Friday, October 5, 2007

So...

It's virtually impossible to know where to start. I guess first an official announcement - Charlotte Emily was born on September 24th, 2007 at 11:14 pm by emergency C-section. She was 6 lbs, 15 1/4 oz at birth, and 20 1/2 inches long. She was born at 36 1/2 weeks, or about 3 1/2 weeks early.

Charlotte's doing very well, and is just about the sweetest, cutest, funniest baby ever. She has light brown hair with even lighter spots - if she ever gets some sun, I suspect she will have blond highlights. Unless all her hair falls out and we start over with a different color - not unknown in babies. Her eyes are a muddy dark blue/brown. For those of you who don't know, pretty much all babies are born with blue eyes, and they change to their regular color over time. It can take up to a year for the color to really "set".

She is a little jaundiced, which isn't that unusual or surprising. She is slow to gain weight, which is nerve-wracking, but overall, she's pretty healthy.

We were in the hospital for days and days - because of me, not the baby. The only relief I have is that the baby was fine - I'd much rather be sick than have the baby be sick. There were a number of concerns, starting with my blood pressure and ending with fluid surrounding my lungs. Let's just say that nothing is completely resolved, but I have a plan of action, and apparently I have been sicker than I knew for a while now.

We got to come home Tuesday this week, and I'm just now getting settled in. Charlotte's very good and would sleep pretty much all day if I let her, which is not a good thing. This kid needs to bulk up! Plus, I just like to hang out with her. As a result, not surprisingly, I won't be online all that often. I'll read my email and TRY to reply, but I probably won't be able to keep up with LJ for a while. And I definitely don't think I can guarantee that I'll ever catch up with the 9 days that I was in the hospital.

Well, it's time to feed the babe, but I wanted to catch everyone up.

(cross-posted and edited from LJ)