Newborn Pictures

Our good friend Lauren Neff is a photographer here in Sioux Falls.  She took these pictures when Stella was only 13 days old.

Pictures of Stella

I finally had a chance to download all the pictures we've taken in the last week.  Here are a few pics of Stella we'd like to share...

Mom and Dad's first look at baby Stella...

Dad helping the nurse clean her up...

 Proud papa...

 Sleepy lady...

Nana C takes a break from helping Amanda to hold little Stella...

 Dad showing off his little girl to Grampa Ken...

Bridgy and Taylor were in the neighborhood for Peggy's wedding so they stopped by to meet little Stella...

Once we came home Stella started staying awake a little longer and opening her eyes to check the place out...

 Stretching out after my first bath at home...

 Grandma Shirley and Grandpa Merle (Vickie's parents) came for a quick visit...

Phoggy came home after a week at doggy camp to meet Stella...

Stella's first trip out of the house...

 Relaxing at home...

 I like to be swaddled in a little papoose!!

Welcome to the World Stella Pie!!!

Stella Marie Smith was born on September 14, 2011, at 4:20pm, almost 31 hours after we checked into the hospital.  She was 7lbs. 2 oz, and was 20 inches long.  Here are some of the pictures from the day of her delivery:

Cole is waiting patiently with his nursing pillow ready...

The happy new mom and dad...

Stella has arrived...

 

 Cole's first diaper change... EVER!!!

Sleepy Stella Pie with her fabulous hair...





...And Baby Makes Three!

Baby Girl Smith is due to be joining our family on September 24th.  The silver lining in having such a complicated pregnancy is that Amanda had a lot of ultrasounds which have allowed us to see much of the baby's growth firsthand.  Here are some of the ultrasound pictures showing our little peanut's development...

7 Weeks -  This was our first ultrasound to confirm the pregnancy and calculate the due date.  We were super excited to finallly be pregnant (and even more excited to learn it wasn't twins), but as we left the ultrasound with this grainy photo of a tadpole we admitted to each other that our honest first impression was, "What the hell is THAT?"

10 Weeks - Three weeks later the baby still looked more like Swamp Thing than a human, but they told us the graph along the bottom shows a healthy heartbeat.  I suppose when giving birth, whether to an amphibian or human, better healthy than not healthy, right!?!

14 Weeks - This was the ultrasound taken a few days before Amanda's surgery.  For the first time Baby Smith actually looks human, although we may need to figure out how to attach what appears to be a stray foot... hmmmmmm.

16 Weeks - This 3D picture was taken days after Amanda's surgery.  Looks like she sleeps with her hands tucked under her face, just like her mom.  Her head appears alarmingly huge.  We're hoping her body just needed some time to catch up to her huge, incredibly smart brain, and not that she's going to be the "pumpkin head kid" in class... you know the one.  Keep your fingers crossed.

20 Weeks - Amanda spent the night before the 20 week ultrasound in the hospital trying to get rehydrated after another bout of endless nausea and vomiting.  But, once they got her feeling better, we were excited to find out we were having a GIRL!  We'll spare you the classic "it's a girl" photo with the arrow pointing to the crotch region.