Bright and Sunny Phoebe

Here she is: beautiful Phoebe being pampered by Grandma, who jumped on a plane when she heard the news of her impending arrival. I called my mom at 7 a.m. on Friday and informed her I was going to have a baby within the next day or two. Here's the story: my water broke on Thursday morning (more like middle of the night) and I went to the hospital that morning to be checked out. It was just a trickle and the doctor that checked me out said it was normal to have a little leakage and she sent me home. I felt stupid since she pretty much thought I peed my pants and I'd just wasted the morning in the hospital. I went throughout the rest of the day leaking slowly and entertaining the occasional contraction. Thursday night the trickle turned to a gush and contractions started coming every 2-3 minutes so we trekked back to the hospital. The same doctor was still on-call and admitted that my water had finally broken and perhaps that morning I just had a "premonition" (no lady, it really did break). I sat in labor for a few hours and then had a detailed ultrasound to see how much fluid was left inside to estimate how much time I had before she needed to come out. When that ultrasound was done, it was discovered that her umbilical cord was squashed below her head. The pressure of the water rushing out had sort of "flushed" it down below her and now her head was close to smashing it and cutting it off. I was really bummed about having another C-section (I'd read all kinds of books and watched a bunch of videos about natural childbirth and was prepared to do the deed unmedicated), but excited just the same to have the baby. The surgery went quick and she came out a healthy pink color and screaming - just perfect.
Phoebe has long, skinny fingers and toes that splay outward when given the chance. She has skinny feet that look much too big for her little body. These traits are inherited from Scott, but she has my ears and nose. And of course, Bruce's puffy mouth. She has really dark brown hair right now. I'm not sure if it will stay that way, but she has a punk rock look going for her right now - the I was just born yesterday hairstyle. Phoebe is doing very well. She's in the NICU for at least a week and perhaps a little more for good measure, but she won't be in for too long. She is doing remarkably well: breathing great, skin tone is great, eating great. All of the nurses are impressed by her resilience. Tonight I helped one of the nurses by holding Phoebe while she placed an IV. My job was to keep her hand from swatting around and to hold a sugar-water-coated pacifier in her mouth while the nurse poked her. A little of that sugar and Phoebe was entranced (much like Bruce and Smarties); she didn't even squirm when the IV was placed.
Phoebe is a name of one of my ancestors and means "bright and sunny" - a fitting name as she was our ray of sunshine on Friday while it rained and snowed outside. The name Lorraine comes from Scott's Grandma Leavitt, who is also a ray of sunshine herself.