My Poor Jaundiced Baby!

Jaundice is officially my sworn enemy! Penny has struggled with Jaundice for almost the first two months of her life. This is her in the hospital on the 10th. She was only a day old and had to be under the lights and on top of a lighted blanket. She was miserable the whole night and my mom stayed up with her so that I could sleep. It was very sweet! She cried pretty much all night. The next day, they did a Bilirubin level check and she was cleared to go home! YEAH....or so we thought...

We went home from the hospital on Wednesday, August 11th. We were so happy to go home with our bundle of joy. Well, we had a follow up with the Doctor on base on Friday. Her levels had gone way up. We got sent back to the hospital that night. We could not simply be admitted to the hospital either...we had to go to the ER. So, my baby that was not even a week old had to be exposed to who knows how many diseases in the filthy, grimy, disgusting ER. We were very unhappy and of course I was crying like crazy! We were admitted to Pediatrics and stayed until Sunday morning (August 15th). Her levels had gone down and we had begun supplementing her feeding with formula to help get rid of the excess Bilirubin in her system. All was going great! Or so we thought...
This picture is in the ER. Yup, we were sent back to the ER on Tuesday, August 17, after her levels were still shown to be going up. Luckily, by the time we went to the ER, her levels had fallen from earlier that day. Penny was given an IV to make sure she was hydrated. She didn't even cry when they put it in. We were able to go back home that night! Luckily, we have not had to go back to the ER again. Her levels stayed at relatively high levels but never rose again. She stayed looking very yellow for a long time. She is just now looking pink and her eyes are white again! We are thankful this mess is over!

The Birth of a Beauty!

As everyone knows by now, the baby has been born! Our sweet Penelope is now a part of the family. She was 8 pounds, 3 oz and 21 inches long. She is now 11 pounds! She is growing like crazy. I am going to start updating the blog slowly so please excuse the slow process. Penny was born on 08/09/2010. How cool is her birthday?!!! No one will ever forget that one! The birth process was really great. I went in to the Hospital at about 6:00 a.m. and she was born at 6:19 p.m. I had my epidural as soon as I was admitted and I was in heaven. No pain!! Once I was dilated to a nine, they had me sit up in bed because she had not dropped down far enough to start pushing. Suddenly, the nurse said it was time to start pushing. I was so excited!

I probably only pushed for 45 minutes. The hardest part was the pushing. I was SO exhausted. I seriously did not think that I could keep pushing. My sweet Chris and my mom were right there by my side. Chris was too fascinated with the birth and he was right down there watching the whole time. He was so excited! He could start seeing the head and he said it was amazing. My mom held my hand the whole time and they were both encouraging me to just keep pushing. Finally, the doctor cut me and a couple of pushes later, Penelope was born. She immediately started SCREAMING!! She is a good screamer! She did not stop crying the whole time they were measuring her and cleaning her up. We all cried and were so happy that she was healthy!

It's definitely a girl!!!!

We had our Dr.'s appointment on March 23rd and everything went great! We had the ultrasound that determined for sure that we are having a baby girl. We are so happy! As you can see in the ultrasound, our baby was tired and was rubbing her cute little eyes! She was moving a lot so we got to see her from many different angles.

My mom was here visiting with us and she got to see the ultrasound also. She had never seen an ultrasound before and was just beside herself with excitement. She was here for about a week and we got to do all sorts of fun stuff! She bought us the nursery furniture for the baby and it is beautiful! I will post a picture once the nursery is decorated.

I felt the baby kick (or punch) for the first time. I had felt little flutters before that could have been the baby but this was the first definite baby movement. It was so great! I am so thrilled that we are having a girl. It will be so nice to have a daughter!

It's a girl....well....maybe...

So things went great at the Dr.'s appointment on Thursday. We got to have another ultrasound done, which we weren't expecting. The Dr. asked us if we wanted him to try to see the sex of the baby. We were so excited. The ultrasound was amazing. Our little one was moving around like it was trying to swim right out of my womb! The doctor couldn't see between the baby's legs because it had the umbilical cord between it's legs and the ankles were crossed (perhaps being a lady already). Then the baby moved and we could see right between it's legs. The doctor said it didn't see anything there. He said that he is 80% sure that it is a girl. We will confirm the sex at our next appointment which is March 23rd. We are so excited but really want to know 100% what the baby is. The doctor is experienced and is probably spot on with his call so I am already excited about girlie things. We are just so happy everything is normal and that the baby is healthy.

Our Baby!!!

This is our baby!!!! This is the ultrasound we had done on 01/28/2010.
Isn't this the cutest little baby you have ever seen?! Okay, so I am a little biased. I am 15 weeks along and we are thrilled to start our family! We found out I was pregnant the day before Christmas Eve. It was such a wonderful Christmas present! I am due in August. I am going to the doctor tomorrow and hopefully we can schedule a date to find out what the sex of the baby is. I am dying to know!!! We are just so happy to be pregnant!!