The Story

Well, as you readers all well know, Zoey arrived a little earlier than expected. On Monday night, I picked up Brad from Logan Airport at 10:00 pm. On Tuesday morning, I felt a little funny, so I called the doctor at 11 am. By 12:30 pm, I was in the doctor's office being told I was 4 cm dilated and I needed to go on bedrest for 3 weeks. By 1 pm, I was being monitored for contractions. By 1:20 pm, I was told I was having contractions at least once every 5 minutes. At 2 pm, I was at home in the shower. At 3:20 pm, I was in triage. At 4:50 pm, Zoey was in the world.

Uh, labor isn't the most pleasant experience in the world. I had this vision that I would handle it in a calm and collected way (some sort of nonsense about running being good training for pain management). Okay, all you mothers out there, you can totally laugh at me. You're right. I was absolutely 100% wrong. There is nothing like the feeling of labor. It was the most primal experience of my life. I remember grabbing onto Brad for dear life and locking eyes with our phenomenal nurse. Between Brad, the nurse, and the doctor, I had the most amazing support group in the world. Right after I had a few seconds of Zoey on my chest, the nurses went to town on her, making sure all was great. Brad went with them down to the NICU, I got about an hour of quiet time, and then I went down to see her myself.

Brad and I were waiting until baby girl arrived to name her, but we had a few names in the running. Zoey was the clear leader, but we didn't want to commit to a name until we saw her. It was my dad's advice back at Christmas, and we really took it to heart. As soon as we saw and heard her wiggling around, we knew she was a Zoey. The word means life, and, oh boy, is she all life.

Now, I know parents go googly-eyed over their babies... and I know I'm going to sound cliche here... but I don't care. She is the coolest baby in the world! She is only 5 lbs, 7 oz, but she has such a chubby face. Her preemie swollen eyes have gone down quite a lot, so she is starting to look a bit more like a newborn and a bit less like a preemie. Her cheeks are pudgy and she sucks in her lower lip under her upper lip all the time. The nurse positions her at the top of her incubator and, within an hour, she'll wiggle her way down until her butt touches the bottom of the pad supporting her and her legs are over the pad, splayed against the bottom wall of the incubator. Brad bought her back a panda bear from Beijing (which he bought 1 week ago - wild timing), so we're using that to hold her tooshie up in the incubator a bit.

In terms of her health and time in the NICU, she is doing as well as can be expected, but we don't have a definitive time by which she'll leave the NICU. She needs to be able to do 3 things in order to leave.

1. Breathe on her own (which she can do)
2. Feed herself (which she cannot do)
3. Maintain her body temperature in an open crib (which we haven't tried yet)

Once she can do #2, we'll try #3. Given that she is a good-sized preemie, the doctor doesn't think #3 will be too tough. She is also under phototherapy for her bilirubin. Today (Monday), we'll find out if she can stop her phototherapy AND if she can have her IV out (she was on an IV for the past 6 days for dehydration/not doing full feedings/low blood sugar).

Here are a few pictures. Brad has most of the pictures on his iPhone and he is at work right now, so we will post more when we're together.

Zoey, Day 5

Zoey and dad, Day 5

Brad has learned how to sleep in many different hospital locations

Brad bought me a deep green pearl necklace in celebration of mommyhood! That man is amazing!

Wow, this day feels like a million years ago! Brad's homecoming cupcakes