Mommy, Daddy and Grandma and Papa Smith came for another visit today. The doctors and nurses wanted to talk to them for a while about what is going to happen over the next few months. They showed Mommy and Daddy how my jaw surgery is going to work. It is kind of scary because there will be a screws and stuff on the outside of my face for a few months but it will help me so I can breathe and eat better. Then they will have to fix my ears and the top of my mouth. They think all of that will happen when I am bigger in 5 or 6 months. I can go home as soon as I don't have to take any more pain medication and I am off the ventilator. I am going to try really hard to do that because I want to get out of here. The nurses and doctors are really nice but I miss my Mom and Dad. I haven't even got to meet my two furry brothers yet!
Mommy and Daddy have to do some things too before they will let them take me home. They have to learn how to clean and change my trach tube. They are going to let them practice with me over the next few weeks until they can do it on their own. I know Mommy is really scared but all the nurses say she will get really good at it really fast and not to worry.
They were going to let Mommy and Daddy hold me today but Mommy had a doctor's appointment she had to go to so they said they will make sure and hold me tomorrow. Mommy felt really bad that she had to leave but she is hoping the doctor will give her some medicine to make her feel better. It will be a big day for us tomorrow!
Peyton Nicole Smith
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Monday, September 3rd, 2007
I had a good weekend. The doctors told Mommy and Daddy that I am doing well with my trach and they should be able to hold me really soon! They are slowly taking me off the pain medicine and I am not so sleepy all the time - I get to move around! My parents got to see my cry today. Mommy said it was the saddest thing in the world to see my face all scrunched up and little tears coming out of my eyes - but no sound because of the trach. Even if they can't hear me cry, I make sure to get really good and mad so they know when I am not happy!
I got moved to a different bed today - it is like a regular crib. That's because I am such a big girl! They also put clothes on me for the first time so I am not lying around in just my diaper. Because of my trach the easiest clothes for me to wear are the ones that button up the front so it doesn't have to go over my head. They had me in a yellow outfit with purple socks. They don't really match but that's okay.
Grandma and Papa Smith drove from Salt Lake City to see me. They are going to stay a few days with my parents. They brought some pictures of Daddy when he was a baby so we can decide once and for all whose nose I have!
Peyton Nicole Smith
I got moved to a different bed today - it is like a regular crib. That's because I am such a big girl! They also put clothes on me for the first time so I am not lying around in just my diaper. Because of my trach the easiest clothes for me to wear are the ones that button up the front so it doesn't have to go over my head. They had me in a yellow outfit with purple socks. They don't really match but that's okay.
Grandma and Papa Smith drove from Salt Lake City to see me. They are going to stay a few days with my parents. They brought some pictures of Daddy when he was a baby so we can decide once and for all whose nose I have!
Peyton Nicole Smith
Friday, August 31st, 2007
Daddy and Mommy came for a visit today. Mommy is still not feeling well. The neck ache went away but her head hurts a lot so she can't stay for very long. They think she has a sinus or ear infection and that is causing all the head aches. She is going to try to take some medicine to get better and then see her doctor next week.
They took lots of pictures of my new trach. Now that the breathing tube is gone they can finally see my nose! There is a lot of debate raging in the family on if it is a Smith or a Fox nose. It's my nose and I think it is pretty cute! In the pictures you can see that I have a little bruise from where the tape kept my breathing tube in. That should go away really soon.
Aunt Kristin bought me a little lamb to put in my crib so now I have something to look at besides all the tubes. You can see the lamb in the picture above - isn't it cute?
Peyton Nicole Smith
Thursday, August 30th, 2007
It was another exciting day for me today! Daddy, Mommy and Grandma and Grandpa Mower came for a visit. I sure have a lot of family who love me! Grandma told me all about my brothers, Henry and Chili. She also talked to me about my two cousins, Gavin and Traiton and how excited they will be to meet me once I am out of the hospital.
Poor Mommy, she is still not feeling very well. She had to go back to the hospital today to have something called a blood patch. I guess when they gave her anesthesia in her back for the c-section the little hole didn't close up and it caused fluid to leak. That little bit of fluid gave her awful head and neck aches. Hopefully, she will start feeling better soon.
While Mommy was in the hospital, Daddy met with all of my doctors. They thought at first I had Pierre-Robin's Syndrome. Now, they think I have something called Nager's. You can find out more about it at: http://www.nagerormillersynd.com/
They took some of my blood to do some testing to find out for sure. It will take a few weeks before the results come back but for right now the diagnosis is not as important as me getting better. While Mommy and Daddy were there the doctors asked if they could take me back into surgery. When they put in my breathing tube a few days ago it was really hard. They are afraid that once I start moving around I might pull it out. If that happens it could take a while to get the tube back in and they were afraid they might lose me. Scary!!! So, even though it is going to look kind of funny, they asked my parents about putting in a trach. I had my surgery in the afternoon and slept for a really long time from the medicine they gave me. Now I have a hole in my neck and that's how I breathe. They have me hooked up to a big machine that gives me air to breathe with but I don't use very much of it. I am a big girl and pretty much breathe on my own. It's been a really big day for me so I will talk to you later.
Peyton Nicole Smith
Poor Mommy, she is still not feeling very well. She had to go back to the hospital today to have something called a blood patch. I guess when they gave her anesthesia in her back for the c-section the little hole didn't close up and it caused fluid to leak. That little bit of fluid gave her awful head and neck aches. Hopefully, she will start feeling better soon.
While Mommy was in the hospital, Daddy met with all of my doctors. They thought at first I had Pierre-Robin's Syndrome. Now, they think I have something called Nager's. You can find out more about it at: http://www.nagerormillersynd.com/
They took some of my blood to do some testing to find out for sure. It will take a few weeks before the results come back but for right now the diagnosis is not as important as me getting better. While Mommy and Daddy were there the doctors asked if they could take me back into surgery. When they put in my breathing tube a few days ago it was really hard. They are afraid that once I start moving around I might pull it out. If that happens it could take a while to get the tube back in and they were afraid they might lose me. Scary!!! So, even though it is going to look kind of funny, they asked my parents about putting in a trach. I had my surgery in the afternoon and slept for a really long time from the medicine they gave me. Now I have a hole in my neck and that's how I breathe. They have me hooked up to a big machine that gives me air to breathe with but I don't use very much of it. I am a big girl and pretty much breathe on my own. It's been a really big day for me so I will talk to you later.
Peyton Nicole Smith
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007
It was a big day for me today - my Mommy got to come for a visit! She passed all of the tests she was given (there were some pretty funny ones) to get released from the hospital. She is not feeling so well so they weren't able to stay long but she promises she will come back really soon to see me again. This was the last visit with my Aunt and Uncles. They have to fly back to Salt Lake tomorrow morning so I won't be seeing them for awhile. Mommy promises she will tell me all about them though so I don't forget. She said she will put their pictures on flash cards and quiz me on them as I get older! There were quite a few tears from Aunt Kristin when she left but she says she will come back soon to visit me again - hopefully when I am home with Mommy and Daddy. You can see pictures of my family coming to visit above.
Peyton Nicole Smith
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
What an exciting day yesterday! Today I woke up in the NICU at UC Davis. I am in the Zebra room. They have several babies in each room and the rooms are named based on the animal that is etched in the glass doors.
Today, I got a visit from Daddy, Aunt Kristin, Uncle Shawn and my Uncle Jason who just flew in from Salt Lake City this morning! I guess my name tag spelled my name with an "A" instead of an "E" but Aunt Kristin made sure the nurse got that corrected right away! She also had them change out my blanket to one that was more suitable for the little princess that I am and add a white bow to my hair so nobody had any confusion about my gender!
Everyone keeps remarking on all my dark hair - this must have come from Daddy. I have really dark eyes and Daddy says he thinks those came from Mommy. Apparently, I am even more special then I realized because I have a lot of funny things that they are noticing. I have one toe on each foot that overlaps another, my bottom jaw is really tiny compared to my top jaw, on one hand my thumb and finger are stuck together, I have an opening in the top of my mouth that they call a cleft palate, they think one of my ears doesn't have a canal at all and the other has a really tiny one but it is covered over with skin and the bones in the lower part of my arm are fused at the elbow. Whew - that's a lot! Right now the doctors just want to make sure I can breathe okay and we will worry about the other stuff later.
Everyone tells me that Mommy will come for a visit as soon as she can. It sounds like that might happen tomorrow but she has to prove she is better before they will let her leave the hospital. Until then, Uncle Shawn pulled out his Blackberry to take some pictures of me so Mommy has more than just the one Polaroid the hospital gave her. I opened my eyes as soon as Uncle Shawn started snapping pictures so Mommy could see my pretty eyes! You can see some of the pictures below.
Monday, August 27th, 2007
Now that I am out - I will be taking over this blog!
Today was the day! I had enough of not being able to stretch my legs and decided it was time to see what this big world is all about.
I woke Mommy up around 4:15 with contractions. She didn't realize it at the time but they were already 3-4 minutes apart. It took her a 1/2 hour or so to catch on (give her some credit, it was her first baby and it was awfully early) and then she got Daddy up and had him start timing. When they realized how close together they were they decided to call the doctor to see about going to the hospital. Since Mommy said the contractions weren't that bad the doctor said she didn't need to go to the hospital and could labor at home longer if she wanted. Mommy was unsure but Daddy talked her into going. Good thing - I wasn't in any mood to wait.
When Mommy got to the hospital they hooked her up to the monitors in triage. Initially the nurse said they may think about sending her home. That, of course, is before I turned things up a notch. Within two hours of being at the hospital Mommy went from 1 centimeter to 5-6 centimeters. I wasn't feeling so good and my heart rate dropped. After that happened the second time the doctor decided Mommy was progressing too fast and I wasn't too happy about it so she took Mommy in for an emergency c-section. They barely got Daddy in to the operating room in time before they had me out! I was born at 7:50 am at 5 lbs 8ozs and 18 inches long. I am kind of on the petite side!
It was a little scary at first. I had a hard time breathing so they rushed me out of the operating room and into the NICU. They turned me on my tummy and that seemed to help but it was still kind of hard so they decided to send me to the NICU at UC Davis where the really special babies go. Mommy was pretty drugged up at that point but they took me to see her in her room in a portable bed before they took me away in the ambulance.
Once I got all settled Daddy came and visited me later that night. I think I scared him with all my tubes! The doctors called Daddy and asked if they could take me into surgery to put in a breathing tube so I wouldn't have to work so hard to breath on my own. I don't remember much but when I woke up I had a new tube and now I can lay on my back instead of my tummy.
Meanwhile, back at Methodist Hospital, Uncle Shawn and Aunt Kristin flew in from Salt Lake City for a visit. I'm named after my Aunt Kristin - did you know that? Her middle name is Nicole and so is mine! They want to come visit me right away but because of the surgery it will have to wait until tomorrow. Daddy is going to go home with Uncle Shawn to get some sleep and check on my furry brothers - Henry and Chili. Aunt Kristin is going to keep Mommy company in the hospital. It's getting late so I am going to get some sleep - it's been a very exciting day!
Peyton Nicole Smith
Today was the day! I had enough of not being able to stretch my legs and decided it was time to see what this big world is all about.
I woke Mommy up around 4:15 with contractions. She didn't realize it at the time but they were already 3-4 minutes apart. It took her a 1/2 hour or so to catch on (give her some credit, it was her first baby and it was awfully early) and then she got Daddy up and had him start timing. When they realized how close together they were they decided to call the doctor to see about going to the hospital. Since Mommy said the contractions weren't that bad the doctor said she didn't need to go to the hospital and could labor at home longer if she wanted. Mommy was unsure but Daddy talked her into going. Good thing - I wasn't in any mood to wait.
When Mommy got to the hospital they hooked her up to the monitors in triage. Initially the nurse said they may think about sending her home. That, of course, is before I turned things up a notch. Within two hours of being at the hospital Mommy went from 1 centimeter to 5-6 centimeters. I wasn't feeling so good and my heart rate dropped. After that happened the second time the doctor decided Mommy was progressing too fast and I wasn't too happy about it so she took Mommy in for an emergency c-section. They barely got Daddy in to the operating room in time before they had me out! I was born at 7:50 am at 5 lbs 8ozs and 18 inches long. I am kind of on the petite side!
It was a little scary at first. I had a hard time breathing so they rushed me out of the operating room and into the NICU. They turned me on my tummy and that seemed to help but it was still kind of hard so they decided to send me to the NICU at UC Davis where the really special babies go. Mommy was pretty drugged up at that point but they took me to see her in her room in a portable bed before they took me away in the ambulance.
Once I got all settled Daddy came and visited me later that night. I think I scared him with all my tubes! The doctors called Daddy and asked if they could take me into surgery to put in a breathing tube so I wouldn't have to work so hard to breath on my own. I don't remember much but when I woke up I had a new tube and now I can lay on my back instead of my tummy.
Meanwhile, back at Methodist Hospital, Uncle Shawn and Aunt Kristin flew in from Salt Lake City for a visit. I'm named after my Aunt Kristin - did you know that? Her middle name is Nicole and so is mine! They want to come visit me right away but because of the surgery it will have to wait until tomorrow. Daddy is going to go home with Uncle Shawn to get some sleep and check on my furry brothers - Henry and Chili. Aunt Kristin is going to keep Mommy company in the hospital. It's getting late so I am going to get some sleep - it's been a very exciting day!
Peyton Nicole Smith
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