Samantha Week 2

It's been a great week! Samantha is changing every day...she is so beautiful. This week we got more visitors. Grandma and Grandpa Fischer flew down to Houston from Grand Rapids, Michigan to see little Sam. She is having a great time with them. I think they are smitten with her too. Uncle Patrick just got here today to visit before he heads to Australia for two years!

We have had a bit of an ordeal learning to breastfeed. Both Sam and I are learning together. My milk supply came in late and it caused us to supplement with formula. Sam still hasn't gained enough weight - she still hasn't gotten back up to her birth weight. So we are working on it with feedings every 2 hours. I am very tired!

We will post some pictures tomorrow. I need to go to bed right now.

But for my Aunt Sandy - here's a pic of Grandma Fischer and Samantha!

Samantha's first week

We have posted a bunch of pictures from her first week. We came home from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon and have been getting used to feeding around the clock. I will say that learning to breastfeed has not been easy. We have had our first pediatrician appointment - she is doing great. We head back next week for her 2 week appointment. I can't believe it's been a week! She has grown and changed so much in a short time! She's great and makes the cutest faces! Anyway, we'll keep trying to posting. Here's a link to the pictures - Samantha.

Samantha Day 3

Amy and I have been extremely busy learning how to feed and care for our new little one. We are still at the hospital and hope to leave Tuesday. Saturday night we tried and failed to catch up on sleep - getting maybe 5 hours. Sunday night we got more sleep - six whole hours in bits and pieces! Learning how to breast feed takes a lot of work and time for both of us. We are make slow progress getting Samatha to feed, but things are looking very good now. Samatha is a little jaundice, but it is nothing to worry about. Larissa, Lindsay, Edgar, Betsy, Jess, and Katie visited on Sunday. Monday Randy, Ami, Brian, and Christine visited and brought us food. Thanks.

This afternoon Amy had her epidural removed. She is feeling much better. It looks like we will be going home Tuesday, but our doctors have not said anything for sure yet.

To be clear, Amy did end up having a C-section at 6am Saturday. I watched most of the first half of the surgery over the curtain. It was strange to watch people cutting and pulling on Amy. The doctors were amazingly rough on Amy and Samantha. The OB pulled Samantha out by the head with what looked like a lot of force. Babies are much tougher than they look. The nurse then cleaned Samatha up and she was throwing Samantha around too. I thought that Samantha was beautiful and fell in love immediately. I missed the second half of the surgery (the placenta and sewing parts) to watch Samantha be weighed and measured.

Samantha Marie Cassady

Samantha Marie Cassady was born at 7:01 am. She weighed 7lbs 6 ozs and was 20" long.