June 8

Isla was one week old yesterday. It is crazy how much can happen in just one week! And how quickly it can happen!

Last Tuesday morning we were impatiently sitting in the doctor's office waiting for them to find us an appointment. By afternoon, we had a baby. It all happened so fast, there was no time to think or process it. Then before we knew it, we were back in the hospital...and again, it happened so quickly. The whole week is just one big crazy blur!

Now, we are home for good (I hope!), and we are adjusting to life as a family of four. I've been feeling sentimental today and went back and read my blog posts from the past week or so. Starting back with Friday, May 27 and reading through until today...it's interesting to see all the emotions we've been through in just a week's time. I'm thankful for this blog, which has helped me to record all of these thoughts!


Today was my first day at home by myself with both girls. It was a really good day. Audrey was in a super sweet and pleasant mood. Every time I asked her to do anything, she would respond with a cheerful "Okay!" I wish she was always so agreeable! She is doing really well with her baby sister. She has not been clingy or needy with me at all, and she is willing to wait for me to help Isla first before I help her. Hopefully, this will continue...we are off to a really good start so far! Here she is showing off the diaper she just changed on her baby:
Isla seems to be doing good. Her appetite is increasing, and she will sometimes take up to 2 ounces of formula at a feeding. She sleeps all the time! Today we didn't see her awake/alert until almost 6 pm. We wake her up to eat every two hours, try to keep her awake long enough to eat, and then she falls back asleep. I was worried that she is sleeping too much, but the doctor said it was totally normal, especially for a small baby born a few weeks early.
It is kind of annoying to have to wake her up every 2 hours at night. Hopefully, since her appetite is getting better and she is eating more, we won't have to do that for too much longer. She has a doctor's appointment on Friday, and I'm hoping she will at least let us extend her eating times to every 3 hours at night. I want Isla to grow and be healthy, so that is the first priority. But I really want some sleep too!!

June 7

Isla had her first visit from our family today! Due to a variety of circumstances, no one from either of our families has been able to make it over to meet her yet. Until today! My dad and stepmom came over for a little visit this afternoon.

Audrey loves her "Gampaw" and "Gammaw". She especially loves Gammaw's iphone, which has a very fun Elmo game on it!
Isla was much more alert today than she has been the past few days. She even kept her eyes open long enough for me to snap a few pictures!I was holding Isla, and Audrey wanted to come sit by us. I told Daniel to come over and take a picture of all us girls. Audrey pointed to each of us and said, "Baby girl. Big girl. And Mommy girl."

June 6

I had a photo shoot with Isla today. I had been looking forward to taking pictures of her since I found out I was pregnant! She was such a good little model...she slept the entire time!

I still haven't made it through all the shots yet, but here are a couple of favorites so far:

June 5

Isla was discharged from the hospital around 11 this morning. She is gaining weight and seems to be eating fairly well. We have an appointment with our pediatrician tomorrow morning, but it looks like she is in good shape.

We went straight from the hospital to church to pick up Audrey. Daniel dropped her off in her Sunday School class at 9 this morning, then left to come back to the hospital to help us pack up and get discharged. I figured it was best for Audrey to have as normal of a morning as possible. She loves going to her classes at church, and she didn't even know that we were somewhere else!

Tonight, Lindsey brought us dinner. She made a special dinner just for Audrey--which included two of her favorites berries and peanut butter and jelly. =Thanks for being so thoughtful, Lindsey!

And a final picture of Isla snuggling on the couch with Daddy after her bath tonight. She was extremely irritable the first few days of her life. But now that she has some food in her belly, she is a different baby. She eats and sleeps and really that is about it right now. I could just sit and snuggle with her all day long!

June 4

Isla's bilirubin and sodium levels were back to normal today...so that is very good!

However, they haven't discharged us yet because they are concerned about her feedings. We are now supplementing with formula, but she is not eating enough consistently enough. They want her to be eating about one ounce at each feeding (every 2 hours) before they will discharge her. Today, she would sometimes eat almost a full ounce, but at other times she would only eat about a half ounce. Hopefully, she will have some good feedings tonight, and we will be able to take her home tomorrow. Her last feeding was very small, so she is starting to make me nervous.
Isla and I are here by ourselves tonight. Daniel went home to be with Audrey. That poor girl has had such a crazy week. I feel so bad for her...and I miss her! Between bedrest, having a baby, and being here with Isla, I haven't spend hardly any time with her the past 10 days. I am very eager to be at home with both of my girls!!

June 3

I have a few more posts to write about Isla and her birth day, but for now I'm going to try to get back on track with daily posting.

So today, here is a picture of my sweet little baby right now.We are back in the hospital with Isla. We took her into the doctor this afternoon because we were concerned about jaundice. She had lost 6 more ounces, bringing her down to just 5 lbs, 5 oz. They drew blood to test her bilirubin levels, and they were up to 16. 8 (they were around 9 when we left the hospital yesterday). That was too high, too fast. So the doctor sent us back to the hospital.

So now we're in the hospital where she will receive phototherapy until the bilirubin levels are under control, hence the blue light and the sunglasses.

They also just came in and told us that she is pretty dehydrated. So she is on IV fluids for that as well, hence all the stuff wrapped around her little arm. Watching three different nurses try to get an IV into the veins of a 5 pound baby is not pleasant. I finally had to leave the room and not watch anymore.

This whole thing is very frustrating to me...mostly because I was hesitant to breastfeed in the first place. I said I didn't want to with this one after the horrible experience we had with Audrey. All of these problems with Isla are coming because of breastfeeding. We're still waiting for my milk to come in, so she hasn't been getting much from me at all since her birth. I'm trying to do what everyone tells me is best for her (breastfeeding). However, if I would have just decided to formula feed her, most likely we would not be in the hospital with a dehydrated, jaundiced little girl right now.

She will get to go home when her bilirubin levels are under control and when she is hydrated (something to do with sodium levels...I don't fully understand how they measure this?). The doctor was just in and said it shouldn't take long to bring the bilirubin levels down, but it may take longer to get her fully hydrated. So, I'm not sure how long we will be here.

My other sweet baby girl was not happy to see us leave tonight. When I told Audrey she was going to spend the night with yet another person (thank you Blakley family!), she started to cry and said, "No stay at home. Stay with Mommy." It about made me cry to have to leave her. That poor girl has been passed around from person to person for the past 10 days or so. It is killing me to have to pass her off to someone else and be away from her yet again.

Isla's Birth Story

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

9:00 am: We had an appointment with a maternal fetal medicine specialist who was going to do a doppler ultrasound and check on baby's growth and blood flow. We were told that if there was a problem, then we may start talking about delivering the baby early.

We got to the dr's office (which is located at the hospital) on time, but they had no record of me or my appointment. Not a good sign. Somehow the appointment was not put in the system. However, they said they would be able to work us in. We had to wait a couple of hours, but we eventually were called back to the ultrasound room.

11:15 am: The sonographer did a very detailed and thorough ultrasound, using Doppler and 3D ultrasounds. She thought everything looked pretty good.

12:00 pm: The Dr. came in to talk to us. He also performed a thorough ultrasound. He then explained that the baby's blood flow looked good. Fluid levels were good. Everything was measuring right on track...except the belly.

We already knew her belly was measuring small, but he pointed out how small it was measuring. At my 33 week sonogram, her belly measured at 33 weeks in the 42%. On Tuesday, her belly measured at 33 weeks 5 days which was in the 2%.

Basically, her belly was no longer growing. The doctor had no explanation why, because everything else looked healthy. He said the chances were good that she was perfectly healthy. But he also thought it would be best to deliver right away. His concern was that if we waited, the belly would continue to not grow and could create more problems.

12:45 pm: The Dr. took us downstairs to the admissions desk...and we checked in for delivery!

1:15 pm: We got settled into the room, and they hooked me up to the monitors. I was having some mild contractions at the time. The nurse did a cervical check and found that I was already almost 4 cm dilated and 70% effaced!

This made me feel better about being induced. My fear in being induced was that it would take a long time, and it would be a long, difficult labor. Starting at 4 cm dilated was very encouraging news.

1:45 pm: Started Pitocin.

2:45 pm: The doctor broke my water.

3:15 pm: Started epidural, as the contractions quickly grew more intense once my water was broken.

3:45 pm: Epidural FINALLY started to work. Nurse checked and found that I was 9 cm dilated...during the time that I was getting the epidural, I had changed from 4 cm to 9 cm.

4:00 pm: Fully dilated. I started to feel lots of pressure, like the baby was going to fall out of me. But I couldn't push yet, because we had to wait for the doctor to arrive. The nurses and the resident got everything ready for delivery. And then we all just sat there staring at each other. At least I wasn't feeling the contractions at this point, so it was a nice little rest.

4:30 pm: Doctor finally arrives! Time to push.

4:51 pm: Isla Kate Shelton is born!