My Favorite Picture So Far!!!

I have to share this picture because it is my favorite one yet....

Snow Storm of 2009

On Monday Jan. 19th, I woke up to feed Hailey at 5 am and turned on the weather, to find out that we were expecting 4 to 8 inches of snow on Tuesday. For those of you who do not live in North Carolina, 4 to 8 inches of snow is like having 2 feet in New York. Mom and dad were scheduled to fly in on Wednesday to see their first grandchild...I knew that if we got the snow that they were expecting there was no way that we were going to be able to pick them up on Wednesday from Raleigh. So I text mom and dad at 5:30am to inform them of the weather and to advise them to change their flight to today (Monday). I knew that they had already waited a week and a half to meet Hailey and if they did not get in....they would be furious. So they changed their flight to Monday night and Aunt JoAnne went to Raleigh to pick them up. They arrived at our house at about 2am on Tuesday.

So Tuesday came and it snowed all day. We enjoyed watching the snow fall...even more so because we haven't seen any amount of snow in NC in a LONG time. We bundled Hailey up and took her outside for some pictures. Paul also took Mollie outside to play Frisbee. Below are some pictures:

Hailey's first doctors appt

On Wednesday, Jan. 14th, Hailey had her first appt with the pediatrician. Paul, Hailey and I went to see Dr. Phillips for the first time and he was great. It was very cold outside so we bundled her up (see picture). She looked so cute.



When we first got there, the nurse had us get her naked and place her on the scale. Then she took us to the room and we waited for Dr. Phillips to come in. When Dr. Phillips came in, he asked us questions about our family history and then checked out Hailey. He informed us that they like babies to be back at their birth weight at about 2 weeks. When she left the hospital, she lost 2.7% of her weight. Babies usually loose up to 10%. When they weighed her at the pediatrician, she weighed 9 lbs 5 ozs. The doctor said she was an over achiever. LOL

Pictures of Hailey and Mollie

Hailey's Faces

Hailey Nicole's first 24

Below is a slide show of pictures from Hailey's first 24 hours. Be patient as this is my first time creating a slide show and placing it on the blog.

Hailey Nicole Mickey

You may want to sit down for this post.....it is a long one.

So I arrived at the hospital on Wednesday night at 7pm, at which time I checked in and got situated in the Labor, Delivery, Recovery room. Once I was situated, I was given cervidil, which dilates the cervix 3 to 4 cm's. It should take 4-6 hours to accomplish this task. I was given the cervidil around 9:30pm. They also started with very small amounts of pitocin to help start induce my labor. Between the cervidil and the nurse coming in once every hour, I did not sleep at all that night.

Once the cervidal dilated my cervix 3 cm's, (Thursday morning at 6:30 am) they increased the pitocin by 2 units every 15 to 20 minutes. Dr. Avery came in about 11 am to break my water but was unable to do so. Hailey's head was so far down, Dr. Avery could not reach my cervix. So I sat on the birthing ball for about an hour and then Dr. Avery came back. He really didn't think that he was going to be able to break my water but after a few tries....he did it. He broke my water at 1:18pm. Once they broke my water and was still increasing the pitocin, my contractions got stronger but not too terrible. I asked for some pain medicine and that did the trick for a while. After a couple of hours, I was so tired from not sleeping the night before and the long day that I had thus far......I just could not handle the pain. I decided that I was going to get an epidural. The anesthesiologist came in and once the epidural kicked in....I was good to go (so I thought).

A couple of hours went by and Dr. Bane stopped by to visit me once she left the office. She checked and I was only 5 cm's dilated. They also noticed that every time I had a contraction, Hailey's heart rate dropped a little. Nothing to be overly concerned about but something to watch. They placed an oxygen mask on me for a little bit and it helped Hailey's heart rate. Dr. Bane said that she was going home to eat dinner, say hello to the kids and she would be back for the night. Within this time, a shift change occurred. The new nurse was now watching my status. After a little while, she told me that she did not like that Hailey's heart rate was still dropping when I had a contraction so she decided to call Dr. Bane. The nurse came back and said Dr. Bane would be at the hospital in 10 minutes and also turned off the pitocin. When Dr. Bane got to the hospital, she checked and I was still only 5 cm's dilated.

Now things changed 360 degrees. Dr. Bane said that since I was only 5 cm's dilated and Hailey's heart rate was dropping every time I had a contraction that she could not wait hours for me to dilate to 10 cm's. If I was 8 or 9 cm's dilated, things would be different. With all that being said, she said that I would have to have a c-section. From the time that she made that statement to the time I was on the table to have the c-section, it was only about 30 minutes. Things were CRAZY to say the least.

Hailey Nicole Mickey arrived on January 8, 2009 at 9:26pm. She was 9 lbs and 22 inches long.

Here is a video of Hailey's first moments.

Going to the Hospital

I had an appt at 11am on Wednesday, Jan. 7th. At that time, Dr. Bane was going to admit me on Thursday night and start induction on Friday morning. I had to fill out some papers to bring to the hospital but the women that I needed to see was at lunch when I finished my appt, so I my plan was to grab lunch and stop back by the office afterwards to pick up the papers. While I was eating lunch, the doctors office called and informed me that Labor and Delivery was full for Friday and asked if I would I mind going in tonight (Wednesday) and I would be induced on Thursday. At this point, it was about 1:30 and I had no problem with that, but from that point on things were crazy. I picked up the papers from the doctor and headed home to get ready to go to the hospital. I had to call the hospital at 4pm to find out what time I had to be there...they told me 7pm. So Paul and I did a couple of things between 4 and 7 and then went to the hospital.

Due Date

Well today was my due date and still no baby Hailey. She is being very stubborn but I guess, she will come when she is ready.

Well the poll for baby Hailey's middle name appeared to go over very well. We had 63votes. Since today was my due date, we decided to cut the voting off today. Thank you to all who voted.
The results show:

40% Nicole
21% Marie
8% Renee
8% Elizabeth
24% Regan

So our new little girls name will be Hailey Nicole Mickey!!!

We need your help

We are having a hard time picking baby Hailey's middle name so we are requesting your help. Below is a link where we have created a poll that will allow you to select your favorite middle name. Please make your pick as soon as possible since she will be arriving soon (we hope).

http://www.gotoquiz.com/poll/hailey_mickey059

P.S. This was Paul's idea.