After a day (and night!) of contractions, Rebekah decided to arrive at 1:40 this afternoon with only a few pushes. Congratulations to Rebecca Wood (a good friend from college) for coming the closest with her guess of 6 pounds even and 18 inches long. Rebekah was in fact 5 pounds and 15 ounces and 18 inches long.
Rebekah has taken to sucking on a pacifier, which is very good for learning her suck and swallow reflex. Right now she is not being allowed any foods until the doctors decide when they will be performing her surgery. Rebekah has an IV that she is receiving nutrition through for now. 
All of the ultrasound technicians commented that Rebekah had lots of hair, and she does! Her hair is light to medium brown and for now is quite wavy. I'm hoping she keeps the wavy curls! :) Like all of her brothers, she also has blue eyes.
Rebekah has a couple of buddies sharing her crib with her. Drew and I used some gift money that was given to Rebekah to purchase the little pink and white puppy dog. She doesn't have a name yet - any suggestions? Rebekah also has a little pink teddy bear from Grampy and Grammy in her crib.
Now for the medical updates: We met with Dr. Walsh (a cardiology fellow) tonight and learned about some of the tests that have been run on Rebekah so far. Pretty much everything that the doctors have seen has confirmed their original diagnosis. Rebekah does have Truncus Arteriosus and will definitely require surgery to correct it. We also knew that there was a question about the pulmonary artery leading to her right lung. From the tests that the doctors were able to do today, we still do not have a clear picture of how blood is being supplied to that lung. There has been some discussion of doing a CT scan tomorrow to see if that will shed some more light on how the blood flows to her lung. For now, the doctors are assuming that the blood is flowing through a normal hole in her heart called a ductus. This ductus closes within hours after birth, so she is on a medication to prevent the closing of the ductus just in case it is supplying her lung with blood.
One of the side effects of this particular kind of medication is that it tends to make babies forget to breathe. Rebekah had three apnea spells this evening (two of which we were in the room watching). During the last apnea spell, the nurse had to blow air into Rebekah's face to stimulate her breathing again. Dr. Walsh recommended intubating Rebekah and giving her a little help breathing with a ventilator. We agreed that it is the best option at this point as long as she has to remain on the medication.
Tomorrow we will be meeting with two of Rebekah's main cardiologists and discussing the possibility of the CT scan and the results if they decide to go ahead with it. Based on the results of the CT, the doctors will decide the best option for surgery.
We are heading back to the PCICU to see Rebekah before going to bed. We will update again tomorrow after meeting with the doctors and hopefully having a better idea of where we are headed in the next few days.
Nancy
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