August 20th update…2 days old!

Hey friends!

It is hard to believe that Aliza is just two days old.  Part of me feels like it’s been forever since she came into our lives, and part of me feels like I just heard that first cry of hers as she was coming into this world.

Being a mommy is fantastic beyond words, and I know Josh feels the same way about being a daddy.  We just can not get enough of our little girl!  Every moment with her is so precious and special.  Even just watching her sleep feels like the greatest, most fun thing in the whole world!

Aliza is doing so well!  All of the nurses keep complimenting her and saying how cute she is.  Josh and I are a little biased, but we think she’s just the most beautiful baby.  Her skin is a great shade of pink, and she’s got gorgeous eyes.  And yes, folks, she has hair, and it is strawberry blonde!  Looks like she could end up being a red-head like her daddy!  Her tiny little toes and fingers are adorable, and she likes to sleep with her hand up by her face or head.  She’s just awesome.

As for her health, she is thriving!  She has only lost 2 ounces, which is typical of newborns.  She started off eating 4 cc’s of formula a day, and is now up to 8 cc’s, and she is digesting all but around 1 cc per feeding.  The nurses said that is perfectly normal.  She is a bit jaundice, which is also expected in a premie, so she is under billirubin lights at the moment.  The more she goes potty, the more this will improve.

Speaking of going potty-her kidneys!  The doctors are going to be doing testing to her kidneys on Monday to determine what is going on.  They are going to put a catheter in her and inject dye that will show them what the fluids are doing in her kidneys.  There is one of two things going on-either she has reflux, which is where urine backs up into the kidneys, or she has an obstruction, which may or may not require surgery.  We will know more about that after the test.

The good news is, she is producing more urine in her diaper and she is going poop quite a bit.  She had already gone twice today when we went to see her around 1pm!  Way to poop, little one!

The nurses also told us that she may be moved to the level 2 NICU in a few days. This is amazing news because that is a level down from where she is now.  Dr. Espana said with great delight that it could mean she goes home in 2 weeks.  We shall see.  Either way, I am so, so proud of our little lady!

As for me (well, some of you might like to hear how mommy is doing! 😉 ), my recovery from the c-section is going well.  A doctor came and removed my bandages this morning, which, I might add, probably hurt more than anything else I’ve gone through thus far.  Imagine a band-aid that measures 6 inches by 12 inches, but 10 times more sticky being ripped off.  Yikes.  The doctor told me I could do it to which I replied, “No, I really can’t.  You have to do it cause I don’t have it in me to hurt myself like that.”  So, she ripped it off in what was supposed to be one pull, but her hand slipped, so she had to do it twice.  Ouchie, ouchie, ouchie.

Also, and this may be too much information, so if you don’t want to know, stop reading here, because I delivered so early and my uterus was so small, my bladder was up higher than it was supposed to be when they cut me open.  So, Dr. Espana had to push my bladder down and cut my uterus as low as he could, which turned out to be not low at all.  In addition, since my uterus still had 7 weeks of stretching left to do, the walls were insanely thick compared to a normal c-section.  Dr. Espana said that normally when he cuts a uterus, it is paper thin and splits right open.  With mine, he had to cut numerous times just to get through the uterine wall.  When he finally got his fingers in, he said, my uterus was about an inch and a half thick.  So, it took over an hour to stitch everything back up because of the amount of cutting he had to do.  He also told me, and I am still grieving this, that since the cut is higher up than it was supposed to be, that a vaginally delivery will be out of the question for the rest of my pregnancies.  It would just be too dangerous, and he does VBAC’s so I know he’s not messing around.

So, I will probably be discharged tomorrow.  We will visit our baby girl in the morning and then get some good rest at home before starting the whole process of being NICU parents.  You are all more than welcome to carpool with us to visit or come visit while I’m up here.  I am going to be at TCH pumping as often as I can, so there will be plenty of opportunities to see her!  Just call or text us first!