Puppy Love

A lot of people have asked how our furry children are dealing with Lila's arrival. They are, in one word, fascinated. When Lila cries, Rocco gets very concerned and stands close by. He wanders into the nursery in the middle of the night to be with her while she eats. Wally is his snuggly, inquisitive self. Both pups are especially interested when she makes strange noises and smells.

Here's what my lap looks like this afternoon...

You're snoring awfully loudly, kiddo. Is everything okay?


All is well? Okay. Don't mind if I join you for a nap, then.


Lila has had a good day today. Things started out kind of rough with some crying and two diaper blowouts between midnight and 3:30 am. Once everything was cleaned up and she had a fresh diaper and pajamas on, Lila went to sleep and slept until 7:20! I fed her then and she went back to sleep again until 10:15... which means that I also got to sleep until 10:15! After a late breakfast, Lila took another long nap which allowed me to take a shower, get dressed, and dry my hair. It has been a day full of accomplishments! Here's hoping that Lila has a comfortable night tonight, free of tears and major diaper issues.

Lila cookies!

What higher honor is there, I must ask, than to have cookies baked and decorated just for you? Unfortunately for Lila, she's not quite up to eating cookies quite yet, so Mom and Dad will have to enjoy these delicious treats on her behalf. This is the rough part of being a new parent, to be sure.


Thank you, Gretchen! YUM!

Happy Wednesday!

Who doesn't love a baby picture, just because?

Lila is quite the night owl. After a two hour nap with mom last night, Lila was awake for most of the night. Guess what she's doing right now? Sleeping. Silly baby girl! She's got a visitor coming over in a few minutes, so I hope that she is awake for a bit while meeting her new friend. I'm looking forward to my own nap later!

1 week old!

Miss Lila turned one week old yesterday!

She wasn't really feeling like modeling last night, what with just having had to endure a bath and a wardrobe change.
She was quite a bit happier once she crashed for the night. Behold, the miracle that is the swaddle sack! (Thanks, James!)
Today we went to the pediatrician for Lila's well-baby checkup and for a follow up to her hospitalization. She is back up to her birth weight plus one ounce - a good sign that she is healthy and eating well and done with the whole bilirubin business. We were sent home with a clean bill of health and told that we don't need to return until Lila is 2 months old. Whew and yay!

After the doctor's appointment Lila and I took her grandma to one of my favorite spots, the Original Pancake House, for lunch. Everyone should have pancakes after doctor's appointments, right? Lila slept on my chest for the entire meal. With that, I declare our first outing a smashing success!

Home, Part 2

We arrived home from the hospital on Tuesday night and spent our first night at home as a family. Not even 24 hours later, we were headed to Children's Hospital to have Lila treated for high bilirubin levels (jaundice.) Her levels were high and rising, so her pediatrician ordered us to the hospital.

While we are all thankful that it was nothing more serious, it was heartbreaking to take a 3 day old baby to the emergency room to be admitted to the hospital. It was even more heartbreaking to hear her cry and not be able to scoop her up to soothe her. Thankfully, Lila's bilirubin levels fell into the healthy zone and we went home after about 48 hours. She is looking and feeling much, much better...as are her mom and dad.

Here's Miss Lila undergoing photo therapy.

Upon returning home, we all settled in for some rest. Lila's grandma arrived and they've been enjoying getting to know one another. She has loved meeting a few other friends over the past few days as well. Aside from greeting her family and new friends, her favorite past times include sleeping, snuggling, and making some seriously cute faces.

As promised, more pictures...

Baby burrito!


She is going to take after her mom after all - sucking her thumb at 5 days old. Let's hope she kicks the habit sooner than her mama did (er, age 12?)


Chillaxing in the Boppy chair.

I can hardly stand to put her down or leave the room without her. I feel like if I blink, I'll turn around and she'll be 5 years old. She's growing so fast already - 1 week old tomorrow!

Unto us a child is born...

I'll start off with what everyone is really here to see... pictures!

Sweet, kissable baby feet

Love.

Family :)

I must give credit to the lovely and amazingly talented Sara for these photos. We are so thankful to have these images from the first days of our daughter's life. More to come, I promise!

Now, how did we go from last Friday's blog entry - me SO ready for our baby to be born - to the tiny miracle we hold in our arms today? Well, I went home on Friday and spent the entire rest of the evening sleeping. I slept and slept and slept - my body knew what it had in store for me and wanted me well rested. I woke up at 8 am on Saturday and my water had broken. I wasn't having contractions, so the midwives didn't need to see me until about 12 hours later. We got dressed for the day and headed out to do some shopping. We bought a bunch of cloth diapers and then headed to one of our favorite breakfast spots for pancakes. It was really surreal to be eating breakfast on what we knew might be our daughter's birthday.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing at home with the puppies and then headed to the hospital. I was certain that we'd be on our way home a few hours later, told to come back the next morning. No sooner had we arrived at the hospital than I started having contractions. Literally they handed me a gown and told me to change and I had my first contraction. The contractions were steady and strong right away, so we settled in thinking we'd welcome our daughter in the next several hours.

The night and the next day didn't progress quite as we'd expected (ha! expectations!) and after 24 hours of (very) active labor, I was given something to help me rest and rehydrate in order to gather strength to deliver our baby. At 10:32 pm on Sunday night, she emerged into the world and became the most beautiful sight we have ever seen. We continue to marvel at her every movement, every noise she utters, and at every inch of her soft, sweet skin.

We're looking forward to having all of our friends and family meet our little girl. If you call, we're here and we promise to talk with you as soon as we have a spare moment. If that's not for a day or two, know that we're just spending time with our girl and sneaking some sleep where we can. We are so excited for you to meet Lila! She's excited to meet all of you, too, even if she doesn't know it yet. :)

She's here!

Lila Antonia was born Sunday night at 10:32 pm, weighing 8 pounds, 1 ounce and measuring 22 inches long. She has a full head of jet-black hair and is the most beautiful sight we have ever seen.

We're all resting comfortably at the hospital until Tuesday. We're going to take a few days at home to enjoy our new family, and then we are looking forward to introducing Lila to her family and friends.

39 weeks!

FULL TERM + two weeks. Hear that, Baby Girl? Full term! You're fully developed, you have some baby fat to help you regulate your body temperature, and your little lungs are grown and functional. I know they are developed because I feel your little hiccups every day. The jig's up, Kiddo- you're done cooking, and now you're just freeloading!

I never thought I'd be one of "those women" who was ready to be d-o-n-e being pregnant, especially a week or more before her due date. But guess what? I am. My hips hurt, I have acid reflux, and none of my clothes fit. Even my biggest maternity clothes don't cover my belly anymore. Thank goodness for the Bella Band or I would not be decent to leave the house. As my loving husband put it, "this is not the fun part of pregnancy, is it?" No, it's not. Then again, the longer our baby girl waits to be born, the further into spring my maternity leave will extend, and with that will come sunny days, leaves on the trees, and long walks with our daughter. So I try to be patient.

Our appointment today provided very little information on when our girl might arrive. We were only told that "most babies" arrive between now and 41 weeks, and upon exiting the exam room, the midwife said, "see you next week!" I wanted to cry, but I know that she has to say that to moms or we'd all get our hopes up and then be angry when our babies aren't born within the week. Thankfully my spirits were able to be raised by a pancake breakfast before work.

Sometime this weekend or in the week ahead I plan on posting a photo tour of Baby Z's nursery since it's finished and just waiting for her arrival. Well, it's almost finished... we plan on hanging her name above her crib (in soft letters that won't fall down and squish her) but we obviously have to wait until she's born and named to do that. Otherwise it's all done and just waiting... waiting for someone to be rocked to sleep in the glider, waiting for little diapers to be changed on the changing table, and waiting for a tiny, swaddled baby to nap on the sweet polka dot sheets.

And we wait, our little family of four, about to be a family of five. We'll enjoy this weekend snuggled on the couch, studying, watching movies and the big Vikings game, and we'll take the pups to play fetch in the snow. It helps me be more patient when I stop and realize that this may be our last weekend together, just us, before life changes forever. We'll enjoy ourselves and I'll do my darnedest to be patient as we wait on our little one.

38 weeks, 4 days

My 38 week update is a few days late, and in just a few short days there will be a 39 week update. Sorry about that!

Our 38 week appointment was a good one, and more progress has been made towards our baby girl's debut. Most significantly, she has officially "dropped." This explains why it has been so dang uncomfortable to walk lately. I feel like if I move to much or too quickly, she's going to just fall right out. Come to think of it, wouldn't that be a much better design for birthing a baby? Walking, walking, walking, BABY!

For the past several weeks the midwives have been asking me if I've been having contractions, and I've always answered, "um...I don't know, maybe?" not really knowing whether the random pains and tightenings I'm feeling are really contractions. Early, early on Monday morning I awoke out of a deep sleep to contractions. BAM! - blinding, splitting pain - no mistaking it for anything other than a contraction. I did probably the stupidest thing I could have done - I laid perfectly still and tried not to breathe too loudly, lest I wake EZ. I figured that whether this was the real thing or not, he needed his sleep and it was far too soon to bother him. Instead I panicked and thought over and over, "oh my GOD, I canNOT do this! No one told me it would hurt this much!" After a while the pain subsided and I was able to drift back to sleep. When I awoke later I realized that I can do this and I will do this, and when the Big Day comes, the LAST thing I should do is lay still and not breathe. Duh. Confidence has been restored and I know that I Will Be Okay.

The nursery is done, the hospital bag is packed, the baby girl's clothes have been washed and put away, and we're fairly certain that we have a name (and no, we're not telling.) All systems GO!

And now we wait.

37 weeks and FULL TERM!

Our baby is now considered full term! Her lungs are most likely fully developed and would function well if she were to be born now. We likely have a few more weeks until she's born, but it is such a relief to have made it to this point.

Our appointment yesterday was a bit more eventful than previous appointments in that they found that I am "leaking proteins." Due to this and to some swelling that has started over the past week, I was sent for some blood work. I waited anxiously all day for the phone to ring, but no news came, and we were assured that no news is good news. They were looking for a possible liver problem or signs of pre-eclampsia (pregnancy-induced hypertension.) Thankfully everything looks to be fine, although I am still quite swollen. This is normal towards the end of pregnancy, and it has hit me in full force.

Today we shopped for the last of the "stuff" for our little girl. We started the day with pancakes for breakfast (my favorite! Our girl's favorite, too, even if she doesn't know it yet) and then made a trip to Target to get the last of the baby essentials. It was a good and productive day.

Last Sunday, two dear friends of mine, Robyn and Alex, hosted a baby shower for Baby Z. It was a lovely afternoon spent with many of the wonderful women in my life. It was a joy and an honor to have so many great women in one place celebrating our little girl. I can't wait to introduce her to all of these strong, fabulous women.

I'll leave you with pictures from the celebration, courtesy of photographers extraordinaire, Gretchen and Robyn.

Cupcake bouquet - YUM!


More tasty food and drinks...

Peppermint ice cream cake - a beautiful and delicious hit.

Eating and chatting. There was warm soup and bread as well as veggies and dip, yummy desserts, crackers and cheese, and many other scrumptious munchies.


Opening presents!


Look at these teeny, tiny mittens! They are so small and sweet that they bring tears to my eyes. I can't believe that there are going to be little, tiny hands to go in them very soon.

Our daughter has the most wonderful friends and family in the whole, wide world. She has so many strong and amazing women in her life who I know will guide her to be a strong, beautiful woman as well.

I am humbled when I think of all of the people who have supported us and loved us as we have prepared for our our little girl's arrival. If you are reading this, that includes you.

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you.