Saturday, April 29, 2006

Audrey's Home!!

So as you can tell from the title of this post, my little angel is now home! She came home on Wednesday after spending 16 days in the NICU. We are so elated (and tired)! I absolutely love having at home with us. She was sent home on an apnea monitor which is basically a portable monitor with two wires that are hooked up to electrodes on Audrey's chest, this monitor records every heartbeat and breath that she takes. It will alarm if her heartrate drops or gets too high or if she has a period of apnea (not breathing for at least 20 seconds). So far we've had two alarms, both while she was eating, one for a low heartrate and one for an apnea period, but she recovered from both on her own within a few seconds. She really is doing absolutely wonderful. Having the monitor here helps keep my paranoia at bay though. I'm not constantly checking on her to make sure she is breathing, like I know so many new mothers do! Hopefully she'll only be on the monitor for a couple of months.

I really can't believe that Bryan and I are actually parents! These last three weeks have been extremely surreal feeling. It's like I'm in a dream. Even though we are now solely responsible for Audrey it still feels surreal. I look at her all the time and think to myself, "She's mine, and she's going to be here for at least the next 18 years, WOW!". I love her sooo much! I can't believe how much you can all of a sudden love someone. But I would definitely give my life for her, even when I was in the hospital and they were talking about delivering her, I wasn't worried about myself at all, I was just worried that she would be okay. Being a mother is a truly amazing thing! Well, the little princess is stirring now, so I guess I'll go feed her!

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

She's here...





Okay, so Audrey is actually here! She was born Monday afternoon at 2:40. She was delivered via c-section and she is beautiful! Although she is tiny, 7 weeks early, 3lbs 15oz, 17 inches long, she is a fighter! She is now eating out of a bottle and breathing on her own. The reason that she was born early was because I developed severe pre-eclampsia, which includes high blood pressure, swelling, and protein in the urine. I'm not going to go on for too long because I'm pretty tired, but just know that she is a little angel!!