That Smith » Baby

Come see Kaden

Chad — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 02:31:44 +0000

If you are in Wichita or at least nearby, you are welcome to come see Kaden any time. If not, we will be in Overland Park for a little while on the 26th.

He took his first ride in the new stroller today and has made several trips with us to the store.

Kaden Taylor

Chad — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 03:15:16 +0000

Laura and I just got home from the hospital, but are going to head back around 11 for his next feeding and to say goodnight.

He is still doing very well and hopefully will be big enough to come home this weekend. He is in a normal bed now, has been off oxygen since early Monday, and is drinking plenty of milk.

People have been saying it, and yes I suppose he does look a lot like me:

Kaden is here!

Chad — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:29:14 +0000

Early this morning Kaden decided that after 35 weeks of waiting, he was ready to come out.

Laura and I went to the hospital around 6pm last night because her contractions were becoming stronger. The doctors planned to do what they could do to stop the labor, but gave in around 9pm. She was fully dilated around midnight and delivered an early, healthy baby after 20 minutes of actual labor at 1:18am, Monday, March 24th, 2008.

Kaden arrived 5 weeks before his expected due date, but is still a good size for a pre-term baby. He was 4 lbs 15.2 oz and 16 3/4 inches long on arrival.

He gets to spend a few days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, but is doing just fine and should be coming home sometime over the next few days.

Kaden a few minutes old.

Kaden in the NICU

Kaden talking to his dad (a few minutes after a bath).

He does have several cords attached to monitor his vitals, but they have been steady the entire time and are nothing to worry about. The hose in his nose was inserted this afternoon in case he needed to be tube fed, but it has since been removed as well because he is drinking from a bottle just fine.

Laura just sent me this picture of his first feeding, and he looks very happy.

Baby Smith

Chad — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:50:27 +0000

By Victor Tuttle

Update on Laura

Chad — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:36:53 +0000

Some of you may have heard that Laura is in the hospital (thanks to my late night updates on Twitter that appear on Facebook and MySpace) and I’m sure you are wondering how she is doing, and what got her there in the first place.

We don’t know what exactly is wrong with her, but doctors have ruled out every other possibility, so we know it isn’t anything too serious. Just a lot of pain.

Late last week she finished her antibiotics for the sinus infection she had a couple weeks ago, but started having a sharp pain in her lower right side. A nurse at her OB said it was round ligament and should go away after a few days. It did, but a few days later she started feeling another sharp pain higher in her right side. This one was continuous and wouldn’t go away after drinking water.

We ended up going to the ER Tuesday because she couldn’t even sleep without being in pain ( which means I couldn’t sleep either ), and there we found out she was having contractions too. They were about 2 minutes apart, which is a good sign you are going into labor. We stayed the night and they ran several tests to see if Kaden was coming early. He was not.

Then Wednesday they got the contractions to stop, and did an ultrasound to check the baby and all her organs. Everyone inside was ok, so they sent us home after giving her a few doses of morphine and a prescription for pain killers.

The meds didn’t do much at first, but she started feeling better Thursday, so I went back to work and her sister came over for the day. Then Friday her mom kept her company, but ended up taking her to the hospital again because the pain came back worse, and kept making her throw up her pills.

The rest of the weekend has been a long, uncomfortable blur (hospital chairs are not nice to sleep in). She felt like crap all of Friday, but started feeling better Saturday afternoon after her mom arrived so I could go to work. She got worse after dinner, but felt better when I came back for the night. Then this morning it was off and on until she fell asleep around 4am.

Her mom and I switched shifts at 7:30am so I could shower and come back over here for work. Now Laura is up and feeling better – and has showered – and I guess as long as the pain and contractions don’t start up again, I should get her back this afternoon.

We still don’t know what is causing the pain, but do know it was making her have contractions 3 months early. At this point the doctors and nurses think it might be something simple like early labor pains or a really nasty pinched nerve.

She has her phone on her and is answering text messages, so you can talk to her if you want. Or you can call me if you would like to know what hospital she’s in. If she does make it home today, check Baby Smith tomorrow for an update from her.

New Years Projects

Chad — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 05:20:40 +0000

Laura and I began our new year visiting family and finishing some of our home improvement projects. We finished painting the first guest bedroom before Christen moved in, and now we get to choose colors and carpet for the rest of the basement.

We saw her family on New Years Day and then visited mine this past weekend at my cousin Austin’s wedding. Austin was an usher at my wedding and controlled the music during our ceremony. On our way to the wedding in Lawrence, we stopped in Emporia for lunch at Bobby D’s and drove by our first apartment.

We also replaced our old phones (which is the reason for all the pictures I’ve been taking) and finally got the baby furniture we ordered a few weeks ago. Check out BEERdad for pictures of my coffee beer, and see BEERdad or Baby Smith for pictures of Kaden’s room. Obviously BEERdad has my take on putting together the bedroom set so you should go read that one first.

We almost received the glass top for our dining room table on Friday, but that didn’t exactly pan out. I will write more on that this weekend while I am at Office This.

Our baby’s name is…

Chad — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 23:36:18 +0000

now posted on his website. Go see what it is at Baby Smith.

Our baby will be…

Chad — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:50:46 +0000

arriving earlier than we expected.

According to Laura’s sonographer the due date is April 21st rather than the 28th.

The sonogram went well and everything is where it should be. The baby kept rolling over when the sonographer was trying to take a profile photo so we did not get one of those.

Here are the pictures we were able to get:

There you have it, now you know what we’re having.

How’s your wife / the baby?

Chad — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:00:15 +0000

Table of contents for My thoughts on 2007

How’s your wife? / How’s the baby?

The biggest news this year is Laura will be having a baby.

Laura is just fine (and isn’t showing yet), and as far as we can tell the baby is doing fine too. We will find out the gender on December 5th. Laura has been an apartment/house wife since the wedding and spends most of her time remodeling our basement.

We found out she was pregnant in late August and told the family (along with news about the new job and house) at my dad’s 50th birthday in September. The baby is due April 28th.

Photo: Southernpixel

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