I keep telling myself I should update the blog, but for some reason it has been really hard to do! Since it's been so long I will do an update of pictures from the month of July.

The first thing that happened in July was Addie's blessing. Reed did a great job! I'm so blessed to be married to someone who is worthy to bless our baby. Thanks Heather for the wonderful booties you made for her, everyone loved them and they fit perfectly! After the blessing we had a large group of family and friends go to my parents house for some food. Thanks for all of your support! Here is a picture of Reed with Addie, I would post more but I don't have them on my computer right now.

The next day Reed left for Rocky Mountain National Park with his family for a week long backpacking trip. Here are some great pictures his brother Rob took of the trip. I will let him write more about his trip because he knows more than I do.





While Reed was in Colorado with his family Addie and I headed down to Las Vegas with my family for my cousins wedding. It was HOT in Las Vegas but the wedding was beautiful. I didn't take any pictures while we were there but here are some pictures from my sisters camera.





After Las Vegas and Colorado we had some down time where we celebrated my birthday. Reed got me a really nice new camera. I've had a lot of fun playing around with the camera but I still need to work at taking really good pictures.

Next it was off to the annual Bird Family Reunion. This year it was held in Island Park. Reed could only spend a few days before he had to return to work but it was really fun. We floated down the river, visited Yellowstone, went on bike rides, and played games.


Eating lunch after floating down river.


Standing outside of Old Faithful Inn.

Sister Sarah and I standing in front of something, I don't remember what it was.

My mom and Addie hanging out in the cabin.


Addie is learning styling tips from Reed.

My dad and Addie walking around one of the geysers.

Now you are informed of what we did during July. It's almost time for an update on August! I can't believe summer has gone so fast.

Pictures!!

I've always liked to take pictures. Now that I have a beautiful model I LOVE taking pictures. I told Reed I'm going to be a photographer, now whether that means just taking pictures of my family and people I love or a payed profession only time will tell. Here are some cute pictures of Addie during her most recent "photo shoot". And yes I did take that picture and model in it myself, I know what you're thinking...she's got skills!

Yellowstone and Island Park

It has been a long time since we have updated our blog. If you look back on all of the posts created on here you will find that Reed has created them, all of them. So this is my first attempt. Reed will be so proud! For the Fathers Day weekend we traveled up to Island Park to the Abbott family cabin to spent time with family. Reed's brother graduated from Dental School (congrats Ryan!) so their family was moving across the country to Washington and made a stop in Idaho. We decided to spend the day on Saturday in Yellowstone which was very exciting because I haven't been there in years! Here's a picture of Addie all ready for the drive to Idaho.
We had a great day in Yellowstone, I've never seen so many different animals there. We saw Bison, elk, bald eagle and even a bear in the distance. My favorite animal was this coyote,
she was sitting right by the side of the road with her little cubs running around. Of course everyone stopped to get pictures but I backed away when she started walking right at us. She just ignored everyone and walked across the road and up the other hill. After Yellowstone we hung out, played games and celebrated Fathers Day in Idaho Falls. It was a very fun weekend!



We were a little worried about how Addie would act during the long day of getting in and out of the car, the wind, and no schedule. We were pleasantly surprised when she was a perfect angel the whole time. She didn't see much of Yellowstone, but at least for the rest of her life we can now always tell her that she has been there. Even if we never return! This was also the very first Fathers Day for Reed. He has been the most wonderful dad to our little girl. She has him wrapped up around her tiny fingers and I couldn't be happier. Thank you for everything Reed, I love you.

Peace, Homie

The Big Zer-Oh

Tonight we celebrated like it was 2008. We partied for Addie's zeroth birthday tonight with cupcakes and ice cream since her official due date was May 13th. She was delighted that both of her friends were there, but she just wanted to go back to bed.

Now I'm going to venture into uncharted waters; I'm going to talk about American Idol on a blog. Katie and I watched the American Idol finale tonight and really enjoyed it. Katie was pulling for David Cook and I was rooting for my man Archuleta. Archuleta seems like the clear winner to me. He's got the 0-14 crowd locked for his boyish good looks and the 30+ crowd for his dulcet tones. After his third song didn't get high marks from the judges, Cook looked frustrated and said he, "...didn't want to do something he'd done before." Then Archuleta got up and resang "Imagine", which he'd sung a few weeks before. Zing. In my opinion this has been one of the best years I've seen for American Idol. Archuleta is the first (probably) idol winner whose album I would actually buy. It'll be interesting to see if Archuleta goes on a mission or not. My guess is he'll end up singing in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat" in Branson for his mission. Katie points out that the Mormons are really taking over. Two of the top five American Idol finalists, one on Food Network's Next Food Network Star, a candidate for president, and this sweet video that I've posted at the bottom. I'm not sure who the guys are in the video below, but someone sent it to me on Facebook, and then I accidentally forwarded it to everyone in my friends list while trying to figure out who it was. Enjoy.

Like Mother, Like...

Bill

Katie and I received the bill for 2 weeks of Addison in the hospital and 3 days of Katie in the hospital. The total came to somewhere between $45,000 and $50,000. Yikes. Fortunately, we only have to pay a small fraction of that. Good thankness for good insurance.

Pictures

New House Decoration

Addie has finally made it home from the hospital. We brought her home on Monday, but I haven't gotten around to posting about it until now. She has gotten quite good at eating from the bottle. We know she is hungry when she starts opening and closing her mouth like a fish. The only problem is she must think she is at Chuck-A-Rama because she tends to projectile vomit half of it back up. Mommy is good at cleaning it up though :).

Suspicious

Addie seems to be improving quickly now. They've moved her out of her plastic cocoon and into an open air crib. They still keep the room temperature at a balmy 78 degrees, but it's a step in the right direction towards coming home. She is also feeding by mouth a couple of times a day, so things are certainly looking up. Hopefully she'll be home soon.

I rode my bike to work today. In order to have something other than sweaty bike clothes to wear there, I had to ride with a backpack filled with my work clothes and then change into them when I got there. After work was over, I changed back out of my work clothes into my bike clothes and rode to the hospital to meet Katie. By the time I got there it was 6:10 and the NICU closes for an hour starting at 6:30, so I was in a little bit of a rush to get in there. Originally we planned to have Katie come out and open the car up, but there wasn't time for that anymore. I found our car, put on some jeans from the backpack over my bike shorts, hid the backpack underneath the car, then ran inside. I cooed Addie for 10 minutes, then Katie and I headed back out to the car. As we were walking past the front desk there were three security guards chatting with the receptionist. I noticed they were eyeing me a little bit as I walked past, but I didn't think much of it. When I got back to the car and looked for the backpack... it was gone. Who would want an 8 year old backpack full of dirty clothes? Then I remembered the security guards. I started walking back towards the front desk, and sure enough, here came two of them in my direction. Turned out someone had reported a "suspicious backpack" underneath our car. The guards were nice enough to retrieve it and take it into the hospital to keep it warm. I'm just glad the guards didn't freak out and call in a bomb squad. I can just see myself looking like a moron as a I try to explain it to the TV news reporter.

More on the baby

My mom chastised me for not updating the blog. Here is an update.

Addie has progressed pretty steadily, and there still haven't been any major problems. Her bilirubin count was slowly climbing which is an indication of jaundice, but I guess it's pretty common for premies. The solution was to put her under a McDonalds french fry lamp overnight and that seemed to fix it. It also gave her skin a nice golden-brown color.

She also has progressed to clothing as you can see from the picture. A nice purple jumper is her first outfit. Even as a premie outfit, it still looks pretty big. We also put a hat on her. If we bought her some floppy shoes, she could run off with the circus. Sometime I would like to post a picture of the piles of clothing she has got. She is real girl, for sure.

Katie is also doing much better. She had a rough week, but by Saturday she was feeling pretty good. Her blood pressure is still sky-high, but she has some medication that seems to help. She's getting to the point where it doesn't even look like she was ever pregnant. Still skinny.


As for me, I have a bike race in St. George I would like to go to this weekend. I haven't had a lot of time for riding. The weather in Salt Lake has been colder and wetter this year than I can ever remember since I've been in Utah. All of the riding I have done has been sub-two hours, so if I did go to the race, I couldn't expect much. It would be nice to get down there for some warm weather riding though.

Part Deux

Well, here I am 3 days later in the hospital with Katie.

As I was writing the last post, Katie was pacing around the living room. No sooner had I finished the post than she told me I needed to call the doctor. She had developed a bad headache and an even worse stomach ache. The doctors had told us if she developed blurred vision, stars in her eyes, or pain in her upper right abdomen, we needed to come in right away. We weren't totally sure what headache/stomach ache meant, but we called him anyway. The doctor told us to come in just as a precaution, so that is what we did.

As we were driving to the hospital, we were both expecting to get there, be told she had cramps or needed Pepto, then told to go home and get some rest, but we off by a mile.

When we checked into the hospital they admitted her into a room and immediately started checking her blood pressure and taking blood and urine samples to do testing on. Katie's stomach progressively worsened until she couldn't lie down on the bed anymore. She would sit there on the bed rocking back and forth while I rubbed her back trying to distract her from the pain. It was very uncomfortable for both of us. At 1:00 AM the blood and urine tests came back and things did not look very good. Her liver and kidneys were both showing signs of distress and her stomach seemed to be worsening. The good news was the baby seemed ok; but the doctor informed us that it was definitely time for the baby to come out, 6 weeks premature of her due date.

They hooked Katie up to a Christmas tree of IVs and monitors, constantly checking heart rate, blood pressure, contractions, baby's heart rate, and dripping all sorts of chemicals into her body. She was still suffering a lot, but things really improved around 3:30 AM when she was given the epidural. Diamonds are no longer a girl's best friend; it's the epidural. Soon most of the pain was gone and we both rested until 7.

One of the drugs they were dripping into her body was Pitocin, a drug that induces labor. Katie had been having contractions on her own, but the Pitocin really started to speed things up. The drip was slowly increased over the hours until Katie's contractions were coming only a few minutes apart and moving down her abdomen. By 10:30 they were close enough that we were really hitting crunch time.

They wheeled Katie, Baby, and myself into the delivery room, next to the NICU. A few minutes later the doctor came in and Katie started pushing. She only had to push for maybe 10 minutes before out came our baby girl. I got to cut the cord, then she was immediately passed through a window into the NICU, before Katie or I could get much of a look at her.


Now, two days later, everything since then has gone about as well as possible. The baby is in really good shape considering she is 6 weeks early. She weighs only 3 lbs 7 oz, is 17 inches long, and is named Addison (Addie) Katherine Abbott. She breathes on her own, has great color, and a very nice head of dark hair. Katie is also doing well, but is of course still very weak and tired. She has hardly slept in the last 3 days. Katie is checking out of the hospital in the next hour, but Addie probably won't be able to come home with us for at least 2-4 weeks, depending on how things go.

It's still hard for me to believe that it is my baby. I go down to the NICU and she looks so perfect, but it doesn't really feel like she is mine yet. In a way, it's almost like she is owned by the hospital, but I'm close to her because I get to visit her so much. I'm sure that will all change when we finally get to take her home and spend sleepless nights with her.

Someday, when Addie is a teenager and acting badly, I'm going to be the father that tells her how much pain her mother had to go through to bring her into this world. She won't fully understand it, but I can finally say that I do.

I would also be ungrateful if I didn't thank God for taking such good care of us and our new child. Things were pretty nervous for a few days, but we are truly grateful for the opportunity to be parents and all the challenges and blessings that lay in store for us.

We are very proud parents.

A Preclamsic Story

I think I jinxed Katie.

Katie signed us up for a third-trimester class at the LDS hospital in Salt Lake. At first, I didn't really want to go. It is 3 hours every Thursday night, and I didn't really want to give up my relaxing evening after work. It's the same night as The Office, afterall. Plus, what could they possibly tell us that we wouldn't find out in the next six weeks anyway?

We went to the first class, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. We learned about different positions the baby might be in, relaxin, we listened to Pure Moods, Katie got a massage, and many other things. But at the beginning of the class, the instructor wanted to know one thing the women liked about pregnancy (every girl said they liked feeling the baby move), and one thing the men did not like. I honestly could not think of one thing I didn't like, so I said that the pregnancy had been a breeze so far and if I had to choose something, it's that she didn't have a belly button anymore.

Saying the pregnancy has been easy was a mistake. By saying that, I was asking for trouble. And soon we got it.

Katie went in for her normal two-week checkup about a week and a half ago. Up to this point we were used to doctors saying things like, "You are the model pregnancy" and "Wow! Look at those birthing hips!" (well, sort of). This time, it was a little bit different.

The doctor measured Katie's belly and remarked that the baby had not grown over the previous two weeks. Because of this, they scheduled a "stress test" the following week. This raised our eyebrows, but we weren't that concerned about it.

The next week she went in for the stress test, feeling peachy and dandy. They started with an ultrasound and placed monitors on the baby; everything looked normal. Then came the blood pressure test.

"Uhhh, do you normally have high blood pressure?"
"No..."
"Well you do now."

High blood pressure is a sign of a condition during pregnancy known as preclampsia. Nobody knows why it happens; it just does. It can result in smaller babies and a need to induce labor prematurely. If not handled properly, it can be fatal for mother and baby. It isn't, however, rare. Something like 1 in 20 pregnancies are preclamptic (I may have made that word up).

So imagine my surprise when I get a call at work from Katie saying that she is being rushed to the Labor and Delivery room.

Once she got there, the doctors hooked up machines to measure her heart rate, blood pressure, contractions, baby's heart rate, etc. etc. and have her lie on her side for the next several hours monitoring all of this information. Thank goodness for health insurance. When I got there, Katie was still pretty chirpy (she used to be a Bird, afterall (nyuk, nyuk)). Fortunately, her mom was also there next to her through the whole ordeal, and I think that kept Katie more confident and relaxed. The hospital staff was also very nice and helpful.

Katie is mildly preclamptic which means the baby doesn't come out yet, but Katie has to be on bedrest for the remainder of the pregnancy. She still has 6 weeks left in the pregnancy, so it's going to be a long, boring, uncomfortable month and a half. Good thing we bought new couches. I also think there is a decent chance the baby will come a little bit early. At this point, that might be a good thing as Katie has not been feeling well since the hospital visit.

The good news is the baby is still in great shape. She is still sub-four pounds, but if the doctors really needed to, they could retrieve our baby at any time.

I also won't have to miss The Office.