Before and After

Well, I'm sure you have guessed by my absence in posting that I had a baby.  Olivia Cali McConnel was born or Sept. 29th at 3:59pm.  She was a healthy 9 lbs. 2 oz. and 21 1/2 inches.  We are so blessed to have her in our lives.

Here's my Before and After.  We took the "before" picture the morning I went into labor and the "after" is our cute Olivia at two weeks old.  She was really packed in there.

It's been a long two weeks, so I will try to summarize as much as possible.  She did have a bit of a rough start to life.  We ended up spending two nights in the hospital and then she was admitted to the NICU for another three days.  Olivia was very jaundice and had to have light therapy.  She was a precipitous, face up birth (that means really fast).  So, she had a lot of bruising on her face which made her jaundice spike even more.  It was a very stressful and emotional time.  Leaving the hospital without your baby is a very hard thing to do.  I cried all the way home and most of the time I was home without her.  Looking back at the empty car seat was really painful.  I spent very little time at home, mostly just the pump and then I was back at the hospital by her side.  It is truly amazing how much love you can have for your baby when you really have only known her for just mere hours.  Life without her seemed totally impossible as soon as our eyes met.  

Once we finally got her home she was not gaining weight and was dehydrated, so I had to stop nursing and start pumping and giving her bottles (so we could monitor exactly how much she was getting).  The poor little girl had to be at the hospital, doctors office, and lab everyday of the first two weeks of life.  In the middle of all this, I lost my milk supply due to acute stress the doctor believes.  So, I have been pumping to bring back my supply for over a week now (it's like a full time job).  But, we are so thankful that she is healthy now and we are trying to get into a routine of some kind.   We appreciate all the prayers and support from friends and family.  I have shed a lot of tears, but God is good, and he has carried us through this.

Needless to say, blogging has not been on my to do list.  We are kind of in survival mode still.  I have lots of ideas, but just not enough hands or time it feels like.  Hopefully with posting this, I've given myself a kick start.  I have a week of Pumpkin Spice recipes coming very soon.  Thanks for reading.