The first two weeks...

It has been a busy couple of weeks around here as you can imagine. Between feeding, diapering, playing, and cleaning two kiddos, there's not much time left over for much of anything else. I hope to make up for the lack of frequency posting, by posting lots and lots of pictures! This post alone has taken me a week to complete!

This was Bella on her first day at home. She slept all the time between feedings.

Here she is trying out her swing for the first time...

On Monday, April 12th, at 5 days old, we took Bella to her first doctor visit. The hospital had us bring her in so soon because of her bilirubin level being high. The doctor checked her out and didn't see the need to have the blood test done. She said she could definitely see the yellow in her face and abdomen, but it wasn't in her arms or legs which was a good sign. She weighed 7 lbs 7 oz and was 20 1/4" long. The doctor said the measurements were good, she just needed to be at her birth weight by her two week appointment.

On the way home from the doctor...

On Wednesday, April 14th, we took Bella to "play" at the park for the first time with big brother.

Kaleb brushing off his knees... such a boy!

He had a blast swinging with Daddy!

Bella napping on Daddy...

Mommy with both kiddos!

Kaleb got himself dressed this day...i loved it! He insisted on his Aggies shirt, Aggies pants, and cowboy boots!

Here's Bella swinging again. You can already see how she's grown!

Fishing is one of Kaleb's favorite things to do right now! We could sit on the porch all day long and cast that fishing pole over and over again and he'd be happy.

Bella's two week photo shoot... Kaleb insisted on joining!

On Thursday, April 22nd, we took Bella for her two week checkup. Due to her jaundice, we were to feed Bella as much as possible. We were nervous that she would not have gained enough weight by this appointment since she lost so much to begin with. Not only did she reach her birth weight....she surpassed it by far! She weighed in at 8 lbs 13 oz and 21 1/4" long! She must take after her brother! Everything else looked good as well, so nothing to worry about. She'll just be back for her 2 month checkup.

All in all it has been a busy, sleepless, but enjoyable couple of weeks! Kaleb loves being a big brother and showing her off to everyone we see. He's been very helpful (for the most part)!

Coming soon...the next few weeks!

Bella Grace Bernat

On the morning of Wednesday, April 7th, we made our way to St. Lukes Episcopal Hospital in the Medical Center. Miss. Bella had decided she liked where she was and she wasn't coming out unless we forced her. So that is what we did!
We arrived at the hospital to check-in and take care of pre-op at 7:30am. I got to get all dressed up in the hospital clothes, "party hat", and get my IV. Here I was... a little anxious about what was to come...

I went in to the operating room at 9:27am. The anesthesiologist was right there to get my spinal going. That, I think, was what I was most nervous about. I didn't want the epidural to begin with when I had Kaleb, but I ended up getting it when my induction was going nowhere, and then it didn't work for the c-section. I slept through his birth and I didn't want that to happen again. The anesthesiologist this time was great! It was not bad at all. A little shot in my back that stung a little, then the whole thing was all over within seconds it seemed. (The IV was worse!) My toes felt heavy right away. They helped me to lie down on the table and took care of all their prepping. The numbness slowly moved up my body as I laid there. It was a weird feeling. Not long after, Kevin came in to join me all dressed up in his scrubs. And they began. It took longer than I expected for them to get to her, but when they did, it was incredible. One of the nurses lowered the drape in front of us low enough for us to see her come out. She began crying immediately and didn't stop, which was a beautiful noise. She was taken to the warmer to be suctioned because of all the fluid in her lungs. (which is normal for a c-section baby) Here is one of her first pictures...she's still screaming!

They weighed her...8 pounds 1 ounce...and measured her...19 3/4" long!

Then tagged her...

Minutes later (seemed like an eternity) they brought her right to me to hold right on the operating table. It was amazing to finally see the little girl that had been living inside me for 9 months.

She stopped crying when they finally gave her to Mama!

I'm in love!

Right after surgery, they took us back to the recovery room for some family bonding. I couldn't take my eyes off of her.

Kaleb was her first visitor! Doesn't he look proud! He surely is! He came in and we asked him "Who is that?" His response..."That's Bella! Hers come out your tummy Mama?" Yes hers did!

The family took turns getting a peek and quick visit in recovery before we were taken to our postpartum room. She had a quick checkup in our room and had to lay under the warmer for a little while, but took that time to relax! After warming up, she got her first little bath. Again, right in our room. That was what was so wonderful with the hospital. She was never taken out of the room away from us. Anything and everything they had to do for her was done right at my bedside.

Here's big brother holding Bella for the first time on her birthday!

He really is so proud of her! Still learning to be gentle, but very proud to show her off!

Beautiful Bella resting at 1 day old...

We had anticipated on going home Friday afternoon and had the go ahead from my doctor, but the pediatrician wanted to keep her another day due to some jaundice and weight loss issues. By Saturday, she was released with orders to see the doctor first thing Monday. They just told us to make her eat, eat, eat as much as we could! Here we are ready to go home!

One last picture in our home for the first three days of her life...

She's a tiny little thing!

So sweet...

Here we are in front of our house as we arrived...

and again just inside...

It has been an amazing journey! Still hard to believe she's real sometimes! She's been a very easy baby to take care of. She eats and sleeps! Sleeps through anything too which is a good thing since she's got a crazy big brother! We took her to the doctor Monday and everything looked good. She weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces which is 2 more ounces than when discharged from the hospital. She was 20 1/4" long...1/2" more than birth. The doctor said she still sees a little jaundice in her face and upper abdomen, but nothing to be concerned with. She didn't see the need for a blood test yet. We'll take her back at two weeks old and hopefully she'll be better by then. Until then, she's just supposed to eat, eat, eat!

More to come soon...

my "baby"...who won't be the baby much longer...

The past few weeks, Kaleb and Mama have been spending a lot of time together. We went to Aunt Ellie's birthday party at Katy park a couple of weekends ago. Kaleb had a blast playing on the playground and golfing. Here's uncle Tim helping him off the slide...

eatin' some cheetoes... thats all he ate for lunch!

lovin' on Ellie!

Last Sunday we went to the church's Spring Loaded festival. Kaleb had a blast on the pony ("forsey") ride...

and in the petting zoo!

He was really excited about the Easter egg hunt. They said "go!" and he took off. You see all those eggs around him? About 5 seconds after this picture was taken they were all gone! He did get 3 eggs though and was very excited about his surprises inside.

We've spent a couple of days shopping, at the park, playing at the mall, going to the doctor with Mommy...just trying to get out of the house while we can!

Some other things about Kaleb to add to the previous list:

- he loves sports, all sports!, likes to play and watch t-ball, soccer, golf, basketball, football, or anything else you can think of!

- loves cartoons now and will actually sit down for 20 minutes to watch some of his favorites... Go, Diego, Go!, Dora, Blues Clues, The Wonder Pets to name a few

- does not like coloring, he always wants crayons when we go out to eat somewhere, opens the package and throws them down.

- loves to read books, we read 3 stories before nap time and bed time every day, his favorites right now are: any Diego book, The Three Bears, 10 Fat Turkeys, Little People Farm ("EO Farm"), The Potty Book, I Love Trains!, Baby Dinosaurs, Hands Are Not For Hitting (Mama's choice sometimes), and the list goes on!

- he does this swatting hand thing right now when he's mad and telling you no, I can't stand it!, hence the book, "Hands Are Not For Hitting", it actually has helped us out a lot!

- has just learned how to spit on us when we are brushing his teeth! Oh what fun! For now what works is bribing him with puzzles. If he lets us brush his teeth nicely, then we can do one puzzle before bed.

- loves food!

Favorites: pancakes, grapes, strawberries, oranges, apples, applesauce, yogurt, goldfish, raisins, chicken, corn, cereal, ice cream, tortillas, candy, McDonalds ("Donald's"), Chick-fil-a ("Chicken-lay"), Lupe Tortillas ("Tia's" or "play sand")

Dislikes: chocolate, cake, cookies, most veggies

Chubbyfoot

We had some family/maternity (36 weeks)/Kaleb 2 year pictures taken on March 13th. Here are some of our favorites and a link to the Chubbyfoot blog where some others are posted.

http://chubbyfoot.squarespace.com/blog/2010/3/22/party-of-3-temporarily.html

Pregnancy Update...37 weeks!

My hope for this pregnancy was that it would go perfectly and baby would come on her own on time without the doctors interventions. :) Yeah, in a perfect world! The c-section recovery was very hard and I was hoping to avoid that this time around since I would now have two kids to take care of instead of only one newborn. Luckily, we found out today, that may still be an option, but we'll just see what happens.

The story:

Due to some not so great test results from a couple of weeks ago, we had an ultrasound done on 2/23/10. Luckily, everything looked great! Baby was growing appropriately and was head down, fluid was good, and the placenta was found to be far away from my previous c-section scar (which was the concern). All good news, so we were relieved!

Three weeks later on 3/15/10, at my 36 week appointment, the nurse was having trouble finding the heart rate. We knew she was OK because she was moving all around making it even more difficult. After finally getting the heart rate, the doctor was trying to figure out how she was laying because I had asked what it was I felt on my upper right side. She had a hard time feeling her, so pulled in the ultrasound machine which confirmed that that was her head I was feeling. She had turned and was now transverse. We talked about options at that time which were trying to manually turn her (external cephalic version) or just schedule the c-section.

There were so many factors to consider for the ECV:
- risk of baby's heart rate varying
- risk of placenta abruption
- very uncomfortable/painful for me
- anterior placenta (on my left side on top) - this just means they would have a hard time getting ahold of her head or bottom under the placenta
- must be done in the hospital in the event an emergency c-section is needed
- an epidural/spinal would be placed before the procedure in the event an emergency c-section is needed
- baby's size (didn't know at the time)
- amount of amniotic fluid; too little, baby may not turn; too much, baby may turn easy, but then turn again after procedure (didn't know at the time)

To get us some more information, our doctor ordered an ultrasound for Friday 3/19/10. At that ultrasound, we saw once again that she is healthy and growing appropriately. She's in the 80th percentile at about 7lbs 5 oz. She had turned once again though and her head was now on my lower left side. She's gonna be a gymnast when she grows up with all those moves! After the ultrasound, and weighing all the pros and cons, we had pretty much decided against the ECV but had a few more questions for the doctor.

At my doctors appointment today 3/22/10, the nurse once again had a hard time finding the heart rate. Finally she found it on my mid left side which was where the head was on Friday. The doctor came in to check everything out and after feeling around once again, pulled in the ultrasound machine to confirm that baby has turned once again and is finally head down! That at least solved the problem of having to decide for or against the ECV. She's moved so much I wouldn't put it past her to turn the wrong way again, but for now, we're looking good.

All that being said, due to the previous c-section and her size, we have to put an end to this somewhere.
I am on the schedule at the hospital for April 7th, 2010.

I have a doctors appointment next week and then Monday, 4/5/10. At that appointment on the 5th we will make our decision whether it will be an induction or a c-section. This would not be the typical induction due to the prior c-section. In order to even consider the induction, I will have had to make a lot of progress, be somewhat dialated, my cervix thinnned, or my water break.

I feel better having an end in sight and I feel like we've made the right choice. I'd like to give her as much time as possible to come on her own, but the longer we wait after my due date, the bigger she gets and there's less of a chance of avoiding the c-section. More to come in the weeks ahead!

Rodeo Time!

Kaleb's been talking about it for weeks so finally, on Thursday morning, we took Kaleb to the Houston Livestock Show! He had a blast!
We stopped by the petting zoo for awhile. The child was not afraid of anything. (which is odd because he is scared of most toy animals...) This was him saying, "Dada, I goin' that way!"

Mimi and Papa had taken Kaleb to the Fort Worth Livestock Show not too long ago and had him all the way to the front of the line to ride the pony, and he got scared. Ever since then, he's been talking about wanting to ride a "forsey". (I love the way he says it!) As soon as he saw the ponies, he took off to get in line. He jumped on that "forsey" like a pro and never looked back! Daddy stood by just in case, but Kaleb didn't seem to need any help!

Kaleb loves to drive anything! He has to hold both his hands up and pretend to be holding a steering wheel anytime he talks about driving. I think he pushed every single button on that tractor before he would get off.

We finally got him off so other kids could get on and he found another one. The door was locked, but he was happy to sit on the steps.

Here we are looking at the big animals. Again, he wasn't scared at all! I actually had to hold him back behind the red line.

We took a little trip through the market. He had done this in Fort Worth not too long ago, so again, he was a pro.

"Want my egg?"

At the end of the market, he sold all his good to get $1 and got to buy himself some treats. Orange juice and raisins...yum!

Kaleb also got his first face painting! The lady asked him what he wanted on his face and he said, "Aggies!" That's our boy! She also painted his name on his arm. He did amazingly well!

We all had a great time, but were worn out by the time we left. My little cowboy finally got to see the "amals" at the rodeo and ride the "forsey"! I can't believe he's not going to be my baby much longer!