Picture Download

I don't have that many pictures from our nice camera to download. It was so dark most of the time in the hospital room and our phones ended up taking better pictures. But I wanted to download as much stuff as possible so I can start clean.

 I LOVE these...

I don't have really any pictures of Val - but it was AWESOME to have her visit. She helped out a ton, especially with entertaining Heidi. Val even took one for the team and cleaned my bathroom - say WHAT? Trust me, she probably should of had a hazmat suit on for that. The hairballs alone were the size of chihuahuas. We miss her a ton!

And the beginning of the at HOME pictures... First bath...

As you can tell - Heidi is being a great big sister!

Day of Firsts

Today was a day of firsts...

Lucy slept for a 6 hour period - ate her biggest amount to date and then slept another 3 hours.

Lucy had her first doctor's appointment with her new pediatrician - she is great - Lucy is good. It was more a meet and greet and go over the delayed plan for immunizations. Lucy weighed in at 8lbs 12ozs. We have another weight check next week and if it's good - then we are good until 2 months.

The whole family took a walk today to the park. I think Lucy will like the baby bjorn as much as Heidi did.

And... Brewski found and chewed up his first diaper. Gross. He dug it out of the trash. That booger and chewed it right by Lucy. I set her down in her pillow and discovered it.

I also captured a smile on camera - so fun!

It's so great to be home!

Going Home

After 11 days in the NICU, heart surgery, 3 days in the PICU and 6 days in the Neonatal Transitional Unit - Lucy is heading home!

Thank you to all the family and friends and everyone else that was worried about Lucy. Your support means the world to us and everything everyone has done is greatly appreciated.

Our Lucy (who is not so sure about the car seat) is ready to go home!

Last Night (Fingers Crossed)

We are 99.9% sure we will be going home tomorrow! Check out / discharge is usually between 11am and 1pm.

All the doctors and nurses agree we should be able to go home. So unless we have a bad night tonight...it's a go!

Lucy has been a little restless today. First it has just been busy. A lot of doctors checking her out, an ultrasound - which everything looks good, but the tech totally put too much pressure around her surgery incision and cause Lucy to be cranky for most of the afternoon. She just is having a rough day - she is cluster feeding - which always makes it interesting and sleeping in small increments. Hopefully she eats a larger chunk and the Tylenol helps and we all can get some rest. :)

Other good news is she won't have to have her diuretics anymore :) just Tylenol - we can handle that!

Our follow up doctors appointments have been made - we took all the classes that is required - the staff here even said - they aren't worried about us.

I just can't wait to get her home! Our little butterball which by the way she is weighing in at 8lbs 11ozs (I think she should have been this size since the beginning)

One Step Closer

I had a great night and day with Lucy. She ate a little less then desired during the night but her overall total for the day was a lot higher than the minimum requirement - so we are happy!

The rumor is...Tuesday is the day... I'm still hoping for tomorrow and plan a full campaign to the cardiologists tomorrow during rounds. But the end is in sight!

Chris is taking duty today and tonight. It will be interesting to see how he makes it through the night getting up every 3 hours.

We meet with the doctors tomorrow and we should confirm our for sure going home day - we will keep you posted! Lucy is strong and is rebounding quickly - time to get her home!

Transitional Unit Once Again!

We have officially moved to the transitional unit. It took forever - we had to wait for discharge and for a room to be available and we didn't get more until 4:30pm.

But - Lucy is doing well. She has been waking up early for feeds and eating on average of 70ml. She has no IVs anymore and doesn't need her nose feed either. Her last dose of Tylenol was at 9am and so far she doesn't seem to need it.

Lucy is on a once daily diuretic that we might have to do at home too. She looks great today and I'm hoping it will only be for a few days.

As soon as we got here, we asked what it will take to get her home. Basically, she needs to eat 60ml around every three hours. She needs to be checked by the doctors and if she stays on the diuretics, then we need to prove to them we can give it. I don't want to jinx it, but for the first time, I feel like our move home is VERY close...

Lucy got a much needed bath from the nurse and myself - wow she can scream now! But she was crusty and needed it. I may be wrong but I swear she has some curl or at least some wave to her hair...we just have to wait and see!

I feel like we are sooooo close to being able to go home - keep it up Lucy!

Lucy is Better

Lucy is rocking it out today! She was able to have all but one IV removed. Her drainage tube is out and she is just left with two monitors.

She has also been eating out of a bottle really well! Lucy is doing so well they almost moved us to the transitional unit today, but the doctor wanted one more night here and plan to move her tomorrow.

Lucy is a little puffy and they did give her a dose of diuretics. Puffiness is expected after surgery. Each hour she looks better and better. They really tried to not put too much tape on her as she is for sure allergic to tape and band aids. Luckily her red marks seem to disappear quickly.

The only thing we have to get use to is now we need to pick her up by her butt and head only - no arm pit grabs because of her surgery incision. That will take some practice. Also we can't burp her like normal until it heals - so that will take practice as well.

We are so happy that we are moving quickly into recovery - now we just need to find out what it will take to get her home!