Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! We have been spending the last 3 weeks adjusting to life with our new baby girl. Josh went back to work this past Monday so Isla and I have been hanging out all week. We also switched over to formula so that has been a small adjustment and has left us wonderful surprises in her diaper! Wow! We took it pretty easy this weekend and enjoyed some family time together. My mom and dad were kind enough to watch Isla last night and Josh and I went out to eat and went to see the movie Valentine's Day. The dinner was great but I definitely had higher expectations for the movie with all the big names in it but it was a great night. Isla, my mom and I are planning to go to a huge consignment sale tomorrow. We went in the fall but we didn't know what sex the baby was so we only picked up a few things so we are excited to go tomorrow and pick out all things girl! Here are a couple pictures of Isla in her V-Day outfit.

This one is a little dark but I thought it was super cute....

Homecoming

We arrived home Sunday evening at around 8:00pm. Josh went in the house first to say hello to the dogs and then I went in to greet them as well. They were overjoyed to see us as they had been hanging out for a few days on their own. They have done really well with Isla so far which is definitely a relief. Our first and second night home were a little rough... Isla thinks it's time to be awake between 11:00pm to about 3:00am or later! I took the night shift the first two nights and then Josh was on for the third night... and guess who decided to sleep until it was time to eat???? Yup... she slept right up until feeding time and went right back to sleep for Dad. Two nights in a row now!!!! But it works for me so we will see what tonight brings.

Jaundice...Boo!

Friday night or should I say early Saturday morning our nurse brought Isla back to the room and informed us that she thought Isla looked a little yellow and they were going to test her for jaundice. Her lab results came back and she her bilirubin level was at a 14.6 which is pretty high for jaundice apparently. When the pediatrician came in the next morning she suggested we stay another night and that Isla hang out under the "lights" all day. We also had to start tube feeding her to make sure she was getting enough fluids to flush out the bilirubin. She had her own personal tanning bed brought from the NICU and she tanned the day away! She had a funny little mask she had to wear and when we would take it off she looked like a raccoon with yellow circles around her eyes. Her levels went down and then leveled off at around 12 which the doctor didn't seem to be concerned with so we left the hospital late Sunday evening and finally came home.

She is here! Welcome baby Isla!

Well as most everyone knows... Isla Marie Downing was born on 1/21/10 at 7:06am. She weighed 7.8 pounds and was 18.5 inches long. It all started Wednesday night at 7:30pm when my water broke. I had just got home from work, changed into some comfy clothes and sat down in the chair. Luckily I had gotten up to go to the bathroom and that's when my water broke and we knew our baby was finally on its way! We went to the hospital and got checked in and about 2 hours later I received the epidural.... after that it was the waiting game. Everything progressed on its on and we never had to turn to any medicine to help me continue on. At about 5:00am we started pushing and 2 hours later Josh announced to me that we had a baby girl! She had some gunk in her lungs and was having a little trouble breathing at first but that quickly corrected itself. Here are some pics of her arrival.... and more posts to come! We have a lot to post about but I thought I would split it up so you guys can read what you want!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone! What a busy week it was... We were already getting ready for Bobby and Dana's wedding when we found out Grandma Downing had a heart attack which brought on open heart surgery on NYE. We traveled to St. Joe Wednesday afternoon to spend some time with her before she was scheduled for surgery. After spending time with Gma we had to rush to Maryville for the Christie/Lade rehearsal. After the rehearsal the we headed back to the Searles's and tried to get some sleep which has become increasingly difficult for both of us with me tossing and turning all night! NYE morning we went to the hospital to wait on the news about Gma's surgery. She had 4 bypasses placed in her heart. She came out of surgery fine and is recovering well. She was able to go home from the hospital on yesterday to start her recovery process. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers while she recovers. We are so thankful everything went well.

Once Gma was out of surgery Josh headed back to Savannah to get ready for pictures and I had some lunch with my sister. Darcie and I drove to Maryville later that afternoon and we all watched as Bobby and Dana were married on a blue moon... it really was! The wedding and reception were absolutely beautiful and such a wonderful way to bring in the New Year.

We also had our appointment yesterday and we are still waiting on the arrival of Baby D! Everything is fine and still on schedule... We are starting to get anxious to meet this little one. We also met with a Maternity Care Coordinator with Shawnee Mission Medical Center(where we are delivering) and filled out our pre-registration information and took a tour of the hospital. We are going to work on getting the house cleaned up and making sure we are as ready as we can be fot the baby to get here!

Here are a couple pictures from our NYE!

Touching the belly.....

Never a dull moment!

Don't worry! It was sparkling grape juice!

Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! So far we have celebrated Christmas with my Grandma and her husband Tim last weekend and we celebrated on Christmas day with the Benjamin family. We played games, decorated cookies, ate lots of goodies and just enjoyed spending time together with the family. Josh and I exchanged our gifts on Christmas Eve morning... and even though my mom accidentally told Josh what I got him the day I bought it from him, he was still surprised. And much to my surprise, Josh had gotten me a gift as well. I had told him not to worry about getting me a gift because I had just bought a new Chi flat iron because my first one had sadly died after 3 years! He bought me a beautiful necklace and I bought him a new coat.

Molly and Izzy enjoyed their Christmas as well... Who knew a dog could actually open her stocking and find her presents!

We came back home on Saturday to find that we had been snowed out of our drive way so we went right to Home Depot to purchase a snow shovel. We came back to the house and realized there was nowhere to park the car in the meantime so I went to check out some post holiday sales while poor Josh shoveled the driveway. After he finished shoveling the snow we both took an afternoon nap on our respective couches, ate tacos for dinner and watched a couple movies. Today we had breakfast and went to look at a new bed set at Kohl's that we decided against and came home to put the house back in order and get ready for the busy week ahead. We are planning to go to Maryville for a New Year's Eve wedding and then to Grant City to celebrate Christmas with the Downing's.

Well I know it is a little post dated but I wanted to share some photos of the baby shower my mom and Nana threw for me at the beginning of December. We had it here in Belton and I so much appreciated everyone who traveled long distances to spend this special day with me. We had a great time and received so many wonderful gifts! Thank you to everyone!