Two Months Already!

I can hardly believe that it has already been two months since Isabella entered my world. I could not be more in love with her. She is just the most amazing addition to my life. Being a mom is not always easy. I get frustrated sometimes with not being able to get everything done around the apartment that should get done. But at the end of the day, spending time with little Izzy is more important than laundry, dishes, and straightening things up around here. She is doing great. She loves being attached to mommy's bosom. We tried to introduce formula tonight, but she wants nothing to do with it. We need to start supplementing because I go back to work in three weeks and there is no way I can pump enough to keep up with her eating habits. Once she starts to eat even more, I'd need to pump more than I have time to do as a teacher. So we tried and tonight, it failed. She wants nothing to do with it. Tomorrow, I'll just use 2 ounces of breast milk with a half scoop of the formula and see if that makes a difference.
Over the weekend, we went down to Maryland to see Hubby's side of the family. Grandma Pat was so excited to see her granddaughter again. Isabella even had a little outfit that said "Off to Grandma's." Since my mom and stepdad will be watching her when I go back to work, I want to make her visits with Hubby's mom special. We had a great time. We went to a farm that had a crazy corn maze. So we went through the maze. I don't think I would have made it through without Hubby. He is a human GPS. He looked at the map/aerial view once and knew his way around. I am certainly not that good with directions and Isabella won't be, either. She couldn't even figure out how to get out of the womb without being chopped out!

We also had the privilege of having more pictures taken of our little family. Our good friend, Doreen, is a professional photographer and she did our wedding pictures seven long years ago. She wanted to do maternity pictures for me but we could never coordinate our schedules. So she was so excited to get her camera on Isabella. Here is a small sampling of Isabella's two month pictures.

Aunt Olivia

Grandma Pat

Time Really Flies!

I realize I've been absent from the blogging world a lot more lately. But it's not without good reason. Isabella definitely keeps me busy. She wants to be held, cuddled, bounced, and played with all the time. Since I go back to work in a month, I've been enjoying every ounce of my time with her. She is changing and growing so quickly and I don't want to miss a thing!

I sent a birth announcement to my fertility specialist for their dreaded baby wall. My opinion about the baby wall has changed since having Isabella. I used to despise that wall. There was nothing more evil and hated than that baby wall. Yet now, I have come to terms with its purpose somewhere like a fertility clinic. When I was going through all the fertility treatments, the last thing I had wanted to see was everyone's babies staring down at me knowing I didn't have anything to add to the wall. I went through all the same emotions at the OBGYN office. Yet now, especially at the fertility specialist, I have come to see the hope it can offer to those in the middle of the battle. I didn't want to see it as hope when I was going through all that I went through to conceive Isabella. I wanted to see it as something I would never experience, a painful reminder of all my body's issues. I'm so blessed to have added a picture to the baby wall and I am so thankful for that wall being there. I was so negative towards that wall but it really is the wall of hope. It is the evidence that the fertility treatments work at some point, that it's not all in vain. 

There's not a whole lot of interesting things going on. Isabella is growing and growing. She probably weighs 9 or 10 pounds now. Her next Well Baby check up is October 6th. So we'll find out how much she weighs then. She is wearing 0-3 month clothes. She's got short little legs and a pudgy belly. Too cute. I'll attach a few pictures to this post. 

I went shopping for her the other day at Carters. Between my mom and me, we spent $130 on $400 worth of fall clothes. I haven't even thought about getting 3-6 month clothes. She does need those, but 0-3 month clothes was the first need. We'll get the 3-6 month clothes in a month. We're headed out to the Pittsburgh area for a wedding Columbus Day weekend and there's a Carters outlet out there. So we'll make a nice shopping visit then. A baby girl needs to be dressed well for the season, you know!

So, I have to say that I still find it so unbelievable that I'm blogging about a baby. A baby that is here. A baby that knows me as "Mom." A baby that is my very own. I still know the emotions of thinking this would never happen for me, that I would never be able to conceive. It still feels like yesterday when I, following doctor's orders, took a pregnancy test on Thanksgiving 2009 and watched it show up positive. It still feels like yesterday when we first saw Isabella on an ultrasound at the fertility specialist. I don't think I have ever experienced the joy of seeing a small dot on the monitor. And then to hear her heartbeat a week later, such a sweet sound. Feels like yesterday that I felt all those emotions. And yet, seven weeks and two days ago, I had a c-section and met my precious daughter face to face. Even that feels like just yesterday. Time flies!

That's about it from this end. I'm just enjoying a quiet Friday morning at home with Isabella. She's asleep on my chest right now. It's one of her most favorite places to be. 

One Month Pictures

Saturday August 28th was Isabella's one month celebration. We had one month pictures done and they turned out fantastic! I still cannot believe that I have held Isabella in my arms for 5 weeks now. 5 weeks ago exactly (to the exact time of 1:27pm), I was in the c-section operating room waiting to meet my little princess. At 1:35 on that day, my world was forever changed by the little child that has defined my life for the past 5 weeks. I still feel like that day was yesterday. I feel like I just walked in to the hospital carrying my bags up to the 3rd floor, Labor and Delivery. 

I've recovered well from my c-section. I can go on nice long evening walks with Hubby and the dog. Isabella likes to go on those walks. Most of the time, she stays awake and looks at everything around her that she can see. If I strap her into the Baby Bjorn, she sleeps. It feels good to be able to get up, go on a walk, enjoy life again. All that bed rest before Isabella's arrival had me stuck on the couch trying to enjoy life from inside my apartment. I'm so glad my recovery has been going well. As of my 4-week postpartum checkup, I had lost 20 of my 30 pregnancy pounds. Hopefully, carrying around a growing baby and going on nice walks (and breast feeding, of course) will help speed up the weight loss of the rest of the baby weight. 

Okay, so back to the purpose of this post: the one month pictures. I wanted to share some of those pictures with all of you. They came out fantastic. Isabella is going to break a lot of boys' hearts when she is older!