Things I Love About Isabella

My typing is now mostly done one-handed while nursing, so I thought a list might be easier to compose under these circumstances.

Here are some of the things I love about Isabella:

1. The noises she makes while eating. They are SO adorable!
2. Her cute waking up cry. It's not really a cry; more of a squawk.
3. Sometimes she forgets to swallow and almost chokes on her milk. Obviously, choking is not cute, but once she's done coughing and ready to go again, I think it's cute that she doesn't know choking should be scary. She is so calm about it. For some reason I think it's really cute.
4. She loves loud music. My daughter doesn't fall asleep to lullabies; it's loud, fast, get-your-blood-pumping music for her. I totally love that.
5. I love her jerky hand and arm movements. I know she will grow out of it, and I will miss it.
6. She BARELY opens her mouth to eat. It frustrates me to no end because, well, it hurts. But at the same time her tiny mouth is so stinkin cute. I'm working on being more patient and making her open wider before latching.
7. Most of the time when she's eating, she has her hand up by the side of her face in the cutest little, I'm-thinking-really-hard or I'm-so-perplexed kind of way. I can't find a picture of it, and I can't take one that would be appropriate for posting in a public forum, so you'll just have to imagine it as best you can.
8. I love watching her get more expressive and active. It's so fun to discover her new faces and sounds.
   
9. I love dressing her! Holy cow. It's so much more fun than I even anticipated it would be. She's cute in everything she wears. She's cute in nothing, too! (Not that I've seen it much since, well, I like dressing her so much.)
   
10. She gets attention wherever we go! I suppose every baby does, but it makes me feel like I have the cutest baby ever. Oh, wait. I do.

She's getting fussy, so I'd better stop. Thanks for reading the ramblings of a lovestruck mommy.

I'm a Mom!

This is my first post-baby blog! So much pressure...where to start? Well, I don't even know if I have time to go into the whole birth story. I'm trying to squeeze this in while she's napping, and I have no idea how long that will last. If you're really interested, Matt and I recorded our versions of the birth story on DVD so we have it for posterity. SO glad we did. But it's way too long to post online, so I can burn you a copy if you want to hear it.

Isabella will be 4 weeks old tomorrow. It has been a long 4 weeks, but it's also flown by. Matt stayed home with us the first week, and we had a great time together. My Mom came the next week, and it was great to have her help. Now we've had 2 weeks at home "by ourselves." She still has yet settle into any kind of routine; some nights she'll sleep 3, 4, or 5 hours at a shot, and other nights she'll wake up every 1.5-2 hours. I never know what I'm going to get. The lesson of the first 4 weeks is...go with the flow. :-) I'm still alive, and so is she. So we must be doing all right.

I am dying to know what she weighs. It's been almost 2 weeks since we went to the doctor, and she was 6 pounds, 3 ounces then. I put on a newborn onesie today and it was still HUGE. Seriously. Huge. So maybe she'll grow into them in the next few weeks. I'm going to be hosed with all this winter clothing that will fit her...oh, sometime this summer. :-)

We have actually gone out 2 times without Bella already. The first time I didn't leave any milk, but the second time we left a little bit and she took it (yeah!). Tonight we're planning to go out again, and I have 2 2 oz. bottles to leave. Yeah again! It's so nice to have a good pump and to be able to get away. Although, after we're gone about an hour, I'm ready to see her again. It's this funny, you-drive-me-crazy-sometimes-but-I'm-your-Mom-and-I-love-you-and-miss-you-already thing.

We've also planned our first road trip with Bella (not including Waterloo/Cedar Falls). We are going to Des Moines for Mother's Day weekend. She finally gets to meet Aunt Steph, Uncle Jim, and cousin Hannah! Yeah! I'm scared to death that she'll scream the entire 2 hour drive, but I'm praying about it. Lord, please help us.

These are the ramblings of a sleep-deprived new mom. I probably should get something else done while she's napping.