Welcome Home Maddy!

Thursday: The doctors wrote in Maddy's chart "consider discharge soon." So the joke of the day was when is soon? How do I mark "soon" on my calendar, because those of you who know me well know I don't do well with wait and see situations. So we were laughing Thursday night that the doctors will probably call in the morning and say "come pick-up your baby, she's taking up too much space here."

Friday: I'm laying around when Georgia when I see the hospital show up on my cell phone. In my head I'm thinking, you have got to be kidding me. Nope... a couple minutes later I hear; "I think Madelyn is ready to come home... what time can you come in to get her?"

So... we are officially checked out of the NICU. It still feels pretty surreal. We said goodbye to the doctors and nurses but I don't think it has all really sunk in yet. We have a million follow up appointments and labs to take the girls to but for the most part we are done with all this hospital nonsense. We will no longer be spending every evening trucking up to the hospital to hang out by Maddy's bed, and while I will miss chatting it up with a couple of the best nurses around I think it's a good deal.

What a beautiful sight...








Both girls are doing wonderful. Maddy was having some issues with reflux at the hospital but I am happy to say that has gottne much better since she has been home. Georgia has been giving us a hard time for the past few weeks, refusing to sleep in her bed. I thought and hoped that maybe she just needed some company. Well, both girls slept like angels in their own room last night! It was so cute to watch them grunt and whine to each other and then both relax and fall asleep.

Last night as we sat in the girls room feeding them with the cats curled up on the floor I said to Craig, "this is the first time our whole family has been together..." Life is good.

Hanging in There

When I started to write this post I was thinking not a whole lot has changed since the last time I posted but actually many good things have happened. Maddy is recovering well from surgery, she is eating and farting and pooping, oh my! The docs quickly moved her up to full feeds and just as we were thinking we were going to sail out of there without looking back she started having some issues... She is taking her bottles well, which are currently a mixture of breast milk and formula with some extra fiber, protein and vitamins added in. They've added the formula and extras to help her get some quick calories as she has been having trouble gaining weight. A main source of her weight gain issues is her throwing up. It seems at least once or twice a day she just kind of explodes during/right after a feeding. So when this happens she ends up missing out on a big amount of food and calories that should be helping her gain weight and come home. She has been a little up and down on her weight lately but she currently weighs about 6lbs 6oz. So in essence, we are just hanging in there. It's more frustrating some days than others. We keep getting so close and then it just slips away but I am trying hard to focus on how far both of the girls have come.

Georgia is doing wonderful at home. She is 6lb 14 oz!! I think she likes being home, everything that is except her bed. She has this radar that kicks in the minute I put her in her bed and her eyes pop open and she starts to grunt and then slowly build to a full blown freak-out until she gets picked up. This has made for a somewhat zombie-like and sleepy creature as a replacement for a mom. Here's hoping she outgrows this some time in the near future. I can't wait until they are teaming up to steal my sleep. :O)