A week has flown by and I've decided that these days are flying by too fast........

Our first week was full.........of sweet baby smells and cuddles and I felt cocooned from the world......just our family these first few days.......welcoming this new little person into our midst and learning who she is. I look at her and think it was not long ago she was inside me being fashioned by God and knit together perfectly......as the angels sang her lullabies. It is a wondrous thing to be so close to one so fresh from God!
Hannah nursed immediately after birth......for about an hour she just sucked and was content. She was also pretty alert right from the start. I think she knew she had to be coming into this big family of loud kids!
Her favorite thing to do is nurse.......and nurse some more. When she does fall asleep one of her siblings is always there to cuddle her and so it seems she is never put down.......I love seeing her older brothers and sisters taking her and loving on her.......it makes my Mommy heart so happy!!
Grandma arrived on Weds. to spend some time helping us out. It was great to have her and the kids really enjoyed it. It's great that my Mom can come stay with us and she really enjoyed the baby of course!!
By Saturday I had to admit that Hannah was looking really yellow and after talking to Jessica we decided to take her to Dr. Chi for a check on her billirubin level. All my other kids had to be under the lights and it looked like Hannah Grace would have to as well. Brian and Garrett drove us down and as soon as Dr. Chi saw her he sent us for blood work. He said she looked like a sweet potato! The rest of her check up was fine.
Turns out her level was 22......and off to the maternity ward at Hackettstown Hospital we went. I was sad to have to go as I was trying to avoid it but it had to be done. She got under the lights around 6 and by midnight her level was down to 20.......then by 6am it was 18. They kept us another night to make sure and by 6 am Monday morning it was 12! Yeah!! They took her off the lights and when we left she was 13 and holding her own.
One good thing was I started a sweater for her to wear on Easter and now it is almost done. So at one week old she is now 6 lbs. 6oz. and her color looks great.......she needs to gain back that weight she lost but other then that all is well!! This time is going by fast and I want to remember all of it.......enjoy all of it and savor every minute!!

I hope to keep up with this journal of her early days and then maybe go to a monthly update as she gets older.........I think this will help me with my scrapbooking later on as I go to journal on the pages I can just pull everything off the blog. As I am sure that my time for scrapping will be limited for a while!!