Happy Birthday!!

I'd like to wish a wonderful 33rd Birthday to my sweet husband Ryan. Unfortunately, he has to spend the day working in Owensboro, but I think we'll get a chance to celebrate by getting some ice cream tonight at Homemade Pie Kitchen (yum!!). I love you very much, Ryan, and hope you have a wonderful birthday - we certainly have a lot to celebrate. I asked him yesterday if he had a hard time remembering what life was like before Alexandra was born, to which he replied no, but I think it is hard to remember a time she wasn't in our lives! To refresh my memory, and also in celebration of Ryan's birthday, I thought I would post a few pictures of us from what I like to call B.B. (Before Baby).

Alexandra Makes a Friend

Up until the past week, Alexandra's interaction with other little children has been pretty limited. That has changed drastically with her starting daycare at St. Joe's today! She also made friends with Charlotte, the darling little daughter of our good friends Nick and Amy. Nick, Amy and Charlotte came over last Friday night to just hang out and eat some pizza - Charlotte loved Alexandra and just kept saying "baby" over and over. She was so gentle with Alexandra and kept stroking Alexandra's little hand and her head. I just love the picture of the two of them smiling at one another!

True Blue Baby

In honor of the upcoming football season, we had to get some pictures of the newest little UK Wildcat fan (thanks for the too cute outfits, Christa!). Note how she is doing her "baby push-ups" on the bed!!

I also included a picture of her following her bath last night, wrapped up in her bunny towel - if you look close, you can see tears underneath her eyes (while she really enjoys her bath, she hates to be cold afterwards!). I hate the fact that her tears have come in, it breaks my heart!!

For Aunt Rachel

I am so happy that I got to have a few minutes last night to catch up with my sister Rachel on the phone. Rachel lives in Boston and is incredibly busy as a second year ob/gyn resident....after she chastised me for not putting up even more pictures of Alexandra on the blog, I thought I would create a special post for her from her "pun'kin"...

Dear Auntie Rachel,

Mommy said you wanted some more pictures of me, so I told her to be sure to update her blog this morning with some new ones. The first few Mommy took this morning, just for you. I'm wearing my special shirt with my name on it, I hope you like them. The other pictures are of me in my onesie with the lambies on it, and then there's me again in my hula girl outfit (which is Mommy's favorite outfit, can't you tell from the big grin on her face?). That blue thing I seem to be sitting in for most of my pictures is my bouncy seat...I LOVE my bouncy seat, I could just play for hours in it and stare at the fishies.

Mommy said she is going to try to find a way to post a video of me laughing and smiling on her blog really soon so you can check me out. Everyone seems to think it's pretty cute, so I like to smile and laugh a lot...sometimes I even smile at Pearl!

I love you and miss you and can't wait to see you soon for lots of hugs.

Love,

Your little pun'kin

Alexandra

Hi, My Name is Sara...and I am a Baby Clothes Shopping Addict

Is there some kind of anonymous addicts support group for new moms who are obsessed with buying cute clothes for their kids? If there is, I should attend a meeting ASAP (as should my Mom - sorry Mom, but you said yourself that you had a problem also!). It is the manufacturers' fault - if they didn't put out such cute clothes, I wouldn't have this problem. Really, Alexandra is so much better dressed than I am...it's sad to realize that your 3 month old is a fashion plate compared to their mom! At any rate, here's the latest I picked up from gap.com - in my defense, they were on sale!!

Camera Recommendations

As you would imagine, we have been taking countless photographs of Alexandra Grace, trying to record all the sweet moments of her life. Unfortunately, our camera does not seem to be getting the job done. Don't get me wrong - our little Canon Power Shot does a good job, but the delay on the digital camera is causing me to miss some fleeting smiles and laughter. As much as Alexandra smiles now, I have only been able to capture her smile in ONE picture because of the stupid delay on the camera. As such, I'm wanting to invest in something a little bit more high end, not a point and click. Can anyone give me some recommendations??

Stop the Presses

My sweet Alexandra Grace is going to be 12 weeks old this Sunday....I can hardly believe it! I'm ashamed to admit that I am a total slacker and am just now getting around to her birth announcements! In my defense, it's hard to think about ordering cute birth announcements when you are struggling to get through a day after only a few hours of sleep and you have spent countless nights rocking a child who refuses to sleep. Enough procrastination...check out these cute birth announcements from Dwell that I found on TinyPrints.com. I'm having the hardest time making a selection!

Droolers

We have a couple of droolers in our midst...Over the past year, our Lab, Pearl, has taken to drooling copious amounts onto our floor anytime there is human food in her presence. It really is disgusting. Some drool I don't mind, however, is that coming out of our newest family member. Between the occasional drool that seems to have started over the past week and the projectile spit up which we encounter with Alexandra's acid reflux, we finally decided to put a bib on her this morning. I think my little "Sweet Pea" looks pretty cute!

Tub Time

So SOMEONE finally decided she likes spending time in her bathtub! Here's a few pictures from bath time last night:




And a couple of pictures we took after we got her jammies on her:

Laughter IS the Best Medicine

I think I have failed to mention that my beautiful Alexandra started smiling last week and has not stopped! We have also heard the early starts of laughter coming from our cute little girl. This picture is priceless - it's so hard to catch a baby in the act of smiling or laughing with a digital camera, so that makes this picture extra special to me! I cannot believe she will be 8 weeks old on Sunday.

What is Old is New Again

Speaking of 30 years old, check out the pictures below. Alexandra is wearing a little dress and bloomer set that I wore when I was a baby. I thought the pictures turned out pretty cute!

The End of An Era

Or a decade....my twenties, to be more precise. That's right, the "About Me" blurb to the right of my blog is no longer correct as I am no longer a twenty something but (gulp) 30 years old as of June 22. I handled it better than I thought I would - probably because I am so sleep deprived! I did have a wonderful celebration for my birthday - last Friday my parents came up to babysit and Ryan took me to Corbett's for dinner, where I was surprised to learn that our friends Andy and Amanda and Ryan's cousin Jonathan and his wife Paige were joining us. We had a fantastic time and the food was INCREDIBLE (if you live in the Louisville area and have not been there yet to eat, you need to make plans to do so soon! The website is www.corbettsrestaurant.com).

I imagine my thirties will be pretty eventful, if they are anything like my twenties, in which I:

(1) Graduated from college
(2) Moved to attend law school
(3) Took and passed the bar exam
(4) Moved again to Lexington to take my first job as a lawyer
(5) Met, dated, and married my husband of almost 3 years
(6) Moved AGAIN, this time to Louisville
(7) Became pregnant and had our first child

With that in mind, who knows what the next decade holds!!

Beautiful Girl

Don't have too much time to post right now since Alexandra is battling colic and acid reflux, but wanted to share this beautiful close up of our sweet girl.

First Few Days At Home....

Here are some additional pictures that have been taken since we came home one week ago today....in some ways, it feels like just yesterday that Alexandra was born but at times it also seems like she's been here forever.

A Star Is Born

Ryan and I welcomed our beautiful baby girl, Alexandra Grace, into the world on Sunday, May 4, 2008. She was born at 8:49 p.m., and weighed in at 7 lbs., 6 oz., and measured just shy of 19 inches. I was induced on Sunday morning because there were some mild concerns about Alexandra's abdomen measuring on the small size. The decision was ultimately made to perform a c-section to get her out that evening after I failed to progress despite frequent, strong contractions. It was also discovered during the surgery that Alexandra was turned on her side, which was a major cause of the lack of progression. With all that being said, she is perfectly healthy and happy with no health issues, thank God.

I wish I could put into words the emotions I experienced during delivery, during the birth of my child, and in the days that have passed since Alexandra's birth, but I don't think I could do it justice. She is a precious miracle that we have been blessed with, and Ryan and I feel complete now that she is at home with us. There have been many sleepless nights(!!), but I would go through a million of them just to have her in my life.

I am still pretty drained, but I wanted to post a few of the many pictures that were taken at the hospital:

Ryan loved his surgical scrubs:


Moments after birth:


The first time I got to hold her:


With Mimi and Grandpops (my Mom and Dad):


With Nana (Ryan's stepmom Jackie) and Great-Grandma Helen (Ryan's grandmother):


With Granny Sharon (Ryan's Mom) and Daddy:


With Aunt Rachel:



Daddy and daughter - possibly the sweetest picture ever taken:


Me and my beautiful girl:



Thanks to all of you, dear friends and family, for all of your support during my pregnancy and the birth of our daughter. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as the Davis family embarks on this newest adventure.

Love,
Sara