Bath Time!

Amelia loves taking baths and we love giving them to her.

Happy Birthday

On September 15, Amelia turned one month old. We can hardly believe it! She's getting so very big; over nine pounds already. She's still so beautiful and we love her dearly.

Hangin' Out

Our afternoon at Green Lake.

Don't Use the Water...

What is it with me and homes with sewer problems? The first month after purchasing my Seattle home, the sewer backed up. Then three years later the first month our tenant was there, it backed up again and had to be replaced. Thankfully I'm married to a plumber who was able to replace the pipe through the yard.
Well, now we're looking at problems of a large magnitude at our Bothell home. Darn! I need to wash some clothes for my baby and heck; I need to wash the baby! She needs a bath.
Anyway, that's my rant. Let's hope that we have a clear sewer line before Monday, which is my first day home alone with Amelia. And the date on Monday is September 11. But I guess it's not the end of my world if I have to drive somewhere to use a toilet.

Oh yeah, isn't Amelia beautiful!! We're so in love!

The Long Story

Now here’s the long version on Amelia’s birth. Dad started writing the story while we were in the hospital. Mom will fill in the blanks and give a current events update.

Ok she’s here, whew…’ Kirsten is feeding the baby so I’m in charge of the blog update.

I would like to introduce Amelia Jean Lowry. Amelia means hard working and industrious. Jean means gift from God and is also her Great Grandmother’s name.

So here’s what happened. We went to the hospital Sunday to start Kirsten’s labor. At about 10:00 pm she was having contractions every 5 to 10 min. After laboring at home all night, we made it to the hospital around 8:00 am Monday morning. Kirsten was well into labor so she did not need any actual medicine to get things going. Things progressed slowly and painfully (no pain meds) all day until finally, at around 6pm, it was advised that Kirsten get an epidural. Everyone was exhausted and it was the best and only choice.

At around 11:00 pm she started pushing but Amelia wasn’t going anywhere. Kirsten spiked a fever of about 101 and twice the baby’s heartrate dropped to 40 beats per minute without explanation. Then her heartrate rose to 170 beats per minute and stayed that high. After two hours of pushing and a stressed out baby, the midwife and doctor determined that for the safety of the baby we needed an emergency C-section. Everything happened very quickly, as Kirsten was wheeled to the OR immediately. Our beautiful baby girl arrived at 1:48am. Because of all the stress the baby was under, she did have a bowel movement in the womb. The medical team was able to clean her airways before she took her first breath so she was not in any danger of inhaling the bad stuff. So finally after almost 28 hours in labor and some touchy moments with the baby’s heartbeat, she’s here and she is perfect.

Kirsten was on antibiotics to tackle her fever that hung around for a few days. Amelia’s fever didn’t last long enough to need medication, but then she was diagnosed with jaundice. We didn’t even notice how yellow she really was until we looked at the photos we were taking. She came home with the light bed and an in-home nurse visit each day. It only took three days for the jaundice to leave and to receive a baby clean bill of health.

So now she’s 17 days old and just as delightful as the day she was born. We’re still getting to know each other and we’re having so much fun in the process. She sleeps four to five hours at a time each night and isn’t really fussy unless she needs a diaper change or is hungry. She’s such a great baby and we couldn’t be happier.

Today Amelia took her first “walk” at Seattle’s Green Lake. Mom and Dad each had their favorite Starbucks drink and we looked every bit the Seattle urban family. It was hilarious and we loved every minute. The last time we walked Green Lake we were quite pregnant and checking out all the different strollers in an effort to make the right choice. This time we didn’t notice any other strollers or even the water as we couldn't stop staring at the contents of our stroller – perfect!