What's missing?

Yep it's Anna's umbilical cord!! She has the cutest little belly button now. I'm happy that I don't have to clean her tummy anymore with alcohol wipes and I don't have to be extra careful when putting on her diapers or holding her. It is amazing how the umbilical cord actually works in the womb, supplying little Anna with all the nutrients she needed for 10 months but I am really happy that all we see now is her belly button.

Sunday flowers

Janet and Hal surprised us and brought over a beautiful white rose from the altar flowers that they had dedicated to Anna at their church on Sunday, July 3. They also brought us the church bulletin that we can save for Anna's baby book.

We of course had to take pictures of Anna and her rose!

Thank you so much for thinking of our little angel. She is blessed with wonderful grandparents!

Should we stay or should we go?

Our poor baby had jaundice the entire first week of her life and we had quite a rough time on our daily outings to her pediatrician. The morning we left the hospital, her heel was pricked and her bilirubin levels checked for jaundice. The nurse showed us on a graph that Anna's levels were a little higher than normal and that we would  need to visit her pediatrician the following morning to have her blood tested again. We must have started getting ready for her 2:45 pm appointment around noon. I had to feed her, change her diaper, get the car ready, diaper bag ready, etc...who knew it would take so long just to drive 15 minutes to the doctor's office. Little did we know this would be our schedule for the next 4 straight days. I had not been present the two times in the hospital her heel was pricked, but the first day Keith and I were by her side as the nurse pricked her little heel and proceeded to squeeze blood out of her tiny foot, drop by drop, until an entire tube was full. It was pure torture for me to watch my baby cry with actual tears streaming down her face. I'm pretty sure I cried as much as Anna did! We got a call later that night that her jaundice levels had continued to rise and that we would  need to visit the doctor's office yet again the following day to have her blood drawn again. We repeated this process until Friday which ended up being SIX straight days our baby had her blood drawn. I cried three times and the worst visit was the last day we went to the doctor. We hadn't had very good luck with the nursing staff at this office so we knew is was a crap shoot each time we went in if the nurse that was assigned to us knew what she was doing. Unfortunately for us, on Friday, this nurse had NO clue what she was doing. She ended up doing two of the blood tests incorrectly (this took probably 15 minutes and Anna was screaming the entire time) and since there wasn't any blood left to squeeze out of Anna's heel, the nurse had to call another nurse into the room and they pricked her other heel and re-did both tests. I thought Keith was going to yell at them and I was no help as I was crying and had to step away from the table because I couldn't bear to see Anna so upset. It was just awful. Couldn't the nurses see that in Anna's files that this was her umpteenth visit in one week and they needed to assign a competent nurse to us?! Keith and I were beyond frustrated...We left the doctor pretty upset but thankfully we received good news that night that her jaundice levels had gone considerably down and we didn't need to return until the following Friday for her two week check-up.

One of the main reasons her jaundice levels dropped was because after our visit on Wednesday, the doctor was worried her levels were too high that they called Cooks Children's Hospital in Fort Worth and had them deliver a home photo therapy machine for us to use on Anna. We only had to have it attached to her body for 48 hours but of those 48 hours, she was only allowed to have it off of her skin when she was getting her diaper changed. It made holding her and feeding her challenging, especially in the middle of the night! The machine looked like something out of a Star Wars movie but we are so thankful the machine did its job...now we just await the bill!

You can see the phototheraphy machine sitting on the coffee table. It has a hose attached to the back of the cord that had a thin wand attached to the hose that emits the artificial light onto Anna's skin.

Anna does kind of look orange in this photo!

Anna slept through it all and didn't really notice the wand on her skin at all times. 

Here you can see the hose (tail as we called it) coming out of her swaddle blankets. 

Aunt Hattie giving Anna some love. :)

If you look closely, you can see Anna tucked away in her pack and play attached to her machine. Poor thing!

Anna and I taking a nap while my mom and Keith watched a movie. I am known for falling asleep watching movies, but I'm happy that I have a companion to nap with me now so I don't feel as bad!

Now, let's get to her two week check-up...all went perfectly fine with Anna's check-up (she was gaining weight very well, etc.) until the doctor told Keith that he needed a TDap shot (combination of tuberculous and whooping cough) and offered to administer it to him at the office. We thought it was a great idea and could get it out of the way without having to go to our family physician or Walgreens, etc. to have Keith get the shot. As we were checking out, the nurse said, "ok, that will be $85" and we found out they would not take Keith's insurance since they only took children's insurance. We were stuck with the charge but it would have been nice to know we were going to have to pay that up front. Then the nurse fumbled with the computer and couldn't figure out how to make Anna's month check-up appointment so just handed us a business card and told us to call a number and make the appointment that way. Frustrating...

So, all in all, it was an easy decision to leave or original pediatrician's office and transfer to a smaller practice with only 3 doctors and 3 nurses versus the baby factory Anna was a part of at first. It was tough having to tell the old office why we were leaving but after talking and explaining our story to 2 different employees over the phone, they were apologetic and quite shocked at everything. Sorry for the long post but I just wanted to say that we are SOOOO happy now with Anna's new doctor!!

Happy 4th of July

Independence Day is officially Anna's first holiday to celebrate with us! Grandma and Grandpa gave her a "My first 4th of July" onesie that of course she had to wear for the big day. I love when Janet makes her weekly trip to Costco and all sorts of wonderful things for Anna just jump into her cart!

Hal and Janet stopped by on July 4th to say hello and visit their sweet granddaughter. I think they are quite smitten by her. She just can't help how precious she is...

I absolutely LOVE  LOVE LOVE fireworks and look forward to the 4th of July each and every year. The last 3 years we have spent the 4th at our friends lake house (we are spoiled, I know!) but with a newborn, it wasn't feasible for us to spend the weekend out at the lake so we spent the holiday at home. Our friends (Jason & Jessica) are expecting a little girl next month so we are very excited to hopefully spend the next 4th of July out at the lake with our little girls...oh what fun awaits us!

We decided to head to Breckenridge Park in Richardson to watch the firework show. We've seen this show a few times with Hal and Janet and it hasn't disappointed yet. We usually sit on the soccer fields right under the firework show and bring folding chairs, a cooler of beer and some snacks but with Anna this year, we drove to around for a long time before finding the perfect spot in a church parking lot to take in the show. We wanted to make sure to avoid all the traffic and not get too close in case the noise of all the fireworks going off was going to upset Anna. Luckily, she slept through the entire 30 minute show (which was spectacular) and I got my wish to watch fireworks. 

I hope everyone had a fantastic 4th of July! 

Bath Time!

We had only been home a few days (4 to be exact) and we needed to give Anna her first bath. The discharge nurse said we needed to bathe her at least twice a week so here we go...It was a family affair as we had my mom and sister helping out as well. Keith got her bathtub all set up in the sink and he took the reigns! I have never in my life bathed a newborn before and I know they are not breakable, but they are even harder to hold on to and manage when they are slippery wet. Keith bathed her with little help from the ladies watching so I took full advantage to take lots of photos of Anna's first bath.

I thought Anna would appreciate the obvious placement of the washcloth when she was older...She just looked so cute that I had to capture the moment.

Keith doing all the work, and we're just watching!! Great job, dad!

Surprisingly, Anna didn't mind her bath too much. She was asleep as we were getting her ready and then was kind of in shock at all the commotion going on around her once we started getting her wet! Since her umbilical cord had not yet fallen off, we had to give her a sponge bath and weren't allowed to submerse her completely underwater. (Her cord fell off Tuesday of the following week, much to Keith's delight...he has a fear of belly buttons, so to have a black cord attached to Anna's belly button freaked him out!)

Trade Off

A few days before I had Anna, I stopped by a local JoAnn's Fabric to pick out some new material for curtains and pillows in our front living room. Of course, this was a surprise to Keith as he thought nothing was wrong with our existing curtains! The material for the new curtains was out of stock so they had to order it for me (but I still got the 60% discount) which turned out to be great timing because when the fabric came in, my mom and I were at home with Anna so we had time to tackle a project during Anna's nap times. My mom joked that it was a trade off to get to spend quality time with Anna if she helped me with all the sewing. I felt kind of guilty because she ended up sewing both curtains and I just made 4 pillows. She definitely did the bulk and majority of the work but the curtains and pillows turned out perfect. Thank you for all of your help and for helping to tackle my project list even with a new baby in our house.

Notice the new curtains in the background?! Oh, and the new blinds Keith and I put up the night I went into labor...

GiGi and her "baby"!

As it turns out, I was helping my mom practice her sewing skills since when she got home to Midland, she and Mutti made 10 sets of curtains and 2 bedspreads for the new addition to the ranch. Mutti had another small house built at the ranch that has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms so the ranch can house more people with our growing families. It is going to be a battle to see who gets to stay in the new house since it has central air conditioning and nicer bathrooms!

Daddy's Little Girl

One of the sweetest and most endearing things I've witnessed is the love Keith has for our baby girl. He has blown me away with his willingness to help at any given moment with anything involving our little girl. There is a country music song that I fell in love with years ago that reminded me of my father and I think Anna will feel the same way about Keith when she is older.

I remember Daddy´s hands, folded silently in prayer.

And reaching out to hold me, when I had a nightmare.

You could read quite a story, in the callouses and lines.

Years of work and worry had left their mark behind. 

I remember Daddy´s hands, how they held my Mama tight,

And patted my back, for something done right.

There are things that I´ve forgotten, that I loved about the man,

But I´ll always remember the love in Daddy´s hands.

Daddy's hands were soft and kind when I was cryin´.
Daddy´s hands, were hard as steel when I´d done wrong.

Daddy´s hands, weren´t always gentle 

But I´ve come to understand.

There was always love in Daddy´s hands.

I am sort of like the paparazzi when it comes to taking pictures of Keith holding Anna so here are a few that I'd like to share.

(There are many, many more pictures, but I haven't downloaded them to our computer yet so this is just a taste of all the pictures to come!)

I am thankful to have a wonderful husband who absolutely loves our girl more than anything. He is naturally a wonderful, caring, patient, loving and fantastic father. I am blessed to have someone by my side who shares the load in changing diapers, giving baths, cleaning up around the house, doing laundry, taking care of me and the list goes on and on. I love you!

Our baby's first photo shoot

I had sent a text message to my friends Amy & April Rankin sharing the news of Anna's birth along with a picture of her and mentioned that I would love for them to take pictures of Anna when they were in town later this summer. The Rankin Twins have been friends of mine since high school. We played club soccer together (we actually went to rival high schools) and I also went to A&M with them. They are fabulous and so artistically talented. Not only do they have their own photography business (Twinty Photography) but are also country music singers living in Austin, TX. You can check out their website here: http://therankintwins.com/

April and Amy sang at our wedding over three years ago and I am so happy to say that they were the first photographers to take pictures of our little Anna.  April had responded to my text message immediately and said that as a matter of fact, they were going to be in Dallas the very next day and would love to stop by our house to take pictures. They had clearly worked with newborns countless times since April sent me a really long message saying our house needed to be at 78 degrees, make sure I fed Anna at least 30 minutes before they arrived and to have her in just a diaper so as not to disturb her by taking her clothes off when the girls arrived. The second the photo shoot started, they knew exactly which poses to put Anna in and how long to hold her hands in feet in place so they would stay put for each picture. They looked around our house for blankets, bows, etc. to make each shot unique and beautiful. I was so impressed with their creativeness and I only had to stop once to feed a fussy, hungry baby which gave Amy and April a chance to search our house for a few more perfect places to take the remaining pictures. They took hundreds of pictures but settled on just over 50 to send to us. I won't put all of them on this blog post, but they are absolutely adorable and I can't wait to send out birth announcements with many of these pictures. I hope you enjoy these as much as we do. We are blushing with pride of our gorgeous little baby. We love her so much and and thankful to have these precious pictures to cherish for a lifetime.

I don't think I have enough picture frames in our house to display all of these photos so I guess I need to start shopping for some!!