January 15th, 1982

Dear Aunt Mary and Uncle Al,

Please believe me when I tell you that in the 4 ½ short years since Gregory was a baby, I’d forgotten the pandemonium a newborn creates! Yes, Sarah Elisabeth is here all right!

She was born on the morning of January 15th. The day before, Bob & I went to Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital for an amniocentesis and ultrasound. The amniocentesis showed that she was 38 weeks old and mature enough for delivery, and hte ultrasound showed that she was a fairly big baby. So...they admitted me to the nearby Kaiser Foundation Hospital and performed the operations the following morning. The surgery went well. I had a spinal anaesthetic, so I was conscious throughout the operation and I saw Sarah as soon as the pediatrician examined her. She weighed 8 lbs. 2 ½ oz, and had a full head of dark hair and dark eyes like her brother.

We ran into two small problems the week I was in the hospital. Because of the operation, and the time it takes to recover, it seemed that I wasn’t making enough milk to satisfy her needs (I had decided to breast feed her.) So she lost a little over a pound. On top of that she developed a case of jaundice (I think it was because her liver was still slightly immature.) She was treated for 24 hrs. under ultraviolet lights, but when the pediatrician stopped the treatment, her billirutin level rose again. They dismissed us from the hospital anyway, on the condition that we return as out patients to monitor Sarah’s condition. Her skin, you know, had a yellow cast to it, and when she was wearing a yellow nightgown she looked like an animated banana! Fortunately, the jaundice cleared up without her having to be re-hospitalized.

She’s 2 ½ months old now and a real dear. She’s sleeping through the night (and so is Mama!) And is just full of smiles. How could anyone not love a tiny babe whose face lights up with smiles when she hears your voice and sees your face? Sometimes she chatters so much with a “goo” and a “gee” and “aahh”, you’d think she really had something to say. I count myself a very blessed woman to have two such happy and healthy children!

Gregory couldn’t have accepted her any better. He always has a kiss for her, and gives her sugar water when she has the hiccups, and makes her laugh with his “one-man-band.” He’ll be five this summer, and will be starting kindergarten in the fall.

In the photograph where he’s feeding Sarah, he’s wearing a paper crown. About 2 months ago, he announced he was going to be King Forever and went into his room and made a paper crown which he’s been wearing ever since, even to nursery school.

I feel fine. I recovered quickly from the operations and now, at last, I’m getting enough sleep. The only problem I have is that I still don’t seem to have enough milk to keep Sarah satisfied. So what I do is nurse her first, and then offer her a few ounces of formula is she wants it. I remarked to Bob that I wondered what women did who didn’t have enough milk for their babies before the convenience of formula. He said, “They probably buried a lot of babies.” I guess that’s true. I’m lucky to be rasing my children now– childbirth itself is less hazardous, and it’s unlikely that they’ll suffer and debilitating diseases.

I hope this letter finds both of you well. Thank you for the photographs. It’s nice to have an image of the people you’re writing too.

Love,

Karen