1 month old!

First of all, should I be counting Paisley as 1 month old at 4 weeks, or should I wait until the 28th? hmmm.. either way, they are pretty close together!

Paisley is officially 4 weeks old and doing great! She is adjusting to life in the real world, (and so are her parents!). She is sleeping better at night, and spending most nights in her crib, and she seems to love it! She starting sleeping better once we put her in there. We have a video monitor and that helps a ton. She LOVES and I mean LOVES her pacifier, and that's mostly a good thing now that we are not getting up every few minutes and putting it back in when it falls out. :) She is still being fed about every 2 hours at night (her idea, not mine) and every 3 during the day. Can we reverse that please? She does not appreciate a bath, but loves the feeling afterwards. She has smiled at us a few times that I think were actually "real" smiles and not gas. Although, the poor child does not burp hardly at all, so she gets gas drops a lot. She gets the hiccups almost every time she eats, and they sometimes make her mad but mostly she doesn't mind. She had them 2-3 times a day when I was pregnant with her :)

Everyone seems to think she looks more like her Daddy, and I think that's precious. :) We do think she will have blond hair though, as it has a golden shine to it, and we expect it to lighten as she gets older. It has already grown a lot in the last month! She likes to be held, likes her swing, loves the boppy, and the pack and play. She is even enjoying her play mat already. She loves the polka dotted chicken and just stares at it!

This month she has had some visitors. Our neighbors have come to meet her, and my co-workers. A few of Jason's co-workers have come, and Gigi and Poppa Ron just left after spending the weekend with us. My parents are coming this weekend and we are looking forward to that very much! She loves her Grammy very much already, and her Granddaddy, and Gigi and Poppa Ron. In fact, when Poppa Ron talks, she will turn her head to see him! So cute! We are planning a trip to Tennessee next month to show her off!

We have had a great first month. Exhausting, but great. She has learned a lot, and so have Jason and I! We love this angel with all our hearts and are so proud to be her parents! Looking forward to posting updates every month to see how she has grown and changed.

Momma & Paisley's First Moments

Here is a really short video of Paisley and I the moment we met. She had been crying and stopped when she hears my voice... so precious. Have a great weekend and look for a 1 month old post sometime next week!

New Pictures of Our Angel Girl

Here are a few new pictures of Paisley. There are a few from after her first bath at home, (she's not a big fan of the bath yet) but oh was she cute! And a few just snapshots we took here and there. Later I will hopefully be able to blog more, but right now she's not the best sleeper, and really just takes cat naps, so I stay pretty busy with her. Enjoy the pictures!

Here's The Story...

Many of you have been asking about how the birth of Paisley went, and how we ended up in a c-section, spending 4 nights in the hospital, and I have told you guys I would blog soon and tell the story, that way I am not telling it over and over again. :) Well, here goes!

We went in Sunday night 12-27 at 6:00pm (well, 6:20, yes we were late for our daughter's birth). Jason had to work until 5:00pm, and got someone to cover his shift (Praise the Lord!) so he could leave and take me to the hospital. He ended up not getting to leave until 5:20, and it was snowing like crazy, so we were late. Oh well, I knew they wouldn't start without us. :)

We started the induction process about 7:30 with the dose of cervadil, and I started having contractions or cramps within 15 minutes. Not too bad, but not too fun. 4 hours later, I had a second dose because there was no progression. They started the pitocin about 4:30am and things heated up a bit for me pain wise, so I got some pain meds in my IV, no epidural yet. They wanted me to be 2-4 cm before getting it. To make a long story short, they increased the pitocin every 30 minutes, and by 11:30am I was on the maximum dose. Still no epidural, but I wasn't in horrible pain, but knocked out and crazy from the pain meds in the IV. My Dr. came in and I had only dilated 1 1/2 cm (and I had been 1cm for 3 weeks). He said keep me on the pitocin, and by 4:00, we will see what's happened. At 3:30pm, I was still 1 1/2 cm and 70%. She had no plans of coming soon. We were given the choice of doing a c-section then, or taking a shower, eating, and starting the process all over again, but my Dr. and most everybody at that point believed that it would not help. I would have to have a c-section the next day anyway. So there we went, into the OR and had a c-section at 4:00pm. Paisley was born at 4:38pm, and everything was great!

SO later that night Paisley, Jason and I were in our room and I had just gotten finished feeding her. I went to set my bed up a little and let everyone back in, and my heart monitor went off. My heart rate was 153 beats per minute. Jason asked if I was dizzy or felt funny and about that time I got really light headed and nauseated, so we called for a nurse. By the time she got there, I was so faint and weak, and my blood pressure was 68/30. Whoa, we were shocked. They gave me lots of extra fluids, and took some blood to check my hemoglobin level, and I felt fine a few minutes later. Later that night, it all happened again. Blood pressure 68/30, and they started to worry a bit. They took my blood again, and the results for the first time had just came back. A healthy person should have a count of 12, and I had 10 after the first count, and 7.5 after the second. There was a time they were concerned that I was bleeding internally, but they ruled that out pretty soon, after pushing of my belly lots of times (Youch!). The next morning, they took blood again, and my level was a 6..5, almost half what it should be, so I had to get a blood transfusion. 3 bags of blood in fact. I felt okay most of the time but i was extremely exhausted. I would be talking to people and fall asleep. Eating and fall asleep. I could not stay awake for anything. That was from the severe anemia, and it was l most comical actually! After having the transfusion, (I got it through the night Tuesday night) they finally let me out of bed and I was able to take a shower! Glory day!

From that point on, things were much better. Still dealing with the weakness, but I got better each day. Now I am really doing much better, but recovery has been a bit slow go because I wasn't able to get out of bed for 2 days after the surgery, and my body was trying to make up for all the lost blood. It's a crazy story, but it is all great in the end! Here are a few more pictures from the photographer at the hospital. She did such a great job! Have a great weekend!

Paisley Lane Spangler

Just got settled in at the hospital. Getting ready to start the induction process!

The last profile pregnant picture! 39 weeks along. Whoa baby!

Mom, Dad, and I, right before going into the OR for a c-section.

New Daddy to be, waiting outside while they prep me for the surgery. Isn't he a handsome Dr.!

Mommy's first moment with Paisley, so precious.

First official family picture. Daddy, Momma, and Paisley. She was just about 1 hour old. :)

And finally, what we have all been waiting for!!! Meet Paisley Lane Spangler. 6lbs, 1oz, 19 3/4 inches long. She is very happy and healthy!

We had a crazy time, and I will write later and tell the whole story. For now, enjoy these pictures and know there are soooo many more to come! I am off to feed Little Miss!