our little groundhog

Maddie was born on February 2nd, Groundhog's Day. We should've known that something was up when she refused to come out (even with a c-section), thus predicting several more weeks of hospital stay (and a few snow storms as well). All in all though, she recovered fairly quickly. We were in Peoria for 16 days. Things seemed to move in spurts - at first very slowly and then very quickly and then slowly again. At first, it seemed like the doctors were being very cautious in removing different meds, monitors, and lines. And then we went back to Champaign for my doctor's appointment. And then we were snowed in for a few days. And then when we came back, Maddie was off of everything except for a feeding tube, one line in her heart, and a few monitors. The feeding tube was taken out the next day so that we could really work on breastfeeding (which went surprisingly well). And then things got slow again to the point where I was ready to pull her last line myself and get us the heck out of there. Maddie was finally discharged on Sunday, February 18th, 10 days post-op which is really really quick actually. Since then, she's been under house arrest. With it being the flu season, her being a newborn, AND the fact that she is recovering from major heart surgery, the doctors say we can't risk taking her out and getting her sick because her little heart might not be able to handle all that. This coupled with the fact that I'm recovering from surgery and am not supposed to carry around Elliott - who gets major cabin fever - has made for some pretty interesting juggling acts. Not to mention Dan finishing up a paper this past week and working all kinds of crazy hours to get it done. All I can say is, thank goodness for extended family. Anyways, everyone here is doing great and we're just trying to figure out how to handle our new life now and questioning how on earth we thought just having one child used to be so hard. We also already have some hilarious stories (and video) of the antics of these two little crazies that I hope to share with you soon. Once again, thank you all for your e-mails, phone calls, prayers, and thoughts. Here's a pic of Maddie and her super cool scar. I know all you other babies out there are jealous.