Look-A-Like

We've been debating, as most parents do when they have a baby, whose features Addie has. It goes back and forth every day, some days she has Trevin's eyes or mouth or whatever and other days she has my nose or hair. So I found an old baby picture of mine..... you decide

Home!

Addie got discharged from the NICU this morning with a clean bill of health! We are so grateful for the thoughts and prayers you have all sent our way. What a roller coaster week it has been but we have so much to be thankful for!

Here she is after her first car ride. She didn't know what to think of it but just looked around wide eyed the whole time (I promise we are good parents and she was covered in blankets we just realized right before we took her out that we should take a picture.)

You can tell she was so excited to meet her cousin Callin....well actually she was a little sleepy but I'm sure deep down she was excited.

This pretty much sums up her life these days....besides eating and pooping

HAPPY EASTER!

Update

Here's an update and the latest and greatest from Addie.....

Update: The current diagnosis on Addie is Sepsis which is an infection in the blood. They have no idea how she got it, whether it was while I was pregnant or during delivery or what the cause would be. They have been treating her with antibiotics which if that were the only problem would need to run for 7 days (they started last Friday). To play it safe they also will do a spinal tap to make sure the infection hasn't gotten into her spinal fluid which would be meningitis but the chances of that are very low, they just don't want to miss anything. The main problem is her platelet count is very low and they are concerned as to what is causing that, whether it is her just fighting the infection or if there is something else going on. They test it every morning and I just keep hoping it will go up. She is off her oxygen now which is a lot of progress for her and she has started breastfeeding and is doing great. All the doctors are very positive about things and she seems to make progress every day. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts you have sent our way. We can feel the love and know God is looking out for our little girl and helping her get better.

Now the cute stuff.....

A couple days ago the nurses finally decided she needed a bath and a new hair-do that didn't include the gunk from birth. She has so much hair that they had to use baby shampoo and dumped water on her head

Here she is getting her hair shampooed

Playing beauty school made her so tired but now she is clean and has a cute bow

Cute little Addie!

Finally Trevin got to hold her last night which he hasn't been able to do since the night she was born

Our first family portrait

Baby Story--Because Everyone Wants to Know How This Adorable Little Girl Got Here

Yup she came!! Two weeks early!! It's a pretty crazy story and as so many doctors pointed out its through many miracles that our little girl is stable and healthy right now. Thursday morning I woke up having tons of false labor contractions, like they were only about 2 minutes apart but didn't hurt at all, my stomach would just get tight. Halfway through work that morning I decided to go home and lay down, maybe then these exhausting contractions would stop. Trevin came home from work around noon and decided that we should start timing the contractions. At this point they were starting to hurt a little bit. To make a long story short around 3:30 we decided they were painful and regular enough so we called the OB and he said to just go to the hospital and get checked out, the worse they could do is send me home. They hooked me up to a monitor that would show the baby's heartbeat. Sometimes she would take big dives and then come back up which really worried the doctors. They checked me and I was 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced. Our doctor came in and gave us two options, he said I wasn't in labor but because of the baby's heart rate he would induce me BUT she was two weeks early and there may be a chance she wasn't fully developed so we could go home and wait for real labor to start if we wanted. He recommended the first options which we immediately took (miracle #1). They started me on Pitocin and gave me an epidural. It felt like years between those two events Pitocin and epidural. I kept yelling at Trevin to go find someone to give me an epidural. They had already called the anesthesiologist but he just wasn't coming fast enough for my liking. After he gave me the epidural though I kept telling him he was my hero. Seriously, he was! My doctor came in and told me that being induced would be a long process so I would probably have the baby around 5 or 6 Friday morning. About half an hour later my water broke and unfortunately our baby was under stress and had a bowel movement while still inside (we later found out the cord was wrapped around her neck a couple time). The doctor came in again to check on my progress and said he wanted to rinse things out since she had pooped. As he was giving the nurse instructions and walking out the door I started to feel a lot of pressure like I needed to push. The nurse doubted me because it seemed impossible for things to be moving this fast. She said she would check me anyways and when she did she also said wow she has a lot of hair. Yeah I was a 10 and her head was already coming out. They told me to try and not push because they wanted to wait for the pediatrician on call to get there. So I just had to hold it for about 10 minutes. He finally got there and the action started. Three pushes later Addison Lindsay Cardon was born at 7:46 pm, 6 lbs 6 oz, 19 1/2 inches long with the longest eye lashes and a full head of brown hair. She is so cute and we love her so much!!!

Unfortunately because of the early bowel movement and other complications that followed, Friday morning Addie was transported to the NICU at Utah Valley Hospital (they have a better one than Orem where we delivered). Thankfully I have an awesome doctor who discharged me Friday morning also so that I could go be with her. Yeah everyone thought I was crazy when I walked out of the hospital 15 hours after giving birth but our little girl is so worth it! She was put on a ventilator and hooked up to all kinds of monitors and gadgets. If I was writing this yesterday I would be all sorts of emotions and give details BUT I'll just skip to the good news. Last night they took her off the ventilator and now she just has an oxygen tube in her nose. They found out that she has an infection so she has been getting antibiotics and her breathing is slowly getting better. Tonight when we went to go see her we were able to help give her a bath and I got to hold her!!!! When we got there she recognized my voice and opened her eyes to say hello. Every nurse comments on her beautiful full head of hair and her long eyelashes. She is definitely a cutie for sure and we can't wait to have her home in a week or two. In the mean time I'm just grateful the hospital is only 2 blocks from our house. Because I'm being lazy if you want to see pictures just go look on facebook.

Retirement = Optional Shower Days?

So I'm officially retiring from the financial industry one week from today. Yeah sounds pretty official huh? I'm starting to wonder what retirement will be like. Everyone laughs when I say I'm retiring because they remind me that soon I will have more than a 9-5 job, try a 24/7 job. I guess maybe career change is more accurate but there's a ring to the word retirement, I like how it sounds. Some people get pension plans or IRAs for retirement, I have a whole different set of perks I'm looking forward to. Besides the obvious of having a cute little baby to cuddle all the time (who thinks you are the greatest and constantly needs you) optional shower days and stay-in-your-pjs-all-day day are included in my retirement package. Its not like I'm an unclean person or looking for an excuse to forget hygiene I'm just saying, don't you remember those awesome snow days in elementary school where you never made it to the shower or changed out of your pajamas, that's what I'm talking about! I'm not sure if Trevin is aware of all these new perks I made up but I guess he will figure it out sooner or later when he comes home from work and baby and I are lounging on the couch in our pjs because we declared it one of our days. Obviously in order for it to be an official day we will need two affirmative votes but I have a feeling baby wont mind. For all you who have now become skeptical of being my friend due to lack of hygiene not to worry I wont have consecutive optional shower days for your sake....and Trevin's.

In other updates....still waiting on baby..... Trevin is always secretly hoping that I'm having painful contractions, a good sign of labor, but no such luck yet. 2 1/2-ish weeks to go, we'll keep you posted.

Advice from an OB

After at least 30 something years of experience delivering babies here was what my OB told me today.....

As my appointment was finishing up today we were joking about prenatal classes and how Trevin practices breathing exercises every night. My OB gave his best advice....Take one huge deep breath and scream epidural as loud as you can and that's all you will need. So there you have it, from the doctor himself.

In other updates 3 1/2 weeks to go and we are so excited. All the sudden I feel like there is so much to do but we can't wait. I've been washing all her clothes and getting ready to put the car seat in and everything. Trevin has conversations with her every night trying to convince her to come soon but I'm not sure how obedient she will be.....we'll keep you posted.