Sadie's first Trip Outside!

Spring is Coming!!! Or atleast Mother Nature is tricking us with a few Spring days! Oh well, I'll take 'em! Yesterday Sadie and I ventured outside for a few minutes. Of course the only hat that fit her is one a bought in preparation for when she is 12-18 months!!! She also has moved up in the world to a high chair for eating her delious rice cereal! YUM!

She is doing great! She had a follow up with the Plastic Surgeon last week and he said she will need to wear a helmet for about 2 months. We went in for her first measurements. They just measured her head, took a few pics and now we wait for insurance approval. Then we will go back for them to make a cast mold of her head (that should be interesting!). Then it will be a week until its made. So some more fun pics to follow!!!

Operation Day...Came and Went

Well, we have made it! We cant believe this week has come and gone so quickly. The operation was on Tuesday, we got to Primary's about 6am. After meeting all the doctors and nurses they took her back just before 8am. The actually proceedure didn't begin until about 9am and finished just before 1pm. It was a long 5 hours! We saw her after they got her settled in the PICU. She was still waking up and incredibly drugged up! So needless to say, she was out of it! After getting some dinner we went back and she was awake enough to feed her. We werent able to stay that night with her because of being in the PICU so we stayed at Nate and Nicole's house which was much closer than ours, (THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!). On Wednesday morning when we got there Sadie was awake and literally kicking! She was happy. Her face was still a bit swollen so her smiles werent huge but we knew she was happy. She slept most they day Wednesday once they got her settled in her own regular room where I could stay with her. Thursday was even better! She was awake more, sitting up and smiling. You would have never guessed she had just had surgery! We even got a few laughs! Friday afternoon they released us with a clean bill of health. She will have follow ups with the plastic surgeon and if it does't shape how it should they she may have to wear a helmet for a few weeks. The change wasn't as drastic as we thought but thats ok. After talking to the surgeon and even seeing a few grafic pictures, we were informed that there was more pressure on her head then we realized. So much that her brain started to make holes in her skull.

We are truly grateful to the doctors and nurses who assisted her and us while we were there. We are so grateful to our Heavenly Father for blessing us with such a great daughter. She brings such a sweet spirit to our home and we are truly grateful for her. Thank you for all the love, support and prayers, we truly felt the power of those things this past week.

Since at home, Sadie is doing great. Its alittle scary to pick her up or lay her down but she is a good sport, and incredibly tough!

(Pictures: Top to bottom: Night before surgery, Tuesday after surgery (the tube was draining fluid from between the skull and skin) and Friday. There is still quite a bit of swelling which will take 3-4 weeks to completly go down.

Live and Learn... The Shed Fire

About 10:15pm last night as Spencer climbed into bed, I heard a strange noise, Spencer said it was just Buddy who was sleeping in the kitchen. But I kept thinking, no, it wasn't Buddy. Then another noise, this time I said "Its not the dog!". So we jumped out of bed and as Spencer walked down the hallway where he could see out our south facing window he yelled "THE SHED IS ON FIRE!!!" Before I could hit send on my cell phone the fire truck had already unloaded. Thank goodness to good neighbors who saw the flames! I didn't get the camera fast enough because I had to give information to the police officer. So enjoy the morning after pictures. We aren't sure how it started, but we know it started from the wood burning stove. Spence had a fire last night but left the shed around 7pm so anything that was still burning should have been completely out... apparently not though. Something lasted long enough to cause this damage. We are all well.. Sadie slept through the whole thing! And, so did Buddy....some guard dog! Poor dutch who likes to stand by the shed was found as far away as the corral would allow her to! A little shaken up, but she is fine. The lesson learned... put the fire completly out and make sure you have an inventory of EVERYTHING you have... that will be my Friday project! Of course once I inventory everything in my house nothing will happen but better to be safe than sorry!

Saide's Big Day

Just an update, Sadie's operation date is scheduled for January 13th! She will start recieving weekly shots 3 weeks prior that that will help increase her red blood cells. The operation will last about 5 hours. After spending a night in the NICU she will be in a regular room for another few days. No helmet required since the plastic surgeon will be shaping her skull for her. We are anxious for it all to be over, but know that all will turn out just fine.

Other than that, Sadie is growing fast, definetly out growing her cousins! She now weighs over 11lbs and is 23 inches tall.

She is smiling and working on the laughing. Just tonight Spencer got her to laugh multiple times. Afterwards he said he hadn't smiled so hard and so much since forever!
A few weeks ago, Spencer was finaly able to put the new shed in place. He transported it from a house that was going to just take it down. Needless to say, it was free if he could figure out how to move it. So after two nights of working on it, Spence and Matt were able to jack it onto a trailer and bring it to its new home. After weeks of sitting on the trailer.... and of course, me backing into it once, it made its way to the final resting spot. Now all it needs is a paint job to match the rest of the house. That will be a great spring project for me!

I've started working from home. Its great! I just need to get Sadie on a longer nap schedule.. but if that means her not sleeping through the night, I'll deal with it. I take all night sleeping over anything! Enjoy the new pics! From top to bottom: Thanksgiving day, after a delious meal, Dad and Baby Sadie fell sound asleep! Sadie with Grandma Helen (Spencer's Grandma from Texas). Spence about to give Sadie a bath, the time he got her to laugh real hard! The next pic is a bit blurry because I was trying to get a pic of her smiling but she knew and would stop when i would bring out the camera, so this is the best so far! The next two are the new shed and process of getting the shed into place. And the last one is Sadie with Jessica, my midwife who delivered her.

Operation Sadie

We finally met with the specialists up at Primary Children's Hospital yesterday. We were able to meet the plastic surgeon as well as the nurosurgeon. Sadie's skull is fussed in three places in the back of her head which is uncommon as well as having 3 fusions. So they will be doing the operation most likely the last week of December. The surgery is 5 hours long. Because of potential blood loss, Sadie's pediatrician will give her something each week for three weeks before to help boost her red blood cells. She will spend the night in the NICU and then will spend 3-4 days in a regular room. The Plastic Surgeon we will be using has done 3 of these surgeries in the last 10 days. He trained in Dallas under one of the most well known Drs who does these surgeries. Sadie feels totally comfortable with him as do we!!!

Other than that.. Everyone is doing great. Sadie weighed in today at 10 lbs 5 oz.... I cant believe how big she is getting!!

Almost 3 weeks old!!

Well Monday will be Saide's 3 week birthday! I can't believe it! She seems older than just three weeks!!! She had her two week check up last Monday and all checked out good. Her Dr gave me the information for the specialists up at Primary Children's Hospital, so I called right away and got her scheduled for an appointment with both of the specialist on October 29th. Ill let you know how that goes.

This week one of my best friend's, who happens to be my first and only American companion from my mission, Stephanie came up from Arizona to hang out with us. We had a lot of fun and Sadie had her first shopping expierence... though she slept through most....okay all of it!!! Regardless, I think she enjoyed it!

Kristin had her baby last week!!! YEAH!! Welcome Acacia Breanne Barlow (I hope I spelled that all right!) As you can see in the pictures they were excited to meet each other! Now we just await Ella (Nicole's Baby)...coming soon!

Baby Sadie Bell Stevens Sept 22nd 2008

She is here!!!! After 41 weeks Sadie Bell Stevens finally arrived. After being a week overdue I was scheduled to be induced on Monday the 22nd at 7am. Contractions started the Thursday night before and being new to this expierence we even ran to the hospital twice on false alarms! But by Sunday night at 3:30 am I couldn't do it any more! So I woke Spence up and said "we are going to the hospital to either have this baby or else they are going to start me now!" Well no induction was needed! She was born at 9:35 am weighing 8lbs 2oz and was 20 1/2 inches long!

She had a bit of an issue breathing right at first. One of her lungs was not opening up all the way causing her to breath really fast. They took her right away to the nursery to evaluate and decided she needed to be on a CPAP (continuous positive air pressure) to help inflate her lungs all the way. They also gave her some medicine so that her lung would not stick together. They moved her to the Level II nursery were she stayed to be monitored for a few days. On Wednesday they removed the CPAP and allowed us to finally hold her and start to feed her. She did great! We couldn't have asked for more, they just wanted to keep her for another day to monitor her. On Thursday morning her Dr ordered a CAT Scan to be done of her head because its a little funny shapped. That night they told us that seams on the back of her skull had prematuraly fused together. Something that doesn't happen till you are full grown. And if not fixed could cause problems. They are going to refer us next week to a specialist at Primary Childrens Hospital. The surgery will take place any time between 3 and 6 months. It is a few hours long surgery with a 3 or 4 day hospital stay. But after that she will be as good as new. Though this surgery is some what major, it is also a not that uncommon. It was a bit of a shock to hear that our little angel will have to have this surgery but on the upside it was a relief that it wasnt something more serious. We are truly grateful to have Sadie in our lives. Though it is an adjustment to get used to having her around, we couldn't imagine our lives without her.
They released her from the hospital on Friday and we are now finally starting to adjust to real life.
We appreciate all the prayers that went out for her behalf and all the love and support we recieve from you all.