Izzy's First Bath!

Izzy had her first bath this past Thursday night when Auntie Jody and Cousin Jack were visiting. Her belly button had healed the day before so it was our 'green light' for bathtime. She was pretty content at first, but then decided she wasn't a fan of bath time anymore...

She's a bit confused here, it felt funny sitting in water!
Now she's thinking, this isn't half bad, I can handle this!

"K, Mom, I'm getting restless...let's hurry this thing up!"

Aaaand, that's enough, I'm going to whale a bit and show you just how much I don't like this!

There....aaaaaall better and clean (and smelling sooo good!)

Jody, Jack, Izzy, and I met up with Papa for lunch in St. Paul. Pa's amazed at how little Izzy is and how good of a baby she is.

Jack gave Izzy a little Irish bear for a baby gift, very sweet of cousin Jack.

Grandma Margaret has come to visit us too and just loved cuddling with her first grand-baby. She was the first person to officially babysit Izzy while Dave and I made a paint run to Home Depot on Sunday. They got some great bonding time in!

Auntie Jody found one of Izzy's favorite new ways to lay down, she loves being on her side and having her back rubbed.

I just love this picture and had to post it...she had a little cherry running suit on and Dave put the hood up while she was sleeping...such a cute little munchkin!

A few updates

So we had our maternity pictures taken within 5 days of having Izzy, talk about cutting it close! I wanted to post a few of my favorites that our photographer, Chelsie Anderson of Treeline Photography, took of us.

She's an amazing photographer when she can make a pregnant chic feel pretty!

We'll definitely be hanging one of these pics in Izzy's bedroom!

Chelsie was over this past Thursday afternoon (after we closed on our house - yeah!) and took some fun pictures of Izzy too, check these out!

This one of Izzy in red could EASILY be our Christmas card!

Izzy got a little too comfortable and 'piddled' in Chelsie's stocking...oops!

We can't wait to see more photos from Chelsie and will be sure to pass on more information once Chelsie sets us up with the online galery. We had so much fun with both of these 'photo shoots' and loved the end results!

On another note, we're all doing well here at home. Dave's officially back to work, so now it's just Izzy and I at home, but we have family coming to visit, so it'll be fun having more people around! We haven't really been 'taking it easy' as most people tell you to do, we've been out and about, up north, everywhere in the first 20 days of this little girls' life! She's portable and we want to show her off and have her meet family and friends. Here are a few pics of Izzy over the past few days:

Izzy absolutely LOVES her boppy and can barely keep her eyes open in the thing!

Here is our 6 year old nephew, Jack, holding Izzy...he's pondering what to do with her. He's been incredibly curious about this whole baby process and when his cousin gets here if she'll be able to crawl or talk right when she's born. Soon enough Jack...you'll be able to pick on her....soon enough buddy!

Here is Uncle Tony with Izzy! He was super excited for her to arrive and can't get over how teeny-tiny she is!

My friend Angie had her little boy, Ryker, a few months ago and they came over for coffee one morning last week. We had to get some pictures of the two of them together! I love love LOVE Ryker's shirt - so very fitting for the little stallion! And Izzy's so content resting her head on his shoulder.

Izzy's First Night Home

We were able to bring Izzy home yesterday afternoon! She seemed to like riding in the car ok. We were told not to have her ride in her carseat for more than an hour at a time. She's so little (a whopping 5 pounds and 7 ounces), and her oxygen levels decrease a little bit after sitting in the carseat for about an hour, so no long trips for us until she grows a bit more!

We had a restful night for our first night home. We put her bassinet in the living room and Dave and I camped out on the couch right by her so when she woke, we were right there. She woke up about 3 times through out the night for food, and fed really well!

Dave's taking this week off of work, we have Izzy's first Dr.'s appointment Thursday morning, then we officially close on our house at noon that day, and then Friday, our friend/Wedding Photographer, Chelsie Anderson, (http://www.chelsiekrafka.com/) is coming down to take Izzy's newborn pictures! We're pretty excited about all that's happening this week!
Right now Daddy and Izzy are napping while I update this page. So this is short, but we're all doing well and are home safe and sound!

Izzy's Update

We are told that we may be able to bring our little girl home with us this weekend, most likely tomorrow (Sunday). It finally hit me yesterday how draining it is spending day in and day out at the hospital with our little peanut and not being able to be nestled in at home with her yet. I'm doing fine, but yesterday was a trying day. They bumped her up to her 'max' amount of food (a whopping 56 mililiters) per feeding and she's just getting tired out trying to eat it all. She's so little and only has so much energy...BUT, she's getting stronger daily and we need to be patient while she builds her little muscles and her energy increases to be able to continue to gain weight so she's as healthy as can be when we bring her home. Here are some more pictures of Izzy with Daddy, in some fun outfits, and a few pictures of her nursery. We got most of it put together last night, and I love her room. We're STILL doing loads of her laundry as we find more boxes of her clothes (we keep finding them, this girl is set up for clothes for the first 5 years of her life!!)

Love to everyone and we'll update the blog when she gets to come home!

SHE'S HERE!

Isabella Mae Kavanaugh arrived to meet us on June 5th at 6:10pm. She weighed in at 5 pounds and 10 ounces. She was 19.5 inches long. My water broke at work of all places at 7:30 Friday morning (the day we were supposed to close on our house), and we were off and running from that point on! I had the most uncomplicated labor and delivery I could ever imagine...truly, the pain was brief until the drugs kicked in, and the epidural was a godsend. Mom's and Grandma's, I have no idea how you ever survived without an epidural...seriously, I don't know how you did it and actually kept going through it having more kids! Ok, back to Izzy. She was 4 weeks early, born at 35 weeks and 6 days. She's currently still in the 'Special Care' Nursery at Methodist Hospital in Saint Louis Park, however she is as healthy as can be and getting stronger minute by minute. They started off having to put an IV in her to keep her fluids and blood sugars stable, that was removed on Tuesday of this week. She now just has the little stickers on her belly and chest to keep up with her vital signs. We are really hoping she'll be able to come home to us by the end of this week, but we'll see. She needs to keep gaining weight and maintaining her weight, and that's the last piece of this deal she needs to show to the Dr's, and she's eating like a champ, so there's no worries that she'll be home with us soon.
I was discharged from the hospital on Sunday night at 6PM (exactly 48 hours after delivery, they don't waste time getting you out of there with natural births!), and there is a parent room in the Special Care Nursery that I have been staying in every night getting up with her and feeding her...and staring at her...in complete awww and wonderment that we made such a wonderfully beautiful baby. (I know everyone says that about their own kids, but MAN - she's CUTE!)
Meanwhile, our family has gotten us all settled into our house, the 'big move' took place this past Saturday while Izzy and I were recovering in the hospital, Dave and a bunch of family and friends hauled a big load of furniture down from Brainerd, and cleared everything out of our old apartment to get us moved into our new home! (We were able to move in even though we haven't closed, we did an amendment to the Purchase Agreement, thank goodness that worked out!!) Our house looks ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. The entire main floor is already unpacked, with pictures on the walls, the furniture is arranged perfectly, and that's all set to go! We still need to unpack the bedrooms upstairs, but will get that done in the next day or so here. A HUGE Thank-You to our family and friends that helped us with our move, we couldn't have gotten this done in the short amount of time we did without you all and we are so very thankful for all of you!!
Dave has been doing some 'man-nesting' around the house, fixing stuff, putting in new light fixtures, getting the washer and dryer going, painting Izzy's bedroom. He's been working his tale off to get things ready for when Izzy and I come home, all three of us can relax and enjoy our new home with our new beautiful daughter.
Izzy already has her first nickname....squeaker. She squalks and squeaks at you when you're feeding her or when she just wants to hear her voice, it's the most adorable thing! She's beautiful and I was just itching to get these pictures up to show her off! I could never have dreamed I would have so much love in my heart for my family. It seems impossible to feel this complete and almost euphoric with how in love we are with our little girl and how in love I am with Dave. I'm the absolute luckiest girl in the world to have Izzy and Dave and can't wait for all that's to come! (Who am I kidding, I can't wait for her 3 o'clock feeding, I'm just nuts about our little peanut!!!)
I will try my very best to keep this blog updated, and please feel free to post comments as you like. We will be busy when she officially comes home, so feel free to use this as an outlet to keep up to date on all that's going on with our new little girl!
Love to everyone and we can't wait for everyone to meet Izzy!