1 Month Already?

Today was Rylee's 1 month checkup and tomorrow she is official 1 month old! I can not believe how fast time goes by. I like how some of my friends keep updates on how their babies are progressing so I plan on doing the same with each month. Here are a few things Rylee is doing:

*Rylee is both breastfeeding and bottle feeding now. We were worried about her weight gain and so we have been introducing formula slowly. Breastfeeding has gotten better and more enjoyable for the both of us.

*Rylee was sleeping through the night but we had to wake her up to feed her every 2 hours to gain weight, so now she is in a pattern of waking up and will wake herself up every 3 hours or so. She will sleep in her crib or pack and play for the 1st 3 hours but once we get her up to feed her she will not go back down in the crib and will end up in her bouncer for the rest of the evening. We are slowly trying to get her out of this habit.

*We spend 10-15 minutes of tummy time a day. She has really gotten to like it and will usually fall asleep after 10 minutes at which point I will roll her over and she takes a short nap.

*She has gained a whole pound in the past 2 weeks! We were really worried about her weight at first. She was born 7lbs 11oz but lost a whole pound in the first 4 days. She was up to 7lbs 7oz at her 2 week checkup and is now 8lbs 7 oz. They didn't measure her today but at her 2 week checkup she had grown an inch.

*She is almost too long for the newborn clothes but the 0-3 month clothes almost drown her. We are trying to figure out different outfits she can fit in, but we usually have a habit of wearing some of the same things over and over.

*She is VERY alert and usually has her eyes wide open trying to take in the world. She loves to look at lights and can usually be calmed down by being cuddled closely while talking and looking into her eyes.

*Her baby blessing at church is this Sunday and I will make a new post with pictures then.

Overall, Rylee is a wonderful baby and we couldn't feel more blessed. When we can figure out what she wants, she is almost always content and happy. We love our little girl!

Rylee's First Sunday

To tell the truth, I was dreading going back to church today. I personally thought it was too soon, but Evan was determined to make it back to church. He teaches a primary class and has missed alot (since we were out the Sunday before Rylee was born too). It couldn't have gone any better today! On the car ride to church, Rylee was NOT happy that she was in her car seat. When we got there, I quickly fed her and she seemed to do fine! She was awake and alert through the whole sacrament meeting and did not really fuss once. She did fuss right after sacrament so I took her to the car to change and feed her. (Side note: The reason I took her to the car is that I am not too comfortable feeding her in public just yet and the mothers lounge and bathrooms were packed and it is almost impossible to find an empty classroom because our ward is so big) We spent most of the second hour of church in the car and then made our way back in the building for relief society. She was awake for a little while and then napped through the rest of the meeting. I had planned on keeping her in the car seat so others would "look and not touch", just because she is still so small at only 3 weeks, but she really wanted out so I held her for most of the 3 hours of church. Needless to say, my arm was hurting. I guess it takes some getting used to. I really really enjoyed the relief society lesson today about making sure that your "links" in your chain are strong enough to keep you anchored to where you need to be. I really need to be better about personal prayer and scripture study. Evan and I pray together, but I sometimes forget that I need to take the time to physically kneel and pray. Well, here are the pictures from before church today. I didn't realize it would be FREEZING cold outside when I dressed her today. We made good use of the blankets that were in the car and car seat.

Rylee is here!

Rylee is now almost 5 days old and it seems like she has been around forever! It has been an interesting 5 days. She was delivered at 11:37pm on Thursday. We got to our postpartum room at around 2:30 am that evening. I made Evan go home to get some good rest. I had lost alot of blood and had to be given some morphine so I was literally shaking for about an hour after the delivery. The nurses took Rylee to the nursery for an hour after we got to the room. They brought her back because she was fussy and needed to eat. She started to eat but then fell right to sleep. So I laid and held her for the next few hours just staring at her. She is so beautiful!! I was not expecting a full head of dark brown hair. She is basically Evan's clone with my nose. However she has my personality. She is extremly stubborn! She wants to do things when she wants to do them. She is a very good baby though. She does not cry much. We have had alot of visitors and have been blessed with so much help! My best friend Johnnie stayed with us our first night home from the hospital on Saturday to help. It was so nice having her here! We haven't had to cook one meal so far because of friend's and family which has been very nice. Rylee has been having a hard time eating, which has caused her bilirubin levels to go up which causes jaundice. At her pediatrician appt on Monday her level was 22. Because of her levels being so high, they had to order an at home phototherapy crib. I didn't realize how hard this would be on Evan and I. Basically she has to lay only with a diaper in this baby tanning bed at all times unless she is being fed. Even when she is being fed there is a pad that goes on her back that lets off light. Fortunately, at today's appt her levels dropped to 15! We can take her off of the lights at 10pm tonight. Our friend Matt came over last night to help Evan give Rylee a blessing. I truly think Heavenly Father helped her improve so quickly. Yesterday was one of the hardest days I have ever been through. Not only were her bilirubin levels high, but she had lost 11oz of weight and she was vomiting. We felt SO much better after today's dr. appt where they said she looked much better and she gained 3 oz of weight in 24 hours! We are completely in love with our little girl. She truly is a gift that we cherish every day.

Labor and Delivery

Warning: Don't read this post if you don't want to know the details of Rylee's delivery.

That being said, I feel very blessed to have been able to carry Rylee with little to no complications and to have had a relatively normal delivery. About 3 weeks prior to Rylee's due date (4/11/11), we decided that we were going to induce her a few days early. We made this decision because she was projected to be a big baby and I did not want a greater chance of having to have an emergency c-section. Also, our doctor was going to be out of town and I did not want to have the doctor that would be on call that weekend. That being said, we did have to spend more time preparing for labor than I thought we would have. We checked into Mansfield Methodist on Wednesday at 6pm. I was given a cytotec pill to "ripen my cervix" at 7pm. At 11pm I was still dilated to 1cm so they gave me another. The pill seemed to be softening and thinning my cervix but not dilating it. At 4am they wanted to give me a 3rd pill, however my contractions were 1-2 minutes apart and they needed to slow down my contractions to give me the pill. So they started an IV drip to slow contractions. They gave me the 3rd pill at 7am and things started to slowly progress. By 11 am, I was feeling pretty heavy contractions and was in some pain. My doctor came at 11:30 and broke my water. The anesthesiologist came at 12 to give me the epidural. At 12:30 they started the pitocin to induce my labor. At around 4pm, I started to feel some isolated pain on my lower left abdomen that would just not go away. The anesthesiologist gave me a small dose of pain medicine but it didn't really help. At about 7pm I was only dilated to 7cm. We started to worry that I wouldn't make enough substantial progress to deliver and would maybe need to consider a c-section. Little did I know that the pitocin was just waiting to kick in. From 10pm-11pm I went from 7 to 9 1/2 cm. By 11pm I was having quite a bit of back labor. I told the nurse that she better get ready because I was going to push Rylee out. She said I needed to wait 30 min for the last 1/2 cm of cervix to dilate. By that time I was folded over on my side crying and she said "You better get your game face on because this is what labor is like". Needless to say she was kindof a rough nurse. I told her she better check me again because I just made it dilate. She checked and sure enough, Rylee was on her way out! She called my doctor (who had left because I was taking so long) and my doctor basically was running in as Rylee was going to come out. I had to push around 7 or 8 times and there she was! My dr had to preform an episiotomy and give me 3 stitches. One of the most painful parts was when she was trying to get my placenta out. It had torn into 3 pieces and she had to basically dig her hand around my uterus to get it out. (sorry for the graphic) That part seemed like it took forever! Meanwhile Evan was helping clean off Rylee and get her ready to meet the world. Rylee Erin Russell was born at 11:37pm on 4/7/11. She weighed 7 lbs 11 oz and was 21 inches long. She was born with a full head of dark brown hair and the chubbiest cheeks! We are in love.

Getting ready to get into bed for the next 30 hours.

Amanda came to visit me

This picture was taken around 10:30pm, about an hour before she was born. Evan is holding my hand and helping me through the contractions while my mom feeds me ice chips.

Rylee is finally here!

Look at my chubby cheeks!

Nanny's Birthday

Thursday, March 18th was Nanny's 80th birthday! Nanny is my (Shelbee's) dad's mom. When we were kids, my sister and I would spend a few weeks each summer at Nanny's house in Tulsa. When my grandpa died in 2004, Nanny came to live with my parents in Duncanville. She has been a big blessing to my family. About a week before her birthday, she had a health scare where she thought she was literally dying. She came out of the bathroom and passed out in my sister's arms. I am so grateful my sister was there because Nanny would have really hurt herself if she would have fallen on the tile. She spent 3 days at Charleton Hospital. They said that it looked like her new prescription medication, mixed with cold medicine, had caused some pretty bad heart arrhythmia's. Luckily, Nanny got through it and she says she is feeling better. I am very grateful for Nanny and all she has done for me and my family over the years. Happy 80th Birthday Nanny!!

26th Birthday!

Friday was my 26th birthday! I had a great birthday weekend. Evan did a spectacular job of keeping me entertained and well fed. Friday started with me waking up to birthday streamers and a table full of some of my favorite goodies. We got to work and my secret pal had a gift waiting for me. On our birthday, our team buys us lunch and everyone eats together. We ordered some Mr. Jim's pizza. At about 1:00, our office attendance clerk brought in a box of beautiful flowers. (Ps. This is the first time Evan has gotten me real flowers. I have gotten artificial flowers, fruit flowers, and even paper towel flowers).

After work, I went home and took a quick nap (I have been so exauhsted in this last part of my pregnancy) and then woke up and we met my best friend Amanda Churak at Red Robin for a free birthday burger. It was a great birthday!

Saturday was a PTA fundraiser called "Jam the Gym" where teachers play basketball against each other. Here is Evan and his coworker Richard after the game. It was alot of fun.

We came home, I took another nap, we did a little shopping and then headed to Dallas. We had dinner at Uncle Julios and then came the big surprise! Evan's birthday present to me was a night stay at the Renaissance Hotel in Downtown Dallas. Our room was on the 24th floor and had a great view. This picture was taken on the roof by the pool. Our stay was complete with 2 breakfast buffets that were oh so yummy. Rylee was definately well fed. Sunday night was my family's birthday dinner at BJ's. The service was awful but we still had a great time. Overall, it was a very nice birthday. Evan did alot to make it extra special. I am very blessed to have him as a husband. :)

Rylee's Room

Well, I finally put some of the finishing touches on Rylee's room last weekend before the shower. Here are pictures. I'm still thinking the wall with the bows needs something else, but I haven't quite decided what. I'm open for suggestions.