Vague recollections of Plan A

Friday was Blaise's due date. It's hard to remember a time when we thought we wouldn't get to meet her until now. I actually expected to deliver after her due date, but, well, let's just say that none of this is in those "What to Expect" books. It's going to be more difficult to have her in the hospital because we've been able think of these last 7 weeks as a special preview. Now that we've hit the point when she was supposed to be here and when she was supposed to come home, we might start to feel a little cheated sometimes.

It's also going to be different in terms of her development. Before, any milestone she hit was early, but now there are things she should be able to do on a particular timetable and it is possible for her to get behind. It's not uncommon for babies who are hospitalized to get a little delayed. We'll do what we can to mitigate this, but we can't change the fact that her environment is weird, that some of her awake time has to be spent doing bag changes or that when we do leave her room, we have to take the IV pole with us.

That said, I'm happy to brag that Blaise's head control and neck strength are excellent and her tummy time goes very well. She's also well over 5 lbs now (2420 grams = 5 lbs 5 oz), so she's a little on the small side for her corrected age, but not too tiny. And did I mention that she's the cutest baby in the whole hospital? Because she is. There are more photos on the photo site to prove it.