The blessing...

Before Annabelle was born, we decided we wanted to have blessing outfit made from my wedding dress. It was a way to keep a part of our wedding without having a dress hanging in the closet gathering dress. Because we didn't find out if she was a boy or girl, we weren't sure how we were going to make that happen in time to bless our baby.

I talked about what I wanted to a woman in our ward and asked if she would be able to make the outfit within the 4 weeks after our baby was here and we knew the gender. Much to my elation, she offered to make an outfit for both a girl and a boy!! I was so excited. We got the dress about a week before she was born...and we loved it!

When we saw her in a 4 weeks later....it was even better:)

Annabelle Roux Smith was blessed April 10th, 2011 at the Anoka, Minnesota ward. Along with her dad in the circle was: James Dorff (grandpa), T. Craig Smith (grandpa), Geoff Archibald (uncle), Kurt Bennion (friend), Benjy Villareal (friend), John Dailey (friend), and Bishop DeLong.

Ty did a beautiful job. At that moment, I couldn't have been more proud of my baby, and especially my husband.Belle and her daddy!

Our first family photo...

Grandma and Grandpa Smith

Aunt Molly and cousin Kajsa (6 months old)

Grandma Dorff

Grandpa Dorff

The FIRST photoshoot!

Being my daughter....I'm sure there is no doubt that there will be an abundance of photoshoots. A friend of mine from school needed to shoot a 'couple' for an assignment and she asked if she could use me and Annabelle. Of coarse I said yes!

I need to do the same assignment so I used Ty and Annabelle. The results are below.....turned about pretty dang well:) So here is Annabelle at 3 weeks!

our first week home...

..As we left the hospital, I couldn't help but be but overwhelmed thinking about how my life would be completely different than what it had when I left the house just 5 days before. How would I adjust? How would the DOGS adjust?? Would I ever sleep again?

Even with all of these questions, I was so excited to start out lives with baby Annabelle! So off we went! We walked into the house, the dogs greeted us just as usual which was a bit worrisome because the are a bit 'excited' when we walk in. I head their collars and Ty held Annabelle's car seat. They did exterememly well. They check her out and immediatly backed off! I was so happy!

WIthin 15 minutes of having her home, we had her in her crib and started to settling in. We realized that we had been yelling back and forth from her room and she didn't stir at all! We had the best baby ever!!

I'm assuming this is normal for most babies, but Belle had her days and nights all mixed up. I was a little worried it would be this way forever! And when she did fall asleep, I woke her up every 3 hours to feed her. Most people thought that I was crazy for waking a sleeping baby but I was concerned that sense her blood sugar had been was low in the hospital, I didn't want her to go too long between feedings and risk a drop. The problem with this plan was that once she was awake to eat, she didn't want to go back to sleep! We spent a lot of time roaming the house trying to get her to sleep. Ty even discovered the show 'Alf':)

Other then the mix up of sleep/wake times, we realized that we had been blessed with an easy baby. She breastfeed well, loved to be cuddled, and only really cried when hungry. Not to mention...she was adorable!

Our hospital stay...

...the morning after our baby was born, I started to test out how it felt to get out of bed so that I could get down to the nursery to meet my baby for that very first time! Its really good motivation! All of the nurses we suprised how easily I seemed to get going.

So I headed down to meet her and my heart was racing. We couldn't get there fast enough. When we rolled in I could see her from accross the room. All of the other babies were there because they were premature. So our baby at almost 11 lbs looked like she was going to eat one of them! The very first thing I noticed was her full head of DARK hair. I couldn't be more excited about that. I knew she would have hair but I had been hoping she would take after her dad instead of me. Of coarse the next thing I noticed was that needle in her head. I started to tear up just waiting for the nurse to give her to me. It couldn't happen fast enough.





As soon as I had her in my arms. I looked at Ty and told him, "You are absolutly right, her name is Annabelle." And we both cried, not that Ty wont to admit it. Everything about it just felt right. Thinking of her full name 'Annabelle Roux Smith' just made me so excited. We choose her middle name to honor my grandma Dorff. It was her madain name and it couldn't be more perfect. Ty came up with it and I'm so grateful he did.

I instantly loved her!



We knew we would need to stay in the hospital for as long as it took her little body to regualte her blood sugar without the IV drip. Everyday, the nurses turned done her IV amount just a little. However, that required the nurses to prick her little feet every 3 hours to check her sugars. I couldn't handle watching that so I would wait on the other side of the nursery until they were done. Luckily, our little Annabelle was a trooper! All in all, it took 5 days for her to be able to get rid of the IV and be released.

From the begining, the nurses kept telling us that we would most likely need to be discharged from the hospital before Annabelle which meant going home with out her. I truly couldn't bare the thought! So when my blood pressure continued to climb even after she was born, I was just a little happy about it. I know that I should have been concerned about it, but if it meant I could stay with her, it was okay. The nurses and doctors however, we much more concerned. They had me on 2 different blood pressure medications and told me to stay in bed and only get up to feed Annabelle and use the bathroom. Everytime the nurse would come into check my blood pressure, I would just pray it would come down....but it never did. Luckily, they let me go home the same day as Annabelle!

The birth...

When we found out we would be having our baby within the hour we were beyond excited. I was more scared then excited but still excited:) As the nurses started to funnel in and out of the room and heart was racing. Getting the IV hurt like crazy and all I could think was 'if I think this hurts...how the heck am I going to deal with the spinal!' That was my biggest fear!

Ty began to call our families and let them know that we would find out if we had a boy or girl within the evening and to expect a call back with the news! I think he could tell how anxious I was and made all of his calls short so that he could focus on me. I'm really greatful for that.

As it was time came to head to the operating room the anesthesiologist told me that Ty would not be allowed in the room while they were placing the spinal. This was the thing I had been terrified of sense I found out I was pregnant. I know there are millions of women have done it before but could I do it?? Women who get epidurals are often in so much pain that they couldn't care less that there was a large need being pushed into their vertabrae. I was in no pain so I was very aware of what was going to happen and I didnt like it ! Ty was told that they would place the spinal and come to get him in 15 mins. So off I went...shaking like a leaf.

I jumped up on the table and tried to relax. I was leaned forward on one the the nurses (he was so great) and just waiting for the needle to go into my back. I litterally couldn't stop shaking and they had to keep reminding me to try and relax. After 4 tries.....they told me that they couldn't get it in and I would have to be put completely under! I know that I should have been more upset about this, but I was just so releieved that the spine piercing was done. This is the third time I've been put under and I'm always shocked when I wake up that I don't remember getting sleepy before going under.

*this next part of the story is what I was told by Ty. He will include his prespective of the store later.

The nurse went out to get Ty who was pacing the halls waiting. When he came in they were taping my eyelids shut so that was a little strange. He says he was really suprised at how violent the whole proceedure was. The nurse told Ty that they were about to pull the baby out so if he wanted to look, now was the time! He peaked over the curtain and saw as Dr. Johnson pull our baby by the feet hard out of me. He says it made a very odd slurping sound:)




Dr. Johnson started to say, "Its a...." and Ty yelled, "GIRL!!" The nurses and Dr's were all making bets on her weight because it was pretty obvious that she was a big girl. Everyone guessed that she was somewhere around 9 lbs so they were quite suprised when the scale read 10 lbs 9 oz!!


Because I had gestational diabetes, there was some concern at what her blood sugar number would be. Babies need to be at least at 45 when they are born. Because babies born to moms with diabetes are so used to compensating for the gluclose in there mother's bodies by producing extra insulin, they sometimes have too much insulin in their bodies when born which causes a low blood sugar. Unfortunantly, this was the case for our girl. Her number was 19!!! Less then half of what it needed to be! As soon as she was cleaned off they wisked her off to the Level 2 nursery to be taken care of.


Ty went with our baby but was a little stressed because not only did our baby need special medical attention, but I was still out from the surgery and needed to be fixed up. His daddy instincts kicked right in and he protected our baby girl. In the nursery they placed an IV in her head so that they could start pumping gluclose into her system so that her blood sugars could be leveled out. Ty spent the next 2 hours talking to her and holding her. Because we hadn't chosen a name yet, and Ty didn't want to do it without me, he tried a few of our options and the name we thought we would pick just didn't fit. He also fed her her first bottle, which unfortunantly was formula. She sucked it right down:)



When baby was set and Ty heard that I was in my room, he headed in to see me. I remember waking slightly and feeling pretty intense pain in my abdemon. What made it a little worse was that I need to cough so badly but everytime I tried, it was so painful. This resulted in my trying very hard to clear my throat to no avail. I was so focused on this that it didn't really register that I had just had a baby! As I became more aware of what was happening, I heard Ty calling family members telling them that we had a baby and everyone was safe but he couldn't tell them a gender because I didn't know yet! Sweetest thing ever!

Ty leaned on my bed and grabed my hand. I now remember that he said, "Baby, you did it. You had a beautiful baby GIRL!" At the time, all I could say was, "It hurts!". It had to tell me that we had girl a few more times before it sunk in. I was shocked! We had been so convinced that it was a boy that the news was a big suprise! I asked Ty what he thoguth her name was and he really didn't want to tell me. He was pretty sure that her name wasn't the name I originally loved but he didn't want to sway what I decided when I saw her. So I waited to really focus on her until I would get to see her for the first time which I learned wouldn't be until the next day. I had just had surgery so I couldn't leave my room and she was all hooked up in the level 2 nursery so we would have to wait to meet. Now, I know I should have been more upset about this but at the time I was so calm. I thank to Lord for being for me in the moment and making it okay. Luckily Ty had lots of pictures for me to look at to tide me over:)

So I tired to sleep that night knowing that I had a precious little girl with my true love! A prefect end to the day!

Baby is almost here!

Having scheduled the c-section due to gestational diabetes, we were patiently waiting for that 3/7 date. My body had something else in mind...

At 37 weeks along, my Dr. told me I was already dilated to 3 cm so I should be with in no more then an hour of the hospital because labor could start at any time. This had me both excited and terrified at the same time! My body however was going bizerk! My blood pressure spiked and it wasn't coming down for anything!

On the friday before the c-section date, I had my pre-op appt and my blood pressure was even higher! I was sitting at about 175/90 which was pretty concerning for my Dr. They check me several times for preeclampcia and the test came back negative every time. But because I was so very swollen and my bp was so high Dr. Johnson wanted me to come into the hospital that next day to check my blood pressure again.

I head to mercy on the afternoon of 3/5/11 to see what was going on. I was nervous and excited all at the same time. I knew there was a chance that I would have a baby that day but I didn't want to get my hopes up. I could Ty felt the same way.

Well, we got into labor and delivery and hooked up to all of the baby monitors and bp monitors and just waited. As soon as the nurse saw my bp was 180/92 she ran it again to see if that was really right...sure enough it was! And it was settled....we were having the baby that day!

The rest of the pregnancy...

...The next 17 weeks or so were pretty tame.

There were a few things that caused my days to be a little more hectic. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes which meant testing my blood sugar 4 times a day and eventually giving myself nightly insulin injections.....not fun!

Because of the diabetes I had to have weekly ultrasounds and non-stress tests. The weekly ultrasounds made my fear of accidentayl finding out lil 'bit's gender. I'm sure I annoyed the ultrasound tech with my constant reminder not to reveal the sex but I never found out! We did find out though, that our little baby had enough hair already at 30 weeks to be seen on the ultrasound!

I also found out that my baby was in breech position. There was sine talk of possibly trying to turn the babe from the outside. It is a painful procedure and dangerous. The decision to not even try to turn the baby because her feet were in my cervix head in my ribs. If her feet had been next to her head, it may have been possible but the decision was made to for go the risk and just plan on a c-section. So it was scheduled for March 7th, 2011!

This is the only photo taken of the end of my pregnacy...37 weeks.


Also, towards the end of my pregnancy, it was very apparent that my baby was breach. This photo is shot straight down. You can see the babes head!!

Dear Annabelle

Today during tummy time, you lifted your head and pushed up onto your arms and I couldn’t have been anymore proud of you. It made me think of how many times inyour life you will amaze me and I will be so very proud. When you are these accomplishments, no matter how small you will think they are later in life, everything stops around me and I can’t help but smile a huge smile.

During this time, you stated to get pretty mad (which is pretty normal for you and tummy time) so I laid on the floor next to you and said your name and told you how good you were doing. You instantly calmed down. I love so much that you know me and trust me. When you look straight into my eyes and just stare or even smile, it is one of my favorite moments of the day seeing that you recognize me. Its one of those moments where I would give you anything you ever wanted (I had better figure out how to handle that feeling or else we are going to end of with a house full of ponies or puppies when you get older.)

So, little love, I will do everything I can so that you know that you can always trust me. Maybe not to do exactly what you always want, but to always do what the right thing for you.

Love,

Mama

5.14.2011

Half way there!

...Ty and I knew before we ever got pregnant that we didn't want to know the gender of our baby before they were born. Anytime anyone would ask us if were knew what we were having yet, they gave us one of two reactions.

Either they could not understand why we wouldn't find out. How would we decorate the nursery in pink or blue? Or buy clothes? Or pick out a name? Well, we were doing the nursery in a couple of shades of green with owls and so many clothes had been given to us, not to mention that all of the shopping could be down after the birth. And as far as names went, we really had no intention of picking one out until we met our little one anyways. We planned to pick a handful of girl's names and boy's names and wait and see what felt right. So, from the very beginning our baby was called 'lil 'bit'. Good enough for us!

The other reaction that we got from a few people when they learned we weren't finding out the gender was total joy! These are the people who would say 'GOOD! To many people spoil the surprise these days!" And that is exactly how we felt. They are so few good surprises in life, why would we spoil this one? Ty thought of it like opening your Christmas presents before Christmas day...just no fun on Christmas morning if you already know what your getting.

I had more then one person who was willing to accept the not finding out the gender but not picking a name or sharing our options with people didn't make any sense. I described the moment that I was waiting for and people seemed to understand a little more. I wanted that moment after our baby was born when we found out for the very first time what the gender is and get to name our blessing. I couldn't think of anything more special then Ty and I being the only ones in the world who knew this for just a little while. It would be so special. And the excited of telling all our friends and family would be pretty great too:)

We, as we headed to our 20 week ultrasound to check on our babes progress, I was so paranoid that they tech would let it slip if we were having a boy or girl. I think I may have reminded her 2o times that we didn't want to know. I was so scared to look at the screen for fear that I may see something I didn't want to. After we finished the ultrasound with no slip ups and asked the tech out of curiosity if she knew what it was. She told me because the babe was breech, she really couldn't tell so it was a good thing that we didn't want to know.

Cat's out of the bag!

..I was getting pretty anxious to tell our friends and family that we were pregnant but so determined to wait until at least 12 weeks to spill the beans. I knew that it would be best to be able to be more confident that this pregnancy would 'stick' and there was something so specail about sharing a secrect with my Ty that was so important and exciting.

From the moment I found out I was pregnant, I was trying to think of a creative way to suprise everyone with our big news. I knew exactly what I wanted to do to tell the Smith parents only.

I was going to have an announcment put in the Garden Creek ward's bulletin reading "Congratulations to Craig and Sandra Smith on their next grandchild due 03.14.11"....and then just wait for them to figure it out. It was brilliant! Of coarse as murphy's law would have it, it didn't work out that way. We found out that the Garden Creek ward hadn't had a bulletin in 7 months! So Plan be it was! We sent a fortune cookie with a fortune inside that read, "guess who's barefoot and..." They got it right away:)

For the Dorff side of the family, I told them that I needed to take a family photo for a class and asked if they could help me out. I got them all set up outside and took a couple of test shots asking them to say 'cheese'. Then, I told them to say....'Audrey's pregnant!' and snapped the shot! It was great!



Now, the only family left to tell were the Smith siblings. We sent this email and sat back and waited for the response!

...of our Halloween costumes this year???
1950's Pregnant Housewife and the Milkman


Maybe by October 31st, I'll be showing enough so that I don't have to stuff a pillow under my shirt.......cause at 13 weeks......I've got nothing!

almost lost...

Ty and I had decided that we didn't want to tell anyone about our impending parenthood until at least 12 weeks. We wanted the risk of a miscarriage to drop before we were willing to share.

When we almost lost 'lil bit' at 10 weeks, I was glad we hadn't said anything yet.

One night after work, I was relaxing as had become the usual for me. I was having pretty bad morning sickness and fatigue. I felt like I had wet my pants and went running to the bathroom. I began to freak out when I discovered it was blood....a lot of blood.

I started to cry and pray asking heavenly father to just let me keep my baby. Really, I had little hope but never stopped praying.

I called the clinic thinking maybe I could talk to a nurse but they were closed. The scheduling departmet was open though and told me I needed to call the labor and delivery. I called over and the nurse asked me what was going on and how far along I was. Apparently, my speech was the clearest with all of my blubbering because she interupted me and said "I can't do anything for you if you down at least try and speak clearly," in a very rude tone. When I told her 10 weeks she was annoyed with me. She, in not such a nice way, told me there was nothing they could do and I need to talk to the ER and transfered me without another word. I was already hysterical and spending all this time on the phone being given the run around wasn't helping....so much so that I started crying even harder.

The man who answered the phone in the ER was VERY nice thankfully. He told me that I needed to come in to be examined and asked if I was feeling dizzy from the blood loss because he would send an ambulence. I told him my husband was on his way home and asked if it was okay if I didn't come in for a half hour or so until he was there. He told me I was fine and that I should calm down. I am very thankful for this man and wish I now knew who he was.

Ty got home and we packed up the laptop, knowing that the wait in the ER can be awful, and headed to the hospital. There is a large sign near the nurses desk that reads 'if you are pregnant or having heart pain, alert the staff immediately.' We checked in and sat down to watch a few episodes of 'the office' while we waited and not 2 minutes later they were calling us back! We got some evil stares from other people in the waiting room....but I learned the way to get fast service is to be knocked up!

When we got back into the room, I was examined and told that they needed to do an ultrasound to see if we still had a healthy baby or if I had miscarried sense they could not tell yet. That ride on the hospital bed back to the ultrasound room was one of the most terrifying 2 minutes of my life. I was praying with everything that I had that my baby was still okay but I was doubtful.

Once back in the room, if felt like it took FOREVER for the tech to get the machine ready. I was ready to grab the wand and check myself! In all actuality, it was only a minute or so. I held my breath as I stared at the screen and had to asked the tech if I was right....did I really see the babe moving around in there? He told me YES! my baby was okay! I looked over at Ty and the words that came out of his mouth made me laugh....."it looks like a peanut m&m".

After another hour in the ER, there was no explanation as to what caused all of that blood.....only prayers of gratitude that we hadn't lost her.

the before...

Saturday..... July 10th, 2011

It was a hot summer day and we were planning on heading to the beach with Jes and Kurt. But before we left, we wanted to get a couple of things down. Ty was pruning the bushes in front of the house and I planned on cleaning up the house. But first I wanted to run to the store to pick up some sunscreen for little outing.

I ran into CVS, picked up my sunscreen and decided to pick up a pregnancy test while I was out. I didn't really think that I was pregnant but I hadn't been tracking and it felt like it had been a long time so I figured what the heck!

Mind you, I hadn't mentioned any of this to Ty because I didn't think it was a big deal. Well when I got home I went about my business. When I needed to use the bathroom, I took the test. A few minutes later, I checked and did believe what I saw!!! There was a second line! I read and reread the box to make sure that I was reading the test right before I believed it. Once, I knew what I saw was corrected, I was shocked! I couldn't believe it.....I just stood there still and silent.

It was time to tell Ty! I came out of the bathroom and Ty was in the kitchen. He started telling me what his plan was for the day and just happened to glance down at my hand hanging at my side and saw the test. He stopped and look at me....."Are you pregnant?" All I could do was nod. No words.....just nod! He ran to be and we just stood in the hall and held eachother.

Still not willing to completely believe that I was really pregnant, I went back out and bought 3 more brands of pregnancy tests. A little crazy? Yes! Well.....they all said the same thing!!!

......and I thank God everyday that they did.

Dear Annabelle....

Tonight, I lay hear next to you and can’t believe you are mine. How could I have produced such an amazing child?

Before you were born, I worried how hard being a mom would be. Babies require so much from their mother’s. I wondered if I would ever sleep again or get to do anything that I loved. I knew that I would love you, but I thought it would be a struggle to maintain who I was.

I was WRONG! From the moment that I saw you laying in that bed in the hospital, everything in my mind changed. You were all I wanted and it didn’t matter how hard it became. As the weeks have gone on, this motherhood thing has been so much easier then I ever thought it would be. It doesn’t hurt that you rarely cry, and give me the biggest smiles that make me tear up with happiness or even that you starting sleeping 7 hours a night starting at 4 weeks.

The biggest change has been the way my mind sees motherhood. What I want more then anything is to snuggle you and watch you discover new things, like your own hands. I never knew I could love something so small this much.

So, sweet Belle, I thank the Lord every day for sending you to me. I love you more then a million sparkling stars!

Good Night little love!

Mama