Samantha is 1 month old!

Wow...where does time go? Samantha turned 1 month old on Thursday. I can't believe how old our little girl is getting. She went to the doctors and weighed in at 8lbs 5oz, which was a pound heavier than our last visit. I have already noticed how much longer she is getting and, of course, has already grown out of her newborn clothes. She's starting to recognize us now, and I love to see her eyes light up when I come home from work or come over to hold her when she's upset.

It's funny. They say that if you remain calm and relaxed, then your baby will develop a similar attitude. Over the last 4 weeks, Kristi and I have really tried to remain calm and make sure we never get too stressed, no matter how tired we get. I always try to remind both myself and Kristi that we have to take baby steps (no pun intended)...and that every day is a new opportunity to watch Samantha grow and develop. I have noticed that a few times this week, I came home a little stressed and preoccupied and would try to hold her and it seemed like she didn't want anything to do with me. She became agitated and would fidget and cry. Then, Friday night comes along where I wanted nothing but to hold her and she was as calm as could be!

Samantha is very photogenic. Our friend Michelle came over a few weeks ago to take pictures of Samantha. She did an awesome job. Below are a couple of our favorites:

Well...off to bed for me. I need to take advantage of all the sleep I can get. Getting up tomorrow to go to the airport to pick up my mom. She is coming to spend the week with us. It'll be great having her around and I'm sure Samantha will enjoy meeting her grandmother too.

Enjoy the pictures...I will post more later.

Happy 3 Week Birthday Samantha!

Phew...it's been a long time since I updated our blog. This is fine for those of you who we have talked to recently on skype, but i apologize to those who we have missed. You see...our schedule with Samantha is: eat, sleep, pee/poop, eat, sleep, pee/poop, eat....(you get the point). Not sure if you noticed, but "update blog" was not in the schedule. I try to update while Samantha's sleeping (like she is right now). I also have to add...going to work in my schedule since that takes up a large chunk of the day.

We're officially on our own this week. The Arc's left last Friday night so Kristi has been fending for herself during the day. I've been encouraging her to take as many naps as she can, but there have not been many. I'm sure she will get into a routine with Samantha in the next couple of weeks.

At night, Samantha usually goes down between 10 and 11. She usually gets up for her first feeding at 1AM, then again at 3 or 4 and then again around 7AM. Last night we fed her a lot (she was very hungry...we're thinking she was going through a growth spurt) and she ended up sleeping until 4AM. She ate and then slept until 730. It was a nice change for Kristi to sleep in, although we're not banking on a new trend, yet.

Samantha's umbilical cord fell off last week, so we have started giving her a bath in her little bath tub. She starts off a little fussy, but then calms when she's in the warm water. It seems like she's getting less fussy with each bath and starting to enjoy it more.

When I'm holding Samantha...I find myself trying to pick out patterns or habits with Samantha. For example, when Samantha starts to fall asleep, I'll stare at her and watch as her face twitches. She'll make little noises and I always know when she's getting ready to pass out when her twitches turn to a long smile and then move to pure relaxation. I want to capture this moment on video, but I'm always afraid to get up and disturb her from her sleep.

Samantha loves to make noises. I don't think she knows how to move her arms or head without some kind of sound. We're getting better at understand crying or noises for diaper changes vs hungry vs just laying around looking for attention.

Well...time to go stare at Samantha while she sleeps. I could go and work on my computer or play Wii...but I think I'll just sit by her and give a bunch of kisses until Kristi gets home. It's her 3 week birthday today...Happy Birthday Samantha...we love you!

1 Week Down...

The first week after we got home from the hospital was awesome. Team Estes (i.e. Nick & Kristi) figured out parenthood quickly as we were thrown into lack of sleep on the first night.

When we got home from the hospital, we didn't realize that if we let Samantha sleep all afternoon and into the evening, that she wasn't going to sleep well at night. After getting past the first night, we learned to try and keep her up as much as we could during the day. It's tough to wake a sleeping baby, but we found that diaper changes and cold wash cloths can help do the trick.

The first week was full of plenty of excitement for us which included: a trip to the pediatrician, 2 trips out of the house alone, an ambulance ride with ER visit and one trip to the vet.

Our first pediatrician appointment went well. They were a little concerned with her weight and wanted us to come back for a re-weigh. Her re-weigh appointment on Tuesday had her gain 12 oz...she is up to 7lbs 5oz.

Kristi and I made it out for dinner one night and also went shopping for an hour to our local Target and Kohl's. Unfortunately, shopping only 5 days after major surgery is not recommended. Kristi was pretty sore after a stroll around Kohl's.

On Saturday, we started out our morning with a little bit of excitement, which included a 911 call, and a trip to the hospital for Kristi. Without getting in to too much detail...Kristi was in a lot of pain around her incision and couldn't move. After a full day in the ER, they determined that her uterus may still have a little more contracting to go through. In the end, this kind of news was a relief as both Samantha and I were afraid that there may be some internal bleeding or complications as a result of Kristi's surgery.

Just when we thought all of the drama was over, I decided to take Bailey for a long walk with Mark & Kayla. Towards the end of our walk, Bailey developed a bad limp which forced me to carry her for part of the way home. We took her to the vet and they loaded her up on pain killers and arthritis medicine and strict orders that she is not to go on 2 mile walks any more.

Through all of this excitement, Samantha was an angel. She loves to be held and to rest on our chest. Samantha is also full of noises. She cracks us up when she's laying in her bassinet and is trying to break free from her swaddle. I guess her grunts and noises are her way of talking to us.

I went back to work on Monday. It has been a little bit of a transition (even though i only spend 1 week at home for paternity leave), but I was able to get back into the swing of things at work. I keep a picture of Samantha on my computer screen. A couple of times a day, I find myself scrolling through the pictures online (link). I love driving home every night, looking forward to seeing my wife and daughter...and of course Bailey. As of right now...Bailey is the only one that comes running to the door all excited when I walk in. It won't be too long until Samantha comes running too!

First Days at Home

Life with Samantha is beyond great...its awesome. She spends most of her time sleeping, eating and of course peeing and pooping. We love watching her sleep. She is so innocent, calm and relaxed. I love catching her opening her eyes. There have been many times where she has woken up and she staring around, trying to eat her and smiling. She's been a real happy baby.

Samantha loves to be held. She'll stare at you and make all kinds of squeaks and noises. If I had a penny for every time I kiss her...I'd already be a millionaire!

We had our first appointment at the pediatricians on Tuesday. We bundled her up in her car seat, covered her in blankets and ventured out into the freezing cold Georgia air (we are in a nasty cold spell down in GA). The pediatrician loved Samantha and loved holding her. I wonder if everyone gets to spend 30 min with their doctor or if was just us. I kept thinking about all of the other poor kids screaming in the rooms next to us waiting for their turn while we got all of the attention. Everything checked out ok, except they were a little concerned with her weight. Samantha was born at 7lbs 3 oz and dropped to 6 lbs 9oz. It's pretty typical, but they wanted us to come back on Friday for a weigh in to make sure everything is ok. I think they just wanted to see her again!

Samantha is already the princess of the house. We are so happy to be home in our own environment. We are grateful to have Kristi's parents in town to help out. They have taken care of Samantha when we need to get in a quick nap, cook food or run out to the store. This has allowed us to relax and enjoy lots of quality time with Samantha.

Although we are not on a schedule yet, we try to feed Samantha every 2 to 3 hours. She gets tired quickly and will fall asleep most times while she is feeding. We have tried a lot of things to keep her awake. Changing her diaper, cold wash cloths and stripping her down to her diaper have already worked.

Kristi is doing well. She has been up and about a lot and is pretty close to being back to normal. Yesterday, we went out to Kohl's, OfficeMax and Target (we left Samantha with the Arc's after a feeding). Kristi started to get sore towards the end of our trip, but it was good to get out. She's been a real trooper through all of this and from what I understand from friend...this is not typical.

Happy New Year!

Samantha Morgan Estes was born on December 31st, 2009 at 7:32AM. She weighed 7lbs 3oz and was 20 inches long.

Kristi had to have a c section (due to a previous surgery where they had to put screws in her back / tailbone) so we had to be at the hospital bright and early. Overall, everything went well, except for a minor stay that Samantha had to have in the "transitional" nursery. The nurses were afraid that she had a little bit of fluid in her lungs (quite common in c section births) and so they wanted to monitor her for a few hours to make sure that she was ok. Kristi also had to spend a few extra hours in the OR recovery room. In the end, after a few hours...we finally got to go to our room and be one happy family.

Some say that we are biased, but Samantha has to be one of the most beautiful babies. We had a lot of favoritism at hospital as all of the nurses loved to take and hold Samantha. At night, they would give us the option to have Samantha go and stay in the nursery so we could get some sleep. The nurses would really work us hard to convince us to let her stay all night in the nursery so they could hold her. We felt a little bad for the other babies, but it was really nice to get extra, special treatment. Our hospital stay was awesome. The nurses at Northside Hospital in Atlanta are very well trained and were so pleasant, caring and compassionate during our 4 day / 3 night stay.

Like most babies, Samantha enjoys eating and sleeping. Kristi is breastfeeding, but while we were waiting for her milk to come in, we would supplement the breast milk with formula. Sam loves to drink milk. Every time she would feed, we would spend about 30-45 minutes working on breastfeeding and then finish with a bottle. Formula is awesome...it would put her in a coma for hours...I hope the breast milk will do the same.

The funny thing about Samantha is that after you feed her, she usually just stares around for 30 - 60 minutes before falling asleep.

Samantha really is a sweetheart and she definitely has a lot of her mother in her (both good looks and some other traits that I won't go in to detail on). We were looking at pictures of Kristi when she was first born and the resemblance is almost identical.

After 4 days and 3 nights in the hospital and many visitors, we were ready to come home. We packed up Samantha and put her in her car seat for the first time. Her outfit was a little big. She looked like the Ralphie from "A Christmas Carol".

Click on this link to go to a bunch of pictures that I took during our time at the hospital and our car ride home (link to pictures)

It is amazing how you can fall in love with someone so quickly, but Kristi and I absolutely adore Samantha. It breaks my heart to hear her cry and get upset sometimes when she is hungry, but it melts my heart when i can pick her up and have her stare up at me and know that everything is going to be alright.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts, prayers and warm wishes. It is so comforting to have so much support from family and friends. More posts to come...

Love...Nick & Kristi