Growing

We had another visit from a home health nurse today affiliated with Children's hosptial. Maggie is now 5 lbs 9 ounces. She is growing at a good rate and within the acceptable range of weight gain the doctors have set for her. We have another appointment on Tuesday to check her weight.

Adjusting and Not Adjusting

As I write this, Maggie is sleeping peacefully in her swing, while her sister is having a major protest about going to bed. Cece has been having a hard time this week sharing attention with Maggie. She doesn't quite understand why she can't instantly have her way. The joys of parenting.

Maggie seems to be getting bigger and bigger each day. We have a home health nurse coming on Thursday to examine Maggie and weigh her. I'm guessing she'll be nearing 6 pounds.
I had my 6 week post partum appointment today. My c-section incision seems to be healing just fine. I am experiencing some pain still, which is from the scar tissue. Nothing lots of advil can't fix.

Home + 1 Week

It's Saturday and Maggie has been home with us an entire week. She is just so cute and sweet. I've really enjoyed getting to know her more.

She's so easy. She eats like a champ and sleeps like a rock. We no longer have to wake her up to eat. She has developed her own sleep/wake patterns that are like clockwork. She eats about every 3 1/2 hours and easily goes back to sleep. Compared to her sister, she is a dream baby! (Cece was incredibly colicky the first 3 months)

Cece has adjusted to being a big sister. She is very helpful. She brings her sister diapers, hats, burp cloths, etc.

Home Health Visit

We had a visit from a home health nurse yesterday to see how Maggie has been progressing over the weekend. She has gained weight since discharge, which is awesome! I guess we know what we're doing after all. All day Sunday I think we were overfeeding her. Milk coming out of her nose is not a good thing.

Today, we took Maggie to the clinic to get her checked out. Maggie got a clean bill of health. We'll Take her back in a month or so to check her hemoglobin and either will take her to the clinic to get her weighed every week or have a nurse come over to weigh her at home. She'll also get another RSV shot in a month or so.

We're settling into a routine at home and Cece's learning how to be a good big sister. It's so nice to have everyone under the same roof!

HOME AT LAST!

After nearly 6 long weeks, Maggie is finally home. We were discharged yesterday afternoon from the NICU. Maggie is doing just great. Cece loved meeting her sister and was very cute during their first encounter. She has been trying to figure out how to help out with the baby, and we're trying to figure that out too.

Maggie has been great for us. She is a perfect angel. She is eating every 3 hours or so. We have to be sure to wake her if she doesn't wake up 3-4 hours since her last feeding. We are working moving from bottle feeds to nursing, but still have to make sure she is eating enough to stay hydrated and gain weight. We have to nurse, then offer her a bottle.

At some point she'll be weaned off of the bottles. The more practice she gets and the stronger she gets the faster this will go. For now, it's a lot of work, but totally worth it.

It's so nice to get to know Maggie more. I've actually heard her cry a few times. She is an easy baby. She just eats and easily goes back to sleep. Cece is not so easy, but happy that Mom is finally home, too.

Roomies!

Jeff and I have moved to the East Wing with Maggie. We are in our own private room and responsible for her care! Yikes! We just finished her first feeding. It was rather difficult to give her the bottle, since we're still learning, but we managed to get her fed.

If Maggie is able to gain weight overnight, we can bring her home tomorrow morning. If not, we will be here another day and bring her home on Sunday.

Jeff is kangarooing Maggie and I just made popcorn so we can watch National Treasure!

Ready to Room In

Maggie moved to cue based feeds today and met all of her goals for the first 12 hours! This means she took the required volume set by her docs all by mouth (no gavage).

Jeff came with to the hospital today and gave Maggie a bottle (and did an amazing job, might I add). She now has to meet her goals for the next 12 hours and then we move to ad lib feeds, which are less strict/regimented.

Tomorrow we get to move in to the East Wing for the weekend of rooming in with Maggie. We'll basically be responsible for her care around the clock (of course with the nurses just down the hall on call in case we have questions or need help). She'll be coming home with us on Sunday or Monday (all depends on how well she does). I'm hoping Sunday.

Tomorrow I'll be at the hospital for the mid morning to mid afternoon, then I'll go home for dinner with the family and Jeff and I will come back to settle in with Maggie for the weekend. My folks are coming up to watch Cece and our furry babies (Ole and Artie).

Homeward Bound!

It's Wednesday and Maggie is doing gangbusters! Last night she passed her car seat test (had to sit in her seat for one hour with no issues). Today, Maggie is in the swanky new nursery - Nursery 7. It's really pretty and peaceful in there. Very zen.

Tomorrow she is 5 weeks old (36 weeks 2 days) and Maggie will move to cue based feeds. After about 24-48 hours of success, she'll no longer need her gavage feedings. This means that we're looking at "rooming in" with Maggie by the weekend and bringing her home Sunday or Monday!!!

I'm so excited that our time in the NICU is nearing an end. This has been an emotional, stressful and trying five weeks for our entire family. We certainly could not have made it through without the love, prayers and support of so many wonderful family members and amazing friends. Thank you to everyone who has helped us out. We are so greatful.

We will continue to keep everyone posted on Maggie's progress!

Going home soon!

Maggie is so close to going home!
Maggie has done remarkably well over the weekend with her feedings and the nurses and doctors say that she's very close to coming home. The oral stimulation has really made a difference in nursing and bottle feedings. I asked the nurses to give Maggie bottles when she indicates she wants to eat. She took an entire feeding via bottle overnight, has really increase the volume she takes nursing and is starting to show more and more feeding cues (wakes when she's hungry, starts rooting, putting her hands in her mouth, etc).

It will probably be a day or two before she moves to cue based feedings (meaning feeding Maggie when she wakes up and is hungry). She's progressing very fast so I've committed to being at the hospital this week for her 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. feedings.

This quick progress means that it's (finally) a real possibility that we'll be rooming in with Maggie by the weekend and then bringing her home!!! Tomorrow we'll do her car seat test, which is one of the things we need to do still before she comes home. She has to be able to sit in her seat for a certain period of time without any problems. I'm sure she'll do great.