One week

Dear Jorie,

Yesterday you turned one week old. I know I've been remiss about writing letters to you here, but it's been an amazing week. Both me and your Father are completely, overwhelmingly in love with you. Your Father complains every day he has to go to work that he misses you while he's gone.

You are a wonder. You can already hold your head up for a bit, and are amazingly strong. Your Father calls you his wiggle worm. When you open your eyes, which you don't do very often yet, they are huge and blue. We'll see if you keep the blue. You have a head full of dark brown hair, and long lashes. You are so amazingly beautiful.

Right now you are lying in your bassinet, making soft noises and kicking your feet around. You seem perfectly content to just stare at the world around you.

I suppose I should write about your birth, before the details become even more fuzzy in my head. On Sunday the 10th, we went in to start the induction. They gave me the first pill to soften my cervix and hooked me up to the monitor. After four hours they found that I had progressed too far to give me another pill, and everyone started thinking that you would be born sometime early in the morning. I wasn't really feeling the contractions very strongly, and I think I started to get a little cocky about it. Around 3 or 4 am I was really tired, so I asked for some pain medication to help me sleep. It worked and I was out cold soon after they gave it to me.

Unfortunately, that stopped my labor in it's tracks, so when they woke me up around 7:30 Monday Morning, things weren't moving very fast. Even with a pitocin drip, my labor was moving very slowly, until around 3 in the afternoon, when they decided to break my water to get things moving.

Almost as soon as they broke my water, I started having strong contractions. Not too long afterwards, the contractions were so strong, so painful, that I asked for the epidural. Your Father was wonderful through all of this. Holding me, calming me down, letting me lean on him. The epidural was able to take my pain away, and allowed me to focus on the rest of the birth.

You got stuck turning the corner under my pelvis, and they were worried about your heart rate, after each contraction it would plummet and then sky rocket. So we opted to use a little bit of suction to help you round that corner. As soon as you got past that corner, you came very fast, maybe four or five pushes and you were out. I heard you cry once or twice, and then they put you on my chest. You looked up at me with those big wide eyes and kinda stole my heart. Your father cut your cord, and then they had to take you for measurements and tests. You were 6 lbs. 5 oz. and 21 inches long.

You were a little Jaundiced, so we had to make an appointment to see your Pediatrician the day after we got out of the Hospital. You gave us a good scare at that first appointment, as they told us you had lost 10% of your body weight. I have never been more afraid than I was then. Fortunately, you gained the weight back like a champ, and by your one week birthday, you were back up to birth weight.

I wish I hadn't gotten sick a few days ago. I feel as if I'm not fully appreciating this wonderful time with you, because I'm too busy blowing my nose.

I love you baby girl.