Starting out...

Hello to all!  I never thought I would actually start a blog, but thanks to the suggestion of Emily :), I thought it would be nice for family and friends from far and near to see how Mark and I's life has changed dramatically!  Hopefully this blog will not only bring encouragement to you, but hopefully you all can provide encouragement to us too as we try to figure out this parenting thing!

Jade Quincy Stoller arrived on September 6th, 2012 at 11:08 AM.  She weighed 8 lbs 5 oz, measured 20.5 inches long, and had light brown hair and dark blue eyes (as most newborns have!).  I thought I was going to be induced at midnight on the 6th, but I ended up having contractions on my own and went into the hospital at around 9:30 pm that same night!  This was such a relief as we thought it was going to be a terribly long labor. After I received my epidural, I was quite content through the night and even got a nap in!  Mark said, "something is not quite right when you can sleep while you are in labor".  I  have to agree, it was pretty nice :)  At around 5:00 AM, Jade was face up, so the nurses had me change positions in bed, and she ended up turning around on her own.  By around 9:30 am, I started pushing and by 11:08, she was out!

Here is me just after getting to the hospital...between contractions of course because I am smiling :)

Here is Jade's first picture...brand new!

The Stoller family:

Just before leaving the hospital.  Those hands are always up by her face!

Tomorrow will officially mark Jade's 3 week birthday!  It has definitely been a rough couple weeks adjusting to life as a full time mom.  I'm so used to getting up every day and going to work with adults, that I must admit, this transition has been pretty hard!  We've also had a few setbacks the first couple weeks that made things a little worse I think.

It all started out the first night home when my milk hadn't come in yet.  Jade was STARVING and there was nothing we could do!  The lactation consultants at the hospital encouraged no bottles or pacifiers to prevent nipple confusion, but after pulling an all nighter and me experiencing extreme pain and bleeding, we finally gave Jade 2 ounces of formula, and man she sucked that 2 ounces as fast as she could!  Mark and I were in tears at this point, and thanks to Mom and Kristin coming over, we were able to get a nap in that day!

Here is Jade scarfing down that first bottle...

One of her favorite things to do...sleep on Dad's chest:

Kristin took some pictures while they were over that first day when Mark and I were napping:

We sometimes catch her sleeping with her hand straight up in the air :)

Look at those chubby cheeks!!

 Getting ready to go on a walk:

Her hands by her face again...this one reminds us of Grandma Linda! :)

Doing what she does best- sleep on chests!  This one is especially cute because Kristin used to lay on everybody's chest when she was a baby.

For the first two weeks, breast feeding started out pretty difficult...dealing with everything from pain, to difficult latch-on, to plugged ducts/mastitis, and more.  However, we finally got breast feeding down, so praise to God for that! Jade also is finally getting over her first cold- which resulted in late night humidifier sessions, steam showers, saline drops, and bulb suction.  The poor thing has been through a lot already!  However things are starting to get a little better...though Jade does seem to be very colicky- she cries pretty solid for about 3-4 hours in the evenings and there is very little we can do to calm her down.  We love her dearly, but she keeps Mom and Dad hopping!

Well that is about all I have at this point...here is one more cute picture to get you through until the next post!