One Month Old

In some ways this feels like the longest month of my life-- I can't even imagine not having Isabella in our lives now, it seems like she's been with us for much, much longer than a month. But at the same time, the month seems to have flown by, just like each day flies by.

I can just imagine her making this face when she's 13...


Bella's first real bath (luckily for us, she has grown to like it more than she did this first time!)


Tummy time with Daddy


The last time my mom was here, she asked me if I like being a mother. When I signed up for the mommy job, I had NO IDEA how hard it is. But it's also so much more wonderful than I ever imagined. I love being Isabella's mommy, and it's becoming much more fun now that I can do more stuff with her. I think my recovery is taking a couple of weeks longer than usual because of the anemia, and it was really frustrating for me when I couldn't even carry Isabella. But last week I gave her a bath by myself, and started cooking easy meals and doing some light housework, so things are getting much better.

Mother's Day with Isabella (Isabella gave me a present of her own-- she slept four hours in a row for the first time that night!)


Everyone wants to know what kind of father Stephen is. Since I couldn't do any of the babycare in the beginning, other than feed her, Stephen has had a lot of opportunities to bond with Isabella and learn how to take care of her. He's changed 90% of her diapers (and was the first one to diagnose her first diaper rash), given most of her baths, rocked her to sleep, read to her, washed and folded her clothes and dressed her, sang to her, given her rides in the stroller... so I would say he's doing a great job!

Pretty in Pink

We got Isabella dressed up in pink for a visit with the fam this weekend and she looked soooo cute!




Bella loves her swing!


And so do we! (Anything that will keep her asleep while mommy eats!)


My mom is so in love with Isabella! (Who can blame her?) It had been two and a half weeks since she'd seen Isabella and she couldn't stand it any longer, so she came back out here on Friday and brought my brother Lee with her to meet the baby. As soon as Mom walked in the door, she washed her hands and grabbed the baby before she'd even finished unloading the car. Then she "volunteered" to hold Isabella while the rest of us ate supper, and when we went to the park she stationed herself immediately at the helm of Isabella's stroller to push her. She also has a pink "Grandma's Brag Book" photo album that she keeps in her purse and she whips it out EVERY time she sees someone she knows in town. She's showed it to people in Winn-Dixie, Walmart, Lowe's, Sunday school class... She is one proud grandma!


My baby brother holding my baby girl!


Bella's first trip to the park




I love this little sweetie!

First Night Out

We took Isabella on her first real outing to go out to eat at a restaurant in Athens. This was probably more fun for Stephen and me than it was for Isabella since she slept through most of it while we got to chat and eat some yummy food, but still special nonetheless. She was so good that she didn't wake up until we were leaving, then fell asleep in the car on the way home and gave mommy and daddy another hour to hang out and relax together. Amazing how few and far between these moments are which we've always taken for granted up until now!

We are finally learning to organize our day around Isabella's eating and feeding, and that's made the days much more enjoyable and functional. I'm actually able to get a few things done, eat my food while it's hot, and take some breaks in the day. Hooray!



This is Isabella taking her first ride in the stroller. She loved it! Stephen can't wait to take her for walks in it. He loves to carry her around outside and takes her for a little walk outside almost every day.

Few things have ever made me happier than seeing Bella smile. I swear I fall more in love with her every time she does it. We haven't caught a smile on camera yet but we're working on it. For now you can enjoy seeing her beautiful blue eyes, rosy pink lips, and adorable chubby cheeks! (Can you tell how beautiful I think she is? That old Prince song about the most beautiful girl in the world gets stuck in my head when I cuddle with her!)

Week Two

I can't believe Isabella is two weeks old already! I'm already getting sad thinking about how quickly she is going to grow up and I'm trying to savor every moment with her while she's a tiny precious little baby!

Isabella is doing great so far. We went back to the pediatrician to check on her jaundice, which has leveled off, and found out that it will take about a month for her to lose the orangeness. Stephen calls it the "Tropicana Look." She will fit right in with all the tanning bed junkies. We also found out that she gained 9 ounces in one week! Yay! She is now back to her birth weight! (And that explains why I've been feeling so much like a dairy cow lately.)



We love to watch all of Bella's little facial expressions and the funny noises she makes, she's very entertaining. Stephen loves to hold her and has discovered that walking around with her is a good way to calm her down. I feel like my entire day revolves around feeding her, talking to her, and trying to catch up on sleep. Our biggest challenge right now is figuring out how to get her to sleep in her pack'n'play bassinet. She almost always wakes up in the transport from the location where she fell asleep. Any and all suggestions and advice on this topic would be greatly appreciated...


Stephen trying to get Bella to sleep...

I'm feeling much better lately. I've been able to switch to taking Tylenol a couple of times a day and can move around a lot more without hurting much, so it seems that the c-section recovery is going well. The blood loss recovery is getting a little better with each day. A week ago, I could only be on my feet for about five minutes a day and that was it. Now I'm up to about thirty minutes a day and I feel strong enough to carry the baby short distances in our house every now and then. My mom took off work for a week to be here when the baby was born, but since we were in the hospital five days, we only had two days at home to enjoy Mom's good cooking! Stephen's parents were here for several days this week and did some more cooking for us, and having that good food available has really helped out.


Introducing Bella to The Great Outdoors (and me sporting the official new mommy look, complete with no makeup and greasy hair... just lovely).

We're starting to get adjusted to having a baby around, but I am still wondering if I will ever wear real clothes and makeup again, if we will ever be able to sleep more than three hours at a time again, and whether Stephen and I will ever be able to spend time alone together in the next five years. Last night we got to watch half of a movie together on the couch while Bella slept in her bassinet, and that was a huge accomplishment. lol. I am so thankful for all the time I've spent with babies before now, because that is definitely helping to make this transition easier. If not for that, I think we would be going at least moderately insane right now with the demands of newborn care. Instead of that, we are just mildly irritated every now and then (usually at 3 a.m.). Bella is still being a very good baby, and we still have a ton to learn about being parents, but she is being quite patient with us and giving us lots of love and joy anyways. We love her to pieces!

Isabella's Arrival!

I can't believe our little girl has been here for a week already! She is the most beautiful, precious, wonderful, amazing, sweetest, adorable thing ever and Stephen says I am going to spoil her rotten, but he is just as enamored with her as I am. Sorry for the delay in posting pictures; recovery has been rough and this is my first time online since Bella was born. Here's an update on what's happened in the past week!

Isabella was born on April 15th at 9:02 a.m., she weighed 6 lbs 9 oz and was 20.5 inches long. She has dark blue eyes and lots of brown hair. She did have a little trouble with breathing the first couple of days because of amniotic fluid left in her lungs, and she's had jaundice that we've had to monitor pretty closely, but these have not been major problems, and other than that she has been perfectly healthy so far and we are so grateful for that.

The Surgery

The C-section itself went just about as well as it could have. My nurses and doctor did an awesome job. We were all in great spirits and I didn't get nervous until I walked into the operating room and saw all of the instruments and machines... it was like a dentist's office times 10. I asked to have as little pain medication as possible because I wanted to be alert, and I was really surprised at how much pain there was from the pulling and pushing of the surgery, even with the spinal in. It was intense. But it was not long until Bella was out, and holding her was the best pain medication they could have given me!

Our nurses were very accommodating and went along with everything on our Birth Plan. They let me have my arms free during the surgery instead of strapping them down, they did all the newborn checks where I was able to see Bella from the operating table, Stephen and Isabella were able to stay in the operating room with me during the whole procedure, I was allowed to hold Isabella soon after her birth, we got to see the placenta that kept Bella healthy for so long and caused so much trouble in the end, and Stephen and the baby were able to stay in the recovery room with me, where Isabella ate for the first time and seemed to know exactly what to do to latch on!

Our last minutes as a twosome, just before going in the operating room.


Stephen holding Bella for the first time.


My first time to hold Bella, one of the happiest moments in my life!


Getting checked out in the nursery.


The happy grandparents holding Isabella for the first time.


She already has us wrapped around that little finger!


Checking out Bella's feet.


So happy to finally have my baby safe and in my arms!


The Recovery

Everything was great for the first few hours after birth, then something really stupid happened that threw a wrench into everything. There was a crack in my catheter, and instead of fixing it, the nurse (the only bad nurse I had in five days at the hospital) decided to take it out 12 hours after surgery, while fluids were still being pumped into me, and told me that I would definitely know when I needed to pee. Well, several hours went by without me feeling the urge to pee, and by the time I got up to go, I was hemorrhaging. Apparently my uterus wasn't able to contract like it needed to while I had a full bladder, so my uterus filled up with blood clots and within a few hours I lost as much blood as I'd lost earlier that day during the c-section. It was a total nightmare, with nurses coming in to push on my poor uterus all night, me passing huge clots and tons of blood, and trying to feed Isabella every couple of hours. That night resulted in my becoming temporarily anemic. Thankfully I didn't lose so much blood that I had to get a blood transfusion, and I got the choice of that or building my blood back up over time with the help of supplements.

Things have pretty much been a blur ever since then. I haven't been able to take Ibuprofen for pain because of all the blood I lost, so I've been on narcotics that make me feel awful. If I don't take the meds I hurt so bad that I can hardly move, but when I take the meds I feel so bad that I don't want to do anything. I've been on Percocet and I hate the way it makes me feel. I switched to Lortab today and am hoping it won't make me feel so bad. One of my doctors told me that I wouldn't be able to carry my baby for six weeks because of the danger of fainting while holding her (this advice has caused all kinds of breakdowns), and another doctor said I could carry her if I felt strong enough to. Being weak from anemia, the pain in my abdomen, and the pain medications have made recovery a lot harder than I was prepared for. That combined with the demands of feeding a newborn all night and day, and my hormones going CRAZY. It's like mega PMS, after all these months of no PMS. Bummer.

We stayed in the hospital four nights, five days, and I was actually sad to leave. It was so nice to have people around to take care of me and to check on the baby all the time. I loved being brought food three times a day, having a pediatrician available to check out Isabella every morning, and nurses to weigh her and bathe her every night. We only sent her to the nursery to be watched twice during the whole time we were there, and that was during the day after the hemorrhaging, so I could get some rest. I felt she needed to be with us all the time so we could learn how to take care of her before we left the hospital.

Our hospital has lactation consultants available 24/7, and I used them at least once every day. They were so helpful, and I have no idea how new mothers are able to breastfeed without their help. Breastfeeding is one thing that has gone really well so far, which I am so happy about, because I was worried that with her being born three weeks early she might not know how to latch on or suck well, but she has done great since the very beginning. We did have a bit of a scare when she had already lost 9.4% of her birth weight by the end of the second day, even though she was eating and pooping like crazy. A small miracle happened when my milk came in the next morning, only 48 hours after her birth, and she was able to start gaining her weight back. (Apparently milk normally takes much longer to come in after a c-section, and all the nurses were telling me how lucky I was to have it so early). For a couple of days there I looked like Dolly Parton, and discovered that it's extremely painful to look like Dolly!

Isabella's First Week

I can't believe how much Isabella has changed in a week. With every day, she looks more and more like Stephen did as a baby. She has his hairline, his chubby cheeks, and I'm pretty sure I've seen his dimples on her. She has been a super good baby so far, which I am so grateful for. She only cries when she's hungry, and she mostly just eats, sleeps, and poops (and luckily, breastfed baby poop really does not stink). When she is alert she loves to look around and check out her surroundings. She cracks us up with all the little facial expressions she makes. She's already been nicknamed "Turtle-neck" for the way she stretches her neck out, "Piglet" for the little grunts she makes, and "Monkey" for her long, strong, skinny arms and legs (and of course all the other nicknames like sweetie, darling, etc). Stephen loves to play with her, and has already made up a song about her, danced with her, and tried to introduce her to some toys and music. He is currently the official diaper changer since I'm not supposed to be carrying her to the changing table until I get stronger (the one perk of this anemia thing). It stinks to be woken up all night for feedings and changings, but we've gotten used to sleeping in thirty minute and one hour increments of time. And she is so cute that she still makes us laugh even at two in the morning when she's had a major blowout. All I've really gotten to do with her so far is feed her, hold her, kiss her, and love on her, but that's enough for now and I'm looking forward to when I'll be strong enough to do more. She is a doll and we love her to pieces.

Isabella's first time to wear clothes.


It didn't take long for Stephen to fall in love with this precious baby!


Isabella loves skin-to-skin time! (And so do I!)


Sticking out her long tongue, one of her favorite tricks!


Our angel.


Ready to go home from the hospital!


Proud Daddy bringing Isabella home.


Isabella napping while I ate breakfast in bed this morning.


I hope this super long blog makes up for the long wait! Hopefully I'll start posting more as I get to feeling better. Thanks again to all of you for your prayers! We have a safe and happy baby and we feel so blessed that she is finally here with us!

Just a Few More Hours to Go...

Almost there! Our surgeon is on call right now, so even if we don't make it through the night, everything will be okay! My mom will be here soon and poor Stephen is busy trying to "man clean" the house, after being at work all day and grading essays non-stop since Friday. It's hard not being able to help him! Yesterday I did too much and had lots of contractions, so Stephen doesn't want me to lift a finger today ("too much" was taking a shower and going to the doctor in one day). I just have to put a few more things on our birth plan (which may or may not go as planned at all, but we're hoping for the best) then back to the horizontal position.

The surgery is scheduled for 8:30 tomorrow morning, which means we have to be at the hospital at 6:30. I have no idea how we're going to be able to sleep tonight, I'm too excited and nervous to sleep! It's surreal to think that our little girl will be brought out into the world tomorrow... one minute she's inside, the next minute she's on the outside... it's almost unbelievable! I can't wait to hold her and give her lots of kisses, we can't wait to see what she looks like, and of course the main thing we're hoping for is that she will be healthy!

Still Baking

Baby's still in there...the terbutaline pills, bedrest, and drinking TONS of water seems to be doing the trick for now... just hoping this will keep working a couple more days! We're having our last doctor's appointment tomorrow with Dr. Puplampu, the OB/GYN scheduled to do the c-section. She has been a great doctor throughout my pregnancy and I really feel good about her being our surgeon (it helps knowing that her undergrad degree is from Harvard and her father is a neurosurgeon!). I trust her to take good care of us.

Isabella is doing lots of stretching, rolling, and poking, and I think I am actually going to miss feeling her move around in my belly. One of my favorite sources of entertainment during bedrest has been watching and feeling her move around and playing the always-fun guessing game "Which body part is THAT?" (obviously, we don't have cable to keep me occupied!). Everything is still looking good for her-- good heart rate, good movement, good blood flow through the umbilical cord. The placenta is not in the right place but I'm thankful that it's still functioning well! As long as she's doing well, I'm happy.