Patience

Hey everyone,
The patience and perserverance has paid off and for now she is finally nursing! Well at least most of the time... I received so much encouragement from moms and from a lactation consultant and finally I think she has gotten it. Avery is going to be 3 weeks old on Friday and she is doing great. We don't have a Dr.'s appointment for a couple of weeks but we know she has grown a lot. She is more alert during the day now and she loves when you talk to her. She is still a very content baby and we keep praying that this will continue. As you can see she loves to hold her own binky. Oh and for those of you who have been asking how the dog has been doing, we thought we would include a pic of him to show you. He is depressed, but really good around Avery. Thank goodness. Thanks again to everyone for their prayers.

10 days old

Hi everyone,
It is hard to believe that she is already 10 days old. What an interesting and exciting two weeks it has been. Today we went to the Dr.'s and she is almost back to her birth weight, she now weighs 6 pounds. The Dr. said she is a little lactose intolerant and so he put her on some lactaid drops to help her with gas and loose stools. The nursing is still a struggle, but praise God today she latched for 10 minutes! It was a small victory, but hopefully one that will continue in the right direction in the week to come. She is still so sweet and not fussy, we are hoping she stays that way. She is also having more awake periods of time during the day, which will hopefully translate into longer sleep times during the night. Here are some more pics we took this week. Enjoy. Thanks again for everyones support and meals. You all are so much appreciated.

5 days old

Hi everyone,
Here are some new pics of Miss Avery. She is so sweet and precious too us. Today we went for another Dr.'s appointment for a recheck of her weight and bili level. Her weight is unchanged at 5 pounds 12 ounces from 2 days ago. We are still awaiting the results of her blood work to see if she will need some phototherapy lights to help with the jaundice. Her favorite thing to do during the day is sleep. Last night was very challenging as she was up for almost the whole night. (Her tummy hurt). We are hoping for a better night sleep tonight as Wes has to go back to work tomorrow. :( She is still not breastfeeding well, most likely due to her prematurity, but she is feeding well from the bottle. So for now I will continue to pump and feed her. Other than that we are just getting used to life with a baby. Thanks so everyone who is helping us out with meals. We appreciate all of your love and support during this time.

Avery Berlyn Schmidt

Hi everyone,
As most of you have heard, Avery made her way into this world a little earlier than expected. She was born on Friday September 5th 2008 at 6:23 am at 36 weeks. Wes and I had just returned from our first, and I guess last, birthing class at the hospital. I have having some contractions, like I had been for days, that were 7 minutes apart during the class. Halfway through the class they sort of went away in frequency and were gone when we got home. I crawled into bed and fell asleep. Five minutes later my water broke and we were out the door in 10 minutes. On the way to the hospital my contractions started and they were two minutes apart lasting for a whole minute each. The pain was out of control by the time we reached the hospital. I think this is because they were so close together I didn't have time to recover from one before another came. When we got there I was so thankful to see the same wonderful nurse who took care of me on Monday night. She was wonderful and started to get things moving right away. She checked me and I was 2 cms. I then received my epidural, oh what a wonderful thing. An hour later I was 4 cms. I then tried to rest, but the excitement and nervousness had set in. Two hours later she checked me and I was a nine!!!!! I couldn't believe how fast it went. We waited another hour for the baby to drop to start pushing. After a pretty short hour, Avery arrived! It was a very surreal experience and one I will never forget. We were able to bring her home yesterday which was so exciting considering she is a month early. We are doing great just really tired. She is not feeding that well, but normal for being a month early. She is looking very jaundice already, so we are going to see her pediatrician today. We will keep you all posted with new pics when we take some. Thanks to you all for your prayers and support. We can't wait for you all to meet her. She is such a joy in our lives.

A little scare- one month early

Hey everyone,
So last night I was at work (my second to last night) and I didn't feel well from the time I walked in the door. The girls at work were convinced I was in labor, but I was convinced otherwise. I was having pain all the way from my upper back down to the middle of my leg, but only on my left side. I also felt like I had an upset stomach. I finally went down the hall to labor and delivery because I could no longer stand up straight. The labor nurses said it was probably better that I get checked out. So even though I felt like I was being a huge baby decided that was a good idea. They put me on the monitor and we shortly realized that I was in labor. The nurse told me she was going to give me some "terb" these are shots that help stop contractions. She told me that usually by the second dose the contractions are gone or slow down a lot. Well by the third dose my contractions had only become worse and not better. They were about 3 minutes apart at that time. I was shaking a lot from the medication and really uncomfortable. She said that they would try a pill as well to help stop it, but she said that it was unlikely to help at all. Sure enough the pill did nothing and she proceeded to tell Wes and I that we were most likely going to have a baby in the next day or so. Of course we were a little in shock and nervous. We felt it was too early for her to come, not just for us for for her. She would have a 50/50 chance of needing to go to the NICU. My Dr. decided that because the medication was not working he was just going to let me labor and see on the off chance that I would stop my contractions. Wes said a prayer for us that whatever Gods will was for us we were ok with. We were just so thankful to have gotten this far in the pregnancy. I was moved to a labor room, where of course I couldn't sleep at all. I was watching the monitor checking for how long and strong my contractions were. During the night some of them became progressively worse, others not so bad. Finally the contractions were more in my abdomen and not so much in my back, which was a huge relief. By morning I was feeling better. We were just waiting to see what my Dr. would say when he came to check me. We were excited to find out that my contractions had slowed to 7 minutes apart and I was still dialated only to 1cm. That meant we could go home, at least for now. I was happy to come home and be off the monitor. I got a few hours of sleep and am feeling pretty good. I am still having contractions, but not at all like last night. Just keep us in your prayers, and praise God for having the contractions slow down so much. My Dr. says that I could go back into labor at any time, but it could also be weeks more until I deliver. For now, until he says otherwise I am on bedrest. This is sooooooooo hard for me, especially when I have so much to do. If anything exciting happens I will keep you all updated. :)