Days of Life 1 and 2: Blueberry transforms to Malala Hope:

I was induced starting at 4pm on March 27th, but had no idea that it would take all weekend to convince Blueberry to come on out.  After putting me through the ringer, she showed up on the scene at 6:42 pm on March 29th weighing 2lbs 8 oz and 14.25" long.  

Everyone expected her to be a frail little thing, but she surprised us all with and 8-9 apgar score! The doctor let me hold her for 1 magic minute before whisking her away to the NICU. 

Mom is really proud of me.  She calls me a warrior when the nurses try to call me princess.

Mom was in a wheelchair and was afraid to get too close!

So since she's here, I figured it would be better to hear her tale from her perspective:

I like my first hat a lot!

Mom was real worried about me today because I have immature lungs and my breathing is real laborious.  In fact, she says I sound like a whimpering kitten.  The docs say that sometimes when a baby like me is born so soon, that it's like blowing up a balloon from scratch, where the sides stick together every time I breathe. I don't know what a balloon even is, but the whole breathing business wears me out!  The good news is that I'm not intubated, yet.  Right now I am on something called a CPAP, which delivers constant air pressure and humidity to my lungs.  It's a step down from a breathing tube.  They're talking about intubating me and adding a surfactant to my lungs so they're less sticky, but they decided to wait to see if I can breath a little better on my own.  They feed me caffeine to help with something called apnea.  This means sometimes I forget to breathe, but I'm so new to the whole breathing thing that it's pretty common for someone my gestational age.The doctors have installed lines in my belly button for nutrition and for a drip that stops one of my fetal heart valves from closing.  This is important because I need surgery on a valve when I get big and strong like a term baby. I am also hooked up to monitors that check my temperature, pulse, oxygen, co2, and respiratory rate all the time.  When one of these drops, a big loud alarm goes off.

I have jaundice which means I have to have this ridiculous UV light on me all the time.  It makes pictures look kinda funky.  You can't see it but I'm sporting some pretty sweet Ray Charles shades.

You can kind of see my shades in this pic.

I gained an ounce today!  I get real fussy when I'm under the blue light and I cry.  My arms and legs are so used to being cozy in mom's womb that all the space now really freaks me out.  When I cry, it usually makes mom cry because she wants to pick me up and hold me,but she can't just yet because the lines in my belly are so delicate that the smallest movement can be dangerous.  The doc says once I get my belly button lines out, and am off of the blue light mom can hold me.

Dad is helping to soothe me under the lights.

Grandma and Grandpa Bond also hang out with me a bunch.  I like them. Every time I let out the slightest peep, Grandma Bond comes running to check me out.  Grandpa got a list of stuff to build from Mom so I didn't see him much but he comes by to look at me at least once a day.