More about our little Shayla

Shayla Raine came into this world at 10:57pm August 27th, 2008. She weighed in at 7.5lbs and was 20 inches. SHe has the funniest little legs. It looks like she was almost born a breech baby with her little froggy legs, as we call them. You can see it in a couple of the pictures, how her little legs stick out at silly angles. We now know why Lori always had two little bumps sticking out in her pregnant belly. One look at her legs and it all makes perfect sense. She also loves to give her mom and dad a patented grumpy face. She furrows up her brow, closes her eyes, and starts pouting with her lower lip. It is the most adorable thing to see. This may change though as in the six hours since she has left the hospital, we have seen less of "grumpy face". We love her so much and have got to know her much more in the three and a half days she has been part of our lives.

Yesterday the doctors at the hospital said that she looked clear of infection but they wanted to keep her one more night. They moved us all into a post partum room and we got to spend our first night with our daughter. It was absolutely amazing! Yeah, we got very little sleep, but it felt incredible. Being able to learn how she acts when she needs to feed, how she sleeps, and everything else that goes along with our baby girl was something we had been missing while she was in the ICU for those first couple of days.

Morning came and it was time to be discharged from the hospital. Lori and I were both very excited about this as it meant we were finally going to be able to bring our baby girl home. We finished up her final feeding in the hospital (which totally knocked her out cold...), put her in her little car seat, and brought her down and into the sunshine of the world for the first time in her life.

We got her home and into the house without any problems. She was still passed out so we placed her in her pack and play to sleep. This was the first time she had not been swaddled and I think we found out why she was always so fussy in the hospital. She wanted to be all stretched out!

After another feeding later in the afternoon, she went to sleep in her bouncer. I had to take a picture of her just a minute ago because she looks so adorable!

I know a lot of you have heard about Shayla's heart condition. For those of you who don't know, Shayla has a condition called Tetrology of Fallot, which basically means she has a hole in her heart and a small problem with her artery. She is going to need heart surgery at some point in the future. At the time being, she is perfectly fine. While it was a shock to hear this news from the cardiologist the other night, they have reassured us that she is fine. We just need to be aware of the condition and monitor it over time with regular EKG's.

Thats all for now. It's about feeding time again and we really just feeling like loving up our daughter. More to come!