3 Weeks Old Today

Izzy Jo is 3 weeks old today. She's doing well, and seems to be growing like a weed. If only I'd have had a camera on her since she was born, you could probably SEE her growing. She's doing pretty well with the night sleeping and I'm knocking on every piece of wood I can find for that at this point, because I've heard it will just change again. We have had a few tough evenings though, but that will happen, I guess. That seems to be the roughest part of the day, which makes it hard to want to have visitors after work. However, those that have been around young babies understand this, and it isn't a big deal. We're still trying to figure this whole thing out and learning a lot on the process. However, SHE seems to have things figured out pretty well... :P~

Hanging out with mom before being fed this morning.

Someone not enjoying tummy time - see, she isn't always peaceful, I swear....but the peaceful pictures are the ones that tend to get posted...

Pics from this week

Isabelle hanging with Magnum

Hanging on the couch

Decisions, decisions...

First Ride with Mom and the "Poopec"

Isabelle lost her cord yesterday. She's now the proud owner of a perfect little belly button, or 'poopec' as they'd say in Czech. I'm pretty sure that spelling is incorrect....but at least that is correct phonetically. My mom used to converse with her mom in Czech growing up, and as a result, as I was growing up, there was a smattering of czech words and phrases thrown around that were just a part of growing up in my family. Once I left the home for college, these phrases were still there, but seemed to go dormant...until Isabelle. Now, all these phrases used for little body parts in the bath have been flooding back. What else will Isabelle uncover that is part of the legacy from being with my mom and dad that I've forgotten?

The other milestone from yesterday (more for me than her) was that I took her for a short ride in the car to go see Dad at work. Until yesterday, Dan had dealt with the car seat exclusively so it took us a bit to get that figured out. Once she got over the injustice of being harnessed in, she slept through everything. Next? The stroller! ha ha

Pics to come when blogger will upload them...

Oh, if anyone has any burping tips, please let me know. I seem to have a hard time with it, and she gets a lot of little gas bubbles in her tummy. Dad, on the other hand, is an awesome burper. For some reason the same techniques don't seem to work for me....I'm trying to figure out what it is about my delivery that's different, but am not finding it yet. It's really frustrating at 3am when you know what's wrong, but can't seem to help.

First Doctor's Appointment

Dan and I took Isabelle on her first adventure yesterday other than coming home. We had her first week appointment with her doctor. She tolerated everything pretty well, although Dan says that her + her infant carrier is already about a 20 lb load. Makes me wonder how I'll make it to my appointment next week not supposing to lift much before 6 weeks. But I digress. She received a clean bill of health, the doc said she looked perfect, so we must be doing ok so far, despite feeling at a loss at times. Upon delivery she weighed 6# 14oz, at discharge she weighed 6# 8oz. Yesterday for the doc, she weighed in at 7# 1/2oz. The goal was to make back the birth weight by this appointment and she did wonderfully.

Here's a pic I just snapped of her as she's hanging out in her swing. Believe me, she isn't always this content, but the cuteness is always there...

Random Expressions

Here are a few pics of Isabelle taken during our first week home....I apologize the second 2 are blurry, but I couldn't resist posting them.

Just finished eating....yup, life is good.

Glad to know mom looks funny in the AM hours...

Someday, this expression will be connected to a giggle...

Proud Papa

Here's a picture of the proud papa in the hospital with his daughter. I can't express how much it has meant to me to have him with me this week, in the hospital and then at home this week. Honestly, I'm a little nervous about him returning to work tomorrow, but it has to be done.

Words can't describe how proud I am of him and how well he's taken on the role of Dad. He is simply amazing.

A Birth Story...

My water decided to break at 2am this morning. We called in and were advised to come on into the hospital. Nothing had progressed by 7 this morning, so an oxitocin drip was started. Contractions got stronger, but not really anything that did any progressing, so the drip kept getting upped until 2:30 or so. By this time contractions were coming fast and hard. Even so, I had not progressed past 5cm and 95% effaced for all 12+ hours since my water had broken even though things were fairly painful at this point. I decided to take a swim in the jacuzzi tub to see if that would allow me to relax between the contractions...I was too tense since they were so close together. Well, it did the trick. In the 15-20 minutes I was in the tub, I went to completely effaced and 10 cm. I could barely get out of the tub. Everything was situated, and though I didn't think I would know what to look for....the urge to push was unmistakable. Again, I was extremely lucky with the pushing phase....a little over 35 minutes, and Isabelle was here. I've never experienced anything like this in my life.

A nurse came in after the delivery, saying she was here for it, lending a helping hand and she just had to tell us something. As Isabelle Joanne was born, the sun came out from behind the almost totally overcast sky and shone brightly into the room onto everyone working around us. (Dan and I were oblivious to this for various reasons.) I believe that both of our little girl's namesake's were here to witness the birth. I am so very thankful the nurse shared her sight with us. I have faith again that my mom still watches over us when she has the chance.

Here's a picture of Isabelle sporting her new pink hat after her first bath. She will be part of the next generation of tough Boheme/German women!

It's a Girl!!

Hi everyone, just wanted to let you meet the newest member of our little family. Meet Isabelle Joanne, 6# 14 oz, 20.5" long. Born 4-7-08 at 4:14 pm. Here are a couple of snapshots from soon after she arrived.

38.5 Weeks

A few of my sisters have been saying that they really haven't gotten to see me pregnant, even though I was home at Christmas and was plenty pregnant then. ;) I guess they all want to see the belly that has pretty much taken over my life at this point. So, for posterity and to allay any fears that I still might not be showing (hee hee) here's a belly pic that I took this morning. The baby has dropped, or is in the process of doing so. I can tell just from the change in positioning and how different tasks have changed comfort level in the past few days. I can say, while I've been really lucky with feeling well throughout almost this entire pregnancy, that there's not really any more room in the inn, and it's time that Peanut and I become the 2 separate people we're meant to be. Even so...never having met the little 'Nut, I can tell you a few things about him/her:
1. (S)He seems to like Rihanna.
2. (S)He seems like they might be stubborn (nooooo, really? ha ha)
3. (S)He is already ticklish
4. Somehow never having met this little person, I can already tell I'm going to love the pants off them. I don't know how I know that....I just do.

OB Appointment #13

Well, another Thursday appointment has come and gone. Thirteen days until the Peanut's estimated arrival date. The doctor tells me if I would deliver today, Peanut would probably be a bit over 7 lbs. If I go to my estimated due date, he/she will be closer to the 8 lb mark. Either will be a good sized Nut. Heart rate today was 152 BPM (but Liz was feeling around for his/her size before taking the heart rate, so (s)he was probably a bit agitated), belly measured at 38 cm.

The doctor did her checking today, I'm at 1-2 cm dilated and about 60% effaced, so not much progress since last time, but at least there was progress. This time, her exam caused what looked like to me a large amount of unusual "show." Some of you probably know what that is, and some don't, but I won't explain it any further to keep this somewhat benign. I will tell you that I've never had anything like that previous in this whole entire experience, and it has left me kind of freaked out. The doctor told me that it doesn't mean anything except that things are changing and getting ready, and it doesn't mean that anybody is necessarily coming soon. Even so....I'm still pretty unsettled. The adventure, I guess, continues.....