Andrea’s Weblog

Well, like everyone said it would, life has changed a lot since Thursday. After 29 hours of labor, Elizabeth appeared, but was immediately whisked away from us because she inhaled meconium. (Meconium is the baby’s first poo, and is a sticky tar-like substance.) It was so strange for Frank and I to be sitting in the hospital room alone after such a life-changing event.

The doctors at our hospital did their best at sucking out the meconium, but they determined she needed to go to a different hospital with better facilities. They brought her by for us to hold for a couple precious minutes. When we began talking to her she immediately relaxed and opened her eyes for a peek at her parents. Her right arm was completely covered in tape to cover her IV, but that didn’t stop her from using it to pull out the tube going down her throat. Apparently, she was letting all the staff know that she was not happy with all the tubes in her.

We reluctantly handed her over to the transport team and she immediately started crying. I think that was the hardest moment so far.

Frank and I were completely exhausted after missing 2 nights sleep, so we tried to catch some z’s. Around noon, my doctor said I could get out of the hospital, and within 12 hours of birth, I had my discharge papers in hand. While I rested, Frank and the Fricke grandparents went over to see Elizabeth. Then, as soon as I could leave, I went over to see her too.

She was all hooked up to a bunch of machines, with tubes coming out of her foot, belly button, hand, mouth, nose. She was in a room full of babies with much bigger problems. The doctors had already told us Elizabeth’s odds of recovering completely are basically 100 percent. The babies surrounding her are both premies—we were shocked to hear that one is already a month and a half old, but can still fit in your palms.

The top priority yesterday was sorting out the breast pump, which took the whole day. Today they extibated her (they took out the tube going to her lungs) so we finally got to hold her. She’s doing better every day and they’re weaning her off the oxygen. We’re just waiting for her little lungs to heal!

Here are some photos:

http://homepage.mac.com/frickchen/PhotoAlbum22.html