Our new addition

Can your heart actually be ripped out?

• I thought mine was going to be!

• Saturday was a rough day for little Shelby. She was not having any dirty diapers and was having shocking/vomiting episodes throughout the day. By Saturday evening she was beginning to yellow (jaundice). Daniel and I rushed to Scottish Rite to get her looked at. After getting in a room we saw numerous of nurses, all of which were trying to get an IV started since Shelby was so dehydrated. I really thought someone was squezzing my heasrt having to watch my new little baby being poked an proded for hours. after 2.5 hours and at least 13 nurses, her IV was finally started.

• The first doctor we saw contributed everything to acid reflux, which didn't surprise us too much because Taylor had the same problem, just not nearly as bad. Then she had an "episode". She began to choke, this time it was much worse than any other time before. My precious baby couldn't breath, she lost coloring, and I was for sure that something was majorly wrong. Daniel and I were alone in the room except for a nurse who couldn't speak english well enough to understand anything we were saying. Daniel went into the hall shouting for help and they did come running to help us out. A respiratory therapist came in and got her breathing again. What a relief for a heartsick mother who continued to cry my heart out for the next half hour.

• At shift change at 7AM we saw a new doctor who gave us the worst scare EVER. She said that she was fairly certain that my new bundle of joy was not put together properly. That maybe her esophogus didn't connect to her stomach and she would probably need massive surgery to correct it.

• My heart fell out of my chest, and we began to pray. Praying as hard as we have ever prayed about anything, ever.

• We were admitted and in a real room around 8AM. Shelby went through a series of tests, chest X-rays, Upper GI, etc. All the while I was not allowed to feed her (for fear of something in her GI tract being wrong), so I spent every few hours pumping to keep my milk up and coming in.

• She had her upper GI around 1:00 and thankfully everything was normal. She was put together exactly the way she was supposed to be! Which left us with the diagnosis of acid reflux, only a VERY BAD case of it for a child so young.

• They started her on zantac and kept us over night for monitoring. We came back home Monday around 3:30, with a semi-healthy baby and some very tired and emotionally drained parents.

• The first few nights back home were a little rough, but she is now doing wonderfully on her meds, sleeping well at night, eating great, having dirty diapers, and is the most precious thing in the whole world.

• What a crazy, hectic, and heartbreaking start in a brand new place for such a wonderful little girl. But we did get a reminder of how good God really is.

Shelby FINALLY Arrives

• Daniel and I checked in to the hospital at 6AM Thursday morning to be induced. I was nervous, scared, and excited all rolled into one. I knew my life was going to change so much and I kept wondering if I'd love her as much, what would she look like, etc. (and by the way, yes, I love her just as much!)

• Apparently no nurse or doctor were in a hurry to meet our little Shelby. They started the pitocin off SLOWLY.....bumping it up maybe every 30 minutes. So from 6 until about 1, we were bored out of our minds. Sometime around noon, I asked if they were considering breaking my water to get labor started. I was so ready to be in labor, to begin having contractions and to know that a baby was really on the way.

• They said that my doctor was going to come over on his lunch and break my water...YAY!!! In the meantime, Daniel went to get him some lunch and I waited patiently for the epidural, which I decided to go ahead and get before he broke my water (labor is a bit painful after that).

• The idea of not waiting until I was actually in pain to get it proved to be the best decision I have ever made!

• My doctor shows up at 1:00 (before the epidural AHHHHH) breaks my water, and I was on the phone with Daniel at like 1:08 beggin him to get back. I was already in full on labor! At 1:00 I was 5cm at 1:15 (when the epidural arrived) I was fully dialated and she was ready to come!

• My doctor, however, had gone back to his office, not thinking that I would move so quickly and I was told to NOT push. Were they KIDDDING! So from 1:20-2:00 I waited, it was the worst sort of waiting EVER!

• Doc showed up at 2ish and she was here at 2:15.

• What a blessing! Not a long labor and she was finally here.

Baby Shelby's Arrival Begins, Just not the way we thought it would.

• So I head to the doctor yesterday, hoping, wishing, and praying that I would be dialated and the doc would send me to the hospital and we'd have our new baby girl. That is how Taylor came into this world, so I just hoped for a similar story with Shelby.

• I get to the doctor and they do all the routine stuff and my blood pressure is WAY TOO HIGH! Like 170/100...Scary High. The doctor checks me, I am 4-5 cm 60% effaced. He says he's going to admit me, but run blood work before inducing me. They wanted to make sure that I did not have pre-eclampsia, which could possibly mean C-section for me.

• So, other than the extremely high blood pressure (which was scary) everything seemed to be running a very similar course to Taylor's arrival. I was very excited! Daniel meets me at the hospital, they hook me up, I have good 4-5 minute apart contractions for a good hour (then they kind of subside), they take my blood, and we waited.

• The results were great, my blood pressure had gone down to normal, I was thinking, okay, induce me then. They had other plans. Plans to make me miserable....they were going to "observe" me through the night and, possibly, induce me in the morning. Great...

• Needless to say, Daniel and I had the worst night of sleep ever, the hospital was noisy, we were in a labor and delivery room and babies were born throughout the night next door to us (which can be quite noisy), the nurses station was so close to our door I think I know every detail of many of the nurses day/night. And just so you know, the ladies working the late late shift really like their jobs....they couldn't stop cutting up and laughing....REALLY LOUDLY! =)

• 6:30 comes with a litttle less than an hour of sleep. The nurse takes my blood again, results are great. My doctor happens to be at the hospital delivering another baby and stops in to tell me that he is going to send me home....
• WHAT?!?! Are you kidding?
• No, he was definitely NOT kidding. And I'm thinking, I am 5 cm, I am having some contractions, I am already here in a delivery room, and you are sending me home? He also informs us that if I do not go into "full blown" labor on my own he has scheduled an induction on Thursday morning at 6AM.

• What difference in the world is less than 2 days going to make? I guess we'll see...
  So, here I sit at home. Just waiting for Shelby's arrival to "really" begin.