I'm Two Weeks Old!!

Holy Moses! Is there a button I can push to slow time down?! Time is going by way too fast! I can hardly believe our little girl is already two weeks old. Next thing I know she'll be going on her first date! I better not blink.

Here are a few fun facts about our little peanut. Isn't that little smile just the cutest??

• She gets hiccups ALL the time!! I mean almost every time she eats. It is both adorable and annoying. I can't imagine how she finds it comfortable.
• She sleeps like a gem! We'll see how long it lasts for but only waking up 2 times a night to feed her isn't too shabby. And she falls right back to sleep afterwards.
• She is becoming more alert by the second. She is starting to focus her bright blue eyes.
• She loves being held and cuddled.
• She has zero nipple confusion and will nurse, take a bottle and she loves her soother (a huge thank you to our nurse Holly for teaching her how to take one at 2:30 a.m while we were in the hospital.)
• She makes this random squeaking noise. Personally I think she gets it from me with my random squealing hiccups.
• She hates having her hands stuck. If we swaddle her she'll squirm and fuss until she breaks free.
• Daddy says she poops too much, honestly she doesn't but it's him job when he's at home. ;)
• & Last but not least... I'm almost positive we have the most precious baby on the planet and I'm not even biased. ;)

We are so incredibly blessed to have such a precious little girl! In other news Momma only has 8 pounds to go until she's at her pre preggo weight!! Woohoo! I have a lot of toning to do but I discovered today that I still need to take it easy. Note to self do not run to check a yard sale sign. Walk first, then run! Hopefully I'll be healed up enough to start exercising within the next week or so, I'm going crazy :).

Thumbelina

11 days old and she's already found her thumb for the first time! Slow down baby girl! We don't want you growing up too fast!

Welcome Home Round II

Monday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. Ethnie and I were finally discharged. I was so excited to be able to take our little girl home once again. I can say with confidence that the four days we spent in the hospital were by far the hardest days of my life. Having our precious newborn baby tethered to an IV and other monitors, watching them stick her with needles, and hearing her little cry and not being able to comfort her just broke my heart. At one point in time, one of the nurses said I was interfering with the monitors and I that I wasn't allowed to hold her. I almost ripped her head off.

In the end I was so thankful to have had a full work up done, we now know for sure that nothing is wrong and we are praying that everything stays that way. We still do not know the cause of her episode but we're so grateful that she is home and healthy. I am so grateful that everything they were doing was precautionary, I can't imagine what the other parents were going through in the hospital. Good gravy, just thinking about it breaks my heart. Okay.... enough depression.

We came home to a letter from Ethnie's cousin's Violet and Lucia in Boston. What a perfect way to welcome her home!! Thanks girls!! We loved it!

Once again a huge thank you to you all for your thoughts, words of encouragement and prayers! They have had an impact and we truly appreciate it! We are so blessed!

Hmm, Didn't See That One Coming

Friday morning my world got turned upside down. Little Ethnie had an episode of sorts and as any parent would understand your heart simply breaks.

We put Ethnie down for bed at 12:30 a.m. Hoping for an uneventful evening since Jakob had to take his GMAT Friday afternoon. Ever since day one we've had to wake Ethnie up to feed her. At 4:00 a.m. I got up to change her diaper. She was acting completely normal, not so stoked about having cold wipes on her tush and ready to eat, then all of a sudden she went completely ridged and then her limps and head started flaying around. I immediately thought seizure and called for Jakob to wake up. I handed her to him and we noticed her color changing rapidly. She was turning purple and her lips were blue. We called 911 and were trying to get her to cry so she'd take a deep breath. Her breaths were shallow and a approximately 3 - 5 seconds apart and she was bubbling at the mouth. The woman on the phone advised us to tilt her head to her chest and slowly her color resumed back to normal.

By the time the EMT's got there she was back to her normal color but not responsive. She wouldn't open her eyes or eat. She was lethargic and groggy. I will be 100% honest I was beyond upset at these EMT's. The first question they asked me was if this was our first baby. After that it was if they weren't listening to a word we said. I could only imagine how we looked, new parents, 7 day old baby, breathing normally and good color. They told me time and time again it was just a baby being a baby. No, it absolutely was not. I have been around children my entire life, I am no doctor but this was something. The EMT then brought up money and how it would be expensive to have them drive her. Honestly I wanted to scream. As if that would matter to me when our child's health is threatened?

They left the house at 4:30 a.m. and I just held her for over an hour. She still wouldn't eat so I decided to try and get some sleep and see if she'd eat in an hour or so. She finally ate at 7:30 a.m. but she wouldn't open her eyes. She was still very sleepy and not hungry considering she hadn't eaten in 7 hours.

At 9:30 she finally opened her eyes for just a few minutes. At 10:24 she woke up on her own and finally ate quite a bit. She fell back to sleep immediately.

At 1:40 p.m. (9 hours after her episode) she was finally back to her normal self, alert, hungry, and ever so happy. I still took her into the Dr's office just to be sure. Dear Jakob was at work and on his way to take the GMAT so he was totally out of the loop. After consulting with 2 other physicians the Dr decided that we needed to go to the ER and be admitted with a bunch of tests (blood, urine, spinal fluid). If you want to know what a broken heart feels like, try sitting in a room listening to your 7 day old baby scream as they try 5 different times to get an IV in. I was sobbing in the hallway. I very thankful to have had both Mom Tobler and our friend James (he drove me to the Dr's office since my car is broken as well... when it rains it pours) there to help support Ethnie and I. Seeing our little girl so helpless was absolutely horrible.

We were admitted and we discovered that we would be here until Monday. I was both grateful and emotional. I was very glad that they were taking us seriously and that she was getting a full work up done to be sure. On the other hand I was tired, emotionally drained and all I wanted was to be cuddling my baby in our bed at home. Instead she is covered in wires and monitors. I know it could be much worse and I am so thankful that everything is precautionary!

As of this moment we are still waiting on the cultures and the EEG results. She is doing wonderful! Eating well, good color (aside from the jaundice), and aside from when she's being poked she's pretty happy. She hates the IV and keeps trying to bite at it. She's putting on her brave face and hopefully we will be back home tomorrow. We are so thankful for everyone's support, thoughts and prayers! We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends both near and far!

Our Little Princess

At 4 days old Mom Tobler and I tried our hand at newborn photos. Ethnie was so cooperative. Here are a few of our highlights :) Hopefully we'll be able to do part II this week.

She's the key to our heart <3

I just love the Minnie Mouse outfit! It fit her pretty perfectly.

Love this picture. Her eyes are so bright. Gosh I love her!

No shoot would be complete without a couple of bloopers. :)

This moose hat was by far my favorite hat! I was soooo stoked about it, however it was much too small! So sad :(

Our little princess was doing such a good job. Of course we knew we were taking a gamble with her little bum hanging out. Of course we had an accident and it was super funny! Good gravy, what a mess.

I can hardly wait to do our second shoot! We sure do love our little girl!

Welcome Home Little Girl!

As mentioned before we were discharged Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. I really wanted to get home and settled and I couldn't imagine asking Jakob to spend another night on a pull out chair. she didn't seem to mind her car seat (I now know better!)

Our first family photo at home.

Sunday morning I was half tempted to go to sacrament meeting with little Ethnie. I really wanted to show her off. Lack of sleep (not throughout the night, she slept like a gem!) and lots of cuddle time kept us home. She started off her morning by watching Tin Tin with Daddy.

Then we took a couple of pictures. Momma should have washed her face first. :)


Even though we didn't make it to church I was dying to get her all dressed up! Here is her first Sabbath outfit. She really doesn't like fashion shows so we resorted back to her P.J's

Daddy's little love bug. I must admit, even though we have some adorable photos of her already, I think this is one of my favorites. It melts my heart so see Jakob just adore her. I am so incredibly happy!

Her First 24 Hours

Saturday consisted of blood work, ultrasounds, tests, lots of cuddling and Ethnie's first photo shoot. Here are a few of my favorites.

I absolutely adore this picture. Like I said before, there is nothing more attractive than watching your husband treasure your child. Ethnie has Daddy enchanted and you could tell from the first time that he held her that I was no longer the key to his heart. It's tough to compete with someone so precious :).

Precious little Tobler feet.

Not only does she have Daddy wrapped around her finger she has me bewitched too. All I want to do is cuddle her and she doesn't mind one bit. What a lucky Momma I am.

Jakob had to go and take a practice exam in the morning so Grandma came to keep us company. I am so thankful to have her close by. I would be lost without her. I can already tell that Grandma and Grandpa Tobler are going to be a very important part of Ethnie's life. Growing up I always had my Grandmother close by (7 minute drive close) and she played a very important part in my up bringing. Since my parents are so far away I am grateful to have Jakob's parents there to have that same relationship.

Big yawn in Grandma's arms.

Ethnie's first test. She passed her hearing exam with flying colours. I now have pictures and a certificate to prove that she can in fact here me when she's a teenager and simply chooses to ignore us. :)

She then had an ultrasound done. The Dr. heard a heart murmur. Good news is they didn't seem all that concerned about it and at her first Dr's appointment yesterday Dr. Blank said he couldn't hear anything. :)

At 7:30 p.m. we were discharged and on our way home. I can still hardly believe that we are a family of three. We love our little love bug so much! What spoiled parents we are.