Welcome Olivia Joy!

Well... our youngest child is apparently a very determined young lady (among other things). For some reason, we will probably never know exactly why, she decided on Tuesday afternoon that she wanted to get out of my belly. We worked pretty hard to keep her there - I was a great pincushion for quite a few hours trying to get contractions to stop - but it seemed like for every shot they gave me to slow labor down she got feistier and more determined to get out. Her punching and kicking and bucking was so extreme at times that they couldn't tell if or when I was having contractions.

Olivia was supposed to be born in Sault Ste. Marie so she could be a Yooper, but she apparently wanted to be a "Troll" like the rest of her family, so she decided to make her entrance early enough that our local hospital needed to send us somewhere that had a NICU available, just in case she needed it. I'm glad they did send us or she would have been sent after birth to Marquette and I would have been stuck in Sault Ste. Marie recovering without the ability to see her and most likely without having Steve around. As it is, she started out on the CPAP machine - all the hoses over her nose in the pictures - and with iv antibiotics and lots of monitors. This morning they switched her from the CPAP to an oxygen hood, which is a good step. Once her breathing stabilizes we will be starting feedings and if those go well and her tests keep coming back good we could be going home in the next few days. We are kind of anticipating being here 5 to 7 days, but with preemies, even big ones, you never know. They were able to take out her feeding tube this afternoon and Olivia and I had some quality one on one time, even though we cannot hold her yet. She was very alert and, like her big sister, was loving having her little feet and legs rubbed.
So here are the official stats, for the interested:
Olivia Joy Obreiter, 7 pounds 11 ounces, 19 inches long, born 3-10-2010 at 7:40 a.m. at Northern Michigan Hospital, Petosky, MI.

Big Sister Abby is spending a few days with Grammy Mary and is LOVING it and playing with the puppies. She hasn't seen Olivia yet, although she did stop by the hospital last night and visited Mommy before she left for Grammy's house. We didn't want Abby's first impression of her little sister to be one with tubes and hoses and scary noises involved. Hopefully they will be meeting very soon.