Okay, I have been meaning to do this for about a month, so I apologize for the late update.
As most of you know, Peter and I had a baby girl on December 5th. My 40 plus day stay at the hospital ended when I was granted release by Warden (Dr.) Andersen on December 7th, but Lillian was destined to stay in Intensive Care for 9 days. She was born 5 weeks and 2 days early because her blood pressure in her umbilical cord started to show some distress. I was taken to labor and delivery on 12/3 where they began to soften my cervix during which we were told that it would probably take 3-4 days to deliver because of how early it was. (Sorry if this is too much info, I don't care about modesty anymore!) By 7 am on the 4th, I was in early labor. The awesome Gayle did 3 gels and after 6 hours of heavy contractions (Sorry they felt heavy to me!) Dr. Andersen broke my water and there was merconium (sp?) in the fluid. They told me that they did not know if I was going to be able to hold Lilly before they took her down to NICU. If she swallowed any of the fluid she could be put into respiratory distress. We began to make bets as to what time Lilly would be born. Well everyone was right, I didn't deliver on the day they induced…I delivered at 12:37 am on the 5th. My favorite L & D nurse Jo Ellen and my good friend Katie helped with my 15 minutes of pushing. I owe both an apology for puking on. I was able to hold Lilly before they took her down to NICU.
We were advised that she would probably be inhibited and have a feeding tube. Bilirubin lights were going to be a must. Lilly was on room air about 2 hours after she was born. She moved into a "Big Girl" crib, as the world's greatest NICU nurse Lynette called it, within 4 days. She did end up getting the feeding tube, but Lilly pulled it out of her nose within 24 hours of its placement, and it never had to be put in again. She did go under the Billi lights, but they were able to make her a glow worm and give her the billi blanket which she tolerated much better. After she gained weight, she was just shy of 6 pounds when we left the hospital, we were allowed to "sleep-in" at NICU and take her home on the 14th.
As for our Christmas, well to be honest it was uneventful! We didn't do anything other than open presents, which Lilly slept through. Peter worked Christmas Day and so we just chilled around the house.
Things are going well. Lilly is getting bigger, even though she is still a tiny 7 pounds 4.5 ounces. She is actually starting to fit into newborn clothes. And no she doesn't sleep!! But that is okay.
I want to thank everyone who came and saw me at the hospital. It meant a lot to me because it was getting very lonely up there!! Thanks for all the well wishes and I hope everyone has a great new year!!
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