Scarlett Rose Prickett - Exclusive Pix!

Before I begin my post, I want to thank everyone for their prayers, words of encouragement, well wishes, phone calls and visits. It really meant a lot to Jeremiah and I. It has been a rough 2 weeks and it would have been tougher if we didn’t have the support system that we do. So, THANK YOU!!!

I'll start at the beginning. I started having contractions around 6:55pm on Mon, 4/13. Jeremiah and I headed to the hospital at 10pm. By the way, I started packing my hospital bag at 9pm…crawling around on all fours…while having contractions. It really was quite comical. Anyway, it took me an hour but I finally packed everything I needed. In case you’re wondering, Jeremiah was making sure Liz had everything she needed because we were going to drop her off at Di’s (J’s sister) house. Anyway, we dropped Liz off and then headed for the hospital. Di followed us to the hospital to be with us and that was nice.

Moving along, we checked in the hospital at 10:25pm or so. They examined me and said that I was dilating at 1.5 or 2. The nurse told me that I would definitely be having a baby within the next 24 hours. Here I am in triage when they decided to keep me, YEAH!

Then, I dilated to a 5 and started having major contractions. Suddenly, I wasn't having fun anymore.

The next thing I knew, a nurse was turning me back and forward from my left side to the right side for about a minute. Then she called for help and another nurse came in. Then 2 more nurses came in. Then 2 MORE nurses came in! 1 nurse multiplied into 6 and I could quickly tell there was a problem. All 6 of them were staring at my monitor with such intensity that my pain turned into fear. Before I knew it, I heard one of the nurses say “we need to do an emergency c-section”, “call the doctor”, and “call NICU”. By this time, everyone started disconnecting wires and I was quickly being transported to an operating room. Obviously, Jeremiah tried to follow me but they told him that he couldn’t come with me and would have to wait in the labor and delivery room. I told him “I love you and pray for us.” It was awful. I’m sitting here crying about it just thinking about it :o(

I’m in the operating room flat on my back completely helpless, scared out of my mind and I finally asked “what’s happening”? One of the nurses replied “the baby’s heartbeat dropped to 66 bpm and it stayed down for quite a while and wouldn’t come up. It finally came up but we didn’t want to risk the baby’s hearbeat dropping again and have the risk of it not coming up. So we are going to perform an emergency c-section to ensure you and the baby are okay. Everything will be fine”. And you know what? It was fine! Moments after the nurse spoke with me, Jeremiah showed up! Shortly after they let him into the surgery to be by my side, Baby Prickett was born!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, here she is about 2 or 3 mins old…Scarlett Rose Prickett!
5lbs 14oz and 19.25” long.

All cleaned up!

The baby is alive and I’m alive…we survivied! Just when I thought life was good, a nurse was rushing our baby to NICU :o(

Before they hauled Scarlett off, I had a brief moment to see her right after she was born. Because I was so medicated and shaking from the meds, I told Jeremiah that I didn’t want to hold her because I might drop her. A few hours went by and I was able to go down to NICU and see my baby, woo hoo!

McDreamy & Dr. Bailey scrubbing in to see Ms. Scarlett.

The next time I saw Scarlett, she looked liked this…

My poor little love…and I couldn’t even hold her. That was hard :o(

Scarlett ended up having jaundice and her bilirubin level was incredibly high. To treat it, they placed her under 3 UV lights: 2 over her and 1 underneath her. It ripped my heart out to see her like this :o(

Auntie Maria giving Scarlett some love :o)


This is Jeremiah’s FAVORITE video a day or two after she was born. Why? Because she smiled just for daddy.

The proud parents having lunch. Surprisingly, the hospital food wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

Jeremiah made this video for me. It was a really nice surprise and boy did I need it!

In my attempts to make sure Liz stayed on her routine as much as possible while Scarlett and I were hospitalized, I told Jeremiah to take her to karate. On the way to karate, Jeremiah was talking to me on the phone and Liz was looking at some pictures of Scarlett on the camera. Apparently, Liz managed to turn on the video camera and she started recording herself. I was laughing so hard that my incision felt like it was fire because it was burning so badly. My poor abs.

My Prickett's and another one of their finest moments!

Scarlett stayed under the UV lights for a few days. I think it was the 3rd day when they reduced the light down to one.

Jeremiah said she looks like Yoda in this picture. Unfortunately, I have to agree :o)

When Scarlett was somewhat out of the woods and it was safe, the nurses unhooked her from some of the machines so that I could hold her.

After 2 days or so, I finally got to hold Scarlett!!!

1st family photo with Scarlett, kind of. Liz was at school but we felt her presence.

Here I am feeding Scarlett for the 1st time…2 days after she was born. After being in NICU for 3 days, Scarlett had improved and the UV lights were GONE!

One day when I went to visit her, she was wearing a plain white t-shirt. Well, one thing led to another and before I knew it, we were giving Scarlett a makeover! I think it all started because I wanted to comb Scarlett’s hair. The nurse found her something pink to wear. Another nurse made her an Aretha Franklin knock-off…a hat with a big bow. Then I combed and brushed her hair for the 1st time. That made me so happy and did WONDERS for my sanity. Here’s a video that Jeremiah made while I brushed Scarlett’s hair.

Scarlett was so pretty and I felt so much better after her hair was done :o)

All done and worn out!

Isn’t she perfect? We certainly think so!

This is hysterical and there are no words for this video. Just watch!

Apparently, EVERYONE was crazy about Scarlett. She was quite the popular one in NICU. All of the nurses just loved her. One set of parents even made a comment regarding how much the nurses love her. I went to visit Scarlett one day and one of the nurses was holding her and absolutely adoring her. If the extra TLC helped my baby girl, I was all for it. It also gave me a little comfort knowing that she was in such good hands. At the time I was too distraught to appreciate and recognize the extra attention that Scarlett was receiving. Now that last 2 weeks are behind me, I’m able to see and appreciate the extra care that Scarlett was given.

4/13 – 4/19 was absolutely horrific. Seeing Scarlett hooked up to so many machines was dreadful. The nurses said that she never cried and was always laid back. I saw this for myself and it was so true. Each time I visited Scarlett, the very last thing I always said to her was to keep fighting...and she did. Having said that, I am happy to inform you that Ms. Scarlett came home 4/20!!! The doctor said that she progressed extremely well and there really is no need to keep her in NICU any longer. However, she is a bit anemic but with an iron supplement, she should be fine in a month or so. I wanted to get a picture of all of the nurses that took care of her but that proved to be impossible because they worked from 7am – 7pm and 7pm – 7am. It was a little slow when we left but here are a couple of her nurses that I did find.

My precious baby :o)

Discharged and ready to get the heck out of NICU!

That brings us to , 4/22. We took Ms. Scarlett in for her 1 week follow up and that went fine. She needed to have some lab work done so we went to the lab at the hospital right after her appt. Her results came back abnormal. The lab director called our doctor with the results and instructed us to head to NICU. So we did. Guess what? They kept Scarlett. Her blood level had dropped and she needed a blood transfusion to "top off" her current blood level. It went fine and our poor baby is so tired. She’s resting comfortably and now has pink in her face :o) We had another appt Friday, 4/24 to follow up from the blood transfusion. All went well and the doctor said we don't have to come back until Scarlett's 2 month check up.

Needless to say, I have had my hands extremely full since Scarlett was born. Jeremiah has been incredibly great through all of our Prickett drama. I think he may have earned a trip to visit his brothers. Jeremiah and Josh (my bro in law) gave Scarlett a blessing on 4/22. I think that is her 3rd one since she was born. Anyway, Scarlett is a fighter and I’m hoping our lives will resume some type of normalcy next week. Please continue to keep us in your prayers :o)