More New Pictures

We had a great weekend in Indianapolis! Sadie got to meet her friend Parker for the first time. Though I'm not really sure that either girl realized the others' existence, us parents sure had fun talking for them and making it seem like they were interacting. I will have pictures to post to show both girls, but I can't seem to locate my camera cord right now.

I did receive the link for our latest JC Penney's pictures. We had some taken when Aunt Rhian was here. Plus, we were hoping to get some better pictures in Sadie's halloween dress. But, not surprisingly, it was still ridiculously hot in the studio, so things didn't turn out so greatly as far as smiling in her dress. But, they were a little better than the first time. I'll post some of my favorite shots below and also the link for how to access everything. I'll have more to say later when Sadie is actually sleeping She's currently playing under her mobile in her crib! :)

We've got a pictures of Sadie in her dress, our family and mom's whole family. Enjoy!

Go to http://www.smilesbywire.com and enter the following:

Customer Name: Krysten Smith
Access Code: LTPP0741118363JCP

Quick Update and Paying it Forward

Quick Update:

I had my six week follow-up appointment with my ObGyn yesterday. I am well-healed and things are "back to normal". This is excellent news on many levels and I am very thankful.

Since my Ob is at the hospital, I took Sadie down to the women's center after my appointment. The women's center has a baby scale where you can drop by any time and weigh your baby. At six weeks and five days, my beautiful daughter now weighs 12 lbs 8 oz. That's right - she's not even 2 months old and she's already wearing 3-6 month clothes! (Truth be told, because she's not SUPER long, her 3 month clothes are fitting her just fine at this point, but I know it won't be long.)

Sadie has begun making the cutest little noises. Right now she's laying under her Baby Einstein play gym and making the happiest of noises. She grabs at her rattle toys and and LOVES to watch her flashing star. While she is doing this, she makes the most delightful coos and happy noises. It makes my heart melt. Every time she makes a happy noise I think it makes me love her even more (not that the sad noises make me feel the opposite, I just LOVE the happy noises!)

Aunt Rhian came in for the weekend. She got here on Thursday and left Monday night. She brought Mortimer with her. You may remember from previous posts that Mortimer is her miniature dachsund. He wasn't quite sure what to make of Sadie at first, but ended up wanting to be her protector. He did this with a lot of barking and much licking of Sadie's hands and arms. This was a bit nerve wracking to me, but in the end everything was just fine. As soon as I get a chance, I will upload my new pictures and get them posted. Aunt Rhian was delighted to meet Sadie and really seemed to enjoy her new "Aunt" role.

I got FANTASTIC news at dinner tonight. I'm still so excited I want to leap for joy. I am one of those people who has always been really close with her family. Any of you who know me well, know this is true. I only have 3 cousins, 2 of whom I grew up with living just a few blocks away. We went on vacations together every summer and we saw each other all of the time. However, since we've all grown up, I am the only one of the 4 girls (my sister and I and my two cousins) who have remained in town. Megan is the oldest of us (3 months older than me). She lives in Seattle. Amanda, her sister, now lives in New York. Rhian lives in Phoenix. Even though we don't see each other much, we do still e-mail and actually talk on the phone on occasion. Anyways, the last time I saw Megan was when I got married. Obviously that was more than 2 years ago. I saw Amanda last Christmas. But, my excellent news is that Megan and Amanda are both coming home for Christmas. I am so excited. My heart is bursting with excitement. They'll get to meet Sadie and better yet, I'll get to spend time with both of them. It's been at least 5 years - maybe more - since everyone's been home at Christmas, so this will REALLY be special. :)

Ok, now to the second part of this post.

Paying it Forward

Today I was driving back from the mall with my mom. My back right tire literally exploded off of my car. This happened as I was driving down the exit ramp from the freeway. I turned the corner with my blown off tire and a VERY nice man, who saw my "Baby on Board" sticker, pulled over and changed my tire for me. I have never had someone actually do this for me. I do have AAA and could have easily called them and waited for them to come and help, but this man just felt the need to help and had my tire changed out for the spare within 5 minutes. It was awesome. So, now I feel that I need to pay this amazing favor forward. If you know of anyone in need of an extra kind deed, please point me in their direction. Hopefully I'll stumble upon an opportunity before anyone else needs to point anything out, but keep your eyes peeled for opportunities for me.

Well, that's the update for now! I can't wait to see my Indy friends this weekend! Woohoo!!!!!

More Pictures

I finally got the link for the pictures we had taken at JC Penney's. As previously stated, they are ADORABLE! The pictures in her white dress are a little better because she wasn't fussy. She got fussy in her Halloween dress. I could hardly blame her since it was ridiculously hot in there, but it made for some very sad-face pictures. We're having them taken again tomorrow since Aunt Rhian is home and can be in the pictures with us. Hopefully Aunt Rhian's mere presence will bring out many happy Halloween smiles! :)

I promise that at some point, I will post the picture of me in a white dress at Sadie's age. The similarities are eerily scary. Clearly she will grow up to be one very attractive girl! :)

Anyways, here's what you need to do to view the pictures:

go to http://www.smilesbywire.com and enter the following:

Customer Name: Krysten Smith
Access Code: LTPP0741118134JCP

Enjoy!

An Update in Pictures (and a few words)

Ok, I have finally uploaded the pictures from my camera and have some adorable new shots to post.

First, here is our little sleeper:
















Here are Sadie and Great Grandma Winter. Remember, Sadie is Great Grandma's 28th great grandchild!
















Here are Sadie and Uncle Tim. She has the curious look - this guy looks kinda like my Dad, but I'm just not sure. :)
















Here are Sadie and Grandpa Brinkley. She was very amused with Grandpa.
















Here's the delicious cake that Aunt Sarah made for us. I wish we still had some!
















Here's a family shot when we visited the pumpkin patch last weekend:
















Now for the words:
Last Wednesday we had to visit the doctor. This is becauase Sadie's tear ducts have been blocked since she was born and her eyes are very gunky. Things seemed to be getting worse, not better, so we decided to go to the doctor. We now have an appointment for this Wednesday with a pediatric opthamologist at Children's Hospital here in Columbus. Hopefully they'll have some good suggestions and they won't have to do any procedures on Sadie, but we'll just have to wait and see.

While at the doctor, "the chunk" got weighed and measured. She weighed in at 11 pounds, 6 ounces. That is 2 lbs and 5 oz up from her birth weight. This girl can eat! She is also now measuring 22.5 inches, which is 2 inches up from birth. Additionally, her head now measures about 16.5 inches around which is 1.5 inches up from birth. She has a BIG brain too! My mom pulled out my baby book so that we could compare Sadie and myself. I was 9 lbs 12 oz at birth. At six weeks, I was 11 lbs. Sadie was 11 lbs 6 oz at five weeks. So, she may have been slightly smaller than her mom at birth, but she has more than caught up!

Last Monday we actually had our first Sadie photo session at JC Penney's. She did great for the first round of pics and then kind of lost it. It was ridiculously hot in the studio and, like her mom, she does not deal well with excessive heat. I don't have the link to post the pictures yet, but I will post the like as soon as I get it. I can't wait to post the picture of me at Sadie's age and then her picture. It's kind of scary how similar we look. I will say, though, that she has far chubbier cheeks! :)

One more "Hallelujah Moment" to mention - Sadie had been VERY resistent to a pacifier. Plus, the lactation consultant kept discouraging it because it can change the way she latches on the nurse and make nursing more painful for me. But, this basically means that I get to serve as her pacifier. (This is also perhaps why she has gained so much weight!) We had a break through this weekend though. I got my hair cut and my mom watched her while I was at the appointment. During the appointment, she got Sadie to take and keep the pacifier. Since then, she has spent many moments happily sucking away. This is great for while we are in the car as well as just calming her down so she can go to or go back to sleep. It's fantastic. God bless the pacifier! :)

Ok, because I can't resist, here are 3 more pictures. The first is a shot of her adorable feet.
















Here is a shot of Mommy's other baby. This is our little kitty, Beau. This is a relatively small basket that he has absolutely fallen in love with. He's so cute that I couldn't resist posting it.
















Finally, here's a great shot of Daddy and Sadie. We had a picnic lunch at Antrim Lake on Friday. Antrim Lake has very special meaning for Adam and I because it's where we met the first time. Adam can take an hour break for lunch, so he drove over to the park and met us for lunch. It was awesome!
















Ok, I feel like I've sufficiently flooded you all with pictures. Hope you're all off to a great week. Aunt Rhian is coming to visit on Thursday morning, so I'm sure we'll have more pictures and stories to post very soon! Take care!

Wordless Tuesday

Ok - I do realize that it's Tuesday and not Wednesday, but I had a spare minute to insert a picture and I couldn't help but do it. I had to send this picture from my phone. Unfortunately, I can't send more than one picture at a time and it takes quite a while to do it, so I'm only posting one picture. As soon as I can get caught up on some sleep and have more than 5 minutes at a time, I promise that I'll post more pictures.

In the meantime, what do you think this sweetheart is thinking?

Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen Reasons Why I am Having a Hard Time Posting

Since it's been well more than a week since last I've posted, I figured I should update everyone as to what's been happening in Smith world. We've been busy. Here's my list of 13 things that have kept me so busy that I've been unable to post:

1. I spend most of my days at home by myself from 8:30 am until 5:30 pm. I spend much of my night wide awake with the baby. So, I sleep during the day. When I am not asleep I am either comforting the baby, feeding the baby, showering, or checking on everyone else's blogs.

2. Even when my husband is home to watch the baby or my parents come over, I usually just want a few minutes to relax instead of work on the blog.

3. I really wanted to have new pictures to post and kept telling myself that as soon as I downloaded them, I would do a new post. I still haven't downloaded them, but I decided to do the post anyways. Hopefully Adam will help me out with some new pictures soon.

4. On the days when I have had more sleep at night, I've been trying to get out of the house. Last week we visited the lactation consultant on Wednesday and my school on Thursday. Yesterday we met Daddy for lunch and then went to Babies R Us, out to Grandpa's school, and then out to Grandma's school to pick her up.

5. Last Thursday, my mom "fell" in the parking lot while walking to her car. By "fall", I really mean almost passed out. She had been having physical therapy on her shoulder and then all of a sudden got very dizzy. She thought she had an ear infection or was coming down with some kind of flu. So, on Friday, after going to school, she called the doctor. Unable to get an appointment, she went to Urgent Care. The Urgent Care doctor sent her to the ER. Her own mother died of a Massive Cerebral Hemmorage, so she had some concerns that my mom had perhaps had a stroke and that was what caused her to "fall." My dad had to go pick my mom up from the Urgent Care and take her to the ER. They got there around 6:30 pm on Friday night, weren't seen until after 10:00 pm, and then my mom was in the hospital from Friday night until Tuesday morning. They did all kinds of tests: cat-scan, EKG, MRI, scope down her throat to look at her heart, and a tilt-table test. The diagnosis finally came with the tilt-table test. She has this syndrome where her body doesn't efficiently pump the blood back up from her feet and when the blood pools there, she passes out. As soon as she feels symptoms coming on, she's supposed to lay down immediately. There's not a great treatment for this syndrome. Here's the worst part: she's not allowed to drive for a month! So, I've been rather worried about this whole situation and focusing my energies there instead of blogging.

6. Baby's first road trip. Last Saturday morning we loaded up the car and headed to Great Grandma's house. Sadie was Adam's Grandma's 28th great grandchild! Pretty amazing! We have a great picture of Great Grandma holding Sadie and I promise that I will post it at some point.

7. From Great Grandma's house we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Brinkley's house. There we visited with Grandma and Grandpa Brinkley and Grandpa Brinkley's daughter-in-law and grand child. We didn't stay there too long, though because Mommy was hungry for some dinner.

8. We went to Uncle Tim's and Aunt Sarah's house. We got to see Uncle Tim, Aunt Sarah, and cousins Codey and Noah. We had pizza and calzone for dinner, watched the cousins play video games, and spent the night. We were awake until about 1 am and then slept until almost 10 am. Aunt Sarah made us a delicious and HUGE welcome cake. We have a picture of it too and will someday post it. We ate lunch around 2 pm and headed home around 4 pm.

9. We had to meet my dad at the Urgent Care to pick up my mom's car.

10. We went to my parent's house to drop off the car and also to catch up with my dad. We ended up staying and ordering pasta from Pizza Hut. It was actually pretty good! We didn't head home until almost 8 pm.

11. I spent Monday text messaging between my parents and Adam. We were still without a diagnosis for my mom at that point, so with each new test we all communicated about what we thought would be next.

12. We went to the hospital on Monday night to visit Grandma. Daddy was very tired from all of the driving and from staying up half the night with Mommy and baby.

13. It's taken several attempts to get this list completed. I had to feed the baby, attempt to go back to sleep with the baby (mission failed), and go to the bathroom while Daddy changed Sadie's diaper. Adam is working from home today, which I why I even felt like I could attempt blogging this morning. Currently Sadie is in her swing and quite content. I wish she would fall back asleep because I'd sure like to. On the other side of things, it might be nice if she'd stay awake now and sleep tonight. If nothing else, I'm learning what's on TV in the middle of the night. Thank goodness for Law and Order!

I do really, really love being a mom, but I am also quite sleepy and would very much appreciate a few uninterrupted hours of sleep. Maybe tonight if I'm very lucky! I promise to post some more pictures as soon as I have a few more spare moments to upload them, sort them, and make appropriate choices about what to post. Hope all is well with everyone else!