Campbell Reese Justice

I've got about ten minutes to try and explain all the things going on in our lives right now...so here goes. On Wednesday night I was checked into the hospital to begin the induction process due to my high blood pressure. Thursday evening at 5:09pm, we welcomed our sweet daughter into the world. Her name is Campbell Reese Justice. She weighed 7 lbs, 5.8 oz and was 19.5 inches long. I was 37 weeks on Thursday, so she was considered full-term to the day. The delivery was a very tough one, and it was stressing Campbell out quite a bit. She came out with the cord wrapped tightly around her neck and her breathing was a little too fast. They sent her to the NICU for observation just to be sure. As strange as this sounds, thank goodness the cord was around her neck. Once in the NICU, they ran a variety of tests to make sure they knew the cause of her fast breathing. She was doing well, and we really thought she'd be back upstairs in a few hours. We found out on Friday morning that she actually has a Group B strep infection. This is something they tested me for, and because I was negative, they assume Campbell is fine. Well, she wasn't. The good news is that they caught it early. This type of infection is devastating if left unnoticed, and that's where the "thank goodness the cord was around her neck" comes into play. We caught it early, and they had even begun the antibiotic treatment prior to finding the infection as a 'just in case' measure of precaution. We have some amazing doctors and nurses in the NICU who are taking such good care of our little angel. She will have repeated bloodwork and even had to have a spinal tap yesterday to ensure the infection hadn't gotten into her spine. We will wait a few days to see the results - but the good news there is the treatment and prognosis are still the same. If the infection is more widespread, she should still be fine - just will require a longer stay due to a larger dose of antibiotics. She is off all oxygen, we are feeding her a bottle and Campbell and I are diligently working on breastfeeding. Daddy changed the first diaper yesterday and it was FULL of poop. He did an amazing job and has since helped me - together we've changed several poopie messes! We get to hold her and cuddle her and love on her, and sometimes she just gazes up at us. We love her to pieces and we are so grateful she is in such good care here and that her prognosis for recovery is so good. Just by looking at her, you wouldn't know she's sick. She may get to move from the NICU to a progressive care unit sometime this week. Best case scenario, we'll get to bring her home in a week or so. We don't deal in worse case scenarios around here - we are going to remain positive and just roll with whatever comes our way as best we can.

Travis and I are going home this evening. We didn't plan to go home as a party of two, so please keep us in your thoughts as this will obviously prove to be a tough night for us. And also please keep little Campbell in your prayers, she's such a strong little girl and she has a GREAT set of lungs. You should hear her scream!! We hope to hear that scream in the halls of our own house in the very near future. Once we are settled at home, we'll send out the pictures we have. We are off to go visit Campbell for her 11:00 feeding.