Hello!

Let's start off with why the blog is named the way it is.  I, of course, think of my daughter Adalyn as a work of art.  However, the title is actually a play on words since she is a work of A.R.T, which stands for Assisted Reproductive Technology.  ART includes several different infertility treatments, including IUI and IVF.  Adalyn is here as a result of IVF that I underwent in the summer of 2011.

My pregnancy was pretty run of the mill until I went in at 22 weeks 6 days for a routine fetal echocardiogram ultrasound.  The date was January 11, 2012 and it was a day that changed our lives forever.  We discovered that my water had broken and/or had some sort of tear where I was leaking fluid.  They estimated that it had started leaking when I was about 21 weeks pregnant.  I was immediately hospitalized and placed on hospital bedrest.  I was able to keep Adalyn cooking for 24 more days before I started going into labor on February 3, 2012.  At 1pm I started spotting, was bleeding by 6pm, was sent to L&D at 8:30pm, had a fever at 9pm, elevated blood count and higher fever at 10pm, and Adalyn was born via c-section on February 4, 2012 at 12:17am.  It was determined that I had developed chorioamnioitis which is what began labor.

Adalyn was born at 26 weeks 2 days and spent 83 days in the NICU.  She came home on April 26, 2012.  Despite being on oxygen, an apnea monitor, and a pulse ox, she has been adjusting well to life at home.  She has no major problems other than BPD, but hopefully she will be off the oxygen soon.  However, this blog is about Adalyn's progress and what she is able to do every week.  It is a way for me to document what she's up to, and also be able to share it with friends and family members, and anyone who wants to know.  It's also a way for me to write about her antics and how we figure things out. :)