Finally...the first month!

Warning...this is going to be an EXTREMELY long post. I really should try and post more frequently so as to not have to catch up an entire month in one post. Sadie Beth is five weeks old today, but these pictures go through the first month. It is amazing how much she has grown already. She really is a wonderful baby, and David and I are completely enamored with her. She has TONS of personality and continues to be very good natured most of the time. Don't get me wrong, she still has her moments when she is quite contrary, but when this happens it is usually because her tummy is bothering her or she is overly tired. She is on a pretty good schedule. I certainly don't agree with everything BabyWise promotes, but using the Eat-Wake-Sleep Cycle has really helped her organize her sleep and hunger patterns. Sadie Beth has been sleeping almost through the night for almost 2 weeks now. She sleeps from about 8-10pm, eats at 10, and then sleeps until about 5am, eats, and sleeps again until about 7:45am. Some make fun of my schedule and insistance upon it, but hey, she is sleeping, is predictable, and happy.
And on with the picture show...this first picture makes me laugh...it is of Sadie Beth when she is what we like to call "Milk Drunk." After I nurse her, it takes her a few minutes to snap out of a milk-induced state of inebriation.

Don't you think she should be an Anne Geddes baby?

I've put Sadie Beth on our bed a couple times while I'm getting dressed or putting laundry away. However, I've rethought this habit as she is quite adept at spitting up "projectile" style. Since I'd rather not have to deal with that on our nice duvet cover, she now hangs out in the pack-n-play.

Sadie Beth loves snuggle time with Daddy...and he looks very serious here for some reason. :)
I wonder what she was thinking/dreaming about here. If only we could read her mind.
At first we were wrapping her up like this for nap times and using the swaddle blanket for nighttime, but now we use the swaddle blanket for everything. It velcros into a little baby-straight-jacket, but she seems to really like it. It makes her feel snug. When we were using the receiving blankets she would fight and fight against them. She has gotten so much longer now that we can't lay her diagnolly like this any more.
Sometimes we lay Sadie Beth on the floor with this toy from her exersaucer. Most of the time she doesn't pay much attention to it, but every once in a while she will bat at the toys (my guess is unintentionally) and act surprised when she makes contact. Most of the time, she looks past the toy and "into the light." You see, there is a skylight in the living room that she adores. She stares endlessly at it like she wants so badly just to discover what lies beyond.
Because of her spitting up projectile style, we try to prop her up for a little bit after she eats. Sometimes it helps, sometimes not...like this morning. :)
Doesn't her head look really big in proportion to her body here? I don't think it's really all that big. We had these cute little newborn sized onesies like the ones she is wearing below, and now she is too big for them. She looks so teeny there...especially compared to now.
Mommy loves snuggling with her baby girl! I'm so thankful to not have to work right now. I treasure each moment with Sadie Beth. Every day is so precious, and they go by so fast!
Doesn't Sadie Beth look like her daddy in this picture? I think she definitely has his eyes, though probably have my mouth and chin.

Sadie Beth is checking out her giraffe friend. She likes to look at him, probably because he lots of bright colors and jingles when you shake him.
We had a visit from her Great Uncle Joe and Aunt Jan a few weeks ago. They came from Indianapolis. Soon, their daughter (my cousin) Jennifer, will have a baby boy! (due 11.05)
Yet another Anne Geddes moment. She is all curled up on our rocking chair. She looked so little compared to how big the chair is!
The next set of pictures is trying to catch Sadie Beth's many fun faces. She has the funniest expressions. I wish I could capture each in a picture so I never forget them, but I have a hard time getting the picture at exactly the right moment.
Excited baby!

Very happy baby! This is one of my favorite pics!
Not sure what to say about this one.
Swing pictures...the first few swing pictures were taken when Sadie bug was sick with her first cold. It was so sad. She was so pitiful....she wasn't fussy, but just sort of laid around looking helpless and miserable. I was pretty worried. She wasn't even 3 weeks old yet, and I have no idea where she got it from. We'd been careful about taking her out and having people wash their hands. Since then, we've been super-vigilant about it. We took her to the doctor, who confirmed that it was just a cold. A week or so later she was back to feeling pretty normal, after lots of Vick Vapor Rub, nose-sucking and a humidifier in her room.

More swing pictures...I just thought these were too cute not to post.

Awww............... Sadie Beth has great hair...it's out of control! And it looks a lot like her daddy's...before too long she'll have more hair than he does.
We have a belly button!!! Her umbilical cord fell off a few days before she turned 3 weeks old. It's kindof gross but I figured we should commemorate with a picture.
Bath-time snuggles with Mommy...Sadie Beth usually likes to take a bath. She especially seems to like getting her hair washed.

This was her first tub bath. Until then, we had been giving her sponge baths on top of a beach towel placed on the counter top. I think she actually liked that better.
More snuggle time with Mommy in the big rocking chair. We spend a lot of time here. This is where I nurse and we have our pre-bedtime routine.
Grammy loves to come over and play with Sadie Beth.
She is so much fun when she is waking up. Sometimes she has lots of smiles. Other times it is lots of grunts and squeaks. This was one evening when we were waking her up for her 7pm feeding. She is in the swaddles blanket, aka baby-straight-jacket, I mentioned earlier.
More sleepy shots. We've enjoyed going for lots of walks in our neighborhood. This day was a bit cooler so we had to get more bundled up before we could go out.
I think Sadie Beth really likes being outside in the fresh air. I know that I will miss our daily walks during the winter. It was a nice time to get out for a bit.
Usually she ends up falling asleep by the time we get home from our walks, which is great because when we get back, it's naptime!
Here is David giving Sadie Beth her first bottle, which she took like champ...a little too well, actually. I think she guzzled it down so fast she ended up with a tummy ache and fussed for quite a while. I think we might hold off on any more bottles for awhile. I think she might be getting confused between the bottle and the real-deal...me. :)
A very contented smile up at Daddy. She loves hearing him sing, and he is great at rocking her to sleep. We try to make sure they get to spend some time together every morning before David heads off to work.

Family time!!! Just over a week ago, Sadie Beth got to meet her Grandpa and Grandma Balzer and her Aunt Darla. They flew to Louisville for several days and we had a great time hanging out...but poor little Sadie Beth didn't get any attention at all....hehehehehe...right!

Aunt Darla and Sadie Beth getting to be life-long friends.

Big yawn for Grandma Balzer!

Grandpa and Sadie Beth getting to know each other. Grandpa was good at getting a fussy baby to settle down.
Gazing into the light...she could do this for hours...seriously...not exaggerating.

Here is David's famous specialty breakfast quiche! We had a delicious brunch with cinnamon roles, scones, fruit, and quiche.
More hanging out with the family!

We introduced to the church and dedicated on Sunday, October 14th. Everyone thought she was adorable, which she is. She was very well behaved during her first church service
Family picture time!

Here are the September babies at Grace! Introducing Elijah Blaise Grissom (9.09 -left), Sadie Beth Balzer (9.18), and Luke Aaron Wojnicki (9.14 - right). Sadie Beth will have her pick of the boys, I suppose. :)
The proud new Balzer family, but not too great of pictures.

We had a delicious meal after church at my mom's. She surprised David with one of his favorite dishes... KY Hot Brown Casserole.
I had a hard time deciding what Sadie Beth would wear to her dedication at church. She has several very cute outfits, mostly hand-me-downs, that were meant for warmer weather and I knew she probably wouldn't have a chance to wear them again. So, we decided on the cute little dress below for church (partially because it is the only outfit I have actually bought her). Then I changed her into another cute dress to wear over to Mom's. However, we projectile-styled it (spit up) onto that outfit in the 10 minutes she had it on, so it was time to change yet AGAIN, into option #3.

Isn't she a doll?

Check out the little thrush tongue! We have finished 2 rounds of medication and are getting ready to start round 3, a different med. It is only on her tongue and doesn't seem to bother her, but I would like to take her to get some pictures taken, but want to wait for it to go away.
Outfit #2, until she puked on it. The hat was size 0-3 mos, but HUGE on her, big head and all.
Cuddles with Daddy...and outfit #3, what you can see of it.

And we're done. If you've stuck with me...wow...you should get a prize. We hope you enjoyed our pictures. We sure love our little girl. :)

Now we make three...sweet little Sadie Beth!

Finally...more pictures of our new arrival. Sadie Beth is a week old and we have enjoyed every minute of her. She is an amazing baby...I know I'm biased, but wow...she has such an amazingly sweet disposition. She stays so happy most of the time. We are so blessed.
I know all anyone really cares about is seeing the new pictures (and I have posted a ton!), but first I'll tell the details of her big debut for those who want to know. David and I were scheduled to be induced on Monday, September 17, at 9:00pm. We decided to go ahead with the induction because my doctors were still concerned with Sadie Beth getting too big and increasing my chances of having a C-section. I've always been leary of being induced, but we decided to trust the doctors on this one. When we called the hospital Monday night at 7:30pm to check in, we were told we were put on hold because there was not a bed for us. So the waiting began...I was pretty chilled out about the whole thing, surprisingly. David was nervous enough for the both of us! :) Normally David is so organized and prepared and I'm the chaotic one, but excitement got the best of him...as evidenced by him doing completely non-David like things...stumbling down the stairs as he packed up the car, leaving the door to the house, car trunk, and garage wide open and forgetting about them completely. It was pretty cute. He was just so eager to meet his baby girl and didn't want to wait any longer.
We got the call to come to the hospital and arrived about 11:30pm. I was Group B Step positive, so that meant I had to be hooked up to an IV antibiotic the entire time, a task finally accomplished after 4 attempts to get the IV going. I think the nurse who did it was in training - ouch. Finally, I got started on ptocin about 12:45am. It didn't take too long for me to get into a regular pattern of contractions...by around 5:45am they were getting pretty intense but I found the pain to be manageable as long as I could get up and move around. The nurses finally agreed to let me stay out of bed as long as they could get the monitors to work while I was standing. After nearly fainting from low blood pressure around 7am, I got back in the bed and my water broke on its own (yay!) a minute or so later. That's when the fun began. (haha). Ptocin makes contractions longer and stronger and often you feel most of the labor in your back. Within a couple of minutes, I was having contractions less than a minute apart that lasted between 60-90 seconds each that was all back labor. In my most sincere effort to "tough it out" I made it about 30 minutes before deciding that it was time to call the epidural man, aka my new best friend at the time. I would have been disappointed if I found out I was nearly complete when I got the epidural, but was thankful for it when I found out I was still only 4cm dilated. This meant too they could keep upping the ptocin at a faster rate and I would progress faster. After the epidural, I didn't feel a thing the rest of the time. It was stinking amazing. Within five minutes of getting it, I was knocked out asleep. I hadn't slept all night and was nearly impossible to communicate with for the next few hours. The next time the nurses checked me I was 9.5cm and just about ready. They wanted to let baby drop a bit more so gave me about another hour before we started pushing...which was just fine with me since I was as comfy as could be! The nurse told me to be prepared for 2-3 hours of pushing since this was my first baby. I was a little nervous about pushing since I couldn't feel anything below my waist...I didn't even know that I would know where to push! :) We got started pushing about 11:50am, and little Sadie Beth must have decided she was ready to meet her mom and dad because she didn't waste any time. After pushing through 2-3 contractions the nurse stopped me to go get the doctor, who came in right at noon. Sadie Beth arrived just a few minutes later...12:07pm! It was the most incredible experience...when they laid her on me for a minute or two, I immediately fell head over heels in love with this precious little gift from the Lord. It was amazing to hear her cry and see her for the first time. It was such a special time with David and Sadie Beth those first couple of hours while we were still in the delivery room...a time I will never forget.
Okay, okay...now on to the pictures. :) My mom got the hospital a little bit later, and here she is holding Sadie Beth for the first time. These next few pictures were taken later in the evening when we got the mother/baby floor.
My dad is pretty thrilled to be a grandpa. Mom was able to bring him to the hospital that evening and he enjoyed getting to spend some time with his new granddaughter.
And here is the proud new dad! As much as he insisted it wouldn't happen, I think Sadie Beth has David wrapped around her little finger already. He is so good with her and she loves being with him. Isn't my husband an awful good looking guy?
And now begins the Sadie Beth picture show....we have already taken a ton of pictures. I wish I could capture every smile or cute little face that she makes so I will never forget any of them.
Sadie Beth already makes the most wonderful little faces. Her looks are so expressive and can be so funny. It's neat that we are already getting to learn about her personality this way.

We had a little fashion show at the hospital trying to decide what outfit she should wear for the picture on the Baptist East web site. (http://www.baptisteast.com/). This little red outfit was the winner. It was a gift from her Aunt Darla. It has matching little sandals and hat that were WAY too big for her feet and head.
I was so thrilled to find out that Sadie Beth had hair! Not quite as much as I did when I was born, but still enough to be fun. We hope it doesn't fall out...it is so soft!
David loves rocking with Sadie Beth and she loves that special time with her daddy. It is amazing how quickly she calms down when he rocks her and sings to her. She must recognize his voice form all the times we sang to her before we went to sleep throughout the pregnancy.
Below is the beautiful flower arrangement that Grandma and Grandpa Balzer sent. It brightened up the hospital room and now fills our kitchen with a lovely frangrance. I especially love the stargazer lillies of course!

We got this little outfit out for her to wear at the hospital. It was sized 0-3 months, but she was swimming in it! But how cute? :)

Here we are leaving the hospital. It was Scout's first time in her car seat. The little pillows are to keep the straps from rubbing her neck, but we decided to take those off. She will have to get a bit bigger first. :)

Home sweet home. Sadie Beth is on her changing table...my super cheap yard sale find that I am already so thankful for! Don't you just want to snuggle her? I do. :)
This is our first night home. As you can see, I'm pretty happy...(that's an understatement).
Boy is Sadie Beth a hand/thumb/finger sucker. I guess we shouldn't be surprised because in the ultrasound at 36 weeks we couldn't get her to stop sucking on her hand. She is great at self soothing...maybe she heard me teaching all my kids at work about coping skills. The only problem is that when she sucks on her hand she sucks in lots of air too, which I think irritates her tummy sometimes.

Here she is in her crib for her first nap at home. Daddy's keeping an eye on things to make sure all is well. :) She is taking all her naps in her crib, but sleeping in a pack n play in our room at night. Her room just seems AWFULLY far away...I know I know...it's against everything I ever said, but we will probably be transitioning her into her crib at night in the next week or so.
Sadie Beth seems to be a real snuggler, which is just fine with me. We just have to make sure that we don't let her sleep TOO much in our arms...it's so tempting though. I could sit and hold her all day, no problem.
Here's a cute smile when she was laying with Daddy. Her shirt says, "Daddy does my hair."
First bath time! We gave Sadie Beth her first sponge bath the day after we brought her home. She fussed a little bit, but it was more because she was getting hungry than out of an aversion to the bath.
This is one of my most favorite pictures so far! How stinkin cute is she?

Family picture time!
One of the most fun things to do right now with Sadie Beth is get real close to her face and talk and look into her eyes. It's a fun bonding activity...I read too much about attachment in my job. More changing table pictures. She makes some of the cutest faces while we are changing her, especially at night time after her 7pm-ish feeding. She really wakes up during that time and it is lots of fun.

Here is our super comfy rocking chair...Scout and I spend a lot of time here, since this is where I feed her. She's an awfully little girl in a really big chair!
And a couple more favorite pics...these were some really fun facial expressions one night when she was in such a happy mood.
Looks like it's time to get some sleep!
Hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as we have enjoyed taking them. Thanks to everyone for all of your support and prayers. We feel so loved right now by friends and family. Our church family and a few other friends have been so awesome to bring us delicious meals, and that has been so nice to not have to worry about that. What a blessing! Love, the Balzer fam.

Sadie Elisabeth Balzer!

She's Here!!!!
Sadie Elisabeth Balzer arrived at 12:07 pm. 7 lbs 9 oz, 21 inches long. Isn't she beautiful! More details to come...enjoy the pictures.