Home Alone

Jordyn and I are home alone! Daddy has gone back to work and Grandma Beer left us yesterday morning. It was wonderful to have her here to take care of everything so I could just enjoy my time with Jordyn. It was also great to just hand off my squirming little daughter when I wanted to nap in peace. Jordyn and I will definitely miss Grandma. The past two days have been going pretty well with just the two of us. Jordyn has her days and nights mixed up so she sleeps a lot in the day giving me time to get a few things done but then she's up all night. I'm trying to break her of that habit but it's slow going. I feel like all I do is feed her, change her and put her to sleep but it's great to have so much time with her. Next week I go back to school and I will miss being with her. I have one class a day for about an hour and since I'm nervous about leaving her with a babysitter Daddy will be watching her during his lunch break for a week or so. Please pray for us as we adjust to that new schedule and that I still have time to eat and sleep in between school and taking care of Wayne and Jordyn. It will be an adjustment but we are praying that it will be a smooth one.

For other news, Jordyn had another doctors appointment on Monday. The doctor said she looks great and didn't even have to have her biliruben level tested again because she has lost all of her yellow color. She has also gained some weight bringing her almost back to her birth weight. She is now 8 lbs 6 ozs which means she has gained about an ounce a day in the last week which is great. I was ready to give up on breastfeeding since it's hard and seems like that's all I do but after hearing that great news of her gaining weight I have found a new strength to continue. Jordyn is full of life and tons of fun. I wish all of you could meet her and get a chance to play together.

Finally, I know that many of you are still requesting pictures. We seem to take tons but don't want to post every picture we can. I will try my best to keep the blog updated often and full of pictures but please understand if I don't post to often as life has made a complete turn around for us since our baby. Let me just tell you a little bit about these pictures.

The top picture is of Jordyn sitting in her boppy pillow. She loves to be propped up and sitting on her own! The first two pictures below are of Jordyn on her first walk with both her Daddy and Mommy. Jordyn loves to cuddle and her Daddy is the best at comforting her, except when she's hungry! Lastly, is a picture of Jordyn with Grandma and Jordyn after she has been swaddled by Grandma. She loves to be wrapped up. Hope you enjoy these!

Tons of News

Well, it's been a few days since we last updated the blog. There has been so much going on since she came home and it has been very tiring and overwhelming to say the least. Jordyn left the hospital with a small case of jaundice and so after her first day home she made her first trip back out to the doctors. While in the hospital her biliruben level, which is what causes the jaundice, was at 8 and on Tuesday when we visited the doctors it was up to a 14. If it reaches 20 the baby becomes hospitalized and so the doctor asked us to return again the next day expecting her level to have gotten higher. To the doctors surprise the next day she was down to a 12.8. This means that her liver is starting to function and we don't have to return to the doctors again until Monday. Today is the first day that she has looked a lot less yellow.

My mom is also visiting to help out. She came on Tuesday and is staying until the following Tuesday. I am not very good at relaxing or accepting help but it has been nice to have someone with so much knowledge and advice. I have been able to take naps, not cook and have my house cleaned and it has been wonderful. Also, because my mom is able to help with baby duty Wayne was able to sleep through the night last night and be refreshed for work.

Today Jordyn got a visit from another one of her grandparents, Gram, also known as Phyllis or Wayne's mom. Even though she was pretty fussy Gram was able to calm her down and we were able to get some good pictures. It was also nice again to get more advice and perspective from another mother who has been through it.

Lastly for exciting news, Jen and Kirk Yates welcomed their second child into the world three and a half days after Jordyn. Riley Hope Yates was born on Tuesday, August 21, at 10:40 am. She was 6 lbs 13 oz, and has a dark head of hair. They were able to go home today. We are planning on visiting them next weekend and it will be fun to compare babies. Jordyn will look big compared to her cousin Riley.

That is all the news for now. We appreciate all your calls, emails and cards. We will continue to keep you updated with both information and pictures. Please understand if it takes us a while to respond to you because of how busy, different and tiring our life has been this past week. It was so hard to choose between all the cute pictures we have taken already but we hope you enjoy the ones we've posted below.

We're Home!

Yesterday the doctors decided to send us home. They had originally told us that we were going to have to stay until Monday morning but since both Mommy and Jordyn were doing so well they decided to send us home yesterday afternoon. I was a little apprehensive about going home and having no nurses to assist us but so far it's been great. I have been recuperating nicely and can sit down and get back up by myself. Jordyn is doing great as well. Breastfeeding has been going well although we've had to also supplement formula since my milk has yet to come in. We got a pretty good rest last night as well. She went to bed at 12, got up from 2-4, slept again until 7:30 and slept again from 9-11:30. She has now been fed once again and Wayne and I are both working on cleaning up before she is hungry again. Thank you for all the prayers, emails and calls. We are so overwhelmed but the beautiful baby girl that God has given to us and love to show her off through pictures and hopefully we'll post a short video soon. She had her picture taken at the hospital yesterday and so we've posted the pictures below. She was the biggest baby born that day by almost a pound, and she was definitely the prettiest!

Pictures!!

We have already had many requests to post pictures and since the hospital has wireless we are able to do so. There aren't many pics because Jordyn looks the same in all of them, she's either sleeping, crying or eating but we have tried to post quite a few for you to enjoy and I'm sure we'll be posting more shortly. If the slideshow goes to fast or you want to look at a picture more quickly just click on the picture and a new page will load where you can see all the pics at your own pace. If you are unable to view the slideshow just click on this link http://picasaweb.google.com/wayates74/JordynAriannaYates/photo#5100227595338953650 and you will be able to view the pictures one at a time. Enjoy!!

Birth Story

Jordyn Arianna Yates

8 lbs 9 oz

21.25 inches

Born August 17, 2007 11:50 pm

We had a really long and hard labor experience to get our beautiful baby girl and we thought we would share it with you to the minute details.

6:00
Wake up and call the hospital to see what time we need to show up to be induced. They told us to show up at 7:30.
8:00
We arrived at Virginia Baptist Hospital...a little late.
9:00
Receive an IV with both fluids and pitocin to start the labor.
9:50
The nurse came in to check on me and asked me if I had been having contractions yet. I said no but she looked at my chart and told me that maybe I hadn't felt them but I had been having contractions for 45 minutes already. I had just thought that was Jordyn pushing on my belly. I guess it wasn't.
10:00
Since I now knew what they felt like I had my felt my first contraction at this time.
10:12
Dr. Kidd came in and broke my water to start speeding up the contractions.
11:00
The contractions began to be pretty intense but I stayed strong and avoided the pain medication.
2:00
After 4 hours of labor I was still 5 cm dilated, 60% effaced and -2 station which is what I was before I even started labor. I couldn't believe that after 4 hours of pain nothing had progressed. That's when I asked for medication.
2:15
Received pain medication through the IV.
2:55
After two vials of pain medication and no relief I received an epidural and went right to sleep.
3:40
While I was still sleeping the doctor came in and checked my cervix. I was now 7 cm dilated, 90% effaced and 0 station. She also inserted a catheter for measuring contractions.
5:50
I finally woke up after a much needed nap.
6:25
I was almost completely dilated and about ready to push.
6:55
The room was setup for delivery for our soon to be born daugher.
7:15
I was now fully dilated and made my first push attempt, the only problem being that because of the epidural I had no feeling and the pushing wasn't succesful.
7:40
Second push attempt after the epidural was dialed down. I still didn't have much feeling so it was also pretty much unsuccesful.
8:30-10:30
Pushing 4 sets of 10 seconds during every contraction which occured about every minute and a half. I only took a break during two contractions but every other one I pushed through.
10:30
Dr. Kidd evaluated me and said that despite two hours of pushing the baby had not progressed any farther down and so my pushing had been futile. She told us that if we didn't have the baby further down in the next hour a Cesarean was inevitable.
11:30
After another grueling hour of pushing, not pushing, crying and changing positions a lot Dr. Kidd evaluated me again. I had now progressed from 0 station to +2 station which was a success but not good enough. I was completely swollen and she told us the baby had to come out right away. We had two options, Cesarean or to use the vaccumn. After listening to the options and scenarios we chose to use the vaccumn.
11:50
After Dr. Kidd prepped, inserted the vaccumn and the most painful two pushes Jordyn Arianna was born to the sound of Mommy screaming and Daddy crying.

Jordyn received an Apgar score of 8 at one minute and 9 at five minutes which is wonderful. She laid on her table on the warming light barely crying and mostly looking around while I received many stitches for a third degree tear I received while delivering Jordyn. Finally after about 45 minutes I felt good enough to hold her. It was unreal. After more prodding, pushing and tests we were finally sent to our room at 3 am. It was hard to send her to the nursery overnight but Wayne and I desperately needed our sleep and so we sent her off and slept through the rest of the night.

Today she has been doing wonderful. We have received many calls and she had her first visitors, Uncle Aaron, Garrett and Aunt Cassandra. She has been doing wonderful at breastfeeding and hardly every cries. Wayne is doing well also. After the delivery last night he felt woozy for a couple of minutes after a day of no food and standing and being squeezed to death for so many hours. He stayed at the hospital with me last night and will do so again tonight. I have been doing ok. Because of my tear I have had trouble walking and need Wayne's help just to travel to the bathroom which is about five steps away. As the day progressed I have continued to feel better, mostly becuase of a lot of naps and many painkillers.

We will probably be in the hospital until Monday morning and are expecting a lot more visitors tomorrow. Please pray for all of us as we start our new journey. Please pray that Jordyn will continue to stay healthy and eat well and that Wayne and I will be patient with her. Please also pray for us parents as we are now going to receive a lot less sleep and as I recuperate from my stitches. I was told the time will be about a week before I start to feel comfortable sitting and walking well so please pray as I adjust and that I continue to take things slow. We are so thankful for all your prayers and phone calls. We will continued to keep you updated. We love you all.