Hi everyone,
As most of you know, Little Miss Luella Marie Fincher-McConnell arrived in style early on the morning of Sunday, August 23rd! The birth was all natural, totally amazing, and very fast - we arrived at the hospital at 11:30 on Saturday night and she was born into a pool of relaxing warm water at 2:15 am!
She is beautiful and perfect but very very small - she weighed 4 pounds 9 ounces, and was 17 inches long at birth. After a few hours in the room with us, it became clear that she was not big enough to keep herself warm, and her blood sugar started falling as her body attempted to find fat to warm itself. She was admitted into the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at 7 am, and she's been working on getting bigger with a little help for the last few days.
She's made awesome progress - she's no longer on an IV, her isolette (incubator) is getting closer to room temperature, she's breastfeeding like a champ (my milk came in last night), going through diapers like they're going out of style, and they removed her NG tube (for supplemented formula/calories) today! She has also inherited her dad's inability to keep still, and is a strong little wiggleworm already!
Her bilirubin has been high for a couple of days, so she's spending a lot of time under the light, but her levels are falling bit by bit (also earning her her first nickname - LiLu Biliru). We hope to bring her home on Friday or Saturday. We're still in the hospital for now, though it looks like they may discharge me tonight. If that's the case, we'll be spending a lot of time hanging out in the NICU so that we can continue to breastfeed and hold her until she's ready to go.
Allen and I are doing well. It's been a crazy and at times scary ride, but we're feeling really really happy that she's here and really good about her prognosis... and of course a little sleep deprived. We've learned a powerful lesson in taking things one step at a time, recognizing the limits of our control, and at the same time advocating for our little one. We've been helped tremendously by Allen's mom and my parents, who all arrived on Sunday to meet Luella and help us navigate these past few days.
Thanks to everyone who has sent well wishes. We're very lucky to have such wonderful friends and family, and we can't wait to introduce little Luella to you all once we're settled in at home. Please continue to send Luella your good vibes, thoughts and/or prayers.
Luella's music appreciation lessons have officially begun! While we play recorded music for her all the time (her favorite musician is currently Ben Sollee, and we're working on getting posters for the walls of her bassinet) today Allen finally picked up the mandolin for the first time since she joined the outside world. She LOVED it! She sat there, eyes open and totally alert, listening until he finally had to put the mando away and head to work.
Also, she's still eating and sleeping well. In fact, she usually eats so well that nursing sends her into a stupor. She's been making us laugh by pulling away from the breast and falling back onto the pillow to pass out, limbs akimbo. I think she's a bit melodramatic, but the effect is impressive. Note the growing double chin - we hope to have a chubby baby on our hands very soon!
Luella's been released from the NICU for good behavior with time served! Now she has to start teaching us how to be her parents!
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