*The first few weeks*

Wow!! These past few weeks have flown right past me and they have been a whirlwind of emotions to say the least! Let me just say that I am completely, head over heels in love with my beautiful daughter. I never believed in "love at first sight" until I laid eyes on her. The whole time I was pregnant everyone would say, "There's nothing like it, and you will never know that you could love something so much until they're here." Well they were exactly right, you can't describe it and no one can explain to you have awesome it is. Being a parent is something that you have to experience on your own to truly understand the feeling.

Being a new mom has also been a little bit scary for me as well. Brett had to go back to work the day after we brought Summer home. He asked me if I would be okay taking care of Summer on my own this soon and I told him that everything would be fine. Little did I know how overwhelming everything would be once I was alone!!! No matter how many books you read while you're pregnant, once the baby is actually here you are still not completely prepared for everything that lies ahead. And I was freaking out! Thank the Lord that my mom was able to take every afternoon off for a week to come over and help me get used to this new mommy thing and get some rest. She was a life saver that week.

I was still trying my hardest to breastfeed Summer, but since she was in Intensive Care for 5 days in the hospital I was having to pump and send bottles down to her the whole time. Once we got home she wouldn't latch on at all, she was already used to drinking her bottles. I pumped my milk into bottles for about 10 days, but eventually I couldn't keep up and she was drinking more than I could supply. I was so exhausted from being up around the clock to pump my milk and then feed it to her, that I decided to switch her over completely to formula. It was a very hard decision because I felt like I was letting Summer down and not providing for her like I should, but in the long run I am now able to enjoy my time with her more and get some rest when she is sleeping.

I have to say, the first two weeks were a lot of getting used to being in the new "mommy" routine. Now that I have gotten to know my baby girl better, things have gotten a lot easier and now I am really enjoying everything about Motherhood.

Here are the pictures that the hospital took of Summer on the day that she was released to come home. She was 5 days old :


Here is my mom and Kara on the night that Summer came home. This was their first time holding her since she was in intensive care the whole time she was in the hospital :


What a proud Aunt Kara!!


This was Summer's first sponge bath the day after coming home on 9/10/09. She didn't enjoy it very much.



Summer going to her first Doctor's appointment at 1 week old!! She looked great and had already gained 2 ounces, making her 6lbs 7 ounces.

Our happy little family on 9/12/09.

Summer at 1 week old.

Summer all dressed up for her first Carolina game against Georgia :)

She slept through the whole thing, but was still as cute as can be!

Another picture of Summer at 1 week old.

"Cute as a button" , relaxing with daddy after a long days work :)
This was Summer's first trip to Target at only 10 days old! This was a very special occasion and we had to document it. Target is mine and my mom's favorite store and we go there at least once a week. I hadn't been to a Target in over 3 weeks, and I couldn't wait to take her there and show her my favorite place to go :)

Summer girl at 2 weeks old :

This was Summer's first "real" bath on 9/23/09. It took awhile for her umbilical cord stump to fall off, but once it finally did we couldn't wait to put her in the tub. She absolutely loves taking a bath now!

Summer at 2 weeks old again :

3 weeks old :

Me and my Summer girl at 3 weeks old, I love being her mommy so much :)

Taking a nap.

*Special Visitors*

Today was a very special day for the 3 of us. We took Summer to meet both of her grandfathers for the first time today!! Both mine and Brett's fathers died very young at the age of 45 and they never made it to be grandfathers here on Earth. We know that they are here in spirit though and they will always be watching over their sweet granddaughter in everything that she does throughout her life :)

Here is Brett taking Summer to meet her grandfather Wesley Daniels :

Telling Summer all about her grandfather and how much he would have adored her!!

Here, I am taking Summer to meet her grandfather Rick Daniel for the first time :

What a beautiful day it was for us to be outside and take Summer to meet her grandfathers! We will look foward to telling Summer all about her grandfathers when she gets older and I know that she will love them as much as we do :)

Summer Rhea's big day :)

Thursday September 3rd was by far the worst day of being pregnant. I was one day away from my due date and completely miserable. I went to the doctor for my check-up that morning and was told that I was only 1 cm dilated, and that Summer was probably going to take her sweet time, and could be up to 2 weeks late before they would induce me. I went home and cried all day. I couldn't imagine feeling this miserable for TWO MORE WEEKS!!! Needless to say Brett completely avoided me that day which was fine with me because I didn't think I could talk to anybody without snapping their head off. Since it was the first Carolina game of the season I knew he wasn't going to miss it, so I told him to go to Jason's house to watch the game and to keep his phone beside him just in case. He got home about 11:30 that night to find me sitting on the couch just bawling because I was in so much pain - I think he was scared to come near me. I told him that tomorrow was the day and that there was no way I was going to be pregnant any longer, I couldn't take it... I guess he had gotten use to this kind of talk so he just told me to try and get some sleep, and he went and got in his bed.

I paced the house all night before I finally laid down around 4 am. After falling asleep for what seemed like 30 minutes, I was woken up at 5:30 am to excruciating lower back pain and the strong urge to use the bathroom. As soon as I got up and sat on the toilet, I heard this "pop" sound and an uncontrollable gush started running down my leg. My first thought was "oh thank god my water finally broke" , but when I looked down I knew immediately that something was very wrong.

There was an enormous amount of bright red blood in the toilet and it was still coming. I started yelling for Brett, but since he was in the other bedroom he couldn't hear me. I knew I had to act fast. I ran into his bedroom, yelled for him to get up and get my suitcase and get me to the hospital right away. I grabbed an armful of towels out of the bathroom and got in the backseat of my jeep. After arriving at the hospital, Brett got me a wheelchair and ran me up to labor and delivery. I told the nurses what happened and they could see that all of my towels had already been soaked through. They hooked me up to the monitors and Summer was looking fine...they weren't quite sure what was going on, but I could see the concern on their faces. They called for the doctor to come in and see me, and in the time it took her to get down to me Summer's heart rate had dropped dramatically. Dr. Skinner came rushing in and explained that my placenta had completely abrupted, which meant that my placenta had completely torn away from the uterine wall and that all oxygen supply was being cut off from Summer. This was why her heart rate was dropping so fast. She explained that there was little time to waste and that I was going to need an emergency C-section right away. She assured us that she was going to take good care of me and that Summer would be okay. She told Brett and I that I was going to have to be put to sleep for this since there was no time for an epidural, and that Brett would not be allowed in the operating room. While all of this was going on, I didn't even realize that the anesthesiologist was already in the room administering drugs through an IV he had already hooked me up to.

Within seconds I was wheeled into a bright operating room with at least 20 nurses and the doctor yelling orders to them...I felt like I was in a horrible movie and was completely lifeless and in shock. The nurses moved me onto the operating table, pulled the blue curtain up over my head, and I could feel Dr. Skinner rubbing the betadine onto my skin....I wasn't asleep yet. I just knew that I was going to feel the whole thing, but I didn't even care, I just wanted my baby to make it out alive and well.

Before I knew it, I saw Brett's face. The first words out of my mouth was "is she okay?" He told me that she was and that she was absolutely beautiful. I wanted to cry but I couldn't, I was too drugged up to say anything else. The doctor came in shortly after and explained to me that Summer was going to make it, but that she had inhaled alot of blood when my placenta abrupted, and that she was going to have to stay in intensive care for several days. She said that if we would have arrived at the hospital 5 minutes later than we did, that neither one of us would have made it. She said that I definitely had an angel in the operating room with me that morning. Summer Rhea Daniels arrived under a full moon Friday morning September 4th, at 6:40 am weighing 6lbs 5ounces and measuring 19 3/4" long. I was just so grateful that Summer was alive and I couldn't wait to finally meet her.

Once I got out of recovery, my nurse took me by the special care nursery on the way to my room. I was still pretty out of it, but all I remember was how fast Summer was breathing and it immediately broke my heart. She was in an oxygen bubble and hooked up to hundreds of wires and tubes to deliver antibiotics to her. I kept praying that she would completely recover and that all of this would be over soon.

I didn't get to see Summer for the rest of the day because she had alot of recovering to do and so did I. Since I had lost over half of my blood volume I had to get a blood transfusion that day. Brett kept going down to the nursery to check on her and he would take a picture each time to bring back and show me... the blood was working its way out of her lungs and she was getting stronger by the hour. I made him promise me that no one would hold her until I got to. I was so upset that I wasn't going to get to hold my little girl on the day that she was born.

I finally was recovered enough to get out of bed and go see my baby girl the next day, and Summer had gotten strong enough to have her oxygen bubble taken off and to breathe in regular room air. It was the best feeling in the world to hold my sweet girl for the first time, and I couldn't get over how beautiful she was. Her nose was my favorite and her eyes were such a deep shade of blue that I couldn't stop staring at them. I felt on top of the world. We spent most of the day with her, but since she was still in the intensive care nursery, we had certain visiting hours that we could see her and then we would have to go back to our room for them to have a break period.

Summer was looking increasingly better every hour, but the doctor wanted to keep her in the nursery until all the blood was cleared from her lungs, and until she felt fully comfortable with her going home. I was sent home on Monday, September 7th, and we had to leave Summer to spend hopefully only one more night in the nursery. We were right back up at the hospital the next morning to see our baby girl, and the doctor told us that Summer would be good to go home in a few hours. After filling out all of her discharge paperwork, we packed up Summer's things and strapped her in for her first ride in a car....we couldn't wait to welcome her into her new home :)