Cha...cha...cha...Changes...

What a week it's been. We've seen Bella apparently shake her first cold, only for it to prove that it's not quite over with yet. And, big news...she's dropped her feeding in the middle of the night. Now, we feed her at 10 & don't see her again until time to get up for the morning. It seems like we watch her grow up more & more every hour.

We're back...

A few weeks and quite a few dollars later, we finally have a new computer. We traveled to Memphis the weekend before Christmas, there's pictures here from doing the Christmas thing there. Bella has come to love her new koala "Kip" that her cousin Rachel brought back from Australia.

After the return from Memphis, she got her first cold. She's still getting over it, but she's being a trooper about all of it. We have had fun chasing boogers with the booger bulb and administering saline drops. Isabella really doesn't mind it all too much. She realizes that it helps. Hopefully, the sneezing and the coughing will end soon.

She got to visit with Uncle Mikey for the first time at Christmas. The whole crew (Mikey, Rachel, Grace, Dave, Beth, and Kenzie) got to be together and even made time for a family portrait. Christmas was spent in a whirlwind of family and family and more family. Isabella did wonderfully, sleeping through much of it and eating through the rest of it.

After Christmas, Bella got her favorite gift of all--SHOTS! Karen sat (since she is prone to fainting) while Mark held Bella. =She is growing well--already doubling her birth weight at two months of age. She ran a fever later that night, but her happy disposition made it difficult to tell that she was feverish. I guess we should count our blessings.

For the eve of New Year's Eve, Isabella got to spend time with her Grandpa and Gandma Bacigalupo. Unfortunately, both of them had a touch of something and opted to not hold Bella this time to keep her from getting what they had. I know it took a lot of restraint, and so we plan on getting her to their arms just as soon as possible.

Houston, we have a problem...

It may be a while before we can get more pictures on here. The computer died this weekend, but I'm seeing if Garrison can resuscitate the thing. Hopefully, we'll have the computer back next week & can put pictures of Bella's first trip to Memphis! We have been trying to get a picture or video of her smiling. She smiles alot these days & giggles, and then clams up as soon as she sees a recording device. She's crafty that little one, but we'll trick her into posing with a smile eventually.

Since there are no pictures, you get more of what's going on in my mind:

Most prevalent right now, the World Cup draw. For both of you that read this & actually care about soccer...the United States is in a group with Italy, Czech Republic, and Ghana. This is one of the two hardest groups in the tournament. Hopefully, they can advance and prove that they belong with the big-boys of the world. I'm sure there will be more about this in June. If anyone's looking for last minute shopping ideas for me...I'd like airfare, hotel stay, tickets to the World Cup (not asking for much, just the games America plays in), and enough money to pay the bills since I'd have to take off work without pay due to the length of the absence. Just an idea for those last minute shoppers.

Merry CHRISTmas!!

That's right, I said it! Merry Christmas, not "Happy Holidays" or some other term. In light of current events, I'm even more pro-CHRISTmas and more anti-everything-that-takes-away-the-focus-from-Jesus this year. As some of you may know, I'm not a fan of Santa Claus. You won't see any Santa decorations in our house. Don't get me wrong, we'll still let Santa visit Bella, but we won't be focusing on Santa. Our society has done everything possible to take Christ out of this time of year. Santa has become the emphasis of the season, not our Savior. The "Holiday" has become more focused on Santa than Jesus...I refuse to be part of that trend, and may even be leaning further the other direction than necesary. Nona can still read "The Night Before Christmas" but we'll also be supplementing that with reading the Nativity story starting this year.

Now what all of you are really here for...more pictures.

Long Time No Blog

So, everyone told us that life goes hectic after having a baby. We thought, how can that be, all they do is sleep, eat and poop. By the frequency of our blogging, it looks like everyone was right.

Here's what's happened since the last update:

- My family came in for the day a couple of Saturdays ago. Bella's great grandparents, Great Aunt Joyce, Great Aunt Amy, and Nonna made the trip.
-That same day, Bella watched some of her first Memphis game, unfortunately, they couldn't beat Tennessee.

- She's started cooing more & turning her head quite a bit.

- She got to visit with her Aunt Rachel & cousin Grace who were in town this weekend.


- We all went to church together for the first time on Sunday. Bella slept the whole time, looks like next time we can't get her to sleep, we'll just call Phil and get him to practice his next sermon on her! :)

Doing Great

Bella & Karen are both doing great. Bella had a doctor's appointment at one week & she'd already gained an ounce over her birth weight. Typically, pediatricians like for babies to be back to their birthweight by week two...needless to say, the kid has an appetite. For those wondering, Ike has been great through all of this, he kisses her every time he can get close enough.

She sleeps really well some nights, and so-so on other nights. We really haven't had a night that's been too bad...yet.

Here are new pictures, a couple are from her first bath (which wasn't a fun experience for her).

At Home

Alright, here's the breakdown of last Tuesday:

10:30- Karen calls me after a visit to the doctor. Bella's heartrate was at a normal range, but wasn't fluctuating when they'd stimulate her, and Karen's blood pressure was up, but not insane...so...the doctor told us to be at the hospital at 2:00 to induce.

2:00- Go to the hospital where they start Karen on Potosin.

6:00- Doctor tells us that Bella should be here around breakfast time on Wednesday.

8:00- Doctor somehow convinces Karen to get an epidural to see if it will help with her bloodpressure. Somehow Mark stays in the room and doesn't pass out while Karen gets the epidural.

9:45- Doctor tells us that a c-section is the best bet to insure there's no trauma for Bella or Karen. Bella's heartrate was fine, just not jumping when Karen would have a contraction.

10:00- They wheel Karen into the Operating Room.

10:15- I join her in the Operating Room.

10:21- Isabella Grace Bacigalupo is born at 5 lbs 2 oz.

11:30 Tuesday night through 11:30 Saturday morning- Absolute blur of nurses caring for Karen, nurses caring for Bella, friends visiting, family visiting, phone calls, etc.

Well, we all came home on Saturday (which happened to be the one year anniversary of moving into the house). Bella is doing great! Right now, she enjoys sleeping, eating, pooping, and hearing Mommy & Daddy's voices.

She's slept through the night the first two nights she's been home. Right now, she's the most easy-going baby that I've ever seen. Hopefuly she'll continue to be that way.

She's Here!

I'm only home for a few minutes...more details to come. For now, here's some pictures.

Isabella Grace Bacigalupo
born 10/25/05 at 10:21 pm
5lbs 2 oz, 17 inches long

No more soap & shampoo for us!

The time for Bella to get here is getting closer and closer. Reality is setting in more & more with every "pre-birth event" that passes. And apparently, I'm striving for cheesier and cheesier titles to these posts.

This past week, we had our final 2 baby showers. One with my co-workers (and a couple of former co-workers...one who will be mentioning me one day in her first Oscar acceptance speech) and one with the church folks. After wrapping all of the showers up, this child has more clothes than she could possibly wear before she outgrows them. In no way is that a complaint...I'm very happy and feel very blessed that we know that many people that care enough to give us (I mean Bella) a gift. Now we're running out to Babies-R-Us & Target to stock up on the few things we have to get before she gets here.

As all of these events come and go, that "I'm excited but don't know what to expect" kind of feeling sets in. Sad to equate it to this, but the closest thing I can think of is that it feels like the week leading up to a big game. You have some idea of what's going to happen due to practicing and preparing for the other team, but until it unfolds in front of your eyes, you really can't expect anything except a whole lot of butterflies before the start of the game.

In other baby related news...the Brawner twins are here. Much to my disappointment, they weren't named "Luke & Leia". However, Marc & Lorie came up with some pretty good names, Katherine "Kate" Alexandria & Joseph "Joey" Clark. Everyone's doing well, the babies were 5 & 7 pounds, Lorie is doing well, and Marc is at least holding up well enough to send me an email afterwards (however, he could have sent that email just before passing out for all I know).

Family Chaos!!!

This past weekend, was full of good stuff. My (Mark's) dad, step-mom Kathey, and mom (aka: Nonna) were all in town and staying under our roof. No need to go back and read that again, yes I typed it correctly. Everyone had a great time visiting, seeing Nashville, and being excited about the future addition to the family.

Dad & I spent the day Saturday looking for the much fabled but never confirmed Bacigalupo cemetary in Nashville. After a little driving, we found the place...it's a cemetary of about 18, and has the grave of my great-great-great grandfather that came here from Italy. Some may think it a little weird, but we both thought it was pretty cool.


Kathey, Nonna, and Karen all did the girl thing, and shopped all day. Being a guy, I don't know how to elaborate on that one...they shopped, end of story.

Sunday, Dad & I did some male bonding (also known as sleeping while watching football) while the ladies went to the baby shower. From what I can see & what Karen says, there was a really good turn out, and we...I mean Bella...got some great gifts. Kenzie (Karen's sister), Beth and Rachel (Karen's sisters-in-law) did a great job with the shower. There's quite a bit of video on the shower...let me know if you'd like to see it.

On that note, we were given a digital camcorder/camera this weekend. We'll use it to take lots of video and stills of Bella when she gets here. Until she does get here, we're a little limited on pictures of her, but for now, here are the best one's I've got.


Now, we're both trying to get rested up and everything in the house ready for her to get here.

Quick update

Well, we're about 6 weeks away from the official due date. Karen had a check up today & the doctor said everything's looking pretty good. Baby is healthy, Karen's healthy.

Dr. Burch told her to wait at least one week before going into labor. If she (Bella) decides to come early, he'll just let her go ahead any time after next week. Makes things a little scarry to think that sometime between a week from now and a month after the due date (if Bella takes after her dad) we'll be parents. Of course, I realize that in this day & age they don't let a baby wait until a month after the due date...and Karen is very happy about that.

This weekend, all of the grandparents will be in Nashville for the shower at Karen's aunt's house. So, I'm sure that I'll have fun stories to share on here once everyone's gone back home. Don't worry, I won't share anything too embarassing on here about other people.

Tomorrow, is the shower for our friends Marc & Lorie. It's really crazy that Marc & I grew up together in Memphis, went to Lipscomb together, and are due to become dads within a week of each other. Granted, I'm only having 1...he gets to enjoy having a boy & a girl (I'm still trying to convince them to use the names Luke & Leia ,

but I don't see it happening).

First blog

Well, I figured it was time to catch up with the rest of the world on blogging. Just adding yet another one to the seemingly endless fad of the blog.

Karen & I will try to use this to keep family & friends updated on life with Bella. I doubt that either one of us will be able to post anything as deep as Adam Metz www.supermetz.blogspot.com, but occasionally one of us might try. I'm sure you'll read things about faith, Memphis sports, and the crazy life of raising our first kid-o.

Feel free to add comments as we continue to update everyone!