Lots 'O Leah

I had high ambitions of doing a post for each day of Leah's first couple of weeks...but I'm so far behind that I figured I'd post a few of my favorites from her first few days with us. I hope you don't mind :) I have hundreds of other pictures (literally) that I will probably be uploading to walmart.com, so look for more pictures that way :) Saturday morning, just after midnight, we got the news that Leah's biliruben number was too high, so she had to be on this light to help bring it down. Fortunately they brought this right into the room, and wrapped her in this little 'outfit' with her back completely exposed to the light. It was a pretty nifty little contraption...and wonderful that she didn't have to leave my side. She kept spitting up and gagging all night, so I didn't get much sleep (Unrelated to the jauntice) By the end of the second night I don't think I had slept much more than 5 or 6 hours total, but I was feeling pretty good...baby adrenaline...
Saturday Eli got to hold Leah for the first time. (By the afternoon on Saturday her numbers had come down enough to where she didn't need to be on the light anymore) He was SO cute with her! He loves his little sister! (Though he keeps calling her 'cousin'...we're workin' on that...)

Sunday morning Edgar and I were ready to GO. We had everything packed up to head out of the hospital shortly after 8 am. Unfortunately, my doctor didn't show up until noon, so we sat around in our room for quite a while. I watched 'Sleepless in Seattle' and played around with pictures on the computer, and Edgar worked on his computer for a while...we were pretty anxious to leave, but had to stay put. Once we got the okay to go, though, we were outta there! SO excited to be going home!

The next day Ryan & Jennifer came over with the kids. Carly was anxious to hold Leah.

Ben & Eli played the whole time they were there. Eli LOVES his cousin Ben...and I have a sneaky feeling Ben likes playing with Eli too :)

Ben managed to disobey his mom while at swim practice, so his punishment was that he had to hold Leah :) That is the only way to get him to hold a baby :) He NEVER held Eli...never wanted to. He's pretty funny with Leah...he held her here, but hasn't held her since. He does periodically come by her and 'pet' her, but that's it. It's pretty cute. I was thrilled, though, to get a picture of him holding his cousin :)

Daddy and his girl :)

The next morning we decided Leah needed a bath. I get so nervous to give such little babies a bath, so I convinced my mom to give her a bath while I took pictures. Mom's a pro.

All clean!

Ummmm...she was happy up until this point. Apparently she got cold... (I DID give her a bath today all by myself...okay...Edgar helped :) It's kinda scary when they're that little, but she did fine. She's all nice and clean!)

'Ahhhhhh...nice warm towel'

That afternoon we went to Target...and HAD to buy these for Leah. Yeah... pretty sure she's posing.

Man, she's pretty!

The next day (Wednesday) we went to the park. Eli played with some other kid's toys-they were nice enough to share, since I had forgotten to bring his toys.

It was a fairly breezy day, so Leah was covered up.

This is her 'under the cover'

She did get out to get a glimpse of the park...with her sunglasses on, of course!

Eli had lots of fun playing with Grandma!

This is pretty much one of my favorite expressions she has...

Checkin' his sister out.

Thursday I discovered how fun accessories can be :) I love the little bow in her hair! And those are some shoes I made for her. They were super cute...but they wouldn't stay on. Jennifer & Carly bought the outfit for her...SO CUTE!

Friday Eli started regressing...

Saturday we had dinner over at Ryan & Jennifer's house and watched the Rays game. Dad held Leah for a bit-I tried not to bombard him with pictures every time he held her...and I'm kinda mad that I did that, because now I have hardly any pictures of him holding her :( But he DID hold her :)

We all had our Rays shirts on! (Apparently I need to get a matching shirt...)

Brother and sister cheering the Rays on. They must be good luck, because the Rays won!

And that gets us through Saturday :) Sunday was a pretty big day for us...it deserves a post of its own...it will come soon (hopefully!)

Day Two :)

Friday morning came bright and early. I kept waking up in the night thinking Leah was gagging...not entirely sure why :) I think I slept about 2 hours all night, but when you are running on 'baby adrenaline' you don't really mind. And when you look over and see a gorgeous baby girl, you really don't mind. My mom made a bunch of blankets for Leah...I love this one with the lady bugs on it.
Pretty much this is how the day was spent...staring at my baby!

She does occasionally cry...but she's cute even when she does that.

Eli enjoyed playing with a 'glove baloon'. He did so good when he came up to visit. He liked to sit up on my bed a lot while he was there-I'll always welcome a snuggle from my boy :)

I just can't get over how pretty she is...

She looks so good in pink too :)

Leah's First Day

Thought you'd enjoy a few more pictures from Leah's first day :)

Leah's First Bath

After the excitement of the morning, Leah got a bath in the early afternoon. She loved her bath-she was quiet the whole time :) Here are a few pictures of the 'event' :)

She's Here!

Thursday, September 30th started (not so) bright and early for Edgar and I. We were up at 4:30 getting ready to go and meet our little girl. We took the time to take a 'before' shot :) And then we were off.

We got to the hospital at 5:30 and they took us to triage. They started an IV (and, no, I did not pass out.) and got me prepped for surgery. The time went by amazingly fast. We talked to the nurse and the anesthesiologist about what was going to happen. A couple of students came in to ask permission to observe the C-section...then I realized that the anesthesiologist was, in fact, also a student...and he was doing my spinal while under the observation of the doctor. THAT made me a little nervous...I made sure I wasn't his FIRST patient, and they said 'Oh no...he's been doing them all week'...yikes. I could have requested that the actual dr. do the spinal, but I decided to live on the edge...

Edgar got his scrubs on, and we were ready to head in to the operating room!

I kept waiting to get nervous...it didn't really happen. People must have been praying for me, because that is still a bit unreal to me :) They wheeled me in and got me on the operating table. The student gave me a spinal (not at all comfortable...but once he was done I was blissfully numb) and I laid back. As soon as I laid back I felt awful. I got really dizzy, and felt like I was going to pass out. They said my blood pressure dropped some. Whether it was nerves or my blood pressure, I don't know, but I started to panic a little bit-I did NOT want to pass out or throw up! They gave me something and I quickly started feeling better. They brought Edgar in (he couldn't be in there for the spinal) and we 'got ready'. They started the operation...and I knew I was going to throw up. Gross. That was the one thing I was worried about (that's right...I was worried about throwing up...not getting my abdomen cut open...). I heaved a bit (sorry) and they gave me something for THAT, and I felt better :) I love medicine...

I couldn't believe how soon they were saying 'You're gonna feel a LOT of pressure' and then two little whimpers and a big cry! She was here. They lowered the curtain, and we got to see our little girl for the first time!

She was born at 7:51 am, weighing 7 lb 15 oz. There she is with our doctor :) They took her over to the exam table to make sure she was okay.

Edgar went over and cut the chord and watched as she got checked out.

She is so beautiful!

I was still on the operating table, so I was glad to at least hear her :) It took a little while for them to bring her over to me-I was also having a cyst removed, so I think they were waiting to finish that before they brought her over.

But soon, I was holding Leah in my arms :)

They handed her to me, and I instantly thought-'holy cow! It's another Eli!' She looks a lot like her big brother. (compare Leah's first pictures to some of Eli's HERE)

I didn't want to let her go!

Almost exactly an hour after she was born we were headed out of the operating room on our way to recovery. In recovery I was able to nurse her-she did GREAT. I just snuggled her for about an hour, and worked on wiggling my toes as the feeling came back :) We sent pictures via our cell phones, and announced her arrival. It was so good to finally meet her!