The Joys and the Worries of New Parenthood

Last Sunday we were able to pick up Jada from NICU. The nurses undressed Jada and showed us every inch of her skin so that we could see that no harm had been done to her, we found that amusing, and after a bunch of paper work she was finally in our arms and we were free to go. She seemed to settle down immediately and looked very peaceful and happy to be reunited. Staying at the bishops house with their support and experience in caring for newborns was a huge blessing. I don't know what I would have done without Sister Johnsons help and confidence. Warning: if the words breast and nipple make you feel uncomfortable, don`t read on. Breast feeding proved to be a challenge that I had not expected. Luckily my milk came in the second day but Jada is a baby that is nei to impossible to rouse from sleep, often not sucking and my nipples were not cooperating (probably why she would not suck) . We were only having 3-4 successful feedings in a twenty- four hour period which was really worrying us. I put some of my milk in a bottle and tryed feeding her that way which was successful,so the next day I went and bought an electric breast pump and the success rate immediately jumped astronomically. Then I found that I could use the pump to stimulate my nipple and get the milk flow started and Jada would then feed off the breast. The last few days we have gone back to the breast, my nipples are now reacting like they should and Jadas appetite has really made leaps and bounds. I have not had to use the breast pump even once today. So it has been a positive learning curve for both of us. She is almost a week old and already made so much progress, we are so proud of her.

We are back in our apartment. We hired a lady to do a really deep cleaning of our apartment while we were at the bishops house so that we could bring Jada home to a sterilized, dust free environment. They did a really good job.

Mike has been super busy. He got 4 days off in a row right after the birth but he didn`t get much rest as there have been so many things to get done fast. He has been running errands all over Beijing. We still have Visa issues to take care of. We are seeing if we can get our current visas extended for 30 days. That gives us time to get Jadas Canadian citizenship card, passport, and a visa (still not sure exactly sure what has to be done there, she is considered a chinese citizen right now and we will need some sort of visa for her before we can take her out of the country). Thirty days is really rushing it so keep us in your prayers that all will go smoothly and we will be able to get it all done in time.

We took Jada to Amcare Women and Childrens hospital for a wellness check. The doctor said that she is healthy just really low in the percentiles for height and weight which is to be expected considering she was 5 weeks early. She has a little jaundice but it is in normal ranges so we had been giving her some time infront of the window every day, that is suppose to help as it gives her vitamin D. We are going to go back next friday for a check up on her weight gain and jaundice.

All in all, things are going well just rushing around alot trying to get things done and doing the best we can to ensure Little Jadas health. Keep a look out for new Jada photos on photo bucket as we will upload new photos there periodically.
http://s921.photobucket.com/albums/ad59/mdinnes/