Doin' your thing

Hi Shira,

As I write this you are in the 'baby bjorn' doing one of the things that you do a lot of these days. Sleeping. The other two as everyone knows for a baby your age are eating and pooping. You are pretty good at all three and that's good for now, it's what you should be doing. I guess it's no great shock that two of the four pictures here show you asleep.

You have been showing some more personality and activity in your short bouts of wakefulness. You can go through a wonderful variety of facial expressions even in your sleep. You have been nearly smiling even a few times when you are awake, though. You can hold your head up really well during 'tummy time' and you have more patience for that than you big sister did when she was your age.

You went to the doctor's for a PKU screening two days ago. It was not pleasant for you. You had to have some blood drawn from your heel and bled onto a special piece of paper. The purpose is to find out if you will have a hard time processing a certain amino acid. The technician who did it to you wasn't that good in my opinion. I thought he was clumsy using the device that pierced your skin and that caused the puncture to be at a bad angle on your heel which in turn caused him to need to twist your leg uncomfortably in order to catch the drops. I think the quality of the puncture was bad too, and that meant he really had to squeeze your foot hard.

You did your first drinking from a bottle earlier today. You were clearly confused about what was in your mouth at first but once you took a gulp the rest disappeared quickly. It wasn't much, and was mainly a test run to see if you would do it. Since you did your mom will start pumping some of her breast milk now when you're not eating so that those of us that are not your mom can feed you once in a while. That makes it possible for your mom to get out and do things.

On Monday last week when you were two weeks old (you will be three weeks tomorrow) you had a check up at the doctor and you weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces. On friday when you got the blood taken you were 9 pounds 1 ounce. But you were fully dressed, so I thought that was a high estimate. This morning my less precise scale got you at 9.5 pounds, so you are definitely getting bigger. We've noticed that you've been growing a bit of a double chin. I said you were good at eating!

Well, I finished this without waking you up!

Love, aba

home from the hospital

hi shira,

you are home. in fact, you are in my left hand as i peck this out with my right.
i'll update this with more about how stdra reacted to you a little later.

Ok, I'm back. Shira, your first night home was not too bad, it could have been much worse. Neither your mom or I slept too much and we shouldn't have expected to. You stayed on the three hour schedule pretty well until the 4 am to 6am period where you seemed to need to feed for a couple hours straight. Although some of that time you seemed uninterested in feeding but not interested in sleeping, either.

You had a pretty good first meeting with your big sister, too. She came with me from her pre school class to the hospital to pick you and your mom up. She ran across the atrium to see you for the first time. She's pretty interested in helping out with you, but doesn't quite understand your fragility quite yet.

Some more about you: You are kind of a dainty little thing, but still kind of wire like. You look tiny but seem pretty strong. The nurses at the hospital all commented on that. You can hold your head up really well for a girl your age. Once in the hospital, when you were under the lights, I thought you were going to turn yourself over. That's a feat usually not done until around 3 months of age. Your legs are skinny but again you have some power in them.

I think I commented on this before, but when you sleep, you never really look completely relaxed. Especially your face is always moving. Your limbs don't move as much particularly when you are bundled, but they aren't completely motionless, either. But your head and face are perpetual motion.

It's great to have you home with the family. You just have to keep eating and that will help you finally end the jaundice.

Love, Aba

Catching Rays

Hi Shira,

Well you're on vacation already, your sunglasses are on and you're basking in the sun. Actually it's pretty artificial sun. You're in photo therapy because your bilirubin count is a little too high. It turns out that your blood type is no the same as your mom's, so it makes it a little harder for you to start breaking down your discarded red blood cells in the early part of your life. So, you have to wear the fake shades and lay in the light bed except when you come out to feed with mom. You've been under the light for about 8 hours now and your bilirubin count is responding. It was 10.2 before you started the therapy and is now down to 8.4 at last check.

Like most babies you have lost a little of your birth weight. You were 6 pounds 12 ounces at your last weighing. So you've lost a half a pound. You got your first bath on Monday, too. You had some frizzy hair right after it got washed so I included a picture of that. You are a pretty good feeder, but sometimes have to be stimulated to get going. Your belly button is rapidly developing into it's normal condition with the unneeded part of the cord drying up and falling off. You are a figety sleeper almost always in some sort of motion besides your breathing. Your face is almost constantly changing expression. The night nurse commented several times about your strength for your age. You do seem to be able to tense your muscles pretty hard when you want to.

Your mom is doing pretty good, considering. She had a little bit rougher time in the surgery than she did with your big sis. But she's improving.

More soon, hopefully you won't have to be in the tanning bed for longer than 24 hours.

Love, aba

You Came Out! Welcome

Hi Shira,

You have arrived on the outside with the rest of us. You were born today at 11:54am and tipped the scale at 7 pounds 4 ounces. You were 19 inches long when you emerged. You came out in full scream. It was pretty impressive, especially considering how soft spoken you've been since then. You scored 9 and 9 both your apgar ratings so everything looks good. About a half hour after you came outside you had your first feeding session. You latched on and sucked like a fish. It was amazing. That was much different than your sister's first tries.

I should explain why I used the term 'came out' instead of being born or something more formal. In the last few weeks of your time inside we've been telling your big sister that you were in mom's tummy now but that you would be coming out soon. When I got home this evening and we talked about you your sis asked 'did she come out?' So I wanted to point that out to you and say that you are destined as all kids who aren't the firstborn of the family are to be compared continuously to your older siblings. I'm afraid you can't avoid that.

To continue on about your doings for the day... You had your first bath and had your first poopy diaper. That doesn't always happen on the first day and we took it as a good sign. You were not so strong in your next few tries at your mom's breast, however. The nurses tell us that you might conk out into sleep when we try to feed you in the first 24-36 hours. They said not to worry, that it is a process for you to learn to suck, swallow and breathe with good timing so you don't end up coughing all the time.

We are delighted to see you and are looking forward to your every new development.
more soon.......
love, aba

See you Tomorrow

Hi Shira,
Well your day of arrival is upon us. I want to apologize for not writing as much about our anticipation of you as I did for your big sister. Before she was born we didn't have anyone else to obsess over so it was easier to collect my thoughts about what was to come. This time we've had her to distract us from what you will bring us. That is all about to change in a big way. Tomorrow you will become a lot more difficult to care for.
The focus of the family is going to change a lot, too. Sidra will have to adjust to receiving less of the spotlight. We expect that it won't be that easy for her but that in time she will become a really good big sister for you.
In a recent ultrasound you were declared to be around six pounds. I'm guessing that you will tip the scales at about 7 and a half pounds, maybe a little more. I'm curious to know how much hair you have right away, among many other things.
Well your mom has gotten a little more tense about the whole thing the last few days. Her Aunt Debbie is here to help us out but the restrictions on visitors the hospital is enforcing is making the whole thing difficult. They aren't allowing many visitors at all and Sidra won't be able to see you until you come home. That will be a few days because your mom will need some time to recover from the surgery.
We're really excited about your arrival and how our family is going to change.

Like I said,
See you tomorrow....
love, aba