First Blog

I have decided to start a blog now that I have time on maternity leave to keep family and friends that do not have facebook up to date on the lives of the Davis family. :)

To start, I'd like to introduce the newest addition to our family: Sierra Brielle who was born on 2/19/10. She is a precious little girl who is fitting in quite well!

Sierra Brielle, Day of life 5

For those who know me well it will not be surprising her entry into this world was eventful. After a very normal, healthy pregnancy we found out around week 35 Sierra was smaller than expected for her gestational age. Initially this is based on fundal height (how big the belly is) and Thayden also measured small so we were not worried. However, on the confirmatory ultrasound, she was indeed quite small, especially her head, and our obstetrician was concerned. This situation is called intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and can be caused by a multitude of factors, none of which we obviously had. The concern, however, is that something in the uterine environment is no longer favorable for growth - so to be on the safe side we had frequent monitoring (ultrasounds) and scheduled an induction for 37 weeks - the time at which the baby is full term and lung maturity is likely. So our induction was planned for the evening of Friday, Feb 19 for anticipated delivery on the 20th and we had a busy agenda prior to that. Our house was going on the market and we had to have everything staged for pictures by that Friday as well. Sierra, however, had other plans. Thursday night a little after 11pm, my water broke. Shortly after midnight I began having contractions. A little before 2am, after running around the house trying to do some of the last minute staging stuff I had planned for Friday morning, I drove myself into the hospital. Troy stayed with Thayden since we hadn't made other arrangements (family was coming the next day for the planned induction.) We anticipated Troy would be able to make it in time for the delivery after bringing Thayden to school early in the morning, but Sierra was born 45 minutes after I checked in to the hospital! The labor & delivery team was still determining whether or not I was in labor seconds before she was born, leaving barely enough time for the physician to take off her sweatshirt and definitely not enough time to gown up for the delivery. So although I wouldn't have chosen it, I got to experience all natural childbirth and survived. Sierra survived too - did fabulous in fact. Born at 2:47am she weighed in at 5 lbs, 6 oz (2445 grams) with apgars of 9 and 9. Sierra Brielle, hours after birth

I didn't have a camera along until Troy & Thayden came in the next morning. Sierra and I got some precious bonding time those first few hours. Troy's parents came to meet their new granddaughter and stay with Thayden so Troy could stay with Sierra and I Friday night. We were discharged home the next day (Saturday) and my mom and gamma were here as well to help make the transition home easy. They also were cook-aholics and our freezer is full of delicious meals! Yay! And since then we've been adjusting quite well to our new schedules - revolving around Sierra of course. Thayden has also been better than I expected with his baby sister, although he does have his obvious attention seeking momentsSierra and big brother Thayden

That's all for now, Sierra is waking up. I will update more later.