1 month!

Honestly, I cannot believe my baby girl is one month old already.  :-(  Where the heck did the time go?!?!  When I was pregnant, people always used to say to me, "you think your pregnancy went by fast, just wait until the baby actually gets here!"  Ugh, it's so true.  Time is flying by way too quickly for my liking.  I want her to stay a tiny little baby forever.

Anyways, enough of the sadness/whining...let's talk about Isabella!  I mean, that's all anyone cares about these days anyway, right?  ;-)

Here are just some things going on with B this past month:

~  As of her last doctor's appointment about 2 weeks ago, she was 8lbs 9 oz.  We have another appointment this Thursday, and I'm sure she's well over 9lbs now.  My girl can EAT, that's for sure!  She definitely takes after her mama.  I love it. 

~  She still fits into almost all of her newborn clothes, but, we're definitely on our last leg with them.  She's getting too long for most of them now.  Hopefully she takes after Hubs and is taller than me!

~  We just used our last newborn diaper this past weekend.  She's officially in size 1's now.  :-(

~  Seriously, Little Miss Piggy can eat, let me tell you!  I honestly haven't had any clue how much she's been eating, since I've been exclusively breast feeding...but, Hubs and I went to a wedding on Saturday night, and while we were gone she ate two 4oz bottles, in ONE FEEDING!!  Hel-lo chubsters.  :-P 

~  Speaking of that...Hubs and I had our first night out since Isabella was born.  Two of our good friends got married this past weekend, so we got all dressed up and headed out for a few hours.  It was torture leaving her for the first time, but, it was nice to be out for a little while...and I even got to enjoy a few adult beverages.  Woohoo!

~  I know I shouldn't say anything, because I'm sure I'm going to jinx myself, but, whatever.  Lil Miss has been a fabulous sleeper, so far!  *knock on wood*  She naps 3-4 hours during the day, and is usually in the newborn napper part of the pack n play for naps.  She's also been sleeping in her crib at night since day one!  At first it was rough...she was eating every 2 hours or so, with an hour of that time feeding...so, I was sleeping in 1-1 1/2 hour increments.  But now, I *think* she may have her mother's love for sleeping...praise the Lord!  ;-)  So far, we've had two nights of her sleeping over 7 hours straight...7 glorious hours!!  And normally, she sleeps at least 4-6 hours straight at night.  I am SO grateful, that's for sure.  Mama loves her some sleep, so it's amazing that I've been so lucky to have a baby that loves her sleep, as well!  (So far, at least!  I know this can change in an instant, and she can end up being up 2-3 times a night again.  I'm praying that doesn't happen, though!)

~  On the sleeping subject...the one thing that we have to do in order for her to sleep so well, is swaddle her.  Thankfully we got a few Swaddle Me blankets at my shower...they've been a lifesaver!  Isabella is a crazy arm sleeper, so if she's not swaddled, she'll flail her arms all over the place and end up pulling out her binky and waking up by hitting herself in the face.  Good times.

~  Oh!  How could I forget?  I had newborn photos taken of Isabella when she was around 10 days old.  They came out SO. FREAKING. ADORABLE.  I can't even believe how great they came out...you know, not to brag or anything, but, my daughter is pretty darn cute.  ;-)  I'll definitely be showing off those pictures soon!  Keep an eye out for that post in the next couple of days.

~  I can't believe I've been on maternity leave for 5 weeks already!  It's going by so ridiculously fast.  I hate that!  Thankfully, I still have another 8 weeks home with B, but, I'm already dreading the day I have to go back to work.  And, don't even get me started on bringing her to daycare...UGH.  I want to throw up just thinking about leaving her. 

Anyways, I think that's about it for now.  I'm sure I can keep rambling on and on and ON, but, I'll just leave you with some cute 1 month pictures I took tonight...enjoy!  :-)

I'm ONE month!  :)

Teehee

 Such a big girl

 Giving Mrs. Elephant the stink eye

Thankful Thursday

I have so much to be thankful for lately, I had to make a whole post about it.  I feel like such a lucky girl!!  ;-)

• Of course, I'm SO thankful for my husband and beautiful daughter, and our little family.  I love 'us', and couldn't ask for anything better.

•  I'm also so thankful that Isabella knows when to give mommy and daddy a little break.  Like, even though she was crying/fussy all day yesterday, and barely napped, she slept for over 7 hours straight last night!!  Pure heaven.  

• I'm thankful that breastfeeding has been going SO well for both B and me.  *knock on wood*  Even though it was so tough at first, and hurt like hell, it's been getting better and better every day, and it's actually starting to hurt a lot less now.  Yay! 

• Speaking of breastfeeding...I'm so thankful that pumping has also been going well!  I just started yesterday, so I'm no pro or anything yet, but, I was able to get 3-4 oz. out of both sessions that I did!  I'm pretty excited about that.  And, I can't wait to be able to build up a good stash so I can send Bella to daycare with breastmilk instead of formula...and now Daddy can start to feed B, as well.  :-)

• I'm thankful that all of our animals have been doing so great since Isabella came home.  They've been pretty calm about everything, and only really get whiny and antsy (the dogs, at least.  Fozzie Bear could care less that she's there) when she's crying a lot.  But, it's more of a 'why-is-she-crying-please-make-her-feel-better' whine, rather than being upset/mad that she's crying.  They want her to be happy.  :-)

Ok, Little Miss is waking up from her nap, so I have to run!  I definitely have more to be thankful for, but, I can't think off the top of my head right now.  If I get a chance, I'll add more later!

Only one more day until Friday, and that means lots of Daddy/family time!  Yay!!

Oh, and of course, I can't do a post without a picture or two of my little cutie...

Dressed up pretty for Daddy's birthday

Such a good girl, just hanging out in her swing

I'm so happy I could cry!

My engagement/wedding rings fit again!!!  Hallelujah!!  I honestly thought I was going to have to have them re-sized because they wouldn't even go past my knuckle last week.  I'm SO happy!  I haven't worn my engagement ring in MONTHS (I was able to wear just my wedding band until the last month or so.)  I've missed it so much.  :-)

I tried them both on together earlier today, and it was really hard to get them off, so I'll just stick with wearing one at a time for now.  I'm just so glad I was able to get them back on my sausage fingers again!  ;-)

And, just because I can't do a post anymore without showing off my little cutie...here's a quick pic I took of Isabella today.  She's wearing her special heart outfit for her daddy's birthday today.  :-)

Where has the time gone? Isabella's birth story...

Seriously....I can't believe my little girl is already 2 1/2 weeks old already.  I didn't really believe people when they told me how quickly time would pass by once Isabella was here, but unfortunately, they were all right!  :(  I don't want her to get any bigger.  I want her to stay my teeny tiny baby forever. 

:::sigh:::

Ok, before I start sulking and forget about writing this post completely...here's Isabella's birth story:

It started off the day before her actual birthday...3/1/11.  I had my last check-up that morning to see if anything was going on with my body, and if labor was even close to happening on its own.  Of course, it wasn't.  The doctor saw no change, and told me that I had to go into the hospital that night to start the induction process.  It had been long enough (I was 41 weeks 4 days along), and it was time to get this baby out!  I was SO excited/scared out of my mind at the same time.  I mean, I was going to have my baby in my arms by the end of the next day!!  It seemed so surreal.

So, after hearing the news that morning, I went home and did what any normal pregnant woman would do after being told they were going to be in labor that night....absolutely nothing.  ;-)  I went home, laid in bed, watched tv and all my DVR'd shows, painted my nails, and basically just relaxed as much as possible.  I knew it was my last day to do that, so why not take advantage of it while I could, right?!

Around 8pm that night, we arrived at the hospital and I got set up in my room for the night.  Finally, around 10:30pm, one of the resident doctors (not one of my own OB's) came in to check me (honestly, one of the worst internals I've had in my pregnancy thus far.  I don't know WHAT she was doing up there, but OMG, the pain was awful!) and give me a little pill, Misoprostol, that was placed in me to soften my cervix and hopefully get contractions to start on their own.  At this point, I was still only a fingertip dilated, and only about 50% effaced.  By 5-6am, I was cramping so badly that I couldn't sleep or get comfortable at all, so I they gave me some morphine to take the edge off.  Ahhh, sweet relief.  And, surprisingly, that little shot of morphine kept me pain free until about 2pm the next day when I started having serious contractions from the pitocin!  It was great.

At about 10:30am the next morning, I was taken down to the labor & delivery floor and got set up there to start pitocin and get my contractions moving along even more.  Overnight, I had progressed to 2cm and about 75% effaced (Woohoo!  Progress!)  By 2-3pm, I was 3cm 90% effaced, and the pain was getting so bad that I had to get the epidural.  I tried to breathe through them for as long as possible, but, with only being 3cm still, and knowing I was going to have a LONG day/night ahead of me, I knew I needed to save my strength for later, when it came time to push.

Now, the epidural...that's a whole other story.  Ugh.  Let's just say, the relief it gave me from the pain was definitely worth it, but, having 6 or 7 holes poked into my back, and being hunched over while having contractions for an HOUR, was not fun.  OMG.  I couldn't believe how long it took them to find a 'good' spot in my back and get it to work correctly.  I was honestly terrified that my body was going to reject the medicine, and I was going to have to go through labor feeling the pain the entire time.  Thankfully, that was not the case, but it was pretty scary at the time! 

FINALLY, the epidural was in, and I was able to breathe and relax for the rest of the day.  And, I have to mention...I had one of the nicest/sweetest nurses with us the entire day while I was in labor.  I don't think she left our room for more than 5 minutes the whole day.  She was literally like a 'mom' to me (I don't have the greatest relationship with my mom, so she wasn't in the room with us the whole day.  It was just James and me, and that's exactly how I wanted it.), and talked/helped me through every contraction and made me feel SO comfortable.  It was so nice. 

Now, to make a long story short (haha, so much for that), from about 3-4pm, when I got the epidural, until 10:30 or so that night, I never made it past 4cm.  Over 6 hours in labor, with them bumping up the amount of pitocin they were giving me every half an hour, and I only dilated one freaking centimeter.  Awesome.  So, at that point, my doctor came in and told me it wasn't looking so good, and Isabella's heart rate was starting to spike a bit.  That's all I had to hear.  I was done, I was ready to meet my baby...let's get her outta there!  So, I was prepped and taken to the OR for a c-section.  And it's funny, throughout my entire pregnancy, I just had a 'feeling' that I was going to be late (Hello!  Almost 42 weeks pregnant and still no baby.  I swear she would've stayed in there until June if we let her!), that I was going to have to be induced, and that my induction was going to fail and I was going to end up with a c-section.  I'll call it mother's intuition.  ;-) 

As much as I was terrified of having a c-section (I had never been in the hospital in my life before, for anything, let alone major surgery!), it was so much easier and quicker than I imagined...and the recovery was definitely not as bad as I expected either.  My doctor was awesome, and literally from the time I was wheeled into the OR, to the time I was wheeled into recovery with my baby in my arms, was 45 minutes long.  I couldn't believe it.  My baby was finally here!

Isabella Grace was born at 11:04pm on 3/2/11, weighing 8lbs 4 oz and 20 inches long.  She was absolutely perfect.

 Dad 'prepping' for surgery, with a beer of course!

  Please excuse my face/chins...it was SO swollen from all the meds/fluids!

Our first family photo  :-)

 My little buritto baby

Love her sleepy/stretching face

Time to go home, finally!

Hanging out with mommy

Fozzie's watching over his lil sis  :-)

*Wordless Wednesday* (sort of)

Seriously, I can't believe my little baby is 1 week old today!!  Time is already flying by way too quickly.  It makes me sad.

Anyways, here are 2 of my favorite pics from the past week.  The first one is the day we were leaving the hospital in her coming home outfit.  :)

Trying out her little lamb bouncy seat for the first time

Introducing...Miss Isabella Grace

She's finally here!!  After over 24 hours of labor, she finally made her grand entrance via c-section at 11:04pm on 3/2/11...8lbs 4 oz, 20 inches, and just perfect.  I could just stare at her little face all day long.  More updates to come when I get home!

Tonight's the night!

Well, since I last posted, I still haven't had my baby.  She's one stubborn little girl, that's for sure!!

I've been to the hospital twice in the past week for a non-stress test and ultrasound to make sure my fluid levels are still good.  Everything has been perfect both times. 

I had a regular OB appointment this morning to see if I was dilated/progressing at all, and of course there's nothing going on down there.  And, we're at the point now where it's getting late, and this lil lady needs to come out...now!

So, I'm heading to the hospital tonight to start the induction process.  Eeeek!!  I'm SO nervous.  I just can't believe that, if things don't progress TOO slowly, I will have my baby in my arms by tomorrow night.  So surreal.

So, no matter what...the next time I post, it will be to introduce our baby girl.  I can't believe it.  Wish me luck!!  :)