1 month!

Today is Monday June 1st and Riley is 1 month old!

So how has life been with a newborn? Well a few words: interesting, frustrating, fun, messy, tiring, smelly, hungry, stressful and awesome all mixed into one. The first few weeks was really frustrating with Riley not sleeping well and getting use to feeding her every 1.5-2 hours and not having any sleep. But as they say "you get use to it" it is true! Before I was pregnant i was like a rock when i slept and now any noise she makes i am awake in a drop of a hat, so strange to me. Andy rarely wakes up so it must be some mother instinct thing. Oh and the thing they say about a crying baby and your boobs leaking is so true. She cries and I am like a sprinkler. hahahaha!

Though we have not noticed it as much as everyone else she has grown! She no longer fits into any newborn sleeper or hardly any outfit that is NB size due to her long long long legs. So now she wears onesies with pants or swims in 0-3 month outfits. But at least she can stretch out and be more comfy. I made a run to babies-r-us yesterday to purchase a few sleepers that are long enough and it is crazy, she has so many outfits and sleepers that i have to pack away since she is getting taller/longer. No idea she was going to grow this fast!

And who would have thunk that Andy and I would have a tall baby? :)

Last Tuesday was my first day taking Riley out for a trip - just the girls. I had originally planned to go to Old Navy to get more yoga style pants as this is the "in between" phase for me and make a run to babies -r-us. However plans derailed when we got to the baby store and Riley started to cry about 20 minutes into our trip. Luckily Babies-r-us has a mother's room so i was able to change and nurse her, but Riley has a tendency to take forever to nurse - so i was in there for a long time. Not to mention she totally blew out her diaper and went through 2 diapers and 2 onesies while i was in there. UGH!

So our plan is for this Thursday to go to Old Navy and try to get my stuff again. The nice thing is that babies-r-us is right next door so if I have to nurse/change her i can run there. This is for sure a life changing thing, learning to plan around nursing time!

I have posted a few more pictures on Facebook for those folks that have FB accounts. Below are a few pictures as well and we will make sure to make a new video soon as she is getting funnier and funnier with her little noises.

We hope that this blog post finds you all well!

The Lodatos!

Happy Birthday to me I am 3 weeks!

Just posting a few cute pictures of the little one.

2 weeks old and still kicking

Riley turned the big 2 weeks old on Friday! She continues to kick just as much as she did when she was in my belly - but she has discovered she has a voice.... or rather noises. She grunts at everything! No matter if she is sitting, sleeping, eating, burping or whatever she is grunting and grunting like a Pug. So even though she will always be my little Peanut, she is also the Mini Pug since she grunts just like one. ;)

Here are a few pictures and videos of our cute little one!

Grammy Sue from the 505 is here with us this week:

Video of our little Pug burping, this is what she does best; Grunt:

Riley loves her new home :)

We are now officially home with the little one and trying to adjust to parenthood and sleep deprivation.

The first few days were fine, nights are another story. The first few nights were so rough, she was up every hour to feed and sometimes multiple times at that. She had a few wet diapers but no poo so we started to freak out a bit. We did take her in for her first official pediatric visit and after telling us this was totally normal, she decided to blow out her diaper when we got home.
Yeah we had our first major blow out up the back down the legs, everywhere!

Ah the joys of parenthood. ;)

Last night was the first night she slept for a few hour chunks at a time. She sleeps for hours during the day allowing us to do laundry, email, clean and rest ourselves. But nighttime is her time to eat and rest as little as possible. Last night I slept on the couch after 930 -11 or so and was so happy i did get in a small nap since she slept very little. Dad went to bed around 11 or so and we headed back at 12. She slept from 12-245 a record! But that soon outlived by her being awake from 245-5, ugh!

Anyways - just posting a few new pictures of her at home. I do have to say she is the cutest ever of course I am bias. ;)

Riley on her ride to her new home:

Riley and Dad playing the stare game:

Welcome Baby Lo: Riley Anne Lodato!!!!

Sorry for the late posting on this, been a rough few days in the hospital and trying to find time to get online. For those of you that have not seen pictures or seen an update through Andy or Facebook, I wanted to post a few blog entries for you all.

Riley Anne Lodato was born May 1st 2009 at 9:19am weighing 6 pounds 12 oz and 20 ¾” long.

I went into surgery around 8:20am and as you can see took about an hour for her to be born and a bit longer for me to be sewn back up. There was just one complication during the whole procedure so I was so happy! The spinal they gave me did not take which of course had me freaking out. Andy was not allowed in the room yet so I was not able to hold his hand during this time and was just surrounded by doctors and nurses scared to death.
They kept testing things on me “can you feel this” and of course I could and I was so upset. Of course they are not going to let me go through it all without being totally numb but I was just scared of why I could feel everything. Then they tried to put the catheter in and I cringed from the pain – they all just stopped and said: “you can feel that too?” Um yeah!
So they moved me around and another spinal was administered into my already pretty painful back where the other one went. Within about 10 minutes I was totally numb and very light headed but by this time Andy was let in and they started everything.

The whole procedure was very surreal. I knew what they were doing but I was just so scared and not being able to see anything you never know what they are doing.
It was also weird that in moments they were going to pull my baby out just like that.

Everything went really well and Riley was born! Her first apgar test did not go so well, her score was a 3. But the second Apgar was an 8 and that is the one that really counts.
(Apgar test is a test that test the baby's color, heart rate, reflex, muscle tone and respiratory effort right after birth) After all of that scare Andy got to take pictures and hold her and I was fixed all up and rolled back into the room.
We stayed in the hospital until Monday though there were no complications there, just no sleep. ;) I am posting some of the first pictures of our little Peanut and will create a new blog entry with more pictures we have taken in the last few days with Riley in her new home.

Thank you all for your wonderful emails, calls and Facebook postings!

Moments after birth:

Back in the room resting:

Riley flashing her "westside" signs ;)