Chloe grows!!!

Today is Chloe is 4 weeks old!!! I can barely believe we've had her for 4 weeks already. As much eating, sleeping, and stretching she's done you would think she'd be fitting into some clothes but our little cupcake is still a bit shy of truly fitting into her 0-3 month outfits. BUT since it was her 4 week birthday and we were headed to Grayson's 1 yr birthday I tried to make an outfit work anyway. Here is a picture with her bear from the Beasley's at 1 week old and today....she really is growing!

Newborn pics

I can't believe how fast time is going by...this week Chloe will be 4 weeks old! WOW!! I feel like we just left the hospital. Maybe that's because we've been back on more than one occasion since her birth. We're still monitoring blood pressure and it's still higher than they want. Ugg. Chris's Mom was here this weekend and on Saturday my pressures dropped all day to the 110's over 80's. I was sooooo excited. Then today they were right back up. Come back SALLY! Chloe and I miss you!

Tomorrow Chloe and I have a real adventure! We recently visited our friend and wedding photographer Laura Kay Wootan for some newborn pictures of Chloe. She is an extremely talented photographer and we absolutely LOVE her work. Tomorrow Chloe and I are driving to her studio in San Marcos to pick our prints and I have no idea how I will ever be able to pick! Laura posted one sneak peak shot on her blog that I thought was awesome but know that I'll have other favorites too. Here's a link to the post on Laura's blog of Chloe's sneak peak:
http://www.thesmilehouseblog.com/?p=736

More to come soon....

Chloe's bouncer chair

Chloe likes to bounce...and Mommy likes when Chloe likes to bounce so she can blow dry her hair, make a lunch, just have actual use of her hands.

Thanks Aunt Elizabeth for the precious bouncer chair!

Everything's bigger in Texas

I never noticed the "Texas Pride" of Texans. Since I was born and raised here I thought all states had signs like Don't mess with (fill in your home state here). I was sure that every state had grandiose welcome centers on the state border where families could pose for pictures on road trips. And, I also didn't think having the lone star all over the place was strange...I figured every state probably incorporated their flag logo. Anyway, since Chris is from Kentucky he is very aware of the pride of Texas and makes fun of it. However, pride or not, there are some truths to the pride of this great state. Don't mess with us, welcome centers DO make great photos and as Chris recently has realized, Everything IS bigger in Texas....including the hail. So big is said hail that we have three cars (why we have three cars is another post and actually we currently have four but I'll save that dish for another day) that remind us each day when we walk outside that the hail in Texas is big. But since we'll eventually have the cars fixed Chris grabbed the camera during the hail storm and ran outside to capture it on camera. Here are some shots of our yard, the hail, and oh yeah....a Texas welcome center shot from the 80's for good measure! (Click on the pictures for a larger view!)

Live from Austin, it's Chloe and Chris!!!

Yay! We're LIVE...kind of. Here's a video of Chris in action with Baby Chloe. Now the updates can be even more exciting....like Chloe spitting up ;).

Sorry I've been lame with the updates, I was just hoping to have fun news to share. Sadly my blood pressures are still up and Chloe has developed reflux. So I get frustrated with the 4 times a day blood pressure monitoring and Chloe fills the in between with tears and spit up. We're a mess...but a blissful, love-filled mess. We're trying all the "tricks" to make the reflux better for our little girl but apparently the best "trick" of all is to give it time.

This weekend Chris's Mom will be here. We're excited for Chloe to meet her Grandma and for us to have an extra set of hands around for the weekend.

That's all for now but I hope to get more pictures and videos up here soon!

We're home...again.

Thanks for those praying people who've been lifting us up. We're home! They released me from the hospital today for the 2nd time in two weeks from the labor and delivery unit. I got to see some of the same nurses and lovingly told them I didn't want to seem them again for a few years.

They finally got my pressures down to a reasonable though still higher than normal level. The goal is to use the meds for the first week paired with rest. Then we'll start to reduce meds as my pressures will allow. Our prayer at this point is that I will be able to reduce the meds and return to normal. There is a slight chance that high blood pressure will not only be pregnancy related for me since it has not yet returned to normal on it's own. So we are praying against that and hopeful that it will still go away.

Chris has taken the rest of the week off and we're going to do what is totally Un-Crack Team like and actually rest and accept help from our awesome community of friends. It's counter-intuative to our can-do natures but we really do want what's best for our cupcake, Chloe, and for my body to heal. We'll do our best to get some more pictures posted but rest is our number one priority at this point.

Thanks again for your prayers! Here's a Chloe picture with a bear made by our friend Stephanie who is also doing the bedding stuff for her room. Sad to think Chloe will one day be bigger than the bear! I love this precious bundle stage...

Another update...

We need prayer...

We're back in the hospital. I went to my OB follow up this morning and my pressures were higher...too high to leave. So they admitted us the hospital and monitored my pressures all day. They didn't like the numbers so we're staying for a few nights. We've done more blood work, a urine test, a ultra sound and a continued blood pressure monitoring. They still don't see anything wrong other than the pressures. So we then have seen an internal medicinist and between them and the the OB's recommendations we are trying some other oral meds to see if they help drop my levels.

PRAISE GOD that Chloe is a great baby and seems to be unaffected by all of this. We're praying that continues. In the meantime Chris and I are worn down from all of this. We are ready to be home with our baby and not have IV's in every two days and dealing with the "hospital systems."

Will you please pray for us?

We hope for more cheerful updates soon.