brianandcristina.net

So if y’all have been checking this but not the smugmug account… Yeah we haven’t been blogging much. But there are lots of pics up over there *(:

Isn’t she adorable?

Well this week was full of visitors and play dates.   Lara Talley, one of our friends from our Village Home Group, and her four month baby Grant came by to visit for an afternoon.  Thursday of this week was a gorgeous day so we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood.  We walked down to Standard Pacific’s model home to say hi to the Kristin, the very sweet woman that sold us on building in this neighborhood, and let her meet Lily.  Unfortunately was transferred to a different development so we snagged some frozen cookie dough out of the freezer and continued on our way.  After many meetings to build our house, Brian and I realized that the cookies they put out weren’t nearly as tasty as the dough in the freezer

Getting ready for a walk

Lily and Grant trying to pose for a picture

On Monday Lily and I ventured out to Lewisville to visit Jenny, another friend from our home group, and her 18 month baby Lily.  (We call her baby Lily Grace and ours Lily Rose)  It was also a very nice day so we took a walk around the neighborhood and watched Lily Grace play on a park jungle gym for a little while.  It was wonderful to sit and talk with a dear friend for an afternoon.  Thanks for having us over Jenny!

Tuesday evening my Grandpa Don and Grandma Helen from my father’s side of the family arrived from Seattle to see Lily.  We congratulated them on their promotion as great grandparents and went out for some good ole barbecue at the Prairie House in Roanoke.  Lily was wonderful all day, but kind of freaked out at the restaurant so we cut the evening short and parted ways until Wednesday.  Before going over to my dad’s house the next day with Lily, I took her to her cardiology appointment.  Dr. Hess with Cook Children’s checked out her VSD and heart murmur by giving her an EKG and Echo cardiogram.  She concluded that there is nothing to currently worry about since the VSD is so small and in an area of little concern.  She also said her heart will probably fix itself by the time she is three years old.  Until then we will just continue to monitor it every six months.  Lily and I then traveled over to Coppell to spend the day with my family.  It was wonderful seeing my grandparents with my daughter and we were sad to see them go so quickly.  Thank you for making the trip Grandma and Grandpa!  I know flying standby is not very pleasant.  Brian and I look forward to bringing Lily to Seattle someday

Four generations!

Great Grandpa Don and Lily

Great Grandma Helen and Lily

About a week ago I realized that we really needed something that allowed Lily to sit up and hang out when nobody holds her.  We were just propping her up next to us with pillows, but having something that would allow us to walk away for a minute was proving necessary.  So I ordered the Fisher Price Aquarium Bouncer from Babies R’ Us online because it got the best reviews of any other newborn “bouncer” and I was hoping to avoid buying a bulky, noisy, expensive swing.  I say “bouncer” because in order for her to bounce she had to be manually bounced and that wasn’t very clear in the description of the product.  It did have a vibrate mode, but it didn’t bounce her or seem to comfort her much at all.  So I gave in and returned it for the Fisher Price My Little Lamb Papasan Cradle n’ Swing (wow…that’s a mouthful).  Demo Video The very first night she slept for almost six hours straight in the swing! It was worth at least half the cost for that one night of rest alone   Lily hasn’t slept like this every night since then, but it has definitely increased the amount of time she sleeps in general.  The swing has six speeds, eight different songs, three nature sound effects, it moves side-to-side or back-and-forth, folds up for storage, and has incredibly soft fabric that cradles her very well.  The motor isn’t very loud and when the swing is off it doesn’t lock into gear so you can manually push it every once in a while since her inertia keeps it moving for a bit (also saving the battery).  Lily also  seems to like the mobile and mirror that is attatched to the bottom of it.  Several times I’ve found her smiling and making happy noises while staring at it.  Unfortunately it sucks the life out of D sized batteries, but we recently bought some rechargeable batteries to keep the cost down.   Overall, I highly recommend this swing as I can’t imagine our life without it now.

Fisher Price Aquarium Bouncer

Not very impressed

Fisher Price Cradle n' Swing

One of her first captured smiles! I think she likes it

Wednesday of this week Lily had her one month check-up with Dr. Terk at Cook Children’s.   She measured in at 21 and 5/8 inches and 9 lbs. 3 oz., which was a little lighter than the doctor was hoping for.  She was at the 50th percentile for weight, but the 75th percentile for her head circumference and height.   Several days before this appointment Lily was having what Brian and I called “freak-outs” because she would scream and cry to the point of sheer exhaustion for a few hours late in the evening.  She would be fed, clean, burped, swaddled, held, rocked, walked and anything else we could come up with, but nothing would comfort her.  Dr. Terk said it could possibly be colic but probably acid reflux since she had been spitting up quite a bit after every feeding.   So Lily has been on medicine for acid reflux that we add to her bottle of breast milk twice a day and she seems to be doing much better.  This could also be due to the fact that I was instructed to cut dairy out of my diet for a week to see if Lily is allergic to cow milk.  I’ll slowly start adding dairy back into my diet, now that it has been a week, and see how that affects her.  Avoiding dairy is incredibly difficult, especially when wanting to eat delicious Mexican and Italian food where cheese is a part of just about every dish.  I never realized how fond I am of this particular food group.  Anyways…We’ve also switched to using Dr. Brown’s bottles and they appear to do a great job keeping air out of her tummy.  Lily is mostly just fussy now when there is something we can do about it.   Oh, I almost forgot that many of you have been asking about her sleep schedule.  Well, she still only sleeps about three to four hours at a time during the night, but this has been getting better as she gets older.  I miss sleeping for any extended period of time, but I’m doing better adjusting to her schedule.  And Brian has been great to let me sleep for a few hours while he stays up late.  For the most part we are all doing pretty well.  I’ll try to update y’all on Lily’s 5th week soon.  She just woke up and needs some attention

So I guess I need to play catch-up.  The past couple weeks have been quite busy to say the least.  However, before I get to Lily’s 4th and 5th week adventures I want to make sure to thank Kevin and Nancy, I mean Gran Poppa and Gran Nan   They arrived a few days before Lily made her grand entrance and we’re so thankful they did.  After such a sudden birth and a traumatic experience for Brian, their support and love was  needed and appreciated more than I anticipated.  I don’t even remember the first couple days of Lily’s life, so Brian had a new baby and a wife slowly recovering from surgery to take care of all at once.   My in-laws were originally planning to come into town from Georgia once Lily arrived, but I’m glad they were too excited to wait.  Having Tim to help Brian when I started seizing was an incredible blessing, but having his entire immediate family by his side was even more comforting.  Besides being so emotionally supportive, Kevin and Nancy grocery shopped, cooked, cleaned our house, and ran a plethora of errands for us while we were in the hospital and during that first week we came home with Lily.  Needless to say, adjusting to our new life was much easier because of all their help and Brian and I couldn’t be more grateful.  I’m fortunate to have in-laws that care so much for me and our growing family.

As for the rest of our family and friends, thank you so much for all the prayers for us as new parents and for Lily’s and my health.  We are humbled by all the people calling us or sending us cards with gracious words of love, support, and advice.  The flowers and meals many of you have sent over have also been so wonderful.  Thank you all!

From my loving father

From my wonderful friends Heather Smith, Victoria Lear, and Lisa Loniewsky

From my gracious mother and father-in-law

From our sweet, new friends and neighbors Audra, Emily, and Ma

From Aunt Judy, Aunt Robin, and Gramma- We can’t wait to see you next and have you meet Lily!

So.  A week ago we brought her home.  Lots of not sleeping, lots of diapers, lots of dishes.  But both girls are safe and healthy and I’m very happy to do these sorts of things for those two things.

I need to get back to work tomorrow, though.  Which will put a lot more strain on Cristina, which I don’t enjoy.  But we’ll figure it out.  It helps that the little biscuit is sleeping better already – the last couple days she didn’t require one of us conscious all night (in shifts.)  Which is nice.

I did have time this evening to weed through a few dozen pics and upload ‘em.  Check out Week 3.  *(:=

Howdy,

Well then.  Been a crazy couple three days since we got home.  Lots of soiled nappies, lots of dishes, lots of running around fetching trying to help Cristina.  Who is turning out (unsurprisingly) to be a great mom.  My mom (who is likely going to be calling herself Grand Nan.. or Nanna.) is around too to help.  And a great help she’s been – getting groceries, cooking, cleaning, and of course lavishing the granddaughter with attention.

A friend asked me (tongue in cheek) how I liked not sleeping and changing diapers.  I can honestly say I am not minding it much considering before I was having to worry about my wife and my daughter STOPPING BREATHING.  heh.  Late nights/early mornings and poop is seeming to be a welcome sort of alternative.

It’s gone well overall.  With the exception of ~3a to 630a.  We suspect she has her days and nights reversed due to the constant light at the NICU considering she’s out like a light in the afternoon.

By the by, I’ve updated our smugmug.  Changed the page and added a lot of pics.  The link is over to the right here for the root of that site.  But here’s a shortcut to the galleries of the little biscuit.

So as Brian mentioned earlier… we finally get to take Lily home on Monday!  We are going to “room in” at the hospital Sunday night in order to learn how to use the cardiac apnea monitor that we will be taking home with us when Lily is discharged.   We’ll spend our first evening yet with our daughter by our side, waking up with her for her late night feedings and learning the noises of the monitor.  We’ll probably have this machine for a few weeks or until Lily no longer has her episodes and “desats” (blood oxygen saturation level lowering too much) for at least a week.  Our pediatrician actually doesn’t think we need to take one home, but all the nurses and the NICU doctor that we’ve been working with said they’d get one if Lily was their child… so needless to say we are getting one.  I can’t imagine that Brian or I would be able to sleep at all without this (for at least a little while) from fear of waking up to her not breathing.  Seeing this precious little girl turn blue is about the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced and I’d do anything to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

As for an update from today… Lily went her first night and day without having an episode!  And she breast fed wonderfully!  It was a wonderful change from the past several days.  And this great news made today a lot more bearable.  Brian and I are about sick of the hospital.  After spending the five days there from me being admitted, we’ve spent 12-14 hours everyday up there and might go crazy if we had many more days left of this.  We’re tired of having to scrub up to our elbows every time we want to touch our daughter, looking at the overwhelming florescent lights, listening to the endless beeping of the plethora of machines monitoring the 6 other premies in our particular room,  listening to the crying of the other children, sitting in the uncomfortable plastic gliders, and smelling everything being sooo sterile (which I know is important, but not very welcoming).  I’m so thankful that she didn’t come weeks early.  I don’t know how I wouldn’t go stir crazy.  We just can’t wait to be home with our little girl.

Lily passing her car seat test!

So the first picture is of Lily in her car seat because she had to pass an hour long test before we can take her home.  Since babies sit in a bit of a crunched position in the car, the NICU requires all of their patients to sit for at least an hour without “desatting”.  Lily passed with flying colors.  In fact, she was rather displeased with me when I took her out because she was sleeping so soundly.  She definitely loves being wrapped up tight.  And the other picture is of the first outfit we dressed her in- the teal made her dark blue eyes even more beautiful The onsie didn’t last very long as we got to experience how fast babies go through clothing and blankets from spitting up.

First outfit

Just thought I’d post a quick pic of the two newest Welch ladies. *(:=