A Christmas Update

I know I've really been slacking on updating... but Kevin has been home the past week and things have just been hectic! We had a pretty nice Christmas.. apart from a cranky lil girl, rain instead of snow, and being away from our family for the first Christmas. Christmas Eve we went to Poffabro, a town just about 5 miles north of Maniago, to see all the Christmas nativities. It was very nice.. besides all the rain.

Christmas Day Rosalie was such a crank! We tried to make her a part of opening gifts, but she just wanted to sleep.. so while we opened her gifts, she was passed out in her swing. The rest of the day she was such a grouch and was just so fussy! I don't know what her beef was! I think it had something to do with the lack of sleep she got Christmas Eve. We went to our friends house Christmas evening for dinner and it was a good time.. other than Rosalie being a crab again! We eventually had to leave because she would not stop fussing! When we got home, she laid in her swing, looked at the Christmas tree, and passed out within in a few minutes. Apparently she just wanted to come home!

The day after Christmas she was a completely different child! So happy and so pleasant! THANK GOD!

So we're in the process of switching Rosalie from cows milk based formula to soy... she just couldn't handle the cows milk. It was so hard on her stomach. She was so gassy and in so much pain. She would just scream constantly from gas pains. She would be so in so much pain until she would have a bowel movement. We have seen such a difference since we started the switch! She is so much more pleasant and she has such an easier time passing gas! At first she had a hard time switching.. the switch bound her up bigtime. I felt so bad for her.. but it has finally passed! Now she is just as happy as can be!!!

Well that's all I have time for now...

CIAO!

Just a Lil Video

Facebook wouldn't let me upload it.. so here it is!

Baby Stats

Rosalie is now....

10 lbs

22 inches long!

My lil girl is gettin so bigggg!

Rosalie Meets HoHo for the First Time

Thursday night was the tree lighting ceremony on base. Since it just isn't feeling like Christmas over here in Italy, I decided that maybe going to the Christmas festivities just might put me in the holiday spirit. We got there 10 minutes early so we decided to head in the BX to stay warm.. where we saw people were waiting in line to see Santa. I was really hoping they'd be doing Santa pictures, so I dressed Peanut in a cute Christmas dress. We decided to skip the tree lighting ceremony then and wait in line for Santa because he was suppose to come in after the ceremony and we figured by then the BX would be a zoo! Sooo glad we did cause it FILLED up! We were probably like the 10th family in line.. when we were like 5 people from Santa we decided to get Rosalie outta her carseat and get her awake for Santa.. everyone just went crazy over her.. what can I say.. I have a beautiful little girl! :) She did excellent sitting on Santa's lap.. although she looks like she doesn't want any part of it, her picture still turned out cute!

Peanut is 1 month old already!

Oh Rosie, how much you've grown this past month! You can finally wear your 0-3 month clothes and have moved outta newborn diapers and into 1s! Last time you were weighed you were 8 lbs 2 ozs, but I'm sure you have def packed on more LBs since then! You love to eat.. 4 ounces every 3 hours and you love to snack inbetween during the day!

You still aren't the best sleeper.. but that's okay.. mommy knows that it'll get better eventually and I'm tryin to have patience! Right now you are only sleeping for 3-4 hours at a time.. 4 hours on a good night.. and for some reason you think at 4am you and mommy should be up for the day! Sorry punky, but mommy isn't a morning person! :) We usually get a nap in though later on after daddy leaves for work and mommy loves that quiet time that we share!

You absolutely love your swing... when it's swinging side to side.. we haven't tried front to back yet because you enjoy the side to side so why try to change it up! You are now focusing on the mobile on your swing which seems to absolutely intrigue you! You love noise and any kind of music. Your car seat puts you to sleep instantly. You are asleep before we are even out of Campagna and are always so well behaved when in public. The mommy womb bear in your bassinet seems to really soothe you... but doesn't really help you sleep!

I can't wait to see what else you have in store for me Rosalie Maggie!

Just a Pic Update.

Don't really have the time to update today nor do I have much to say! So here's just a quick pic update!

Happy 3 Weeks Princess!

It is almost 1am .. and Rosalie doesn't want to go back to bed.. so it looks like here I sit at the computer updating my blog! I have been so busy ordering pics and doing Rosalie's baby book when I have a few minutes here and there that I haven't even thought about updating this!

My little girl is 3 weeks old today! Boy is the time flying by! She is growing so much and changing every day! We're still having issues with the sleeping factor.. whenever Kevin is here to help on the weekends she sleeps like a saint through the night.. but when the week days roll around, there is no such thing as sleepin at night! The past 2 nights have been extremely rough so I'm hopin for a better one tonight.. as of right now things aren't looking promising! She's wide awake at 1am! Everyone keeps telling me to put cereal in her bottle.. but her pediatrician has not given her the go for cereal yet and I'm not about to go behind the docs back. Until then, I just need to have patience.

Well that's all for now.. I know a lil one.. just wanted to throw a few pics up while I had a minute.

Ciao!

Rosalie's Gaining and Mama's Losing!

Last night was Kevin's shops Thanksgiving dinner. I was absolutely dreading it but it turned out to be a good time! It was so laid back and everyone just loved Rosalie! She looked absolutely adorable in her Thanksgiving day dress that her Nan bought for her. She was pretty well behaved too. We had some fusses here and there.. but overall her first big outting was a success.

Doesn't she look absolutely precious? lol

Her sleeping patterns have been horrible the past few days.. I was starting to get extremely frustrated and was at my wits end. I was ready for the weekend to roll around so I would have Kevin to help me. She was crashing early, which was nice.. and sleeping til midnight. Then she would get back up at 3am, eat, then wouldn't want to go back to sleep until after 6. Last night it was like we hit a turning point. She slept straight from 11pm to 5am! She ate and passed back out and slept til 8. It was so nice! I got up with her at 5, then Kevin got up with her at 8, so we both got a decent amount of sleep, which I def needed!

Today Rosalie and I are both got weighed.. which I was extremely hesitant about. I can tell that I lost some weight but I'm just so disquisted cause none of my pre-prego clothes are fitting yet. (I know, I know.. I just had a baby... but still..) I didn't think I was really down a lot.. I thought at the most about 10 pounds (since Rosalie was 7lbs 2oz when she was born.).. well I was down 19 lbs!!! I was so excited when I saw the numbers it was just more incentive to keep eating the way I am. I can't wait until I'm up to exercising again. Now Rosalie.. on Monday she weighed 7 lbs 10 oz at the pediatrician... well my little eating machine broke the 8 lbs barrier! She is now up to 8lbs 2 oz! Half a pound in 5 days

That's about all we have for today!

Happy 2 Weeks Baby Girl =-)

Can't believe it's been 2 weeks already since my little angel was born! Seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital, but then again it at the same time it feels like she has always been a part of our family. That may not make any sense.. but it sounds right to me. lol

Rosalie's eyes are starting to get a little better.. seems like they only get bad now when she throws a tantrum and starts crying . Atleast now she's bright eyed all the time!

We're slowly starting to get on a schedule. She is bathed by no later than 7:30.. spends some time with us.. eats and passes out by 9. She sleeps til around midnight, gets up, eats, poops, and passes right back out. Then she sleeps til about 3:30-4. After she gets up and eats she doesn't wanna go back to bed! She fusses around until after Kevin leaves for work at 6, then we take a morning nap. I can't wait til we have that 4-6 time mastered cause that's when I seem to be the most tired!

This little girl keeps me so busy that it doesn't seem like there is enough hours in a day! When my time isn't being occupied by Rosalie, I've been tryin to get my house cleaned thoroughly, do my christmas shopping (which is DONE!! before Thanksgiving! WOOOT!), wrap, and bake christmas cookies.

Well, Rosalie's getting fussy so looks like this entry stops here.

eyeees.

Just a quick update. Rosalie got into the pediatrican this morning because we were convinced that her eyes were infected. Over the weekend her right eye just kept seeping and seeping and we woke up this morning around 5am to an unbelievably seepy left eye! Turns out it's not an infection, but rather her tear ducts aren't fully opened yet. There's nothing they can really do for it, but for warm compresses and saline to flush her eyes out. I could just bawl cause I know how miserable she is and there's nothing I can do! The pediatrican said we just have to wait it out and in a few months her ducts should open up. It's going to be a long couple of months! Poor little lady didn't sleep last night and finally now just laid down! (2:30pm). She has to be absolutely exhausted.

After her lil eyes got poked and prodded at, she had to go get another PKU test, which is a test for jaundice. When they did it at the hospital, her test came back a 7, which isn't that bad, but it also says that she wasn't completely jaundice free. Had I of known they were going to redo the test today, I woulda made Kevin go to her appt. I could feel tears in my eyes as the lab tech pricked her foot and kept squeezing blood. Her cries cut me like a stinken knife! There's no way I'll be able to go alone to her 2 month check up when they do her shots.. Kevin's going to have to go!

The doc also put some stuff in her belly button to dry it up because she has had a little bit of discharge since her stump fell out. She said it should competely dry up in a day and I should be able to clean it all up tomorrow night!

On an upper note, Rosalie is still 20 inches long, BUT she has gained ONE WHOLE POUND! After we left the hospital her weight was down to 6lbs 10 oz, but now she is up to 7lbs 10oz! I was super excited to see those numbers because I was pretty concerned with how much weight she lost while in the hospital. When she was born she was 7lbs 2 oz.

That's all for now.. I'm going to try to squeeze in a quick nap before lil miss fussy pants wakes up!

Bye Bye Umbilical cord stump!

Yesterday Rosalie awoke to a missing umbilical cord stump! Needless to say we were pretty excited because we have just been waiting for it to fall off! After disposing of the stump, we headed off to the base to finish the last few steps of her paperwork. We have officially applied for her US birth certificate, social security card, tourist passport, and military passport. She is also enrolled in DEERS, Tricare, and added on with finance.

After doing all her paperwork, we went and got a fake christmas tree and decorations. I'm not real happy with the idea of having a fake tree.. but it's just going to have to suffice while we're in Italy. We did a lil christmas shopping and Kevin got a hair cut. All of the Italians in the barber shop just ranted and raved over lil Miss Rosalie.

We ended up spending about 5 hours on base doing errands and paperwork and Rosalie slept for a majority of it.. until it was time to head home. She woke up screaming because she peed. Man she hates a pee diaper! Doesn't bother her to sit in poop, but that diaper has to come off as soon as pee hits it! When we got home we just could not get that little girl awawke! She'd wake up long enough to eat, poop, or tubby then would go right back to sleep. Needless to say when bedtime actually rolled around, things weren't that easy. She was so fussy, but thankfully Kevin helped out last night. I got up with her at midnight, then he got up with her at 3 and 6.

This morning she has been pretty pleasant (after she threw up all over Kevin!). So hopefully tonight is a better night! That's all I have time for now.. but here are some pics we took yesterday to put in our christmas cards.. I'm still completely undecided which one I'm going to use!

Welcome to Italy Rosalie!

Rosalie is officially 1 week old today!

Today we had an appointment at the Aviano Town Hall to register Rosalie and make her name official! We had already filled out most of the paperwork at our 36 week class at the hospital. We met the translator at 3 and started processing all the paperwork. Within a half an hour Rosalie was registered in Italy!

While there, the translator and the woman that did the paperwork couldn't stop talking about Kevin. They ranted and raved how cute it was watching him with Rosalie. The town hall lady said she loved seeing a father interact with a child as much as Kevin did.

Rosalie had Kevin just roaring during the appointment. There was Italian music playing in the Town Hall and she was bopping her head with the beat of the music. I wish I could have seen it, but he just thought it was hysterical!

Now that she is registered in Italy, we can move onto processing her paperwork to make her a US citizen. Boy, there is so much work involved in having an outta country child! We have an appointment tomorrow to apply for her birth certificate, social security card, and passport. While there we're going to get Kevins passport to so we can start traveling to other countries. We have to add her to all Kevin's paperwork to make her a dependent and enroll her in tricare. ah super busy day tomorrow!

It's crazy how much this lil girl has changed in a week! She's so much more alert during the day and is constantly moving around! She loves tummy time and her little legs just keep going! She's on a great sleep schedule. We get up once in the middle of the night, then she gets up again between 5-6. I'm not complaining!

Well that's all I have for now!

Finding a way for everyone to stay in touch with rosalie <3

So I finally caved into the blog world and decided to create one. I figured this would be a great way to keep everyone updated on Rosalie since not everyone has facebook!

Let's begin.

It all started last Friday, October 30th. I went in for my routine follow up with the baby doc. I thought for sure it would be an in and out appointment because I had been feeling great and everything seemed to be going great with the pregnancy. My blood pressure ended up being a litle high and since it was the second time, Dr Allen insisted we take immediate action. He wanted to induce me right then and there, but we decided to run some tests first. He sent me for blood work and then to labor and delivery. I was monitored in labor and delivery and my blood pressure stayed down and Rosalie was doing fine. When my bloodwork came back normal, Dr Allen gave me the okay to go home, but first he wanted to do an ultrasound. He did a portable exam. Rosalie looked great and there was a good amount of fluid, but he was getting a low birth weight. He threw up the red flag and said I couldn't go home. He sent Kevin and I to get lunch and then to Radiology to have another ultrasound done. That hour between labor and delivery and Radiology was the LONGEST hour of my life. The ultrasound showed a completely different weight, which was a complete relief. Doc gave me the final okay to go home, but he wanted to set up an induction the beginning of the following week.

Tuesday, November 3rd, I woke up at 4:30 to start getting ready for the hospital. We got there at 7am. They got me all set up in a room, started an IV, then it was just a matter of waiting for the midwife to come in. At my

appointment on Friday, Doc said I was dilated 3cm. When the midwife checked me, I was still only 3cm. No change over the weekend. At 8:30am they began in the induction and started the pitocin. Hours passed and nothing was happening. They kept up'ing the pitocin, but nothing! no contractions! I was getting little ones here and there, but no pattern.

We worked all day and nothing. They couldn't even break my water because Rosalie wasn't dropped down into position. We worked til about 10pm and finally we decided to call it a night. They shut the pitocin off, let me shower, and get something to eat. Then I sent Kevin home. There was no point in making him stay the night if nothing was going to happen.

Wednesday morning, November 4th, a 3rd person came on board in hopes of bringing Rosalie into the world -- Dr Genrich. He checked me and as

anticipated, no change over night. This then brought up the question is Rosalie just not ready? Or is there a problem that's preventing her from dropping into place? We decided to go the safest route and do a c-section. Since I couldn't get into the OR until 12:30, we decided to try more pitocin and see if in that 5 hours if Rosalie might do something. After 5 hours, nothing. It was off to the OR we went!

By 12:56pm, Rosalie entered the world!

The first day was the hardest. I was having such a hard time coming back from the surgery. There wasn't any pain, but the anesthesia they adminstered made me nauseated. Finally on day 2 the nausea subsided! On Friday, November 6 we were discharged and we couldn't wait to get our little angel home!

We're all doing great! My staples are out and I'm slowly healing. Rosalie is a pleasant little girl and is eating and sleeping just great for us! Kevin has been such a great help and has completely impressed me. He's actually a baby hog! He is so in love with that little girl and I can't help but smile when I see the way he looks at her!

So now that I have rambled enough, here's the part everyones been waiting for-- pictures! Until next entry.. ENJOY!