4.11.2009

Fantastic News. And a Little Bit of Sadness.

I think most of you have heard this by now ... but just in case, and since this blog has been all about Peanut for months now anyway, here is the "official" news:

Jorde & Jennie are thrilled to announce
the birth of their daughter,
Margaret Grace Webb
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
at 8:32 pm
4 lbs 11 oz, 17 inches long

She came a wee bit earlier than anticipated, so the poor child looks homeless due to lack of clothes that fit. Or a bedroom that's ready for her. But things went well enough, all things considered.

Long story short: I was admitted to the hospital with preterm labor last Saturday. When they realized they couldn't get it to stop without large quantities of magnesium (worse stuff to be on ever!!), they gave me steriod shots to help Peanut's lungs mature ... just in case. Well, by Wednesday morning, my doc decided we'd given it our best try and that it was time to let things happen as they were clearly intending to. So, about 7 weeks early, along came Maggie.

I would like to say here that Hubby did very well and even saw the gross stuff. AND cut the umbilical cord. So, peeps, prayers can be answered!! (He's currently reading over my shoulder and poking me in the ribs telling me I'm mean, but laughing, too ;0)

Maggie has been doing remarkably well, considering her gestational age. We had been prepared for by the NICU docs for the worse case scenario, but she ended up rooming in with us the entire time in the hospital, and never once went to the NICU. Yea!

We all went home last night (Friday) but are currently back in the hospital. We had instructions from the hospital pediatrician to take her in today to have her bili-ruben count checked, since it had been a bit elevated. Well, it was even more elevated today, and even though it's at a level that "normal" babies get to go home, due to her prematurity, the docs would rather start treatment. So, Maggie is laying in a quasi-tanning bed (that is slowly eroding Hubby's retinas) for her phototherapy, wearing weird puffy "sunglasses" that we keep having to put back on her every 5 minutes, as she won't stop grabbing at them. We haven't been given a time until discharge, since all babies are different and recover at different rates, but at 6am tomorrow they'll do another blood draw and we'll see from there what the docs say. We, of course, will be spending the night here with her.

So, for now, that's it. I will be adding photos here soon, I promise, but as I have been home a grand total of about 14 hours and most of those were in the middle of the night, and I'm more tuckered out than I've ever been EVER, y'all will just have to be patient. Plus, I'm doing this in Maggie's hospital room right now, on a hospital computer, so I don't even have access to my pics. But they'll be along as soon as we can all get home and settled in.

And not to overdo or overstate this at all, but I just have to say, at least once more, THANK YOU ALL. We have been wrapped in prayer during this entire pregnancy, and have never felt it more than this past week. Every one of you has been so instrumental in getting our baby here and we can't even express how special each of you are to us. Even those of you we haven't met, or who only know us here in blog world, we appreciate your presence in our lives. Thank you all for your prayers and love, and PRAISE GOD for our little miracle!

And ... a Happy Birthday to our little Samantha. Can you believe it's been a year?