Birthday Blessings...

First birthday blessing was that Natalie let us sleep in till 8:00 am this morning.  She actually slept till 10:00 am herself but we got up around 8:00 am and got ready plus grabbed some breakfast together and waited for her to wake up. 

Before heading out to do a few errands this morning I got to open my birthday gift from Nathan and Natalie, which included my 1st "Mommy" birthday card!



I made out pretty good...I got a cute picture frame, a candle, new CD, candy and the Willow Tree figurine "The Gift" which is a Mom & Dad holding a baby.

Then it was onto Cedar Falls, first stop was to Target so I could exchange some stuff, then I picked up a few things at Dollar Tree and then it was onto an hour of pampering myself.  Nathan dropped me off to get a pedicure and a manicure.  So nice and relaxing!  After that we grabbed some pizza at OP, and then it was back home for the afternoon.  Natalie napped while I did some odds and ends around the house and Nathan working outside.

Then Mom, Gary, Trish, Ang and Carson came over for supper, here's wild man Carson being silly.....

Aunt Angie with Natalie....

We ended our evening with dessert, yummy ice cream cake from Dairy Queen....thanks Nathan it was super good....."Strawberry Shortcake" I highly recommend it!





One last snapshot for the night....me and Natalie, who's 10 days old already!
 

I experienced so many birthday blessings today!  Spending time with family and friends, it's my 29th birthday that I'll never forget!

Super Sunday

We had another great day as a family, it was a "Super Sunday".

We started our morning off by heading to the Gallagher-Bluedorn for an AWESOME church service with the rest of our Orchard Hill family.

We sat in the 5th row, not really where we wanted to it with a newborn but there weren't a lot of seats available in the back since we got there with 2 minutes before the service was too begin but Natalie did great and slept through the whole service, even during the loud band playing!

After church the three of us grabbed some breakfast at Perkins then headed home to relax.  Natalie and I took a short nap on the floor together while Nathan worked outside on a few odds and ends.

Then we had some more visitors over....which I didn't get any pictures of, totally bummed about that.  Brandie and Dan drove up from Des Moines to meet Natalie and made our house a meeting place as Brandie's parents had their boys up at the river for the weekend so Greg, Janis and Grandma Sharon also got to meet Natalie when they got here.  It was so fun to have visitors, we love it!

My Mom & Gary also stopped by to see us, okay I'm sure they just stopped by to see Natalie but oh well they ended up staying for supper, we had our typical summer Sunday meal......BLT's & sweet corn...yummy!

We ended our evening with a bath.  Natalie is starting to like her bath a little more these days, she loves it when we're all done and I'm getting her dressed and Nathan combs her hair......I have a feeling she's going to be a girly girl if she likes getting her hair combed already.  If that's the case we are in trouble!

Super Sunday is over and now we're onto Monday!

1 week old

Just a week ago we were sitting in the hospital loving on our newborn and here we are today a week later enjoying a busy day together.  This morning we packed up and headed to Aplington to help Carl & Angie shingle their house, okay Natalie and I didn't help, but Nathan did.

Here she is sleeping thru her 1st trip to Aplington...

Shortly after we arrived it was break time so Angie used that time to get some loving in...

Then it was back on the roof....

What a mess shingling is...

Right after lunch we headed home since the guys got the roof done, that's after working on it all day Friday and half of Saturday.  We enjoyed a family nap on the floor for a couple hours before heading to Blain's to grab a couple things.  Here is Nathan and Natalie heading into Blain's, her 1st trip to a store.  I wanted her first trip to a store to be to Hobby Lobby but I guess Dad won with Blain's!

Then it was onto Wal-Mart to grab a few groceries...

After we got home I put away the groceries while Nathan got her in her stroller so we could go on a little walk....

Of course we ended our night by watching the Bears game.  I think she is a Bears fan already as she just stared at the T.V. for the longest time tonight before giving me a BIG yawn and then falling asleep, I guess football makes her tired!

I have loved every minute of this last week, even when I'm up in the middle of the night.  We have learned so much about our new bundle of joy and all of her likes and dislikes.  We have one more week as of family of 3 that get to hang out together all day long as Nathan has this next week off as well which I'm looking forward too!

5 days old

I can't believe Natalie is 5 days old already......this is what we did after her bath today, had a little photo shoot!  We had too much fun!

Enjoy!

Wednesday!

I can't believe Natalie is 4 days old already, I've found that she is a perfect fit to our family though!  We are all adjusting very well, it helps that she is such a good baby, I continue to thank God every day for this perfect little miracle he has blessed us with!

Wednesday was a busy day for us, we had some special stops to make before heading to Allen hospital for Natalie's doctor appointment, here she is dressed (in an adorable outfit from Aunt Angie) and ready to go for her 1st day out of the house.....

First stop was to the Bridges so G & G Larson could meet Natalie, they just loved up to her right away.  Grandma Larson couldn't get over her long little fingers and toes.

Then we stopped by Frannie's office where Jasmina got to meet her for the 1st time...

Then we headed toward Allen hospital for her appointment but decided to grab a quick sandwich from Subway, Natalie didn't move a muscle while Nathan and I enjoyed lunch together....

Then it was onto the hospital where Natalie first had to get blood drawn so that they could test her bilirubin levels again.....she did great, only crying a little bit - I think it broke her parents' hearts more to see her go through that not so fun process!

Here we are back in the car seat to travel to the other side of the hospital for her wellness check-up, look at her poor little foot all wrapped up.......

Here she is getting weighed (she is now up to 9 lbs 4 ounces) and her head checked and measured by the nurse.....

After the doctor got her bilirubin results she came in to give her an overall body check.  She said that her bilirubin levels looked good and were slowly moving up.  She also had an overall good report, nothing for us to be worried or concerned out, which made us both feel good about!

After her appointment we headed home since G & G Sents were coming over to meet Natalie for the 1st time.  All she did was sleep while they were there, what a bum!

During supper time she was wide-eyed and ready to play so we tried out the new swing, I think she liked it even though she gave us quite the look when we started the swing.  Doesn't she look so little in this big swing?

We ended our night with Aunt Angie and Carson stopping by....



While Angie was visiting she fed Natalie so when they headed home we headed to bed, she had another good night - up at 2:00 a.m. for a bottle and went right back to bed and slept till 5:30 a.m. this morning! 

We are so blessed!

It's Offical....

her "real" is and forever will be Natalie, not Estelle......like Frannie thought, this is the sign she put up on her bedroom wall a month or two ago....

Here is Daddy measuring and centering and measuring again (he had to get it perfect) her name for the wall! 

This is what Natalie did while Nathan put her name up on the wall and I put away all of her gifts, yeah I'm still putting things away, just when I thought her closet was so big....well we are running out of room already!

The pink "N" is up, onto the brown part.....

Tada....

 

Sound asleep in her room.....sweet dreams little girl!

Natalie Lynn.....

She has arrived and we are in love!

Here's a quick version of our journey which began on Friday, August 19th at 6:00 a.m. as we headed to Allen Hospital for an induction.  We got checked in, IV started, which only took 4 tries - I'm a hard stick and I was also then hooked up to the monitors and waited for the doctor to come in and check me. 

When he got to my room it was around 7:45 a.m. and he noticed right away on the screen that I was having some contractions but when he checked me I was only dilated to 1, the same 1 that I had been for 3 weeks now, so my only option was to have the balloon inserted.  It's a catheter type balloon that they fill with water to help you get dilated to 4 and once you get to 4 it just falls out.  Well long story short they ended up taking the balloon out around 6:00 p.m. because it wasn't working for me.....typically a person has the balloon in for 4-5 hours but oh not me!  I was also on pitocin all day long which should help with the dilation process as well.  Well the nurse upped my pitocin levels by 2 all day long, every half an hour and nothing was helping, I asked what is the max level I can go too was and all she said was she couldn't go over level 20 without a doctor's order, but we don't ever get to 20 anyway so no need to worry.....again not me!  I was at a level 20 for most of the afternoon and nothing was working.  So once they took the balloon out the Dr went ahead and checked me again and I was at a 3, maybe 3 1/2 - what are you kidding me, was all I could say to myself.  The doctor then decided to go ahead and brake my water, once he did that I did seem to dilate much faster but also with that came a lot of pain so finally at 9:00 p.m. I asked for an epidural, that was after I tried the IV drug Newbane which made me a little dizzy and sick to my stomach.  Finally at 10:30 p.m. I was almost fully dilated so they had me start pushing, at this point both the nurse and the doctor thought we'd have a baby by midnight but oh no not our little girl she had other plans.  After 4 long hours of pushing at 2:35 a.m. Natalie Lynn finally entered the world and boy was I one happy Mama!  I was so tired, worn out from the day and the 4 hours of pushing plus I was starving, that 1 piece of toast I had on Friday morning at 4:30 a.m. before heading to the hospital wasn't doing much for me anymore! 

Natalie weighed 9 lbs & 1.5 ounces, what I just had a 9 lbs baby, I only gained 12 pounds with this pregnancy!  She was also 21 inches long, tall like her Daddy....she also got his long fingers and toes.  Lots of dark hair too, not sure where that comes from - I was bald till I was 2 years old and Nathan was born with blonde hair. 

We had lots of family visitors come and see us during our stay in the hospital, we loved having so many people come and meet our little princess.  First visitor was Frannie, she couldn't wait to meet Natalie!

Then Aunt Angie came.....

Here's nurse Sarah checking Natalie over....

Look at me.....wide eyed and comfy, almost naked....my Dad just loves it!

Getting her 1st bath, she didn't mind it too much.....loved getting her hair combed!

Then Grandpa Mike and Lanette came and visited....

And Grandpa Gary.....

And Grandpa & Grandma Rausch.....

Aunt Kasey.....

And Uncle Chris....

Suzanne, a gal I work with.....

Then come Sunday Uncle Carl came to meet Natalie....

Natalie's favorite nurse, Mary Jane that watched her in the nursery both night...

Us girls.....Me, Aunt Angie and Frannie with Miss Natalie.....

Daddy's Little Girl....

Sunday afternoon the Wauters kids came to meet Natalie....

Jessica and Zoey.....

Justin and Zoey......

Here is Miss Natalie on Monday morning dressed and ready to go home....

One last picture with Mommy outside our room #365

First Family Photo......

Here she is all buckled up and ready to go.....

What a fun surprise, we go home and this is what our house looked like, decorated with fun "It's a Girl" signs, banners and balloons which filled our front yard.  Thanks Frannie and Aunt Angie!

Right after we got home, our doorbell rang...it was the mail lady with Natalie's 1st package.  Her box of goodies was from Uncle Darren, Aunt Heather and cousins Braeden, Nolen and Emmalee from Milwaukee. 

And here is Natalie with all her gifts from the visitors that came to the hospital....it's Christmas in August at our house....do you think she is spoiled?

To end our afternoon Frannie came over and gave Natalie her 1st bath at home.....she smelled so good after her bath!

We ended our day with a quick road trip into Cedar Falls to Frannie and Grandpa Gary's house to eat supper and meet the neighbors, they just loved her up.

This ends our 1st day at home, onto the 1st night.....I hope she continues her good sleeping and eating habits that she had while we were in the hospital, we'll find out tonight!

Here's one last snapshot of our little cutie.....

I still can't believe we did it, we kept her name a secret till the very end!

We love you so much Natalie Lynn Rausch