Less pics this week

We have barely taken any pictures this week of Natalee.  It has been a busy week since Zak has been working and had some extra meetings this week.  We finally took a few pics today.  It sure is nice having both of us around to take care of Natalee this weekend.  I'm actually attempting to scrapbook.  Crazy huh.

Natalee Jo is a keeper

Natalee is still doing very well.  She tried my patience on Wednesday and pretty much cried when she was awake and didn't want to sleep much.  Then yesterday she was an angel just like today so far.  I have been a bit nervous to take her out of the house by myself.  So today I'm going to try it.  I'm taking her to a friends house for a little while.  Hopefully everything goes smooth. Luckily it will only take about 10 minutes to get to her house.

I thought I would also post some of the new nicknames we have for Natalee.  

Zak likes to call her "stinky binky".  She loves her binky. He also calls her "sista."

Sometimes we call her "pumpkin" or "pumpkin eater" when she wants to eat constantly.

I still try to call her Natalee Jo.  However the name is quite long.

Natalee's grandma Stoney left this last Saturday. It was hard not having her here but we are doing ok. I mostly noticed how I can't have any free time when I want it. When she was here I could ask her to hold Natalee and I could do what I want.  Now that I'm just home I don't get that luxury.  Natalee's other grandparents (Strattons) are coming to visit in one week.  Zak took a few extra days off when they are here. That sure will be nice.  Then my friend Natasha is coming to visit the next weekend.  I'm excited since she hasn't been here since we moved.

Well I had better go get a few other things done while I can before the little angel wakes up.

Joleen  

Her sneezes are cute

Natalee is just so awesome. I can't get enough of her. She is just so dang cute. One of my favorite things--I know this is weird--is when she sneezes. She winds up for a sneeze the same way they do in cartoons. Ahhhh Ahhhh Ahhhh Choooooo!. It is so incredibly adorable. I laugh every time she does it.

Natalee Jo

I thought I would post a few more pics. The first one was taken a few days ago when she was snuggling with me. She loves to be held. The second one was taken her second day home.  I just loved the close-up.

Everyone is good here.   Zak has been back to work and we love it when he gets home. Natalee had her second doctor appointment and she gained 10 ounces since last week.  She had lost a little the first few days home. So now she is 7 lbs 12 ounces.  We already started putting her in size one diapers which makes me a little sad.  She sleeps really well and has been pretty much an angel on our few outings that we have had.

Well I better go take care of her since her Dad needs to go to work.

Joleen

New Baby, less computer time

I thought I should do some updating on here since we only have 2 pics on here of our new baby and she is already 10 days old.  

Everything is going great here.  Natalee is an awesome baby. Barely cries and makes a lot of cute faces.  However she still takes a lot of my time and I barely get anything done.  Luckily Zak took the first 10 days off and my mom is out here 2 weeks.  I couldn't do it without them.  I'm a little scared when I have my first day alone.  

Natalee had her first doctor appointment on Friday and he said she was perfect.  We agreed.  She has been on 2 shopping trips and to my pharmacy twice.  All of these trips she has been a little angel and slept most of the time.  Lucky us.  

We have had lots of visitors here and it has been fun.  My nieces Avery and Libby have been over 3 times already to see the baby.  They adore her.

We are so thankful for all of the help we have received.  We had meals brought in by friends and members of our ward.  

Baby Pics

Synopsis of the past 72 hours

Well, Joleen was scheduled to be induced on Friday 7/3 at 8:00 am. We received a phone call at 5 am from the hospital telling us to wait until noon because they were already pretty busy and short on nurses. So, we were a little irritated but whatever. So we went back to sleep. Joleen woke up at about 6:30 and couldn't really sleep any longer. She was hopping in the shower at 7 am when she began having contractions (real contractions, not the fake wimpy ones that she had before). So we called the hospital at about 8:30 and told them we were coming in now because she was having pretty bad contractions. We got to the hospital at 9:00 and by 11:00 they had placed Joleen's epidural. At 11:35, Jo's water broke. By 3:00 she was fully dilated. At 5:00 she started pushing and soon after got a little help from an oxytocin drip. At 7:00 on the dot, Natalee was born and we were very relieved and excited to finally have her. That was the first day.

Over the past few days, Natalee had little appetite, was showing symptoms of an infection, and was sleeping almost all the time. So, she received two antibiotics for 3 days and was receiving IV fluids. She began to perk up and eat a lot more starting on Sunday (after they scared us by putting in a feeding tube). Finally, today (Tuesday), the pediatrician said she could go home and she should be here around 6 or 7 tonight. VERY EXCITED and we feel very blessed to have such a beautiful daughter.

Induction on Friday

My dr. was very nice on Tuesday and the first thing she said at my appointment was, "What do you think about inducing on Friday."  I was like, "YES, YES, YES."

So Friday morning at 8am we will check in to Mountain Vista Medical Center and hopefully have her that evening.  I really don't want her to have a birthday on July 4th, if we can help it.  

Hopefully we will post pictures sometime in the next week or so.