A New Look

I thought that it was about time to do an update on Aubrey. She is doing well and at least in my opinion, is as adorable as ever. She is still in the NICU but we are getting closer to the much anticipated day that we can bring her home.

The main thing that has been keeping her in the NICU for so long is that she has needed to learn to eat and gain weight. For a couple of weeks she was just so sleepy and didn't have the energy to eat on her own. When she was born, her lungs were mature enough that she didn't need any help breathing and her oxygen levels were doing great, so the doctors took her off everything and she was breathing on her own. However, as she started eating the doctors realized that while she has great oxygen levels when she is just resting or sleeping, her levels drop when she eats and that is why she has struggled.

Now that we know that is the problem, she is on oxygen and doing GREAT. So great that I think she will be able to come home pretty soon. However, it also means that she will most likely be coming home on oxygen. I was honestly really upset when I first learned this, but I've come to terms with it now.

The whole time she has been in the hospital, I have just been telling myself that I can handle the 12-hour hospital days, rude nurses, and hardly getting to hold my own daughter because as soon as she was out of the NICU, it would all just be a memory. And now, it is looking like it will be a while before this is all a memory.

The doctors said that when they send a baby home on oxygen it is for between 1 and 3 months. I am also worried because I don't know what this will mean as far as being able to go to California and switching insurance. But, I am so grateful that she is now thriving and growing.

Here is the little girl sporting her new look with her oxygen:

Despite the setbacks and struggles, long-term she will be just fine, and I know that one day this really will all be in the past. Whenever I get frustrated or upset, all I have to do is look at that face and I realize that I would do this all over again in a second. We sure love her.

 

Happy Anniversary Steven!

Your girls miss you a ton.....

First came love (6 years ago when we were 18), then came marriage (3 years ago today), then came our adorable baby (2 weeks ago). We are blessed.

A little too comfy

Aubrey is almost two weeks old and she STILL has jaundice and is under the bili lights. Her jaundice isn't too bad but it is sure taking a while to go away.  It has been a big obstacle in getting her to eat because it makes her so sleepy. As you can see, she is a little too comfy under those lights.....

Today the doctor said that she should be off the lights tomorrow. That will be a great start to the new year and make one happy mom. I'm crossing my fingers.

Life does not have to be perfect

to be wonderful....

This is the quote that hangs in the parents lounge in the NICU. I have been spending a lot of time there and I am learning more and more the sweetness and truth to this statement.

Our little girl is doing pretty good. She is completely healthy, her lungs are great, and she is maintaining her body temperature on her own. Her remaining obstacle is learning how to eat and gain weight. Her digestive system was not completely developed when she was born, and so she is having a few setbacks and not tolerating all of her feedings. She will still be just fine but I think we might still have a few weeks ahead of us in the NICU before she can come home.

Having a baby in the NICU is completely emotionally and physically exhausting. But Aubrey is honestly so amazing, and Steven and I are both in awe at how much we love her. She has a sweet disposition and rarely cries, even as much as she has been poked and prodded.

Christmas this year was special and very different. We spent most of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the hospital. Aubrey got her first Christmas ornament and the NICU staff brought in Santa Claus to take pictures with all the babies.

I just want to also thank everybody for all of their support and help. We have had so much help with moving, and cleaning, and getting everything else sorted out during this crazy time. I'm sorry that I haven't responded to many people yet, but I'm working on it and I appreciate all the support we have been given. 

Steven left yesterday to go to San Jose to move into our new apartment there and start his job. Life really is crazy right now. I miss him a ton, but I'm enjoying the sweet moments we have here, while definitely looking forward to when we can be together as a family again. 

Our Little Aubrey

This morning we received the best early Christmas gift you could ever want. Our sweet baby girl, Aubrey Paige Foote was born at 5:15 am. She was 4 lbs 9 oz and 18.5 inches long. Despite being 5.5 weeks early, she is doing great, and will just require a few week stay in the NICU to grow and get stronger. Here is her story.....

Steven and I get kicked out of our Wymount apartment tomorrow (Monday.... yes we still have to move) because Steven just graduated Thursday. So we spent most of the day on Saturday packing up boxes with Jeremy and Kedra. I just pretty much "directed" everybody else's packing while laying there because being 8 months pregnant I was trying to take it easy.

After packing, we went out for dinner to the Pizza Pie Cafe with Jeremy and Kedra since we have no food left in our kitchen. We finished dinner around 6:00. I went home, showered, and was just getting settled in for a night on the couch in my pajamas, when whoosh...... the biggest shock of my life. My water broke. Having not even had a single braxton hicks contraction or anything, I literally was in complete shock.

We had no hospital bag packed. Nothing. So, I grabbed my purse and a towel since my water was still gushing and we headed to hospital arriving at about 7:25 pm. The doctor and nurse came in and said that 34 weekers do as well long-term as full-term infants and since I was already dilating and almost completely effaced, this baby was coming.... and coming tonight.

I got an epidural at about 10 and things started moving pretty good. The only problem with the epidural is that I just don't seem to "freeze" like most people do. Last May when I got a cavity at the dentist, I needed 6 shots to freeze instead of the usual 2. This is pretty much how things went with the epidural. Even though it took the edge off the pain, I could still feel a lot and by the end it completely wasn't working and I felt everything. Labor is painful.

I started pushing at 3:00 and after two hours of pushing, our little Aubrey was born. I am a little scared for future babies because it took me two hours to push her out and she was not quite 5 pounds. Yikes. I always knew I didn't have great birthing hips.

She came out crying and scored a 9 on her APGAR test, which is great even for a full-term infant. Steven was a champ through everything. He was my labor coach, he cut the cord, and he got to be with our little girl the whole time since they rushed her to the NICU away from me right after she was born.

She has been doing great in the NICU, is breathing completely on her own, and pretty much just needs to get bigger. The NICU nurses said that she is at the stage of most 35 to 36 weekers, which makes sense to me since my doctors moved my due date back 10 days at the beginning and so it is quite possible she was further along than we thought.

We love her so much and she is just the sweetest, most adorable little girl. Things still feel completely surreal, but life is definitely sweeter now that our little Aubrey is here.

Bad Blogger

I have been terrible at blogging lately. And terrible at taking pictures. I blame this on the fact that so much is going on right now and my life is just crazy. Which is really sad because I know that I am going to wish that I documented everything that is happening right now!

So, here is my quick attempt to catch up between work, dinner, making the shopping list, and trying to start packing up our apartment since we are moving in 10 days....

We went to Las Vegas to spend Thanksgiving with the Foote Family. We had a blast, except for the 9 hour drive home in a snowstorm.

We went and took some pictures at the wedding chapel and on the strip. Always fun. Steven and I took a picture just like this almost 6 years ago right after we had started dating. I had no idea at that point that we would actually get married. It was fun to recreate now that we are married and I'm quite pregnant and large. 

 And, the whole family (except Jason on a mission) was able to get together. Katie and I can't travel at Christmas since it will be too close to our due dates, so we celebrated Christmas a little early with a gift exchange....

I have also been very very blessed and had a few baby showers in the past few weeks. One with the awesome girls that I work with, one with some girls in my current ward, and one last Saturday with Steven's family and some friends. And the young women from my old ward even gave me a shower and made me a quilt.

 I feel so lucky and blessed and I want to say THANK YOU again to everybody. I only have pictures from this Saturday, but I had a blast at all of them and I feel so overwhelmed by love and friendship.

I actually might have cried after last weekend because I have such an awesome support system and family here in Utah. And now I am moving where I will have no family and very few friends. It makes me grateful that we have had this time at BYU to enjoy being around so many wonderful people. I am excited to get to know a new place and make new friends, but I will miss everybody that I already know so much.

And, since thinking of my baby girl occupies most of my waking and sleeping hours, here is an update. I will have to take some updated belly shots, but the big news this week is that she moved! For the past two months, she has been quite content to wedge herself into my right rib. I had a weird, lopsided belly and sometimes it hurt so bad to breathe.

Well, I woke up on Monday and she had moved to the middle. So, now my heartburn is much better, I have a normal rounded belly, and I can breathe. Yeah! We are making progress. 7 weeks to go. I am so excited. Having a baby, moving, husband graduating, and Christmas all at the same time certainly makes the time go quickly.

30 Weeks

I am now in my third trimester and I can't believe that I will have a baby in two months. I am getting so excited. Of course, before the baby, there is still Thanksgiving, moving, Christmas, sending Steven to San Jose, finishing up work, etc. Since we are moving, I am a little sad that I am missing out on the "nesting" phase of pregnancy.

I love to organize and so the fact that our "nursery" is a stack of boxes is probably a good learning experience for me. I'm definitely getting better at just going with the flow.

At my mother's request again, here I am at 30 weeks or about 7 months pregnant. Steven wasn't available to be my photographer, so I had to document the belly myself with the bathroom mirror.

I will admit that I feel pretty big, but I keep getting shocked looks when I tell people how far along I am. It bothered me at first, but I have gained exactly the right amount of weight, and I'm measuring right on track. So, I think our little girl is doing just fine. 

And.... speaking of our little girl, we had a 3D ultrasound this week that also confirmed that she is indeed a girl, and a pretty cute one at that. The 3D ultrasounds are kind of crazy (i.e. the picture only shows part of her head). I'm feeling pretty good, and I really just can't wait to meet her!