Our Journey So Far

Well we have a lot to fill in since the last post. I think we'll start with the night our little one decided to be born. Nothing was unusual about that night...I had been having contractions since week 25 and the contractions I was getting were nothing different. I was sitting in bed (I was on bedrest) watching Obama give his acceptance speech while Paul was in the kitchen doing dishes. At 10:55 p.m. my waters broke. Now mind you it took me a minute to process what was happening but there was absolutely no denying this is what happened. I yelled for Paul and when he came into the room he looked like he was in shock. He couldn't find the doctor's number in my phone and we went back and forth asking each other "What do we do now?" We did get the doctor and the hospital called and then we packed the bag. Yes..I know - you'd think that knowing we could deliver early we would've had this done already but for some reason or another we just kept putting it off. I'm sure this was quite the scene and we forgot a lot of things we were planning to bring along. On our way out the door we called my dad and asked him to stop by our house and pick up our dog, Zoey, since it was cold outside and we didn't know how long we'd be gone. My dad did get the dog but he got picked up on his way home for a headlight being out and then when he left for the hospital, Zoey decided to eat a loaf of bread, 7-8 chocolate chip cookies, and some mac and cheese from my parents kitchen (and this wouldn't be the last of the food stealing...).

When we got to the hospital, we let the staff know the baby had been breach at all of the previous appointments. After running a series of tests, confirming she was still breach, and discovering I was 8 cm dilated they decided to do an emergency C-Section. While I was laying on the operating table, Paul leaned over and asked what we were going to name the baby. Now of course we had talked about this but we hadn't decided 100% on a first name at this point. We had picked the middle name since this is a family name for both of our families. We decided to name her Alexa May Ladd and she was born at 1:21am on November 5 at 6 lbs 5.3 oz and 18 3/4 inches long. She had some troubles breathing at first and considering she was early at 34 1/2 weeks they took her to the NICU right away without me having a chance to see her first which was very difficult for me. Alexa was monitored for a lot her first few days of life. In addition to her oxygen, they were concerned about infection since my membranes had ruptured so she had to be on antibiotics through an IV in her head. She wasn't able to eat enough to maintain her temperature or maintain her weight and she did become jaundice as well. They wouldn't let us take her home until her temps went up, she ate enough, and she started to gain weight. She was a little trooper and on Thursday the 13th we got to bring her home.

The whole process was quite a whirlwind and I'm grateful everything turned out so well. It's good Alexa didn't wait one more day to be born because Paul was scheduled to go out of state on November 6. Both of our mothers were out of state as well when she was born but got to see her within a couple of days. Since my labor was so quick it went very well and my recovery was fairly easy also. Paul has been absolutely wonderful and I couldn't ask for a better husband. I feel so incredibly blessed by this whole experience and even though nothing really went as planned we have the most perfect baby in the world and the love we have for her is unexplainable. Here are some pictures from our journey so far...

Alexa and Daddy

Alexa & Mommy

Dad giving a bath in hospital

View from our NICU window. We were given the best room available the 2nd day Alexa was in the NICU. It was a corner room with a great view. We think it's because Alexa is such a loud screamer and this way the whole wing didn't have to hear her. The nurse's of course said this wasn't the case...(but they didn't have a different reason).

View of the duck pond from our window

Dad helping with a feeding

Alexa with Grandma Cheryl

Alexa with Aunt Taryne

Alexa with Grandma Celia

Alexa in her cute pink hat

Alexa sleeping