Izzy!!

Our little girl... she is so precious to us!! This is her hanging out in the hospital. It is so hard to see your little baby like this!! I just hated all of the poke-marks all over her body from all the needles! I wanted to hold her all the time but it depended on the nurse... some let us hold her and some wouldn't. But even when we could hold her it was only for a couple minutes so they could keep monitoring her and so that she could use all of her energy to get better! So most of the time we just would sit right next to her and stare at her, wondering how lucky we were to have her!! They never let her have a real full-on bath, so one night Ryan and a super nice nurse snuck and cleaned her up a little. And yes, they did try and give Izzy a fo-hawk!

This is one of the times I got to hold Isabelle. I was so scared that Isabelle wouldn't be bonded to me because I didn't get to be with her after she was born. I didn't get to see her until about eight hours after she was born, and didn't get to hold her until the next day-- let me tell you, that is the most heartbreaking thing for a mom!! Well I shouldn't have worried because the first time I held her, I started talking to her and she opened her eyes and just looked right up at me! My heart melted... I just started crying because I knew that my baby knew me!!

Here's Isabelle (exhausted from getting dressed for the first time!) She's six days old and getting ready to go home from the hospital... Finally!

Ahhh... it feels good to be home! I'm pretty sure we all felt like this when we got home... Ryan was so sick of being cooped up in that Hospital he was about to go crazy!! I, on the other hand, was pretty nervous to leave all of the machines and nurses that had been monitoring my baby. I really wanted to take some of them home with me! I missed them so much in fact, that the first night home (at 2am) we had to make a trip back to the hospital to see one of our favorite nurses... Izzy was giving me a little scare, by turning blue, so we ran her over. It wasn't anything serious, but we are sure glad we'd made friends with the NICU nurses! We are so grateful for all the people that helped us with Isabelle... nurses, doctors, and especially family and friends. We are so grateful for a happy and healthy baby- we feel so blessed that everything is working out well and that Isabelle has overcome her rough start! She is such a joy in our lives and we feel lucky every day to have her!!