Introducing...

Miss Alexa Leigh!

She was born on December 29, 2005 at 3:22 p.m. She weighed in at 5 lbs 6 oz. and was 19 inches. Here is her birth story...

On Monday night, December 26, I was not feeling too well. I don't know what it was, but I just wasn't feeling like myself. On Tuesday morning, I woke up with some of my mucus plug coming out with some blood with it. I was having contractions throughout the day, but they were not regular. On Wednesday I was having contractions all day long, so at 7 p.m. I decided to time them. They were about 6-7 minutes apart. I called the doc and she told me to take a hot bath and drink plenty of water. I did as told, but it didn't help. They were not that painful and I had the 34 checkup appointment the next day, so I decided to deal with them. About midnight, I could not take it anymore. They were painful and were about 5 minutes apart. I called the doc again and she told me to go to the hospital and get checked out. We arrived at Northside around 1:30 a.m. and was told that I was 4 cm dialated! I couldn't believe it. I thought I was being silly for going in and that they were going to tell me they were just braxton hicks and send me on my way. Boy was I wrong! So they tried to stop the labor by giving me some shots, but that didn't help. So they just decided to let me have the baby since I was 34 weeks. So we got sent to the real delivery room and got prepped up. They gave me the epi, broke my water, blah blah blah, and we just waited. The doc said we would be lucky if she was born by 7 p.m. We thought we were in for a long delivery. However, around 3 p.m., the nurse decided to empty my bladder, and when she was down there, she said she saw the head, so they prepped up for delivery. It was hard to feel myself pushing because the epidural made me so numb, but she came out at 3:22 p.m. The doc said she practically crawled out herself. I was delivered by midwife Becky. All the nurses were very sweet and I actually had a great time. I was actually up and walking in no time. I wasn't in any pain at all except for some cramping, which I still have.

She is a preemie, but she is doing extremely well. The doc did an x-ray of her lungs and her brain, and he said everything has developed wonderfully. The lungs could have used a couple of more weeks of developing, but she will be just fine. No long term effects. She breathes fine on her own. However, during feedings, she doesn't grasp sucking and breathing at the same time, so the first couple of days, she was being fed through a tube. However, she started on bottles today and she was able to suck and breathe at the same time, so the nurse and the doc both think she will be able to come home by Tuesday or Wednesday. Originally, they said a couple of weeks, so we are extremely happy and proud of our little girl.

The first day was very hard for me. I cried all day. I was able to hold her for a minute after she was born, but didn't get to see or hold her for a long time after that. When I was finally able to see her, she had an IV that was in her head and that just made me cry even more. Today was especially hard because we were discharged and had to leave her behind. I cried right there in the NICU unit. The nurse cried with me because she knew how I was feeling. I cried a lot tonight also. I just miss her so much.

Tomorrow they are taking the IV out, so they are going to take her hospital pictures. Also, I will meet with a lactation nurse so she can teach me how to breastfeed Alexa. On Monday, Jeremy and I have to take an infant CPR class (they will not release her unless we do) and hopefully on Tuesday, we can take her home. I really want her home to celebrate her daddy's birthday on January 7.

Some good news. My mother flew down yesterday and is staying with us until January 15. That will be a big tremendous help. She just fell in love with Alexa. She thinks she is just the most beautiful thing in the world.

One more thing...HAPPY NEW YEAR!