San Diego Lifestyle Photographer | maternity, newborn, baby, child & family photography
Ok, so I had yet to take a picture of the 2 of them together and this wasn’t quite how I imagined it, LOL. It is raining out and really dark but I stupidly decided I would try to get a quick shot anyway since they were both sitting on my bed while I change Marlowe’s diaper. I had to shoot at ISO 1600 and it was still dark, boooooo. I am sure this will only get tougher as Marlowe gets older!
But it is my girls nonetheless and I love it anyway.
I can’t believe my baby girl is 5 weeks old now! Time just completely flies, especially with having 2 wild girls in the house these days! Marlowe is still so sleepy and lovable during the day, so I thought it would be a great time to capture how tiny she still is. She is still just under 6 lbs and smaller than most babies at birth! I totally adore this girl and even though she would only let me lay her on her tummy, she was very willing to let me change headbands and hats as often as I wanted. So here is my girl from earlier this morning…
Well, I can’t adequately express my gratitude to fellow friend and photographer, Kristin Rachelle, but all I can say is how amazing she was today when she came over to help me get some gorgeous shots of Marlowe. I made 2 different attempts to take her newborn pictures and at 20 days old, that is not easy to do. I can say that it was the most frustrating “session” I have ever attempted and it ended with no pictures and a crying mommy & baby. So, after pleading my case to Kristin yesterday, she came over to my house this morning and made my dreams come true.
Yesterday, I was having a very hard time positioning her because when I would touch her, she would try to eat me bc she can smell the milk all over me. She would start grunting, crying and flailing herself around…it was awful. I warned Kristin how bad it would be and she still said “no problem” and totally understood, from one photographer mommy to another, that it was just almost impossible to take your own child’s pictures. Well, low and behold, Kristin must have had the magic touch bc Marlowe was an angel for her…slept so peacefully and was even a little bit curly/bendy, when most baby’s lose that after the first week or so.
The best part…was that I was able to sit back and enjoy my baby’s newborn session while still being able to take pictures myself! It was the easiest thing ever, LOL. Kristin did all the hard work, while I sat back and adored my precious baby girl and snapped a few shots while I was at it. So thank you Kristin for being here today, taking her pictures and allowing me to even participate a bit myself. I am so excited to see your pictures and more importantly, to get a HUGE canvas put on her wall above her dresser. That was always my vision ever since the day I found out I was pregnant and today, you made it all come true. I owe you BIG TIME. 
Here are a few of the shots I got today…thanks to Kristin’s fabulous posing jobs!
I just wanted to let you all know that Marlowe is home from the NICU after a 16 day stay and is doing very well. We are struggling a bit with the breastfeeding and adjusting to having 2 little girls in our home now…but we are beyond thrilled to have her home with us and to start our life together. I can’t believe how long of a journey we had to get to this point and that she is finally all my own. I truly can’t believe how much I love her and how much all of this drama has really bonded her and I. She is so special and such a tiny little fighter. Thank you all for your continued prayers. And I swear, soon I will be doing “real” pictures of her. She is not a fan of not being held just yet…so these were not easy shots to get. And don’t judge her old man hair-do, nobody told her that wasn’t in style, LOL.
I am so sorry for the lack of updates…but life in the NICU has been a completely exhausting roller coaster. We spend a lot of our day there and trying to divide ourselves between the 2 girls has been really rough. Thank god my mom is here to help with Olivia and give me rides back and forth to the NICU bc I am unable to drive for 2 weeks following my c-section.
Marlowe is still struggling to eat and digest her food. She is currently taking 3 bottles and 5 tube feeds…but typically the 3 bottle feeds end up as tube feeds as well bc she is just to exhausted to finish her bottles. They want her drinking 38cc right now and she is able to take between 15-22cc on her own, then the rest is fed through her tube. They have decided to treat her for jaundice since her levels are not really going down and they think it might help some with the lethargic issues during feeding times.
I am officially a pumping maniac…the nurses in the NICU joke that I could supply the entire NICU with breastmilk. I pumped at work with Olivia for 14 months, so it feels like the good ol’ days, haha. I have milk coming out my ears and my baby girl better start eating up or it will all go to waste. For the record, I am sick of all this pumping nonsense and looking so forward to breastfeeding my baby. I know it won’t be easy, since currently I am not allowed to even try. They say she is just too lethargic and would likely choke on it and waste way too much of her little bit of energy trying. It breaks my heart, but I will continue to pump til our time comes. And if our time never comes, god forbid, I will pump til she is at least 2. I am a big time breastfeeding mommy and this has been one of the hardest things on me bc I feel like we NEED that bonding time. But I just need to remember that our time will come.
On Saturday we received some scary news. Her newborn screening tested positive for Congential Hypothyroidism, which means she will need to take a thyroid hormone replacement her entire life. After speaking with her endocrinologist, they informed us that they believed that Marlowe was born without a thyroid completely, rather than just having a deficiency. We were told she would be transported via ambulance to Rady Children’s Hospital on Monday for scans/testing to verify if she has a thyroid and if so, where it was located. We received the results back from the scans today and they confirmed that Marlowe was born without a thyroid and requires complete lifetime thyroid hormone replacement. Luckily the news was not shocking since they had prepared us for those results from the time we were notified of the positive screening.
The neonatologist and the endocrinologist believe that once they can find a good level of hormone replacement for her, we will likely see a drastic increase in her alertness and ability to eat on her own. So while being scary news, it seems like once we get it all figured out, she will feel better and come home sooner. She is also suffering from bradycardia, which is when the heartrate drops below 60bpm. She was suffering from them around 12 times a day and since we got her on her Levoxyl (thyroid hormone replacement), it has dropped to about 3 a day. So they also believe her lack of a thyroid was causing the bradycardia. However, they do know she is suffering from severe reflux, which is also contributing to the bradycardia…when she starts refluxing, her heartrate drops until she spits up or vomits.
All in all, she is doing well but has had a few bumps in the road. I have a cough today and didn’t want to go into the NICU til it passes…but I did get a call from her doctor and she told me that Marlowe was moved from her incubator to an open crib! That is awesome news, as it indicates she is able to regulate her own body temperature now. One step closer to coming home! She just needs to work on her eating/digestion issues and then she should be on her way out of there. Unfortunately, there is no telling when that will happen and we just need to put on our patient panties and wait it out. And believe me, she is worth the wait.
Here are a few crappy iphone pictures to share with you guys…many of them were taken at night, so the quality is REALLY bad, but you get the idea at least!
Here is my very favorite picture of her so far…I can’t wait to get this little girl home and have a newborn session with her.
Here we are holding hands and I was giving her a little help with her paci because she is not quite so good at it, LOL. Either was Olivia!
Here I am feeding her a bottle…you can tell she isn’t exactly awake and excited about it.
Here we are kangarooing (skin on skin contact with mama)…best night of our NICU stay yet! I am not sure who needs it more, haha.
Here was the first night I showed up to the NICU to find her in her own clothes! I was so excited!!! Even though it looks like a boy outfit, I promise it is considered “unisex” and that some of the elephants have flowers on them.
And finally, here is a picture of her and her daddy…he is so in love with her! And if you know what Olivia looked like as a newborn, you would know that she looks just like her! It is crazy. And she looks so much like me as a baby, even more than Olivia did.
