Giving the giraffe some loving

Here is Bella tonight giving her giraffe a little love after her bath. She can be feisty when we change her diaper, so we have started letting her play with her little friend to keep her mind off of the trauma of diaper changes.

Earlier this afternoon, she sported her new punk hair style. She is a little unsure if she will wear this style in the future, but it's good to see she is open to trying new things.

Pic of the day

This one is fresh in after she was fed this morning. Things are still going pretty well. We had a slight bottle malfunction last night where daddy screwed the bottle together too tight, so Bella was not getting much after a few minutes. It was one of those fancy air flow bottles. So I thought the vent might need to be opened at the bottom. Of course I unscrewed it in the dark like a dummy, and spilled formula all over the place, and we didn't know how much she had taken from it. So I made her a new bottle. Little Bella is not one to stop eating when she is full unfortunately. That would be too easy. So she took almost all of the new bottle (in hind site I should have let her drink only half of it) and then spit up about 2min later. So last night was an adventure!

Why oh why did God make babies nocturnal?

I will start with the pictures of the day. These just came in after we got her changed and fed this morning. She may not be smiling because she is happy at this particular moment. Catherine thinks it was because of her gas. We will probably never know for sure.

The last couple of nights were a little bit challenging. She sleeps during the day for 3-4 hrs inbetween feedings, but at night she will sleep only 1-2hrs inbetween feedings. At 3AM this morning, she was wide awake and alert. We couldn't get her back to sleep until 90 minutes later, and then she got up several more times before her next feeding. We have taken steps to try and reverse this trend.

Bella is home at last!

At 2:07PM this afternoon, Bella saw her room for the first time. We left the hospital this afternoon after she passed her hearing test and was discharged by her doctor. It is nice to get settled in away from the hussle and bussle of the hospital room. There are no wires or monitors in her room and no nurses or doctor to come poke at her. I think she likes it. Although her crib seems ridiculously huge with her little body in there compared to the smaller mobile bed she had at the hospital.

We have received some complaints that there are not enough pictures posted, so here are a few more :)

Here she was Sunday in her new big girl crib in the garden room where we stayed with her. The little teddy bear in the corner helped her get through her rough start this week.

Daddy getting some awake time just after a bottle feeding.


She looks somewhat small in her crib at home. She also wiggles enough to break out of any swaddling wrap in about 2-3 minutes if she is not already asleep. She is definately a wiggler. She has already busted her left arm free, and in about 30min after this picture was taken, we checked in on her, and she had the blanket completely off. In fact, she nearly flipped on her stomach already. I thought they were not supposed to be able to do that until they were much older...

We are in our room

We have made it to the NICU room for outbound babies. The 3 of us are kicking back watching the football game. Bella is cheering for the Patriots I think. I know this because she pooped right after the Colts kicked a field goal to get on the board. Then she cried when they kicked their 2nd field goal. She is asleep now after getting a little meal in her. It is a pretty cool feeling knowing we are in charge of her care now with the nurses available as backup.

Bella should come home Tues 1/23

We talked to the doctor this morning, and he said they are just planning on keeping her until she finishes her 7 days of antibiotics. She just has 1 IV left for her antibiotics which will come out Tues. She is eating fine on her own. No more feeding tube in her nose. Her temperature is great. Her breathing is now perfectly normal. She cries just fine. She squeaks and coos and burps and toots and makes all the normal baby noises. She tries to eat her fingers when she first wakes up. If she cannot find her fingers, she will chew on her blanket. She is no longer orange. She is a perfectly normal baby. Yesterday I changed her diaper for the first time, and just as I got her cleaned up while I was putting on the new diaper, she went again. I cleaned her up again and had the 2nd diaper almost on, and she wasn't quite done yet. 3 new diapers in 2min. I guess she thought I needed the extra practice. Catherine is breast feeding her on a regular basis now for every feeding, and we are very excited today because we get to stay the night with her in the NICU for her last couple of nights. They have an 8 room nursery where parents can stay overnight with the babies that are about to go home so the nurses can monitor the babies and teach the parents any extra care if needed. So we will stay the night with Bella tonight for the first night and take care of her on our own under the nurses supervision.

Getting Better Each Day

We just got back from the hospital. Cat was up there the whole day. I worked today so I could save my paternity leave for when she comes home. We think she is ready to come home already, but we are biased. She was bottle fed a few times today, and the feeding at 11AM was pretty neat. She practiced breast feeding with Cat, and then she downed a 10ml bottle in about 12 seconds. I guess she was hungry. I got to video tape the first bottle feeding and the nurse trying to burp her. She wouldn't burp. I don't think this little girl is going to do anything unless she wants to do it. I wasn't there for the 5PM feeding, but Cat said she pretty much did the same thing and then looked around as if to ask if she could have more. The nurse gave her a little bit more. We each got to read a little book to her, and I got to hold her tonight for about 30min while she was sleeping. We cannot wait to bring her home.

We are home

We checked out of the hospital tonight. We got home around 8:30 tonight.
We visited Bella for a while tonight before we took off and a little bit earlier this evening. She was very alert, and we got to spend some precious moments with her as she made all kinds of interesting baby noises. It even looked like she smiled once.
Some notables we observed in the past couple of days:

• She has an absolutely huge yawn. I am not sure who she gets that from. I don't think either Cat or I can yawn that big. She even sticks her tongue out. It's impressive.
• She has pretty big feet and long toes & fingers. She takes after her mom on that one.
• I think she has my chin and lips, and she has Cat's eyes, cheeks, and nose although there is still lots of time to debate such things.
• Her ears are also under debate. I think her ears look like my dad's. Catherine is not sure yet, but she is happy she will be able to grow long hair and cover them up. Sorry dad, but they do look a little large.
• I think she has Cat's personality. She seems strong and independent. The nurses said she took her own feeding tube out earlier because it was bothering her too much. She has not said too much yet, but if she could talk, I think she would tell the nurses and doctors to stop poking her and let her go home.

We miss her already and will be taking many trips a day to see her until she can come home with us which we believe might happen early or midway through next week. Up to this point, the doctors have found no infection, and the spinal tap she had today was clean. She only has to learn how to eat well and get better at the breathing thing, and we think she will be ready to come home :)

God is good

At Last

At last we got to hold Bella! After nine and a half months of pregnancy(every pregnant woman will be quick to tell you it's nine and one half months, NOT NINE), 20 hours of labor, and two days of anxious and patient staring at her bedside, we finally held our very own baby. They took Bella's ART line out earlier today which allowed us to hold her. We got to cuddle for about an hour, and then since mom, daddy and baby were all falling asleep, we decided to go ahead and put her down and charge our batteries for tonight's bath time. I must admit the little darling is getting a little crusty.

She still has a feeding tube in, but it looks like she is digesting her food, so hopefully she will be taking a bottle soon. She still has to control her breathing, feed well (8 bottles a day), and maintain her temperature before she can come home. They say it's a tall order for any baby, so don't expect her to do too much too soon, but I know that our little Bella can do it.

All I can say is that God is good because I really needed to be able to hold my baby before I left the hospital today or else it wasn't going to be pretty, and guess what, that is exactly what happened! The day of my due date when still no baby had come, my mother said this baby is teaching you patience. Well, I am sure about that, but I am also sure this whole experience is teaching me to trust in the Lord.

Good News!

Catherine and I were able to spend some time with Isabella this evening along side her little bed. We arrived in the NICU around 6:30, and she was off the ventilator! As we were on our way in to see her, the nurse told us, "that is her crying." She has a perfectly good set of lungs, and that was about the best sound I had heard in a few days (that and the sound of Catherine snoring softly after she was given some pain meds during her labor early Tues morning.)

Bella was still kind of fussy due to a feeding tube in her mouth, and Cat and I were able to try calming her for the first time. It worked for a short time, but eventually the nurse came over and just stuck a pacifier in her mouth, and she was much better after that. We took turns holding her pacifier and talking to her. We think she must be hungry, and we are looking forward to when we can feed her. This may happen tomorrow if she does well overnight.

After about 90min, the nurse took her feeding tube out of her mouth and put it down through her nose and changed her diaper and some IV dressings. She threw a fit for a short time until she was swaddled and calmed down by the nurses. She held my finger through this traumatic ordeal, and that felt special.

We really have not had the chance to spend much time with her, so tonight was a good night.

We are still waiting for the verdict on whether or not she has any infections. They will still probably need to keep her a few more days to make sure she can eat and there are no other complications.

We know your prayers are working, so please keep up the good work!

Love Todd & Cat

Update

We just got back from seeing Bella. She had the hiccups. They have been weening her off of the oxygen, and she is responding well to that. This is an important step in getting to take out the breathing tube. They didn't have too much more for us in terms of updates as we are just playing the wait and see game at the moment. The doctor this morning said he thinks she will be in the NICU for at least a week and at most, 2 weeks.

She still has a couple of hurdles to cross before we can take her home.

Thank you all for your kind words, thoughts, and prayers. We are blessed to have such wonderful friends & family.

Love Todd & Cat

Little Bella has arrived!

Isabella Marie Dyer arrived this evening at 7:55PM. She weighed 7lbs and 11oz and was 21 inches long thus ending 20 hours of labor. Cat is doing well and will get some well deserved rest this evening. She is running a slight fever, but it is coming down as I type this.

Isabella however, has experienced a bumpy ride thus far in her short life outside the womb. She is currently in the NICU and they think she will be there overnight for sure, and possibly longer. Unfortunately, her shoulders were stuck on her way out. The doctors thought she may have broken her clavicle during delivery, but she had 2 x-rays, and they don't think this is the case.

The more serious issue at the moment is the trouble she is having breathing. The doctors originally thought that she might have an excess of fluid in her lungs giving her difficulty and that she would work it out after a short time. After this didn't happen, they started giving her oxygen to supplement her own breaths followed by a CPAP which is a set of tubes they placed in her nose to help keep the lungs inflated to ease breathing. I left the NICU at this point to provide an update to family waiting outside. They wouldn't let me come back in to see her after that since they proceeded to intubate her and hook up the ventilator to make sure she was totally comfortable. We will know more in 24 hours. The worst case at the moment is she could have pneumonia which means she will stay 7-10 days. The more realistic case is that she just needs to work some fluid out that irritated her lungs, and she will be in the NICU 2-5 days or so.

We just got back from seeing her a few minutes ago. I wheeled Cat down there, and we got to see her for about 15min and we talked to the doctor for a little bit. Bella is much calmer now than when I saw her earlier.

We are extremely excited that Bella is here, but dissappointed at the same time because she might not be coming home with us. We are however comforted knowing she is in good hands. Please remember little Bella in your prayers (and mom & dad too).

Love Cat & Todd

Genesis 3:16

You know that verse in Genesis where God said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbirth"

Well, He wasn't joking about that...

Still no baby yet. Stay tuned.

Todd

Almost Here!

Well, we are here at the hospital. It is 9:31pm as I type this post. We got a call this morning around 7:50AM from Cat's doctor's office. We had an appointment this morning to start the induction process. Well, it was canceled due to the icy roads. Dissappointment is not quite the correct word to use to describe how Cat felt. 2 hours later at work I got a call from her saying her doc told her to proceed to the labor & delivery just for a checkup since she had been feeling less movement from the baby in the last few days, and she suspected that she may have sprung a leak. Cat was logged into a room around 12 noon. By 3PM we were seeing the sonogram doctor. Bella has a perfect heart beat. The only thing she is lacking is amniotic fluid to swim around in. The doctor asked if Cat had her overnight bags packed since she would be staying the night. He told the delivery doctor on staff, "deliver her!" So we checked into a nice room with a sleeper sofa and a TV. We are currently just sitting here watching the Golden Globes.

Catherine is doing well. She has an IV with her favorite flavor of gatorade and the baby's heartbeat is continouosly being monitored. The only complaint is that she has not been able to eat real food since we got here, and she cannot eat until after the baby comes. She was allowed some jello and chicken broth, so needless to say, she is starving.

They have told us that the induction should start in the morning around 630AM and could last 12 or more hours :(

We thank you all for your prayers and support. We will keep you all posted if anything changes and for sure when that stubborn little girl arrives :)

Love Cat & Todd

Due Date

Today is Isabella's due date and as of 6:48 p.m. she has still shown no signs of wanting to come today. So, it looks like we will be headed for the doctor's office tomorrow morning in order to prepare for the inducement on Tuesday. Todd's co-workers threw a joint baby shower for him and another lady he works with that was due two weeks after us. Well, guess who had her baby this morning. That's right - his co-worker. The baby came two weeks early and weighed in at 6lbs 4ozs. Isabella weighed more than that over 3 weeks ago! It has been a disappointing weekend, although we have to keep in mind that the end is VERY near. I tell you what, I don't feel like any kind of champion for crossing the due date finish line.

Disappointment

Well, here it is 1/12/07 and still no baby. Last week my doctor raised our hopes by telling us that she would induce on the 10th. But I guess the baby didn't like that idea because she really didn't seem ready to come, so the doctor decided to delay the inducement until after the due date. So, hopefully by at least 1/16 we will have Isabella in our arms. I know it is better for her to come naturally but it was truly dissapointing to hear the doctor say she didn't think inducing would be a good idea and for us to go home and see what happens. After seeing the utter dissapointment on my face, Todd offered to take me to breakfast. Breakfast was good, but a baby would have been better. Anyway, we'll keep you posted.

Pictures of Mommy

September 17th, 2006

October 10th, 2006

December 10th, 2006












December 17th, 2007
This one was taken in Bella's nursery

Pictures of Baby Bella

This one was taken at one of our early appointments on July 10th, 2006. She is on her back facing to the left.

This one was taken on Aug 30, 2006. This was the last good picture we saw with the sono. The baby got too big to see features clearly after this one. Now we just wait for her to get here so we can see her in person!

Inagural Entry: Things New

I cannot believe it's 2007 already. Every new year ushers in new things, and 2007 is no different than other years for us. So this year is the year of the blog for us. More importantly, this year is the year of the baby for us.

Isabella Marie is on her way any day now so we figure this is a good time to get a blog up and running to share stories & pictures with our friends and family.

The official due date is Jan 14th, but if Catherine had her way, Bella would have been her a couple of weeks ago. We have been blessed with an enormous amount of generosity from friends and family in the "baby things" category, and we are forever thankful for that. In fact, I believe Bella has more stuff than her daddy does. She will definately be better dressed than her dad :)

The Baby room is finshed. The furniture has been put togehter for some time now. The car seat is installed and ready to go. The hospital overnight bags are packed. I assembled the diaper champ this weekend. We just need a baby now!

We are so very excited that God has entrusted us with his little creation and cannot wait to start this new chapter in our lives! Stay tuned for pictures as we figure out how the blog thing works!

Love Cat & Todd