Sunday, October 28, 2012

Cutest Cry

Yes, I'm one of those moms who wants to even remember what her kids' cries sound like...
 
Lilia's cries are quite dramatic.
 
And, quite entertaining!
 
That is, when I'm not groggy.
 
 
This girl has no build-up to her cries...
 
...just a sour face followed shortly thereafter with an explosion.
 
She's got lungs!
 
Sure love her.

Halloween Preview

Seth and Porter went to our ward Halloween party.
 
Porter got to dress up...
 
 
You can count this as a preview for what's coming.

 
Can you guess what the rest of us will be?

Mommy & Me

I'm loving every moment with my little Lilia.
 

 
Every single sleep-deprived, lucky-to-take-a-shower, horrendously-disgusting-place-of-living, occasionally-dealing-with-inconsolable-baby moment!


Soooo tired.
 
But so extremely blessed.

More Cuteness

I'm afraid my creativity goes out the door when I'm sleep deprived, so please enjoy these pictures without any clever sayings or whatever.
 
(Not sure any of my sayings are all that clever in the first place as I'm kinda a nerd, but I digress...)
 
Enjoy!


Porter always loves to hold his sister.

Grabbing her own hands

Cute hat from Grandma Jensen


Sunday, October 21, 2012

Grandma

Last Sunday, the world lost a beautiful woman.
 
Obituary
My grandmother passed away on October 14th.
 
Her funeral was this last Friday.
 
She had been diagnosed with cancer in June, and didn't have to suffer long.
 
She is now with Grandpa who passed away in 1995.
 
I'm glad she is at peace and back with him.
 
I'm even a bit jealous that she gets to hang out with him and the girls.
 
Grandma was a beautiful, funny, spunky, charitable, and creative woman.
 
I hope to have inherited a bit of her inner and outer beauty.
 
Love you, Grandma.
 
Say hi to Grandpa, Jilinda and Alayna and give them huge hugs from me.
 
Miss you.

Cuteness From This Week

Porter loves holding Lilia!


Sticker 'stache

Cuddly ruffle-bum with my hideous double chin...

On Daddy's legs


 
So blessed!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Such a Cutie


Lilia's First Bath

Lilia is like her brother...
 



 
She did not like this bath thing.
 
In fact, she started throwing one of her fits. 

 
Love that little temper and those powerful lungs.
 
Once she was out, she was good.
 

But, she certainly let me know she didn't approve of what she just experienced,
 

Visitors!

Look who came for a visit this weekend!
 
 Mama & Emily!
 
They even came with surprises!



 
Couldn't be happier!

Movie Time

I tried to sneak up on the cuteness that was Lilia and Porter one morning while they were watching a movie.
 
 
Didn't work.
 
So, we staged it.

 
Still cute.

There Was a Little Girl

 
There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
 
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
 
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


 
Lilia is that girl.
 
At least she's only "bad" at night.
 
(Mom got her wish--I got a mini me...)

Kiss Attack

 
We have a "thing" in this family...

 
...we give each other kisses all over the face, and call it "kiss attack."
 
Porter does this to Lilia in the morning sometimes.

 
I don't think she minds.


Heavy Lego Artillery

 
No idea why we ever bought him fake guns.
 
They're not big enough for him, so he makes his own.

Baby Burritos




One Week

Still gets plenty of attention from her big brother!

Already looks different.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Since We've Been Home

Every moment with Lilia has been surreal.
 
It's hard to believe she is actually here!
 
She is such a sweetheart.
 
She is even quite mellow...
 
 
She isn't a fan of binkies (which is fine because she's so mellow), she loves breastfeeding so much that she does it for hours (because she can't seem to stay awake then thinks she's off when I wake her up), and she doesn't slowly build up her cries--she explodes with her great set of lungs.
 
If she's upset with you, even if it's only slight frustration, she will definitely let you know!
 
She loves her brother...

 
We love her toes...

 
...well, we love all of her.
 
Porter has been adjusting to Lilia being around pretty well!
 
He loves to help mommy...

 
(we supplement when Mommy isn't enough to "top her off")
 
Porter has had a bit of jealousy toward her because of the attention she needs, but he certainly adores having her around and has even referred to her as his sweetheart, buddy, and angel.
 
When he's holding her you constantly hear "hi sweetie".
 
 
Lilia doesn't mind just chillin' when she is alert and satisfied.

 I think Seth may be trying to influence her to game.
We are still unsure what her hair color really is.
 
It looks different in different lights.
 
It definitely has red in it, but we'll just have to see as it grows!
 
As of right now, we are soaking in every moment with this sweet little girl.

Lilia Shay

We arrived at the hospital at 7:15 am.
 
I was measured at at one.
 
Still.
 
I wasn't too happy about this since I had been contracting pretty regularly all week.
 
The Pitocin drip was started around 8.
 
Along with Penicillin since I was Strep B positive.
 
Which burns really bad, if you wanted to know.
 
I felt like the antibiotic was worse than the contractions.
 
I stood and moved my hips around a lot to help with the progression of labor, but at 7 pm I was barely at a four.
 
I got my epidural before the contractions got bad.
 
I could still breathe through them, but I wanted to have a good, mostly painless experience since my last one wasn't all that wonderful.
 
I had my epidural about an hour when my doctor came and broke my water.
 
I went from a five to a ten in 40 minutes.
 
After pushing three times, she was out!
 
That is, after her cord was unwrapped twice from around her neck...
 
Lilia Shay Jensen
 
 
Born October 3, 2012 at 9:39 pm
 
Another redhead!
 
Well, at least she has red IN her hair...in fact, every day it looks darker...almost an auburn.
 
She shares her birthday with her cousin, Jordanne who turned 1 that day.

She weighed in at an even 6 pounds.
 
 
19 inches long.
 
I couldn't wait to hold her and couldn't keep my eyes off her as she was whisked away for her weighing.

 
Sadly, I didn't get to hold her long at first.
 
She had a lot of fluid in her lungs, her blood glucose was low, her temperature was low, and she was breathing way too fast.
 
So, I couldn't feed her for risk of her aspirating the food, but she needed the food because she needed her glucose level to rise.
 
It was quite complicated.
 
Therefore, she was taken with with her Daddy to the NICU while I cried.
 
I cried because, yet again, I wasn't able to hold one of my babies for very long.
 
I decided to focus on other things, like eating, while I waited to be transferred to the postpartum rooms.
 
 At this time, my parents, Rob, Wendy and Porter arrived to meet our sweet little one.
 
Sadly, four of them left after I was awkwardly transferred.

In the mean time, Lilia was getting poked and prodded.
 
Poor girl's veins were too tiny in her hands to have an IV.
 
So, they put one in her head.
 
Poor girl.
 
They gave her dextrose (glucose) to raise her sugars.
 
They pumped out even more fluid from her lungs, and her breathing went to a normal pace.
 
Then, Seth fed her some formula.
 
He came up shortly thereafter to check on me, arriving at about the time Mom, Dad, Rob, and Wendy left.
 
When some feeling came back in my legs, I wanted to see my girl.
 
So, I was wheeled down to the NICU while Seth and Porter waited in my room.
 
I didn't have the camera, but I got to hold my sweet Lilia's hand and sing to her a bit.
 
I started falling asleep, so I had the NICU nurse call my nurse down to get me.
 
I got to witness her bath before I was wheeled back up to my room.
 
She came up about a half our later at 2 am.
 
Porter stayed up and refused to leave until he got to meet his sister.

 
He was a bit loopy, but he was so excited!!
 
When Seth told him it was time to go home, Porter was confused as to why Lilia and I weren't coming back home also, and cried.
 
I thought it was sweet.
 
I didn't sleep much that night.
 
I held my angel for as long as I could.
 
That is, in between times when they would take her from me to prick her poor little heels and check her glucose levels.
 
They had to do so before every feeding, and she would have to "pass" three times in order for them to stop.
 
She passed two.
 
So, she had to be pricked three more times, and I needed to start supplementing along with breastfeeding.
 
She passed the next four.
 
Four, because they checked her levels after a feeding once.

She was NOT happy when the last one was done.
 
In fact, she threw a royal fit for a good hour.
 
After getting some sleep, Daddy and big brother returned.
 

 
Then, Grumpa and Gammie came with Mikki and her friend Michaela.

Grumpa loves his grand babies!

So does Gammie!

Mikki, uncomfortably, holding her tiny niece.

I was quite tired, but so happy to have my sweet girl here with me.
 

I love how she looks at me, and I love how Porter absolutely adores her.
 

He can't stay away, most of the time.
 
Later that night, Laura stopped by to meet our sweet girl!
 
 
She even took a few pictures for us!
 
Here are two of my favorites:


 
That little bow on her hat was taped on by the NICU, and I think it's the cutest idea ever for little girls.

We sure love our little bundle.
 

 
After three days in the hospital, we were going home.
 

 
Our itty bitty sweetheart.
 
Welcome to the world, Lilia.