Sophia under the Play Mat

Sophia is growing and changing more and more every day. I know I keep talking about how much she changes, but it is completely true. SO, if you haven't been to see her lately, you need to come see her soon. We borrowed a play gym from Brad and Katie. It is the cutest thing- a rain forest that plays music and Sophia LOVES it. She will lie under it for an hour and make the cutest sounds and kick her legs to the music. I made a video-- not the best, and hopefully it will work so check it out.

One Month Pictures

Marty and I took Sophia out for her first picture outing last week. I made the mistake of scheduling the appointment for 6:00, the time of day which she is the most fussy. To make a long story short, we went back yesterday to get some better shots since she was so upset in almost all the other ones. She did great since she was asleep almost the entire time. We think the pictures turned out fabulous- she is just so cute!!!

Sophia, Nana, and I went to Frankfort today to visit school. It was a wonderful trip, everyone thought she was so sweet and adorable and it was great to see all my friends at school. Plus the sun was out and it was warm- I certainly think that spring is right around the corner and I can't wait to get out with her more.

Daddy's Birthday

Sophia has changed so much in the last week. She has really started to fill out and is more alert every day. She has the cutest, chubby cheeks and seems to be pretty happy most of the time. She is still eating every 3 hours, or at the most every 4 hours, however, she has increased the amount of food she is consuming. Sophia is also smiling a lot more, I dont know if she knows that she is doing it or not, but it is certainly the cutest thing I have ever seen! She also has the strongest head and neck I have seen on an infant- and she is really good about moving it around.

Daddy's birthday was on Friday, and it was quite low key for us. We had family over on Saturday for dinner and cupcakes to celebrate- thanks to everyone who brought something!!! It was nice to be with everyone! Sophia seemed to really enjoy everyone being here, too, she certainly was the center of attention, as we just moved her from Grandmom, to Nana, to Aunt Kelly, to Aunt Katie and kept the circle going all night. All the movement didnt seem to phase her at all. She is quite the agreeable baby- at least right now :)

I promise I will add some pictures this week!

Wow! We have had an exciting week now that we are home from the hospital. Kate, Mom, and LeeAnn came this week at different times and helped Marty and me out around the house- they did everything from cooking and cleaning to laundry and letting Mommy and Daddy take a couple of well deserved naps. It was wonderful, and I hope that I can repay the favor to them soon!!
It is amazing to look at Sophia now and see how much she has changed just in the last week. We returned to the doctor's office for her 2 week appointment on Friday and she had gained 14 ounces- WOW!!! I knew she was growing but I never thought by that much. Her official weight is 7 pounds and 10 ounces. She is gaining about two ounces per day, but the doctor says that will level off after a while. She is also becoming more and more alert. Today she was bright eyed and bushy tailed all morning- just looking around the room and paying attention to her surroundings. Marty and I are so lucky to be able to have this little miracle in our lives.

Sophia's movie

Here are some video pics that Marty made of Sophia. Enjoy!!

Week one

WOW!!! What a difference a week makes. As you all know, we welcomed Sophia into our lives last week. She had a difficult start in that time. According to the doctors, she had a difficult delivery. She was not pink enough for the doctor's approval and was not raising her arms up and down like she should be. And when she would cry her oxygen level would low very low. So for the first six hours of life, she was not allowed to leave the nursery, which made it very hard on Marty and me as we really didn't know what was happening to our daughter. Finally a doctor from our group came to talk to us, and only said she was going to consult with the neo-natal doctor on call to check her condition. This new doc came to us and informed us that he thought it was best to admit her to the NICU. Marty and I were finally able to visit her at this point - I think it was about 1:00 am.

The doctors in the NICU told us a host of problems that she might have which really frightened us, and the only thing we could do was to wait and see what- if anything- was wrong with Sophia. The problems ranged from seizures to possibly swallowing some amniotic fluid. The tests began- it seems like every time we went to visit, there were new test results all that came back negative -- thank God!!! Since all the test we negative, she began to lose all her tubes and IVs. Sophia still had to stay in the NICU until Tuesday as most babies have a minimum stay of 7 days when they are admitted. The doctors told us that there are 3 kinds of babies that are born- healthy babies who have no problems, babies who have lots of health issues and 'troublemakers'- like Sophia who you think are healthy but are presenting like they have some little problem. So our little Sophia is a labelled a trouble maker from the start, but we will definitely take that since she is fine now!!! I assume since all the tests were negative, she just swallowed some fluid.

On Tuesday, we had to return to the hospital to stay the night with Sophie in a regular room and the nurse would check on us throughout the night just to make sure that we were getting along ok! all went well and were able to bring Sophia home on Wednesday! We are so thankful that we are all home together!!! Marty and I are so enjoying being her mommy and daddy and love to just stare at her and see how beautiful she is.

Thanks to everyone who prayed and kept us in their thoughts during this most difficult time.
Better go- Sophia is calling to me to nurse her!!!

Sophia Arrives Early

This past week has been the most exciting of our lives. We welcomed Sophia into this world on February 18, 2o10 at 5:o9 P.M. She weighs 6 pounds and 15 ounces and is 19.5 inches long.

The week started out as a normal week. My OB is out of town, so I had to go to see his partner for my twice a week appointments. I went in on Tuesday and had an NST which was normal, Sophia was moving around just fine. My blood pressure was also good!! He did the regular exam as well, and I was not dilated at all, but he said I was 50% effaced. He suggested that we go ahead and set a date to induce labor the following week to make sure that neither Sophia's health nor my health were risked. Sophia's arrival would be Tuesday, February 23, 2010~ very exciting for us to put a date on finally getting to meet and hold our daughter! Marty and I were so excited, although there were still many things left to do.

Needless to say, the best laid plans don't always work out the way you think, right? Wednesday night we went to bed, and I was awoken by a little water gush. I thought it was no big deal, so I tried to go back to sleep. No luck here, as it happened again. I woke up Marty and told him I didn't know what was going on exactly, but maybe we should call the hospital. A labor and delivery nurse told us to come on in and she would check me to see if I was in labor. So off we go at midnight to CBH, and low and behold it was time~ it was time to meet our daughter, well sometime within the next 24 hours.

Labor went on and on, there was no rest for Marty or me all night or into the day on Thursday. Family arrived to support us through this, and it seemed to me that Sophia would never get here. After 17 hours of labor, most not too bad, we finally were able to meet our daughter!!! We didn't get to spend too much time with her at this point, but I will explain all that in a future post. For now here are some cute pictures of little Sophia Mae Williams- she is absolutely the best thing that Marty and I have ever accomplished- a true miracle!!!