Cuddle Time

In our home there has been lots of this:

I swear she does sleep in her own bed. :)

Not only does she get lots of cuddle time at our house, she gets even more at Grandma and Grandpa's. What a lucky little girl.

Work It Girl

For the past two days our little studio downstairs has been set up ready for those sleepy, adorable newborn photos. As one can tell, our little girl just wasn't having it! It's rather difficult to take pictures with a wide awake, wiggly baby who thinks she's hungry all of the time. It's a good thing she's cute regardless.

I had to include both pictures simply because I love both of them! I love how it looks like a drawing. Oh the joys of editing!

Rub A Dub Dub

On March 8th Ethnie had her first bath! It was much needed, who knew a baby could get so dirty? As you can tell at first she wanted nothing to do with being clean. It may or may not have had something to do with Daddy making the water a little too chilly.

Once we warmed it up she was just as happy as could be. Since then we've had another bath and she just loved it. We may have a little fish in our hands. :)

All fresh and clean :)

Three Little Words

Throughout my life I have been very accustomed to hearing the words "I love you." My parents said it to me all of the time, my brothers and I exchange the phrase frequently, and while at the time I may have thought I loved one boy or another, (really every teenage girl thinks she's in love about 100 times) I had no problem letting them know by using those three precious words. Even now I tell my friends I love them before I leave.

For Jakob it was completely different he told his family that he loved them but I was the first girl he ever uttered those three little words to. In be completely honest I'm a little bit sad I didn't treasure those words a little bit more. I'm so glad I'm the first and only girl that Jakob has ever loved.

Even though I cherish Jakob's love, those three words have never meant more to me then when my G-pa Heyden told me he loved me for the first time. I was 16 years old and visiting my cousins in Texas. I was speaking to my G-pa over the phone and as per usual I told him that I loved him before he hung up. Usually he just hangs up or says "take care" but this time he responded with "I love you too" before he hung up the phone. I sat there in shock until the dial tone beep obnoxiously in my ear and then the tears came. I'm not trying to brag or boast but I am the closest grandchild to my G-pa. I grew up with G-ma and G-pa living 7 minutes away. When I was little I would call one or the other come and rescue me when I didn't want to take naps. I would move in with them for weeks on end. Consequently I was very close with both of my Grandparents and over the 16 years of my life I had never heard my G-pa tell me he loved me, even though I always knew that he did.

You must be wondering what sparked this blog post since it has been 6 years since then? While on the phone just moments ago my G-pa once again told me he loved me. The same excitement and shock filled my body. Being a parent I now fully understand the concept of love. I will do anything and everything I can to protect, guide, teach and nurture my child. I now understand a little more the love our Father in Heaven has for each of us. It took a precious little girl, an adoring husband and gentle reminder from my G-pa to help me understand but I will never take the words "I love you" for granted again.

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!