Sleepless update...

From the Pitocin swollen typing fingers of chelle:

If I start typing in tongues, no worries, it's just because I have only gotten 6 or 7 hours of sleep since Monday morning and my mind is making me think I am a chipmunk or a squirrel and that I can commune with animals.

Just like Honig wrote earlier today on our blog when he ran home after picking up his Mom from the airport, I had the honor to give birth to our daughter, Kara Faith Sheldon, the world's most beautiful baby girl on December 31st at 2:39AM. She weighed in at a healthy 9 pounds 1 ounce and was 20 and 1/2 inches long. Labor was 24 and a half hours long and was the most amazing, excruciating, adrenaline-filled, draining, spiritual, tiring, painful, and wonderful experience I have ever had in my 27 years on this earth. Nothing I've ever experienced even comes close to it, and I wholly and completely understand what mothers mean when they say "you don't understand it until you go through it." Amen sistahs. Preach on. I would do it all again in a heartbeat and then some for the reward of being a mother. It's still so surreal that Honig and I are parents and that our baby that we prayed so diligently and faithfully for is finally here. We are blessed beyond anything we rightfully deserve, and are eternally grateful to our Heavenly Father for granting us the privilege and honor of being parents to our gorgeous baby girl.

I'll do a posting later on the details of labor and what went on in the 24 hours it took to get our little Kara from the snug confines of my uterus to laying on my squishy belly. It's about time for her to eat again so I'll just finish up my post with an update on how she is doing.

Kara is actually in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit right now because she has an infection that she is being treated for with antibiotics. Once her lab work results were back about 14 hours after she was born, her pediatrician reviewed them and immediately called the hospital and had the NICU pediatrician come up to talk to us and tell us what was going on and that she needed to be transferred to the NICU to start early intervention. Her white blood cell count was sky high and that is indicative of an infection. She had her 2nd round of antibiotics today and she isn't outputting urine like she should be so they also have her on a saline drip to get some fluid going through her and to get her little kidneys doing their job. Kara's having some trouble learning how to eat so we're working with her on that, too. But thankfully as an answer to prayers from loved ones, her labs are looking better today and her white blood cell count is coming down so that is promising. She's a bit dehydrated and they won't let her go home until her white blood cell count is in normal range and until she's peeing more. Also, our poor little Peanut broke her left collarbone in the birth process so that's no fun but thankfully babies are resilient and are quick to heal broken bones.

Any prayers on her behalf are very much appreciated, and we would be eternally grateful for them. We know our Heavenly Father hears our prayers and answers them.

She is such a content and observant little girl and hardly ever cries. She loves to just look around and do little stretches. She is starting to discover her hands, and she loves to have her face and head stroked. And I like to think that she loves being kissed because that's all I ever do to her. I love her so much I could just eat her up.

Sorry I don't have any pictures up yet. Those'll be coming.

Ok, time to go and feed our baby.