Aayla's blessing picutes

Here are some pictures of Aayla in her blessing dress.  My mother-in-lay Monica made it for her.  She looked so cute!

A Place To Live

For those of you who missed my earlier post, it is official, I've been accepted to PT school. Millie and I kept waiting - held out as long as we could - to hear where my choices to go would be. There has been so much uncertainty, hope and excitement this last semester as I've worked on PT applications. Family from both sides have pulled us here (Utah) and there (Arizona)... each hoping we'd end up where they want.

It hasn't been easy, or that cut and dry. First off, I really don't have much control over the admission's board at either school I was applying to (Midwestern or Rocky Mountain) and second, there's more to a decision than where family (or even myself) wants me to attend. In all honesty, both schools and both locations are very appealing to Millie and I for several reasons. I, obviously, would LOVE to get out of the cold and avoid another winter in Utah (so Midwestern, VERY appealing for that reason). Rocky Mountain (Provo) would allow me to graduate six months earlier and cost about half as much (about $65k less)... that's not including the possible scholarship I'm applying for that could cover 100% of my tuition at Rocky Mountain and save me another $65k. But, despite any reason I may have had for wanting to attend one school or another the fact remains, I got accepted to Rocky Mountain and not Midwestern.

Which brings us to our next major life decision... where to live the next three years during PT school.

With the government $8k tax incentive to buy a home and the increasing cost of renting, all decisions have been pointing towards buying a home. Build or resale? The past few weeks, since it became clear I would be attending school here in Provo, Millie and I have been fastidiously searching home listings. To make a LONG story short... we've decided to build.

This week we signed a home contract and our loan papers. Everything is moving forward. The permit should be pulled sometime late next week and building (ground work) should begin about the first (full) week of April... home should be built and we're planning to close on it end of May or the first part of June.

More details on the home (along with pictures) will come in future blog posts. For now, just know it's a Salisbury home, 2020 square feet (two story, two car garage, and a pretty big yard) in Springville, UT.

Millie and I are very excited and we look forward to making this new place our home for the next three years... yes, just three years, just until I finish school. If I get the scholarship I'm applying for I will be required to work for the company furnishing the money for a few years upon graduation and the company is located in 44 states, excluding UT... so we would definitely be moving.

For those of you AZ fans... I checked, yes the company is located in AZ... offices in Scottsdale and in Phoenix. :)

Home from the Hospital

Ellery is home from the hospital!  She actually got discharged Friday evening, so she stayed a total of 3 days.  I still can't believe she got sick enough to have to be there.  They continued doing albuterol treatments every 4 hours on her, and I think it helped a lot.  She was able to get off the oxygen early Friday at 5am.  She kept her sats up even while she was asleep.  So they kept her all day to make sure she'd stay off it, and we were able to go that night.  The in-laws came in town Thursday, so they were at home to greet Ellery Friday night.  She is acting and feeling SO much better.  We had Malik's baptism and Aayla's blessing on Saturday.  I'm so happy she didn't have to miss it!  Thanks to everyone for visiting and helping take care of Aayla!  Here are some pictures of our hospital adventure!

This is the first night, she was NOT happy at all.

She started feeling a little better the next day.  They gave her a doll and markers to color the face on.  She got SO much stuff.  When we first got in her room, there was a blanket, pillow case, and activity bag for her.  Almost every time I left and came back the nurse had given her more toys, or cookies, candy, popsicles, ice cream, markers, crayons, books, a Dora tent, etc..  She got SPOILED!

She hasn'd had much of an appetite, but here's Jacob trying to get her to drink some tomato soup.

Getting better!  She learned to like her IV.  She would stroke it and point up at the fluids dripping.  She's say, "It's dripping!!  It make me better!"

Here's Grandma holding her just after she got a bath!

Showing off her IV!  Poor girl couldn't use that hand all week.  She'd get frustrated when she couldn't open things or play and color very well.

Finally off oxygen and could roam around the room a little bit more.  She couldn't leave her room since she was in isolation because of the virus she had.

:(

She's staying at least one more night.

Doctor is not seeing the improvement he wants to see so she's getting more breathing treatments ordered for her too.

hMPV

No... Not Most Valuable Player... Human Metapneumovirus (Meta-new-mo-virus) or hMPV.

That's what Ellery has tested positive for. Everything else came back negative. Treatment is similar to most other respiratory viruses including RSV. No more has been said about the spot on her lung and she's sounding better when she breathes, so it looks as though things are on the up and up.

We're not sure how much longer they'll keep her here but I know she needs to be able to eat well, maintain a good input/output of fluids and keep her oxygen saturation levels up on her own and so far, she seems to be doing the former two pretty well but she is still on nasal oxygen. The resident has just told me that if oxygen is the only thing keeping her here she could be sent home on oxygen... it'll be the doctor's call. I'm optimistic that she'll be going home later today, maybe not in time for March Madness tip off but still.

We really appreciate everyone's concern and prayers that have been offered on Ellery's behalf!! A special thanks to the Ropers and O'Neils too for their visits and Aayla babysitting help!

Ellery has done very well, considering how she has been bedridden for the past few days... for those of you who know Ellery, sitting still for even a few seconds is quite the accomplishment!

Nurses and staff have been great and she seems to have made great friends with them all... except the phlobotomists... still no love there - understandable.

Looks like we're out of the woods... Hopefully Aayla doesn't get sick now!

Sick Ellery

Ellery is so sick.  She had to go into the hospital tonight.  I feel so bad for her.  She got sick Thursday night with a fever, cough, and vomiting.  Each day she got worse.  Today was by far the worse.  She just layed on the floor all day sleeping, and crying.  She won't eat or drink very much.  Jacob got her to take a couple bites of tomato soup and a few sips of Gatorade and water.  I had her eat a little jello.  But she hasn't peed all day, so she's pretty dehydrated.  She went to the doctor last night and got sent home with antibiotics and was told to come back today.  I took her back in today.  Her oxygen saturation stayed at about 85 on room air...not good.   So they put her on oxygen and admitted her to the hospital.  They drew blood, started an IV, suctioned her nose out to test for RSV and other viruses, and did a chest x-ray.  It was so sad.  She just cried and cried saying she wanted to go home.  Jacob and Abbie came to the hospital to be with her while my mom babysat Aayla.  Her chest xray looked like a viral infection, although there is a spot in her left lung which looks like the beginning of pnuemonia.  Her CBC came back normal.  When I left they were still debating whether to keep her on antibiotics or not.  I just hope she gets better soon.  She needs to be able to keep her oxygen saturation up on room air and eat and drink enough to stay hydrated.  Then she can come home!!  She is so so sad there.  I've got to work tomorrow night, so hopefully she'll be home by then.  That is all for now.

Rocky Mountain University

The program starts May 11, 2010 and Graduation will be December 2012. There is a company that is offering students of RMU, interested in going in to geriatrics, a full ride scholarship - contingent on maintaining a 3.5gpa and working for the company (located in 44 states, not including Utah) for 3 - 5 years post graduation. Millie and I are excited I'm accepted. It looks like this will be my school!

Coming soon, the OFFICIAL kick off of my new email address: jwebb.pt@gmail.com

just fam stuff

I can't believe how fast time goes by!  Aayla is already 10 1/2 weeks old!  She is getting so big.  I had to go back to work this week :(  It was so nice having a break from night shifts.  My maternity leave went by way to quick.  I was originally going to take off 12 weeks, but since I was only paid for 3, it was time for an income again and went back after 10 weeks.  My first night back felt weird and took me a while to get back into the swing of things.  I did, however, start an IV on a baby first try, which felt awesome!  I think a couple more shifts and I'll feel totally back to normal. 


So, Aayla is growing fast!!  I had to take a picture of her in these cute jammies before she grew out of them.  (They're my favorite, they have sheep feet.)  As you can see she fills them out.  She might get one more wear out of them hopefully.




I wanted to show a picture of her eyes because they are blue!!  Can you believe it?  BLUE!  Jacob and I both have brown, and although we have blue eyes in our families, we thought all our kids would still get the brown eyes.  But hers are definitely blue.  I guess they still might change, but I hope not.  They're cute!  These pictures don't show them too great, in person is better.  :)

Ellery is cute.  She was holding her the other day and posing for the camera.  Half the pictures Aayla is flopping over her arm, this is the best one. 

Here's the rest of the fam.  They're so cute. 

Lastly, here's cute Ellery!  I'm so excited for her 3rd birthday coming up soon!  I'm planning for an awesome cake.  She keeps saying, "It's almost my birthday and I can be 3!  I'm almost big!"  It's true, she is so big!  I don't know what happened to my little baby.  She now knows how to count to 6 in spanish, knows her colors in spanish, and can spell her name too!  I'll have to get a video to show her off.

Iron Chef Roper - Battle Oranges!

Yesterday was my mother-in-law's (Rhonda's) birthday. For the past year or so, she and my father-in-law (Kim) - mostly just Kim - have been talking about doing an Iron Chef style competition. Well, yesterday, if finally happened. For those of you not familiar with the show, Iron Chef America (or the original Iron Chef Japan) I highly recommend it - a show about fast paced cooking from the hip with a twist of secrecy, the secret ingredient (in our case, Oranges) which must be used and apparent in EVERY course presented.

Kim and Rhonda were the judges and the teams were randomly selected to be: Team 1, Chef Jacob (me) with sous-chefs Millie and Katie (sis-in-law) -- Team 2, Chef Brandon (Katie's hubby) with sous-chefs Abbie (sis-in-law) and Danica (friend of Abbie). The set up was as follows, each team drew for spots in the kitchen and single amenities, such as the BBQ grill and microwave, had to be shared. Each team had $100 and one hour and 30 min to plan four courses (drink, appetizer, main dish and dessert), go to the store and buy ingredients, prepare the food and plate it. For those of you who know the Ropers, competition can get heated at times so when the clock started... it was GO time!



Millie, Katie and I started planning frantically. It was snowing (quite a bit) yesterday, which made for slick conditions to get to the store and back - not to mention the running back and forth between the BBQ grill outside and the kitchen - more on that later. Millie and I went to the store for ingredients while Katie stayed to prep the kitchen. Several of our ingredients could not be found so we improvised. We sped back to the house to get cooking only to find Brandon's team had already returned and was well under way. Katie - not known for handling stressful situations very well, seemed a bit frazzled but had done an excellent job at getting everything ready for cooking. Katie was in charge of sauces, Millie took on dessert and drink, and I was to handle grilling and plating. The scene was frantic. Our team looked like we wouldn't make it as time ticked off the clock faster than normal. Katie messed up one of the sauces after it would have just been done, so she had to scrap it and start over. I broke an electric chopper that Millie needed to make her dishes so we had to find another method. The grill ran out of gas so I had to change the tank and get it hot again. Each time I ran out in the snow on grill duty I just about slipped on the floor running back into the kitchen.... it was pretty dangerous. Despite the mishaps, we finished plating in a dramatic fashion with Millie finishing pouring the drink at the last tic of the clock.



Our menu started off with an orange strawberry sunrise drink (smoothie). The appetizer was chipotle orange shrimp kabobs with a fresh spring mix salad with an orange vinaigrette dressing. The main dish was a top sirloin medallion with zesty orange sauce topped with grilled asparagus. Dessert was an orange cream tart.



Everything turned out great. Brandon's team had some yummy dishes as well, including what was probably my favorite out of everything made, a tomato and orange sauce with shrimp. Never considered putting tomato and orange together, but, WOW, it was really good!

Judges ate and scored the food.

And the winner was... Iron Chef Jacob!

I was excited to win but I have to say, I REALLY couldn't have won without my team. Millie and Katie did a great job at tackling a difficult menu and faced the unforeseen challenges like pros! It was a lot of fun and I think we all look forward to the next, Iron Chef Roper!!!

We just need to hire staff to do the clean up next time!

Catch up blog

I've been meaning to blog for some time now. Sure I can throw an excuse about this and that but the truth is, I just haven't MADE time for it. Although I won't excuse my long hiatus from writing, I will say I have much to write about.

The past few weeks/months have been good. Aayla is becoming part of the family by both becoming more of an interactive version of a human as well as her sleep schedule. Already the differences between her and Ellery are starkly apparent and it's been fun discovering who she is.

Millie already posted about Ellery growing up and her first haircut. She's becoming a better big sister and although she still throws her share of tantrums now and again, she's a pretty good kid.

On less of a familial note, the winter Olympics. I'm sure I can't do them justice in a blog, but here it goes anyway. These were the best winter Olympics I have ever watched!!! Okay, the opening and closing ceremonies... well... sucked... but that was bound to be the case since 1) following China's ceremonies from the summer Olympics two years ago would make anything look like crap and 2) it's Canada. Known for beavers, maple leaves and universal health care... NOT performing arts. Just like Mexico sends the US anyone who can run, jump, swim, build a house or maintain a lawn, Canada has been good at sending us anyone who can dance, act or sing... although, they're more than welcome to have Shania Twain back.

I LOVE the Olympics. This year saw several NEW, exciting, events. And, although I'm not one for drama (save it for your mama) there was plenty to be found all around the games. From "global warming" causing soft-slushy snow and delays for the alpine ski events to an unexpected death of an athlete and the mother of an athlete... plus there was the media exaggerated rivalries - both between countries (USA vs Canada or Japan vs Korea) and teammates (Vonn and Mancuso - cat fight cat fight!). Not to mention a coach who blew a gold for his athlete, disqualifications spattered throughout speed skating and an ice dance routine where the woman picked up and carried the man!

For those of you who were fortunate enough to watch, you understand the pure awesomness of the games. For some of you, you may have gotten a taste of it from news highlights, and for those of you who missed them altogether, for shame! I could post links to some of the greatest moments of the games, but I'm not going to. There is something about the live games (or at least replayed in full at eleven o'clock at night) that can't be captured in clips and highlights. The spirit of the Olympics has a way of bringing me to tears of joy (or on the verge of) whenever a gold medal performance is displayed, Canada loses, the US wins or the Star Spangled Banner is played (that's the National Anthem of the US for those of you who don't know that).

The last few months have also been full of PT school applications and a final semester at UVU. We're hoping to hear from a school in the next couple of weeks. Can't wait can't wait can't wait... it'll be a huge relief! I've also been volunteering at the Utah State Mental Hospital in the PT department. That continues to go well (I go every morning from 7:30am to 9:30am). I have to admit, it's a great way to start a day and I look forward to it being my career - minus the mentally ill aspect of the patients.

This last weekend was eventful. Jacob Wall invited me to go to the BYU v New Mexico basketball game. He got VIP tickets from his wife's work. We were fed a light meal under the stands before the game. We saw President Samuelson (President of BYU) and President Uchtdorf (2nd counselor of the first presidency of the LDS church) down there eating as well. In the tunnels, we passed by the New Mexico team (not as tall as you would think them to be) and all the BYU cheerleaders and cougaretts dance team (much shorter than you would think). Although BYU lost, our seats were great, the game was great and noise was deafening! My throat was so sore afterward, but it was fun being at the game. I forgot how much fun attending a sports venue is... maybe I'll have to take Millie to a game someday.

Speaking of Millie. She and I went on a date Saturday after the game. We went to Olive Garden on a gift card we got from Christmas and then to the dollar theater to see New Moon. Yes, we're big spenders... since when is it a shame to live within one's means?!?! sheesh. Millie had seen the movie opening night with "the girls" and she wasn't a huge fan of it but wanted to see it again with me. I thought it was okay. I haven't read the books but it was very apparent the movie left a lot out. The movie seemed to hint at a deeper plot, but just jumped around a plotless two plus hours of cinema. Obviously the best parts were Jacob Black shirtless. The worst parts... pretty much whenever Edward came on the screen. The audience was great though. Plenty of boos for Edward and cheers for Jacob.

So, yes, life goes on and I wish I did better at recording some of its events and my thoughts of them. For now, a catch up blog now and again may have to do.

Sleep and Ellery's first hair cut!

Sleep, oh how I love sleep!  I haven't gotten a great night's sleep since Aayla was born 9 weeks ago.  Then last night happened!  I fed her at about 9:30 and she was in bed asleep by 10:30.  The most she's gone is 5 hours so when I woke up at 6am and realized she hadn't woken up all night, I first had to make sure she was still breathing, then did a celebration dance in my head!! Yay!  What a good little sleeper I have!  Seconds later I realized that getting a long stretch of sleep comes with an expense.  For all you mothers who nursed your babies and have experienced engorgement, you know what I mean!  Holy smokes!!! I was going to explode!  I left the room to pump.....28 oz!!!!  That's a record for me.  I could have gotten more out but stopped early to save some for Aayla when she would decide to wake up and eat.  She ended up waking up at 7am!!  What a good girl.  I still had plenty to feed her by the way.

Ellery time!  She got her first hair cut last week.  Well actually just some bangs.  Abbie did a good job.  I think they turned out cute.  Ellery likes them too.  She keeps saying, Abbie cut my hair!  She's so cute!

Here is a before picture...

 

And here is the after pictures.  What a cutie pie!

Valentines Day!!

I like Valentines Day.  I think it's fun and cute.  It's probably the most hated holiday though.  Single people hate it because they don't have anybody to celebrate it with and it's a reminder to them that they aren't in a relationship, which can turn into very bitter, resentful feelings.  People in relationships hate it because they don't want a holiday to tell them to show love to their spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend.  Whatever.  It's just a fun holiday to show love to everyone!!  Everyone has friends/family/people to love.  You don't have to spend a lot of money or do anything special.  Remember in elementary school when you made little Valentines boxes and gave all your classmates little Valentines notes with candy?  Then your class had a party with fun games, pink cupcakes, heart candies, etc.....  That was awesome!  It can still be fun as an adult.  Everyone who hates this awesome holiday, go ahead and take a deep breath, relax, and get over whatever reason it is that you don't like it.  Moving on.....

It was a good day for us, although we didn't do much.  We did all dress in pink for church.  We took some pictures afterward.  These are actually the first family picture of all 4 of us!  They didn't turn out that good, but it's all we have of us.  Ellery got Tinker Bell Valentines with heart suckers and chocolates for everyone.  She had fun handing them out.  My parents were in Arizona helping Annie move, so we had Brandon, Katie and Abbie over for dinner.  Jacob decided to be in charge of dinner.  He ended up making steaks with mushrooms, onions, and a yummy sauce, rolls, green salad, and roasted potatoes.  It was very good, thanks Jake!  As my 'gift' to Jacob, I made dessert.  I made a pumpkin cheesecake, which I have to admit turned out excellent!!  I've never made a cheesecake before, so I'm glad it turned out well.  Abbie also brought over some cute chocolate cupcakes with pink sprinkles and we had a variety of yummy drinks provided by the O'neils!

 

Ellery got some new clothes and a cute cupcake marshmallow on a stick from Grandma Webb.  She always loves getting new things in the mail from her, thanks Monica!  I gave her some heart lollipops, which she carried around for the first day, and now I'm pretty sure she forgot about them, and eating them!  Oh well, no sticky mess to clean up!

Sisters

Ellery is starting to pay a little bit more attention to Aayla and be a good big sister.  She really likes to help throw her diaper away.  Whenever Aayla cries, she rushes over and tries putting her "pinky" in her mouth.  Here they are on the floor.  Ellery was being really cute trying to hold her hand and talk to her.  She even tried giving Aayla her "yellow."  If anyone knows how possesive Ellery is of her yellow blanket, you'll know what a big deal that is of her to share.  She can be sweet sometimes.

Growing Up

The girls are getting so big. No, not Millie, she's actually dropping weight like seventh period French class.

Ellery and Aayla are growing up. Today, Ellery wanted to get dressed ALL by herself. Somewhat missed the concept of front and back on the shirt, (or she's going for the Criss-Cross look) pretty sure the socks are as backwards as a sock can get too, but other than that, not bad for a first solo attempt. These were taken before hair got done too... so don't worry, she didn't actually go out in public looking like this.


Sorry, Ellery, kinda looks like a Nick Nolte mug shot.

Aayla is now too big for her NB onesies. She's more alert and awake much of the day... unfortunately much of the night too. She likes to sleep on her boppy pillow and in her new (used) swing. But since Millie doesn't want her to be dependent on them to sleep through the night, she's still just a crib baby after about 9pm. She's definitely been a different baby then Ellery was but I'm excited for her to get a personality to interact with.


Everything else is pretty much same old same old. I'm still in school and filling out applications for PT school. I've been doing volunteer work at the Utah State Mental Hospital in their physical therapy department Mon, Tue and Wed mornings. I have to say, those mornings are my favorite! I makes getting up at 7am worthwhile... I know 7am isn't that early for many of you, but for Millie and I, it's typically not fun and avoided at all costs. Thanks to Ellery's new lack of sleeping in, it's become more and more unavoidable.

Millie is well. As mentioned earlier, she's getting back to her pre prego self with (what seems to me) ease. Much more so than with Ellery. She's not had to return to work yet (she's taking the full 12 weeks, I think) so it's been nice having the family together pretty much all the time lately - except when I'm at school. Millie has used the time home to take back most of the household duties from me like: cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc....

Millie and I will be running the Arizona Rock and Roll Marathon again next January. We also want to run the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon in September, so we'll probably start serious training this summer. And yes, summer. We'll know more about that when I find out where/if I get accepted to a PT school this year. Till then, we'll try to keep everyone up to date on everything.

Aayla Picts... FINALLY

I gave Millie AMPLE opportunity to post a blog of picts. Sorry to all of you who have been bugging me for the last month (almost) to get some more picts on here.

Enjoy!

Baby Stats

I forgot to include in my previous post the baby stats. Here they are:

5 lbs. 13 oz.
19 in. long.
No cone head.
kinda ugly butt chin.
ten fingers, ten toes.

Birth of #2

Millie has covered the majority of the basics in her posts, but I wanted to give my version of the events as well as fill in what she left out.

First of, Aayla Makenzie Webb was born at 1:37am on December 28, 2009 at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center (UVRMC) in Provo, Utah. Although Aayla was not due until Jan. 6, Millie and I polled family to predict the actual delivery date - not too surprisingly, Millie and I both predicted the 28th of Dec. so we won.

Contractions started about 4am on the 27th. Millie stayed home from church and that afternoon we all went to her parent's for dinner (as we do every Sunday night). The family was anxious for the new arrival and after excessive coaxing, pushed Millie and I out the door (with #1, Ellery, left for a sleepover) - we headed to the hospital. We stopped off at our place to pick up a few essentials then arrived at UVRMC labor and delivery floor around 9 or 10pm. The contractions were pretty consistent but weren't lasting very long (maybe 30-40 seconds). Millie was only dilated to a 2 at about 60%... in layman's terms - not very close to birthing. Millie was pretty ticked off at hearing that and thought she may be sent home if she didn't do some major progressing after an hour of observation. That must have been the incentive she needed. An hour later she was just about ready. The nurse broke her water and out came meconium - fetal poop. Not a good sign - dangerous if aspirated - but there was very little of it so the probability of problems was fairly small.

Millie was given an epidural and had to get several consecutive doses due to the speed at which she was progressing. By about 1am the nurse had her start to push for the fist time. Just after three pushes Aayla was crowning. Millie held off on pushing until the doctor could arrive. When he showed up, it was a matter of him putting on his sterile smock and gloves, a couple more pushes from Millie and out came Aayla... limp and unresponsive.



The medical staff worked flawlessly. I have to admit during the entire time, I didn't realize just how much time was going by without Aayla breathing, nor did it ever cross my mind that she wouldn't make it or that things would be just fine. I was a bit surprised when they announced she was to go to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for nasal CPAP (NCPAP) - Oxygen - and observation.

Millie actually works in that very same NICU so all the staff knows her, and although they seemed very excited to get to see Millie's new baby - and gave her the VIP treatment, they were all obviously concerned (and a little sad) for the baby to have to be sent to them for care. They did all they could to get Aayla's stats up to par to transition to the well baby nursery without having to actually admit her to the NICU, but to no avail. She was intubated once again and given surfactant to help her lungs. Apparently, the meconium she swallowed and aspirated had done quite a bit of damage.

The NICU staff continued to do just what they're trained to, and a couple days later we got to bring both mommy and baby home. Since children are not allowed to visit in the NICU, this was the first time Ellery got a chance to see her new baby sister, although, she didn't know that, since every time she came to see Millie, we would take her (Ellery) by the well baby nursery and just point to whatever baby happened to be. Ellery didn't seem to care what color the baby's tag was (indicating boy or girl) and it didn't seem to bother her when some strange guy (most likely the baby's dad) was sitting at the crib side. Ellery would just say "oh look, it baby siser!" She got to see a baby, so that seemed to be good enough for her.

Since we've all been home Aayla's bilirubin level shot way up (into the 17's). For those of you who don't know what that is or what it means, just know it's bad, and it's way high. This meant she would have to spend the next couple of days (at home at least) under bili-lights - looks kinda like a tanning bed - and get up every morning to have her heel pricked for blood work - her favorite thing. She has probably already been poked with more needles in these few days of life than I had been by the time I reached high school! But she's taken it in stride and improving everyday. She was allowed off the bili-lights today (her bilirubin count is down to 8 - still high, but in a safe range). She has to go in tomorrow morning for more blood work, but things seem to be on the up and up. She has ten fingers, ten toes, is eating, pooping, urinating and sleeping well. She's not one for opening her eyes much, and seems much less interested in her parents or this world than Ellery did at her age, plus I'm not much of a fan of her little butt-chin, but overall, not a bad addition to the family and I think we'll keep her around... for now.

Here's Aayla in her bililight bed.



Here's her coming home picture: outfit provided by Tevia Wall (sorry you can't really see it, but it is way cute!) and Headband by Julie Neil (her company is polkadots and daisies - I'll get a link for it soon).


Millie and I appreciate everyone's concern, thoughts and prayers. It's strange to think that without modern medicine Millie and Ellery would never have survived Ellery's birth, and Aayla would most likely not have made through hers - yet in both cases, with all doctors do everyday, and the babies Millie takes care of in the NICU with much worse conditions - Aayla has never been in real danger. It's just one of the ways miracles go unnoticed every day.

Thanks again to everyone for prayers, meals, childcare, etc... from family and friends, to medical staff (except for the idiot phlebotomist that couldn't tell the difference between her rear-end and a hole in the ground... but that's a story Millie will have to blog about, I wasn't even there for it - good thing too - because those of you who know me, know I wouldn't have handled it quite so nicely as Millie did).

Baby Update

Quick update....
Aayla is coming home!!! Yesterday the doctors decided to keep her in the hospital for another day of antibiotics just because it took so long to get her off NCPAP. So, we slept another night here. I was worried they were going to keep her longer because her urine output dropped way down and her bilirubin spiked high. They gave another bolus of fluid through her IV last night and had me feed her more. This morning the doctor gave her the go ahead to come home!!! Yay! I'm just waiting now for them to update her pediatrician and do her hearing screening. Then we are out of here!! She's doing so much better! I can't wait to let Ellery see her and hold her.

Sorry, no more pictures yet, but we will be updating shortly. :)

Baby Aayla

She finally came! Aayla was born December 28 at 1:37 am! Here is a quick update and a few photos of our experience so far. I say quick because I might fall asleep any second now, but want to get this posted. :)

WARNING: MAY CONTAIN A GROSS PICTURE....

Here I am in lots of pain. I dilated very quickly once I got to the hospital. I was a 2 when we first got there, 3 an hour later, 6 an hour after that, and then complete and hour after that. My contractions were so strong, the epidural didn't work and couldn't keep up with how fast I was going. It took several more doses, stronger medication in the epidural, and an hour after it was put in until I felt comfortable. :)
My amniotic fluid had meconium in it, which can be very dangerous to the baby if breathed in. They told me the NICU team would come when she delivered to check her out and that she'd probably be ok. When she came out looking like this......... I knew there was a problem.Yes, she breathed in the meconium. The respiratory therapist suctioned her trachea out, and she still wasn't breathing or responding. Here they are bagging her.
She FINALLY started crying. It was a weak cry, but still a cry. Still needing oxygen here since her skin wasn't pinking up very well.
They took her to the NICU for NCPAP. Here she is all hooked up. They gave her some surfactant in her lungs, started and IV and gave her a fluid bolus.
Here is our first photo together just after her surfactant was given.
I have no more updated pictures yet. As of now she is off the NCPAP finally. They tried several times throughout the night and day today. Every time she'd come off she would not keep her oxygen saturation up and was dipping into the 70's and 80's and she'd be breathing way too fast. They kept holding off admitting her to the NICU because I work there and were hoping to get her off soon so I wouldn't have to have here there. But they finally couldn't hold off any more and officially admitted her. She's on IV antibiotics and now off the NCPAP since about 4pm today (Monday). I was just up there and got to breast feed her. She was a champ and ate for about 20 minutes til I finally pulled her off since I was about to fall asleep. They was keep her there tonight. I'll go back and feed her throughout the night and she'll have her IV fluids weaned the more she eats. Tomorrow they will decide if she still needs the antibiotics or can just come home with me. Hopefully she can come home. :)

That is all for now, as I am drifting off to sleep....... :( sorry if there are mistakes, i'm not editing right now.