Scarlett's Baptism

While we were in TN for the holidays and family would be in town, we decided to do Scarlett's baptism then.

She looked so pretty.

I was worried how Miller would act during the Baptism since we would be occupied and someone else would have to handle him. While he did play, he was really good.

See, Miller supervised. He splashed around in the holy water but Fr. Michael was really patient with him.

Us with her godparents. (From left to right) Ben's sister Becky, my cousin Megan, us, my cousin Mitchell and Fr Michael.

She looked so pretty in the Trusty family christening gown and her new bonnet that Ben's parents gave her.

We knew we had to get a cake for her party but our brains were so fried from having the baby and the holidays that we had no idea what to put on it. We took the suggestion that was at  the store with "God Bless You" and we added her name. I think it sounds like she sneezed.

Some little two year old paws got a hold of the cake at some point.

Miller and his cousin Annemarie playing with his new dump truck.

It meant so much to us to have family come in town for this event. We hate that we only got to see people for a few hours and it was so hectic but we really appreciate everyone making the trip for us.

Christmas '13

Once we got to Knoxville for Christmas, we were super busy. Getting stuff ready for our Christmas get together, for Scarlett's baptism, and visiting family so they could meet the baby.

This was the best picture we could get on Christmas Eve.

My girl looked so pretty in her first Christmas dress.

They looked so cute in their coordinating outfits.

We changed them into their PJs to open presents. She looked so sweet here.

He finally got the hang of opening presents.

He was a blur running around playing with all of his toys.

 

On Christmas Day we went to Daddy and Bobbie's house to celebrate. I think that is the best present under the tree.

 

I saw this reindeer suit at Carter's back when I had Miller but just did not need it even though I loved it. I kept running across it and finally one day I saw it for less than a dollar in a newborn size. I grabbed it figuring someone I know would have a baby around Christmas eventually. Little did I know that it would be me.

Scarlett loved taking naps on Pappaw.



On the 26th we did Christmas morning at moms house, and this is the best family picture that we could get. I am seeing a future of crummy family pictures from now on.

Ninny and her grandbabies.

Ben's parents meeting Scarlett for the first time. 

 

On the 28th we went to my aunt Diane and uncle Steve's house in Oak Ridge for a get together with my dad's side of the family. Here is my Mammaw and Pappaw with a bunch of their great-grandbabies.

Obviously it was super hectic holiday and we did not have much time to catch our breath after just having had a baby but it was still fun. We had lots of help with the kids and Miller got a bunch of vehicles to play with.

Pre- Christmas Activities

I know that I am late getting these on here but better late than never.

The first day home from Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas tree, that way we had the most time to enjoy it. Miller actually did help. Then over the following weeks, he helped us deconstruct it, one ornament at a time. He never wanted to harm the ornaments, just play with  them. That is probably our fault since all of our ornaments look like toys from movies. 

The first weekend in December is the town square lighting in our town. Our friends Jeanne and Steve hosted a pre lighting party and we all met at their house and then walked over. While the women wrangled babies and protected the food from the kids, this is what the men did. Every party is the same.

 Miller and Luke playing.

It was a cold evening so Miller was all bundled up in two coats.

We wanted a family picture with the tree but lighting is tricky. Heather was so smart and found this spot with a spotlight to use. I think this is our last picture as a family of 3.

Santa rode in on a firetruck. Miller could not have cared less about Santa but loved the firetruck and all the police cars. He disappeared with mom because he wanted to go befriend the police officers who were manning the crosswalk.

 

His police officer friend let him hold his baton and gave him a sticker. He was ecstatic!

While we were biding our time before the baby came, we tried to be productive. We did all of our Christmas baking before she came. Miller was super excited.

He actually helped us roll balls but his favorite was decorating.

His fingers were magenta from eating sprinkles.

We managed to get all the baking done with little Miss took her sweet time arriving.

I just had to share this pic of Scarlett getting her first bath at home. She HATED it! She has gotten better with being naked and does not scream everytime she gets her diaper changed or a bath. It is actually pretty cute to watch her just lay there and try to figure out what is going on.

Scarlett Monthly Update: Month One

Our baby girl is already a month old. I am always amazed how fast this month goes by. On the one hand it is hectic and crazy since we are just trying to get some sort of normality back, yet we are always so sad that it is over. This time around I know that we really do have so much more to look forward to so I am not as nostalgic and sad.

Weight: 10lbs 0oz (+1lbs 5oz)

Height: 22" (+1 1/2")

Head: 15.25" (+1.5")

Sleep: She is a good sleeper (not that Miller was not). She would normally go to sleep around Miller's bedtime and then wake up when we would go to bed around midnight, eat and go back to sleep. Then she would wake up at 5:30 (consistently everyday), eat, go back to sleep for another 3 or 4 hours, then get up for the day.

This week, she started waking up when we would go to bed, eat and then stay awake. One night she kept me up until 3:30AM. We started trying to be more calm when we would get her up for that pre-bed feeding and Friday night she slept 7 hours and then Saturday she slept 8 hours. I am not going to celebrate too soon because I am sure it will not happen every night but that is still a better start than we had with Miller.

As for during the day, she snoozes off and on a lot but is generally happy when she is awake. Sometimes she fusses because she needs help going back to 

Eating: She eats pretty much every 2 to 3 hours. When Miller was nursing, he would latch on and stay. She pops off and on and gets frustrated for some odd reason. She is still falling asleep mid feeding sometime so that is when we take the opportunity to change her diaper and wake her up.

Best Moment: We have had so many big things since this was her first month with us. I love seeing her and Miller together. He is such a good big brother. The other day I came into the living room and he was sitting in front of her talking to her and she smiled at him. It was adorable!

Milestones: Hmmmm, lots of little things. Sleeping through the night one night. First trip out of town to TN. She is pretty good at holding her head up.

Monthly Wisdom: I think being a 2nd time mom makes me know how fast this goes by so I am trying to slow down and enjoy this time. Rather than worry about doing stuff around the house, I am taking some lazy time to just cuddle with my kids.

Goals for the Upcoming Month: We are just going to keep working at establishing a routine with her, especially at nighttime. We really need to get in the swing of things like waking up at a certain time and getting a pattern to the day.

I took a one month postpartum picture and I wanted to include Scarlett. I could not get the poor girl comfortable so she kept sliding down.

Scarlett's First Few Days

I mentioned in Scarlett's birth post that everything was really complicated after she was born. Here is some of the happenings.

The morning she was born, we were supposed to get transferred to our recovery room but the hospital (which is humongous) was completely full. They took a small wing of labor rooms and moved us there. It was nice and big so Miller had lots of running space. The funny thing is that we had a security guard parked across from the room since the monitoring anklets that the babies wear did not work on that floor.  We joked that she had her own personal body guard.

We took a small nap and I finally got her to nurse and then I hopped in the shower and got ready for visitors. Daddy and Bobbie came to visit and then mom arrived with Miller.

I was sitting in the bed and Ben was in the chair next to me. He saw Ben and yelled, ”Daddy” and ran in his arms. As soon as he got to Ben, he saw me and screamed, “Mommy” and jumped in the bed with me. He wrapped his arms around me and snuggled in for a few minutes. We just soaked each other up because we had never been apart that long before. Finally, we pointed out the baby. He started reaching for her like he wanted to hold her. I held her and he immediately laid his head down on her and snuggled. During the whole visit he constantly kissed her and snuggled her. He is in LOVE!!! We tried to get him to say her name but he kept calling her baby. 

Daddy and Bobbie left that morning to head back to Knoxville and Heather came to visit us on her lunch break. We got moved to our real room that afternoon. Our nurse was quite pushy getting us out of her section. She was trying to pack up our stuff for us and knocked everything out of Ben's wallet in the process.

The next morning they told us that her bilirubin levels were a little high and wanted to keep an eye on her. Of course I tried not to worry and we just hung out that day. Mom and Miller spent most of the afternoon and evening with us.

We had a nice view of my doctor's office and the Christmas tree. Miller had a vantage point to watch the helicopter and ambulances. He even saw a blimp (so random!).

The next morning, we were supposed to be leaving but her bilirubin levels went up so they wanted to put her on lights and keep her another day. There was the possibility that they might discharge me and keep her there but Ben and I vowed that we would not be leaving. They ended up letting us stay an extra night so I could be there to nurse her.

The doctor was concerned about her getting enough milk and kept insisting that I supplement with formula but I knew my body and knew she was getting enough. I ended up pumping and giving that to her after she would eat. I just wanted to shut them up so they would leave us alone. Plus I could prove to them that I had enough milk when I could show them the bottles that I was outputting after she was having a full feeding.

She looked absolutely pitiful in the eye masks but it was to protect her little eyes from the harsh lights. She was a trooper and did so well.  With these lights, they were just pads that she laid between so I could still hold her and nurse her, but it was just awkward. Our friend Lauren came to visit and could not hold the cuddly newborn like she expected.

The worst part was that I was already upset at having to stay there another night and hoping that my baby was okay but when Miller left that evening, he started crying when he realized that we were not going with them. That broke my heart and of course I started bawling. We got him calmed down and him and mom left but I was determined to get home to him the next day.

That evening her levels had not improved so she had to go to the heavy duty light bed. It was awful because with this we were not able to hold her and she could not be swaddled. The poor girl just wanted to be held and cuddled. She had gone from being snuggled inside of me for 9 months to flat on her back and uncovered in days.

I stole her out and let her nap with me. I felt guilty the whole time but I just wanted my baby to be content.

The next day was the bigger ordeal. 4AM they ran her blood test. 6AM the results came back. 6:30AM Ben finally hunted someone down to tell the results to us. 8AM the doctor came in and said that she had slightly improved and we could go home, but he wanted to have us get a light bed at home and check her out the next day. So we waited. Finally at 1PM a case manager came to get our information from the nursery. 4PM the case manager called us to say that they got our information and would start looking for a bed. She said that there were two places that would work with our insurance but one of them would probably be out this late in the day.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! We started this ordeal at the beginning of the day so there is no reason we should have to stay there because they just now got around to us. I know that it was not the case managers fault and probably just bureaucratic crap that happened but when it comes to my newborn babies health and wanting to get home to my toddler baby, I was majorly angry and frustrated. We were not going to stay there another night, even if it took sneaking out of there.

Fortunately, she worked quick and within an hour, she came in at the same time the medical supply company was calling us to arrange delivery. They told us that they could get it to us at the hospital in a couple of hours but we wanted out so Ben got them to deliver it to our house.

It was so nice to get her dressed and in her carseat and drive home.

When we got home, I leaped out of the car and ran into the house to see Miller. Ben grabbed a few things and was right behind me. Miller was so excited to see us until he noticed that it was just the two of us and started asking for the baby with a very concerned look on his face. He was relieved to see her and started introducing her to his cars.

My awesome friends put together this basket of goodies for us. It is so nice to have snacks and meals to come home to.

The poor girl on the light bed. Thank goodness that she is easy going because this could have been horrible. My mom was awesome and stayed up with her that night so we could sleep, except when I had to feed the baby.

The next day we took her to  the pediatrician and they checked her out. All was good and the doctor was very pleased with her weight gain. They finally told us that her bilirubin has gone to an 11 so we could take her off the lights. I cried because I could finally just hold my baby without the lights or feeling guilty that I took her off of the lights. I went home, got in comfy clothes, nursed her and then let her nap on me for 3 hours. It was heaven!

They checked her again two days later and she was down slightly which was good that she did not rebound. While we were in Knoxville for Christmas, we checked her out a few times and her numbers when drastically down. Although we knew that she would be fine, it was still comforting to see her improve.