Blondie

E joined us Tuesday (1/2/08) at 4:25 p.m. 6 lb 12 oz, 20 1/2 inches.

She's a beautiful blond hair, blue eyed girl, something I'd never dreamed of having. If I hadn't seen her come out of me (TMI, I know), I would never have thought I'd have a blond hair baby. I've since learned that blondness runs on T's side of the family and that his dad (Opa) was a towhead in his youth. (As an aside, I would mention that lighthearted comments about postmen or other innuendos about paternity aren't really appreciated by an hours old postpartum mama who takes her marriage seriously, but this is about E. We'll address that on another day).

She's absolutely wonderful, although we've had a tough few days. She remains at the hospital in the NICU for various complications (jaundice, high red blood cell count) most of which have been successfully treated. We only have to teach her to eat from a bottle (nursing will come soon, I hope) so that she can come home. I was able to come home tonight while T. went back to the hospital until bedtime. We'll continue to trade-off time between the girls, home and the hospital until we're all home. Hopefully, this will only take a few days. If you know of any special deities for nipple feeding to whom we can offer prayers, please let us know. [smile]

We were able to have M come up an meet her sister on Wednesday evening. T said she was a foot off the ground when he picked her up to come to the hospital and two feet off the ground when he took her home. She was really devastated when she couldn't come up last (Thursday) night because of NICU restrictions, but we're hoping to take her over the weekend. T and I will be alternating our time at home with M. and the hospital with E. I can't tell you how desperately we're looking forward to having everyone home. It's a fairly horrible sensation of emptiness to be home without E., but also being at the hospital without M. We know, however, that to get E. home and to stay, she needs this time in the NICU. Sucky as that may be, we are still really lucky. One of her nurses told us this morning when we went to see her that she and the other nurses spent time holding her because they rarely get the "fluffy ones." Compared to many of the other babies in the NICU, E is a giant and has very little wrong with her. Put into perspective, T and I will take these challenges, thank you very much. Of course, I'd probably be more believable if I didn't keep crying from both the joy and the heartache.