Week 1

This week your child is the size of an ear of corn.

Big news: We have officially HAD A BABY!

Sunday a week ago Will and I delivered Magdalene Benjamin Macfarlane (Maggie) into the world. She is beautiful, tiny, and strong — she currently weighs 1 lb 9 oz and is being cared for by an incredible team of doctors and nurses at Women and Infants NICU in Providence.

Maggie was born at 24 weeks and zero days which about as early as it gets. It’s sort of a miracle that she made it to the NICU at all given the myriad pregnancy complications (placenta previa, preventive surgery at 23 weeks, prolapsed cord, no detectable heartbeat at birth) but she kicked down the door and is currently stabilized in the NICU. Everything in Week 1 has felt a little bit miraculous and so far things are going very well.

• No obvious infections at birth
• Came off antibiotics after 3 days
• 1 full day off the ventilator breathing room air
• 1st and 2nd cranial ultrasound OK

Maggie has an amazing care team and a wonderful attending physician, and seeing the NICU team in action is very reassuring. She also met her grandparents this week! She is very little, but doing incredibly well.