Sophie's Third Day

Cute little 'Snow Bear' hat

The first bath.

Sophie and Denali had a fairly restful day today. Both were able to get a lot of sleep after a sleepless night.

First thing this morning though, Sophie had her Guthrie Test blood samples taken. In New Zealand almost all babies undergo a screening test at around two days of age by means of a heel prick blood sample. The blood is used for a screening programme often called the “Guthrie test” or “heel prick test” to screen for genetic disorders such as cystic fibrosis. Seven different tests are applied to the sample. The test cards are analysed by the National Testing Centre, and then stored indefinitely, and the parents only get the test results if something is wrong. The parents or the child can also have the cards returned by request.

In short - if Sophie becomes a criminal, the police can match her DNA and place her at the scene of the crime. However, the only crime she is capable of at the moment is spectacularly pooing herself (man... Sophie will probably have me put in a home at age 50 for saying that!).

Also today she had her first bath. At first she cried a lot when I began washing her face, but once she was in the water, she calmed down and seemed to enjoy it. That knocked her out for about an hour and a half, allowing me to grab a coffee and Denali to rest. The midwife said, "We only bath them to put them to sleep. It has nothing to do with dirt!"

Big HELLO to all the Great Grandparents who are viewing this blog. It's great that you have been able to see our little Sophie, and we can't wait for you to meet her. Thank you so much for your lovely phone calls.


This from Denali:

Sophie is just amazing. She is so cuddly and warm. She didn't sleep very well last night, but she has been having BIG feeds. Lots of wet and pooey nappies that hurt to change because of my cesarean. To go to sleep she has been snuggling into my chest to sleep each night. Once she is asleep we place her into her cot.

I am feeling better and have been for walks around the ward and the doctor says I am doing well.

I am surrounded by lots of beautiful flowers and cute toys. Thanks for all the lovely text messages and phone calls and prayers. I can't wait for you all to meet her!


Denali has just sent me a text saying that she will probably go home tomorrow morning (Saturday 20 May). We just need to get Sophie's hips checked out. How exciting. It will be great to have her at home to settle into some kind of routine. Although for the next four weeks Denali will need some home help. The weekends and evenings will be fine because I will be at home. Betty will stay for another week or so to help us settle in. I will probably go back to work next week and when Betty goes, take further half days off until Denali is able to manage on her own during the day. But we do have friends up here now, and we have some people scheduled to come and stay at different intervals (Denali's sister Carys, and my brother Michael, plus my Mum and Kris are coming soon and later on Dad). Our deck is nearly finished, we have three new wall panel heaters installed, a new hot water cylinder and the second-hand dryer is working just fine.

To make it easier for those of you still on dial-up internet connections, we will reduce the quantity of photos on the blog to perhaps just one or two 'Photos of the Day' after Sophie's first week is over.

Thank you to everyone who sent flowers and brought in gifts today. They are so lovely and Denali and I really appreciate your generosity.

-Rich
p.s. The next video will be of Sophie at home. If you have downloaded MSN Messenger (see the links to the right) and have a hotmail account (get one even if you don't need it so you can use Messenger), then pretty soon we will have live webcam broadcasts of Sophie. You don't need a webcam yourself... but if you want us to see you, then you will need one. More about that later on though.