Back up to birth weight!

Things are going well. We have settled in to sort of a routine. It involves eating and sleeping. :-) Sadie's earned an "A+" at her 2 week appointment. She has regained up to her birth weight which means that we don't have to wake her up to eat anymore...as if we ever did. :-)

Zoe is easing in to her role as a big sister. We've refrained from asking her to 'help' with Sadie hoping that she'll want to on her own. She really likes helping give baths and picking out the next outfit. Sadie dirties about 4 outfits a day, so Zoe is busy.

Aaron returns to work on Monday. :-( Its been so nice having him around. Maybe we'll win the lottery tonight so we can all stay home? I now understand the importance of a 6 week maternity leave... it takes 6 weeks to get caught up on rest, laundry, and hospital/insurance issues. I swear we no more than pulled in from the second hospital visit and our first bill was waiting in the mailbox. Oh what fun...

We really appreciate all of the love and support during this exciting and worrisome time of our lives. After next week we'll be 'lifting' the lock down at our house. :-)

We are home...Again...

As we pulled into the driveway on Friday night, Aaron said, "Okay, lets try this again." Things are going well at home. We couldn't wait to wash the hospital smell off of Sadie during her bath. We had to remove 6 bandages before we could. She has two bruised hands and heels and has her days and nights mixed up, but overall is doing well. Here is what we were dealing with all week:


Thanks for all of the support.

Our Own Grey's Anatomy Episode

The fact that I have time to post this blog is encouraging as we have been at Shands UF Teaching Hospital since Tuesday night. What we thought was simple jaundice, escalated in to much more. On Monday, Sadie's pediatrician told us to keep an eye on her yellowing body. If it were to get worse, we were told to call. Aaron and I both agreed on Tuesday afternoon that things were worsening. Our debate was whether to call or wait until our Wednesday 10 AM appointment. We've learned to ALWAYS error on the side of caution.
We called peds after hours. They had us check her temperature, which read 96.3. After lots of back and forth on the phone, more temperature checks, and efforts on our end to feed and warm, we were told to take her to Shands ER. Aaron is truly amazing. He held it all together as I sobbed. Sadie was lethargic, wouldn't eat, and had absolutely no expression. It is amazing that we were already used to her "norm" by day 4. I made the call to 911 for an ambulance ride, rather than us chancing having to sit in an ER waiting room with Sadie. This is where the nightmare got even worse.
Within minutes the ER staff had inserted a catheter, given her a spinal tap, given an IV, and placed her under a warmer. A 4 day old experienced what many of us rarely experience as adults. By 3 AM they had us in an isolation room due to risk of her being infected. They put her under UV lights to treat the jaundice, gave her 3 antibiotics through the IV, an antiviral, and a fluid drip. This would be hard to handle under any circumstances, but after 5 days of little to no sleep, it became the worst night of our lives. With infants, the protocol is to treat for everything and then back off once test results narrow down the illness. Since the blood work is cultured, we knew we would be here for a few days.
The staff has been awesome. Because it is a teaching hospital, my thousands of questions are welcomed! Things are slowly getting better. Sadie has opened her eyes, held her own temperature, and has been eating. As of last night she even woke us up to feed! Its amazing how all of the little inconveniences of caring for a new born have become huge blessings!
This morning I felt like we were on an episode of Grey's Anatomy because an entire team gave us a run down of Sadie's progress. The attending quizzed the doctors, the doctors answered back- it was awesome.
Tomorrow is a BIG day. We get back the rest of the blood results which will help indicate what went wrong. The good news is that she's being treated for everything regardless of what it is. The general consensus is that she contracted a virus and we'll never know where it came from. Viruses have to run their course and we are grateful that the hospital was able to help her get through it. Needless to say, our house is now quarantined for a few weeks. If she or any other 12 week and under baby were to get a fever, they MUST do the spinal tap.
I will keep everyone posted on the progress. We have literally not stopped since we arrived here. We are all looking forward sleepless nights at home.

Day 1 is over...finally

How can a little tiny baby eat SO much and SO often?!
We are all adjusting to our newest family member. She is super sweet. I think she must think that she is some kind of superstar because she has had visitors all day! Her big sister Zoe came to see her and brought her some fabulous Easter goodies.




Later she met her cousins, Seth and Cason, who came all the way from North Carolina to meet her! They even had to cross the flooding I-10 to get here!




Dad has successfully changed his first poopy diaper- SOLO!!! Yay!

Things are going really well and we feel very blessed. Tomorrow is going to be a huge day, as we are finally going home. I can't imagine what kind of response our dog is going to give to Sadie. I'll share it all tomorrow night. :-)

Okay, where did the past 20 hours go?

Sadie Reese, 6 pounds/12 ounces, 20 inches long, was born at 4:44 PM on 4/10/09. It has been a long and tiring day. We are so excited about her arrival! Stay tuned as I will be posting Aaron's first diaper change soon.

At the hospital...

Well, we were admitted at midnight last night (4/9). It was funny to see folks from Cedar Key in the waiting room. I felt like I had my own welcome party. :-)

I was contracting on my own last night, which was encouraging because the more you can do on your own, the less needles, drugs, etc... They stopped at 3 AM and we are now back to square one. Aaron and I did manage to sleep around 3 hours or so.

Dr. Iobst (bet you can't say that three times real fast) came in at around 9 AM to examine me. He said that I'm not quite ready to be officially induced yet. He will check me again at noon to see where we are at.

So far, both shifts of the nursing staff have been great. Thank goodness they are not slammed. A lot of the doctors offices are closed today, so maybe most mommies will wait until Monday to have babies. :-)

Overall, we are doing well. Sadie's heart rate "looks beautiful" and she's had the hiccups twice.