She's Here!!! 3 weeks early!!

Acey Lynn Smith is here!! She is already 3 weeks old today. Its actually her due date today. So here's the story.... My water broke at 230 am on Wednesday 4/21/10. I was asleep, and I woke up and nudged Beau saying "Beau, I think my water just broke!" his reaction was... "Are you sure you didn't just pee your pants?" Well turns out no... my water definitely broke. My next thought was...aren't I supposed to be having contractions or something?? No Contractions. Yet. So we got some stuff together - car seat...clothes (I didn't even have a bag ready or anything)...camera- We had to go to Beau's parents and trade cars since we only have a 2 seater, then headed off to the hospital. So about 45 minutes later we arrived at the hospital, still no contractions.

Beau snapped this wonderful pic of me looking like I peed my pants... but don't worry... i was still leaking profusely.

When they had signed me in and brought me to triage, the nurse said... "Well seeing how there is a puddle on the floor under you, I assume your water has broken, lets go ahead and get you a room."

I of course called my mom and sister on the way to mesa and let them know whats going on... so during this process I keep getting texts from Kisha "Whats happening now?" "Hows it going?" "Okay I can't sleep anymore, I'm too excited". So Mom and Kisha headed down to the hospital.

They started me on Pitocin cuz labor was moving really slow, and she came in every 30 to up the dosage. Turns out I was having contractions, just couldn't feel em. Also they put me on Penicillin because I hadn't had my strep b test yet. The Penicillin burned like crazy!! I didn't like it.

Bout 12 hours later I got an epidural. I still wasn't dilating very well so they took me off Pitocin when I was at the highest dosage then restarted it a while later to see if they could jump start my labor. It worked! By that time my epidural meds had worn off the left side of my body. My contractions were right on top of each other and even after a couple extra doses of the meds I could still feel everything on my left side. (my hats off to those of you that give birth drug free... you are amazing) They had to come give me shots of pain killer on top of the epidural cuz it wasn't working. Finally... after about 28 hours i dilated enough to start pushing... then 4 hours, 3 pain med shots, and lots of broken blood vessels later... my beautiful Acey Lynn Smith was born. 3 weeks early :)

Acey Lynn Smith

6 lbs 6oz

21 inches (with the lump-see below)

4/22/2010 9:39AM

You'll notice in these pics my poor baby's head. She was born face up, so she was kind of stuck until my doc gave me an episiotomy. Then she literally shot out, and the doc almost dropped her because she came out so quickly.

She had a lot of mucus and stuff in her lungs and had to stick a tube down her throat to get it pumped out.

This was after her first bath. She wasn't crying very much before. We were all kinda worried cuz she hadn't give us a real good cry yet. Her cries sounded like a little kitten, but once they gave her the bath she gave us a good cry.

Daddy's first time holding Acey.

This is one of my fav pics.

She was so awake and aware right away.

Acey had jaundice. The 2nd day we were in the hospital our nurse noticed Acey's skin looking a little yellow, so they did a blood test on her. Acey's biliruben level was like a 14 so they kept her in the neonatal nursery the 2nd night we were in the hospital. They released me the next morning, but she had to stay for photo therapy. My baby shower was that day, so I went, but not before having a mental breakdown because I left my baby at the hospital and didn't stay with her. (my sister came in mid-episode and reassured me I wouldn't be able to do anything or even hold her while she was getting photo therapy and made me feel better). So right after the shower my mom and I headed to the hospital so I could see her. On the way there the hospital called to tell me I could come get her because she was being released. YAY!!!


Here is Acey sleeping on my mom. I thought it was funny how she was laying. Feet curled up under her and arms sprawled out. :)

Mom fell asleep rocking her :)

First bath I gave her accompanied by my mom. I am the ghost of a person in the white... if you couldn't tell. You can really see her jaundice skin in these pictures.

Acey all clean and dressed up :) The Many Faces of Acey

My Mom had a mini photo shoot with her in a princess dress... so sweet!!

At her first Dr's appointment he said she was doing good. He said her color was good and she had gained back most of the weight she lost at the hospital. So we went to her 2 week appointment and the saw a different Dr. by chance. Thank goodness, he said she was looking yellow still and wanted to get her biliruben level tested just incase. Her bili level was at a 19, and the Dr. was having a special blanket sent to my house to have phototherapy at home. I had to supplement with some formula too.

--Biliblanket--

She was to be on the "biliblanket" unless nursing or diaper change. So we had her on that from Monday until Wednesday and took her in for another blood test (which by the way I cried about as much as she did - those heel prickers are horrible inventions). The level dropped from 19 to 15, Dr said 2 more days of phototherapy and she should be good to go. I could definately see a difference in her skin color and she was awake more. Had an appt with the Dr last friday and he said she is looking a lot better!! YAY!!!


These are pictures I took yesterday, you can see the yellowness going away and her eyes getting a little whiter, thank goodness.