Audrey is 1 Week Old!

Audrey is already 1 week old! She's close to being back to her birth weight, and is doing really well overall. She's sleeping great during the day, and once we can finally get her down at night, she sleeps well then too. We'll see if that keeps up!

Her big brother loves her so much. He is always excited to come home and see Audrey. Yesterday after he got home, we were giving Audrey a little tummy time on the floor, and Jackson decided to join her. We quickly grabbed the camera so everyone can see what a sweet, loving big brother Jackson is. It melts my heart!

And here's the proud Daddy with his kiddos.

As always, there are more pictures in the album

Audrey's Delivery from E's Perspective

So I thought I'd share/document my perspective and a little more info on how things went for Audrey's birth yesterday. I was scheduled for a c-section at noon yesterday, so we arrived at the hospital at 10. They hooked me up to the monitors, and we quickly discovered that I was having pretty regular contractions. On Monday I had made zero progress towards labor, so it was decided that a repeat c-section was the way to go this time. Given the change in progress, we waited a little while to see how labor progressed. When the doctor arrived to check me we discussed our options and opted to go ahead with the c-section and finally meet our little girl.

At noon they wheeled me to the operating room where I was given my spinal block/epidural. Then Ross was allowed to join me in the room, and the surgery began. Audrey McKenzie Taylor was born at 12:31 PM, and baby and Dad were whisked away to the nursery while the doctor and nurses wrapped up the surgery.

Just after they wrapped everything up and my doctor headed out, I started feeling awful. I was very nauseous and sick feeling in general. I could tell my awesome nurse was concerned about something too by the way she was looking at another nurse that had assisted in the surgery. She very quickly called for my doctor to come back, and in the mean time I was given some medicine to help counter my low blood pressure. They decided to wheel me back to my room and monitor me for a little while. I was covered with a "bear hugger" to try to bring up my body temperature, and they checked and rechecked my blood pressure, temp, etc. while they also kept pushing on my belly. Ross was back in the room when I arrived, which was a huge comfort to me.

After about 20 minutes or so they decided they should open me back up just to be sure nothing was wrong. I was quickly wheeled back to the operating room and everything was re-prepped. It felt like I was in there for an eternity. At this point I didn't know what they had discovered, but I heard my doctor request another well known specialist doctor to come assist him, which was when I got a little nervous...I trust my doctor completely, so I wasn't worried until he sounded worried. That doctor didn't end up making it before they got everything taken care of and were able to explain what happened. Apparently an artery in my uterus had separated and ruptured in an unexpected area. My doctor was able to repair everything and remove the lost blood. They determined I'd lost 3 liters of blood during the course of the procedures and requested 2 liters of blood be transfused to me.

When I returned to the room they continued to work on bringing up my body temp and ensuring there was no more internal bleeding. I was shaking uncontrollably, which many people who've had babies know is part of the process of recovering. It wasn't until I finally got to hold Audrey that my body calmed down...that was a pretty neat feeling.

I have been recovering quickly and pretty well. I was allowed to eat solid foods late yesterday evening and was up and walking around this morning. My epidural is expected to come out tomorrow, and we are supposed to go home on Saturday.

Jackson came to visit yesterday and today, and he is SO sweet with Audrey. He gives her the most gentle hugs and kisses and seems genuinely excited about the baby. When I was pregnant and you asked Jackson where baby Audrey was, he would point to my belly and give it a kiss. Yesterday we asked him where baby Audrey was, and he walked over to her, pointed, and gave her a kiss...too sweet! Today Jackson held her for the first time, and this is what he did...

All of the grandparents have been here to meet Audrey and help take care of JD while we are at the hospital. Jackson is really enjoying the time with them.

First Night

We have made it through the first night. Mom and baby are both doing well. Audrey has nursed pretty well and E has been able to eat a bit and is looking forward to breakfast. I've updated the ticker at the top for Audrey on the main blog page now that we finally get to count up! I'll try to get some more pictures today.

First Picture

Here she is:

Elizabeth is recovering well and Audrey is doing great! She is currently with the pediatrician.

Doing fine

I just talked to the doctor and E is doing fine. She had some internally bleeding that they patched up and she should be out soon. Audrey's temp is up and hopefully we will be able to bring mom and baby together soon.

Audrey McKenzie Taylor

Born 3/10/10 at 12:31 pm. 8 lb 3 oz. 19.5 in long. Pictures coming soon. E hasn't come out of the OR yet.

OR

E has gone in...I'm waiting to join her. She was progressing a little@but not really in labor so she decided to go ahead with the c-section.

Hospital

We are at the hospital for Audrey's birth. E has been having a few contractions and the doctor will probably check her progress when he gets here but chances are we will be going into the operating room in about an hour for a c-section at about noon. They are getting her all prepped right now.

Rough Times

We've had a rough couple of weeks since Ross' return from Hawaii. My Papaw passed away that week, and since I am so close to my due date, we weren't able to travel to the funeral on February 20th. It was very hard for me not to be with my family during this time. I have many fond memories of my Papaw from walks around the boulevard in front of their house and learning to play croquet in their backyard to watching him love and adore my Mamaw. The last time I saw my Papaw was at my cousin, John's wedding. Here's a picture of him proudly listening to my Mamaw play the piano at their reception.

On top of that Jackson got a really bad stomach bug that Friday. I won't go into the details, but I will say I can't even count the number of times we all had to change clothes. It lasted through Monday when I finally caught it. I guess my immune system was even weaker than Jackson's because I had it until this past Friday. I was finally able to eat real food Saturday evening. 5 days of being sick and hardly any food while you're 39 weeks pregnant is NOT fun! Fortunately, I was able to enjoy our first crawfish boil of the year to celebrate our friend, Stephen's birthday! My energy really returned on Monday, so I've been able to take care of a few final things around the house. Now we're ready and eagerly awaiting Audrey's arrival!

Good News

I finally got the results of the lab work I mentioned in this post this afternoon. Apparently, I have PUPP, which is the one that's just irritating, and not ICP, which could have resulted in having to deliver Audrey early. Ross and I are both relieved, but still anxious for him to be home! Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers!

Children's Museum and Other Adventures

I've fallen a little behind on my posts this week, but I have to say...it's been a bit of a rough week. We'll start with the fun weekend and pictures first though. Last weekend my mom, now known as Nana, was here to help with Jackson. Since it was pretty cold and had been raining a lot, we decided to take Jackson to the Children's Museum. This was the second time he's been, and I'm not sure he was really old enough to remember the first visit. He had a blast though. He loved driving the red pickup truck and even made a few friends in the process.

He is apparently a two footed driver. This truck had two accelerators, and he had his foot on both!

He enjoyed getting a closer look at the ceiling with the telescope.

Racing cars with Nana was fun too!

He got serious about pouring some tea.

His favorite by far though was playing outside with the popper.

It was only topped by riding the fish AND holding the popper!

There are more pics of the fun in the album.

Monday provided my first real pregnancy scare with Audrey. She decided to stop moving for a LONG time. After realizing I hadn't felt her move in quite a while, I spent 2-3 hours Monday evening doing everything I could think of to get her to move...a glass of cold water, eating something sweet, lying on my left side, and even pushing and poking her. It just felt like a brick moving around though. I finally decided I should probably go to the emergency room, so I called my friends Heather and Todd to come watch Jackson. Of course, as soon as they got to the door, she made a little movement. They very nicely sat with me for a few minutes to make sure she moved some more before heading back home. The next day I was still very nervous, but her movements continued to get stronger, which was very reassuring.

Wednesday started a whole new adventure. I started itching all over, which apparently isn't good when you're pregnant. The itching kept me up all night, so I went to see the doctor first thing Thursday morning. They let me know it could be one of two things, either PUPP or ICP. They are running some lab work to determine which one it is. PUPP isn't a big deal at all. It's just irritating. However, ICP is much more serious and would likely result in delivering Audrey early. I expect to know more on Monday when I go back for my next appointment. Until then they have given me some medicine to help with the itching. The only side effect is that it knocks me out, which meant no work for me on Thursday or Friday. My dad came down to help with Jackson for the weekend on Thursday night, so I've been well taken care of between family and friends...more on our fun weekend in the next post.

Audrey McKenzie Taylor

We had our last planned ultrasound today, and we're still expecting a healthy baby girl! As of today she weighs 3 lbs 6 oz. All four chambers of her heart we're beating strongly at 131 beats per minute, and apparently she's already working on her flexibility for becoming a dancer because she had her feet above her head!

We have decided to name her Audrey McKenzie Taylor. Audrey means "Noble Strength" and is simply a name we really like. McKenzie is a name that belongs to two special people in our lives. Ross' great aunt's name was Elsie McKenzie. Elsie was Dick's mother, and someone both Ross and I loved and respected immensely. Ross' sister, Leslie McKenzie, was named after her. Because Elsie meant so much to us we wanted to honor her by using the name McKenzie. We hope baby Audrey will live a life as full and rich and God-honoring as Elsie.

Here are a couple of the ultrasound pictures of Audrey from today. The first is a face shot from the front, and the second is a profile. We think she is adorable and can't wait to meet her!