19 Weeks

Next week is the big reveal! Our long-awaited 20-week ultrasound is almost here, bringing with it a nice view of our sweet baby's most vital anatomy. I pray daily for a healthy heart, spine and so on. I think I've listed every vital organ enough times to God, but I like to be specific. I think my children will appreciate it later. Speaking of children and prayer, Scarlett is newly 20 months old and loves to read her bible at night. She points out the animals and makes their noises, and now points at every man and woman and calls them "Mama and Papa." She also says, "amen" after the prayers but pronounces it "men-ay." I'm not sure what that's about. When I think about her being 20 months old I remember my oldest nephew, Steven coming to Florida to visit for my high school graduation. We took him to the grocery store and let him push around a basket with a bag of sugar in it. While I recorded a video on my cell phone you can hear a stranger ask, "How old is he?" and his Aunt Holly says, "20 months." I just can't believe that he turned 10 this month! And now I have a 20-month-old. So weird. I have to find that grainy old video on some memory card in a drawer.

Scarlett got her first potty seat this week. I wanted to wait until the hustle bustle of the weekend party-planning had passed to start her sitting on it, so Sunday morning I began by letting her watch me take it out of the packaging and place it on top of the toilet seat. It's the kind that allows her to use the real toilet so I don't have to empty out a gross little bowl. If blowing my nose every morning makes me gag uncontrollably, I can't imagine doing much else. She sat on it 3 times yesterday and talked about her "pot-TEE" all day. I adore the way she emphasizes the TEE in potty. Then this morning when she dirtied her diaper, she said, "potty!" which isn't exactly the order we are hoping for, but it's still early. There's no way I expected her to even sit on it happily the way she did. We have a potty song which she is very fond of and requests as soon as we start potty time. It's not about bathrooms or anything, but it's a song we sing at Kids Night at church on Wednesdays that has become her favorite. So, no actual using of the potty has occurred. But I'm so excited by her willingness to try. I'm so proud of my big girl.

I have to keep the bragging going on Scarlett and talk about the 30th  birthday party we threw this weekend. There were 20 people, all out on the patio eating, taking pictures, roasting marshmallows and laughing. Pandora set the mood with songs ranging from I Had the Time of my Life from Dirty Dancing  (the best movie of all time) and some of Michael Jackson's greatest hits. It was perfect weather in the low 70's getting into the 60's by nightfall, and I haven't even bragged about Scarlett yet, but it was just such a great evening with friends. Now, I'm so proud of Scarlett because she just went with the flow. She played in her playhouse and smacked the piñata, ate a hot dog and a lollypop and just walked around the party like she had thrown it herself. Below is a picture that gives a glimpse of what Texan did while we were in Florida. He framed in a bunch of mulch under our oak tree (because of the shade it casts we cant grow grass there) and set up all of Scarlett's outdoor toys in a little mini playground area. He's the best. We didn't even offer Scarlett a chance to whack the piñata. Her little friend took his chance, then laid the stick down and she picked it right up and went to town. Like I said, she knows exactly how to party.

Then at about 8:15 I put her pajamas on her and brushed her teeth, then let her watch Tangled with the other kiddos. But that only lasted 5 minutes before she went into the kitchen and asked an adult for her milk. She pointed to the fridge and said, "Mim-mik." So my friend handed Scarlett her milk, who then came to me and laid in my arms to drink it. Soon enough she laid her head on my shoulder and said, "Anna," which is what she says every night at bedtime when she's ready for me to sing songs from Frozen until she gets sleepy. The girl practically put herself to bed even though the house was loud and full of fun. She had never asked for milk before, and that was the first day she had ever even said milk besides using the sign language for it. She is so big, and totally made my night with her laid back attitude and willingness to go to bed on time. It's times like these that make me thank God every single night for choosing me to be her mom.

Here's my 19-week picture

10 days until we see out baby on screen!

 I feel great, get a sore back when I'm on my feet all day, and get heartburn. Overall, I'm super happy with how the second trimester is treating me!

18 Weeks

Scarlett and I got home from Florida on Wednesday, and stayed at my parents for the night due to the long day of travel. We were way too tired to drive home, and one of us had dried vomit on herself from throwing up on the way to the airport. (hint: not me)

I haven't felt any movement yet, but Texan does a lot of checking. This morning he had his hand on my belly and I hiccupped. He got so excited, I felt bad telling him that it was not the baby. We have only 18 short days until the big ultrasound to find out the gender and see all of baby's vital organs and spine. I'm excited to finally decorate the nursery and get picking out new and/or washing Scarlett's old clothes. Right now the new baby's room is still my guest room/ironing room.

Heartburn and congestion are my only complaints right now. I am craving chocolate milk and cucumbers again, as with Scarlett. I am really looking forward to Autumn weather, which should be upon us shortly. Today I bought some patio décor on sale thanks to the change in season. Texan has the day off for Labor day, so he went golfing this morning and is now taking Scarlett out back to swing on her newly-mulched play area which he finished while we were in Florida. It's adorable and well-shaded by our big oak tree.

Here's my 18-week picture:

I can't believe my pregnancy is half over! Slow down!

15 Weeks

Today I'm 15 weeks (+1 day) pregnant. My stomach is starting to look a little more round and not just chubby. What a relief. The past 2 weeks have been really difficult in terms of my sinuses. I started having terrible sinuses behind my right eye, then painful drainage and sore throat, then I was talking like a pubescent male. I was squeaky and low and all over the place with my voice. Thankfully it seems every 2 days brings something slightly less terrible. Yesterday I was very sneezy and congested. I woke up at 5 unable to sleep, so I went and sat on the couch and tried to alleviate some of the congestion. And both times we napped today my throat was so dry I coughed on and off the whole time. But I'm lucky to have napped twice. It really was an awesome day for more than just the naps. I got to volunteer at our local cafeteria for the needy. I served the lunches and prayed for people's meals. One lady (who was a volunteer with me) said the first super rude thing to me as far as "rude things to say to pregnant ladies" go. A lot of the volunteers remembered the last time I was there I was 8 months pregnant with Scarlett and when I told them I was almost 4 months pregnant again they all said congratulations except for one  woman who said I was crazy, and one kid was enough, and there is no age gap that is enough to make it manageable...yadda yadda! It was so rude and awkward. It was almost like she took it personally that I dared have more than one child. But I still left feeling happy and had a lot of fun. The next most awesome thing was this: on the way home I passed by our new soon-to-be Dunkin Donuts here in town and saw them delivering ice cream cases from which to scoop delicious scoops of Baskin Robbins icey goodness. I'm just so happy. We have 3 Starbucks and literally 10 locally-owned donut shops but nothing with incredible coffee AND the best ice cream ever. I will never leave this town. Why would I?

In Scarlett news: she is still obsessed with Frozen and cats (meow-meows). Texan is anxious to find out the baby's gender. All is well. I think tonight I will actually be able to breath through my nose while simultaneously sleeping. Can't wait.

Here's my 15-week picture. 

Pregnancy 2.0

 On May 30th I took a pregnancy test that was rather inconclusive. So the next morning at 4am I took another one right before we left for the airport to fly to Cabo for our 5-year anniversary. This one was very positive. Texan's words as he looked over my shoulder at the test were this: "Oh yeah, you're pregnant, Momma!" Then he gave me a great big hug and asked me if I was excited. We were planning on getting pregnant in July so I was a little less than excited to be pregnant on vacation. No horse back riding on the beach or zip-lining for me. But obviously I am so blessed to be able to be a mother and enjoy this time immensely doing what I love, which is raising my child and caring for my home. So, I packed a third test to take mid-week and that one was even more positive than the first two. 

It took coming home from Mexico for the pregnancy's reality to truly set in. And knowing now what I didn't know 2 years ago, I knew I needed to do one thing: pre-cook a bunch of meals before the impending illness set in. So, upon returning home, I bought 10 pounds of chicken breast, Half a ham, hot wings, 3 pounds of ground turkey, and some canned and easy frozen food including veggies, beans, pizzas, and biscuits. I planned to pre-cook at least half the food so that Kyle could thaw himself something when I was feeling bad. Then the canned veggies and pizza would be easy to heat up and pretend it was a real meal. However, I haven't really been sick. At least, not in the over-the-top, must be near a vomit receptacle at all times kind of way.  This pregnancy has been nothing like with Scarlett. No nausea, just excessively tired. So cooking all that food did come in handy for those nights where I felt too weak to stand in the kitchen, but I must admit there is still half a ham, fajita chicken, and buffalo shredded chicken in the freezer that has been in there for 8 weeks. Not to mention half a deer. Three dinners and a mammal yet to be used. And since I feel well enough to cook I don't want to waste them. Oh, well. Thank goodness we bought a deep freezer. Some day. 

Now that I'm thirteen weeks I am starting to feel the heartburn after most dinners and I am congested every single night. I have used an entire box of 30 nasal strips over the past month and a ton of Vicks. But I'm pretty sure my nose is just closing up and trying to kill me. That's how I was with Scarlett, but I didn't know about the wonder of nasal strips back then. Here's my favorite way to tell you what's up with my pregnancy so far! 

How far along? 13 weeks 4 days

Total weight gain:   Not sure

Maternity clothes? Pants and shorts, yes. I can't button my regular stuff.

Sleep: going to bed early most nights and napping every day when Scarlett naps.

Best moment this week: watching Frozen with Scarlett. She let me hold her in my lap and pointed and shouted at the screen. Whenever the characters got into a perilous situation she yelled, "oh no!" or "uh-oh!" And I taught her to say, "Olaf" and she kept waving and saying, "hi,  Olah!" I couldn't believe she watched a whole movie with me. Thank you, Mary for sending us a wonderful gift. We look forward to watching lots of Disney together.

Miss anything? Lots of caffeine and eating without feeling icky afterward.

Movement: not yet. Texan lays his head on my belly nightly and pretends he can feel stuff. We can't wait for high-fives. 

Food cravings: nothing crazy at the moment. In general it's been salty and spicy.   

Anything making you queasy or sick: Eating until I'm full. That just started today. Every time!

Gender: don't know!

Labor signs: No

Symptoms: so sleepy!

Belly button in or out? In 

Wedding rings on or off? On 

Happy or moody most of the time: Pretty impatient and easily riled up. I remember this moodiness from last time.

Looking forward to: Grammy and Grampy coming Saturday!

Here's my 13^-week picture.

Here's my 12-week picture.



And now you're all caught up!

18-Months Old

 

 

Scarlett Jane turned 18 months on Friday. Here she is on her "birthday" passing the time "ow-THIDE," one word from her daily growing vocabulary. Among Scarlett's new words are "trash," "corn," "purple," "cookie," "car," "teeth," and of course the classics like "thank you" and "shoes." 

 

 

 

 

She loves to tear leaves off of my lantana and yell, "UH-OH!"

This face says, "Why did you put me up here?!"

Scarlett says phrases like, "thank you, Momma," and "Hey, Papa!" and "Hush, Bay-Bay" to the dog, Bailey.

At the doctor for her well-baby visit she got one shot and cried for about 20 seconds. She is in the 10th percentile for weight at 21 lbs 9 oz and 85% percentile for height at 33 inches. She loves to throw things away in the trash for me and tells me when she needs a new diaper. Whenever she walks inside from being outdoors she says, "HI!" to everyone who will listen. She still loves to read and hasn't been using a bottle in about 3 weeks. I know, I know, still the bottle. But since we didn't wean off of nursing until 15-16 months I am fine with the bottle still being in the not-so-distant past. She doesn't seem bothered by its absence and still drinks her warm milk before bed, morning nap and afternoon nap. She sleeps 11 hours each night and takes about 3-4.5 hours worth of naps a day.
She loves water, lotion, getting dressed and wearing bows in her hair. Headbands are not something she tolerates very well anymore, though. Every morning when she wakes up she must hand me her pillow, blanket and stuffed animal before I take her out of the crib. If I leave anything in the crib she gets pretty indignant. She does the same thing when we pick her up from nursery at church. When she sees us at the door she starts crying and runs for her diaper bag. Oh, and, Elmo is now a major facet in our lives. There is infinitely more I could say about my precious 1 and 1/2-year-old but I would be here until her second birthday and I imagine I would miss out on some other stuff. So, I'll end here with this--I will never get back a single second of time spent with her, so I am incredibly thankful that I get to stay home and raise her. So grateful for our days together.

15 Months

Scarlett turned 15 months old on Friday, the tenth. She had her well-baby check with her new pediatrician that same day. She is 75th for height and 8th for weight, so we are finally starting the weaning process in hopes of getting her to drink more whole milk. My biggest concern is that she get enough fat for brain development as her ped isn't concerned about her being thin or malnourished. Her vocabulary grows each week. Her words are:
Momma
Poppa
Baby
Dee-Doo (thank you)
Bay-Bay (for bailey)
Mee-Mee (what she call's Texan's mom, and something she shouts when she is being silly)
Nigh-Nigh (accompanied by waving)
Bye-Bye (more waving)
Hi! (always said as an exclamation)
No-No or No-No-Ma!
Bee-buh (peek-a-boo)
Yum or Num-Num-Num (when eating my delicious cooking...and chocolate)
Uh-oh

Scarlett's favorite foods are spaghetti, yogurt, roasted ham, cheesy Spanish rice, orange slices, turkey sandwiches, and anything made of chocolate. She likes to feed herself with a spoon, but is so messy I have a hard time allowing it to go on for too long. The girl needs to get some of it into her belly, after all.

She is walking very well now and hasn't reverted to crawling in about a week. She is fast, recovers well from falls and can lean over to pick something up and keep on going.

We are down to nursing once in the morning and once in the night. It has only been two days on this new regimen but it has really increased the amount of whole milk she will drink. I offer it to her all day along with some water and diluted juice.  But last night she drank a 5 oz bottle before bed and slept great. Her doctor doesn't want her drinking from bottles anymore, but as long as she is drinking milk I am going to let her get used to not nursing before I cut out the bottle.
She has all of her teeth except her 2-year molars. It has been so nice having a break from teething since December.
She had one ear infection in March. It was her first since her surgery back in January.
She still naps once or twice a day and loves to brush her teeth at night.
Her favorite song is Twinkle-Twinkle. We sing it at bedtime with some had motions and she smiles and leans against me as I sing. When I read her book called  Good Night Texas she leans back against me and points at all the pictures and helps me turn the pages. She lets me lay her down in her crib and gets her thumb in her mouth as she falls asleep.
Her favorite pastime is playing outside. I leave the back door open and she walks all over the back patio pushing her walkers and yelling at the dogs. Sometimes she wants to swing and other times she just wants to pick grass and pretend she is me working in the garden.
She is such a good baby. I think I will keep her.

Foreshadowing

My favorite kind of schoolwork growing up was literary analysis. Right up until I graduated college I loved writing papers which elaborated on the personification, alliteration, allusion, and any other device that made a story work. One of my personal favorite literary devices was foreshadowing. I loved (and still love) when an author takes a mundane detail and mentions it or highlights it and leaves the reader wondering, "Now, why did she point that out here and now? What's the significance?" That's when I file that detail away, expecting to see it play a major role right at the crux of the story's theme. aha!
Well, if I thought my life was anything like a novel then I should have seen this one coming. This morning, Texan made himself some scrambled eggs with cheese. I was horizontal on the couch trying to pay attention to the Today show as Scarlett bid good morning to her toys. Then Texan said, "Oh, that's not ketchup. That's chili sauce. That would've been gross on my eggs." I didn't respond. But I was listening. That one sentence stood out to me. I just wasn't awake enough to wonder why.
Later that morning while washing some dishes, I looked over to see Scarlett had reached up onto the kitchen table and pulled down the bubble machine I had recently bought. The floor was now flooded with liquid bubbles and she was kicking her feet in the slimy puddle. I changed her clothes and put her down for a nap. This was incident #1.
When she woke up we played outside. She sat in her swing as I played her Disney Pandora station and folded laundry on the patio. She ate lunch. Then we went on a nice long walk with our neighbor and her new baby. When we got inside I was shaking from hunger. It was already 2 o'clock and I hadn't eaten lunch. As I opened the fridge to put some shredded cheese on my salad it happened. Texan had grabbed the chili sauce from the fridge and put it back in the wrong place. He had put it where the ketchup normally goes--on the bottom rung of the refrigerator door. CRASH. In the time it took me to open the cheese drawer Scarlett had grabbed the bottle, holding by the lid, raised it up in the air and dropped it. It was a brand new glass 140oz bottle of chili sauce, which looks just like ketchup but smells 10x more intense. It was now all over my feet along with tiny shards of glass. I lifted Scarlett of the floor and inspected her piggies, which were perfectly clean. She smiled. I sat her in the living room and barricaded the kitchen with the ottoman. Instead of eating lunch I sopped, swept, wiped, and mopped the mess of the floor for what felt like an hour. I wish I had seen the foreshadowing. Incident #2
After I ate lunch it was time for Ellen, which I was only half paying attention to because her guests were sort of sub-par today. I don't remember what I was doing but I looked up to see Scarlett looking out the front storm door as she loves to do. Then about five minutes later Scarlett began to cry hysterically, which she never does without reason such as a fall or a pinched finger or toe. I ran over and saw a giant wasp or bee or yellow jacket (What is the DIFFERENCE?) floundering on the threshold and Scarlett was holding up her little pointer finger, which was swollen and red. She didn't want me to touch it. I immediately administered Benadryl, called my sister (because my niece has had bad reactions to insect bites), called her doctor, and while awaiting a return call I rang my friend who is a pediatric nurse. By the time her doctor called back and told me to give Benadryl and hydrocortisone Scarlett was asleep in my arms. After laying her in her crib, I located one of her newborn mittens from her sock drawer, covered her finger in the cream and slipped on the mitten. She didn't even stir. Naturally, I took a picture too. She looked so exhausted--she rarely takes 2 naps anymore--so I figured the exhaustion stemmed from the meds and the extra fresh air and mischievousness. Incident #3 to round out the day.
By 9:15pm she was still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, which Texan loved because he got to spend extra time chasing her around the living room and calling her "Stink" as he does. So, she stayed up late. But today had its victories too. Not only did her finger go down in swelling, but she drank cows milk today! I have, in the past, not been able to get Scarlett to drink. Water, milk, juice, smoothies--she won't have it. She will only drink if she is sharing from my cup and drinking like a big girl. Which is just a giant mess in the end. But this past weekend she finally took to--of all things--the bottle! She has drank almost an entire container of apple juice over the past three days. That is huge for her. And tonight she drank 4 ounces of whole milk from the bottle. I am so excited. She still won't drink water from her bottle and when I give her a cup she will take only a few sips then throw it. But since she has never been a bottle drinker expect on a few special occasions, I am okay with this. I could really care less that we had a rough day filled with messes and medicine, I just wanted to jot this day down in history so I can look back at it. If every day was this hectic I would still never trade being her Momma for anything. She is my girl and I love spending my days with her.

Scarlett's First Birthday

We were without a computer from the beginning of the new year up until a couple weeks ago, and now I can finally blog Scarlett's first birthday!

Usually I blog from my phone so long as I can get all my pictures from my phone, but in this case I have a ton of photos on my camera that I needed to upload.

As you may know, Scarlett had surgery the day before her birthday party. My mom came into town to help me out, and I can't imagine what I would've done without her here. On Scarlett's birthday I went to the church early to set up for the party and had some help from my friend, sister and brother-in-law, while my mom stayed home making tea sandwiches and holding down the fort while Scarlett napped. When it was time for the party, I went home to find Scarlett freshly bathed and all dressed in her tutu and matching onesie, even right down to her matching bow and glitter shoes. My mom had the diaper bag all packed and my sweet birthday girl had a full belly and was even strapped into her car seat and ready to go. I have literally never see Scarlett ready to leave the house when I wasn't the one who did it. My mom not only had helped prepare all the food for the party, decorated cookies, baked desserts, but let me have a break from the stuff I have done every day for the past year without imagining what it would be like to have a break. Someone fed my daughter lunch, bathed her, put lotion on her, dressed her, put her in her carseat. I just have to relive it one more time. Ok. Now for some pictures. We had the party in our church fellowship hall surrounded by friends and family including my sister and her family, my dad, Texan's mom and Nanny, and of course my mom. Sadly I made the party plans not knowing if Texan would have the day off--because his first day at his new job was only five days prior to Scarlett's birthday. And he ended up having Friday off, which was nice because he got to see Scarlett in the hospital and be there for that big milestone. So he ended up missing the party. But since I have known him he has never made a big deal out of a holiday, birthday, or otherwise. So I am not under the delusion that he lost much sleep over missing the party, especially since Scarlett won't remember that he wasn't there. I think he would've been more hurt if she had been old enough to say, "You're not coming to my birthday party, Poppa?" with a sad little face. But that won't ever happen!

The party theme was Enchanted Tea party and the colors were pink and gold. Scarlett was showered with tons of summer clothes which I cannot wait to see her in. The weather has not warmed up at all despite it being March, so I haven't been able to see her in any of them yet. But I can't complain because she is still very much in 12-mo size and the summer clothes everyone got her are 18-month. At Scarlett's 12-mo visit she was at 15% for weight and 65% for height. So, she' very tall and slender and fitting just fine in all of her 12-month clothes, which I love because I am going to be very sad to see some of her adorable winter outfits go into storage bins in the attic. I hope I have at least one more girl some day so I can see her in these same outfits. Now, onto the photos.

 

 

Scarlett Surgery

Scarlett Jane had tubes placed in both ears on Friday, January 9th. 

The day before the surgery, the surgery center called to tell me this: no food after 10 pm and no nursing after 1:30. Now, if her ears hadn't been making her so uncomfortable this wouldn't have been a major issue. But for the week leading up to surgery she had been going to bed at 8, waking up at 11:30, 2, and 6. Then waking up for good around 8:30. Thankfully she is an awesome napper so we weren't really feeling exhausted from all the wakefulness. 

But the night before surgery my mom came into town and helped me feed her a giant dinner in hopes of keeping her full. I put her to bed at 7:45 and she woke up at 10:30 to nurse. In hindsight I should have woken her up at 1:15 to nurse one last time but I was so concerned with her being well-rested I didn't think. Well, at 1:50 am she awoke. And I had to rock her and sooth her with no nursing. Obviously it was a major fail--I hope you could tell from the tone and all of the foreshadowing. I got approximately 2 hours and 50 minutes of sleep that night. We NEVER went back to bed. Texan got up and played with her for an hour while I tried to sleep, but I was too stressed from having to push her away from my "nursing zone." I cried. She cried. Then I gave up and took her into the living room and turned on the television. She was fine. Happy to be awake, even. I baked 36 cupcakes and a chocolate cake for her birthday the next day and by 4:30 she had fallen asleep in my arms in front of the morning news. Of course, by this point we needed to be waking up at 5 to leave at 5:30 for the hospital. So all I could do was clean up my kitchen and get dressed. Texan had gone back to bed around 4 because there was no sense in both of us being utterly exhausted that day. 

When we got to the surgery center at 6:15 we were checked into our room and told that our surgery was scheduled for 9:30. Three hours of waiting, no nursing, was what we must endure. But at least there was cable and Starbucks for me and a wagon and toys for Scarlett. She was so tired but in great spirits for such a starving, sleep-deprived girl. She looked so tiny yet so grow-up in her hospital gown on the gurney. We took turns walking her around the halls in the wagon. My mom did most of the walking since she had a blissful 9 hours of sleep. At one point Kyle came into the room with Scarlett on his arm and started rummaging through the cabinets asking, "Isn't there a girly-looking hospital gown in here?" And I knew exactly why he was asking. "Did someone call her a boy while you 2 were in the hallway?" His reply was so classic, pouty and angry, "Some guy nurse said, 'we'll get to you soon,  little buddy.'" I laughed pretty hard. Poor Scarlett. We had to take her earrings out when they checked her in. Poor Texan.

The time finally came for surgery and the nurse came in to take her. As she wheeled her away on her miniature hospital bed I watched the back of Scarlett's head. Her face was so curious. Alert. Not at all bewildered or concerned. She looked so brave. Tiny. Texan took the opportunity to go to the bathroom and I sobbed for about 10 seconds on my mom's shoulder before getting it together. Within 10 minutes her doctor came in and said she had done great and that she was in recovery. "Those ears were REALLY bad," he said. "I don't know how she has been feeling lately, but they were awful." I felt so guilty. Waiting for her to come back wasn't so bad because it felt like nothing compared to the night of waiting, crying, and baking I had endured. But once I heard her cry down the hall I bolted to the doorway only to see a nurse wheeling her back to the room on her gurney. But this time Scarlett didn't sit up straight looking brave like before. The nurse was hunched over the bed with her arm encircling Scarlett's waist. And Scarlett was on her knees, her left thumb in her mouth, her right Arm around the nurse's neck and dried blood covering her left ear. And she was crying a broken, weak cry. More like bursts of tired sadness. Later Texan would tell me, "that broke my heart to see her crying on that bed. That's my baby girl and my heart broke."

The nurse was very serious and instructed us to move a rocking chair close to the left side of the bed so I could pick her up without her falling from my arms. She told us that Scarlett had no control over her movements and could very easily flop around and fall. But Scarlett laid perfectly still in my arms and I nursed her. Finally. 

Her pulse monitor told the story of a mother and baby's bond. On the bed her pulse was rapid. The beeping was deafening. As she nursed and curved to my body under a warm white hospital blanket we heard her pulse drop and drop and finally regulate. I loved that my warmth and milk were able to put her at peace. 

Soon she fell fast asleep. She nursed for 15 minutes, sat up, and wanted to play. So we got the thumbs up to go home. The surgeon had given her a large dose of Tylenol and a narcotic, so that paired with her sleepless night sent her into a 5-hour nap at home. After which, she was ravenous and just as sweet as could be. I was so grateful to have my mom and Texan both there. And most of all, I am grateful for the prayers of friends and family which were answered for my sweet baby Jane. Grammy's girl

Getting measured and checked in.

Daddy helping out.

In our room

Sweet baby on her mini hospital bed with Santa. 

Santa got to go in the operating room too! For those of you who don't know, I have had this Santa doll since we got married and I get him out every year with my decorations. But this year I kept catching Scarlett carrying him around under one arm and if I would hand him to her she would give him a great big hug. So, yes, Santa will be staying around for a while and not going back in the attic. Her gown was purple with orange, black, and white cats all over. She also got a fluffy pair of white socks and a blanket, which we brought home with us.