Addison Marie

Day 1

After Chris cut the cord the NICU team took her to asses her little body. She was screaming like crazy and we all took this as a good sign that he lungs were healthy. I couldn't take my eye off her and made Chris take pictures of everything they were doing. She weighed in at 5 lbs even they intially measured her at 18 inches but later corrected that to 18 and 1/2.

Her initial apgar scores were 8 and 9. Fantastic for a baby 5 weeks early. They wrapped her up, handed her over to me and told me I had an hour to spend with her before they would taker her down to the NICU to transition up into the nursery with us. ( required for all babies earlier than 36 weeks but way better than being admitted into the NICU) If all went well the transition would last about 6 hours and then she would be with us. They just needed to check her lungs and heart and breathing and glucose levels before she could be all ours.

An hour flew by and before I knew it they were back to sweep her away. It was hard to have my baby taken away so soon but I knew it would only be for awhile and I would be able to get some sleep in the mean time.

Unfortunately all didn't go as planned. When Addison got to the NICU they found that her glucose levels were dangerously low.. in the 20's... they like them to be in the 60's so she was put on an IV and kept in the NICU. I will admit when I was informed the 6 hour stay would be prolonged I lost it a little. Maybe it was the post delivery hormones or maybe I was just beyond exhausted after the 12 hours of labor and lack of food and sleep. I cried and cried, Chris calmed and soothed. (this has become the pattern of the last week) I finally fell asleep.

I woke up about 3 hours later and couldn't wait any longer, I asked to be wheeled down to the NICU. ( my leg was still a little numb from the epidural) When we arrived we were given great news, Addison had corrected her blood sugar within the first hour of being there and she was doing fantastic. They predicted she would be back in room with us by end of day. The tears came again, this time out of gratitude for one more little miracle for our Heavenly Father. Addison's lungs looked great, she was breathing perfectly, and all was well.

That first day was a long day. I was pretty sore from delivery but I just couldn't leave my baby for more than 30 minutes at a time so I spent most of the day sitting in the uncomfortable chairs by her bed instead of laying down like I was suppose to be. At 6 o'clock that night she was brought back up to the room with us and we spent our first night together. It was bliss. I took a million pictures and she was smothered in kisses from mommy and daddy.

The kids finally got to come and meet her. When they walked in Kaden was ecstatic he said " Is baby Addison here?" and when I nodded yes he said "ALRIGHT!" They kissed her and loved her. Kaden kept saying over and over how cute she was, there was an instant bond and I was reminded how close he has been with her from the moment I was pregnant. No doubt in my mind these two have met before.

The day ended on a good note and we felt incredibly blessed for all that had been given to us.