Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the Smith Family!

(The photo on our Halloween card was taken when Shelby was about a week and a half old.)

Who does she look like?

Does Shelby look like her Mommy?

Or her Daddy?

Right now, Shelby's a red-head like her mama, & she's got pretty blue eyes like her daddy. We're anxious to see if the red hair & blue eyes will stick around, or if the colors will change.

On a completely unrelated note, GO DAWGS!!!

Bragging

Please indulge me for a moment while I brag on my hubby. I always knew he was a good husband, but now I'm learning what a good daddy he is, too. And he has proved he is quite the doctor as well.
In case you couldn't tell, those are his test results from the boards proudly hanging on the fridge. Last year, he scored in the 99th percentile on Step 2...and he scored in the 99th percentile yet again on Step 3! :) Look how excited Shelby is about her daddy's scores!
Okay, this is really just the cute face she makes when she's having fun on her activity mat, but we'll pretend this face was for her daddy's scores. ;)

One Month Old!

It's hard to believe, but Shelby is already one month old! She has grown so much in the past month! Her little belly is already getting too big for her newborn/0-3 month clothes..we're mostly wearing 3 month clothes b/c they're much easier to put on/take off.

Here's what she's up to these days...

--holding her head up more & more
--rolling over from her tummy to her back
--likes to find lights and stare at them
--enjoys spending a few minutes at a time on her activity mat and tries to hit her toys
--makes the cutest little monkey sounds when she's happy/excited..hopefully we'll be able to capture it on video soon!
--looks at us while we talk or reads books to her and is starting to respond to our voices more
--sleep is still hard to come by for us at night, but her cuteness during the day makes up for it!

We can't wait to see how much she grows and changes in the next month!

Grammy's Brag Book

Shelby and I are thrilled to say that Grammy is back with us in Biloxi! :) She arrived on Wednesday to come love on Shelby and give me some relief. Derek is on wards this month and on call pretty frequently, so I am very appreciative of the extra help and quality time with my mom! As a small token of our appreciation, we made Grammy her very own Brag Book so she can show off her sweet grandbaby when she gets back home. Feel free to take a peek at the photo book I made on Shutterfly..hope you enjoy it! :)

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shelby's Birth Story

Shelby's due date was September 8th. Well, that day came & went with no Shelby! When I went in for my 41 week appointment on September 14th, there was still no sign of a baby coming any time soon. I hadn't had a single contraction (Braxton Hicks or real) nor was I dilated at all. (They estimated at my 39 week appointment that I was dilated somewhere between 1 & 2 centimeters...and I never progressed beyond that. They estimated I was between 1 & 2 cm at my 40 & 41 week appointments as well.)
These are the last photos taken of me when I was pregnant..although we didn't know they would be the last! My mom & sister came into town on September 12th in anticipation of Shelby's arrival (I was already 4 days past my due date upon their arrival). At my 41 week appointment, they scheduled a non-stress test for me on Friday, September 17th to make sure all was well with little Shelby; assuming all would be well at this appointment, they went ahead and scheduled me for an induction on Monday, September 20th. Since my pregnancy had been as smooth as humanly possible (no morning sickness, no cravings/food aversions, virtually no complaints whatsoever to speak of!), we had every reason to believe that the non-stress test would be very anti-climatic and that this baby would be coming into the world via induction on the 20th.

On the morning of the 17th, my sister headed back to GA for work since there were still no signs that Shelby would be coming into the world just yet. After my sister hit the dusty trail, we went to the hospital for my non-stress test at 10:30am. My mom, dad, & Derek all came along for the appointment. The appointment was supposed to be pretty quick, and we had made plans to go to the grand opening of the new event center here on base that afternoon. Little did we know, we would not be leaving the hospital! ;)

Upon arriving to the hospital, the nurses hooked me up to the fetal heart monitors to administer the non-stress test. This is a routine test done when babies are late. They check to see if the baby's heart rate increases a certain number of times within a certain time frame...but baby Shelby didn't want to play. Her heart rate was just constant, so they had me drink some cold water to get her moving. When that didn't work, they gave me some OJ...and then some apple juice. Then Shelby suddenly became super active, and her heart rate was going up, down, up, down, etc. Looking back, I should have realized something was wrong b/c at first there was just 1 or 2 nurses in the room. Then, nurse after nurse was coming in to look at the monitors, then they were asking for the doctor to come look. The doctor on call that day had never seen a baby react that way to a non-stress test, so he called the high-risk OB doctor to ask her opinion. She had never seen anything like it either, and they didn't like the fear of the unknown. At this point, I was feeling kind of confused and nervous...but I just kept thinking, this had been such an smooth pregnancy..everything must be fine.

The doctor quickly moved us to another room to do an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid levels. In the middle of the ultrasound, the doctor randomly asked me when the last time I ate was. When he asked me the question, I thought he was just being nice b/c my tummy had started to growl during the ultrasound. :) Derek later told me he knew at that point we were going to have a C-section b/c they don't like you to have eaten before surgery. The doctor then explained that there are 4 quadrants for amniotic fluid...I only had a teeny bit of fluid in one of the 4 quadrants. The doctor told us he recommended we go ahead with an emergency C-section at that point b/c they were concerned there might be something wrong with Shelby's heart, and she might have to be transferred to a different hospital (Keesler's hospital hasn't had a NICU since Hurricane Katrina) immediately following delivery.

At this point, the tears were flowing b/c I was terrified. But I was feeling a bit relieved that we would have some time before surgery due to the fact that not only had I eaten breakfast before my appointment..but I'd also had juice during the non-stress test...so I thought there would be at least a couple of hours to wrap my brain around everything before going into the OR. I was wrong. I never even had a chance to talk to Derek or my parents about what was happening before they were handing me a gown and starting my IV (which was the most painful part of the whole thing...they could not find a vein for anything, and I came away with several bruises because of it!).

This photo was taken right before going to the OR..I was not happy to be having my picture taken at the time! I still had a tissue in my hand from wiping away tears.

When they finally got my IV going--which took about 45 minutes!!--they quickly took Derek & me back to the OR. It took them a while to get my spinal tap in, and while they were doing that I just kept looking around the room. I was just so scared...there were so many doctors & nurses, and everything was just happening so fast. I know Derek hated it too...being a doctor and having no control over what was going on with his wife and baby. But once they got the spinal tap in, everything went into high gear. I remember laying down and looking at Derek and asking him to tell me when they started. He looked at me confused, and I said: "Ya know? Like tell me when they start making the incision." Again, he looked confused..then replied: "Sarah, it's almost over now." I barely felt anything..just a little tug here and there..then suddenly I heard a baby screaming. It was the best sound in the world. After being so worried there might be something wrong with her, it was so relieving to hear her cry!
The nurses let Derek hold Shelby for a minute & I got a quick look at her in his arms; then they whisked her away while we finished up in the OR. My dad was waiting back in our hospital room, and suddenly the nurses brought a baby in the room. My dad greeted them by saying: "I guess this means I'm a grandpa now?" :) So Grampy was the first one to greet her!
We got to the hospital that morning at 10:30, went to the OR a little before 1:00, and Shelby was born at 1:31pm. It was a fast-paced day, that's for sure! Never in a million years did I think we'd be having a baby that day, and never in a million years did I think I'd be having an emergency C-section..but it all turned out wonderfully in the end. When the pediatrician came in to talk to us, he didn't have a concern in the world for Shelby. The doctors have no idea why Shelby's heart acted the way it did in the hours leading up to her birth, but thankfully she came out perfectly healthy! Shelby definitely made us wait for her and gave us quite the scare there at the end, but she was certainly worth it all. We love you, Shelby!

Go Dawgs!

GO DAWGS!
Beat Vandy!

Derek actually has the day off today (hallelujah!), so we are at home enjoying gameday together. He'll be back on call tomorrow, but we are certainly enjoying the family time today!

Happy Weekend, Everyone! :)

Roll Shelby Roll!

Shelby rolled from her tummy to her back for the first time when we were getting her newborn pictures taken a couple of weeks ago, but she was rolling up a storm tonight & we were able to catch it on camera!

Derek's dad & step-mom lent us their flip camera to try out with Shelby, and we are so thankful we had it to capture this special moment! Thank you to Grandpa & Grandma Smith! :) We will definitely be in the market for our own flip camera in the near future!

It won't be like this for long...

Derek & I are enjoying every second with our sweet girl, but we quickly realized that being parents of a newborn is hard work! The first two weeks went really smoothly b/c Derek was on paternity leave and we had the help of my mom who was staying with us. But reality set in really quickly for me last week when Derek started back to work and my mom headed back to GA on the same day! I had never wished for an extra set of hands more! On my first day alone with Shelby, she had a poopy explosion in the nursery, which created quite the mess. After I got Shelby cleaned up, I put her in her bouncy seat so I could clean up the nursery. No sooner did I start cleaning up the nursery, she spit up all over her bouncy seat! Oh, the joys of parenthood! :) But no matter how hard it is at times, the sweet times make up for it & we know we will look back on this season of our life with nostalgia..which reminds me of this Darrius Rucker song:

He didn't have to wake up
He'd been up all night
Layin’ there in bed listenin’
To his new born baby cry
He makes a pot of coffee
He splashes water on his face
His wife gives him a kiss and says
It gonna be OK

It won’t be like this for long
One day we'll look back laughin’
At the week we brought her home
This phase is gonna fly by
So baby just hold on
‘Cause it won't be like this for long

Four years later ‘bout 4:30
She's crawling in their bed
And when he drops her off at preschool
She's clinging to his leg
The teacher peels her off of him
He says what can I do
She says now don't you worry
This’ll only last a week or two

It won’t be like this for long
One day soon you'll drop her off
And she won’t even know you're gone
This phase is gonna fly by
If you can just hold on
It won’t be like this for long

Some day soon she'll be a teenager
And at times he'll think she hates him
Then he'll walk her down the aisle
And he'll raise her veil
But right now she's up and cryin’
And the truth is that he don't mind
As he kisses her good night
And she says her prayers

He lays down there beside her
‘Til her eyes are finally closed
And just watchin’ her it breaks his heart
Cause he already knows

It won’t be like this for long
One day soon that little girl is gonna be
All grown up and gone
Yeah, this phase is gonna fly by
So, he's tryin’ to hold on

‘Cause it won’t be like this for long
It won’t be like this for long
It won’t be like this for long

I used to only relate to the 3rd verse of this song as a teacher. I would always think of the baby-ish five-year-olds that would walk through the doors of my kindergarten classroom in September and how quickly they would grow and change before my eyes. When their parents dropped their kids off in tears, I would try to convince them that the tears wouldn't last for long--soon they would be loving school..but I know it was still so hard for the parents. Now I'm appreciating this song (and the sentiments of my students' parents) in a whole new way.

The other evening Derek and I were eating our dinner in shifts b/c Shelby just wanted to be held. Every time we put her down, she just fussed. But we know the time will come when we'll be wishing she would still let us hold her and snuggle...so for now, we will cherish this time of being parents of a sweet newborn who wants to be snuggled all the time b/c it won't be like this for long.

Thankful

I've long known what a wonderful mom I have...I've always considered myself blessed to have her as my mother and my friend. But now that I am a Mommy, I have a whole new appreciation for her. Being a mom is definitely harder than I ever thought it would be, and if I am even half as good of a mother as my Mama is...Shelby will be one lucky little girl. And she's even luckier b/c she has the best Grammy in the world.
My mom came and stayed with us the week before Shelby was born and for the first two weeks of her life. Derek & I were so thankful to have her here with us. She cooked us meals, did our laundry, cleaned bathrooms, loved on her grandbaby, and taught us Parenting 101. She even woke up with Shelby a couple of nights to let us get some much-needed rest.
I am so very thankful for my mom, and we're already counting down the days until Grammy's next visit later this month!

Shelby Meets Auntie Em!

My Dad & sister drove down to Biloxi on Friday morning to come visit with Miss Shelby, and then they headed back to GA with my mom in tow on Sunday afternoon. (We were fortunate enough to have had my mom staying with us for the past few weeks--more on that later!) We all had such a wonderful weekend together!

This was Shelby's first meeting with her Auntie Em! :)
And Shelby enjoyed lots of time with her Grammy & Grampy!
We were very sad to see them go on Sunday, but we're thankful we live a lot closer to home now so that visits can happen more frequently! :)