Grace

Name: Grace Arielle Liggitt
Birthday: September 8th, 2007
Weight: 6 pounds, 13.5 ounces
Length: 19″

All three of us are home! Grace nursed her little heart out today and was able to get enough to stay hydrated and flush excess bilirubin out of her system (”bi-li-’rü-bin: noun, a weird-sounding pigment which causes jaundice if accumulated in excess). I never thought I would be so happy to see full diapers.

We were told this morning that they would run a test at 6pm to see if her bilirubin levels had dropped without any medical intervention all day, and if they had, we could go home. It’s amazing how being in a hospital makes you care intensely about unitless measurements of substances you never knew existed. A bilirubin level of 10.2? Hooray! 10.2 what? Who cares, we’re going home!

We’re still at UNC, and I’m posting this from my phone. The doctors are going to try taking her off IV fluids so that she’ll be hungry enough to nurse well. The next 8-12 hours will be really important as she tries to transition completely to nursing. If she does well, she may be able to stay in our room tonight (we have a sleep-in room just down the hall), otherwise they may have to reintroduce some IV fluids.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.(Philippians 4:6-7)

Thank you for all your prayers and well wishes. We have good news to report! It will be in bullet-points, but read them anyway - they’re not boring.

• The latest chest X-ray showed less fluid in Grace’s lungs
• Grace has been able to start breathing “room air” (no extra oxygen, no plastic dome over her head, no cannula up her nose)
• Her respiration rate is averaging 40-60 breaths per minute (20-30 is a normal newborn rate, Grace was around 80 on Saturday)
• They were able to remove all the lines connected to Grace except her feeding IV and monitor lines. This meant we were able to hold her, and Ashley was able to nurse her today! Grace seemed very happy bundled up and held close.

One area of concern: Grace’s white blood cell count was at the high end of normal, as of Sunday morning. Newborns’ white counts often spike, but this could also be a sign of infection. With only two data points, it’s tough to know which this is for Grace. We’ll know more when the blood labs come in Monday morning. Hopefully the counts will have dropped, at least a little. When we get those reports, we’ll also know whether there is pneumonia or some other infection involved. If the reports are clear, it’s possible Grace could home tomorrow. We’re trying not to count on that happening, but we’re very hopeful.

Ashley is doing very well. We have to tell her to slow down, stop walking so fast, and to take it easy.

I promise more pictures are coming. Soon.

Grace Arielle Liggitt was born on September 8th, 2007, at 8:18 A.M, at the N.C. Women’s Birth and Wellness Center. Immediately after she was born, she was taken to the NICU unit at UNC because of respiratory difficulties due to fluid in her lungs. She will be there until the fluid issue is resolved and her breathing is normal. This could be a couple of days (if the fluid is normal amniotic fluid she wasn’t able to expel normally), or a week or more (if the fluid is due to something like pneumonia).

Ashley is doing very well. She made it through labor like a champion, and kept her composure amazingly well, even when her new baby was whisked away after about 10 seconds. She was able to rest at the birth center for about 8 hours, then we went to UNC to see Grace. We’re at home now, resting, and we’ll go back to Chapel Hill in the morning.

Grace is stable, and her vital signs are good. Pray that the fluid in Grace’s lungs is nothing more than amniotic fluid, and that she’ll be able to expel it easily in the next couple of days. Also pray that no complications or infections develop from her stay in the NICU.

The long version, and pictures, will be posted when time permits.

And they called her name Grace…

…and there was much rejoicing.

We found out today that our little one is a girl! To appreciate the significance of this, you must know that there have been no girls born into the Liggitt family for more than 80 years. The entire family tree is chomping at the bit to spoil her, and she’s doesn’t even have a name yet. Oh, and more than one person has said she looks like me. We’ll see about that…

Hi everyone,

You don’t know me, but my friends call me Baby Liggitt. My parents got to see me for the first time today and hear my heart beat (174 bpm). I’m eight weeks old, a little under an inch long and have a big head with little arm and leg buds. In fact, today my Dad and Mom got to see my legs move around and they got a real kick out of that. Check out my first portrait! The doctor said you can all see me in person some time around September 1st. I’m looking forward to it!