She's Home!

Baby Girl arrived home at noon today!  We're off and running as a family of 6!  Excuse the blog hiatus while I try to rest and regain my sanity.

May 18th, 2012

Tomorrow's the day!

Baby Girl gets to go home tomorrow!!  I'm beyond excited.  I'll be headed to the hospital in just a bit. Baby Girl and I are having a girls' night.  This will be a really good time to make sure her and I are on the same page with nursing and such.  Then tomorrow the rest of the family is going to be coming to pick us up.  I'm looking forward to all SIX of us being together!  Praise God for all of the blessings my family has received over this week!  We are so grateful.

May 17th, 2012

She was promoted!

Baby Girl finally passed all the tests and made her way into a crib today!  It was so wonderful to hear this news.  Now we wait...once again.  She has to be able to maintain her body temperature, continue her feedings, and gain weight to go home.  We're hoping to be holding our little girl in our home by the weekend.

Poor Baby Girl's pod at the NICU filled up today, so they put her between two "sicker" babies off in a corner.  She looks so lost there.  I kept wanting to walk up to the nurses and say, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."  Ha!

May 16th, 2012

Getting better every day!

It's been a bittersweet Mother's Day.  I had my first day of baby blues - so that's come with quite a lot of tears.  Between things going on in the NICU that made me nervous, feeling completely judged at Mass this afternoon because of my semi-loud oldest daughter, and arguing with my husband over my crazy misinterpretation of situations...I'm completely drained from crying.  This has happened after each of my babies though...I think it's just a bit elevated because I don't have a sweet little one to hold onto all the time.

Baby Girl gave mommy a wonderful day of gifts.  This morning her nurse let me take her out of the jaundice lights and hold her for 20 minutes.  It was absolute bliss!  She's so tiny and so cuddly...a 5 pound reminder of God's amazing handiwork.  This afternoon Baby Girl's doctor took her off the lights completely (no more jaundice), stopped her antibiotics (all negative cultures), and increased her tube feedings to 1 ounce every 3 hours.  Our last and only hold up now is her breathing rates.  Those were still up in the 80s all last night but have dropped into the 60s over the last 6-8 hours.

She looks so much better without all the extra stuff on her!

May 13th, 2012

Our little Smurf Baby!

She's even beautiful in blue!

May 12, 2012

Baby Girl Update...

They decided to have Baby (better nickname to come after we've gotten to know her a bit) admitted to NICU yesterday evening.  Her breathing is still right around 80.  And this morning they had started her on the jaundice lights - although that was more from precaution than it was because she actually needed it.  They're just assuming that she'll become jaundiced based on the history of our other children. This afternoon they inserted a feeding tube down her throat and are slowly giving her colostrum/formula.

From what I can understand - she will have to keep her breathing rate under 60 for at least 12 hours.  They'll then work on getting her to eat from a bottle.  Lastly they'll give her the crib test - two days in a crib to make sure she stays stable.

They're going to kick me out on Tuesday.  Based on the requirements for Baby to come home - I don't think she'll be joining us until at least the end of the week.  This thought kills me.  Please pray that she won't have to stay here too long.  I'm so eager to just sit and hold her.

May 12th, 2012

Welcoming our little...

GIRL!!

She arrived at 12:17 pm, weighing in at 5 pounds 15 ounces and 18.5 inches long.

She's absolutely beautiful!  We're still trying to figure out who she looks like.

We may be looking at some NICU time shortly.  Her breath rate is between 60 and 80.  It should be around 20.  This also effects her ability to eat.  Right now her blood sugar level is pretty good, but if it drops before her breath rates drop then she will be put on an IV in the NICU.  No fun at all!  Any prayer you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

May 11th, 2012

Update on Baby #4!

Really, there is no update.  I'm still fat and uncomfortable, and baby is happy and comfortable right where he/she is.  The doctor says that I'm no more dilated than a woman who has had four pregnancies would be at 36 weeks.  And that the baby is still high.

So now we're playing the waiting game.  Do I think I'll make it to the 39 week delivery date?  Probably not...I've never made it past 37 weeks.  However, I'm telling myself that I have 21 more days to meet our new sweet baby so I don't get too impatient.  It's made my days much easier to get through.  Not much longer now!

May 10th, 2012

Irritable Me!

Well, at least my uterus is!  The doc gave me the diagnosis this morning after I sat for three hours hooked up to the TOCO monitor.  Like clockwork, I watched and FELT contractions every 3-10 minutes.  Some of them were severe enough to cause discomfort while others were just a blip on the machine, but they were there.  Apparently they're not doing anything to progress labor - as I'm still at 1cm.  This all boils down to what is called irritable uterus.  Which basically means I could be having these contractions for the next 3 weeks!  Yeah!!  I'm thrilled!  ;)

However, my doc recommended I get some help for the next week and rest.  He is strongly against me having this baby before the 36 week mark.  The recliner and I are going to be very good friends this week.  I'm going to attempt to not be miserable.  Have you met me?  Have you seen my schedule?  I have things to be doing...all the time!  I really have no idea how I'm going to not do these things.  This will definitely be a test for me to see how well I can really let go and let God!  

I'm thankful for one more day of cooking for this baby!  Each day gives us more of a chance for a healthy, healthy little one!  

I'm still pregnant!

It occurred to me that since I first wrote that we were expecting blessing #4 I haven't written a single thing about the pregnancy.  I guess that's what happens when you have 3 other blessings to chase after.  You seem to forget about being pregnant most of the time!

Well, here I sit 35 weeks in.  This has been a wonderful pregnancy.  I had the normal sickness during the first trimester, but I've already forgotten how miserable it was.  Hubby and I have been anticipating having this baby earlier than our expected due date of June 4th since all of our other children were born no later than 37 weeks.  This was basically confirmed Saturday morning as I drove myself to the hospital for a shot of terbutaline to control contractions.  Since then I've been taking another "contraction stopper" med every four hours - which seems to not exactly be doing the trick.

Our goal is to make it at least until 36 weeks - we're so very eager to meet our little guy/girl!  I can't believe I'll soon be holding a squishy newborn again!

In other news - two of my best friends are both expecting their #4 as well!  These are two of the gals that jumped off the cliff into the homeschooling world with me.  You would've thought that this first year of having all the kids home with us would've been horribly traumatic - but wouldn't ya know it...each of us decided to add one more child into the mix!

Hopefully the next time I write about baby #4 I'll be posting a picture as well!