Sydney's Birth and First Week!

Wow, so much has happened in this past week it is hard to figure out where to begin! Our sweet little Sydney was born 1 week ago today. She is so incredibly sweet and precious. We are so happy that she is finally here and we are so in love with her. She is a very laid back baby which has been amazing, especially considering how not laid back Jayda was as a baby. That has been a huge blessing for us since we not only have to care for Sydney, but run around and keep up with miss Jayda. The only times Sydney cries are when she's hungry or when she's getting her diaper or clothes changed. Otherwise she is sleeping or quitely looking around at her surrondings. She is such a good baby! Jayda is absolutely in LOVE with Sydney. She asks to hold her all the time and does a great job holding her in the boppy. While she holds her she probably kisses her every other minute. It is the sweetest thing I've ever seen. Sydney is so lucky to have such a great, loving big sister. Jacob has been off work this past week and just started back today. It was hard for him to go back and I was super sad that he had to, but I guess someone has to put groceries on the table, right? We had such a special week with daddy off work and I sure could not have done any of this without him, we love you daddy!

Ok, so I guess we'll start with the night before Sydney's birth. All of the grandparents came in town to stay the night at our house. That night we all sat down to a nice dinner together and then had Jayda's big sister party. Jayda got all kinds of big sister gifts and we had an ice cream cake for her!

Jayda showing off her big sister necklace from mommy and daddy at her big sister party the night before Sydney's birth!


Mommy holding up Sydney's "little sister" onesie. Looks like it will fit pretty good.


Last picture of our family of 3!


On thursday morning, February 11th, I woke up at 4:30 a.m., showered and got ready. Jacob and I headed out with my parents to the hospital around 5:45 a.m. on a yucky rainy morning. We arrived at the hospital and checked in and filled out lots of paperwork.

Jacob and I arriving at the hospital on Thursday, Feb. 11th at 6 a.m. for the C-Section.


Momma signing her life away before surgery, lovely right?


After all the paperwork the nurse came in to give me an IV to keep me hydrated. She tried one hand but said my veins were too small after getting the needle in, so she had to do the other hand. Once she finally got the IV in we had to wait a while for the fluid to go in since apparently because my veins were small so the fluid was taking a while to go in. So, after 20 minutes or so of getting hydrated the nurse came to get me and she walked me to the operating room. Jacob had to stay behind while I got prepped for surgery. I walked into the OR and tried not to look around since I had been told that it was pretty creepy walking yourself into the OR. So, I just kept my head down and got up on the operating table. The anesthesiologist (these are always the nicest guys in the world!) came in to give me the spinal block/epidural. The nurse had me lean over a pillow and held me down since I was a bit shaky and the anesthesiologist did the epidural. Just like last time it barely even hurt, just a little sting. Pretty soon the anesthesiologist said you should start to feel your legs getting warm from the epidural and sure enough they did. The nurse helped me get my legs back up on the table and everything started going numb. I laid back for a few minutes and pretty soon they put the drape up and the Dr. came in for the C-Section. My Dr. immediately started the surgery (I didn't even know it), then Jacob came in, I felt a lot of pressure and pulling, and then the anesthesiologist told Jacob to get out the camera because Sydney was almost here! It all happened so quick, probably within 5 mintues!! My Dr. was great and did a wonderful job on the C-Section and on my incisiion. Sydney came out and at first I didn't hear anything and got a little worried. Then all of a sudden I heard this loud, but little cry and then she cried out several more times. They showed her to me on the way over to another little room within the operating room. She was so perfect I could already tell! Jacob went with the nurses while they cleaned Sydney up and wrapped her up in a blanket. Jacob then brought Sydney out to sit with me while they finished my C-Section. Sydney sat there with her daddy so peacefully and quitely and it was the most precious thing! I was so proud and happy to meet our baby girl!

Sweet Sydney right after birth, only 5 minutes old!


Proud daddy with his new baby girl.


Mommy and Daddy so happy to finally meet our sweet baby girl.


After surgery I was taken back to my room to recover for a couple of hours. While I was in recovery the grandparents all came in to meet Sydney, along with Jayda! Pretty soon after we got back to the room I wanted to see if Sydney would start nursing since they say to start right after you have the baby. Almost immediately after I started trying she latched on and has been a great nurser ever since! It is amazing how different this experience has been with Sydney. With Jayda it took us about 3 days for her to start nursing, and lots of lessons from the lactation nurse!

Oma with little Sydney back in mommy's hospital room.


Us with Sydney while mommy was in recovery.


Jayda's first time to meet Sydney. Jayda fell in love with her immediately and hugged her steadily for 10 minutes without saying a word. Melts my heart!


SO, SO happy to hold her little sister!


About an hour and a half after she was born Sydney got her first bath. She didn't like being undressed, but she did like her hair being washed.

Sydney's first bath at the hospital. She was exactly 2 hours old at this point.


Getting her hair washed for the first time!


After bathtime they moved her to the warmer to heat up. She had to stay there until her temperature came up to 98.6 degrees. Once her temperature came up we could move rooms to the post partum side.

Sydney under the warmer getting her umbilical cord dyed.


Jayda opening up her big sister present from Sydney, a Barbie guitar!


Around 11:30 a.m. we were moved to a post partum room. That afternoon and evening we had several visitors come up to meet Sydney.

Michelle came up to meet miss Sydney!


Nanna and Pawpaw with Jayda and Sydney!


Oupa holding Sydney for the first time!


Loving on her baby sister.


Cousin Michelle stopped by with Aunt Sherry and Aunt Cheryl to meet Sydney.


Justin, Lourdes and Nanna with little Sydney.


Jayda loving on mommy, sweet girl!


Paschal family!


Riley came up to meet Sydney too!


Klint and Brandy visiting Sydney on Thursday evening.


Sweet baby girl sleeping on her first night after all of her visitors left.


Night, night Sydney!


The hospital where we were at was great! They had a nursery that you could ask for the babies to go to at anytime. A lot of hospitals have done away with nurseries and do room in only. Rooming in is great, but at night it is very nice to get some sleep and have them go to the nursery. So, we sent Sydney to the nursery both nights that we were in the hospital and it was wonderful! We would send her and they would assess her, bathe her, do whatever screens they needed to and then bring her to us every 3 hours for me to feed her. It was absolutely amazing to get that sleep! When we had Jayda there was no nursery and I remember going home absolutely exhausted because I hadn't slept for 4 nights in a row! I could not even function! It's not like I came home feeling great this time, but I definitely felt rested which helped tremendously!

The beautiful flower arrangement that Jacob's work sent us.


Jayda and daddy loving on their favorite new little one.


Oma and Jayda holding Sydney. Can you tell just how much Jayda loves Sydney?


Sleeping with her daddy!


Sweet baby!


Sydney and I were both discharged from the hospital on saturday morning. We were super excited about that because we thought we would have to stay until sunday. That morning Jacob and I tried to get some cute hospital pics of Sydney.

Our sweet Sydney on saturday before leaving the hospital. Instead of paying an arm and a leg to buy pics from the hospital we just took some ourselves. Thought they turned out pretty good! This is just like the onesie Jayda wore for her hospital pics, just a different bug. Jayda was a bumblebee and Sydney was a dragonfly!


Another one of our attempted hospital pics. Pretty cute though!


All ready to take Sydney home for the first time!

Our new family of 4 leaving the hospital on satruday afternoon!


Sydney all ready to go home in her carseat! She didn't like getting in her carseat, but once she was in we didn't hear a peep from her!


Our 2 little girlys ready to leave the hospital! Jayda had to help daddy carry the carseat out to the car.


Sydney's welcome home cookie cake that Jayda picked out, yummy!!


Little bit in her bouncer all swaddled up. She loves to be swaddled! It is so nice that she likes to be swaddled. When she's ready to go to sleep we just swaddle her up and put her down in her bed and she goes to sleep. It is wonderful! And, she doesn't even have to have a pacifier (Jayda had to have her paci all the time!)



Jayda and Sydney in matching pj's after Sydney's first bath at home! We didn't get any pics of her first bath, but we did video tape the whole thing.


The girls in matching pj's the next night.


Jayda came to crawl in our bed after she woke up so she could lay down with Sydney, so sweet!


Sydney at her first Dr's. appt. on Monday, Feb. 15th. When we left the hospital on saturday the Dr. told us we should have Sydney checked on monday because he thought it looked like she had a little bit of Jaundice. Thankfully when we went to have her looked at the Dr. said she didn't look Jaundiced at all and that she didn't even need to test her, yay!!


Sydney getting checked out by the Dr. at her first appt. Not too happy!


My 3 favorites!


Little sweet pea in her swing. She's still not too sure about it.


Mommy trying on Sydney's new bows, how precious is that?!


Daddy with his 2 girls!


Sweet baby girl sleeping.


Can you tell their sisters?


Sydney getting her 2nd bath last night. Her 2nd bath went much better than the first. She actually seemed to like it last night which is great! Jayda also used to love her baths, which was nice so that bathtime was not a struggle. Maybe we'll have 2 water babies!


Getting all bundled up after her bath.


Daddy with his little girl!


SO sweet!


Sydney at 1 week old with big sister Jayda!


Everything has gone so well with little miss Sydney. She is such a good baby and we couldn't be more happy. It's hard to believe we are already getting some sleep too! At night I wake her up every 3 hours, feed her, and put her back to sleep. It's really nice that daddy is getting sleep already too since he has already started back to work.

We are so blessed to have 2 amazing, beautiful and loving little girls! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for us during this special time, we really appreciate you all! Special thanks to Oma and Oupa and Nanna and Pawpaw for staying with us and helping us take care of the girls! Y'all are amazing!!