Jade Caught Her First Cold May 19, 2008

Jade has caught her first cold. It's all my fault. I started getting sick a couple of days ago, then Aaron got it and now Jade. It was inevitable. We tried everything to keep her from getting sick. We wore masks whenever we held her, washed our hands constantly and drank lots of Xango. But nothing seemed to work. She woke up yesterday morning with a fever of 100.3. It really made me nervous because at the hospital where I work, when little babies under 3 months come in with a fever over 100.6 we have to do a complete septic work up. That means a spinal tap, urinary catheter and IV. I didn't want to have to do that. I don't think I could have handled it mentally and emotionally, to be quite honest. It's one thing to do it to other people's kids but to do it to your own is another. This morning she is super congested and is having a difficult time eating because she can't breathe through her nose. I try to suction out her nose but I don't get much. It's too high up into her sinuses to suction. Plus she hates it when I suction her out.
Anyways, we are all miserable especially because we aren't getting any sleep. We are tired due to being sick and then to make matters worse Jade is cranky because she doesn't feel well so she isn't sleeping very well either. This mother business sure is tiring. I don't think I will ever sleep a full nights sleep again.

Jade's Two Week Check Up May 15, 2008

Jade went to her 2 week check up! She is 7.0 lbs and 19.7 inches long. That means she only lost 2 ounces her first two weeks which is pretty good for a baby that is nursing. However she seems to have shrunk since she was born. The nurse at the hospital originally measured her at 20.5 inches but at the MD's office she measured 19.7.
Jade goes to the Families First Clinic in South Jordan. Her doctor is actually a nurse practioner and her name is Cami Goff. She is fantastic. She listens to what I have to say and is easy to get a hold of when I have a problem. I really like the clinic and would refer anyone to them!

Jade's Belly Button May 18, 2008

Jade's umbilical stump fell off! She's officially a human being. :) I know it's gross but I thought you would like to see it!

(Disregard the fact that I'm in my G's)

Mother's Day May 11, 2008

I can't believe I'm a mother. It seems a little surreal. To think that I am now the full time care giver of a cute little girl. It makes me both proud and a little nervous to think of such a responsibility. I know that I have great examples of mother's in my own life, my mother, my grandmothers, and even my mother-in-law. I just hope that I can do as good of a job as they have done.

Mother's Day was Jade's first day at church. I gave her a bath and dressed her in a cute little white dress with a pink cardigan. She looked so adorable. People were surprised that I would bring her to church only a week old but I figured the weather was nice enough that she wouldn't be at risk for catching a cold and I just kept her covered up the entire time so she wouldn't catch any germs from people. She did really well. She slept the entire time. Didn't even cry once. I was hoping she would wake up so that I could take her out of her carrier and show her off but alas she was way too good.



Later that day we went to my parent's house and celebrated Mother's Day and my Grandma Bills' birthday. We had our cinco de mayo party a little late due to Jade being born. The food was fantastic-mexican food of course. Then our favorite tradition, the pinata. It was very fun. Dad has a film of it, it's classic.

First Week Home May 5-10, 2008

The first week home has been very eventful. We were discharged from the hospital on May 7th. On the 8th, Jade had her first doctor's appointment so that we could check her bilirubin levels after being under the lights for 24 hours. Her levels were still elevated and so we had to go back the next day for another check. Luckily this time her levels appeared to be lowering so we were able to take her off of the lights. However we still had to go back to the doctors the next day to make sure her levels weren't increasing. They were just fine.

It was quite the learning experience my first time out. I wasn't used to how many things a baby requires. There is the diaper bag and all the things that are involved with that, lots of diapers, extra clothes, wipes, bottles, formula, etc, etc. Luckily I had my mom there to help me remember all the things I needed. I don't think I could have done it without her.

Speaking of help, my mom only lives about 30 minutes away from my house. That meant that she could come up and help me as often as I needed it. I must admit, I needed her a lot. Babies are a lot of work!. She was kind enough to come up each day and help me out with things around the house, like cooking meals for me to freeze, doing my laundry, or grocery shopping. She would also watch Jade while I took a nap in between feedings.

She also recruited my dad, brothers and sisters to come up and help us with our yard. We had the curbers come out to our house a couple of days before I had Jade but we still needed to plant bushes and flowers in order to finish up our backyard. My family helped us do just that. I went out with my mom and picked out shrubs and flowers while my dad and Aaron laid the drip system and top soil and planted all the plants. I'll remind you that this was 4 days after I delivered Jade. It was good to get up and out of the house. It kept me from really being moody but I sure felt it afterwards. We actually got the entire front yard completed. It looked fantastic!

Also Mom and Dad helped us finish up the nursery. We had finished painting the nursery and setting up all the furniture before Jade was born but didn't have anything else in the room. I had tons of clothes to hang and wall coverings to put up...you know...cutsie stuff, I just wasn't able to finish before Jade came along. Thankfully my parents helped us put the finishing touches on the room besides everything else they did that week. It looked really cute when we were done.

We really appreciate all the things my parents did to help us out that first week. I'm sure we would have survived without their help, but it made those first days very enjoyable. We had a lot to get done and they really helped us out. We are very lucky to have such wonderful parents (grandparents) in our lives. We love you and appreciate all the things you do for us.

First Days of Life Slide Show

This slide show contains several different pictures of the first two days at the hospital, Aaron, Austin and Hudson's Cinco de Moustache, and her first day home spent under the bili-lights.

Jade Leighla Sorensen

I went into labor with Jade around 4pm on Sunday May 4, 2008. We got home from church and I went upstairs to take a nap and felt a little crampy. I brushed it off not thinking anything of it. When I woke up an hour later I realized that the cramps were a little stronger. I remember my mom saying that labor pains felt like the worst cramps of your life and I figured I was probably in labor. However my worst fear was going to the hospital and being sent home because I wasn't really laboring. So I decided to just watch things and wait till the contractions were closer together. I packed my hospital bag just in case. We were on our way to American Fork, to Gary Gunn's house, to break the our fast for Grandpa Gunn. We got to American Fork and my contractions were about 7 minutes apart but I held out. We started dinner and I ate a little bit but I hurt so bad by this point that I couldn't sit still long enough to eat. Finally, dinner finished and I turned to Aaron and told him I just couldn't handle it any longer. My contractions were 5 minutes apart and they were really starting to hurt. So I rounded up my Dad, Aaron and my brothers and they gave me a blessing, I said my goodbyes and we were out of there. I laid the seat of the car back while Aaron drove. I'm not quite sure how fast he was driving but we got to the IMC hospital in Murray pretty quickly. I didn't mind though because by then I was hurting so bad I couldn't sit still. The contractions were coming about every 2-3 minutes and would last for about a minute. We got to the hospital but because it was a Sunday there wasn't anyone outside to let us in so we had to be buzzed in by the lady sitting at the desk. I rang the bell and I could see the nurse looking at me but she wouldn't let me in. I stood there for what seemed like 5 minutes, doubled over in pain, until finally another nurse saw me and let me in. I then stood there for another 10 minutes waiting for the same nurse to get off the phone and get my paper work started. Needless to say I was a little angry and a few choice words were uttered. Finally I was taken back to my room. My nurse immediately came in and saw how much pain I was in. She checked me. I was dilated to a 7 and completely effaced. She looked at me in shock and said we should probably get things rolling. She called the doctor,Dr Irion, and the anesthesiologist and in about 20 minutes I was out of pain, the doctor had come down and checked me and I was getting my first dose of antibiotics. By this time it was around 8pm. The time went really quickly after that. I watched a little tv and Aaron took some home videos. My family came up and hung out while we just waited for the antibiotics to go in. I kept telling my nurse that I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. When I finally got her to realize that I REALLY needed to go she looked at me and said that I was probably ready to push. She checked me and sure enough I was fully dilated. This was around 10:30p but by the time the doctor got down to see me it was close to 11pm. I asked him if he wouldn't mind waiting til midnight, that way Jade would be born on Cinco de Mayo, the same day as my Grandma Bills. He wasn't too pleased but finally consented. At around 12:30am, after I had my 2nd dose of antibiotics in, the doctor came down and I started to push. It took a while. The nurse said I was a rookie pusher. But by 1:30am Jade was born. Aaron says the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck a couple of times and that the doctor had some trouble getting it off. She also had swallowed some meconium and so they called the NICU and had a nurse come to suction her out really well. She weighed 7 lbs 2 oz and measured 20.5 inches long. She was sooo tiny and adorable. Nothing like the little ogre I had feared. She did have a slightly squashed nose but other than that she looked perfect. We did have a little scare about 30 minutes after she was born. She started to struggle while breathing and her core temperature was a little low. The NICU nurse took her and resuctioned her and then they had me hold her against my skin to help warm her up. That seemed to do the trick and we didn't have anymore problems. My family came in shortly after and were able to hold her. They then took us up to our room on the 2nd floor. They took Jade and did her first assessment and Aaron was able to help give her her first bath. They then had me try to nurse her. That didn't work out so well. I struggled to get her to latch on the entire time I was in the hospital. I finally had a lactation specialist come in and help me. It gave me a little more confidence but Jade still won't latch on very well. The specialist told me it was because she was a lazy sucker. It got to the point that Jade wasn't getting enough nutrients to help flush out the bilirubin and she became really jaundice. The next morning when the pediatrican came in he told me that we needed to start supplementing her with formula. She seemed to love it but she was so jaundiced by this time that she had to go under the blue lights. Thankfully by the time we were discharged from the hospital her levels had started to return to normal. However they sent us home with lights and she had to be under them for another day at home. Aaron and I quickly learned that as new parents you don't sleep very much. But we wouldn't trade it for the world. We love our little Jadester and are so glad she is part of our family. We are so thankful that her birth went so well and that she is a healthy and beautiful baby.