Stella's Bedding is Finally Finished!

We are so excited that Stella's bedding is now 100% finished! We just completed the last leg of this custom project - having the pillow sham made and the duvet monogrammed. Matt's going to pick up the pillow sham from our new favorite seamstress we found, Mrs. Nelly. She is the bomb.

A few days before Stella was born we realized the bedding that Mrs. Rosa was making at Kelly's Kids was not going to be finished on time because the sewing floor had to start on actual Kelly's Kids samples. We scrambled to find a seamstress who specialized in baby bedding and came upon fabulous, sweet Mrs. Nelly! She finished the bedding and created the pillow sham - we can't wait to see it! Today I picked up the duvet from our new monogram shop and am in love with it - it is so so so pretty!

Here are some pictures of Stella today, as it's her 4 week birthday!

We had fun on an unusually cool morning walk on the lake front today and ran some errands for the first time on our own! We just can't believe we've had Stella for 4 weeks already. The days and weeks have flown by! We are looking forward to seeing family and friends this weekend at the lake for the 4th - it will be our first trip ever! We are excited but nervous about the car ride:)

Stella's telling me its lunch time so I've got to go for now - enjoy the pictures!

Stella, Week 3

Today Stella is 3 weeks, 4 days old! I can't believe she is almost one month old! Here she sits with Daddy, Berti and Gus. It seems like yesterday we were all playing the waiting game for her arrival. Her first two weeks consisted of virtually no fussing - just sleeping eating and using the bathroom:) Now that she's hit three weeks she is going through the traditional growth spurt and has been eating more frequently and a little bit more fussy that usual. She has been sleeping for at least 3 hour intervals at night, which is amazing. Last night she slept for 5 1/2 hours straight, so while she's a bit fussier than she has been, her sleeping patterns are still pretty great. The only real trouble she has is going back to sleep after waking up for a diaper change or a feeding in the middle of the night.

We had our first bath this week! Che Che brought Mae Mae to town to stay for us for a week and spent the night Sunday and gave Miss Stella her first real bath (now that her belly button has fallen off). She's be enjoying sponge baths for the first 2 weeks, so now she gets to have a full blown bath! She LOVES it, though it took some getting used to! She loves trying to eat the washrag!

She is growing everyday and getting bigger and prettier! She went to the doctor a week and a half ago and was 7lbs 6 oz, so she has by now for sure surpassed her birth weight of 7 lbs, 10 oz. She's enjoyed her first lunch date this week - Mae Mae has been with us all week and Wednesday was our big day out.

I finally got my hair done and then we went to lunch at Mattina Bella on Gibson Street in downtown Covington,

...followed by some fun shopping! Stella is finally getting some of her things monogrammed (now that we know her name:) like some dresses and her duvet cover for her bedding. We can't wait to see it!

We are looking forward to the 4th of July as it will be our first trip to Natchez! We are so excited to come home and spend some time at the lake...we've missed the Flotilla for the past few years and can't wait to relax at the lake house and enjoy the boats and fireworks!! We cant wait to see our family and friends, especially the ones who haven't met Stella yet!!!

Stella, Week 2 - Growing Well Now!

Stella is officially 2 weeks and 3 days old today! Above is a collage of her second week of life. I have been very negligent with my blog, but for good reasons:) Taking care of Stella takes up all of my time, as I knew it would, and when she sleeps, I sleep, clean, organize things or just sit still and browse Facebook. That is a BIG stress reliever for me...is that weird??

Anyway, my Stella is growing up so fast and I cannot believe it! Our first 2 weeks home from the hospital have been filled with doctors' visits and family and friends' visits, which we love! Stella is one popular person! Everyone wants to meet her! I am so touched by the outpouring of friendship from everyone who came by, called, texted, sent happies, meals, flowers, etc. They have meant so much to us and we are so thankful for everyone in our lives! Stella is so loved and we are so blessed!!!

Our 2 week doctor's appointment for Stella went so very well. We discovered she gained 6 1/2 ounces in 7 days, which is amazing. She was not gaining weight very well during her first week because I am nursing and my milk supply was a little late arriving. Now, since we see she's gained a hefty amount of weight, her doctor says we have nothing to fear and we can continue nursing as usual. We were worried we'd have to start permanently supplementing with formula or even switching to full formula instead of nursing! Thankfully, we do not and we are nursing full force now!

...about the nursing...while I love it, I can totally see why people start nursing and then stop. It is PAINFUL when she doesn't latch on properly, and she is hard headed, let me tell you. At 2 weeks we introduced a paci to help her sleep, since the only thing that calms babies at this age is the act of sucking. While she is at a good age to determine the difference between her paci and me, she has started to latch on to me differently because of the paci, which causes TONS of pain for me, so we have to spend some corrective time re-teaching her how to latch on if she strays away from the preferred initial maneuver. We do not want to forfeit the paci, because if we do, that means I turn into the human paci...which only equals more pain and sleepless nights. For those of you who breastfeed or ever breastfed, you know what I'm talking about. It takes lots of latching on, removal, and re-latching on, which means lots of hot salt water soaks for me and an endless supply of lanolin ointment. I haven't done the cabbage compress, but I fear I'll try them soon if she continues this:) All in all, it is worth it to me to continue through this rough patch if it means giving her the best nutrition at this age.

Other than her doctor's appointments, I've gone to my post-op appointment and the doctor gave me the go-ahead to drive and start low level exercising, as in brisk walking with weights if I like - but I need to avoid any abdominal movement/exercising for a few more weeks. I've really rebounded well from surgery, due in part to my nurse who got me out of bed to walk to the potty less than 24 hours post-surgery! From then on I wanted to be as mobile as possible, which meant I got to spend more time with Stella now that I was able to sit up by myself and thus walk by myself! Matt and I have a new found obsession with walking the block and a half from our house to the lake front (Lake Pontchartrain) and strolling Stella at dusk in her super stroller when this Louisiana heat is bearable with a nice breeze off the lake. Stella LOVES being outside and gets very calm when we stroll or even when we take her outside on our screened in front porch. Just last night we took her on the porch to witness her first summer rainstorm - Matt and I stood with her outside and let her listen to and smell the summer rain on the tin roof. She loved it!

My Mom spent the first week and a half with us, followed by a great weekend visit from my Dad, and then we got to spend a few days with Matt's Mom. Mae Mae is going to spend a week with us starting Monday and we are looking forward to visiting with her and enjoying lots of good food!

More to come - keep checking our Picasa web albums for more pictures of Stella - look for the link at the right!! Lots of love and kisses from Stella!

Welcome to the World, Estelle Anderson Devereaux!!!

She's here! Welcome to the world, Estelle "Stella" Anderson Devereaux!!!!!! Stella was born a week and 2 days ago, Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 10:59am via c-section weighing 7 pounds, 10 ounces and measuring 19 inches long!

Whew! It's been one world wind of a week and I can't believe Stella was born 9 days ago!!! I truly understand the meaning of the statement "time flies"...it surely does and I wish I could pause each moment to enjoy it more clearly and seal it away in my memory. Though I frequently blog and use words to describe our life, I feel certain that words cannot describe this stage of our lives and how utterly blessed and in love we are with our Stella. I try to find an adequate way to describe becoming a mother or her first moments of life or the second I felt her in my arms for the first time and I am speechless and teary eyed each time. Even now as I sit and blog about what has consumed my life for the last week I am brought to tears - just looking a few feet away at my daughter rocking gently in her swing moves me...and I just sit and smile and soak it all in:)

As for her birth story, as everyone knows we were scheduled for a c-section Tuesday afternoon at 1pm. We spent our last weekend at home resting (or trying to) and getting last minute details squared away. Mom came in Monday evening and we had a great "last meal" at Hibachi 21 - a Japanese steak house and hibachi grill, which is one of my most favorite meals! Mom went into "mother mode" and spent a few late hours cleaning our house and getting ready for our 4 day stay in the hospital.

Tuesday morning came and the hospital called around 9:15 saying my doctor was ahead of schedule and if I was just sitting around not eating (fasting since midnight - boo!) I could check in early and come on to the hospital ASAP. Of course we were thrilled with this idea - we were getting this show on the road!

So we go to check in about half an hour ahead of schedule and wait for the rest of the support team to arrive - including Mae Mae (my grandmother), Michael (my brother), Megan (Matt's sister), Poppy and Jen Jen (Matt's parents), and Mary Catherine, David and Millie (my sister, brother-in-law and niece). What we didn't know was that we were heading for surgery immediately - not waiting until 1pm to go into surgery! Matt and I checked in and went to the hospital room and the nurse told the guests who were already there to wait in the waiting room. We assumed I'd be admitted and set up in the hospital room and then the rest of our family could come back and hang out with us....WRONG! The nurse was dressed in scrubs and a mask and started getting my IV hooked up, had the anesthesiologist come talk to me and then let us know that we'd be going into surgery within the next 30 minutes! We were so surprised and excited that we were going to meet our daughter so soon...but also anxious that the rest of the family hadn't made it in town yet! They allowed both of our mothers in the room before they wheeled me into surgery, and of course the goodbyes and sniffles started flowing.

Before I knew it, I was wheeled into the surgical room without Matt and was being prepped for surgery. I'd worried a bit about how it would be to get the spinal for the surgery and always assumed Matt would be there next to me to hold my hand if I got scared, but he wasn't allowed in until right before surgery began because it was a sterile environment.

The spinal was NOT as bad as I imagined. I am not good when it comes to needles, so the nurse and I became pretty close as I gripped her for dear life and put my head on her shoulder and started doing Lamaze breaths once the anesthesiologist started to administer the spinal. It all went smoothly and I started loosing feeling in my legs as I should have. When I was certain they'd already started the surgery without Matt, I started to ask where he was and when they'd let me see my husband, and in he walks - I instantly felt relief! A few moments later (after some tugging and moving) we heard the doctor say she's just broken our water and then she yelled "She's got a head full of blond hair!". We knew it was only moments before we'd hear her sweet cry.

After a few minutes of jabbering about nothing with Matt to keep my mind off what was going on below the curtain, we heard the most glorious sound in the world...one loud whimper followed by 2 cries...cries made by our sweet angel! She was here in the flesh and we couldn't believe it! They held her up for me to see and through my tear-stained, swollen face, I saw my daughter for the first time. Matt got to go where they cleaned the baby and took the most precious pictures of her...there are photos uploaded to our Picasa web albums and our Facebook page. Then he brought her over to me and I got a close up of her and we knew what her name should be...Estelle Anderson Devereaux - Stella for short!

The names are both family names - Estelle is my great-grandmother Nannie's sister's name - Lily Estelle. Anderson is Matt's grandmother Nannie's maiden name. Estelle is also the middle name of my childhood best friend Sophie. As little girls we both loved each others' middle names and said we'd name our daughters after each other! No pressure, Sophie! I promise!!

...and the rest is history! I spent the next hour or so in recovery dying to hold Stella while the rest of the family got a good look at her in the nursery. The moment they brought her to me I was in awe. She was the most gorgeous thing I'd ever seen...a part of me and a part of Matt - I could see Matt in her immediately. I hope she has his eyes.

We stayed in the hospital from Tuesday to Saturday where I spent most of my time nursing, sleeping and then learning how to actually nurse. For a while it was difficult because my body wasn't fully ready to nurse, but the lactation specialist we worked with was wonderful! Thanks to her we are nursing 100% now and Stella is doing great! (We were concerned for a bit because towards the end of our hospital stay Stella lost too much weight from solely nursing - most women's milk supply comes in fully on day 3-5 and by day 4 mine was still a no-show. This caused Stella to lose more than 10% of her original body weight of 7lbs 10oz. When they told me she'd lost another ounce and weighed only 6 lbs 13 ounces the day before we were supposed to leave, I got nervous we wouldn't be able to breastfeed after all. I was very upset, because breastfeeding was and still is SO important to me! The next morning she'd gained close to an ounce and the lactation specialist explained how to supplement with a tiny bit of formula until my main milk supply came in 100%. The pediatrician told us at today's appointment that Stella gained 3 ounces since Tuesday so we are 100% sure Stella is growing like she should and my milk supply is fully in and supporting her growing body! Thank goodness!

The last two weeks are really better told in pictures, so I do hope you'll check them out in our Picasa web album or our Facebook page. We've been home for close to one week and Stella is currently a week and 2 days old. We are utterly in love and can't wait for the rest of our friends and family to meet her!