Happy Birthday Sydney!!!

Our little Sydney turned 2 years old today! WOW! She is getting so big and learning so much. I'm so amazed how much more she's talking now and how she picks up on everything. She is such a mischeivious little thing though. She knows it too. She'll look right at you while she does something bad...with a smile on her face! Follow that with the typical, "hi mommy!" in her sweetest voice and it's so hard to get mad.

She's generally a quiet girl, until she decides she wants something. Her sweet demeanor is hard to resist though. She can wrap you around her finger very quickly. Her favorite things are babies (playing with them and drawing them) and her blankie. She also LOVES playing with Jackson and will follow him around wanting to do whatever he's doing. We're so lucky to have her in our family!

In the Skousen family they have a tradition of telling the story of the day each child was born on their birthday while the family sits around eating cake. SO...for posterity's sake, here's Sydney's birth day story.

We had been living in New York City while Jake was attending Brooklyn Law School. I saw an OB there but mid pregnancy we decided that a legal internship in Missouri where my parents live would be a great summer opportunity. So in May, shortly after finals, we headed to Moberly for the summer, knowing when we got on the airplane that when we returned, we'd be bringing a new baby girl home with us.

I had several ultrasounds right before Sydney was born. Because of my diabetes I had to have bi-weekly NSTs (Non Stress Tests) and BPPs (Bio Physical Profiles) to determine the size of the baby and the level of amniotic fluid. They could tell Sydney was getting big, which is typical for babies of diabetic moms. They could also tell she had a lot of hair that was about an inch long. (Wow ultrasound machines are great!) Anyway, at the last NST/BPP the day before Sydney came the ultrasound tech estimated Sydney's birth weight at about 8 lbs. 10 oz. Ha ha ha...boy did she have a surprise for us! The dr instructed us to come to the hospital on the morning of the 13th to be induced. This was 2 weeks to the day before my due date but that is standard practice for diabetics. The OB I'd been seeing for the last couple months in Missouri was not there, so an associate of hers was planning to deliver the baby. At this point I really didn't care because I wasn't with the dr. I'd seen most of the time anyway so it really didn't matter who was on the receiving end of this...as long as Jake was there with me!
They didn't give us a time to get there so we decided we'd sleep in a little bit since we knew this would be the last good night sleep we'd have for awhile. We left the house to drive to Columbia (a 30 minute drive) around 8:30 and after about 15 minutes of driving we got a call from the hospital asking if we were coming to have our baby today. I guess 9:00am wasn't "in the morning" in their eyes. Anyway, we showed up around 9 and by 10:15 I was hooked up to the pitocin drip. I was already dilated 2 cm but there was a long ways to go. The contractions started around 11. They progressively got stronger and stronger and remembering that I had to be able to sit still for the epidural I decided I didn't want to wait till they got too uncomfortable. It's always a hard decision for me to decide when to get the epidural. They always warn that it could slow down labor so in the back of my mind I always think that I want to wait till the last minute to get it so we don't have to wait any longer for baby to come. Well, around 2:30 my water broke and the contractions got super strong so I called for the epidural immediately. They got me all numb and happy and once they emptied my bladder the baby let all the way down and she was ready to come. It only took about 5 pushes or 2 contractions to get her out which is why I was so surprised when they told me how big she was...TEN POUNDS!!! (OK... 9 lbs. 15.5 oz.)

She was such a chubby little thing! I couldn't believe it! She was so beautiful though. It was a few minutes before they could let me hold her because she was having a hard time breathing. Her hematocrit levels were really high and she was laboring to just pump her blood. She also had low blood sugar which made her even more lethargic. I did get to hold her before she went to the NICU. She was so beautiful. I remember thinking she looked a little like a sumo wrestler...she had such olive skin and dark hair and eyebrows. Here cheeks were so chubby...I couldn't wait to kiss them.

Finally, the nurses took her to the NICU to get her on an IV drip of glucose to bring up her sugar and to do some more testing. Jake followed along. So there I was, all cleaned up and all alone when my mom, Marcia and Jackson arrived. The labor had gone so quickly that they missed the whole thing and were a little bewildered to see me there all alone. I explained Sydney's condition and they took turns going in to see her in the NICU. I didn't get to go see her for a couple hours till my epidural wore off and I was allowed to walk. I remember walking into the NICU and seeing all these super tiny preemie babies, as is typical in there, and then seeing our big, RED baby...all splayed out with leads on her and an IV in her belly button. She was so cute and I was dying to hold her and love her. But I would just hold her hand and kiss her cheeks. On the second day they let me come in to nurse her at feeding time. That was my only chance to hold her so I made the most of it. She didn't really nurse well but we tried every time and then I would give her a bottle.

When we went to the hospital, we were settled on choosing between 2 names...Paige Elizabeth and Savannah Lilly. Well, when our little Sumo wrestler came out, neither name seemed to fit. After spending a little more time with her, we revisited our lists and looked through a lot of names. Finally we decided Sydney Jennifer was the name for her.

The doctors did several tests to make sure she was healthy before they would let us take her home. They thought she might have a heart murmur, but they did and extended ekg and found her heart to be completely healthy. They slowly decreased her glucose drip and after 2 days her sugars were stablized and they were able to remove the IV. After that we only had to deal with her bilirubin levels, which were high. The doctors decided she needed to stay at the hospital to receive UV light treatment for jaundice. She and I stayed in the pediatric unit at Boone Hospital for 4 days while she "sunbathed" under the lamps. Jake came down every day to visit and my mom and dad brought Jackson down every day to visit. One day when they came, Jackson ran all the way down the hall from the elevator, through gereatrics to pediatrics saying, "baby, baby, baby, baby..." the whole way! He was so excited to see Sydney.

It was worrisome watching our new little girl going through all this stuff...being poked and prodded and just having to lay there under those lights and not be held and loved like a new baby should. I knew she would be ok though. Her problems were typical of a baby from a diabetic mom and her condition continued to improve. Finally, Sydney was given a clean bill of health and we were able to come back to Grandma and Grandpa's in Moberly. She was such a cute, happy little baby...well, little compared to us! :)

Sydney, we love you sweetheart! You're a wonderful daughter and a great sister to Jackson and Kate. Thank you for being such a cute, fun girl. Your strong will and quick mind are going to serve you well in your life...though I'm sure it will make telling you what to do rather difficult! I can't wait!