1. We prayed for a daughter. Really. Honestly. We prayed to Brian’s mother, Mary, for her help in this feat. We would have been happy with a little boy (Christian Parker would have been his name) but ohmygoshwow we wanted a little girl.
2. She always had a strong heartbeat in the womb. She was always VERY active. My doctor was always amused by this. He said her activity went above and beyond other in womb babies. She was a night owl…always waking up around midnight and kicking/rolling away until around 3 a.m.
3. She was a month early, yet that could be debated. I had no idea I was even in labor, actually. I thought it was Braxton Hicks contractions. My parents took me to my weekly check up and my doctor said, and I quote, “Girl…you are 5-6 dilated. You CAN’T go home. You’re having a baby!”. I was all like, “Really?”. He was all like, “You ARE freakishly strong”. My parents nodded their heads. My love was called in a rush and I got admitted…all with no pain.
4. The talk of c-section was always there – especially since she was measuring big all along, and never really turned. She was laying on her belly face up in the womb. I got admitted to the hospital around noon or so, and I had her at 5:34 p.m. I was STARVING since I thought we were going out to eat after my doctors appointment, so I hadn’t ate that day.
After the epidural and the drip to help my contractions it all went by so fast. I had no problems with my epidural, and the only real pain I felt was right when I hit 10 centimeters. I then felt all this pain in my rectum area and REALLY needed to push. They had me push for 45 minutes to see if she could turn but she never did. I’m thankful I got to experience that, actually. So – c-section it was!
5. The c-section went really well. Bella was really trapped in my birthing canal, and the doctor had some issues getting her out. She actually got cut on her arm on the way out and has a tiny scar. Her birthing womb, if you will. I felt no pain/pressure until the end – when they started to pull me back together. The doctors asked if I needed more meds, and I told them if they were almost done I was okay. The room laughed at me. No more meds were needed.
6. It took her a bit to breathe on her own since she was so trapped in all of that fluid for so long. She then cried, and didn’t stop. Crazy good lungs, they all said. After that it is all a blur. I know that only a couple of people showed up while I was in the hospital, and I remember a lot of trying to breast feed and the frustration that brought with no milk coming in. I remember FINALLY getting to eat real food after the stupid jello diet. I remember walking on the way out to the car instead of being in a wheelchair. I was DETERMINED to get out of there.
7. She came home with jaundice and we had to deal with that. It was really hard due to the fact that she was our first (and only) and no one could really help us out. I know that people came by the day after she came home, and that was about it. It was all a blur due to pain meds and no sleep and mass amounts of crying and bad hormone issues.
8. She then got colic around a month old and also had/has reflux issues. She was also put on some other med that she is no longer on (thank God). We bought a swing that kind of calmed her down, and that she slept in a lot due to the reflux, and the swaying helped her colic. Again – lots of no sleep and crying and not really being in touch with anyone. I had completely lost touch to reality, except for the reality of Brian.
9. 3 months old finally hit and things started to get a bit easier. She had learned to smile and have more of a mood than anger.
10. She lifted that big head of hers right before 4 months old. She was born with a big head and doctors have worried about it to the point that we have had to have it tested. We were all really proud that she was able to lift her head up on her belly at 4 months because we didn’t know if she would be able to.
11. Around this time she fell in love with “talking” and hasn’t stopped since. Did I also mention that she started to teeth at 3 months? She got her two bottom teeth at 4 months old. She got her two top teeth at 7 months old. This little girl hasn’t lived much of a life out of pain – and I admire her for toughing it out.
12. She LOVES to eat. I think we started her on a spoon diet around 4 months just to see if she would take to it. She didn’t like it for about 4 days, and then decided that she loved it. She liked rice cereal okay, but she loves her some oatmeal. Her favorite food is sweet potatoes. She also really likes pears.
13. Her Daddy can calm her like no one else can, and I am the one that usually gets her to sing/talk. She adores her Uncle Joe, and she is amused by the dog, Martha. Anytime Martha barks Bella responds with a “Hoo”.
14. She loves to be read to. I think that has something to do with Brian reading to her in the womb so much. She adores books…either to look at them and/or try to eat them. Her favorite book is Bella the Bravery Fairy.
15. She can only stay awake for about 2 hours in the morning after she first wakes up. After that she crashes for about another hour and then she is good for the day. She has always had this sleep schedule. She moved from her bassinet to her crib when she was 4 months old, and she slept through the night from that day until she was 7 months old. Now she wakes up again in the middle of the night.
16. Hopefully, when she gets older she will have a good sense of humor about all of this:
17. She is very much an outdoor baby. She gets tickled when a breeze comes by and she “Hoo”s at it. She loves grabbing at grass and watching Martha roll around on the ground. She talks to the wind.
18. She really doesn’t like repetition. She gets sick of certain toys/songs very quickly. We constantly have to be on our toes on to what she likes and does not like.
19. Her personality, as of almost 8 months old, seems like a good mixture of serious, funny, amused, and cautious.
20. I often wonder if I did the right thing in becoming a stay at home Mom. There really is no question. We may not have a nice place and have nice things – but I’ve gotten pictures of every milestone that she’s met…..something I know other parents can’t say that they have. I am a tried bumbling hormonal wreck most of the time since I am the 24/7 parent…..but, years from now, I can tell her that she and her father came before anything and everything. I hope that she can do that for her own one day.
