Ho...Ho...Ho.......

We had our ward Christmas party yesterday and a certain Bananabelle's dad played santa...

8 months old..

..so our Bananbelle is 8 months old!

Its funny, at every age so far I think to myself "this is my favorite age" until I get to the next month and I think the same thing of that age. Par for the coarse, I like this age the best!

Her personality is coming out. The girl smiles constantly and laughs at the dogs. Her new thing is the blow raspberries with her lips. Its particularity funny when she does it when she is nursing. You laugh at her and she laughs back and does it again. She is just all around awesome!

Oh, and adorable!

I told her not to grow up...

...but she's not listening!

Remember this photo of Ty ready Belle a story?
Well, its now become THIS!


We've created a monster:)

Boo!

I have LOTS to catch up on up I want to be sure to get all of the current stuff down so we will start there and work our ways back.

Halloween 2011!

She laughed so hard I cried...

..Ty and I went out in the backyard with Annabelle to talk to the guy fixing our air conditioner and of coarse the dogs followed. The proceeded to play/fight just like they always so when anyone is around to show off too.


I heard Belle start to wine and then cry.....or what I thought was crying! I looked over at the little person on my arm to comfort her and realize that she is full out belly laughing! Not just the little giggles she had been doing lately, but full out busting a gut! She laughed for a good 5 minutes watching those dogs. That was probably one of my top 10 moments ever with our little girl!

fastest 4 months of my life...

..Annabelle turned 4 months and I can't believe that just 5 months earlier I was dreaming about if I was going to have a boy or girl and imagining how my life was about to change. Now...I can't remember what my life was before this amazing little person came into my life.

So, as of 4 months...our Belle is perfectly healthy and growing steadily!

birth:
10 lbs 9 oz
22 in long

4 months:
15 lbs 4 oz
25 ins

Is is in the 65th percentile and just perfect!

What isn't so perfect was the shots Annabelle's poor little thighs took! It was a sad but adorable sight to see!!

Dear Annabelle...

In the last week or so, you have discovered your voice. You coo and yell and make all sorts of sounds that resemble a velseloraptor. Your dad and I love when you 'talk' to us, it makes us laugh and we find ourselves dropping everything to talk to you. There is nothing else now that makes us laugh as much or is as fun.

I have realized that the joy that I feel when we are 'talking' to us, it so far beyond anything I have ever felt. Watching you grow and learn makes me so happy that I tear up sometimes thinking that you are really mine. You are already an amazing little girl and I can't wait to see all of the things you learn as you grow up.

We love you, baby! Keep on 'yapping'.

Happy Father's Day!!!

Belle loves her daddy!!!!

I think you always believe that your husband will be a good dad. Ty has lived up to that belief. Every night when he comes home and says hi to Annabelle, she gives him a huge smile because she recognizes that this is her daddy. Every night he reads her a story, she listens intently because he is that good.

So for all of that, Annabelle loves her daddy!

A day at the beach...

..Annabelle took her very first dip the other day. I wasn't sure how she was going to like it. She does okay with baths but I can't control the temp of the lake.

So we headed in! At first she gave a funny look when her feet hit the water....not upset but just not sure. She ended up doing just fine! We only stayed in the water for about 5 mintues before she started to wimper but a sucess overall!

Dear Annabelle....

Today in sunday school, the subject was on parent. I have to admit that before you were born, I used to hate this subject. It just felt like everyone else in the room could relate to the subject and I was sitting there left out. This week was different.

One thing that was brought up was the need most mothers feel to control their children. Someone brought up that when her daughter was young, she was very strong willed and stubborn. She spent a good amount of time trying to change her baby to act a certain way, a way she thought was 'perfect' for a little girl. He husband came to her one day and said, 'we shouldn't try and change her. What we consider difficult and stubborn now, may be what she needs to get through though situations when she is older.'

This woman proceeded to tell us that this spirit is the exact thing that has helped her daughter in the many trials she has faced as a young adult. She was so thankful that she was able to maintain that strength.

This lesson is a prime example of what I didn't knew I needed to hear until I already heard it. Baby, I promise you that I will try to always nurture your spirit and who you are. I love you dearly and can't wait to see who you become.

Momma

She smiles!!

Dear Annabelle...

Baby, today was my first day back to work. After 12 weeks of getting to spend all day with you, I was dreading having to be so far a way for so long. I really started to freak out about it around 6 weeks but Ty pointed out that if I didn't stop worrying about how much time I had left...it would all just pass me by, so I decided to I was going to enjoy every moment with you.

The past 12 weeks have been some of my favorite moments of my life. I was always so happy when I was with my love, Ty. I never knew that I could feel even more for someone until he gave me you. You have completed my family and made me understand why all of those silly girls in my life always wanted babies.

So having to leave all of that for 8 hours today just about broke my heart. The funny thing is, it was easy for you. Your Grandpa Dorff stayed with you and gave you everything you needed but what I needed was you. I know that things will get better as time goes on, but now all I want is to lay in bed and glaze at you as you smile and coo at me. Nothing makes me happier.

So, little girl, I miss you but I do what is necessary. It makes it a little easier knowing that people who love you take care of you and the one up side is getting to hold you for the moment I get home and the smile you give me. It ALMOST makes it okay.

I love you baby!
Mama

5.31.11

A differant kind of ultrasound...

.. turns out that the fact that Annabelle decided she wanted to be breach her whole gestation had the possibility of an unforeseen consequence.

When we went in for Belle's 6 week appt, her doctor told us that there was a potential hip defect with breach babies. Oddly enough, it only effects females so it was our lucky day! He told us that if affects about 12% of breach girls. If she did have the defect it would most likely mean that she was need to wear a brace on her pelvis for a few months and, worst case scenario, have surgery. So we needed to schedule an ultrasound on her hips to check for the defect.

So today was the big day! We headed over to suburban imaging to take a look. I haven't been to the Dr since she was born that was not a pediatrician or an OB/GYN. I wasn't expecting such fanfare over this adorable little babe! Its amazing what going to a place that doesn't see babies every single day will do for your self esteem:)

Well, Annabelle was a champ! Not a peep as they checked her out. She just stared at the tech and coo'ed. Luckily, when all was said and done, Bannabelle has the hips of a champion! No defects! Yay!

On a side note....look at this adorable girl!

A Walk in the park...

Today, Annabelle and I met my friend Kristen and her little boy at the park.

Kristen and I have been going on walks several times a week now and it has been so very good for me. When we went for our first trip after I had Annabelle, I was shocked how hard everything was but today at the park....it was just fun! I didn't have to focus on how hard it was to keep up. I know it sounds so dumb because it was just a silly walk, but its amazing what a body goes through.

While we were there, I just had to 'feed Belle to the lion':) She was a pretty good sport about it.


We had fun just hanging out! Annabelle is definantly a park kind of girl!

The blessing...

Before Annabelle was born, we decided we wanted to have blessing outfit made from my wedding dress. It was a way to keep a part of our wedding without having a dress hanging in the closet gathering dress. Because we didn't find out if she was a boy or girl, we weren't sure how we were going to make that happen in time to bless our baby.

I talked about what I wanted to a woman in our ward and asked if she would be able to make the outfit within the 4 weeks after our baby was here and we knew the gender. Much to my elation, she offered to make an outfit for both a girl and a boy!! I was so excited. We got the dress about a week before she was born...and we loved it!

When we saw her in a 4 weeks later....it was even better:)

Annabelle Roux Smith was blessed April 10th, 2011 at the Anoka, Minnesota ward. Along with her dad in the circle was: James Dorff (grandpa), T. Craig Smith (grandpa), Geoff Archibald (uncle), Kurt Bennion (friend), Benjy Villareal (friend), John Dailey (friend), and Bishop DeLong.

Ty did a beautiful job. At that moment, I couldn't have been more proud of my baby, and especially my husband.Belle and her daddy!

Our first family photo...

Grandma and Grandpa Smith

Aunt Molly and cousin Kajsa (6 months old)

Grandma Dorff

Grandpa Dorff

The FIRST photoshoot!

Being my daughter....I'm sure there is no doubt that there will be an abundance of photoshoots. A friend of mine from school needed to shoot a 'couple' for an assignment and she asked if she could use me and Annabelle. Of coarse I said yes!

I need to do the same assignment so I used Ty and Annabelle. The results are below.....turned about pretty dang well:) So here is Annabelle at 3 weeks!

our first week home...

..As we left the hospital, I couldn't help but be but overwhelmed thinking about how my life would be completely different than what it had when I left the house just 5 days before. How would I adjust? How would the DOGS adjust?? Would I ever sleep again?

Even with all of these questions, I was so excited to start out lives with baby Annabelle! So off we went! We walked into the house, the dogs greeted us just as usual which was a bit worrisome because the are a bit 'excited' when we walk in. I head their collars and Ty held Annabelle's car seat. They did exterememly well. They check her out and immediatly backed off! I was so happy!

WIthin 15 minutes of having her home, we had her in her crib and started to settling in. We realized that we had been yelling back and forth from her room and she didn't stir at all! We had the best baby ever!!

I'm assuming this is normal for most babies, but Belle had her days and nights all mixed up. I was a little worried it would be this way forever! And when she did fall asleep, I woke her up every 3 hours to feed her. Most people thought that I was crazy for waking a sleeping baby but I was concerned that sense her blood sugar had been was low in the hospital, I didn't want her to go too long between feedings and risk a drop. The problem with this plan was that once she was awake to eat, she didn't want to go back to sleep! We spent a lot of time roaming the house trying to get her to sleep. Ty even discovered the show 'Alf':)

Other then the mix up of sleep/wake times, we realized that we had been blessed with an easy baby. She breastfeed well, loved to be cuddled, and only really cried when hungry. Not to mention...she was adorable!

Our hospital stay...

...the morning after our baby was born, I started to test out how it felt to get out of bed so that I could get down to the nursery to meet my baby for that very first time! Its really good motivation! All of the nurses we suprised how easily I seemed to get going.

So I headed down to meet her and my heart was racing. We couldn't get there fast enough. When we rolled in I could see her from accross the room. All of the other babies were there because they were premature. So our baby at almost 11 lbs looked like she was going to eat one of them! The very first thing I noticed was her full head of DARK hair. I couldn't be more excited about that. I knew she would have hair but I had been hoping she would take after her dad instead of me. Of coarse the next thing I noticed was that needle in her head. I started to tear up just waiting for the nurse to give her to me. It couldn't happen fast enough.





As soon as I had her in my arms. I looked at Ty and told him, "You are absolutly right, her name is Annabelle." And we both cried, not that Ty wont to admit it. Everything about it just felt right. Thinking of her full name 'Annabelle Roux Smith' just made me so excited. We choose her middle name to honor my grandma Dorff. It was her madain name and it couldn't be more perfect. Ty came up with it and I'm so grateful he did.

I instantly loved her!



We knew we would need to stay in the hospital for as long as it took her little body to regualte her blood sugar without the IV drip. Everyday, the nurses turned done her IV amount just a little. However, that required the nurses to prick her little feet every 3 hours to check her sugars. I couldn't handle watching that so I would wait on the other side of the nursery until they were done. Luckily, our little Annabelle was a trooper! All in all, it took 5 days for her to be able to get rid of the IV and be released.

From the begining, the nurses kept telling us that we would most likely need to be discharged from the hospital before Annabelle which meant going home with out her. I truly couldn't bare the thought! So when my blood pressure continued to climb even after she was born, I was just a little happy about it. I know that I should have been concerned about it, but if it meant I could stay with her, it was okay. The nurses and doctors however, we much more concerned. They had me on 2 different blood pressure medications and told me to stay in bed and only get up to feed Annabelle and use the bathroom. Everytime the nurse would come into check my blood pressure, I would just pray it would come down....but it never did. Luckily, they let me go home the same day as Annabelle!

The birth...

When we found out we would be having our baby within the hour we were beyond excited. I was more scared then excited but still excited:) As the nurses started to funnel in and out of the room and heart was racing. Getting the IV hurt like crazy and all I could think was 'if I think this hurts...how the heck am I going to deal with the spinal!' That was my biggest fear!

Ty began to call our families and let them know that we would find out if we had a boy or girl within the evening and to expect a call back with the news! I think he could tell how anxious I was and made all of his calls short so that he could focus on me. I'm really greatful for that.

As it was time came to head to the operating room the anesthesiologist told me that Ty would not be allowed in the room while they were placing the spinal. This was the thing I had been terrified of sense I found out I was pregnant. I know there are millions of women have done it before but could I do it?? Women who get epidurals are often in so much pain that they couldn't care less that there was a large need being pushed into their vertabrae. I was in no pain so I was very aware of what was going to happen and I didnt like it ! Ty was told that they would place the spinal and come to get him in 15 mins. So off I went...shaking like a leaf.

I jumped up on the table and tried to relax. I was leaned forward on one the the nurses (he was so great) and just waiting for the needle to go into my back. I litterally couldn't stop shaking and they had to keep reminding me to try and relax. After 4 tries.....they told me that they couldn't get it in and I would have to be put completely under! I know that I should have been more upset about this, but I was just so releieved that the spine piercing was done. This is the third time I've been put under and I'm always shocked when I wake up that I don't remember getting sleepy before going under.

*this next part of the story is what I was told by Ty. He will include his prespective of the store later.

The nurse went out to get Ty who was pacing the halls waiting. When he came in they were taping my eyelids shut so that was a little strange. He says he was really suprised at how violent the whole proceedure was. The nurse told Ty that they were about to pull the baby out so if he wanted to look, now was the time! He peaked over the curtain and saw as Dr. Johnson pull our baby by the feet hard out of me. He says it made a very odd slurping sound:)




Dr. Johnson started to say, "Its a...." and Ty yelled, "GIRL!!" The nurses and Dr's were all making bets on her weight because it was pretty obvious that she was a big girl. Everyone guessed that she was somewhere around 9 lbs so they were quite suprised when the scale read 10 lbs 9 oz!!


Because I had gestational diabetes, there was some concern at what her blood sugar number would be. Babies need to be at least at 45 when they are born. Because babies born to moms with diabetes are so used to compensating for the gluclose in there mother's bodies by producing extra insulin, they sometimes have too much insulin in their bodies when born which causes a low blood sugar. Unfortunantly, this was the case for our girl. Her number was 19!!! Less then half of what it needed to be! As soon as she was cleaned off they wisked her off to the Level 2 nursery to be taken care of.


Ty went with our baby but was a little stressed because not only did our baby need special medical attention, but I was still out from the surgery and needed to be fixed up. His daddy instincts kicked right in and he protected our baby girl. In the nursery they placed an IV in her head so that they could start pumping gluclose into her system so that her blood sugars could be leveled out. Ty spent the next 2 hours talking to her and holding her. Because we hadn't chosen a name yet, and Ty didn't want to do it without me, he tried a few of our options and the name we thought we would pick just didn't fit. He also fed her her first bottle, which unfortunantly was formula. She sucked it right down:)



When baby was set and Ty heard that I was in my room, he headed in to see me. I remember waking slightly and feeling pretty intense pain in my abdemon. What made it a little worse was that I need to cough so badly but everytime I tried, it was so painful. This resulted in my trying very hard to clear my throat to no avail. I was so focused on this that it didn't really register that I had just had a baby! As I became more aware of what was happening, I heard Ty calling family members telling them that we had a baby and everyone was safe but he couldn't tell them a gender because I didn't know yet! Sweetest thing ever!

Ty leaned on my bed and grabed my hand. I now remember that he said, "Baby, you did it. You had a beautiful baby GIRL!" At the time, all I could say was, "It hurts!". It had to tell me that we had girl a few more times before it sunk in. I was shocked! We had been so convinced that it was a boy that the news was a big suprise! I asked Ty what he thoguth her name was and he really didn't want to tell me. He was pretty sure that her name wasn't the name I originally loved but he didn't want to sway what I decided when I saw her. So I waited to really focus on her until I would get to see her for the first time which I learned wouldn't be until the next day. I had just had surgery so I couldn't leave my room and she was all hooked up in the level 2 nursery so we would have to wait to meet. Now, I know I should have been more upset about this but at the time I was so calm. I thank to Lord for being for me in the moment and making it okay. Luckily Ty had lots of pictures for me to look at to tide me over:)

So I tired to sleep that night knowing that I had a precious little girl with my true love! A prefect end to the day!