Monday, December 26, 2011

Leah's First Christmas

Christmas this year was extra special since it was our first Christmas with Leah! I haven't felt that much of the holiday spirit since I've been at home pretty much 24/7 and haven't gotten to see all the Christmas lights and decorations around the neighborhoods. We did manage to get a Christmas tree and decorate the house, and whenever we're in the car, we're blasting KOST's Christmas music. We also received "Leah" and "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments to mark this special time.



Fred and Bev were in town for the week, so we went down to Huntington Beach on the 23rd to hang out with the Kelly family. Leah was a big hit. Everyone wanted a chance to hold her which was a nice rest for us. Leah did great and was a pretty content baby throughout the whole day. It was nice to have the whole family together since we only see Fred and Bev about once a year. The kids took a cousins picture with the new addition!

Christmas Eve we went to Jeff and Cyn's new house to celebrate with my side of the family. I was excited to see everyone since we missed the big Thanksgiving get together. I think Leah was so exhausted from all the excitement the day before that she slept throughout most of this. She missed seeing all the presents she got.




















Christmas day we went back to Huntington Beach to meet up with the Kelly side of the family again. We had Buca Di Beppo for lunch and the kids opened up all their gifts.  Again, Leah slept through most of it. :)


Wednesday, December 21, 2011

1 Month!

One month has flown by and Leah already looks so different. She more aware of her surroundings and loves to be held upright so that she can see everything around her.  When I try to put her in the sling or cradle her in my arms, she protests.  I can't describe how much I love this little girl.  She brings so much joy to our family and we are so blessed to have her in our lives.  Happy 1 month baby!




Thursday, December 15, 2011

First Few Weeks with a Newborn

It's been a crazy 3 weeks adjusting to a newborn in the house. Between the constant feeding, diaper changes, lack of sleep, and laundry we're exhausted but so happy to have this precious gift. I catch myself just staring at her soaking in all her cuteness.

The first week, Leah had her days and nights mixed up. She would be passed out all day and wide eyed at night. She had a constant flow of visitors coming to the house and it was fun getting to see so many people. My parents and brother's family came to our house for Thanksgiving lunch since we wouldn't be able to make it to the big family get together. The Friday after Thanksgiving, Matt's family came to visit.

The second and third week, we've been getting her used to her night time routine and she's seemed to be adjusting pretty well. She has an amazingly strong neck for a 3 week old and can lift her head up really well during tummy time. We see random smiles here and there which melts my heart even if they are just random muscle movements. I can't wait until she can look at us and smile. She's a voracious eater. We have nicknamed her the "milk vampire." She eats every 1.5-2 hours during the day and every 3-4 hours at night. She's already starting to grow out of her newborn clothes. It's amazing to think how tiny she was just a few weeks ago. At her 2 week appointment, she weighed 7 lb 14.3 oz and was 21.26 inches. Matt went back to work on December 12th. I was scared to be with the baby by myself. My parents have been coming up every week to help cook and help out around the house. It's been so nice to have them somewhat close by.





Monday, November 28, 2011

Newborn Photos


Here are Leah's newborn photos. I'm a little obsessed with them. She was exactly one week old when we took them, and it was her first outing since leaving the hospital. She slept pretty much the entire time. Our photographer was amazing, like a baby whisperer! Whenever Leah showed any sign of possibly waking up, she was able to put Leah right back to sleep! I'm actually writing this post a year after these were taken. I can't believe how little she used to be!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Leah's Arrival!

On Sunday, Matt and I attended Thao and Leslie's wedding in Costa Mesa. I was a bridesmaid, so my 38 weeks pregnant body waddled around praying my water wouldn't break in front of all the guests. We got home that night, and I went to bed thinking I was feeling Braxton-Hicks contractions. At around 1am, I woke up uncomfortable and unable to sleep. I paced the house trying to determine if I was feeling contractions. As the moments of uncomfortableness got increasingly more painful and more regular, I finally faced the reality that I was in labor. I didn't want to wake Matt up yet since I knew I was still in early labor, so I did yoga poses to help get through each contraction, showered, and packed my bag. Since I thought for sure the baby would be late, I didn't pack a bag yet, and we hadn't even picked up my brother's infant car seat!  Oops!  At 4am, Matt woke up telling me to go back to bed, and I replied that it was time to go to the hospital. He quickly got up and asked if he could shower and pack a bag too. I said he could shower but not pack a bag. :)

We arrived at Kaiser Sunset at 4:45am, and I kept telling Matt how nervous I was. I checked into triage, and I was 3 cm dilated. Since I was still early and my contractions weren't that regular, they wanted to keep watching me, but, to my disappointment, I wasn't able to get an epidural yet because they wanted to make sure that I would keep progressing. Matt was scheduled to be in the OR, and since the doctor said there was no way I'd deliver before 3pm, when Matt usually finishes with his cases, we decided he should continue with his work day. He would check up on me in between each case.

I was admitted and moved to the LDR unit around 7am.  This week was actually supposed to be my last week of work, so I emailed my boss that I wouldn't make it in because baby was on the way! The nurses were great and walked laps with me around the garden to try to progress my labor faster. I'm not sure if the nurses were extra nice because Matt was a physician there, but I sure appreciated their kindness. By 12:00pm, I was 5cm dilated. Woohoo! I was officially in active labor. A midwife came in and had an OB resident rupture my membranes which felt like I peed all over myself. Afterwards, the anesthesiologist came in to administer the epidural. Unfortunately, the first epidural only numbed my legs, so I was still feeling pretty strong pain in my back and pelvis, and I had to get the epidural redone. The second one worked great. I immediately felt relief and was able to relax. At this point, I called my parents to let them know the baby was coming and continued to play the waiting game.  I watched TV, texted and chatted with friends, and Matt rejoined me at 3pm.  The day was full of so much excitement that I wasn't hungry or tired.

By 5:00pm, the midwife came back in with a General Medicine resident to check my progress. Matt felt uncomfortable having this resident check me so we asked at this point to only have the midwife  or attending check.  I thought it was cute that Matt was so concerned over this. The midwife announced I was fully dilated and would be ready to push within the hour! The midwife asked me who my OB was and, lo and behold, my OB happened to be on call that night! What perfect timing. Dr. Dubow came into the room at 5:30pm and told me it was time to push! She pressed a couple buttons, and all of a sudden, the "living room" turned into a delivery room. The pushing part was a lot less dramatic than I had imagined. I had always pictured a room full of random people, sweating and screaming.  The only other people in the room besides Matt and I were a nurse and Dr. Dubow. It was very calm and every time I felt the pressure of another contraction coming I pushed 3 times for 10 seconds each. In between each contraction, Matt and I would chat about how we couldn't believe this was happening. I had no idea how well I was pushing though. Dr. Dubow kept telling me I was doing great, but I wasn't sure if she was saying that to be nice or telling me the truth.  After a handful of pushes, Matt said "OMG babe. You have to see this. Her head is out!"  Even though he made it sound really cool, I didn't want to look and get freaked out. The next time I felt a contraction, Dr. Dubow told me to stop halfway into the set.  All of a sudden I felt this weight release out of me, and I heard the crying of my beautiful baby girl! The entire push time was about 45 minutes.  Matt cut the umbilical cord and I held her tight in my arms just staring in amazement.  She was already super alert with Apgar scores of 8 and 9.  Matt laughs that she came out with arms flailing and one eye open looking all around.  I was really happy I didn't tear, didn't feel pain, and that it happened quickly!  Praise God!  I was so overcome with emotion and so happy to have Matt by my side. 



The next few hours were a big blur. Between bonding with Leah, her being cleaned, vitals taken, me getting cleaned, texting and calling everyone, my parents coming, and being moved to postpartum - all I could really think was OMG LEAH NOELLE KELLY IS FINALLY HERE!  I feel so blessed to be able to experience motherhood and am looking forward to the journey ahead.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Maternity Photos



I was looking through old photos of Leah and realized I never posted maternity or newborn photos.  Here are the maternity ones!
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