1 Month Old!

Our baby girl turned one month old on Monday August 29th! Even though she hasn't been feeling well, she is growing like a weed! At her one month appointment, she weighed 8lbs 10.5oz (50th percentile), was 21.5 inches long (75th percentile), & her head circumference was 14.5inches (50th percentile). It is fun to watch her develop! Page likes to be held & rocked, energetically moves her arms and legs, & enjoys looking at faces. She has also started to coo, follows moving objects with her eyes, holds her head erect for short periods of time, & smiles all the time (just not purposefully). Page rolled from her back to her side last week & has started teething! The pediatrician says she should have at least 2 teeth by 4 months.

Our big girl...
We can't wait for this little one to be feeling better, so we can really play :)

A Trip to the Hospital :(

Last week we made a trip to the Phoenix Children's Hospital ED. Page had increased secretions in her mouth that were making it nearly impossible for her to sleep. After a couple hours of suctioning, I took her temperature & sure enough she had a fever. She was also lethargic & not eating very well. I called the doctor's office & they recommended using saline nasal drops with suctioning & watching her fever. When the fever went up we had to take her in. Her temperature had gone down by the time we got to the ED, but they wanted to do a septic work up anyways (LP, labs, & cath). The CSF & urine were normal, but she had an elevated white blood cell count. They admitted us for 48 hours of IV antibiotics. While in the hospital, they did a nasal swab to test for respiratory infections. Luckily, the swab came back negative.

In addition to the respiratory stuff, they detected a small heart murmur while we were in so they did an EKG. Luckily, the murmur ended up being nothing to worry about. Page also had a diaper rash so they had us use a couple different creams. We were discharged after the 48 hour cultures came back negative. They said she probably had a virus that they didn't test for. It was a long couple of days & really hard to watch our baby girl have so many invasive procedures done. However, the nurses were amazing & it was nice to see our PCH friends :) We are happy to be home!

A couple pictures from the hospital...

Our little tropper
She did a lot of sleeping

Sleeping through her EKG

Going home!

Newborn Photos

Get ready for a long picture blog :) These photos were too cute to leave any out! We are so lucky to be this little girls parents. Enjoy...

Thank you Kari for taking such amazing photos! We will cherish them always.

Adjusting to Parenthood

The past couple of weeks have been a lot of work & a big adjustment, but so worth it. We love this little girl so much! Cole went back to work last Friday & we are starting to establish some sort of a routine here. Page is eating & sleeping well and growing by the day. Our baby girl is 3 weeks old today...time is already flying by! Patch is getting used to sharing time with his little sister & we have enjoyed many visits from family & friends. Yesterday, Page & I made it out of the house by ourselves for the first time. It was a bit overwhelming, but we did it!

Here are some pictures of Page...

We sure do love this little girl!

Page's first bath

Our sleeping beauty...I love this night gown too :)

We tried out her bouncer today. She did pretty well while it lasted :)

Newborn Photo Session

My friend Kari came over on Wednesday & took Page's newborn photos. As always she did an amazing job! Check out Kari's blog for a sneak peek of the photos...

1st post

2nd post

Enjoy :)

Our Little Glow Worm

Page was sent home with a bili-blanket to help reduce here bilirubin levels. The levels were higher than they should be but not high enough to cause any damage. The doctors were very proactive & we were able to avoid hospitalization. In addition to the bili-blanket, I had to supplement with formula & pump to help the breast milk come in faster this week. It was important for Page to receive extra fluids to reduce the bilirubin levels.

Our little glow worm...
Page & Dr. Valenzuela...we saw this doctor by chance at Mesa Peds this week. It ends up that I volunteer with her at the New Song Center. What a small world! I feel so lucky for Page to have such a caring, child-friendly pediatrician.

Page spent lots of time at the doctor this week. She had 3 visits with the Pediatrician & had to go to the lab 3 times to check her bilirubin levels. The staff at Mesa Peds are wonderful & the sucrose worked great for the blood draws! I am happy to report her levels have gone down, which means no more bili-blanket, no more supplementing, & not as many trips to the doctor/lab!

Page Nicole Hickman is Here!

My water broke around 9:45pm on Thursday, July 28th. I did not go into labor on my own, so I was induced around 2am. Contractions started a couple hours later & I received an epidural around 10am. I went from 5 to 10 cm within a couple hours & then pushed for about 2 hours. Cole & my mom were with me throughout labor. Not sure I could have done it without them or the epidural. Dr. Damore was on-call for Dr. Linnerson & the staff at Banner Desert were wonderful. Page Nicole Hickman was born Friday, July 29th at 4:39pm. She weighed 7lbs 3oz & was 20 inches long. She swallowed some amniotic fluid on the way out, but within 5 minutes she was doing great. It was an amazing experience & we feel so blessed to have this healthy baby girl! A few pictures from our hospital stay...

Shortly after delivery...

So alert...

What a pretty little girl...

All clean & bundled up...

Ready to go home. Look at all that dark hair!

We spent 2 days in the hospital for monitoring. Page had a low level of jaundice so we were sent home with a bili-blanket. We are enjoying every minute with our baby girl!