Apr 25, 2011

Daddy's Girl






















Just had to show how much Julia loves her Daddy and how much he loves her!








Apr 24, 2011

More Grandparents





















And Then Came The Grandparents!




We were very lucky to have visits from both our parents this month, Julia got to meet all her Grandparents in April. She got to spend a whole month with Jackie (Grammie) while Jared was away at school in California. Sure glad we have skype to keep in touch and show how much she is growing!


Apr 18, 2011

Julia And The Easter Bunny


So we took Julia to have her picture with the Easter Bunny today at Bass Pro Shop, she did really good and for the actual picture even appeared to be smiling!

Photo Shoot

We had a little baby photo shoot today, she did ok but I think she wanted to sleep more than anything because as soon as we put her in her bed she was out like a light. She still is, I wish she slept like this at night...

Apr 16, 2011

Big Girl



This weekend Julia got to meet her Papaw Bevill and I think by the looks of it she likes him just a little bit! She also got to sleep in her big girl bed, because the bassinet no longer lets her stretch her legs and she refuses to sleep in it. Grammie got her a little toy to lay on and play with, she just likes to lay on it and stare at one part...

Apr 13, 2011

Baby Feet, Happy Baby, Baby Hat




We have decided that Julia has her Daddy's feet, they are still super cute though! She is such a happy baby except when she is mad... well you get the point. We have been playing around and trying to put some of her outfits on before she outgrows them. This is a hat that Haley made when we came for Thanksgiving, I think it is funny because it looks like hair. It fit and it is so soft too bad it is summer here and 80. We will have to make more for when we visit Wisconsin.

Apr 10, 2011

Sleepy Baby


Pretty sure this is one of her favorite places to be, too bad I cant get much done in this position. I may have to get a little papoose to put her in.

Apr 9, 2011

Update



Miss Julia Grace is up to 8 lbs and 7 oz! I'm not telling what I am at... maybe in a few more weeks. It is for sure less than 184 when I went in to the hospital! Her umbilical cord stump is almost off too, that is the day I can't wait for. I will try to update my blog more than I have been, I know everyone gets excited to see new pictures.

Apr 5, 2011

Finished!


Here is the kitchen table that Jared built, this is the final product with stain and a clear lacquer to protect it. When his Dad gets here we will bring it in from the garage and set it up.

The Almost Finished Table




Apr 4, 2011

Poor Baby




Here are a few of the pictures with the IV, the one with Jared shows how yellow her skin was.

Julia's Story Part III

About 5 hours later or in our minds an eternity a nurse brought Julia to us, she had not been in the NIC unit long she had to just have a few treatments to help her lungs open up. She had swallowed some of the amniotic fluids when she was stuck in the birth canal. They had brought her to the nursery to give her a bath, a few shots, weigh and measure her, and put an IV in her hand for her antibiotics for her infection caused from my fluids being gone for 23 hours. When I first held her they wanted me to try and nurse her, it was a little weird at first but we got the hang of it pretty quick. We only got to see her a short while and another nurse was there to take her to the nursery for some more lab work. When we got her back we got on the computer and Skyped to the Grandparents. We spent the next few hours holding her and just looking at her, Jared stayed the night on the couch in the room I am pretty sure he didn't move not even when Julia cried. He was very tired and I was still running on adrenaline I don't think I closed my eyes. The next day Jared went home to shower and check on the dogs, his Mom was flying in that afternoon so he also went to pick her up. They arrived back to the hospital around 4:30 and Grammie got to see Julia for the first time. Jared's sisters had made bets on if she would cry when she got to the room, she didn't she said that she had cried so much the day before she was all cried out. Jared went home that evening and stayed with the dogs and got the house ready for us to come home... The next morning early the nurse brought Julia back to the room after one of her antibiotic treatments and when I looked at her she had an IV in her little head! All the nurse said was "oh be careful with that." Be careful with that!!!!!! It was so sad to see her with this IV line and a syringe hanging off her head. It was like I was almost scared to touch her, I didn't know what to do. The nurse came in later that morning to tell us that Julia had to be on the antibiotic for 5 days, so what did that mean? Well that meant that I would be discharged and she would have to stay at the hospital for 5 days. This was news to us no one had told us this so we were caught totally off guard. Jared was still at the house sleeping and I called to tell him that she would not be coming home because the infection. Jared was on his way to the hospital and I was in tears! How do you carry a baby inside you for 9+ months and have to leave her and go home like nothing happened?? Jared arrived and while he was on his way another nurse came in and made a comment about her Jaundice level. Again this was the first we had heard about this, they said that her level was above 10 and that it was high and they would have to watch her to see if it came down. So another reason that she had to stay in the hospital. The next shift had come in and all the morning nurses were gone, we met the nurse that would be discharging me she had heard the whole story and said that she would try her hardest to see if there was any way to keep me in the hospital so I could be with Julia. She couldn't convince her boss due to legal issues I could not stay. She was able to let me stay till the end of her shift so that I had a whole day to be with Julia and feed her, and pump as much as I could so that they could give her my milk. It was 7 and we had to leave, we packed up our things and they discharged me. We headed to the truck and I cried all the way home. We stopped to get some dinner to take home so I could eat and head back to feed her again that night. We got to the house and all I could see was empty baby stuff, I could not stop crying thinking that my little baby was not here where she belonged. She was with a bunch of people she didn't know and wondering where her Mommy was. That night we went back to the hospital we brought what I had pumped and I nursed her for the last time that day. We left and went home we got to bed about midnight and were up by 6 to be back at the hospital to feed her and see if any of the test results had changed. The good news was her Jaundice level had started to come down so we were optimistic. They told us maybe Wednesday we could bring her home. I stayed at the hospital all day and Jared came to get me at around 6. This became our routine for the next 3 days, I would go to the hospital and hang out with her and nurse and pump as much as I could so she would have food when I was gone. I would come home at around 6 and have dinner and pump some more, we would go back to the hospital and feed her some more and then come home and sleep. Wednesday came around and the doctor came in to talk to us about her Jaundice level she said that it was 21 and that they needed to take her and put her under some special lights. How did the number go from a 9.5 to 21 in just one day??? They took her from me and the nurse said that I could see her for 30 minutes at 2 to feed her. We sat in the little nurturing room and didn't know what to do. They said if the level went up she could have brain damage or mental retardation, they also said she could have to have a blood transfusion... they took her and said nothing else to us. The lactation nurse came in to talk to me about breastfeeding and we asked her if she knew anything about Jaundice and its effects. She reassured us that they would not let her levels get up that high and that the lights would bring it down fast. She also said that breastfeeding is the best thing for it because it is a natural laxative and it would help her to poop out all the toxins. She also said that the reason she had Jaundice was due to the trauma that she went through with the suction cup. Basically the bruise it caused was breaking down and all the old blood was making her levels go up. We were so relieved that she had explained it to us. Jared left to go and get some food for me and I stayed to pump and nurse. At 1:15 the nurse came back in with Julia, I was confused because she said that she couldn't come back till 2. She said that they retested her and she was at a 12!!!! The test was wrong, I burst into tears and called Jared. She didn't have to go in the lights anymore!! Later that day we had a few visitors and we all hung around waiting to see if she could go home with us. A nurse had come in to check her vitals like they did every shift change, she left the room and a little later the doctor came in to talk to me. Jared had gone to the house and Jackie was there with me. The doctor told us that he had heard a heart murmur and they wanted to do a echo cardiogram in the morning. He said that this is very normal for babies and we had nothing to worry about, I asked if this was something that would keep her from going home tomorrow?? He said as long as it came back clear we would be headed home. The next day we all came to the hospital to wait for the results, a female doctor came in and said she had some good news and some bad news. The good news was the Jaundice level was low enough for her to go home and so was the CRP or infection level. The bad news was they saw something on the echo and a Cardiologist would have to look at it before she could go. He could not be reached and saw patients until 6 or 7 at night and couldn't see us until then. That meant another day of sitting at the hospital not knowing what was going on. 15 minutes later we had a knock at the door... It was the Cardiologist!!!! He had come over at his lunch break to look at her. He talked to us and said that she had a very small hole in her heart that may close on its own in a year, 15, or maybe never. He said that it was not a big deal and that it would not stop her from doing anything she wanted to do in life. He said that it was a genetic deformity that me or Jared had passed to her. It was nothing that we had done wrong that it sometimes just happens. He gave her the all clear and we started the discharge process!

Apr 1, 2011

Julia's Fancy Hat

Here is the hat that Grammie got her, it is a little big but she will grow into it soon. We have to wait for her to get a bit bigger to play dress up with the rest of her clothes.