I found some batteries!

Sleeping Beauty

She did it! She slept until 5:30am today. I would have gotten a full 7 1/2 hours of sleep if I hadn't gotten up every 5 or 10 minutes to make sure she was breathing. She was so quiet. I usually hear a few grunts, squeals, and gurgles, but not this time. She didn't do it till she started to wake up. Or maybe I slept like a log last night and just didn't hear her wonderful sounds.

She is sleeping as I enter this blog. She took a good hour nap and then we played for a good hour to hour in a half. Well I held her, bounced her, and kissed her. I put her in the bouncer while I the bills and she just smiled and giggled. I have actually accomplished a lot this morning and not done yet. Did two loads of laundry, loaded the dishwasher, went through a weeks worth of mail, paid some bills, and well trying to make my house look liveable. I think I have asked Brian to move some plastic bins we have in my office to the garage, but it hasn't been done yet. I think I may just start putting stuff in them that I don't need or use on a daily basis and put them out in the garage myself. I know that if I do, Brian will tell me that I didn't have to do it and that he would done it.

Well I better get back to my cleaning. Sorry no picture for this blog, the batteries to camera went out. Hope to have some pictures tomorrow!

5 A.M.

Today has started off well. Izzy almost made it to 5am today, 4:45 is close enough for me. I think she has done pretty well about getting on a workable schedule. Maybe by the time I go back to work she will get up around 5:30 or 6:00, giving me and daddy 8 hours of sleep and giving Mami (spanish spelling) enough time to feed her and get her dressed for the sitter. It's 1:30 right now and she is knocked out, drunk from milk. I always say she is drunk after she is done feeding, her eyes are closed and her body is completely relaxed and she lets me do whatever, without a fuss, for example, clipping and filing her nails.

Abuelita Brandenburg comes home on Saturday from Panama. She hasn't seen Izzy since a week after she was born. I am sure they are both anxious to see one another. Abuelita Brandenburg probably won't even recognize her.

Grandpa Brandenburg has been spending some time with her. I feel so bad sometimes because she is usually being fussy when he is around. His birthday was last Sunday and she actually behaved well for about a half hour in his arms, as you can see from the picture that was taken.

I had to add some bath time pictures so everyone could see how much Izzy loves her bath time. I hope that doesn't mean she will be spending hours in the bathroom when she gets older. LOL!!! I guess Daddy will just have to remodel the half bath, so she can have her own bathroom.

Counting Hippos

Lucky Parents

I might be speaking too soon, but I believe that Brian and I are pretty lucky parents. I mean of course Izzy is the best thing in our lives, but the fact that she has been sleeping 7 to 7 1/2 hours at night is a blessing! I of course called the doctor to make sure that it was ok for a 5 week old child to go that long without a feeding and the medical assistant chuckled and said, "Wow, you're the first to call and ask that question, but of course. She will let you know when she is hungry." Hey, I just wanted to be on the safe side and not feel like I was depriving her from food. :)

She was up at 7am today and just got put down for a nap. We played for a whole straight 2 hours without a fuss. I really think I am getting the hang of this mother duty. It's really going to be hard to drop her off at a sitter in a month. I would keep her home if I didn't have to be on the phone 24/7. I got through breastfeeding, so I am sure I will get through the sadness of leaving her for 8 hours a day, of course I will be thinking about her non-stop, but what mother wouldn't?

Our Little Diva

My Little Applehead

I always wondered what kinds of things made people strong, or what made them not break down when they most likely should have. I know what is making me strong right now, my "Little Applehead."

This month has been a crazy month, but it has also been a depressing month for me. My mom has been in Panama for almost a month now, taking care of my grandmother. My grandmother recently undergone a major surgery to take some water off her brain, so they had to insert a pump in her head, which then connected to a tube in her stomach, for the water to drain into. My grandmothers stomach rejected the tubing and she sustained an infection. Well, I thought, ok, it's an infection. All they have to do is replace the tubing. I was wrong. First they have to find the tubing because apparantly they don't have a stock of it, go figure. So ok, we just have to wait. Nope, things have gotten worse. The doctors have found a tumor in my grandmothers colon. Damn it! I am so pissed off right now, just for the simple fact that my mother is going through all this by herself. My grandmother is in ICU, so my mother can only see her an hour a day. Geesh, can I get any more bad news?

I received a phone call from a friend that I had not spoken to for about six months. I thought he was calling just to give me a hard time for not keeping in touch and letting him know how things were going with Izzy. I was wrong. He called to give me the news that my friend Christine passed away on 4/19. She was only in her early 30's and was fine last week. We were suppose to meet for lunch this week so she could see Izzy. I didn't break down on the phone and kept calm, simply because I was still in shock. When I hung up the phone, tears ran down my face. I looked over to see what Izzy was doing, and she was just looking at me with her big eyes and the expression on her face made me feel like she was telling me that it was ok to cry and that I didn't have to keep it all bundled inside.

I am keeping it together because I know that my main focus right now is to take care of my "Little Applehead." She is what is getting me through the days!

Good times

Just had to share this pic. It's the best. It was taken just after bath time (she loves the tub!).

A Month Tomorrow

Wow, our baby girl will be a month old tomorrow. Time does fly by when you bring a child into this world. Things are finally falling into place, well at least I would like to think so. Breastfeeding still sucks, but I am not giving up. She just drinks and drinks, then has to burp and spit up. I am sure if I went to the grocery store or the mall, everyone would know that I am a new mom because I have more spit up on my shirt than buttons. I heard that phrase on a new show called The New Motherhood, or New Motherhood that is on ABC on Thursdays. It's pretty funny. It has the funny lady from Will and Grace.

Well I hope to take Izzy to get her picture taken tomorrow and finally start filling up the empty walls in my house with her beautiful face.

Surviving

So I finally decided to get some advise about breastfeeding because, well it doesn't come naturally like they say it does. My sister-in-law was sweet enough to accompany me because I really had no idea what it would be like. Umm...so who would have thought that when you walk in you would just see women breastfeeding. I figured there would have been at least 5 to 10 women holding their baby and raising their hands to ask questions, no nothing like that at all. Just two women feeding their babies. The lactation consultant just asked if I was ready to undress Izzy and get her weighed and then feed her? Uh, sure. Izzy gained another pound. She is up to 8 lbs 8 oz. Guess she is getting plenty to eat. The support group was a little bit of a waste time because the consultant told me that Izzy was latching on fine and to try some things that I had already heard over the phone a million times. The only thing I got out of going to the support group was the reassurance that my baby was latching on right, which I still feel that shw is not, but the consultant swears that it gets better while the baby gets older. We will see.

I got Izzy home by 3:00, so she was passed her feeding time and she sure let me know too! She barely fussed today which was great. I think I am finally starting to get the hang of things and am less stress, so of course that probably helps a lot.

Brian fed her when he got home. It was just precious to watch. You are probably wondering why we are bottle feeding her so soon. Izzy will be going to a sitter once I go back to work and the sitter said that the one thing Izzy had to know how to do for her to watch her was take a bottle. She had no problem taking a bottle, so lets keep our fingers crossed and hope that she still breastfeeds.

So all in all, I am surviving!

2 Week Thoughts

Where to begin? Let's start from the beginning. March 17th, St. Patricks Day at about 10pm. My water broke, so Brian drove me to St. Vincents Womens Hospital where they admitted me. I did have a birth plan at first, but let's just say, it didn't go as planned. After going through 2 hours of painful contractions, I gave in and took the epidural. A couple more hours went by and finally, it was time for me to push. Pushing lasted for about two hours and well the doctor was concerned the that baby may be too big and suggested that I have a c-section. At 2:49pm, on March 18th, Isabella Rose McInerny was born! I will never forget the look on Brian's face and the tears that we shed on the most special day of our lives.

Isabella Rose McInerny
Born: March 18th, at 2:49pm
Weight: 6 lbs 14 oz
Length: 19 1/2

So I thought the delivery was going to be the hardest part. It wasn't. Isabella Rose was born jaundice and they had to do some light treatments, that I could bare to watch her go through, plus all the poking and probing on her tiny little feet because they had to check her blood sugar levels. They had to keep taking her away from me every time I finished feeding her and it just seemed like it would never end.

Finally, March 22nd, the day we could take our bundle of joy home!

It's been two weeks and two days, and I have to admit, it's been hard! Lack of sleep, hearing her cry and not knowing what she wants, feeding her which feels like almost every hour. I don't think I have cried so much. We are getting through it though!