Saturday, January 12, 2008

Thea arrives


It's true what they say - kids grow up way too fast. So I'm hoping to write in this blog from time to time to record some of the amazing developments in the life of Thea Hope James. She arrived on Jan. 4, 2008 at 11:08 a.m. after a quick but tense delivery punctuated by drops in her heart rate, meconium in her water, and a cord wrapped around her neck three times.
Once she arrived, however, she made her presence known right away - by hollering bloody murder for almost an hour straight. The midwive, Sonja, said she had lost weight in the womb in the last weeks, and now, she had some making up to do. The only time she stopped crying was when a nurse put her finger in her mouth, and Thea latched on like it was the best thing since sliced bread. So it came as no surprise that she had no problem latching on to the real thing when it was presented to her.
We were going to go home the next day - Saturday - but just as we were getting ready to go, they checked her temp and it was 99.7, so they decided we needed to stay another night. I can't say I didn't get upset about it all - worrying that our amazing new baby might be sick was too much for my sleep-deprived state. But by 8 p.m. the temp had dropped right back down, and I enjoyed another night of top-notch service from the South Peninsula Hospital team.
Our first week was all about getting to know our new daughter and our new family unit - Liam spent a couple days being a little jangly - lots of crashing cars and the like. But soon enough he settled down, and now even asks to hold her and gave her a good-night kiss last night. Matt is smitten, of course, and I'm just amazed she is here after so much waiting. It seems like she's getting her nights and days more sorted out, but she still nurses every two hours or so through the night, with a period of wakefullness at around 3 a.m.
Our first trip to the doctor's office explained that, however. Thea had gained almost a whole pound since leaving the hospital - now weighing in at 8 pounds, 6 ounces. She is making up for lost time, I guess, and it made me feel a whole lot better about it all. I guess there is a purpose to all that feeding other than testing my ability to function on 3 hours sleep.
The past few days, we got a test of another kind. The Alaska winter threw us a big curve ball and dumped three or four feet of snow on our doorstep through two days. Matt spent huge amounts of time snowblowing to try to keep up with it all, and we all hunkered down and waited for it to pass. Can't say we weren't all excited to see some sunshine today. Cabin fever was starting to set in. Still, now it is super cold, so you trade one thing for another.
As for Thea, she's adjusting well to life outside Mom - lots of gurgles, and has no problem telling us all when she isn't pleased with the way things are going, loudly. But mostly, she's a very mellow baby right now, sleeping most of the day and night away and enjoying cuddles with her family. Let the journey begin!

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