HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VANESSA!

Well the new family has just arrived home a couple hours ago. Here are some photos of the past few days. They have been the best days of our life. Oops - there I go bawling again. Merry Christmas to all - meet our miracle baby, Vanessa Holland Hoyt...

At my OB appointment last Friday, I was still carrying high and my OB was concerned the mesh in my abdominal wall might never allow Vanessa to drop or be born. To boot, my BP was 140/100 which signalled the preeclampsia we have been watching out for. So he made the executive decision to deliver VH1 himself that afternoon, rather than risk my having to come in and deliver over the Christmas weekend with a skeleton holiday staff who didn't know my case. We high fived him, stopped briefly at the front desk to make a follow up appointment, and as soon as we stepped out the office door I burst into tears and hung my arms around Jack's neck. Birth Day was finally here, after so many years! We had two hours to get home and get back to the hospital. Jack and Grandma Patty had time to get sandwiches. Granny Ernestine jumped in her car and drove 80 mph to get to the hospital before surgery.

She was born Friday 12/22/06 at 3:14 pm by c-section, weighing in at a lean 7 lbs. 3 oz. and 20.75 inches long. She has reddish brown hair, deep blue eyes, and the longest fingers you've ever seen. Well, she also has the longest monkey toes you've ever seen - should be a fantastic tree climber. Little Miss Vanessa has black eyelashes, a dimple in her left cheek, and generally looks like her daddy! She cries when she needs to communicate something, is soothed quickly, loves to be held, sleeps through constant din or loud noises, has a voracious appetite, and she belches like a frat boy. When she's not wrapped up like a burrito she tries to direct traffic or conduct an orchestra with her waving arms and legs - even in her sleep. She also happens to make noises exactly like Cindy Lu Who.

Both grandmothers were at the hospital for the birth, clearly the Baby Swamis. Vanessa needed to go to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit due to hypovolumia (loss of blood at birth). She needed oxygen and IV fluids and close monitoring. Her APGAR scores were 4 and 8. By the time we got to see her in the NICU, she was laying back under the heat lamps, all tubes and monitors, showing off how she bounced back so quickly on just fluids, with no need for a blood transfusion. We knew, thanks to all we've dragged her through to date, we never needed to worry about her, so we didn't: not even for a minute. Our first introduction to her in the NICU, she was zoned out on her back, soles together, fingers in Guyan Mudra (knowledge and ability; receptivity and calm).

Mom had a few complications during surgery, too, but came out pretty well. Most impressively, I lost 1700 cc's of blood - nearly 2 liters - which floored the staff. While I recovered on Vanessa's birthday, Daddio took over and held her skin-to-skin in the NICU from 10 pm to 1 am. The nurses said he was "blissed out," and surely Vanessa got the very best start she needed from her best guy.

We were so excited to see Nestle without her oxygen, monitor wires and IV. She was released from the NICU to us yesterday, although Mom needed more time in the hospital on clear fluids. I probably should have stayed five days, but we convinced them to spring me today, for a Christmas homecoming. When I went to the NICU to get her, she was sleeping, so I sat down and began weeping uncontrollably - for about an hour. Then today, as we were signing the discharge papers for her, it hit me again that, after five years of holding our breath, we were going home with our wee miracle.

We've been working hard as a team - Nessa, me and Daddy - trying to get my milk to come in. We are silly with sleep deprivation, but that little daughter of ours is a latching champeen.

All the staff who cared for us at the hospital fell in love with her and sought us out to congratulate us on our Miracle story. That is truly humbling. We know we are part of a huge family project. This is truly a gift from God to all of us. What a miracle a little baby is.

Jack and I wore our santa hats today at the hospital. The staff gave Nessa a matching knit cap so we could come home as a family. Too bad I was crying so hard as we left, otherwise we may have had a Kodak moment. Instead, I'll show you the person who has changed our life. This is the person who we were trying to conceive when I was diagnosed, and the person I hoped for and tried to live for the past five years. Our little light of hope in flesh and blood.