our first doctors visit

going home from the hospital

pit stop at grandma and grandpa's on the way home from the hospital

Oh yes.  Our little Anika is growing fast.  When she came home from the hospital she weighed 8 pounds and 13 ounces.  4 days later, she weighed a whopping 9 pounds and 7 ounces.  Dang!  But, like they told me when I was pregnant and weighed every week at different clinics, it is the scale.  So we will see what happens at our next visit.  I cannot imagine that the Ely clinic has 2 infant scales!  

According to Dr. Loe, Anika is just perfect.  Which is a relief.  We had many questions - Why is her skin blotchy? When will this scary looking cord fall off?  What do we need to do about it?  How warm should we dress her? She sleeps for 4 hours at a time, should we wake her?  Newbie parent questions. 

Her head is only in the 30 percentile which means a bit on the small side, but her length is on the opposite side of the spectrum - 95 percentile.  Which means, she is wearing 3-6 month clothing.  All of that newborn and 0-3 clothing is out the window.  Thank god we got a lot of clothing for shower gifts! 

Anika, 11 days old

I am reading to Anika - oh yes.  I was told that I should start as early as I can - read magazine articles, mystery novels, baby books... well, I am reading her David Sedaris's newest book Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk. You can read the first story on Amazon, The Cat and the Baboon... not appropriate reading material for most ages.  At least there are different animals in the stories that have very distinct personalities and I can work on my different voices for Anika.  She seems to like it. 

If you have newborn or 0-3 month clothing (preferably sleepers with snaps not zippers so the monitor cords can easily be accessed) or blankets or hats or booties, or know of someone who is just going to bring their extra clothing to Sal's (Salvation Army), please consider donating it to the St. Mary's NICU.  Most of the clothing they dress the babies in and blankets they wrap them in and hats they warm them with are donated.  We are sending a box full next week.  Here is the address:


St. Mary's Medical Center
Attn: Newborn ICU
407 East Third Street
Duluth, MN 55805

Thank you!