After Birth (notice it's two word ... I'm not talking placenta here people)

It took me a lot of time to post the way I did last time (the chronologically ordered thing), so this time I'm going to just skip that and give you the skinny.

About an hour after the baby was born, my dad, step mom and sisters showed up. They had custom shirts that were really cute.



That was in the waiting room at the hospital. Then they all got to come down to see her. They loved it.

Then Izzie went to the nursery for her testing and a bath.


She cried most, but pasted all of them with flying colors. I knew she would be smart. :) (As soon as I'm done with this post, I'll figure out how to post a video.)

Then my mom and brother showed up, but I didn't get any good pictures of them. Then the family left and a bunch of our close friends came to see us. (I had a grin the whole time because I was pretty proud to show her off, but I did feel like a dork because I couldn't get the grin to go away).


After everyone left, we fed her for the second time. She did great. She did great the first time too, just in case you wanted to know. It was about 9:00pm after that, so we laid her down in her sweet Plexiglas hospital style bassinet. It was tough. The night went something like this in about 15 to 30 minute increments: feeding, fussing, crying, fussing, sleeping, fussing, sleeping, crying, fussing, sleeping, sleeping, fussing, sleeping, feeding, fussing, crying, sleeping, fussing, sleeping, sleeping, sleeping, feeding. Then at about 6:00am we sent her to the nursery so we could get sleep because we hadn't the entire night. Well, I did, but only because I sleep hard when I'm tired. I awoke to a firm "JOE" from my wife. She said it was about the third one...Whoops. I like my sleep. What can I say.

Then we spent the day in about the same routine as the night. Lynnell got the ok to leave the hospital and so did Izzie, but Izzie had to wait until 3:00pm so that they could give her the 24hr checkup. So, after that, we went to the nursery for checkout.

Quick picture of the inaugural car ride (or is that maiden voyage...I don't know) just before we pull out of the hospital parking lot.


SAFE! We made it home in one piece. I have driven a car thousands of time, but for some reason, this one seemed a little more nerve racking. All of the retards that draft in the middle of traffic seemed to be extra close. I guess it shouldn't be any different though. If I don't want to kill myself in a car accident, then I'll probably do just fine keeping the rest of my family safe.


Here I am rocking my little baby girl in the rocking chair. She's more precious than this blog or words can do justice.


Here is grandpa holding Izzie (it's his first, so he's pretty proud). I didn't get a picture of his permagrin, but he had one.


Here's me and Izzie catching a cat nap at about 8:00am Friday morning. FUN! I'm enjoying it like crazy at this point.


Then we got on the computer to blog. This is when I posted the stuff from the previous two days (the long chronological post). Izzie didn't help much, but she was good moral support and inspiration. Thanks baby.


I have to tell you, Friday morning was tough. Lynnell was so stressed out and unsure of what life was going to look like that she was kind of starting to break down. She held together really good though. I am proud of her for that. Her exact words were "I can't wait until your mom gets here. I hope she didn't go home yet." She was crying and it almost made me cry because I didn't know what to do or say.

Even though Nell doesn't take advice well (from anyone...even me, but it's not a bad problem) I think she just needed someone there to encourage her and be her backup. I know that all she needed was just the knowledge that there was someone there that knew what they were doing. I was VERY relieved when she told me this because I really wanted my mom to be there too because I sure as heck didn't know what to do. As so as soon as Lynnell went to shower, I called my mom to make sure they were coming over soon. Great thing is that when I called her I could hear her phone ringing. She left it at my house. HA! That meant that she was coming back. RELIEF!!!! When the calvary arrived, there was this huge feeling and sigh of relief. And they decided to stay at the house. SWEET!! THANKS MA!


We just hung out for the rest of the day. We did venture out to Target, the bank and WalMart to pick up a few items for the nursery and dinner. Izzie did GREAT! Two days old and not a single fuss while we were out and about. Excellent. I was proud. And we got a sweet lamp, fan and CD player for the nursery.

Next day we got up at a more normal time. Izzie slept most of Friday night for about 4 hour stretches (I slept 9 hours straight...YESSSSSSS...sorry honey). Izzie is finally on a schedule. Thank you Lord.

Then we had Izzie's first doctors appointment with the pediatrician on Saturday (today).


When we left the hospital there was some concern about her being a little jaundice. So they told us to watch her and make sure she got some sun. I sat on the deck with her for the last two mornings for about 10 minutes...totally cute and fun... I can't believe I'm using these words. No picture, but at the doctors appointment, she passed with flying colors. Everything is going perfectly and the jaundice has cleared up nicely.


When we got back, Izzie sat on the couch with uncle D (my brother Derek) and played Forza Motorsports 2 on the Xbox 360 (COOLEST GAME EVER!!!). I might have to buy Izzie an Xbox for her 1 month birthday or something (that's just getting my hopes up though).


Well, she didn't actually play. She said her fingers didn't have the coordination yet. That and she didn't want to break a nail. Girls... So she just napped.


Well, it's dinner time. I'm going to eat. Sorry for the long posts, but a lot has been going on, and I'm uber excited about it and want to share. I'll try to keep them shorter.

Here's a coupe of cute pictures:




I'm a proud and grateful father.