At 4:33 on the morning of Saturday January 26, 2002, Jolie Michelle Newell
Charette was born at Kelowna General Hospital. She weighed 2581 grams. (5
lbs 11 oz?)
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../Saturday January 26, 2002
At 4:33 on the morning of Saturday January 26, 2002, Jolie Michelle Newell
Charette was born at Kelowna General Hospital. She weighed 2581 grams. (5
lbs 11 oz?)
Kathie and I had been preparing for this event
for the past nine months. For
longer than nine months when you consider that Kat had also
completed the nursery in the
previous house we had in Coquitlam. Do you see the resemblance in the style
she chose to finish the nursery (
old, versus
new).
When there were 21 days left until the "official" due date (2002/01/23), I put
up signs in the front windows of the house. People from the neighbourhood have
told me they enjoyed the daily countdown to due date.
On the night we left for the hospital, I changed the "...DAYS"
sign to say "KGH" (Kelowna General Hospital). When I finally
came back home the next day after Jolie Michelle was born, I simply left
"GIRL!!!" on the window and took down all other signs.
Because of a few small complications during the pregnancy and the birth, Jolie
Michelle will spend the first few days of her life in an incubator. This isn't
quite the "birth experience" that either of us had planned, but we're just glad
that the wait is over, and that everyone is now feeling much better.
We're both looking forward to a few days from now when we'll get to hold her
ourselves instead of simply watching through the glass. As soon as I have
additional pictures, I'll post them here.
Here is a picture that perhaps should've preceded the rest. This is a scan of
the ultrasound that Kat had at the start of the pregnancy.
At less than 1 day old, Jolie Michelle received her first visitors tonight!
Troy and Leanne, who are themselves expecting later this summer, came to visit
for a few hours and while there took these great pictures.
Here we are near the end of Sunday. Kat and I both got to hold her today for a
few minutes. The time we get to spend with Jolie Michelle seems precious and
incredibly short, especially as we've spent the last 2 days watching the other
new parents around us on the ward. (There are perhaps 20 other couples on the
maternity ward, though many of them are going home today or Monday.)
I believe the picture on the left is the 3rd time that Kat was allowed to hold Jolie Michelle. You'll note that the timestamp on the bottom right of the image says 5pm on Sunday January 27.
The picture on the right is the first time I got to hold her! Almost
37 hours after she was born.
They determined today that her bilirubin levels were starting to get somewhat
high (jaundice), so here she is once they started phototherapy. I drew her
some eyes on the "glasses" that she has to wear (see image on the left) but we
quickly decided the eyes I drew were somewhat scarry. It was especially
disturbing when she was lying peaceful & quiet while the eyes made her look
wide awake. So the nurse that watches over intensive care got a 2nd pair of
glasses out and drew the closed eyes for us (see image on the right.) Much
better!
(Hey, I write software for a living! I never claimed to be an artist!)
It is now day #3, and Jolie Michelle is finally out of
her glass cage! She is still in intensive care, but
she has her own little bed. For the first time today, we got to take her out
for a short while (1 hour) and bring her back into the room where Kat is
staying. It makes such a difference to be able to have her with us!
Kat started breast feeding last night, and while it is a slow process, it will
hopefully get easier as the days progress.
Not much to add for today. Jolie Michelle had an ultrasound, and we haven't
heard anything about it so I guess all is well. Kat was told she could get
passes to leave the hospital for short amounts of time, so we'll try to use one
of these passes to go out to dinner tomorrow evening.
(We've been told that Kat and Jolie Michelle might get to come home on Thursday
or Friday!)
Margot & Michel arrived today. (Yes, Jolie Michelle is somewhat named
after my father, Michel.) They're the first in our family to see the baby!
Kat was allowed to leave the hospital for a few hours, which was nice. She's
been in the hospital for 6 days now. We're still hoping that both Kat and the
baby will come home tomorrow.
After one week at the hospital, both Kat and Jolie Michelle are back at home!
It took a bit of convincing, but the hospital finally discharged the baby into
our care. Just before we left, they weighed Jolie Michelle to see how much
weight she'd lost: we were pleasantly surprised to find out she'd gained some
weight since she was born last Saturday! She's now almost 6 lbs!
This has been one very exciting week; we want to thank all of our friends and
family who gave us a helping hand these past few days.
