Milestone

 Tonight Sylvia noticed her feet for the first time! It was one of the neatest things to see her experience something that you and I just take for granted.  There aren't any pictures because it was unexpected and when it happened we didn't want to interrupt it. Maybe next time!

Bath time!



Deep in thought...

Isn't it time for lotion?

Oh yes, this is like a spa!

MOM! PUT THAT CAMERA AWAY!

Well, we are a couple days behind so, a few extra pictures to share.  Time just seems to slip away from me lately.  It's hard for me to even remember what day it is.

Sunday Grandma and Grandad Cooley came to visit.  We went to church together and out to eat together.  It was nice to get to see them, and they were able to see Sylvia's beautiful smile in person.  Pictures just can't do her smile justice! She is smiling more and more every day.  As far as testing her voice out, it's something she still only occasionally does, but we continue to encourage her "talking". 

When sitting home by myself talking to Sylvia, who knows I'm talking to her, but has no idea what I'm saying, I'm struck by the thought that my mom used to babble to me also about anything and everything.  Having a child of my own brings a much greater understanding to me of my own mom, to know that she went through exactly the same things with me as I am going through with Sylvia.  Not only does it give me perspective and a new respect for my own mom, but also for my mom and dad's committment to eachother. Parenting is exhausting and hard.  There have been several more arguements between Allen and me than normal, but fear not, we are stronger because of them.  With all of the stress of being new parents, I can honestly say I love my husband more now than ever before.  He is my rock.  I see him in a new light. Not only is he my companion, but also my partner.  We're in this together.  He supports me and I support him.  Even when we are short with eachother, I love him and he loves me.  I love him for the little things he does, like getting me a glass of water while I'm breastfeeding, or the bigger things, like taking the first shift sleeping in the recliner so I can get some rest, or the biggest thing, going to work in a factory every day, while I am still on maternity leave here at home spending precious time with our baby girl. It's hard on him to leave us here at home.  He is the best. God has truly blessed me.

Sylvia's uncle Caleb is coming over tomorrow to spend some time with her while I attempt to make some Christmas goodies.

Family milestone!

Today we successfully went out to eat at a sit down resaurant without incident.

Picture as proof!

We also went to the mall. Sylvia REALLY seemed to enjoy this! She's taking after her mommy already.
But it was a long day, and enough  was enough. Sylvia had fun but was very ready to go home at the end and let us know this the WHOLE way home from Quincy.

Tomorrow should be a good day, Allen's parents are coming to visit; and we are all going to go to church together.

Sure wish we could read this little girl's mind!

Daddy is soooo funny!

Sylvia Says

Do I have any boogies up my nose, mom?

Mom and Dad were right...should have went to bed earlier last night!

Who needs sleep???

She's pretty cute for a baby who didn't get very much sleep last night!

One Month

It's hard to believe, but Miss Sylvia Sue is one month old today! Today she responded to music playing on the computer, we danced together to some reggae music! We also found out since she has started to smile, Allen and I will make complete fools out of ourselves just to try to get a smile out of her. Her smiles are the best!

We're BACK!

Here it is! The long awaited first blog after the birth of our precious baby girl.  My apologies to those of you who have checked this blog faithfully for four weeks and were disappointed each time by no new blog.  I failed to mention on the last post the day before our induction that there is a four week maternity leave from blogging after the birth of a child.

I feel like I have so much to say but not exactly sure how to put it all into words. Also, being as sleep deprived as I am, you can be sure there will be grammar and spelling errors throughout this whole post.  So I will apologize in advance.

Labor and Delivery:
We woke up at 3:30 a.m. to get ready for the big day, this was early but I don't think I slept two winks all night anyways! The hospital nurses wasted no time getting everything going for the induction.  The crazy thing is, that when I got there my contraction were already two to three minutes apart.  I had no idea I was already in labor! Everyone told me, oh you will know it, don't worry.  I knew I was uncomfortable and every now and then I would have a contraction strong enough to make me say I had a contraction, but I had no idea I was having them so often.  I really didnt believe them, but they showed me the tape that they were monitoring my contractions on and sure enough there they were.  They started the pitocin , which was supposed to help increase the strength of my contractions but we had a problem because it was also putting my contractions much closer together than what is actually productive for delivery. So, the levels of pitocin they had me on went up and down all day and all night. They kept asking me if I was doing ok with the pain, and for the most part I can honestly say the pain was much less than what I had been expecting, which was good because I wanted to go through it all sans epidural or pain meds.   The nurse I had told me that alot of patients she has had started their epidural only a couple hours into what I was going through.  This gave me a lot of confidence! I was expecting to have a baby before the end of the afternoon but it just wasn't in God's plan.  My cervix was dilating extremely slowly considering the amount of contractions I was having along with the amount of pitocin being administered.  I had mentally decided I could handle the pain, but what became the hard part for me was the length of time I was enduring the constant contractions.  It became an endurance race.  I was starting to get very tired.  The worst part of the whole thing was when they told me to walk the halls.  I ended up having what showed up on the monitor as practically one large 10 minute contraction. (It was actually just one contraction right after the other without any breaks.) This resulted in my puking.  UGH! I hate to puke, but puking because of pain is the worst kind. When that happened, I seriously questioned my decision to opt out of pain meds; but the nurses and Allen were very supportive of my choice. My dilation stalled at 7 cm.  When the doctor came in after 18.5 hours of the unproductive labor, she checked and said that my cervix was swelled, instead of thinning the way it is supposed to.  That meant time for the c-section.  I cried of course because I was disappointed.  It was a long time and a lot pain to go through without being able to deliver vaginally, but of course it wasn't about me, this was about bringing baby Sylvia safely into this world. The surgery room for c-sections has to be the scariest room I have ever been in, a room perfectly strerile, freezing cold, bright lights, strange machines beeping, approximately ten people running around in hair nets and masks. They wasted no time at all hooking me up to the machines, getting the anesthesia going, and securing me down to the surgery table.  Allen sat next to my head behind the sheet.  I felt nothing but some pressure and tugging.  In less than five minutes we heard, "Quick Dad! Look!" Allen stood, I heard him gasp, and then I heard what will be for the rest of my life the most memorable precious sound I have ever heard, the strong cries of our baby girl.  They disappeared for a minute to weigh her, clean her, and check her vitals.  Allen quickly came back to the table while the doctors were still sewing me up , crying the first thing he said was, "She has your chin and Josh's toes." Translation: Sylvia has the Downing dimple in her chin and my brother's abnormally long toes.  Then they brought her to me.  The second I looked into her beautiful wide open eyes was the moment I became a mom.  My whole purpose in life in my arms. It completely took my breath away to meet eye to eye with the tiny human being who spent nine months in my womb.  She was a hungry hungry girl too! I thought that she might fall asleep right away but she didn't.  She continued to stare at me while feeding and it was amazing.

The rest of the hospital stay was rough! Recovering from labor, a c-section, staying in an unfamiliar environment, constant interruptions day and night from nurses  and doctors, and a newborn babygirl who didn't and still doesn't know what sleep is, and was hungry all day and all night! They let us go home one day early because we were both doing so well.  We  were more than ready to go.

Life With Sylvia Sue
One of the first questions everyone always asks is how is our dog Penny getting along with the baby.  Well, Penny doesn't seem to mind her at all, what Penny does mind is the big decrease in attention she has been receiving resulting in a few "accidents." We're working on it...

The second question we usually get asked, "Is she a good baby?" My response to this is, "Define good baby".  Is she perfectly healthy and beautiful? YES. Does she pee, poop. sleep, and cry? Yes, yes, yes but not at night, and YES. However, she is a demanding baby and seems to be on the fussy side, and the biggest thing is that she has her days and night still completely mixed up.  I have never seen the sun come up so many days in a row in my life! We are working on this but it's a process. 

She has been full of personality from day one, but at four weeks she is really starting to develop.  She is looking around more, and smiling, and starting to occasionally coo.  Her favorite thing to look at are the curtains in any room of the house.  She can stare at them for a very long time without getting bored.  At my grandma's house she likes to stare at the border wallpaper. 

She's so darn cute! I want to take pictures of her all day and all night.  If you want to see the many many pics that I am taking , bookmark http://www.photobucket.com/sylviasue . :)

Allen and I both have admitted to crying when we're by ourselves, just holding our beautiful baby girl because it's so overwhelmingly emotional to look at her face.

We made it to church this past Sunday for the first time since she was born.  She made it all the way through service without throwing a fit! :) She was so quiet and good, we couldn't believe it.

We are sooo grateful to God for blessing us with such a beautiful healthy baby girl. Our lives have changed for the better.  We plan on still sharing our adventures through this blog. Again, sorry for the delayed "She's here!" post, but the "blogging maternity leave" was necessary, but now that we are starting to settle into our new roles as parents it will be easier for me to blog.

Love you all!!!!!