So I have never tried the whole blogging thing before, but I always enjoy reading others' blogs, so I thought I would give it a try. With a new baby in my life, I have lots of pictures and videos to share with long distance family, and this seemed like a good way to do that.

A quick introduction: Almost six weeks ago, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Caitlyn. She was perfect. Until she was 24 hours old, and then we were told that she had spiked a fever and was being transferred to the NICU. We later discovered that she had sepsis - an E.Coli infection in her blood. 3 days later, we were called to the NICU late one night for an emergency meeting with pediatric surgery. One of the nurses, Kristen, who I will be forever grateful to, had noticed Caitlyn acting a little "off" or different from normal. They ordered X-rays, and found that she had air in her abdomen. She was rushed to surgery, where they discovered a perforated bowel in two places. The surgeon removed her appendix and ileal-sacral valve (the junction between large and small intestine), and created a stoma and mucous fistula. Basically what that means is that her large and small intestine are separated and were brought to the outside. So instead of changing a poopy diaper, we have to change an ostomy bag.

We brought Caitlyn home for the first time a week ago when she was one month old, and since then have been learning how to be parents, and how to care for our lovely girl. At some point, Caitlyn will have a second surgery to reconnect the bowel and will hopefully be able to live a normal life. This could be six months or a year down the road. In the meantime, we are living and caring for a special needs child, which is way more challenging, and also more rewarding, than I ever could have imagined. I guess this blog will chronicle Caitlyn's journey, but also my journey through motherhood. It is completely different from what I expected, but it is completely wonderful, all at the same time.