I meant to put this video in the previous post. I guess it didn’t work. It’s just some more cute Stella smiles. She is so cute and smiley in the last part, but then it kind of turns into a mix of smiling and whining. It melts my heart when she does that. It’s like she wants to whine and then she realizes that she is actually really happy and it turns into a half whine half laugh.
Stella has been all smiles lately. Unless she is ready for a nap or hungry, she is pretty much always smiling. My favorite thing in the world is walking in her room in the morning because she is so extra smiley after a good long sleep (yes, she is sleeping through the night!)
In the picture below, Stella was laying on the floor outside the bathroom smiling up at me while I put my makeup on.
In her Sunday best:
Rosy cheeks from chewing on the frozen teething ring. Yes, I think she may be teething. I’m not 100% sure because I don’t know exactly what to look for, but she has two little white bumps that look kind of little teeth about to break through and she drools buckets and chews on everything. Just under 3 months seems much to early to be teething! I guess time will tell.
Not a smile, but I just had to show you her other common expression: Blowing Spit Bubbles!
Still in PJ’s with bed head, but oh so happy:
Hamming it up
I came across these pictures that Benjamin and I took when we were messing around with his mom’s Ipad back in March.
The one of Stella is kind of creepy, but it still cracks me up every time I see it:
Stella has continued to grow and change over the past month. I can’t believe how fast she has grown. She is 8 weeks now. She weighs 12 pounds 9 ounces and is 24.41 inches. She went to the doctor yesterday and got a clean bill of health. We were so happy about that. When she was born the doctor noticed that she had a “hip click” and at one month her hip was a little lax still. So last Friday she got an ultra sound on her hip to rule out any problems like hip dysplasia. I was so nervous that she would have to be in a big uncomfortable brace (that’s how they treat hip dysplasia) for the next four months. We were so happy to hear that her hips are strong and normal!
And can you guess who we were rooting for during March madness?
Stella’s reaction when Ohio State lost:
Benjamin has been studying at a library close to our house. The library is also located right in front of a park with a nice walking trail. So, Stella and I have met Benjamin to bring him some food and go on a walk. Stella really enjoys going on adventures.
Stella has also been smiling a lot lately. We have had a hard time getting a picture of her cute grin. This is as close as we got:
But I did manage to get a couple smiles on video:
Stella loves napping on her belly during the day. I only let her nap that way when I am right next to her. She still struggles to take consistent naps during the day, but she is a great sleeper at night. She goes right down in her crib and sleeps between 6 and 8 hours. Then she wakes up to eat as usually sleeps until around 7 in the morning.
We were happy to have some visitors. My co-worker from the shoe store I used to work at came over and made us dinner. His grandparents lived in Italy, so he cooked us his family’s Italian tomato sauce and pasta. It was delicious! We love Ron. He was such a great friend to me at the shoe store. He is a podiatrist and he made me orthotics, gave Benjamin a bunch of really nice shoes that he wasn’t wearing anymore, and was always helping me out at the store. He lives across the street from us and we enjoyed having him over.
My other old co-worker, Shelly, paid us a visit. Shelly is probably one of my most favorite people in the world. She was such a good friend to me at the shoe store. She got Stella the cutest little outfits and the bouncy chair that we can’t live with out. Stella was pretty crabby when Shelly was visiting, but we still loved getting to see her.
Life is good!
We took some more glamor shots of our little Stella. I feel a little like Cam on Modern Family, always dressing up my daughter in crazy outfits and taking pictures of her.
My sister in-law Kylie made this beautiful crocheted yellow blanket for Stella.
One of Benjamin’s teachers at school made the cute hat and booties for her.
And my friend and one of Benjamin’s classmates, Joanna, made this adorable flower headband for her.
Ok, now let take a silly one:
I have to give all the credit to Benjamin for this photo shoot. I was actually in the shower while he (with the help of his mother) set it all up and got Stella calmed down and sleeping so sweetly. He took all the pictures and was so patient. Oh, and don’t worry, we had a space heater making the room nice and toasty before undressing her.
Since we had Stella, our life has been very different than it was before. But now that she is here its hard to imagine that I went 25 years without her. She just fell right into place in our family and we are so happy she is finally here. I want to help you get to know Stella a little bit, catch you up on how we have been adjusting, and share tons and tons of pictures of our everyday life.
Stella in a nutshell:
We have adjusted really well to having this little sweetheart in our home, but there have been a couple challenges. Her umbilical cord fell off at two weeks. At about 2 1/2 weeks her belly button started to get red and swollen. It worried us, but we decided to wait a day and see if it improved. It didn’t. It got a lot worse over night and started oozing. It was a Sunday and we took her to urgent care. This is how it looked right before we took her to urgent care.
They said that it was infected and that we needed to get her to the hospital right away. After a quick trip home to pack some clothes, we took her Nationwide Children’s Hospital where she was admitted. They started her on IV antibiotics. We were there for 48 hours and Stella was an little angel. She was so pleasant and sweet and had no idea there was anything wrong or that she was at the hospital. She didn’t have a fever and she wasn’t fussy and she was eating normally. They were able to nip the infection in the bud before it got dangerous. After a round of oral antibiotics, Stella now has the cutest little baby belly button and it is completely back to normal.
It was scary to take my new born to the hospital. It was made much more difficult because around the same time I regressed in my recovery. I was feeling great about 2 weeks post partum, but then I started having a new pain that got progressively worse. It was the worst right when Stella was admitted and I couldn’t hardly move. I spent the whole time at the hospital laying flat on my back on a hard couch because I couldn’t sit or stand. As soon as Stella got out of the hospital, I went to the doctor and was told I have either a little tear or a little blood clot in between the muscles in my bottom. He told me that it would heal soon and to spend a lot of time laying down on ice packs. I took it really easy the next few weeks and I am finally happy to say that I am pretty much back to my old self. Not up for long walks or jogging, but I can sit comfortably and walk around the house without pain. Things are looking up!
However, Stella gave us one more little scare at 4 1/2 weeks. She started acting very fussy. She started having bowel movements with every feeding and in between, too. There was blood in her stool. It terrified us, so we took her to her pediatrician again. We had no idea what to expect and were terrified of another hospital visit or invasive testing. It was a relief to hear that its usually not as serious to see blood in a baby’s stool and it is very rarely something horrible like ulcerative colitis. We brought in one of her messy diapers and as soon as her doctor saw the nature of the blood, he was certain that it was caused by an allergy to the protein in milk called casein. We switched her to a pre-digested formula and saw almost immediate improvement. She stopped fussing, the blood went away, and she went back to one bowel movement a day.
We are doing great now and things are finally settling in to a routine. I also need to say how much I appreciate my sweet husband. He has taken Stella to every appointment when I couldn’t move off my back. He did everything to care for her in the hospital while I just laid there. He has cooked dinner every night, bathed Stella every time, changed diapers, taken night shifts, all while trying to keep up with classes. He is almost done with his last block of the basic sciences. In 2 1/2 weeks he will focusing on prepping for his Step 1 boards exam which he will take in June. He really helped me to recover fully. He is a great dad.
Now, what you’ve all been waiting for: More pictures!!!!
She adores her dad:
And her mom:
Well, that’s all for now. Hope her bright eyes brightened your day!
