One month with Adlee

My Sweet Girl,

It's been one month that I've somehow kept you alive, fed and seemingly happy! As they say, time flies when you're having fun. Truthfully, this has been one of the best, craziest, happiest, most tiresome month of my life. At first I had an adrenaline that kept me on a Mama High 24/7 and I didn't understand what people meant when they said how exhausted you'll be as a new Mom. 30 days in while finally feeling the effects of a C section, I get it. As tiring as it is, there is nothing sweeter than you needing me and me alone. I know this won't be forever so I'm embracing every second of it. Not only do you need me because im exclusively breast feeding, but you clearly know my voice, smell and touch over others; even your Dad. It's hard for him as he wants to console you the way I am able to. While I know that will happen in time, I secretly love that there's no one more than me that you need right now. 

I stare at you in awe everyday. Your strawberry blonde hair, your little lashes that flutter and your big grins you get when you're dreaming all melt my heart. Your furry arms and back and tiny little fingers and toes are so kissable, I won't ever get enough of them. You look exactly like your Dad (thankfully, as he was one cutie pie every phase of childhood whereas I went through many awkward ones). We hear it every where we go! But what not many people see unless they spend all hours with you like I do are the parts of you that are just like me. For starters, you are one fiesty little chica! When you want something, you want it now and there's no stalling you or distracting you from getting that. You see my sweet girl, that's half the reason you are in my arms today! I hope you'll never forget how much I had to fight for you & how much I had to endure just to get you here. There were many "no's" I ignored to get to "yes", but I never lost sight of you. Well sometimes I did, which naturally happens when life throws you lemons, but not for long. It was always back to the drawing board, never ever giving up on you. I always knew it wouldn't be easy, but that it would be worth it, and that you very much are. 

You kick and punch and climb up my torso with that fiesty spirit of yours when you want fed and as hard as these nights are to get up and feed you every 2 hours (or less) I can't help but smile at your moxy & know that it too took that same fight within you, to get here. Someday we may tell you that you started as one of two in my belly, and the second baby "vanished" {never developed but stayed as a mass of cells the entire pregnancy} while you held on strong. You too, like me, weren't ever going to give up, even with all that was thrown at us along the way. You even helped me out by coming eary when I truly couldn't carry you a day longer. We make quite the team sweetie beatie & I hope we always share this bond. I can't wait to see what's in store with your little {big} spirit next month and beyond! To see you grow and thrive & accomplish milestones together, and apart, make me so proud. Every second with you is a blessing & a joy.

Happy 1 month Adlee James! Mama loves you more than life.

check out that attitude!!

Xoxo, 

Mom 

ADLEE'S NEWBORN PICS

I have stared at these presh pics over and over {much like her face everyday} and love them more and more!! I honestly can't pick a favorite. What's better than a sweet sleeping babe? MY sweet sleeping babe :) Enjoy!

WE FEEL SO BLESSED!!



XO,
Andi

Mommyhood: cold coffee, late nights & many a visitors....these are the days!

Many things fascinate me now that I'm not solely thinking and living for myself. For starters, I'd like to meet the Mother who has a hot cup o' joe before noon (not after it's been heated 3x) and give her a high 5. Because let me just tell ya, I haven't had a steaming cuppa since Adlee was born. I've resigned to pretending my coffee is an "iced coffee" from Starbucks and not from yesterdays pot!! Honestly though, Miss AJ has been pretty good to me. She's latched like a champ from the get go and eats well. Too well I feel like, Lord Mama needs a feeding break. I don't want to complain b/c I'm blessed to have even produced, and not have to supplement or pump from the get go but it's ALOT to be feeding every 1:30-2 hours (or less). I must have nips of steel b/c I haven't even needed the cream everyone swears by...or Adlee just latches well, who knows! This week AJ has begun to comfort feed more so there's still time for that to change. Her gas/colic has increased and her fussy nights are off the charts. Which leads me to my first "I will never do that as a parent" statement/situation that has already blown up in my face: Co-sleeping. WOOPS! Legit, it's the ONE thing I swore I never wanted to do (and truly I don't want to) but she just will not sleep in her bassinet or crib or anywhere that isn't elevated. We've nicknamed her 'Piglet' in our household for the obvious reasons, she snorts like a little piggy when she lays flat. Sister just cannot breathe. We've put towels and blankets under her bassinet mattress, we've rolled up blankets and sandwiched them around her to lay her on her side. We've swaddled, we've shushed, and at the end of the day, what they say is true. It's all about survival in the beginning, so co-sleeping we shall! I figure at less than three weeks old we aren't creating any habits she'll remember, so lets just hope that come 3 months she's blissfully sleeping OUT of our bed! Day time? She will sleep anywhere, go figure. Just like she did en utero. 9pm strikes and she is ready to par-tay... good times!

Miss AJ has been out and about with us from the get go and has already met so many of her adoring fans! We've tried to keep as "business as usual" and just bring her along so to not alter life 100% and to have some sort of normalcy. It's worked well for us so far. Many people prayed for her and encouraged me throughout this journey and it's so rewarding to see them love on her in real life now that she's here! All of our hospital visitors were so kind to come and see us and dreams became reality when Gram & Ray and Mamaw & Papaw got to hold her. It's such a blessing to have both sets of great grandparents in her life, at least on my side. Sadly, Blair's grandparents have all passed on. So these pictures and moments with them mean so much to us. 

Gram & Ray!

Papaw & Mamaw

My first love holds my first babylove <3

Some hospital visit shout outs to some very special people who I never want to forget made the time to stop in and see our sweet girl....

Her bestie {or future bf} Weston stopped in for snugs and brought her flowers, and her cousin Evelyn sent a teddy bear. So thankful to have my Sister from another Mister, Steph, at beckon call for all questions I no longer have to Google! Major bonus to being one of the last in the group to have kids. I cannot thank her enough for all of her kind gestures and for sending me special goodies along the way for AJ. She is very much appreciated.

Steph & West

Sumo man meets nugget

Another special hospital guest was my favorite nurse Flo who was a huge supporter of ours and truthfully one of the reasons Adlee is even here. Flo was the nurse I spoke about during our IF journey who I got so close to, and eventually broke down to when things weren't sticking to the wall that the doc was just launching at it. She was the one to take an extra second to review our medical charts and caught the missing link as to why we weren't conceiving. I will never be able to thank her enough for all of her love and support. Seeing her holding our little girl was an absolute surreal/dream moment. Oh I love her so! {I have no idea how I didn't get a picture of them, I'm sure I did... Maybe that's the anesthesia talking from that day?! Sigh, well I have a mental image of them together I'll always cherish}.

Brittany has been such a supporter in my life and has cheered me on this journey from Day 1. She is one special Auntie to our little girl and she loves her to bits already.

 Of course Grandparents & Megan and Isaac wouldn't have missed meeting her on her birthday! Can't you just feel the love pouring out of these pics?! I'm surprised they don't have faces of horror considering I was on the other side of the camera, ha!! But seriously, if you saw me on D day you'd have not recognized me. Thank you 5 liters of Lactated Ringers! ;) Happy to say 20 of the 40 has come off in 2 weeks. The rest, well we'll get there eventually!

The Grandparents!

Poppy Dan

Mimi Shawn

Grandpa Jimmy

Grandma Vicki

Aunt Megan & Cousin Isaac

he loves her to pieces & has already made up a song about her titled "Abbie"...lol!

All of her Auntie's and Uncle's on the Albright side brought us dinner one night and got to meet their first niece! They look pretty smitten to me. Adlee even gave a pep talk to her soon-to-be cousin, Baby Boy Lutmer en utero! We can't wait to meet him in July!

Quinn, Jeff, Paige, Baby Lutmer & Trent

Uncle Cody

Auntie Arden

Last but not least are Andrew, Allie & Holly. Andrew has been on the scene since middle school in my life and has also been a cheerleader through this journey, along with Allie and Holly. Allie is a dear friend and colleague and Holly and I volunteered in the NICU together. She's been a huge ear to me. Many a day of us holding those precious preemie's rocking away in our rockers at Dayton Children's just dreaming of the day I'll have a lil stinker of my own to rock. 

Andrew

Allie

Holly

And here we are... real life... with our little girl. These are the days and I'm loving every single second of them (diaper rash, witching hours, cluster feeds, cold coffee and all)! Pinch me!

Until next time.....

XOXO,

Andi 

Introducing Miss Adlee James: A Birth Story

Adlee James Albright

Born April 27th, 2015 @ 3:44am

6lbs 3oz | 8.5" long

IT'S A ....GIRL!! We have a precious baby GIRL!! I am still in awe of this fact. We wanted a healthy baby of course, regardless of gender, but a girl was what we both were secretly hoping for. She is healthy and gorgeous and just perfect. We couldn't be happier. People always told me that being a Mama brings a love unlike any other you've felt before, and boy were they right. My heart could absolutely burst every day. Our cups runneth over. So here's how it all went down....

On Sunday, April 26th I woke up swollen. Like, SUPER swollen. I mean, I retained a lot of fluids during my pregnancy and definitely looked bloated but this was different. I had been sleeping in the guest room as it was the only way I could sprawl out comfortably so I went to wake up Blair to ask him if I should call the doc. I was 100% done with this pregnancy and I just had this gut feeling that Baby A was coming. I texted my bestie who was a L&D nurse and she said to call the doc just to be sure. Doc recommended I come into triage and have BW and urine ran, as I was 37w1d and they wanted to rule out PreE, etc. We threw our bags in the car & off we went. I was shocked to hear that everything came back great and that they were sending us home. I just felt like she was ready to meet us and that surely they would find something & we'd be heading into L&D that day. I was so miserable and uncomfortable and couldn't even imagine carrying her to 39w2d (the date they had scheduled for my Cs since she was still breech). Blair ordered me to post up in bed and take it easy, "This is just what happens at the end of pregnancy, Andi. You're going to be uncomfortable. You're almost there" was on repeat from him. So, I crawled in bed and around 11p in the guest bedroom to read once Blair fell asleep, per our usual routine at this point.

Miz in triage, hours before I went into labor

That night I remember sleeping SO SOUNDLY and feeling finally comfortable. Sheets felt softer than usual, the fan blowing was at the right speed above me. I remember falling into this deep peaceful sleep when suddenly my water broke. I jumped up out of bed at warp speed and raced down to wake up Blair. I was in sheer panic. The feeling of your water breaking (and continuing to break for hours thereafter) is truly disgusting. I didn't expect it to happen (it only happens in 12% of pregnancies) or to be pleasant if it happened but it's not like the movies where it happens in one gush. I didn't know what to do so I sat on the toilet and was TREMBLING. I was like "Blair, we're having a baby today... omg we are going to have a baby". I don't know if it was the 0-100 from peaceful sleep to being in labor, but I was jolted, BIG TIME. I grabbed pants that were immediately soaked, a towel, and went out into the driveway (?!?!?) to wait for Blair to pull the car out and head to the hospital. I stood out there talking to my belly, telling Baby A that we were soon to meet and to please go easy on me.... "we can do this. we got this", I kept repeating. I was terrified and felt like I was dreaming. I kept thinking I would wake up in that cozy bed and be like "wow, that was intense". But nope, off to meet our sweet baby we went. 

We got to triage at 12:30am to the same staff that was on earlier that day! One of the nurses said "you look SO FAMILIAR to me..." lol! Ummm yea, I was here only hours ago lady. I told yall it was time to have this baby, ugh! Everything was a go for the section when 2 women came in fully dilated an ready to push. The doc on call was the ONLY doc I didn't rotate to in my group, which is totally my luck, but turns out she was fantastic (they really all are in this group) and I was in great hands. While waiting for these women to deliver, Blair and I just kept saying how surreal it was. We are finally going to be parents! What if we want to send the baby back? What if this isn't really what we want? Are we going to be good parents? Will the kid love us? OMG, we can't wait to meet this baby! People never say they made a mistake when having children, so I guess we'll be the same?!? Last bets on gender, etc (Blair thought boy, I was still team pink). Hilarious what goes through your mind in the last minutes before such a huge life change. Before we knew it, I was in the wheelchair being wheeled back to the OR. The spinal felt very creepy and I hated the feeling of my feet going numb all the way up to my breasts, but I just kept looking to one side trying to coach myself mentally through laying there wide open for the next hour. The full female OR team was AWESOME. They asked what I wanted to "rock out to" and I replied, "The spa station", lol. I needed to get in the zone and relax so they upped the spa station and tried to chat with me to calm me down (although they said I looked very calm I felt like a crazy lady on the inside) telling me what they were doing every step of the way. As they cut, they asked me what my bets were on gender and what we preferred, so everyone was THRILLED when they pulled her out and hung her over my drape legs sprawled open for B and I to discover, ITS A GIRL! :) I was in complete shock that I actually got my baby girl, I'm still shocked truthfully. This is my favorite pic taken the entire day of her first moment in this world. I was so blessed they kept the drape low for me so I could reach out and touch her. 

Blair always said he would stay "north of the border" and didn't want to see a lot of blood or needles or be in the mix. However, when the time came he was snapping tons of pics and talking about how cool it was that they were cauterizing my incision as they went, and "oh, the placenta is out...do you still want a picture of your Vasa Previa?!" ha! Budding surgeon deep down, he is. I'm so glad he was into it though because we have some really special and amazing pictures, including my placenta (and yes, it was relocated Vasa Previa and not a misdiagnosis). The first moment I got to see my baby girl she stuck her tongue out right at me. Oh boy, I can just imagine how she'll be in her teens!! Lookout world.

blurry but captured! Rotten little stinker

The team at MVH went above and beyond to give me my best "birth experience". I requested skin to skin as soon as possible, as well as an elastomeric pain pump incisionally for pain control vs. narcotics, and I wanted to be able to touch her in her first seconds into the world (as I would do if she came out vaginally). All of these requests were granted. Recovering has been fairly easy and the pain levels very low. My only complaint has been pain in my ribs that shoots up to my shoulder. They say it's just gas from being open on the OR table for an hour, but I think it may be a cracked rib as her head laid right on/under it the entire pregnancy. Next to that however, it's been a breeze, thankfully. I think God gave it to me so hard on the front end that he has made the back end (l&d and mommyhood thus far) a breeze. We have a happy, healthy little girl who's a champ at breastfeeding, and is already getting into a sleep groove. We have cherished every second with our little sweetie and I just pinch myself that this is real life now. I could stare at her non stop (and do!). Thank you God for this blessing.

We did it Adlee! Mama is SO PROUD of you, and always will be. I can't wait to see what life is like with you by our side. I'd go through everything we had to go through to get you here 3x over again. You are the best thing that's ever happened to me.

XOX,

Andi