Random February Photos

February 9 - snuggling with Buddy on the couch

Feb 10th - One week pictures

Feb 12th - sleepy baby

Feb 15th - Mommy's birthday wore her out!

Feb 21st - happy little monkey!

Feb 26th - 

Feb 27th - sleeping in her crib

Pictures... 10 days old

Rylie was 10 days old when we took her to Portrait Innovations for pictures. Here are a few of our favorites.

February's Firsts...

In February, Rylie had a lot of firsts. Well, technically, EVERYTHING was a first for her in the first month!

An overview of the month and more specifically the time between grandparents visiting...

Feb 16 -  First trip to cousin Caroline and Ethan's house... first time for Ethan to hold Rylie!

 Feb 17 - First time to go for a ride in the stroller and for a walk with the dogs to the park.

 Feb 17 - First time to nap in her crib

Feb 18 - Dinner with her Colorado god parents, Chris and Mary.
Feb 19 - Her umbilical stump fell off!

Feb 20 - Met KATHY!! She brought Rylie a personalized monkey, shoes and some other necessities. Rylie also took her very first bath in the "big" bath tub.

Feb 26 - First time to nap with mommy in bed...

On our own...

My parents stayed in Denver with us until February 12th. Misti had her baby girl on the 10th and McKenzie had a school program on the 14th that the really wanted to attend so they drove home much to my dismay. It was nice to have them here with us and I was really sad to see them leave!

So Rylie weighed 8 lb 4 oz when she was born but had dropped to 7 lbs 14 oz in the first 24 hours. At our home visit on 2/3/14 she had dropped to 7 lb 13 oz. She gained a whole two ounces when we went to our first doctor's visit on the 7th. Gaining weight was going to be a slow process we were about to discover... at her two week appointment she had gained a little more weight, weighing in at 8 lb 1.1 ounces. The doctor said that most babies are back to their birth weight at the two week appointment...

Before my parents left for Tulsa we went out to dinner for my birthday, Rylie's first time to eat out at a restaurant. We chose Texas Roadhouse, which everyone knows is not the quietest of places!!! She was a champ, slept through the entire dinner!!!

We took Rylie up to Green Mountain Elementary to see my students and meet my coworkers during the Valentine's Day parties. That was a BUSY day!!! Visit to the school, doctor appointment, dinner at Dickie's and a little shopping!!!

We had a very low key Valentine's Day. We opened some gifts that came in the mail and hung out at home together as a little family.

From the night she was born, she had a thing with her hands... she LOVED to play with her fingers and "plot"... she had that concerned look from the beginning as well!

We had two weeks together to get used to being a family before Ian's parents (Nana and Grandpa) came out to visit!!!

First Field Trip...

Rylie's first family field trip was to the Denver Firefighters Museum with her papa the fireman from Tulsa! Since in our family we regard firefighters as heros, Rylie was a superhero herself!!! 

Here we are getting ready to leave on our first field trip... I was telling Rylie all about the firetrucks that she was going to get to see with Papa. (I was also explaining to her that we might never get to leave the museum either because Papa was going to give us a full history of each apparatus on display!)

 Our little superhero in the car driving to the museum. She loves the fireman blanket that Grammy made her!

It was hard to resist getting a picture of our little Batgirl in front of the light with the Bat symbol. It's evident that she was really into the fire trucks... merely a week old and already TOO old for the fire station! :)

Papa showing Rylie a really old fire truck. 

 Imagine this... a fire truck that is older than Papa!!!!

 Our field trip wore our little super hero out! She slept for a long time on my shoulder! I just love snuggling with my little girl! It is still hard to believe that she is mine!!!!

Scare of a lifetime

On Thursday, Feb 6th, Dr. Carewe called and left a message on my phone. A message that I had to listen to several times before I fully understood what he was saying. His message in a nutshell was that one of the tests in the Newborn Screen (PKU) had come back in the positive range and that he needed to see Rylie the next morning. Ian and I tried to keep a strong face about us, but that evening when I was feeding Rylie Ian found me crying. My perfect little girl, my angel, my miracle, something was wrong with her and it wasn't something that I could fix. We researched what the PKU tested for, none of which were illnesses that we would have wished on our enemies let alone our daughter... I only recognized a few of the illnesses.

That night we hardly slept with anxiety. I kept hearing Dr. Carewe's message in my head, " I don't mean to worry you..." Well DUH! The doctor calling at 4:55 out of the blue and starting a message that way of course worried me!!!

The next morning, we loaded Rylie up and took her to the doctor. Her first doctor visit at a week old... her first outing too... He told us that the carnitine transporter screening was a little low, therefore out of the normal range. We were going to have to take Rylie to Children's Hospital in Aurora for more bloodwork. The nurse from the hospital called while we waited for Dr. Carewe to return from consulting with the Pediatricians on the floor. The nurse reassured me that it isn't uncommon for false positives on the PKU and that it was likely due to my not eating for over 24 hours causing MY carnitine level to be low when I had her. At least that made me feel a little better, but not much... I still couldn't potentially fix my baby!

For a week we waited... we prayed... we tried to be strong... finally on Valentine's Day the hospital called to tell us that they had the results back... and her levels were all in the normal range!!! Wahoo!!! There wasn't anything to worry about!!!!

Puppy Love...

The dogs all took a liking to Rylie. She was a new novelty in the house so it seemed! It was cute how all of the dogs wanted to be by her, as if she needed protecting! 

Buddy with Ian and Rylie

Zeus with my dad and Rylie 

 Zoe with my mom and Rylie

Kodi and Buddy with Ian and Rylie 

Kodi with Rylie