Happy 1 month Libby!

Our sweet Libby girl is one month old! How crazy is that?! On one hand it's hard to fathom that I'm actually a mom...on the other hand it feels like it's what I was always meant to do and I cannot imagine life without her. I feel like the luckiest person on earth that I get to be her momma.
The past month has been filled with some of the most amazing moments of my life and also some of the hardest. But the exhaustion and overwhelming moments are more than worth it. Looking at her precious face, having her sleep soundly my chest, calming her down when she's upset, watching her do something for the first time...there is seriously nothing like it. Pure LOVE. John Paul and I have learned so much and experienced such great joy. By the way, I do not know what I would do without such an amazing husband to share this with. I have seen his sacrificial love on display so many times in the past month. The man gets up at 4am to go to work and still checks on me in the middle of the night to make sure I'm ok and ask if he can do anything. Libby and I are very blessed. 

I also don't know what we'd do without our amazing friends and family who have kept us fed, cleaned our house, done our laundry, and come over to hang out with us this past month. We couldn't have done it without all of you.

So we survived the first month! Praying for many, many more and thanking the Lord our baby girl...what an amazing gift. We love you Libby!!

Here are some fun facts about Libby at one month:

-She is still a teeny thing! She can only wear Carter's brand newborn clothes...all the other newborn clothes are too big for her. 

-She started liking her play mat this week! She's such a wiggler that she can already hit the hanging toys with her hands and feet. And she's very receptive to the sounds!

-Baby girl goes cross eyed A LOT :)

-She still loves bath time!

-She loves when her daddy sings to her.

-She eats every 2.5-3 hours during the day and has started sleeping 4 hours between feedings at night! Thanks Lib!

-I reintroduced swaddling 2 nights ago and so far she's not fighting it as much as she did when she was first born...and she's sleeping longer. Maybe we're on to something?!

And finally I'll leave you with some pictures of her first month...enjoy the CUTENESS!

First sponge bath!

5 days old

7 days old

10 days old 

First walk @ 12 days old

17 days old

20 days old

1st trip to the lake for Father's Day

Libby sandwich

22 days old

25 days old

1 month old!!

Special Care Nursery

I'm still the process of documenting Libby's hospital stay so here is the last little bit...


On the morning of Monday the 28th we were told that Libby had a slight case of jaundice and that her pediatrician wanted to recheck her bilirubin level later in the day. The pediatrician informed us that her levels were no where near dangerous and they were just being very cautious. Late that evening they rechecked her bilirubin level and it had not come down enough so they had to take her to the nursery to put her under the light. She ended up having to stay under the light all day Tuesday which made for one very sad new momma. The only time I got to see her was every 3 hours when they brought her in to eat. I was a total wreck and cried off and on the whole day :( It's amazing how quickly your "motherly instinct" kicks in after you have a baby...I was not expecting to have that type of reaction. All of my family and friends were so sweet and consoled and entertained me all day. And as I prayed that day the Lord reminded me to be grateful for how blessed we were and that it was nothing more serious. Also, I had an amazing lactation consultant who helped me start pumping so that Libby would be getting enough to eat since jaundice makes babies lethargic. She was a huge blessing and helped us get off to a great start with breastfeeding.


Tuesday night I was discharged from the hospital but Libby's bilirubin was still not as low as they wanted so they sent us over to the Special Care Nursery in the Jackson building. The great thing about this was John Paul and I got to be in the same room as Libby! She still had to stay in the special bed under the light but I got to take her out to change her, feed her, or console her if she was upset. Plus we could just sit there and look at her :) The SPC is brand new and felt like our own little hotel suite. The nurses we had were so wonderful and overall it was a really great experience. We spent Tuesday night and most of Wednesday there before they rechecked her bilirubin and it was low enough for us to go home! Hooray! Here are some pictures to document our stay...

Sweet baby...she couldn't wear anything but a diaper and her "goggles"

Daddy & Libby

Love that face 

YiaYia Christie visited and brought us lunch

Teeny girl ready to go home!

Heading home!

Proud Daddy 

Hospital visitors!

So I'm a little behind but I want to make sure I document all of Libby's visitors while she was in the hospital! Most of these are from Monday the 28th because on Tuesday she was mainly in the nursery under the light for her jaundice :(

Aunt Nicki

Uncle Nick & Melissa

Uncle Peter

The Manns

Cassie

The Cooks

Annie

YiaYia Libby & Papou Peter

Emily, Stacy, Carolina & Maryelle

Amy

Chris & Alex

Papa Ken

The Griffins

Lindsay (and baby Carby) 

The Bowens

Taylor

Lisa & Sheryl escaped from work :)

Libby's 2 week stats!

We went for Libby's 2 week doctor's appointment on Tuesday and it went very well! Here were her stats:

7 lb. 8 oz. (50th percentile)

20.5 inches long (50th percentile)

33 cm head circumference (31st percentile)

So our Libby girl is gaining weight like a champ and Dr. Neely was very impressed! Way to go Libs. 

The sad moment came when they had to do a heel prick for her PKU test :( Libby cried so hard and I think John Paul and I were just as sad as she was.

Basically she is doing great and we are very thankful for a healthy baby girl! Our next appointment will be at 8 weeks.

Libby is such a sweet baby and I am LOVING being her mommy! She's having more awake time during the day which is really fun! After a few rough nights of wanting to hang out with mommy and daddy in the middle of the night she seems to be figuring out her days and nights. She wakes up every 2-3 hours to eat but is getting better at letting me put her back to sleep. 

During the day she's very content to be held or sit in her infant seat and sleep/hang out while I get dressed, do laundry, etc. She's a squirmy little thing (which explains what was going on in my belly all those months!) and loves to move her arms and legs when she's awake. She makes the most hilarious faces and one of her signature faces is documented down below :) She loves to lay on her daddy's chest and cuddle. She also loves bath time and becomes very calm and awake afterward. 

She's gone on two walks in her stroller and slept through both of them. She also went to her first girls lunch at Nordstrom Bistro with mommy, YiaYia Christie, YiaYia Libby, Grandma Cynthia and Aunt Nicki. She was such a good girl and got lots of compliments...obviously :)

Libby is such a loved little girl and has had so many people come to visit her which I will document in my next post! For now here are a few current pics of our precious girl....we love you Libby!

Libby Allison Schulze

We are so happy to announce that Libby Allison Schulze is here!

She arrived May 27, 2012 at 8:46pm weighing in at 6 lb. 14 oz. and 19 inches long.

She is the sweetest, most beautiful baby we have ever seen!

We had no idea that Libby would be making her grand entrance 2 1/2 weeks early! However, I had started to get the feeling that something was going on the Thursday before she was born. I had started leaking fluid (sorry if that's TMI) Thursday night but got checked twice over the weekend and was assured that I was not dilated and my water had not broken. So Saturday night we went to bed and at about 2:15am I woke up to contractions that were definitely not Braxton Hicks! I started timing them by keeping a log on my phone and realized they were about 10-11 minutes apart...so nothing to do anything about at that point. I tried to keep sleeping and wasn't even convinced that they would continue progressing. At about 4:30am the contractions had gotten stronger and were down to about 8 minutes apart so I woke John Paul up and told him I thought it might be the real deal. I kept timing the contractions and as they continued to get closer together we started to make initial phone calls to family that was out of town. My mom, Ken and the kids were at the lake for Peter's birthday party, my dad and YiaYia & Papou live in Shreveport, and John Paul's family lives in Corpus. By 10am my contractions were 4-5 minutes apart so we headed for the hospital! It was so surreal leaving our house knowing that when we came back we'd have a baby!

We arrived at Presbyterian and checked in at the L&D admitting area but they were really busy and didn't have a room right away. So John Paul and I waited patiently for a nurse to come and get us but pretty soon my contractions were only about 3 minutes apart and I was getting a little anxious. Thankfully a few minutes later a nurse came to get us and as soon as I stood up my water broke! She informed me that I had gotten myself a first class ticket straight to an L&D room. So they took me back and started an IV with fluid and checked my cervix. At this point it was about 11:30am and I was only dilated to 1cm. I was thinking we were in for a very long day/night! At this point family was starting to arrive and my contractions were getting even stronger since my water had broken so they went head and gave me my epidural...hooray! All I can say is it was amazing and it wasn't nearly as scary or painful as I had imagined. However, at that point my contractions started to slow down so they started me on Pitocin. Within 2 hours I was dilated to 5cm and was at 7cm by about 5pm. My doctor, Dr. Fogwell, was not on call that weekend and since it was a holiday weekend I was not expecting him to make it to deliver Libby. But being the awesome doctor that he is he came in anyway and showed up just in time! He arrived at about 7:30pm and I was so excited! He checked me and I was at 10+ cm so he said it was time to push! I was definitely a little nervous at this point but so ready to meet our baby girl! John Paul prayed for us and then it was go time! My nurse, Tammy, was awesome and was so calm and encouraging. She and John Paul each held one of my legs and I could not have done it without them. One of my favorite things about the whole experience was watching the excitement and joy on John Paul's face the whole time. He was so in awe and so happy. I pushed for about 45 minutes and then our little Libby girl was born at 8:46pm!! I immediately burst into tears and then went into a few minutes of complete shock and amazement. When they placed her on my chest it was the most unbelievable feeling I've ever had. She was perfect! We are so thankful that God has given us such an amazing gift and we love her so much! Here are some more pictures to document the day...

It's go time!

Our family!

Love

proud Daddy

Libby meeting Papou Bobby!

Libby with her grandmother!

Libby's YiaYia, Uncle Chris, & Aunt Nicki...minus Uncle Peter and Ken who were at the lake for Peter's bday party!

3 generations!

4 generations! Libby and her namesake

Great-grandparents! YiaYia Tina & Papou Sammy all the way from Shreveport! (and still in their church clothes!)

Aunt Holly

Uncle Chris

Libby's super fun cousins! Allie, Peter, Michael, Max & Joey

The Carbys (including Libby's future BFF, baby C)

The Spencers (future couple? Becton + Libby?)

kisses

Our amazing nurse, Tammy! 

Mommy & her girl

Babi & Papa all the way from Corpus! 

Schulze clan

It was the best day and Libby is one very loved little girl! We have the most awesome family and friends. So much has happened since the day she was born and I will document more as soon as I can! Since so many people were out of town for Memorial Day when Libby was actually born she continued to have lots of visitors in the next few days so check back soon for more pics!