Avery update...(a little bump in the road)

(posted by brady)

If you have been keeping up with sweet little Avery, you know that if there were a premie Olympics, she would have taken Gold, Silver and Bronze! But, we knew that the long road of development would have a few rocks along the way and it seem's that tonight she has come to one of these rocks. As ryan and steph go to the hospital to find out the specifics and actual diagnosis, Ryan has asked that I post what we know now and ask for your continued prayers and support.

They began to fortify Avery's milk today...which is what they do once the babies have transferred completely over to the mother's milk. This afternoon, she spit up a little, and got a bloated tummy. The doctors are taking precautions making sure that it's not NEC. NEC, which usually only happens in about 10% of premies, is sometimes serious enough for surgery to be necessary, and it affects the GI tract. To read up on it follow this address:

http://www.pedisurg.com/PtEduc/NEC.htm

At this point it is still not certain that Avery has indeed developed NEC, but there have been a few things that are just little red flags(bloating, etc) and so she will be taken off of the milk and put back on an I.V. for feeding until things can be figured out.

So far, her labs have been encouraging: her platelets are still up and her x-rays show excess air only in the belly...which aren't exactly common for NEC. The timing is also right for it to just be a reaction from her to the milk fortifyer- this is what we're hoping, and not any sort of infection.

So, feel free to text ry or steph encouragement, but I will make updates as soon as I hear them. Thanks for your thoughts, and especially prayers!

Oh yeah...somehow I forgot about the Olympics!

One of the hardest things about having your baby in the NICU is trying to figure out how to come home without her. How often do you visit? How long should you stay? How do you get your life going again in this weird in-between stage, when you have a baby...but you don't really have a baby?

For the first time since she was born, Steph and I decided to spend the evening at home resting, instead of going up to visit Avery. Emotionally, that's a hard thing not to feel like we are somehow abandoning her... but she keeps showing us with all of her improvements, how much she really doesn't even need us at all. By the time she comes home, she'll probably be making us dinner and taking care of US!

So, we had visited her that morning already, and she was doing great. I got to change her little diaper, and do her vitals. Yes...I do get a little thrill out of finding that she soaked that miniature pampers, because that says her body is up and running like it's supposed to. And when I stick that thermometer under her little chicken wing, it's always a shock to see that someone as small and fragile as she looks can keep her body temperature at 98.6 like it's no big deal.

They are slowly taking her off of the IV formula (which I just call gatorade, because it's neon yellow and is full of the electrolytes my little champ needs to fuel her machine!), and replacing it, cc for cc, with mom's milk. They have these amazing machines that drip each of these into her little picc line (basically a little tube that's run into her arm that acts like and artificial vein) over a given period of time. The pride that hits me each time I find out that they have increased her milk .5 cc's is not unlike that of a father who just heard that his little girl just creamed the other kids in the school spelling bee :)

So, Steph and I are sitting on the couch up at her parent's (who have been so kind to let us stay with them for the past few nights...as they are more of a halfway point between us and Avery...it's so hard to be so far away from our little girl!)... and we get to watching the Olympics. If you can imagine, we've been a little busy and haven't caught many of the events at all, even though we both love the Olympics. Just to calm our worried parental hearts, I call up to the hospital to get a quick update from the nurses.

As I hung up the phone, I looked over at Steph and the family intensely watching the men's 4x100 swim relay... which was shaping up to be quite an amazing race, and my mind flashed back to the day Avery was born. I had just left the operating room, following the crowd of nurses racing towards the NICU to get Avery all measured and hooked up. I'll never forget watching the Doctor take out the certificate and writing down the baby's birth-weight as I stood there in amazement. Stunned, I walked the certificate back to the OR, and with Stephanie still laying on the table being stiched up, I presented held up the paper, and pointed to the blank spot before "lbs"...now filled in with the number 1. Our little girl had come out fighting in a lower weight class than we ever expected!!

The men's relay ended spectacularly that night, with the US team beating the French at the very last moment. I am sure there were cheers ringing out all the way from Beijing across the ocean and across the country as history was made. As momentous and remarkable as that may have been... at that moment, I don't think any great Olympic achievement would have been as incredible to me as what the nurse had told me on the phone when I called to check on our baby that night. Avery had filled two diapers....and still hit the 2 lbs mark!!

The world's eyes might be on Beijing...but ours are fixated on a sweet little heavyweight, curled up all cozy in her isolet... making the headlines in our hearts!!

You Know You are a NICU Parent if...

So...we've entered into this new world of having a baby in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit...and have noticed things aren't all the same as the real-world. As a small attempt to hold on to sanity...I started to compile a list that I'm sure will grow each day... feel free to write me with your additions or just smile and pray for the small child who will someday have to put up with such a goober as a father ;)

You know you’re a NICU parent if:

-babysitting costs you $1-2k a day
-you present your child’s wet diapers to the nurse as a prized gem to be weighed
-you only get worried if your baby stops breathing for MORE than 20 seconds…
-you kiss plexi-glass goodnight
-you start to wonder if it’s possible to wash the skin right off of your hands
-you find yourself making a phone call about twice a day, just to see how your baby is doing
-all of the sudden, preemie clothes look huge…and you notice your baby could share clothes with the stuffed animals she’s getting as gifts
-you get excited over ounces and cubic centimeters
-you begin to refer to non-preemies as “fat babies”
-changing your baby's diaper becomes a highlight you call your friends and blog about
-you spend more physical bonding time with a breast pump than your baby
-the blanket your child is wrapped in weighs more than she does
-you know people who have children in their stomachs who are older than your child
-visiting your child includes surveillance cameras, being buzzed in over an intercom, a few sets if doors, giving a code, and other steps that make you wonder if you are seeing your baby or stealing the hope diamond
-you know enough medical jargon to at least be a doctor on ER or Grey’s Anatomy
-you start to wonder if babies can communicate with each other through alarms on their monitors
-you wonder if you could somehow fit into your baby's isolet...because it just looks so dang cozy!


to be continued...

a great read

I have heard that there are a few people reading this blog who are expecting their own little bundle of joy soon...or who have recently had a new arrival. And, as we found out a short time ago... you can't always know "What to expect, when you're expecting"...because what you should be expecting...is the last thing you would expect!!

If there is one thing that I've learned in my 10 days of being a parent to a preemie, is that some of the best medicine and help is from other parents who have had similar experiences. I appreciate every single person who has taken the time to tell us of someone they knew who has had a baby in the NICU...and from those fragile, frightening beginnings, is now a tenacious toddler or the senior class president! Far from cliche, these stories have become our lifeline. Every parent...even those whose babies tip the scale at less than 2 lbs... looks into the eyse of the life you had just created..and wonder what kind of life they will create for themselves. And you hope...

I want to invite everyone who reads this to reach out and lift someone up who is going through something you've been through. You might be the only one who really knows how they feel...and what they really might need. And I want to reach out and offer our hand to anyone going through anything similar to what we are. We would love to share stories, questions, ups and downs... anything. Every little bit has helped us... we were talking on the way home, how much experiences like this really make you more aware and ready to help others out...

So...I will drop any little bit of advice we can give in our limited experience and would love to get any back you have to offer.

I can recommend this book: Preemies- The Essential Guide for Parents of Premature Babies by Dana Wechsler Linden, Emma Trenti Paroli, and Mia Wechsler Doron M.D.- It's an understatement to say that having a baby in the NICU is overwhelming... and this book has been a lifesaver to me to be able to understand what's going on, and what to expect. This book, and not being afraid to ask questions to all the doctors and nurses have helped us keep our heads above water...

Pump, pump the jam...

Here we sit in a quiet little room outside of the nursury... the only sound to be heard besides our chit-chat is the "whew-shhh-shhh" of the small contraption in the corner that looks strangely like a time machine...attached to my amazing sport of a wife by some small clear tubing and two bottles, that I pretend are bull-horns at some big sporting events...probably more often than I should- but Steph is patient with me. We have made our share of fun little games out of this ritual we repeat every 2 1/2 hours... some of which include count-downs similar to the space-shuttle launch.

I guess our little games help distract us from the fact that we are missing the third member of our little breakfast club... we always make sure to include her by putting on a slide show of recent pictures or telling stories about her or sharing dreams of the future. They say it helps stimulate the milk production...but I think it's survival technique. No one tells you about this part of becoming parents! Oh wait... no...EVERYONE tells you about it...but you really don't understand what it's like until it's you. That's just how it is. And it's a whole different world from anything we've heard about, when your baby is in the NICU. It's not that we are ungrateful in the least for all of the miracles we've seen in the past few weeks....but that little machine is a poor replacement for that sweet little girl sleeping away cozy in her isolet.

But we'll make it...together you can do anything. Steph is doing an amazing job at feeding our baby long-distance... and my small token is that I'm getting really good at washing those bottles. Avery is doing her part by keeping her food down and growing. She's up to 11 ccs...and they are going to start fortifying her milk today.

Well...there goes the machine... I've got to lable the milk...run it to the freezer and give our little angel a kiss goodbye through the plexiglass. We're late for our nap...again :) I hear you never really catch up from here on out...

Happy Birthday...

So, birthdays are some of my favorite things in life... and I'm not one to forget a birthday... but the spotlight has been on our little angel this week. I remember Steph asking me sometime a few weeks ago what I wanted for my birthday... and just being stumped. I had no clue!! We had just moved and realized how much stuff we already had...so in my mind... I didn't need any new this or that... another shirt would just take up more room in our little closets, more books would just go into storage etc :)I tried and tried, but didn't know why I couldn't think of anything...

Sitting here on my birthday...looking back... I know exactly why nothing came to me... I didn't know at all what I really wanted. Today... when I peeked into Avery's little incubator... I found a surprise, arranged by a sweet, overwhelmed, tired mom...that just made my day.

The best little birtday present ever...

Avery's First Week!

Well, we were visiting the NICU yesterday, and looked up at the clock... it was actually 10:50 am on the dot. One week before, we were sitting in the operating room hearing our little girl cry for the first time... and here we are.

We can't say enough how blessed we are that this crazy scary week turned out as well as it did.

Happy one week day Avery :) We love you so much....

Perfect

We always talk about things being perfect...it's such a strange word to apply to our last week... the absolute craziest week of our lives... but somehow, in so many ways it was perfect. One week ago from right now, we were down in a cozy room in labor and delivery: Steph in her hospital bed, waiting for her second steroid shot- which would give Avery that much more of a chance the next day after the c-section- and me in one of those fold-down chair bed things that most guys don't get the joy of having their neck kinked on until after their bundle of joy arrives.

The nurse would come in every half hour or so and check her vitals...talk to us and calm our nerves like an angel prayed to us by friends and family who couldn't be there with us. Just as we would fall asleep, it seems, someone would come in and take more of Steph's blood to run down to the lab...which was ironic, because the doctor had said that her platelet count was too low to have a spinal, which meant general anesthetic and I wouldn't be able to be in the operating room the next day: a very lonely overtone to the next days events. I can still remember on the upswing of our ebbing and flowing emotions that night Steph would chant: "platelets high, enzymes low, platelets high, enzymes low..." I can see Steph adjusting the little monitor on her belly that monitored the baby's heartbeat, and laying in super uncomfortable positions every time she couldn't hear the heartbeat... saying "Come on baby, where are you?"... a little momma, so concerned for her baby...when really, unbeknownst to her, that is was her own life that lay more in the balance. After each time they took her blood, we would wait a precious hour for the results... and each time, her platelet count miraculously came back a little higher...her enzyme levels dropped off a bit...and we slept just a little easier for about 10 minutes at a time.

I can still hear the rhythmic sounding of little Avery's heart on the monitor that last night... she was with us, comforting her scared little parents...telling us she was fine and it would turn out okay. Since about 12:30 that afternoon...we had that feeling of being on a rollercoaster...the part right before the bottom drops out from below you. So, we held on to each other. And the three of us made it through the night...

The next morning... at about 10:51... Steph and I were next to each other in the operating room, and our eyes met... the world stopped.. and for the last time, it was just the two of us... scared to death at what had happened to us... scared to death at what the next few seconds could bring. And with the sweetest sound...her first little cry, Avery brought the most incredible peace to her mom and dad. It was perfect.

We get lost looking at her little body in the dim light of the NICU at night. Her little fingers, her fingernails... she takes a deep breath, yawns...stretches... cries... and looks up at her mom and dad just holding on to each other for dear life... all three of us together a little sooner than we expected...but it's so perfect.

Avery Ann... .Unplugged!!!

Avery has jumped up to her next milestone...she's breathing room-air completely on her own...before she even hit her week mark! We were so happy to come down and see that they took her nasal canula off, and got that nasty tape off the side of her head...because to be honest...we just can't get enough of that cute little nose!!

Our healthy little champ

Having a preemie is a scary event. You don't know what to expect...and it seems like you should just expect health issues after health issues. We haven't been able to sit down and even really breathe since last Thursday, when Steph got the scary news about her health, and now that she's recovering, and just keep hoping for the best with Avery. The thing that we keep realizing is, that as terribly scary sick as Stephanie was... Avery was never sick! We just keep getting great health updates from our little girl. She got an Apgar score of 8-9. She came out breathing on her own, and was never put on the ventilator... they took her completely off oxygen yesterday. She is already holding her own body temp enough for us to hold her twice a week. She is taking 4.5 cc's of mom's milk, and increasing about 2 cc's a day. She has all the energy of a 2 year old...just in a teeny tiny body. Her heart rate, breathing, and oxygen saturation are all great. Her skin tone is like a normal little baby. She sucks on a binky like a champ. And her little body has all the parts in the right places...down to her little pinky toenail!
The nurses just keep saying "Don't tell her she's a 29 weeker...she shouldn't be doing this well!"

We are so blessed. It's the faith and prayers of all of our friends and family that have really gotten us through this and given our little girl the gift of health so far. We know that we may have some ups and downs ahead, but we know now that we'll make it through. Someday soon... little you're going to watch this little girl with so much energy running through the house, and not believe us when we tell you she started off in the NICU...

Pretty in Pink

The nurses down in the NICU make us feel so great every time we go down there. They always say how much they love taking care of our little angel...that she's a fighter and got all sorts of spunk and really gives them a run for their money when changing her and getting her vitals, but they like that. They say "Sick babies just lay there... the healthy ones fight us" And never fail, all of our visitors, and the nurses who know us now all make comments on how knowing the parents, they know where she gets it from!

The Nurses are all so good at dressing our little girl up and giving her cute little blankets to coordinate. When we went down to visit yesterday, she had a new pink bow with polka dots... and mom was wearing a pink hoody to match! We can't wait to dress Avery up in all the cute outfits you all have been so great to give her... for now, it's a diaper the size of a big band-aid, and a fancy bow :)

The Grandparents are here ...

As you can see from the latest slideshow...the last of Avery's grandparents showed up last night...Steph and I are so grateful for amazing parents who have been such supports to us through all of this. Avery is lucky to have the best grandparents in the world!! Every few times I go down to the NICU... I catch one of them down there just coochie-cooing up at the incubator!This little baby is so loved.

The Way Things Are...

So we were sitting with Avery this morning, and one of our favorite nurses came over and asked if we wanted to change her diaper. I got really excited, and volunteered right away. So, I got everything all ready and got to work. It wasn't but a minute before my little peanut was all fussy with me for interrupting her beauty sleep. She kicked her little frog legs around as I held them up (with two fingers :) ) and slid the new diaper under her non-existent little bum. I put it a little off to the side, and didnt realise my mistake, until she had sprung a leak on her pink blanket! Cute as it was, it required the nurse to change the blanket... so while she changed Avery's bedding, Steph got to hold her baby girl. Daddy got his baby mad, and momma calmed her back down :)

And she had the cutest little hat on...

Momma and Baby

The Delivery

Hospital Smells...

People always say that they hate hospitals and especially the way they smell. As I sit here in our quiet little room, my wife and new mom trying to catch a wink of sleep between getting up to pump...me trying to get comfortable on this fold down chair of a bed... I dread leaving this place. Over the past few days, this has become one of my favorite places on earth. It's our little one-room, one bathroom home...with easy elevator access to our new favorite person downstairs in her luxury spa. We can come and go as we please, people wait on us hand and foot ;), they bring us 3 meals a day, which we enjoy together: me on the foot of Steph's bed with that hospital table between us... and since the wave of visitors and well-wishers has subsided, we have been able to relax and worry about nothing but our new little family.

Pretty soon, we will have to leave... we will have to figure out this new life we will have for the next few months... we will start having to spend the night away from our little princess...making the drive back and forth.... worrying about everything else we did before... so tonight, I am so tired I ache...but I don't want to go to sleep. I want to savor every gem of a moment we have here. Our miracle happened, and continues to happen here. I'm going to go visit my little girl for the night...I won't have too many nights like this: Our first daddy-daughter dates!

Still going strong!

Here are a few new pics of our little princess. She continues to amaze all the nurses with how well she is doing and steal all the attention in the NICU :)

We can't get enough of her!

Avery Ann Hansen 08/01/08 1 Lb. 15 oz. 12 3/4 in.

After having told this story about a million times to our friends and family in the past...3-4 days...(how long has it been??? we don't get much sleep around here; it all seems like one big day so far)- I figured I would take advantage of our last quiet morning here in the hospital to jot down a quick version of how little Avery became a cute little summer baby, instead of a Halloween baby like Steph and I expected!

I have to begin by saying that Stephanie had had the easiest pregnancy either of us had ever heard of! Ever since we saw that little pink line on the pregnancy test way back in February, we had to keep asking ourselves... "Are we really pregnant???" Steph was never bothered with any morning sickness, weird cravings or anything. Week after week, we just kept looking at each other in surprise that this pregnancy thing was so easy! (little did we know...)

Fast forward to July, and we begin to make plans to visit my family who recently moved to Oregon. We don't get to see them too much, so we decided on the week of the 24th of July, giving us a couple extra days to be with them before Steph went back to work. That month, Steph actually began showing a pregnant belly, and was getting swollen feet... but we still felt like we somehow dodged the bullet and were having the easiest pregnancy ever! We had also recently moved into a new, two-bedroom apartment and were scrambling to get our things moved in before we left for our 12 hour road trip to Oregon. By the afternoon of the 23rd, we were "mostly" situated in the new place, packed in our little car- with a bed made up in the back seat for Steph to put her feet up and rest, and drove up to Oregon. That week, Steph had hit her 28 week mark...and we were shocked at how quickly the weeks had gone by and wondered how quickly those next 12 or so weeks would go before we hit our standard 40 weeks, and welcomed a new one into the world! She had checked with her doctors office before we left, and they said it would be fine to travel as long as we got out regularly and walked and took a bathroom break and knew of a doctor in the area up there...just in case. For the first time, Steph's blood pressure measured a little high and the nurse apparently saw small traces of protein in her urine test...but each of those were looked at as something to keep an eye on, but not to worry about.

So, we found ourselves in Oregon having a great time with the grandparents and aunts-t0-be (my parents and sisters), relaxing by the pool, riding bikes, walking, floating down the river, and shopping by day... but by night, Stephanie began to have excruciating pains in her upper abdomen, that we could only assume was heartburn or digestion issues common to pregnancy. She would be up all night while I or her angel of a mother-in-law would stay up and try to rub her stomach or walk with her. We called the doctor on call back in Utah, who suggested that it was probably heartburn and to go get some over the counter medicine for that and other digestive problems. We did that, called the pregnancy helpline and got all the advice we could, and still ended up with advice and medicine for normal pregnancy digestive pains. By now, Steph was also having on and off pains along the right side of her abdomen, and her blood pressure fluxuated from high to normal, but she had long periods of time during the day when she felt fine... so we thought that we had caught the problem and were getting things under control. So, we continued to play and relax, and when the pains came back the only things that helped a little were tylenol, massages and TLC from my mom, warm jacuzzi baths, and blessings from a half-awake husband.

We enjoyed ourselves being with our family so much, but there was some feeling of relief to be headed back Wednesday...because we had our next pre-natal appointment at 9 am the next morning. The long drive home passed quickly, with Steph only having an hour or two where she actually had any pain. We chatted a lot on the way home and had a good time together. A couple times, we just made the comment that this would be the last road trip we would ever make as just the two of us... little did we know!!! We got home that night, and only had energy to get all the stuff out of the car, and into the apartment. We went to bed deciding that the plan for the next day was for us to go to the drs, then Steph would go to work, and I would go wash the car, and clean the apartment. We had just ordered our crib and were excited to get our second room all ready for the baby. It was still full of stuff from moving, and we wanted to have it all ready by October, so I was going to make a good dent in it to surprise Steph.

I woke up the next morning to Steph pacing the small hallway in our apartment in pain like she had up in Oregon. We ended up in a small argument over whether a pregnant woman should take Tylenol or not (an argument which I won, after looking it up online, showing my ailing wife that I possesed the medical prowess to care for her!! ...heavy sarcasm intended)... So, she took the Tylenol, and we got ready to go to the doctors...armed with questions about how to get rid of her pains and what kind of fiber a pregnant lady was safe to take! (they seemed like the right questions at the time!!)

We got to the doctors and were greeted with the usual full waiting room, and as usual, got back into our room about 45 mins late. The doctor greeted us, checked the baby's heartbeat- just as clear and normal as ever... and sat down with us to run through Steph's chart. He asked if we had any questions, and Steph asked about her pains she'd been having and told him about being instructed to take care of it with heartburn medicine etc. He skimmed the chart, and commented that he noticed her blood pressure was high-which was unusual, because it had been so great her whole pregnancy. All of the sudden, it seemed like he glanced down to something on the chart that he hand't seen yet, and said that her protein levels in her urine were unusually high. He looked up and said, "I'm going to send you down to the hospital for some tests". We both looked at each other and kind of groaned...because we had done the same thing a few weeks before, and it had turned in to a full day of sitting around and waiting for lab results that hadn't amounted to much. On our way out, I tried to ask some questions about the fiber she should be taking, but the doctor kind of brushed it aside and said "you need to get to the hospital to get those tests"... We were obviously on two different pages!

Steph called work on the way to tell them she would be late, and we both just laughed and grumbled about our bad luck saying "Well, there goes the day!". It was a relief when we were taken to the same room we had been in for testing the few weeks before by the same nurse, who had become a friend to us during the last visit. We had told her last time that we really hoped she'd be around for our delivery, and were delighted to see her again!. She told us that this was actually her first day back on the job after having been terribly sick for a week. We just said how lucky timing always seemed in situations like this. My brother Brady sent us a text saying that he was out doing errands, and could bring us some pizza or something for lunch if we wanted. He knew what a bummer it was for us last time to sit around and wait for the tests, and figured that he and his wife Taryn could come help us pass the time. We looked at each other and said, "Why not?"....

We chatted with our nurse, and waited for the test results to come back and just tried to kill the time. I was sitting on the chair next to Steph's bed, texting our parents...just trying to update them that we hadn't gotten any news back...just that her blood pressure was high, but no real news to worry about, when the nurse came back in. She sat down at the foot of the bed, looked at Steph and said "You're really sick". I went over to hold Stephs hand, and comfort her, when the world stopped...the nurse said "You're going to have your baby today, maybe tomorrow"....The rest of what she said about Steph's liver enzymes being sky-high, and having to be transferred to another hospital 45 minutes away, and all the rest kind of blurred together as we tried to comprehend what she had just said.

(to be continued... i'm too tired to type anymore!!)

First Family Picture

Avery kept her body temperature up all on her own for long enough for mom and dad to come down and hold her. It was the absolute best thing!! Even though holding her is the craziest sensation.... because the blankets weigh more than she does ... she just looks up with those teeny little eyes, and melts our hearts...

She's Here!!! (posted by her uncle brady)

After a very long day and night, our sweet niece, Avery, made her big entrance into the world! She is 2 and half months early, so she's a little bundle tipping the scales at 1 lb 15 oz and is 12 3/4 in.

After just getting back from a little road trip to Oregon, Steph and Ryan went in for a scheduled check up yesterday and the nurses/doctors found a couple things that they wanted to keep testing her for. The results came back to show that Steph had developed something called HELLP Syndrome.(feel free to look up for more details) This is a form of pre-eclampsia that leads to an unhealthy environment for the baby, and an unhealthy situation for the mom so early delivery is a must.

Steph was moved from Timpangos (Orem) to St Marks (Salt Lake), and was scheduled to have a C- Section today at 1pm. Tare and I spent the day yesterday with them at the hospital while the nurses kept a very close eye on Steph. Through the night, her platelet count went up a bit and her blood pressure went down (which was good news). This morning they decided that Steph was doing well enough to go ahead and have the c-section early so that they could also get little Avery out and taken care of.

It was a tense morning for all, but Ryan was able to go in with Steph and the surgery went very well. Little Avery came out with a healthy cry, that could be heard down the hall...music to everyone's ears! As of yet, Avery is even breathing on her own which is quite a feat! The nurses say baby Avery is a "feisty" one :) She will be in the NICU for about 10-12 weeks.

We are all so happy for the new little addition to the Family and I'm sure all your thoughts and prayers are welcome as the new momma and daughter rest and recoup (the Dad too!-who is currently asleep at Stephs bedside:)