9 Month Update

I wanted to share a quick update on Maggie. She is fantastic. Her 9 month appointment was perfectly uneventful. She was 18 pounds and seems to be developing normally. She's starting to feed herself, rolls all over the house and I know she's going to be crawling very soon. She is just a sweetie and loves to be everywhere her sister is. 

Tomorrow is our follow-up appointment with the neonatologists at the U of M. This appointment was set up the day we left the NICU in early November. Hard to believe the day has arrived. I believe the doctors will be checking to make sure Maggie is developing properly. I think she is doing just great, but it will be nice to have confirmation.

Maggie is just amazing. She is so sweet. She loves to talk, watch American Idol, and play with her sister Cece. The nice weather has allowed us to go out on walks, which she also seems to enjoy.

Cece makes sure Maggie gets her tummy time in. In fact, she rolls her sister over and says "tubby time Maggie." And Maggie doesn't seem to mind.

I'll be sure to update our journal after tomorrow's appointment.

  

Thank You!

I want to take a moment to thank all of our friends and family for their love and support during our wild and crazy journey with Maggie. We certainly could not have made it through without you all. Thank you for the meals, the gifts, the babysitting, the dog walking, the house cleaning, etc. We cannot thank you enough.

Maggie is doing really well. This week she has started to coo and "talk" more. She gets the biggest kick out of our ceiling fan in the living room. She smiles at it all of the time. I like to think that she's smiling at her guardian angel, who must be quite entertaining.

I can't wait for all of the snow to disappear so we can go out on walks and see more of the world together.

Happy New Year!

A new year and a happy healthy baby is what we have. Maggie went to the clinic today for a weight check and she is now a whopping 8 lbs 10 oz. She has grown more 2 pounds in the last month! Jeff and I were so happy, given our eventful December with Maggie's hernia surgery.

Maggie's incision has healed nicely and she is eating great and sleeping great. She's starting to show us her adorable smile and is so interactive. She likes to hang out and play with her sister, look at her mobile, stare at our faces and everything. I feel like we've waited so long for these moments to come. I'm going to cherish every moment I can in the next few weeks before I have to go back to work.

  

Recovery

Home again. Maggie was discharged this morning. She spent the last 24 hours making up for those missed feedings yesterday. Her recovery in the hospital was quick and without any drama. She stayed to be monitored overnight just because of her age, otherwise this is an outpatient surgery.

Maggie is now sleeping peacefully and getting the rest she needs to feel better. I'm so happy to have her home again.

Surgery

Maggie is out of surgery and doing fine! She is such a brave girl. She couldn't eat several hours before surgery and we were so worried that she would cry for hours, but she was a rock star. Jeff gave her a bottle of fortified B milk at 6 am and pedialyte at 8:30. That was all she had until after surgery. While we waited she just slept. Such a relief to us, especially since she was more than an hour late going in to surgery!

Her right inguinal hernia was repaired and she did not have a hernia on the left. She came out of surgery just fine. I was able to nurse her at 4:30. She is taking Tylenol and Advil for pain.

We are at U of M Amplatz Children's hospital. I don't like it here. It makes me so sad to hear little kids and babies crying. I pray that we never have to bring our girls here for anything. I am thankful that Maggie is doing as great as she is. I look forward to weeks we don't need to see doctors or nurses or have to deal with shots or surgeries. It seems to be one thing after another. I'm just so exhausted. Good thing Maggie isn't too phased by all of this! I should take a page from her playbook on how to be calm, cool and collected.

Hernia

Maggie and I spent the morning at the clinic. Last night I noticed she might have a hernia in her groin, so I made an appointment to get her checked out this morning. Sure enough, it's as I expected.

We have to take her on Monday to the U of M to consult with a surgeon. The doctor we saw today says it's pretty likely that they will have to operate. The doctor said that preemies are more prone to hernias.

It doesn't seem to hurt her, but we have to keep a close eye on Maggie until her Monday appointment to make sure things don't change.

On a more positive note, Maggie weighed 6 lbs 13 oz today. She's been growing an ounce a day this past week. That expains all of the frequent feedings.