Marla and Ruby
Ruby is now almost 2 weeks old. Some people have said that they have a hard time picturing what 2 lbs and 11 ozs looks like.
Here is a picture of Marla and Ruby on day 2. She really is the smallest person we’ve seen.
I’ve gone back to work after taking 4 days off to help Marla.
Marla’s daily schedule consists of making a lunch time trip to the hospitla to feed Ruby for noon and 3.
Together we return for Ruby’s 6pm feeding and we stay for atleast an hour. Usually Marla will feed and then Ruby and dad have a half hour of story time, though Marla has been know to hog Ruby and cut into my time with her:)
My work has been great in helping us. They’ve let me work what ever hours I need to inorder to see Ruby, though considering I can work from home as much as I want that isn’t much of a difference:)
As far as we know Ruby will be at the hospital for atleast the next 3 weeks though it is still too far into the future to set a date with any amount of confidence.
As most of you know, we had a bit of a surprise last week and we met our daughter Ruby Josephine Holliday 6 weeks earlier than planned. When we went in to a regular midwife appointment on Thursday, Jan 8 we ended up at the Foothills hospital for tests and told a few hours later that Marla had a serious condition called HELLP syndrome and that the baby needed to be delivered right away. The only cure for HELLP is delivery.
The next day, January 9, Marla was induced and delivered a healthy little 2 lb 11 ounce Ruby naturally at 4:17 pm after a pretty intense 5 hour labour. Though Ruby is small she is mighty and she keeps surprising the nurses and doctors with her progress. She is a feisty one and kicks a lot, one nurse even said she was going to be a soccer player without knowing that we both play so that made us quite proud:)
She started off in intensive care at Foothills and was transferred to Peter Lougheed Centre late last week to a special care unit that is geared more towards getting the babies home and the parents prepared which is a much better environment for all of us. It does suck a bit because it is far from our house, but we are making it work. She has been gaining weight slowly and as of today she is now just over 3 lbs. She was also taken of IV today and out of the incubator so a big day all around for Ruby!
We are excited to see her grow a bit each day and love our visits where we get to cuddle her and read to her. She likes pulling her Daddy’s hair already, perhaps it is time to get it cut;)
We also wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for there good wishes and prayers and support over the last few weeks. The support has been amazing and we can’t imagine how this time would be without it. We have the best family and friends and feel very blessed right now. We love you all!
Stay tuned for some pics which will come tomorrow! We will try to keep this fairly updated as we know you all want to know how Ruby is doing and see lots of pics.