Our First Week with Isabella

Wow! What an exciting week it has been. So much to write about, but not enough time.

We had Isabella on Christmas Eve day. She came at the perfect time in terms of the visitors we were having from out of town. Robin's mom had flown in to Cedar Falls from Florida the Sat. before and her sister, Nancy and nephew, Gus, were arriving in Cedar Rapids from NYC on Christmas Eve Day at 2pm. So, it was very nice of Isabella to arrive at 1:05pm. Isabella's first visitors in the hospital were Uncle John and Aunt Kristy. When their visit was ending, Grandma Groves, Aunt Nancy and Cousin Gus arrived. Diane and Aleah Lemke and Diane's sister Darla also stopped by. We visited for a while and then Grandma, Aunt Nancy and Gus went back to stay at our place. Little did we know that Cousin Gus was going to be throwing up 15 times in our basement. Yes, he had gotten a stomach virus which he would eventually pass on to Aunt Nancy.

We spent Christmas Day in the hospital. Things seemed pretty quiet around the hospital so that was pretty nice. Uncle John and Aunt Kristy came to visit in the morning. Next, Grandpa Groves and Grandma Groves showed up without Aunt Nancy and Gus. We were told Gus wasn't feeling very well. Because of that, they were all quickly heading back to Cedar Falls. Next, Grandma and Grandpa Kellbach arrived from Ohio. They brought a string of Christmas lights to make it a little more festive in the room.

We were discharged from the hospital on Wed 12/26. Grandma and Grandpa Kellbach, Uncle John and Aunt Kristy all came over for the big homecoming. G & G Kellbach stayed at U. John's and A. Kristy's that night, so we were home alone with Isabella.

Back in Cedar Falls, Robin's dad also got the stomach virus. This was making it extremely challenging for them to get here to spend time with Isabella. Luckily, Robin's mom didn't catch it, but we also thought it was wise she stay back in Cedar Falls until everyone got better.

Jeff's parents stayed with us Thurs - Sun. They were so extremely helpful in having someone to always hold Isabella and lend a hand when needed. Together with U. John and A. Kristy they overflowed our refrigerator with food and made numerous trips to the store to get us anything we needed. We think Grandma's favorite time with Isabella was at around 7am each morning, when after we fed Isabella, we would very sleepily pass her off to Grandma so we could get a few very needed hours of sleep.

Oh yes, and through all of this Isabella slept, ate and pooped.... and looked adorable!

It sounds like the stomach virus has finally gone away in Cedar Falls, so we are planning a visit from Robin's family on Tuesday. We will finally be able to celebrate Christmas with them.

"Best of" Isabella Photo Album

We've added a link to the right called "Best of" Isabella Photo Album. Many of you know how camera happy Robin is, so expect lots of pictures to keep coming. However, we know it gets to be a little tiring looking through every single photo, so we thought we'd pick and choose a few that are our favorites and put them in a special photo set. We also plan to post some photos right on the blog.

Winner of Baby Grover Pool is......

Congratulations to Mary Knapp a family friend from Manchester, Michigan who had the best score in the Baby Grover Pool. Mary correctly picked that Baby Grover would be a girl and her guess was 4oz. off, 1 inch off, and three hours off the actual. That is pretty amazing! If Mary lived closer we'd award her the prize of sitting with Isabella at 3 in the morning when she is having a meltdown, but I guess we will have to think of something else. Robin was almost last place and she says it shows once again that she has no mother's intuition (not true!) I did not do too good in the pool either. Last place goes to Kevin who continues to show me that his guesses aren't worth sh** as he had originally proved on Trivia Night. (Just kidding, Kevin). Go to the Baby Grover pool link on the right to see how you did!

Early Christmas Present

Robin and I received an early Christmas present on Monday as Isabella Betty Kellbach was born at 1:05PM. Isabella is 6lbs. 12.5oz and 20 inches long. Mom and baby are both doing great, we are going to be discharged on Wednesday pending any unforeseen problems. We have lots of pictures and will post some tomorrow assuming we get some sleep soon.

5 Days Left ????

We had our appointment yesterday and we are starting to show some progress. Robin is 1cm dilated and is 80% effaced, these are both things I did not understand 9 months ago and at this point only understand minimally. Although Robin did not grow much since her last appointment (she is still measuring at 34) everything seems to be going great with the pregnancy. Normally I take the vitals such as weight, blood pressure, and baby's heart rate each appointment and the Nurse and Doctor report the information to us so we can keep track. During the appointment when the Doctor checked the baby's heart rate instead of telling us the heart rate she said "pretty good." For some reason I could not bring myself to ask her what the heart rate was, I really don't think she kept track and that is why she replied that way. This was the first time we had seen this particular doctor. Our next appointment is scheduled for the due date of December 27th. Here is the week 39 picture of Robin and could possibly be the last of the belly shots.

Mama's got a brand new bag

Lately we have been spending time on ebay checking out things primarily for the baby. Last week Robin was able to find a diaper bag that she liked and was the high bidder on it. So that is her Christmas gift from Jeff. We received it this week and both are happy with it. We have also been looking at baby monitors as there are many of the one we are registered for brand new and considerably cheaper than the store price. Jeff got a little crazed with the whole ebay experience and ended up buying two monitors. The second one was too good a deal to pass up on, we currently have the second monitor up on Craig's List hoping to sell it as we don't believe that two monitors will be necessary.

Week 38 Picture

There is nothing new to report. We have continued to prepare the house and get all of the necessary items for Baby Grover. We have an appointment this Friday and hopefully we will have an idea of whether this baby will be born this year or not. Here is the Week 38 Picture, I will try to get the Week 39 Picture up on Friday after the appointment.

Have you read the Blog?

Just recently I was alerted to the fact that when asked "How are things going?" the answer "Have you read the blog?" is not an appropriate answer. The reason I answer this way isn't because I don't want to share or don't want to talk to someone, I just don't want to bore someone with details about what is going on if they've already read about it. So I just check first to get a handle on what they might already know and then I go into the boring details about sleepless nights, weekly doctor's appointments that last five minutes, and a baby who has gone from a polite kicker to quite the mover and shaker. I found out that my friend Cathy is actually boycotting the blog for this very reason. She would rather have me actually talk to her (gasp!). So, I guess I can write anything about her and she will never find out.

Anyway, please don't be offended if I ask if you've read the blog. Jeff and I are doing it to keep everyone in the loop as to how thing are going. I know it will get much more interesting once the baby is here, but then again, we might never have time to post anyway. Thanks for reading!

XOXO,
Robin

(by the way, I do write this all in good humor! It gave me quite the chuckle when I asked Cathy if she read the blog and she said "No, I hate the blog".)

15 Days to go

Sorry to all of our loyal followers of the BLOG that we have not been updating it as much as we should. We have been working hard to get all of the shopping done to prepare for Baby Grover and finish all of our Christmas shopping. We picked up the stroller and car seat in Des Moines last weekend(Thanks Grandma Linda) and have most of the other necessities thanks to many of you that read this BLOG. We have attached pictures of Robin at Week 36 on the left and Week 37 on the right. Robin is looking bigger and bigger each day which is causing her some discomfort. Robin has been struggling to get good sleep at times due to having trouble finding a comfortable position. We are doing weekly appointments now and had one today. The Doctor examined Robin today and determined that nothing has started to happen yet. We were sort of hoping for an early arrival, like the 21st of December so we could have everyone home in time for Christmas. It doesn't look like that is going and will see what happens. I stick by my prediction of January 3rd and that I will win the Baby to happen unless something dramatic happens in the meantime. We have another appointment on December 21st Grover Pool. We are starting to come upon the first guesses of Birthday as Kevin has guessed that Baby Grover will be born tomorrow. I will have to tell Kevin he is wrong again, much like last week's Trivia Night (Just kidding Kevin).

Just a little rant...

Jeff says that he read somewhere that pregnant women develop extra skin on their fingers. I haven't confirmed whether this is true or not, but supposedly it is part of the reason why pregnant women drop things so often. This is a pregnancy symptom I have really experienced. Things are just constantly falling out of my hands like I forget how to grip things or something. The kicker is that one of the hardest things for me to do is bend over and pick up anything! So, I've been finding it interesting that when you are pregnant you are constantly dropping stuff, but due to your big belly it is basically impossible to pick anything up. Just something that has been bothering me.....