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| Look, no hands! |
Hi everyone!
How are you doing, Lily?
Awesome. I'm healthy and happy. Although my new digs are not nearly as comfy as the place I was staying for the last nine months, the people here are really friendly. I'm eating up a storm and pooping enough to make even my dad proud. After a couple days of resting and recuperating from, you know, being born, I'm a lot more alert and interested in the funny-looking folks that hang out with me. I spent a bunch of time checking them out yesterday, especially during my huge feedings. I hear I was a little late for this summer's Nathan's hot dog eating contest, but after hearing about how I took down nearly 60 mL last night, I was contacted by a recruiter from the competitive eating circuit -- told him I'm keeping my options open. And if you're wondering why "how I'm doing" revolves mostly around eating and crapping, please remember that I am my father's daughter.
I hear that you're still in the hospital. What's the deal?
The bottom line is that I'm doing just fine, but if you're thinking "wow, she's being really dramatic," I may be guilty as charged. Here's the abbreviated version...I was born at 1:23am on Tuesday, August 16 after about 27 hours of labor (my mom's water broke at about 10pm on Sunday night -- the salsa at Palo Alto Sol is potent!). I was small, but everything was great -- APGAR was solid; heart rate and breathing were good; I even latched to mom's boob right away and had a little G3 Recovery snack. They took me to the Well Babies nursery and did some more routine tests, and they found that my glucose level was low. Since it wouldn't go up after feeding me some snacks, they needed to give me sugar through an IV. There wasn't space for me in the Intermediate Care nursery, so they brought me to the NICU. And as you can imagine, once you're in the NICU, it's tough to get out.
Low sugars can mean lots of things, but the first concern is infection (serious business for a newborn). So they've been running lots of tests and giving me medicine as a preventative measure for the last few days. So far everything has come back negative and normal to the point that the doctors and my folks are confident that I don't have an infection. Which is nice. The sugar was still an issue though - they were giving me dextrose through an IV, and I started eating a lot better, but my sugar levels were sometimes all over the place. My doctor, who is a really wonderful woman, said to me, "young lady, you're not going anywhere until you can keep your sugar levels stable on your own." At first I thought I was going to have to go Shawshank-style on this place (I'd asked my dad hang a poster of Andres Turner to cover the hole I was burrowing in the wall with a thermometer I keep hidden in my blanket). But then I realized that it would just be easier to stabilize my sugars so that I can go home. Yesterday they started weaning me off the IV sugars, and my glucose levels have remained steady. With any luck, I'll keep up my progress and will be home early this week.
Perhaps most importantly, I look and feel and act like a completely healthy baby. My vital signs have been awesome the whole time, I'm pink and responsive and eating and digesting and all the good stuff you'd expect to see from a healthy kid.
It's great to hear that you're doing well. Can we please come visit you?
First of all, I want to thank all of you for the messages and the love and the well-wishes that you've been sending to me and my parents. Please know that I have received all of them, and they've helped me a lot. And although I can't wait to meet all of you, the NICU is not a visitor-friendly place. There are lots of restrictions on visitors, and in general it's not the most pleasant hang-out spot. I know that many of you would be willing to drop by for even 30 seconds to give my parents a hug, but they spend a lot of their time at my bedside and getting out to the lounge area is a production. So let's all look forward to hanging out when I get home, which we all hope is really, really soon. In the meantime, I really like being sung to, so if you'd like to record a short song and send it to my folks -- or just leave it on their voicemail -- they'll make sure I hear it. Thanks for the lullaby, Uncle Romo!
How are your folks doing? Why haven't I heard from them?
They're doing great. Hanging out with me keeps them calm. The nurses have been amazingly helpful and supportive. And my dad's parents have been out since mom went into labor, and they have been an incredible blessing for my parents. Their support has kept us all sane.
My parents are so grateful for all of your calls and emails and love. They're sorry for the lack of communication - they don't allow cell phones in the NICU, which is where their attention is rightly focused. Add that to the normal exhaustion of new parents, and you have radio silence. I can't promise you it's going to get better in the next few days, but they asked me to write this email to tide you guys over.
So can we see some pictures of you already?
Yep. Lily Berman - Week 1
We'll be in touch as soon as we can.
Many thanks and lots of love,
Lily
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