We're Home!!!

Mary is home. YEAH!!!! I will post more later, but wanted to let everyone know that Mary was discharged from the hospital this morning.

Test Results

Mary passed her car seat and hearing tests with flying colors and is clear to leave on Friday. So, Jason and I are officially in house preparation mode. Wish us luck!!

Mary will be home on....

Friday. She is doing great and is ready to come home immediately, but her doctor wants her to stay at the hospital for seven days following the last time they gave her a dose of caffeine. That was last Thursday at noon. I am hoping that they will let her go sooner, but whatever is best. She is so active and it is amazing how much she has already changed. I will keep everyone posted. Thank you for all of your prayers!!

Home Stretch

It is hard to believe that Mary is already two weeks old. She has made much progress over the last few days. On Friday night, she weighed in at 4 lbs., 1/4 oz. Four pounds is important because it means that she can be moved from the isolet to an open crib. Check out her new bed:

One of the many bonuses of the new bed is getting to wear clothes. Although her first outfit was technically a Baptist t-shirt, the first outfit that I put on her was "a little black dress."

She is definitely crying & screaming much more now that she is out of the isolet. I guess being exposed to cold air helps her to cry. I haven't heard her cry since she was born. Who knew how exciting a screaming baby could be? The bottle light bulb seems to have finally gone on. She is really starting to take her bottle. She took all of her feedings by bottle today. They actually removed her feeding tube. Here is a picture of her beautiful face free of any cords & tubes:

We are trying not to get our hopes up, but the nurses told us tonight that there was a good chance that Mary would be discharged by Tuesday. Can you believe it?? Everyone keep your fingers crossed. Mary still has to pass her car seat test, hearing test and keep eating from her bottle. The car seat test is when Mary is placed in her car seat for the time it will take to drive her home from the hospital. They monitor her vitals and make sure that she remains stable.

The nurses in the NICU have been so great!!! Here is the art project that they put together for Mary:

Hopefully Hayden is still this excited once Mary comes home!!

Holding Pattern

Let me begin by saying that Mary is doing fabulous. She weighs in at 3 lbs., 15 oz. as of today, which is almost her birth weight. Unfortunately, I feel like we are in a holding pattern waiting to reach our final destination. She needs to put on more weight and master taking a bottle to come home. Mary is eating once a day from a bottle, but it takes her quite a while to make it through the feeding. The longer it takes her to take the bottle, the more calories/energy that Mary burns causing her to lose weight. In order to maintain and gain weight, the nurses have to take it slow with bottle feedings. So right now, the two criteria to get her home work against each other. Some days it can be quite frustrating and some days are more emotional than others. I just want her home.

We are balancing time between Mary and Hayden, which seems wrong on so many levels. I feel guilty when I am with Mary because I am not with Hayden and guilty when I am with Hayden because I am not with Mary. Hopefully, we will have Mary home soon and we can spend time together as a family.

My parents have been absolute life savers. They are either driving me to the hospital, visiting the hospital or babysitting Hayden. We would be in such a mess without them.

One Week Update

I can't believe that Mary has been here for a full week. She is doing better and better everyday. They have taken the oxygen away. They feel that this will no longer be an issue and have actually turned off the oxygen intake monitor. They are trying to work on Mary eating from a bottle and Jason got to feed her today. She actually gained an ounce and now weighs in at 3 lbs. 12.5 oz. They are also letting us hold her every time that we visit now, which has been a change. My parents got to hold her last night for the first time. Here are a few pictures.

The Latest

All is going as well as can be expected. Mary's weight seems to be stablizing and she is taking more formula everyday. She has been put back on oxygen because she has had a few episodes where she has stopped breathing. According to the doctors, it is perfectly normal for preemies around age 3 to 5 days to have this happened. They sleep so deeply that they stop breathing because their brain does not yet have the ability to tell the lungs to take an involuntary breath. I Wednedswish they had warned me because it certainly scared the heck out of me. She is still under the jaundice lamp, but her color looks much better today and they are hoping to take her out from under it by tomorrow. We can't wait so that she can actually look around again. They keep her eyes covered and she gets quite frustrated when we are talking to her and she can't see us. We are also hoping to get to hold her tomorrow. They have been trying to let her rest, so we haven't been able to hold her since Wednesday morning.

Here are a few updated pictures.

Hayden had her first soccer practice on Tuesday. Jason said it was quite entertaining. I think she had a great time and here are a few updated pictures of Hayden:

The Stork made an early delivery

For those who have not heard the news, Mary Amelia Duff arrived on Sunday, August 10th to everyone's surprise. The scary part is that I was only 32 weeks, the great news is that Mary is doing wonderful. She weighed in at 3 lbs., 15 1/4 oz. and was 18 inches long. My water broke on Sunday morning and despite all of their best efforts, my labor could not be stopped. Of course, my water broke in Target and poor Jason had to come into the women's restroom to get me once I realized what had happened. I didn't realize that they can delay the baby's birth up to 8 weeks even if your water has broken, but they can. We actually thought that my labor had stopped, but as soon as we talked everyone into going home, Mary decided it was time to make her debut. Luckily my doctor was on call and at 4:39 PM, Mary was here.

She is going to have to stay in the NICU for a few weeks, hopefully only 2 weeks. It was definitely the scariest moment of my life because it was so early, but her lungs seem to be fully developed and once she learns how to take a bottle, we can take her home. Evidently, that skill comes along around 34 weeks. Here are a few pictures and hopefully her next shots will be at home. Thank you to everyone for their prayers & well wishes!!!

Baby Update

I went to the OB yesterday and we have reached the 32 week mark. Wow, time flies. According to Dr. Moran, we should expect Mary no later than 38 weeks and possibly as early as 36 weeks. Only 4 to 6 weeks to go. I am officially in panic mode. I am more panicked this time than I was with Hayden. We have so much left to do.

I am now also beginning to have one ultrasound and one non-stress test each week. I had an ultrasound this morning. It was pretty quick. It is what they call a BPP ultrasound. The tech told me what that stood for and I have already forgotten. Basically, she just checked the heart rate, lung development and amniotic fluid. She said everything looked great. My amniotic fluid has dropped slightly, but not by an alarming amount.

We also got more ultrasound pictures. I am going to be able to fill up an entire photo album with ultrasound pictures before Mary even arrives.