More Visitors and random cute pics... =)

Bella continues to meet many new friends and family. This week she met the Lindblad's, (Uncle Rob, Auntie Toots, Auntie Amy Boschen and Auntie JoJo) and the Drapers! (Aunt Cammy and Aunt Sarah Norsworthy.)


Auntie Amy


Auntie JoJo


Aunt Cammy


Auntie Sarah


The girls...


=)


Sacked out...


And again...


Wide awake...

Bella's First Bath

We wanted to wait until Bella's Bellybutton area healed completely before giving her her first real bath. On Friday, her bellybutton was looking pretty near perfect so we decided it was time. =) She was a champion. She didn't really like having water poured on her, but once we got her down in the water, she was as happy as a clam. (A big thanks to our friends the Chapman's for getting Bella her darling whale tub. ) Here are some pics...(Oh yea, and please forgive the "down the shirt shots.") =)

1 Week Old Today!

Bella (and her parents) have made it through the first week! SCORE! Both Rick and I are completely exhausted. I routinely fall asleep with her in my arms during that first middle of the night feeding. (Rick has to kindly nudge me awake...although lately we've both been unable to stay awake.) Rick has been amazing. He is totally hands on and helps me with anything we need. Booty-you are already the best Dad ever-THANK YOU so much for all your help! I love you!


We got the good news yesterday that thanks to Bella's best bud, the Blue Blanket, her Bilirubin levels have dropped dramatically. She no longer has to sleep on the blanket. =) We'll get her levels checked again early next week, but hopefully, the worst has past. (Thank God!)

Yesterday we had more visitors! My mom, sister, Aunt Jenny and my grandma (Mimi) came over to see Bells. My friend Hillary and her son Wyatt also came over. It was SO great to see them all!


Four generations!



Guess who's coming to dinner...


Aunt Jenny



Great-Grandma Mimi

Bella's Digs!

If you know me well, you know I'm a bit of a planner. I like to have as many of my ducks in a row as possible in general...and especially for a life changing event such as having a baby! BUT, rarely does life go exactly as we plan. =) So...we hadn't quite finished Bella's room before she came flyin' into this world 18 days early. =) BUT for the most part, it's pretty much done now...so here are some pics...

Changing station...

Her rocker...Mila has decided that the ottoman is HERS.

Entry way...

Crib =)

Bella auditions for the Blue Man Group... =)

We had Bella's first check up on Tuesday. All in all, she's "practically perfect in every way," however, due to her small stature and early arrival, she's struggling with a bit of jaundice. Although she doesn't look like the typical jaundice baby (She's not yellowish) her Bilirubin levels are elavated. Of course, being a new mom who doesn't know much...this totally FREAKED me out. (And yes, I did cry a bit when they told us.) But her doctor re-assured us that this is really pretty normal for many babies and it's nothing to panic about. BUT just to be on the safe side, Kaiser hooked us up with something called a "Light-Therapy-Blanket." It's this pad that Bella has to lay on, sans clothes, that emits light to combat the jaundice. It's really pretty space-age looking. So...we will continue to check her Bilirubin levels and hope and pray that in just a few days, she'll be right as rain.

Here are a few more pics of Big B, including one of her with her new best friend, the Blue Blanket.


Bella auditions for the Blue Man Group...

Bella has had quite a few visitors already too...


The Wangs...



Auntie Janelle...


Auntie Sara...


The Maffia's...including Bella's future husband, Micah Maffia. =)


(She's also met Uncle Will and Aunt Jenny, her Great-Grandparents, her Great-Aunt-Jenny and her cousins Taylor and Hillary. (We have pics of this...but not on our camera's.) =(

Here are some of our other random-cuteness-photo's...


Daddy...


Papa...


Mimi...


Mom and Dad =)



Auntie Zwee...


I am so cute...

Swimming in her car seat...







Photo shoot in her crib...

BELLA ARRIVES!!!!!

On July 3rd Ashley and I were staying at her parents' house in Santa Cruz as we didn't want to battle the beach traffic on July 4th. What we didn't know was that our plans would be foiled, and we would end up driving back to San Jose at around 3 in the morning. At 2:45 am Ash woke me up because she thought that her water had broken. 10 minutes later we piled in the car with our dogs and headed home. We told the family that we would call them when we knew it was the real deal. Almost immediately once we got in the car the contractions started coming. They were consistent and coming only 2 minutes apart. If I were a smarter guy I would have called the fam and said, I think this is the real deal, and you guys should probably head over NOW...but I didn't. Instead we made a pit stop at the house to pick up our hospital bag (that had been packed the day before!) and drop off our dogs. We certainly didn't expect to be going into labor 3 weeks early. We arrived and checked into the hospital at about 4am.

Once they hooked Ash up to the monitors, she turned into a superhero, because she pretty much stopped having contractions...and began having one non stop contraction. The first time the midwife checked Ash she was already at 6 centimeters, at which point I promptly called the family and our doula. They hopped in the car to make the 30 minute trip to the hospital. Unfortunately, 30 minutes would prove to be too long. At 5:06 am on July 4th, 2009 Isabella Sole (So-lay) Cosentino was born. And she was a lunker...a whopping 6 pounds and 18 inches long. And at 5:08 am, Ashley's mom and sister came flying into the delivery room in total shock that Bella was already here.

When Bella came out and they laid her on the bed I was totally shocked. About 90 seconds later when they had her wrapped up and put her on Ash's chest I instantly became a mess. There were 8 women in the room (Ash, her mom, her sister, Bella, 3 nurses, and one midwife) yet I was the only one crying? I couldn't even look at Bella for more than about 5 seconds before the water works came on. This process repeated itself a couple of times before I could actually take a prolonged look at her. You will be able to see that I was crying in one of those photos below.

This is Ash at about 10 pm July 3rd enjoying a fire in her dad's new fire pit...

This is about 5 minutes after Bella was born. Bella came out with a crooked nose because when she came through the canal, her hand was pressed to her face. It has slowly started to straighten out...

Here is Bella with her emotionally strong...crying dad.

Bella, Ashley, and her Mimi shortly after birth. Bella is the first grandchild on the Payne side of the family...

Dad looking at his little girl.

Most of the immediate family (Wes is in North Carolina)

Bella with grandma Edna. (Or Grandma EdMa) Bella is also the first grandchild on my side of the family.

"Mimi and Papa" with Bella...

Bella in her first outfit. She is swimming in it, all 6 pounds of her.

Bella and her Auntie Lauren.

Mama checking out Bella's in her fly new duds

Ashley refueling on a bean and cheese burrito after labor.

Dad finally strong enough to look at her without getting watery eyes.

I was too excited to update the blog so I don't have everyone's photos, but as soon as we collect them all, we will add more to the blog, as well as the slideshow.

I know that this should be in the first line of the blog, but we do need to thank God for how much he has blessed us. Not just with a beautiful daughter, whom we are so amazingly in love with, but also for our family and friends who have supported us so much. We thank Him for a healthy mama and baby, and that he gave Ash the strength to get through an intense, yet abnormally short labor.