Merry Christmas

We made it through Anabelle's first Christmas! I'm going to miss this time of firsts. I read a line in a baby magazine that tells you what's going on with baby each month and it mentioned that she's almost half way through her first year...I teared up! I can't believe how fast the time is going and how big she is already. I remember when she was born counting out how old she would be at Christmas, 5 months seemed like an eternity away. I couldn't imagine her wearing anything bigger than newborn clothes and now she's starting to wear 6m.



We spent Christmas in Colorado this year at the Ranch. We left NM Wednesday afternoon and came home Sunday. It was rainy and gloomy for the first few days. This is the first year in a long time there wasn't a white Christmas at the Ranch. But the rain finally ceased and the sun came out for Christmas day. It was cold but beautiful.

Before dinner there was some cowboy work to be done so half the group headed out to unload a trailer of hay and seperate calves from the mamas to wean them. I wish I took some pictures but I'm finding its a lot harder to play photographer with a baby in my arms. Not to mention it was too cold to take Anabelle out so we watched from the window.

Truth be told, I'm having a hard time remembering to take any pictures of anything besides Anabelle. I took one token picture of the crowd but it was so blurry I had to delete it.

Trace's mom made a ham and turkey and I made my near famous bacon wrapped smokies (yum!) and we had 16 people for dinner. We had a great time. It was really fun to see everyone and Anabelle got to show off her party dress. Then when the crowds died down we still had 7 of us there for the night and we ended up playing a few rounds of Mexican Train dominoes. Anabelle napped through the 1st half and then decided to join the game. Trace won but we all had fun.

Sunday came and we had some bacon & eggs, cleaned up our party messes, and headed home to Gallup. There's nothing like your own bed. :)

A baby will get you everywhere!!

Just had a funny moment at the grocery store. Anabelle and I were there this morning getting some snacks for our trip to Colorado and some Southern Comfort to go with the eggnog for the non-nursing family members. When we got to the check out the cashier was super nice and talking to Anabelle and so on. When she got to the SoCo she said they don't sell alcohol until after 10:am (it was 9:40). I told her that was a bummer, I had just got done telling her how mornings are so much better for us to shop when it's quiet and Anabelle is awake but that she was ready for a nap, blah blah blah... So she said she would let us buy it this one time since my baby was soooo cute. Aw thanks!! Trace and Uncle Dave say thanks too.

As I was walking out I heard her talking to the next group in line. Two guys, mid-twenties, wanted to buy just a case of beer. Not gonna happen. She put it aside and told them they had to come back at 10.
But that lady just bought alcohol
Yeah but she had other groceries... (then I was too far away to hear them)
They walked by my as I was loading the car.
Sorry Guys, she wouldn't let you buy it, huh...
No, and I'm even active military....

Guess it pays to have a cute baby!!!

Stretch!

One of my favorite things is when Anabelle first wakes up from a nap and I unwrap her from her swaddle and she stretches. She arches her back, arms and feet go up, and she scrunches her nose. Cutest thing ever! I was trying to catch it on video but she was too distracted by my phone to finish her routine. But here she is at 4 1/2 months...

Baby Seat

Here is Anabelle at 3 1/2 months playing in her little chair.

Squaking

When Anabelle first started making talking sounds there was no goo goo gaa gaa, it was more like squaking like a little bird. Here is a short video that catches some of it. This was taken Oct 1, 2010 and she was 10 weeks old.

1 month video

Here is a short video of Anabelle 1 day before 1 month old.

Grammy

My Grandma Shari came to visit us when Anabelle was 2 months old.
She decided her Great Grandma name would be Grammy. And so she is!
She was here for a week and we had a great time. We got pedicures, and had lunch, went to a parade and had a blast. I got to try my sling for the first time at the parade. She slept the whole time. looking back now, I'm pretty amazed at how much we did for her being 2 weeks old. I guess I did a lot right away. People were kinda amazed but it just seemed right at the time. She's a good baby and I didn't see any reason to stay home for 3 months. I didn't let strangers touch her and I kept her warm and safe. We had fun.

1st month

I'm 5 months behind on blogging, and I'm tired and just want to be caught up so I'm free to jump on here and tell you about the funny things that happen daily... so forgive the quick recaps. Maybe I'll come back sometime and put in more info.

But the first month home was a total blur! Anabelle was born Friday, July 23rd and we were discharged Monday July 26th (her due date).
Jessica came down to see us and was a great help the first couple of days when I couldn't drive and couldn't get up and down very well. I'll never forget our first night. It was awful. Trace and I were up all night. I didn't know how to help that poor little baby and Trace didn't know how to help me. It got better...

The first month was just about getting used to Anabelle. Learning to feed her. Breastfeeding is not as easy as it seems like it should be. But we figured it out and everything else too. She didn't like her bath for the first month but we made it through :)


She had her first road trip in before she was three weeks old. We drove to Montrose for the day and made it by Grandma & Grandpa's for a quick visit. She did excellent in the car...it was probably the last time she was that good in a car.


She was healthy and happy and growing on track! The first month was over, I took 140 pictures of her and I didn't break her. It was a good month.

And then there were three!

Here is the very long story of how Anabelle came to be born...

July 21st I went to the doctor for my regular scheduled check up. I was up to one a week by then and this was the last one before my due date of July 26th. My appt was at 1:00pm, the first after lunch. So when I got there my doctor, Dr. Sharon Smith-Thomas, wasn't there yet but the nurses got me started and during my vitals, they noticed my blood pressure was a little high, then they got my urinalysis back and I had proteins present...both of those are warning signs for preclampsia so they started me on a fetal monitor while I waited for the Dr. I got to sit in a recliner and read a magazine instead of the hard seats in the waiting room so I wasn't upset. Then the Dr. came in but she was on her cell phone and had an arm full of charts. She just looked at my monitor waved and left. A few minutes later she was back.

She said she was admitting me to the hospital for 24 hour observation to watch my BP and Protein levels... WHAT?? I remember the nurse, Natalie, asking me if I was excited, "Your baby might be born today" OMG no I wasn't excited, I was scared to death. You were sending me to the hospital. The Doctor said to call my husband and have him bring my bag. That I probably wouldn't be going home with out a baby. O-M-G! I'm not ready!! So I walked outside and called Trace. I was tearing up and scared but I made it across the street to the hospital and admitted myself.

I was allowed to walk myself up to Labor & Delivery and they got me in a room. I put on a robe and about that time Trace was there with my bag. They put me on clear liquids... CLEAR LIQUIDS??? I'm starving since I didn't eat lunch wanting to avoid the wrath of the scale... I'm 9 months pregnant, I eat like a horse, and your telling me I get clear liquids for the next 24 hours. I've never gone that long with out food in my entire life and today doesn't seem like the best day to give it a whirl! But they have me peeing in a bucket and just waiting... nothing to do but wait... At this point I'm not really sure what's even going on. I'm not in labor but here I am. Will I be going home after 24 hours? I didn't call anyone becuase I didn't even know what to say... Around 5:30 Dr. SST came in and said there was no point waiting anymore. I'm only 4 days from my due date and normally people that present with Preclampsia are induced at 37 weeks so she was going to start inducing me. She was kind enough to allow a meal since I wasn't on 24 hour watch anymore! Praise the Lord for bland turkey and mashed potatoes!!

So started the phone calls. Sorry I was still terrible with letting you guys know what was going on. Dang, I should have written this down months ago, I'm already forgetting the details. So I was officially having a baby. The problem is that my body didn't know that. I was not effaced, I was not dialated AT ALL, I hadn't even dropped yet. So they had to start at square one with me and my body wasn't that excited about it. To prevent the PC (preclampsia) from causing potential problems they but me on an IV and catheder and gave me some nasty thing (can't remember the name) that burned my body and made me kinda woozy. I had to lay on my side the whole time to reduce my high blood pressure. I was able to rotate from side to side as I got antsy. They inserted some tablets that were supposed to soften my cervix, after a night of trying that, they didn't do squat. But at some point Wed night my water did break so that was a move in the right direction.

The next morning they moved to Pitocin, that wasn't fun either. I spent the whole day working through contractions of increasing hell and dosing off in between. And by early Friday morning I was at a 4 and having major contractions one after another. Anabelle was facing up instead of toward my backbone so they were hoping she would shift but in the mean time she was throwing me into back labor. So I was hooked to an IV and cath, couldn't walk around, I was back on clear liquids, having back labor, and progressing sloooooowly. Trace was awesome!! He was with me through every contraction. There was a great nurse that spent some time with us too. Just breathing and bearing down. Trace would watch the monitor and tell me when one was coming Then hold my hand and push on my lower back and we'd make it through one at a time... They did give me some pain medicine but it ended up back firing on me. All it did was put me to sleep between contractions but I could still feel every contraction so to me it felt like a never ending contraction. I kept asking Trace why it was coming so fast but he said I was falling asleep. Since I couldn't remember sleeping all I remembered was contraction after contraction. So I stopped taking that! at least I could enjoy the rest in between now.

By Friday morning I finally made it to a 7. That's when they can give you a spinal (intrathecal) Its a small hospital's version of a epidural. An epidural is a constant drip and requires more attention from and Anesthesiologist than our hospital has so they give you a one time shot that has the same effect but is time sensitive. It can only be administered once at 7 cm and could potentially run out. But I was happy to have my one shot! So at 11am Friday morning I got relief :) The nurse watched the monitor as contractions would come and go and I was none the wiser. She said we would just wait to get to a 10 and we should be pushing in no time. Trace took this last chance to go home and check on the dog, shower, and grab some lunch. The Dr. came to see me at 1:00 and all progress had stalled. I was still at a 7 and Anabelle's heartbeat was dropping with every contraction. I had now been on Pitocin for 24 hours and my water broke over 24 hours ago. She said it was time to move to a C-Section. What!! She said call your husband back. We're doing this now!!

So in a matter of 10 minutes I was signing waivers, swallowing stuff, being unplugged and about to be wheeled away. The Anesthesiologist came back with a problem. I already had my one shot at 11, it had been too long to do a C-section with only that but it hadn't been long enough to give me another one. So I was signing more waivers saying I was ok with the fact that they didn't know what they were going to do with me...great. So Trace made it back just in time and they wheeled me down to the OR. They got me on the table, gave me more medicine and I was NUMB from the waist down. Crazy. Up goes the curtain and away they go. And WHAAAAAA!! We have a baby. I was so out of it and it all happened so fast but I'll never ever forget when they brought her over and brought her to my cheek before they took her away. Amazing. My baby! Wow!

Trace was able to go with Anabelle back to the nursery for her first bath and prep while they sewed me back up and I went to post op for an hour or so.

And we all met back in Postpardum. The hard part was over. Let life begin.


July 23, 2010 1:52pm 5lb. 10 oz. 18.5:

Baby Shower Marathon

I was so blessed by all our friends and family...we had 4 baby showers!!


First, Kathy & Angela gave me a shower in California at the official party house of the South Bay (Angela's parents).
Next Lacy gave me a shower in Montrose with all my Colorado friends.

Then I was blessed twice in New Mexico. The ladies at church threw me a surprise baby shower at bookclub and my friends at work gave me one too! We received everything we needed and more. I didn't buy diapers for months!! And Anabele is still working her way through new clothes! Thanks so much everyone.