Home Sweet Home

We've been home for about 24 hours now and things are going pretty well. Allie did pretty well throughout the night and let us get a little bit of sleep at least. We ended up having to go to my doctor this morning for an infection and Allie did great in the car and in the office. We have her first pediatrician appointment tomorrow afternoon. We're eager to hear how much our little piggy weighs now. We're still re-learning the breastfeeding thing after her stay in the hospital so that has made for a somewhat trying day but I think it will be well worth it in the end. Hopefully she'll do well again tonight so that we can get some more sleep.

Heading Home - Take 2

Allie was released from the Special Care Nursery yesterday afternoon. Her jaundice levels were continuing to decrease, despite stopping treatment so they let her come home as long as we follow up with the pedi on Wednesday. We were so relieved to hear that she was doing better and that we could finally bring her home for good. Let the parenting adventure begin!

Attention K-Mart Shoppers...

There is an adorable Blue Light Special currently located in the Special Care Nursery. She's 3 days old and a will win your heart in a minute. We think she's totally priceless!

That's right, Allie is back in the hospital. We had to bring her in at 9am this morning for a follow-up biliruben test to check on her jaudice level. Unfortunately her level had jumped from 10.7 at discharge to 18.6 this morning. They decided to admit her to the Special Care Nursery for light therapy. She's under the blue lights and also lays on a bili blanket so that she's getting the light from all sides. It looks like she's relaxing in the sun on a blue beach. They even gave her these adorable sunglasses to protect her eyes from the lights. As of her 10pm feeding, her level had dropped to 16 so we're headed in the right direction. They will draw again in the morning and we're hoping to be released sometime tomorrow.

Apparently she was pre-dispositioned to jaundice because of her differing blood type from mine. I am O+ and she is A+. That is pretty much a set up for jaundice, which is why they brought us back this morning for the test. They couldn't test earlier because the levels increase with time and peak around the 72 hour mark. While we don't like being back in the hospital and cried like babies when we had to give her up in the nursery, we're thankful that the doctors were pro-active in her treatment and didn't just wait for us to go to the pediatrician next week when her levels would have been even higher.


Nick and I are staying at the hospital for the night so that we can be present at all of her feedings. The feeding times are the only times we're allowed to hold her so we didn't want to miss any of them. It's not how we anticipated things going, but at least she's getting better. We should know more in the morning.

Bustin' Out of This Joint

We've been released! We're loading up our things and heading home for the night. Allie does have to come back tomorrow morning to have her jaundice levels re-evaluated, and unfortunately they're saying she will most likely have to be re-admitted but for now we're heading home as a family of three! We had estimated her to be a little bit bigger so she's swimming in her coming home outfit, but she's still the cutest baby I've ever seen!


Thank you all for your kind words, thoughts and prayers through this. Please say a prayer for her tonight that her jaundice levels will decrease so that she can stay at home where she belongs.

We can't wait for everyone to meet Miss Allie!

She's Here!

Allison "Allie" Jayne Bryant arrived on Thanksgiving day at 3:22pm. She weighed in at 8lbs 3oz and was 21 inches long. She has dirty blond hair and is just so darn cute! We're still working on uploading pictures and video from today but hope to have some time to work on it tomorrow.

For now, we're remembering all of the things we're thankful for, including our brand new daughter!

Forgot to Update Yesterday

We had an okay doctor's appointment yesterday. Allie looked fabulous on all of her tests. She passed with flying colors! We got to see her face again on the ultrasound and watch her move around. They're estimating her at 7 1/2 pounds which is a lot smaller than Nick and I were guessing.

The doctors still maintain that she's not coming out anytime soon. She had dropped a few weeks ago but has since risen back up in my belly. She's head down but also has a foot up by her head. We're wondering if that foot is getting the way of her dropping again. The doctor suggested I sit on the dryer for awhile to try to get her to shake down a little bit! I'll let you know if I figure out how to get my big booty up onto the dryer. He also said that the 1/2 cm that I was dilated last week was "generous." Way to dash a girl's hopes! They're still not talking induction at this point since she's not really in position and my body's still not ready.

Moral of the story is that Allie is super comfy and not ready to meet us. We go back to the doctor next Tuesday (12/2) for a Biophysical Profile (detailed ultrasound) and then they'll discuss "helping her along" at that point. I think she's holding out until after Thanksgiving so that she gets to eat some good food via placenta vs only getting breast milk if she arrives before. Honestly, I can't blame her for that one. Looks like we're heading for a December baby!

Still nothing...

Just to keep everyone updated, there's still no progress. Nick and I have spent the weekend relaxing around the house and making some really important final preparations. After all, would we really be ready for her to arrive if we hadn't purchased a hairbow that matches her Christmas dress? I don't think so! Now that we have that out of the way, we're ready and she can arrive anytime now.

I decided that Friday was going to be my last day at work. I was very uncomfortable on Friday and thought for sure she was coming this weekend so I opted for that to be my last day. Now I'm kicking myself thinking I should go back tomorrow but I do feel better knowing a decision has been made. Nick got laid off on Friday too so now we're both unemployed and expecting a baby at any time! We think it will be a temporary thing but you never know. At least we know how to keep things interesting. We had planned on him taking some time off when Allie arrived so it's not really that big of a deal.

Hopefully I'll either go into labor before Tuesday or the docs will have some good news for us at our appointment. Crazy Neighbor stopped by today to try to convince me to drink Castor oil. Umm, thanks but no thanks Crazy Neighbor. As much as I want to meet my daughter sooner rather than later, I'm not willing to go that route and generally ignore any "advice" you give me anyways. After all, your name is Crazy Neighbor for a reason.

Come on Allie! We're all waiting for you!