Baby Magic!

Wow - so we both just hold little Mackenzie and stare at her all the time. It is as if having this child has somehow erased the rest of the world, and it's just the three of us left. All the bad stuff is gone, and only the innocent and pure remains. I wonder if that's what heaven is like?

We've discovered a thing or two about our little princess. She has Phil's blood type, so she is definitely related to him. She has this little dimple on her tailbone that is identical to his, and when she has her pacifier (she is a suckling fool, I've seen her grab her thumb a few times, too!) in her mouth, her eyes definitely come from her dad! She has his long, skinny toes, too!

Phil is enjoying every moment he can with her. He is such a wonderful, hands on daddy, that I am sure going to miss the involvement when he has to travel back to never never land. I've got a couple more weeks to enjoy it all.

As for the nursing, we tried really hard in the hospital to begin the process, and I think had everyone and their nurse trying to tell us how to do it. The morning that they noticed her bilirubin (jaundice) level was elevated from the previous day, they came into our room at around 2 a.m. to relocate us to a different room, just as I was going to try to feed the child. At 6:00 a.m. we had 6 people in our room, the child was screaming and there was no way we would be successful, so I began to pump (and pump and pump and pump) and we started syringe feeding the child, so she would be nourished. I decided at that moment that I was going to wait until I was home and all the interupptions ceased, and I was able to rest and relax.

So, starting yesterday morning, when I was taking the graveyard shift (Phil takes 2nd shift so I can sleep, I take 3rd so he can), we were all alone and it was before she was actually starving to death, so we gave it a shot! I guess the pumping has helped extract my lazy nipples and she was able to latch on at least a little bit - long enough for me to know it worked!

We tried a total of 3 times yesterday and once today. I am still pumping, but we're getting the hang of it, and we'll have a stockpile of milk if nothing else! Keep your fingers crossed that we continue to progress in this area. It's something I really want to do, and think it's the best thing for her.

We had our first and second outtings yesterday with the baby. First, we went to the pediatrician, her weight gain is good, she's almost back to her birthweight. Her bilirubin level is continuing to go down (yeah!) and she doesn't have any noticeable defects or illnesses (yeah!). So, we go back next Friday. After that, we headed to the AHA to meet Terri. She's going to come over next weekend for some family photos. Just around the corner from the AHA, we went to her new pediatrician to try to establish her as a new patient. Not a success story there, yet.

Last night, we made the first trip to Target. I had to buy some granny panties so that I could continue to wear underwear and not have to worry about being on top of my incision or smushing my still pudgy belly (Uh, Marlene, I lost 13 lbs as of yesterday and still am losing all the fluids they pumped into me. I keep telling everyone that my legs and ankles look like they belong to a 500 lb. woman). And then, we decided it was time for some additional nursing bras, daddy got some stuff for her, etc. We also bought a couple more baby bath towels, since yesterday's bath created a little yellow puddle on one of her towels, and so once we used the second, we were out!

This child has done little aside from eat and sleep, poop and occasionally pee. I know it's normal to sleep a lot, but I think she got in about 22 hours yesterday. Man, what I would give for that much sleep.

Today is more of the same..... eatting, pumping, sleeping, eatting, pumping, sleeping....