Roughly 13 hours later, we were welcoming our beautiful baby girl, Sandra Joy Mack, at 36 weeks and 2 days gestation. At 2:46pm on March 19th, Sandy made her entrance into the world!! Dave and I were overjoyed at her smooth arrival, and at being able to meet our daughter sooner than anticipated.
Later that evening, after a day filled with overwhelming happiness and family and friends meeting our little one, Sandy started having problems swallowing. This lead to a stay in the neonatal intensive care unit, which are officially the longest days of my life, and some of the hardest. Dave and I basically moved into the hospital and our first taste of parenthood consisted of holding our little one carefully as to avoid the wires and IV lines hooked to her in every direction, and holding her down as they drew blood. I'm not sure who cried more that first week: me or Sandy. Four days later, and too many pokes and prods to count, we were able to finally bring out baby girl home! She was covered in bruises and scratches from all of the IV lines and skin pricks - we couldn't wait to get her home. What a wonderful answer to prayer, to be able to bring our beautiful daughter home.
The next couple of weeks were filled with home UV light therapy to treat her jaundice, lots of trips to the lab for blood tests, and trips to the pediatrician's office for weight checks, as Sandy continued to lose weight instead of gain.
Sandy is doing so, so well now. She is amazing, and we are having the time of our life getting to know her!
WEEK 1:
Later that evening, after a day filled with overwhelming happiness and family and friends meeting our little one, Sandy started having problems swallowing. This lead to a stay in the neonatal intensive care unit, which are officially the longest days of my life, and some of the hardest. Dave and I basically moved into the hospital and our first taste of parenthood consisted of holding our little one carefully as to avoid the wires and IV lines hooked to her in every direction, and holding her down as they drew blood. I'm not sure who cried more that first week: me or Sandy. Four days later, and too many pokes and prods to count, we were able to finally bring out baby girl home! She was covered in bruises and scratches from all of the IV lines and skin pricks - we couldn't wait to get her home. What a wonderful answer to prayer, to be able to bring our beautiful daughter home.
The next couple of weeks were filled with home UV light therapy to treat her jaundice, lots of trips to the lab for blood tests, and trips to the pediatrician's office for weight checks, as Sandy continued to lose weight instead of gain.
Sandy is doing so, so well now. She is amazing, and we are having the time of our life getting to know her!
WEEK 1:
Rocking out with daddy, in the NICU Our little family
WEEK 2:
My glow worm, during her UV light therapy at home
A sample of her amazing newborn pics, taken by the very talented Richlyn Dehner:
2 comments:
I can't believe you're a mom! Congratulations on your beauitful girl. I'm so happy that she is doing well!!!
Sweet baby girl. So happy she is here!
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