Birth-4 weeks

Joey spent 6 days in the hospital, she didn't require much in the way of special care. She needed to be put under the warming lights every once in a while, and the nurses had to show us how to get her to drink (she was a lazy eater) as milk as possible in as short amount of time as possible (she has outgrown the lazy eating). She was too small for a normal car seat, so the hospital social worker got us a car bed. Joey was discharged from the hospital weighing 3lbs 7oz, from what the Dr said that itself was pretty amazing, since most babies lose an average of 10% of their birthweight in the 1st week. By her 1st checkup (9 days old) she was back up to her birthweight

Joey's 1st few weeks went by pretty quickly in a fog of post-partum blues, exhaustion, fear of losing her, joy that we still had her, and uncertainty about the future. Lucky for me my best friend and my mom were with us those first few weeks to help out (I think I would have gone insane without them).  Also lucky for me, I have an amazing sister in law who got my house baby ready while I was in the hospital with Joey.  If not for Michele, Joey would have had to sleep in a shoe box and we would have had to use Bruce's shirts for diapers.

By Joey's second check up (when she was 16 days old), she was up to 3lbs 11oz.  At her 3rd check up (she was 26 days old), she was up to 4lbs 5oz.  She was eating well, I could let her eat on demand, and was overall a very quiet baby.  SHE IS AMAZING!!

The connective tissue that was "glueing" her eyes shut is completely gone on her right eye, and is getting thinner on her left eye. Everyday she can open the left eye more and more.

We have only had 1 episode of apnea and Joey brought herself out of it, she stopped breathing for 22 seconds on Jul 9.

She failed the hearing test at the hospital when she was born, but I am not convinced she is completely deaf, I think her hearing is probably greatly diminished. Her vision is questionable as well, but it is probably too soon to tell how much vision she has.

So far no major problems, her heart seems to be normal (they do hear a grade 1 or 2 murmur, and we are still deciding if we want to do an echo) or at the very least only slightly abnormal. She had a kidney ultrasound which came back normal.

We have had lots of people praying for Joey and God has been listening, so please keep the prayers coming.