A New member of our Family......just a little early.

Our first entry in a new attempt at keeping people in our extended network up to date with our lives and happenings. I guess we have a few people that may want to check in on us from time to time. So that is the reason for this little blog. I hope to update this one fairly regularly so that it is actually of some use. I have only tried to start this about 3 times previous. Anyway.........Consider this post one for today and a beginning for the future.

So we had a baby yesterday. Tami woke up at 4 am and was seriously bleeding so we rushed to the emergency room and then at about 1:33 pm she gave birth to a beautiful little girl. Tami was only 32 weeks along so our new girl is quite the preemie. But she was 4lbs 4 oz and 18" long, so she was a good size for her age. That should help her out a lot so the doctors say. Tami had quite the rough time herself yesterday but managed to make it through and is on her way to recovery. Basically Tami had pre-eclampsia or toximia they supposedly call it now according to one Dr.. And also she had a placental abruption. Then she had some blood clotting issues post birth. So it was a fun day for her. But she got to be pretty stable late last night and is heading for back to normal now.

So our new daughter, whose name is Aleia, is doing good for a baby of her age according to the Neonatal ICU ( NICU) doctors and nurses. She is still trying to wear off all of the drugs that she got second hand from Tami’s complications. The biggest of those being the magnesium that Tami got to try and keep her from having seizures due to her super high blood pressure. They tell us Aleia will have to remain in the hospital for quite a while. No on will give us a definite answer on that, but they say we should aim for here original due date. That was July 15…so that is some time. Most are saying it could be about 1 full month. But most of it depends on Aleia and how she does. She has to be able to do several things before she can be let out of the hospital and the NICU. She has to be able to regulate her body temperature on her own. Right now this is not a major concern according to the NICU staff since she was actually pretty large for her age and had some weight to her. Also she has to be able to breath on her own. She is currently having some help with that, but they say she is improving quite well in that area. Also she will need to eat, this is the biggest challenge for her. At her age the ability to coordinate the actions involved in that are not easy to attain. She can really only do one thing at a time. So sucking, breathing and swallowing all at the same time is a huge set of tasks. But she will just have to grow into those skills.

That is a summary of how things stand right now. Everyone is dong as well as can be expected. We have lots of family around and help from friends. Ashlynn is VERY excited about her new sister, whom she wanted to name Pocahontas, and may even get to see her later today. She is ready to teach Aleia everything she needs to know about basically everything. She should be a good helper and then soon enough a great boss for the new baby.

Again I will try to keep this as up to date as I can. Hope all is well for everyone.

--Andrew