The Smiths

Monday, February 15, 2010

Family day!

Today GGrandma Nancy, Grandpa Jeff, and Uncle Dan the Great came to visit our little lady. Grandpa held his granddaughters hand for the first time today as well! It was so beautiful to watch.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Daddy got to hold his little girl tonight. He was tense at first, and with some time he got the hang of it and hummed Lorelei to sleep. It's amazing how our body tensing makes a little one like her tense too!

She is out cold after Daddy hummed a song to her.

This is our first night out of the hospital and away from our little girl. It's crazy how this whole experience is, but it's just that, an experience. We are working through it for Lorelei and our new family... and trying to balance all other needs. Thank you all for your support and care! Once we figure out how to put video on the computer we'll put some videos of her up!

Light therapy and Daddy holds me

Today Lorelei was doing her light therapy for her jaundice and she loves to hold Mommy's fingers. The light therapy pictures turned out amazing! The lighting was awesome!

She loves to hold my finger... it's pretty awesome!

Circle in the middle is a reflection of the light above her bed.

Don't you love her interlaced fingers? She was so peaceful, until we disturbed her to hold her hand. Grammy was able to hold her hand here... sorry no pictures of Grammy and Pop Pop right now :( (Mennuti)

The circle in the middle is a reflection of the light above her bed.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

First hold

So this evening was the first time Lorelei has been held since she was born. We're so blessed to of been able to hold her this early! I am doing the Kangaroo hold with her laying against my skin. Jared will do it as well, but when she's on oxygen they don't want to pass her around. She did great! As you can tell she is off her ventilator and is now on the CPAP. It's just tubes up her nose that blow in oxygen. After we left her to rest she ripped out the CPAP twice and seemed to be doing fine, but they have to tape it on to her until she gets it for a little while longer! She's a stubborn little girl:-P To get her to calm down in the beginning I was able to hum and she responded by whimpering and then falling asleep. She will begin light therapy soon for jaundice. Right now her skin is turning a little yellow, but that is to be expected! We will continue to update as we are able! We are going to try and upload some movies as well!

Out pops a baby!

So as many, if not all of you know, we had our baby girls yesterday 2/12/10 @ 4:20pm. Lorelei MacKenzie is 3lbs 11oz; 15.74 in long. Maddison weighs in at .09lbs and .7in.

Here is the overview of the day yesterday!

*I woke up at 1:15 am to take my medication and felt some cramping (thought it was gas). As I focused on it I realized it was systematically at 5-7 minute intervals.

*At 3:45 am Jared woke up and asked if I was okay because I was breathing heavy. I told him I might be contracting, he felt and said "yes, how long?" I told him "You should have called the dr earlier!" hehe

*About 4:00am the Dr. told me to head in to triage. On our way my water broke fully.

*The nurses and Dr.'s checked me out and I was obviously in labor, but at 1cm. They gave me medication to stop/spread out the contractions and lessen the pain. They also gave me a steroid shot to help improve the lung function of Lorelei.

*Around 6:30 am contractions were back to full swing about ever minute and a half.

*I was sent to labor and delivery.

*Chose the epidural at 12:30pm.

*Ultrasound to check Lorelei's approximate size. She was measuring 3lbs 6oz +/-

*I felt some pressure around 2:30, still at 1cm and Lorelei was at -1 (still not sure what that meant)

*At about 3:45 Grandma Connie left the room so I could use the rest room, she went out for a bit and picked up starbucks...

*Jared decided to head out while I was finishing up so he could shower at home.

*After I finished I felt something completely "weird" and the Dr. checked and said, "we're going to the OR, NOW; baby is in the birth canal!"

*I called Jared and told him to come back. Thank God he was in the parking lot as his mom gave him starbucks!

*Within 10 minutes we made it to the OR because it was closer to the OR. Contractions and pushing was almost impossible to control! My Dr. was 10 minutes away.

*About 3 minutes after we made it into the room the hospital Dr checked to see if we could still wait for the DR. but Lorelei had different plans. Within a minute and a half I gave about 3 pushes and she was out.

*Lorelei made a gasp for air and let out her little yelp! Her cry was so relieving to hear!

*Lorelei weighed in at 3lbs 11oz.

Jared was able to see her after she was cleaned up. A pretty full head of dark hair and dark eyes. We haven't seen her eyes open enough to gauge what color they really are.

We did not get to see her again until 8pm. We really want to get to this morning as to get more steroids into Lorelei's system, but she obviously had different plans! Lorelei is a decent size for her age and she is active. They had to give her some sedatives so she would stop trying to pull out her breathing tube. She is progressing off of it decently and we will update as she continues to progress! Here are some pictures for your enjoyment!