When preparing for Lucy’s arrival we did TONS of research on baby gear. Whats the best carseat, stroller, crib, etc. For the most part we think we did a pretty darn good job. Well…almost. While we love our Chicco stroller the thing is HUGE! I takes up our entire trunk when we go anywhere and is very cumbersome at best. So, tomorrow is shop for a smaller stroller day!

Lets be honest I love shopping…for anything really, but our need for new gear since Lucy was born has been nuts! Because she was a preemie she needed different and more specialized things than a normal term baby needed. So, for example, she doesn’t just have a crib. She has a crib, a bassinet, and a rock n’ play. Anything to help her be somewhat comfortable with her horrible reflux.

I can’t say we are super stoked to get another stroller (yes I am really, but I feel like I should act somewhat remorseful for a bad stroller purchase to make Josh happy ) but at last we are coming up on spring and summer and after a whole winter and fall of being shut up in the house due to the cold, mommy needs to get out!! And in order to get out we need a stroller that can fit in the car along with…well…anything else really.

So, wish us luck! I’m hoping for either the Maclaren or the Uppababy but we shall see. I will post pics when we decide!

Today I made Lucy’s appointment for her 6 month pictures.  I can’t believe that next week my 4lb 1oz preemie will be 6 months old!

Two days before she was born I was already hospitalized with the doctors telling me that my body was attacking me and the baby and that it simply wasn’t safe to carry her to term.  With that I was told to finish my sandwich, pack my stuff and get ready because I was headed down to L&D in about 20 minutes to be induced.  Before the extreme fear could even set in I was told by another nurse that a neonatologist would be in to talk to me about what would happen when the baby was born.  I had so many questions… Would she go to the NICU?  Would she get to stay with me?  Would it be a natural birth or a C-section?  Will she be ok?  Will she look funny from not being able to form fully? Will she even be able cry when she is born?  Can she breathe?

I tried to calm myself down telling myself that I was being dramatic, but frankly I wasn’t.  All of these questions I had were actual concerns and sadly they weren’t questions I was going to get answers to.  And wouldn’t get an answer to until more than 48 hours later when she was born.

My amazing baby girl was born crying and breathing at 11:20pm on August 18th.  There is nothing better than that little cry.  A sort of proof of being ok.

She did have a fight though.  Her lungs weren’t fully developed and a breathing tube had to go in, followed by a c-pap, and 15 days of IV’s, blood draws, blown out veins, and several days of a new mommy not being able to hold her daughter.  However in a fashion true to who she is, she fought everything!  Pulled her tubes when she was done and gave the proverbial finger to everything they said should would have difficulty with.

So, here we are about one week shy of her six month birthday.  My 4lb 1 oz baby girl is now pushing around 15lbs (actual weight to come next week after her doc appointment).  She giggles, and smiles uncontrollably at the sight of her daddy, she stands holding onto only fingers, she loves her jungleroo and of course the puppies.  I am so so so proud of my little fighter!

Almost 6 months later!

Just a few hours old.

Tonight I was reading another moms blog and thinking “I should do that”.  Then I remembered that I do that already and that maybe I should get on that. So, here we are!

Our first born has arrived!  Surprised? Yea, so were we. Routine NST (Non-Stress Test) testing on Friday, August 13th turned into full-on pre-eclampsia on Monday the 16th then to birth on Wednesday the 18th.

Lucille Ann Pettit, born on August 18th at 11:20p EDT weighing 5lbs, 1oz. We didn’t take too many photos, but the 25 we managed to fire off have been posted on our Flickr page.

THE SCOOP…

I know most of you have been seeing Facebook updates or have been talking to us directly about what’s going on with Lucy and me right now so we thought we should put up some more detailed information now that we have it.

At a routine baby exam on Friday my doctor found a slightly elevated blood pressure on me which caused her to order a blood test measuring my liver functions.  At about 5pm that night my doc called and said that I needed to go to the hospital that night to be checked in on a 24 hour watch for possible pre-eclampsia.  After 2 days of blood tests and all kinds of other tests they are 100% sure that I do have pre-eclampsia and that it is early onset meaning most women don’t get it until their last few weeks of pregnancy and I am only 33 weeks.

Because of this diagnosis they have been giving me shots of a steroid that will help to mature Lucy’s lungs by Monday.  Luckily they found the issue early and were able to give her the medications she needs.

WHAT WE KNOW FOR SURE…

So the plan at this point is to wait and see what happens.  We know for certain that this is very serious and life threatening if left too long for both Lucy and myself.  Her heart rate is good, her movement is good, but they did find a little dip in her heart pressures while doing a more in-depth ultrasound.  This means she is starting to feel the effects of the pre-eclampsia.  Up until that point the plan was just to keep me and her monitored in the hospital until she hit the 37 week mark.  After her ultrasound and the new development the plan is to monitor her more closely and if they feel it has gotten worse then they will induce labor right away.  The last thing the doctor said to me today was “be ready for us to say today is the day at any point”.

US…

Josh and I are definitely nervous about her health as well as mine and what will happen next.  We feel confident in our doctors and the hospital we are in and feel that they know what they are doing. It is VERY important to us that we stay positive!!!!  Its very had to be away from everybody while going through this but we have made some great friends here who have been helping us with everything from fixing the nursery to babysitting the dogs.  Thank you so much Melissa And Sean for being there for us with all of this!!!  We don’t know what we would do without you!

CONTACTING US…

I am in Buffalo Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Buffalo New York.  The floor I’m on is meant to high risk moms like me so we are set up with internet and are able to use our cell phones.  So feel free to call me (just remember we are on NY time ) or send me emails.  Josh is available by phone and email as well, but he is still working so he will be sleeping during the day and then working all night.  Please know how much we appreciate all of your love in support!

Not really too much to tell, but when Katie toured my work, we actually parked in the “Stork” reserved spot for the very first time. Just a neat “first” that warranted a photo and post.

Today we had our big ultrasound re-do since the last one was a huge epic fail.  This one was wonderful!  She is growing so big so fast!!!  Today she is measuring right on track at 22 weeks and 6 days (tomorrow will be 23 weeks) and weighing in at a wonderful 1 pound 1 ounce.

Every time we see her there are stronger features and she looks more and more like a baby.  We are starting to see little features that we can attribute to one of us.  For instance she showed us her fingers in one of the shots and we are pretty sure they are Josh’s long fingers and not my short stubby ones (yay!!!).

We are just so in love with our baby girl!

So stinkin CUTE!!!

Cute little hand!

Heartbeat

Her very first pair of Guess Jeans.  Oh yes my friends you heard me.  Most of us can remember their first pair of Guess jeans.  How cute they looked, how amazing you felt in them.  Well little Miss Lucy got her first pair today.  I think maybe her mommy is a little more excited about them than she is, but one day, one day she will understand the glory that is the Guess Jeans.

I love love love these.  I used to work in the LA showroom that sold these socks to department stores and boutiques and had not forgotten them over the years.  They are by a company called Trumpette, one of my favs on the market right now.  I mean come on!

As I’m sure you all can imagine this upcoming move to Buffalo, while super exciting, is very scary as well…especially with a new baby on the way.  Happily some of my fears have been eased a bit by meeting one of Josh’s co-workers Sean’s girlfriend Melissa.  She is also moving to Buffalo and they will be living in the same apartment community that we will, which will be fun! We are so excited to have friends already in the area, makes things much easier and happier. Not to mention that Lucy’s new Auntie Melissa has already volunteered to babysit!  She even got us a few new clothes for Lucy that will be nice and warm for the frigid winters of Western New York.

We found the cutest outfit for Lucy!  I think, just maybe that this is going to be her going home from the hospital outfit…at least until I find something else…you never know!

While at the Babies R’ Us Josh, who was very tired of me constantly complaining about not being able to sleep, bought me the Cadillac of all pillows… The Snoogle.

The pillow is the most fantastic, huge, curvy, and long pillow you have ever seen and it magically allows me to be able to sleep for more than 15 minutes at a time.  I love this pillow.  Josh on the other hand has now dubbed it “the divorce pillow” since it takes up mores space than he does.

Poor Joshy.

After we found out that we were having a little girl the shopping started…immediately.  On the way home from the ultrasound we stopped in at the local Babies R’ Us for a little shopping.  As soon as we walked in the door Josh noticed that the clothes were buy one get one free.  I turned to look at something and when I looked back I found my adorable husband wading through the racks and racks of pink frilly dresses and floral onesies finding cute things for his little girl.

After about an hour of looking around we picked out 4 dresses and a ton of designer onesies.  All in all a great day.

If you have talked to Josh and I at all in the last few months we would have told you whole-heartedly that this baby was a boy.  Well much to our surprise during the scan there was no twig and berries and the distinct lack there of made it clear that this was our little girl.

Her name will be Lucille Ann Pettit and we will call her Lucy.  The name Lucille was my great-grandmothers name.  I adored her so when Josh mentioned the name Lucy it just all came together.  The name Ann is my moms name and who are we kidding the name Lucy Ann Pettit is just plain cute!

As excited as we were to have a boy we are even more excited at the thought of our little girl!  We are feeling very blessed today.

Today we had our “big” ultrasound where they would do an anatomy scan to make sure everything was ok with the baby and then tell us the sex of the baby.  We were so excited we could hardly sleep!  So we go in to the ultrasound room with the tech, who was VERY unfriendly and completely devoid of any and all personality, and she started the ultrasound.  After about 30 minutes of our hour long ultrasound she says she can’t see anything and says that she is going to have the doctor come in.  He comes in and does about a 5 minute ultrasound and says “yeah we can’t see anything you must be hard to scan come back in three weeks”.

This is NOT a smart thing to tell a tired pregnant lady who just wants to know her baby is ok and to know if its a boy or a girl.  Needless to say we left with me in tears and called the moms to let them know that we knew nothing.

So, being that I’m totally unwilling to let the issue go, I schedule a 3D ultrasound and a third party facility.  Next day after about a minute of scanning we have a result!!!  Its a……..