I am a big girl!!

We have been home for 2 weeks now and we have already had 3 follow up appointments. At our last pediatrician check up, Zoë was 7 lb and 9 ozs. She is a big girl now. Preemie clothes do not fit anymore. She is wearing Newborn sized clothes. We can tell she has gotten bigger.

Next week to are taking another visit with the surgeon and the pulmonologist. Hopefully he will agree with us that Zoë doesnt need the oxygen any longer. We like the apnea monitor since it lets us know when she stops to breathe. Luckily it has never gone off while she sleeps and only when she is eating, but it has not gone off in a week. When it used to go off was when she was half asleep and trying to eat.

She is doing really good and we seem to have her routine down packed. Zoë also took 2 trips besides the Drs. On Thursday we all went to Home Depot to get tape to start painting her room (it will be done by Memorial day, right Daddy!). Then she took her first trip to Pei Wei. This will be her first of many trips to Pei Wei as Daddy is starting to train again to run another marathon in the fall. Today we went to eat lunch, went to Baby's R Us then to Ikea. She had a very busy Saturday. She did really well. I also swear that Zoë laughed the other day. She smiled really big and then it sounded like a giggle. Daddy thinks that I imagined it. She is a 3 month old stuck in a newborn body. She holds up her head and is awake during the day, more then your average new born.

All three of us are doing really well. More to come as things happen. :)

Zoë's home

Zoë has been home for one week now. It is really nice to have her home. The three of us have adjusted to being together. The first night we were really sleepy but both Mommy and Daddy got up to take care of Zoë. It took her one night to get used to her new surroundings. Now that a week has passed we have seemed to find her patterns and we are all doing well. Family nap time during the day really helps. Zoë also was able to meet all of her cousins. They weren't able to go to the NICU. Since all but 2 were under 12 years of age.

She did come home on .2 liters of oxygen and an apnea monitor. I think this is why we are able to sleep in peace, when we do fall asleep. If she stops breathing for 18 seconds the alarm goes off and it is loud. So far it has only gone off a couple of times, all when she is eating. So we have had no scares while she is sleeping. She seems to suck and suck on the bottle and holds her breathe. It like she is too busy eating to take the time to breathe. We also have an oxygen concentrator in the house with portable oxygen tanks when we need to leave the house. She is way over her daily volumes that we need to watch for in her feeding. She is supposed to get 220 cc every 12 hours and she is eating about 260 cc every 12 hours. We have a lot of Drs. to follow up with. We have an appointment every week with a different Dr., this is ok, since it is to make her better and she is home now.

We have always wondered what Zoë used to do when at the NICU. Now we now. She eats, sleeps and when she is wake she looks around at everything. She it awake about 3-5 hour straight during the day. She likes cuddle time. Noises don't even bother her. She is also a big chatter box when she is awake. She loves to look around

And for all those that ask, her room is still not ready. Even though it is not ready, Zoë has taken over all the other rooms in the house. She sleeps in Mommy's and Daddy's room in her bassinet. We haven't left the house, only to go to her pediatrician's visit and the follow up with the surgeon. Maybe we will all leave the house next week. Daddy's says he'll have it ready by next week.

The surgeon follow up visit was a good one. Zoë is healing very nicely and everything looks like it should. Mommy is home from work for the rest of the month. She will go back to work the first week in June. So this time is being spent to be with Zoë.

We will continue to post items here since Zoë's recovery is not 100% complete. Plus a lot of you want to know how she is doing. We are taking visitors at home as long as you are not sick. Just call us, if it is during the day, since we may be away at one of her appointments.

Zoë was 3 months old yesterday. In some ways she acts like a 3 month old, but is in a body of a newborn and has a lot of newborn behaviors. She also is wearing newborn diapers and has grow out of her preemie clothes. She is wearing newborn and 0-3 month old clothes.

We do want to thank all the nurses, Drs., respiratory therapist and nurse practitioners that took care of Zoë, we do miss all of you. That was the hard part of leaving. We left a lot of new friends. You know who you are and have our information. We are glad that we met you all. Zoë also misses you and sends you kisses.

Here are some pictures of Zoë from this week:

Here I am in my bassinet

I love to sleep in my stroller.

I was sleeping on Mommy's lap

I am sitting up like a big girl playing with Mommy

It's Go Time....

That's right, today is the day Zoë comes home !!!!!

We're waiting on the discharge process which should take a couple of hours. Mommy has been with her for most of the day, daddy had a few meetings but managed to figure out the car seat base with Tio Naz. On her last day she had a bath that Mommy gave to her all on her own and she had a play date with a couple of babies in the NICU. We have a bassinet ready that we got from Tia Bere and Tio Rick. Zoë is coming home on oxygen and an apnea monitor, the oxygen is at .2 liters at 100%. The monitor is cool, it is loud, so if she holds her breath for more than 18 secs. the alarm goes off. She's been doing well, hasn't beeped in awhile, she only holds her breath when she's eating, still working on the suck, swallow, breath thing. She has done well with her ad-lib feedings she takes in anywhere from 65-75 cc's per feeding, about 2-2.5 ozs. They did find a bit of reflux between her bladder and kidneys they said that she will eventually out grow it but she is coming home on a few medications. She weighed in at 3085 grams about 6 lbs. 13 ozs. and is about 20.5 inches long, this would have been her birth stats had she gone to term. OK we are ready, I think, the neonatologists just came to give us our discharge papers !!!!!!

Mommy & Daddy I'm ready !!!!

Today is my due date............

As the saying goes careful what you wish for cause you just might get it, Amy and I came in on Thursday night and she was doing well so as we were leaving the nurse practitioner stopped to talk to us and said that she may be home in less than 2 weeks with oxygen which is normal. This the first time that anyone has talked to us about going home so it was a bit surreal. We went to dinner and we were both in a state of shock. We devised a plan on her coming home in 2 weeks, so we woke up early and went to register at Babies R'Us which was interesting explaining our situation to the clerk. So we take care of that and we eat lunch and then take Amy back to see Zoë since Daddy had a work function. Today Zoë's central was to be taken out and she was going to begin ad-lib feeding, i.e we feed when she gets hungry not on pre-set schedule like has been on since birth. So Amy calls me as soon as she talks to the nurse and says guess what, they gave us a window for her discharge, between THIS Tuesday and THIS Thursday, holy crap !!!!!!!

Amy and I have been waiting for this day and we always knew it would get here but this has been a roller coaster ride and this came out of left field (which I will playing for my men's baseball team on Sunday). She's currently on .6 litters at 21% oxygen which is just like room air. It looks like she may not come home with oxygen but they are going to start to test her out tomorrow without nasal cannulas. This will be cool because it will be first time she doesn't have anything cover her face. She has taken well to the ad-lib feedings , she's taken in more than the what's required in a 12 hour shift. As I type we're waiting to see if she wakes up for a feeding, she had her 2 month vaccinations today, which she hated, yes like the U of A, so she may be out with the tylenol the gave her for any side effects.

Are we ready ? YES !! is the house ready NO !!! but we will manage as my mom put it she brought us all home in worse situation and we turned out just fine, I think.

Amy and I have been waiting for this for 77 days and we will only be here for no more than 5 more days and then Zoë is coming home !!!!!!!!!!!!

Please stay posted we will update more frequently as news breaks.