she's almost done
• Gets distracted easily while nursing and looks around, turning her head constantly (ouch!)
• Can't multi-task. She's either eating or pooping - never both

TEAGAN TIDBIT:

Teagan and I shared a special moment on Tuesday, January 26^th. I thought Teagan was hungry, as she hadn’t eaten well previously and was trying to feed her. I was getting a little bit frustrated and worried that she hadn’t eaten enough. Teagan just looked up at me, as if to say “Don’t you know what I want?”, so I decided to try to get her to sleep instead. Dummy in place, I laid down with Teagan in the crook of my arm and she just stared into my eyes. We laid there for a good 10 minutes, just looking at eachother. I started to cry, because she’d never sat so still for so long and just looked at me. It’s hard to describe how wonderful I felt, just looking into the face of this beautiful baby that I’d waited so long for. I’ve heard it said that when you become a parent, you get a little glimpse of how Heavenly Father feels, and it had never been so real to me as in that moment.

1-2 Months

• Still LOVES having her diaper changed
• Coos and sings - "ahh goo"
• Makes and holds eye contact for extended periods of time
• Puts everything else on hold to focus on pooping - eating, sucking, breathing all take a back seat to doing her business
• Follows people across her eyeline
• Loves her mummy and knows when she's holding her
• Knows that when we put her bib on it's time to eat - smacks her lips and open and shuts her mouth
  

TEAGAN TIDBIT:

Teagan was involved in her first car accident at 9 weeks of age. Brandon & I were on the last leg of our trip to Moscow, Idaho for Christmas. We drove 6 hours on Sunday and stayed with Mat & Mandi in Orem. We drove 6 more hours and stayed in Eagle (Boise) with the Bradshaws, parents of our friend, Burk, from Las Vegas. We were on our last leg of the trip on Tuesday, December 21, 2010, about an hour from Moscow when we hit a patch of black ice and spun at least 3 times. We ended up perpendicular to the road at the edge. We both held our breath, hoping that we would stay where we were, but we ended up sliding 20 feet down the bank. Buddy and I were shaken to say the least. But guess who slept through the whole ordeal? TEAGAN. She handled it like a champ and only cried once in the 3 hours it took to get towed and sorted. She and I hung out at a convenience store down the road, where Cookie, the manager, offered us anything on the menu and took great care of us. What an adventure!

0-1 Month

• LOVES having her diaper changed. She's never happier than when she's having her bum changed. All smiles and giggles when she's laying on the changing table and enjoys every minute of it. An exhibitionist perhaps?
• Making eye contact
• Starting to coo and make noises
• Noisy sleeper - Mum often wakes up in the middle of the night thinking she's wide awake and hungry, only to find her fast asleep, grunting away

TEAGAN TIDBIT:

Teagan’s umbilical cord dried up nicely and quite quickly! Mummy was changing her bum when she was just a few days old and realized that her umbilical cord wasn’t there anymore. So we double-checked the dirty diaper . It wasn’t there. We checked the bathtub. It wasn’t there. We checked what we thought were all of the places an umbilical cord could have been, but couldn’t find it! Three weeks later, we also lost the remote (we lose things a lot!) We took off the couch cushions, and what should we find next to the remote? Teagan’s dried up, crusty old umbilical cord! What do you know?

Teagan Elizabeth's Birth

TEAGAN ELIZABETH RICHARDS

GORY BIRTH DETAILS

As a first-time mother, we were worried that I might deliver early, and we were fortunate enough to be able to have my Mum come out to help us, so Grandma Gay arrived on October 18th, just in case. Teagan seemed quite comfortable where she was, and 5 days before she was due, showed no signs of coming any time soon. So, Dr. Pollock asked us to pick a day for me to be induced. We chose to go in Sunday night, October 24th, anticipating having the baby on Monday, October 25th. We wanted her to come as soon as possible so Grandma Gay could be the most help and we even recited the poem, starting “Monday’s child is fair of face.”

So Mum & Dad arrived at the hospital at 8:00 PM on Sunday, October 24th  (more than a few minutes early, we were so excited)...

Sunday, October 24^th, 2010

• 8:00 PM – checked in @ Southern Hills Hospital in Las Vegas, NV
• Introduced to Janelle, my first L & D nurse. Super bubbly and sweet.
• 9:15 PM - 1 cm dilated - given Cytotec. Didn't tickle.

Monday, October 25^th, 2010

• 1:15 AM – 1 cm dilated – given more Cytotec. Didn't feel any better the second time.
• 5:15 AM - 3 cm dilated
• 6:30 AM - failed attempt to break my water
• Introduced to Julie, my second L & D nurse. Genuine and kind.
• 7:45 AM - 2nd failed attempt to break my water, still 3 cm dilated, started on Petossin.
• 9:30 AM - Dr. Pollock breaks water, 3 cm dilated.
• 10:30 AM - Epidural and catheter - Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh
• 11:30 AM - 4 cm dilated...I was reminded of Phoebe from an episode of Friends "The miracle of birth sure is a snoozefest."
• 12:45 PM - baby rolling onto cord and breathing erratic. Got extra fluids and oxygen mask
• 1:00 PM - injection to stop labour - baby not ready
• 1:30 PM - 5 cm dilated
• 1:55 PM - IUPC inserted to help monitor contractions
• 2:15 - restarted Petossin
• Hooked up to
• Blood pressure monitor
• Baby heart beat monitor
• IUPC
• Catheter
• Oxygen
• Oxygen Monitor
• IV
• Epidural
• Petossin
• Dex
  
• 2:30 PM - upped dosage of Petossin
• 3:00 PM - STILL 5 cm dilated!!!
• 3:15 PM - upped dosage of Petossin
• 3:40 PM - baby's breathing erratic again - stopped Petossin & back on oxygen
• 3:50 PM - checked, 5. cm. dilated.
• called Dr. Pollock, concerned about baby and scheduled C-section for 4:20
• Nurses said he was "calling it". I told them they should find another phrase to use - it scared me half to death! 
• 4:05 PM - prepped for C-section (cap, gown, same for Buddy + booties!)
• 4:20 PM - Caesarean Section with Dr. Pollock
• Rolled in, team was listening to the radio. "My Girl" came on, the song we played to tell our families we were having a girl!
• Madonna comes on and Dr. says he'll wait so it isn't the first sound she hears :)
• "Play That Funky Music White Boy" on while she was emerging from the womb
• 4:43 PM - Teagan Elizabeth Richards is born - 8 lbs. 15 oz. 19 in.
• Drs. gasped - freaked me right out! They were amazed at her thick head of blond hair.
• Counted 1,2,3,4. 1,2,3,4,5. 1,2,3,4,5,6. I panicked and asked if they were counting digits. Just a sound check. Phew!
• Asked Buddy if she was beautiful - he hesitated. We both saw her as the peeked her head over the curtain and she looked like a squished alien. I'm told that she was absolutely gorgeous within minutes (Phew again!) but I didn't get to see her for hours.
• Dr. Pollock said not only was she large (for someone my size) but she was asynclytic, meaning her head was tilted and no longer in line with the birth canal, which would have present a problem on its own even if she hadn't been messing with her cord. Trouble already!

My father-in-law (the ob-gyn) gave me great advice while I was pregnant. He told me to have a plan, but that the most important thing is to be flexible. I didn't think much of it at the time, as I didn't anticipate any problems. But as soon as the nurses got worried looks on their faces and began to call the doctor multiple times, I knew that I would do whatever it took to get my baby here safely. While I'd wanted to deliver conventionally (with an epidural) I went into to mama bear mode (before actually becoming a mother) and threw my plan out the window in favour of what the medical professionals recommended.

I will admit that my C-section was the strangest feeling I've ever felt. The epidural felt strange - not having control over the lower half of my body and watching as nurses moved my legs but not being able to feel it. Exponentially more disconcerting was the fact that I couldn't feel anything from the neck down during the procedure. It was almost an out of body experience - although actually being outside my body might have felt more comfortable. I felt like I couldn't breathe at times and it was terrifying. But the moment they pulled her out, I couldn't think about anything other than the fact that I was finally a mother. It wasn't real to me until that very second - even the 9 months leading up to it. I'm thankful for modern medicine and so grateful that my baby was and is perfectly healthy.