What a merry, merry Christmas!!

I think this was probably one of the best Christmas' we've ever had. We are so blessed to have two beautiful, amazing girls and to have them home on Christmas was the best gift we could have EVER asked for! Ella came home 8 days before Christmas and has been doing wonderfully. On Christmas Eve, we baked Christmas cookies and watched The Muppets Christmas Carol, which is something we do every year on Christmas Eve. Great Grandma Phyllis was going to come over, but unfortunately she had a cold and we can't let anyone who is sick come around Ella. We'll have to celebrate with her a little later!

Baking mama's special butter cookies on X-mas eve! 

The stockings were hung over the entertainment center with care...

On Christmas Day, we opened gifts with just our little family. Great Grandma Carol, Grandma Jany, Grandpa Paul and Uncle Tim came over in the afternoon, and we opened more presents. We had a wonderful meal and watched Christmas movies all day. It was a nice, relaxing Christmas.

We got lots of pictures of Olivia...but not any of us together as a family. I'm not sure how we managed to miss one of those. I was kind of bummed about that, but on Sunday we have someone coming over to do some professional pictures in our home. So we'll make sure to get a good family photo together then.

It was a simple Christmas, but a wonderful one. It couldn't have been a happier Christmas, with our Ella home and our girls together. My wish was to wake up on Christmas morning, with a girl on either side of me. And on Christmas morning, I woke up with one girl curled up in my arms, and the other curled up on my back. My Christmas wish came true! <3

First full day home

Wow, what a journey it was going through the NICU. It's amazing to finally be home. Yesterday, we didn't even know 100% sure if Ella was coming home until we were driving to the hospital. We were about 90% sure but you never know with the NICU! We got her all ready to go, got her medications (it's a good dang thing Ella qualifies for MA because of her prematurity and chronic lung disease because a single months worth of just ONE of the meds she came home on would have cost $1500), went over discharge and 3 hours later...we walked out of the ICC to start our life as a family of 4!!! 


We got home and we could hear Olivia in the apartment...she knew we were there and she was trying to open the door to greet us. She immediately knew we had Ella and was enthralled! She was giving her hugs and kisses right away. I sat on the couch and she brought a blanket over and started playing peekaboo with Ella. It was so sweet. We spent the day lounging around with the girls, letting Olivia get to know Ella and just relaxing as a family of 4. We got take out from our favorite Chinese restaurant to celebrate Ella coming home. 


All in all, it was just a nice coming home day. We did absolutely nothing except watch a movie and sit around relaxing with the girls. Olivia is absolutely in love with her little sister and Ella seems to be pretty fascinated with her big sister! Ella is breastfeeding like a pro and she wakes up to eat. We don't have to set alarms or force her to eat. The only problem I've encountered so far is she seems to be a one boob baby so far--she does NOT like my right side and will scream if I try to get her to eat on that side. I'm going to work on that though--I don't want a one boob baby!!! 


Here's some pictures from the day!

Now that Ella is home, I'm still planning on continuing to blog about our family and update everyone on the girls and just life in general!! 

Home sweet Home 10w6d old

74 days old/days in NICU

Weight: 6 lb 4 oz (+4 oz)

Life is complete. 

Hernia surgery

72 days old/days in NICU

Weight: 6 lb (+2 oz)

Today Ella had the hernia surgery. We weren't sure if she would need it or not but apparently the situation was a bit more severe then we thought. In all babies, there is a hole that for baby boys, their testicles will drop through and go into their scrotum. In baby girls, the hole should close. Well, in preemies, that doesn't always necessarily happen. What happened with Ella is her ovaries dropped through that hold and were bulging through and you could feel them on the outside of her vagina. It was CRAZY. They did the surgery, put the ovaries back where they're supposed to be and closed up that hole. While there were in there, they also fixed her umbilical hernia which is a hernia in her belly button. The stomach muscles aren't closed all the way in preemies and her intestines were bulging out her belly button. Yes, it was gross. They said it was a REALLY good thing they did the surgery now because her ovary was stuck and it was difficult to get it back up. Had they waited, Ella would have lost at least one of her ovaries, if not both of them. 

The surgery does put off her homecoming date...although we aren't sure when. There's still a good chance she could come home on Friday if she's doing really well, or it could be this weekend. I have pretty high hopes for Friday but I'm trying not to be too disappointed if it's NOT Friday. 

Today, Ella weighs 6 lbs exactly! Whoo hoo! Tomorrow is my due date and Ella is without a doubt the size of a newborn. She's over 20 inches and weighs 6 lbs. A small newborn, no doubt (well weight wise!!) but still, a newborn! 

What a day!!

Lots of things happening this week! Ella had her carseat test--which she passed. She had a kidney scan that showed the stones were still there but they weren't any worse and she had a brain ultrasound which showed that the stage one brain bleed had cleared itself up. Hurray! Totally on the right track! She's taken EVERYTHING by mouth since, I think, Saturday and is gaining weight. She's on 1/8 a liter at 100% O2.

Yesterday we found out that Shane's work is refusing to give him the law required FMLA. Don't get me started. Yes, we could fight it. Then he could lose his job. So we just decided it's not something we can deal with right now. They're giving him 2 weeks off after Christmas and we simply CANNOT be without his job. Plain and simple. Believe me, I've raged and raged about this and many a naughty word has slipped passed my lips so please don't tell us how we can fight it. It sucks but our family comes first and our family will be homeless without his job. So he only gets the day she comes home off and we had to fight even for that. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night, her night nurse found what appears to be a hernia on her vulva. Sigh. The NICU neonatologist thought it was a lymph node, our ICC neonatologist thought it was a hernia and the surgeon (who is a total A-hole), who hasn't even looked at it, is convinced it is a hernia and it's her ovary and it needs to be replaced immediately. Tomorrow he's coming to check her out and the surgery has been scheduled for tomorrow afternoon on the basis that if she doesn't need it, it can be cancelled. What really sucks about this was that this morning we were raring to go out the doors Thursday morning. If she has this surgery, according to the jerk surgeon, it would push it back to Friday. ::mental head bang:: I know, it's one day but Shane already has Thursday off as an approved day but we won't know till Thursday morning if she's going home on Thursday or Friday. It's been a lot of ups and downs today with all this hernia crap.

Tomorrow we have our O2, monitor and CPR brush up training and we'll learn her meds. The good news is that Ella should be home before the weekend (which Shane has to work..again, don't get me started).

Sorry this post is all over the place and doesn't flow well. I'm super busy and just writing while I pump.

Who cares........

ELLA'S COMING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

10w1d old--so close I can almost taste it!!

69 days old/days in NICU

Weight: 5 lbs 14 oz (+2 oz)

Countdown to D-day: 4 days

We're going in the right direction, that's for sure!!! Ella has her NG tube out--it came out yesterday and she's taking ALL feedings by mouth. She wakes up for all her feedings and eats more then she is "required" to eat (they have a certain amount she needs to eat based on her weight). She's on 1/4 liter of oxygen and needing about 65-70% O2. That sounds like a lot but keep in mind how much she's come down! If she comes home on oxygen, she'll come home on 100% so now it's just a matter of finding out if she can go down to 1/8 liter or if she needs to stay at 1/4 liter. They are working on fine tuning that!


ETA: I JUST TALKED TO ELLA'S DOCTOR. HE'S BRINGING HER DOWN TO 1/8 A LITER AND THAT'S WHAT SHE'LL COME HOME ON. 

The doctor ordered her carseat test this weekend!!!!!!!! So that'll be done next week. At this point, I see NO reason why we won't be home by late next week or possibly the weekend. She has some medications she's on that they'd like to be able to get her weaned off of. Her neonatologist wants her to get off the diuretics so we can take her off the sodium and the potassium. We're SO close!! My due date is in FOUR days! 

Yesterday, we got a storm to remember. This one will be talked about for YEARS to come. I heard it was somewhere around 2 feet of snow. I tried to get to the hospital yesterday morning but I started driving and visibility was almost nothing so I had to turn around and go home after just a few blocks. I stayed home all day with Olivia and Shane ended up going to work then coming right back home because they took the plows off. If he had listened to me in the first place...I TOLD him not to go in!! Anyways, I got LOTS of cooking done for our freezer for when Ella comes home! Double batch of meatballs for whatever we want to use them for, stir fry, chicken caccitore and I also got some cleaning done! I still have some more cleaning to do before she gets home...hopefully I can get that done tomorrow! Today, my mom is coming over early and Shane and I will go to the hospital. He's dropping me off so he can take my car to work (4 wheel drive on mine) and I'm staying all night and into tomorrow. Ella's on demand feeding now so she can breastfeed and bottle whenever she wants!! 

Exciting things happening!! 9w5d old

66 days old/days in NICU

Weight: 5 lbs 12.5 oz (-10 grams)

Well first of all it appears that I've labeled some entries wrong. TODAY Ella is actually 9w5d old. I'm not going to go back and fix them though. 

I didn't get to go in to see Ella today because I woke up at 4:00 AM with a BAD flu bug! I curled up in bed, popped Mickey Mouse on the Mac and we watched TV in bed for half the day. Then we went into the living room and watched a movie out there. Such as life when you have the terrible flu. But I've been calling the ICC to check on Ella and of course her doctor called me today and left a message with some VERY exciting news! Ella has been moved down to .5 liter of pressure on her O2. She's only needing 36% O2 on that so they'll probably be able to move her down even MORE!! AND she's getting all feedings by mouth. Last time I talked to her nurse, she had taken a bottle all day long. These are all things that are necessary for Ella to get home. I am thinking that by tomorrow, maybe Saturday, we'll know Ella's coming home date!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited...yet so nervous too. I'm nervous about her coming home on O2...and I'm nervous about her NOT coming home on O2. I'm nervous she won't breastfeed...I'm nervous she will get sick and end up back at the hospital...I'm nervous she won't gain weight....a whole MYRIAD of thoughts rushing through my head!!! 

Sorry I have no pictures for today...hopefully we'll have an even BETTER update tomorrow!!