Welcome Anabelle Grace!

On March 1st, 2012 we welcomed Miss Anabelle Grace!


She is such a strong, amazing, beautiful little girl. She has these big dark blue eyes and long dark hair. These past few days she has showed my and Kyle what life is all about. 


This past week has been a whirl wind. I cannot believe it has already been a week since Anabelle was born! I will give you a brief recap of these past day, only because if I go into detail it would make a novel. Oh! And when she was born she weighed 5 lbs even (that includes a little wet gauze used to wrap her bowels). We still don't have a length just because they're not sure how to really measure her.. 


Anabelle was born at 11:44 am. It was amazing! Both Kyle and I were able to see her be born. It was scary because the cord was around her neck a few times, but she was ok. I didn't hear her cry until she was in the other room. She went into surgery around 2-2:30, and was out around 6. The doctors were able to fit all of her bowels back into her tummy in one shot! 


I was finally able to see her around 8. She was on a ventilator and had so many tubes and wires and machines attached to her I couldn't even tell you how many there were. I cannot describe the feeling I had. Over the next 4 days she stayed on the ventilator and morphine. The worst part was she would have apnea spells. Times when she would stop breathing. Mostly when the nurses would have to move her, or when doctors were prodding at her. It caused her so much pain that she would clench up and just stop breathing. This would cause the nurses to have to bag her. It was terrifying to see. I only saw it twice, but they did it a lot more then that. It wasn't only scary, but in a way not good for her. Every time they bagged her, it put air in her belly which made it hurt more.. a catch 22.. 
They had to put in a PICC line. Since it's hard to find good veins on her, they thought they might be able to do it on her head. So.. they shaved almost half of her head. Unfortunately they weren't able to do it in her head and ended up just putting it in her hand. I was upset at first about her hair, but happy they were able to find somewhere good enough to put it. 
Then on March 5th, (my favorite day so far!) she showed that she would behave off of the ventilator and not have any more apnea spells. She was breathing just fine by herself on the ventilator, they just kept it in because of the apnea. She was also done with her morphine and was starting to wake up more. Then, a little while later, we were finally able to hold her!!! When I first held her she was wide awake and looked at me. I cannot tell you how monumental this moment was. 
Over the past week, she has had a few x-rays and many consults. Tomorrow or this weekend she is going to have a full body MRI. The orthopedic doctors have decided to refer us to Shriner's for her orthopedic care. They will start about 2 weeks after she is discharged. I think they have never seen a baby like her and are just not sure exactly what to do. I know Shriner's is amazing and will be able to handle her. Otherwise, she is doing awesome with recovering from her surgery. A geneticist also stopped by and looked at her quickly. She said she is pretty sure it's Arthrogryposis but couldn't say for sure. She said she will have to come by later and give a better exam. We are just waiting until she poops for her to be able to start eating! We told her nurses that no matter what time of day, if she poops, please please call us. I don't think I have wanted to know if my child has pooped so badly, and I don't think I've ever been so focused around my baby pooping. Yesterday Kyle heard her toot, and that was exciting enough! 


Amelia did get to finally see her on the 6th. I think she was overwhelmed and not sure what to do. Kyle asked if she wanted to touch her or give her a kiss since she has been wanting to meet her so badly. She said no, that she just wants to kiss her at home. It's so hard to explain to them what is going on. I tried to explain to Amelia that there is nothing to be scared of, and tried to explain all of the machines and what everything did. But still, it's hard. 


Everyday she is doing better and better! I will try to update daily or every other day because every day holds so much. Thank you everyone for your well wishes, prayers, love, support and concern. Thank you for your understanding. It has been wonderful to have all the support through all of this. Thank you. 


And of course, here are some pictures :) 
(I don't have her first pictures, but here is what I have chronologically) 

 Her shaved head :(

 Putting in her first clip 

( Ignore my face) My first time holding Anabelle! 

 Dad's second time holding Anabelle!

Also, I will try to keep everyone up to date. So if you email, facebook, call or text me and I don't get back to you, please don't take it personal! Just see if I've updated the blog, and if not check back later. If you still haven't been updated, I will try to let you know. Thank you for your patience as we figure out our new life :)


With love, 
The Polks