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!