Update

I am just WAY too tired to go into great detail about the past week's events but Sunday was a terrible day...the worst day of my life! We almost lost our sweet baby girl (and it was her 4 month birthday). She is a very sick little baby, but we have seen improvements. Today was the best day...I got to see Jane Baird's eye open for the first time in 7 days! She is still paralyzed but when the meds wear off, she starts to move a little and managed to muster up enough strength to open her left eyelid a few times. I tried to snap a pic, but of course she stopped when I got the camera out (just like old times!). We believe in the power of prayer and they are being answered!!! Thank you for praying for our family! We have the best family and friends in the world and we love you all!!!

Pray for Jane Baird

Alan and I are going to be staying in Birmingham for a few days so that we can be close to Jane Baird and not have to commute an hour each way. I will not be updating the blog during this time but I may give updates on Facebook if there are any changes. Please continue to pray for Jane Baird. In a few days, she will have another esophagram to see if the repair made yesterday was successful. If it was successful, she will need to stay a several more days just to continue to recover and gain a little weight. If the operation was not successful, she will be having a major surgery to repair her TEF and then a long recovery. There have been a lot of people asking what they can do to help us out. Pray, pray, pray and then pray some more!!!

Hospital Pictures

I have been waiting and waiting to hear Jane Baird's 1st laugh. She finally giggled for the first time...during her first breathing treatment. It ws so cute. When they turned it on and the vapors (or whatever you call it) started coming out of the mask, she thought it was so funny. That was one of the few highlights from our hospital stay. It was the cutest thing ever! This is one of the respitory girls that she loved so much. She would smile every time she cam in the room. Jane Baird was so happy the majority of the time we were in the hospital. I was so amazed that she was in such a great mood. She had gone 3 days without a bottle...only IV fluids. She has a great attitude! I had just handed her over to this nurse for her surgery. That was so hard b/c I knew it would be a few days before I would be able to hold her again :( They were taking her away to surgery :( This picture was taken right as she came out of surgery when they were taking her to the NICU Recovering in the NICU

Thank you, God!

Wow...Where do I begin??? Ok so I'll begin on Monday. Jane Baird was choking on almost every other swallow from her bottle. She had been coughing and spitting up a lot over the weekend, but I knew this was something more than just a cough. Instead of calling the pediatrician's nurse like I had been doing, I decided to call Dr. Georgeson (surgeon) to see if maybe there was an issue with her TEF repair. They wanted me to come in first thing Tuesday morning. Alan took off work to go with us. Tuesday Morning We headed to B'ham. Our appointment was at 8:00. We were scheduled for an upper GI and esophagram. Jane Baird was starving to death and we were not able to feed her before the test. We began the test adn after a few minutes, the nurse stopped and left the room. I was wondering where she went so I asked the tech. She had gone to consult the radiologist. I looked at the screen and there it was! I saw a tiny connection between her esophagus and trachea. That was my worst fear! We were sent up to Dr. G's office. We waited and waited and waited...Finally Dr. Hansen came in and told us that she would need to be admitted immediately and would definately need surgery. I burst into tears. How could this be??? Although I saw it with my eyes, I still was in shock to hear those words. Not only a surgery, but also a GI button in her stomach to feed her through. I just couldn't believe that!!! The sweet nurses were calming me down and the admitting process began. I'll skip the boring details but anyway we ended up on the 6th floor of Children's Hospital. Since we had no clue we were going to be staying, we had not pack. I drove home packed our bags and drove straight back. That was the longest I had ever been away from Jane Baird since she had been released from the hospital from her previous surgery. We had a long, miserable, sleepless night. Wednesday Wednesday was pretty uneventful. We just sat in our room and had some family time. My parents came to visit and so did Alan's parents. Jane Baird by this point had still not been able to eat. She was getting IV fluids, but her poor little stomach was still growling. (Monday night was her last bottle) Today We found out that Jane Baird's surgery would be the last one of the day so that meant a lot of waiting. We did get some good news though: Instead of cutting Jane Baird open, Dr G. wanted to try to repair the fistula with a scope down her throat. He had planned to cauterize the area and seal it with glue. He said there was only a 50/50 chance it would work, but he thought it was worth a shot. We waited all day and they finally called us back around 3:30. It took a while to get her ready, but the surgery only lasted about 45 minutes. Dr. G came out and told us that everything went as planned and JB was doing great! We were so happy to hear that. Jane Baird is now in the NICU on the 6th floor. She was intubated and will be paralyzed for the next three days. Dr. G does not want her to be able to move at all so that the glue will set and everything would heal. She looks so good! I would give more details but I am just so exhausted right now. You just don't get any sleep in the hospital. We will be staying in B'ham for the next three nights so this will be the last update for a few days. I want to thank everyone for their prayers and thank God for his many blessings!

Really Really Bad Day

Our doctor's appointment did not go well at all. Jane Baird was admitted to Children's hospital this morning and will have to have another surgery. Please continue to pray for her. Thank you.

Jane Baird's new favorite toy

Jane Baird was helping me cook again today and I gave her my measuring spoons to play with. She worked and worked until she finally got one in her mouth. After about 10 minutes, her shirt was completely soaked down to her pants! Also earlier (before the measuring spoons) she was trying to pick up a polka dot off her pants. Too cute!

Please say a prayer for Jane Baird

It is so hard having a sick baby but especially when you are a new mommy. In my case it is especially hard because every little thing that happens I'm like, "I wonder if that's related to her surgery!" or "Oh, no! Maybe there's a problem with her esophagus!" Well Jane Baird has had a pretty rough week and she is still coughing and spitting up just about every other bottle. I called Dr. Georgeson's nurse this morning and of course Dr. G and his nurse are not in the office today (Dr. G is her surgeon). I left a message with another nurse for another doctor. I'm waiting on her call. I am hoping that everything will be fine but I am getting nervous. TEF is very rare and many doctors and nurses are not familiar with it and the complications that may arise. I pray that whoever returns my call is knowledgable about her TEF repair and can send me in the direction that I need to go... Please say a prayer for Jane Baird. She has been through so much already in her 3 1/2 months. I know that God will take care of her and everything will be ok. It's so hard for me not knowing what's going on inside that little body and what to do about it. **UPDATE** The nurse called me after speaking to Dr. Georgeson. He wants Jane Baird to come in for an Upper GI check and an Esophagram. We are scheduled for tomorrow morning at 8:00.

My little stinker!

Everyone who knows me knows that I am really girly. From the moment I found out I was having a girl and started buying clothes, I bought hairbows too. I hoped that Jane Baird would be born with lots of hair so she could wear bows (I had a back up plan if she was bald...and no, not a wig as some of you may be thinking). Anyway I always put a bow in when we go somewhere but it always works its way out of her hair when she gets in her car seat. First I need to mention and Jane Baird is very good with her hands now. She can reach and grab on to almost anything. Well, tonight I put a pretty pink hairbow in her hair and I was going to take her picture. I was so careful and gentle putting it in. She immediately reached up and grabbed it out of her hair and dropped it on the floor. Well I was thinking it was a coincidence that she reached right up and got it on the first try. I got the hairbow back in her hair just right and she did the same thing again. I called Alan over to watch and she did it again. That little stinker!!! My mom will probably get a kick out of that b/c she thinks I'm too girly and that I go overboard with girly things for Jane Baird. She thinks JB looks much cuter without a bow. (My mom says that the reason she is so un-girly is b/c her mother made her wear a dress every day of her life until she was in college even when it was freezing cold, and now she is anti-dress and anti-hairbow) Hopefully Jane Baird won't rebel against me and the girly-girl lifestyle I plan for us to live!

It was so pretty outside today...too bad Jane Baird and I stayed in most of the day. I spent the majority of the day getting clothes ready for an upcoming consignment sale in Florence. Alan spent the day outside cutting the grass, trimming the shrubs, and cleaning off the porch (FINALLY!!!). We have a screened in porch in our backyard and for the past year, Tallulah ruled the porch. It started last summer when it got too hot outside. Alan moved her food and water onto the porch so that she would have a cooler place to hang out. The time flew by and it was winter all of a sudden. Then he said it was too cold for her outside and the porch would be warmer b/c he could lay out some blankets for her and make it all cozy. So all of a sudden it's summer again and he was using the "its too hot for her" excuse again. She has two dog houses made especially for hot weather and cold weather so I told him it was time she moved off the porch cuz mama wants her porch back! And I am happy to say that I have my porch back! Sorry, I don't have pictures of my clean porch. He wasn't finished cleaning it when I had my camera outside. Not only did Alan make our yard pretty and our porch clean, he also offered to do all the grocery shopping for me tonight at Wal-Mart! It's so hard to convince him to go to Wal-Mart, but he volunteered. While Alan bought groceries, Jane Baird and I cooked dinner. We had Pizza Bread and it was delicious! Jane Baird in her Bumbo seat helping (watching) mommy cook.

I can tell she is going to like cooking just like her mommy. I can't wait until she is really able to help me in the kitchen!

These next pictures are from tonight. She had just had a bottle without spitting it up and she was a very happy girl. I know there are a ton that look almost the same but I couldn't narrow it down so I decided to post all of them!