Getting Closer to Home

Even though there have been no posts for a few days, everything is going very well. When we realized that Farrah could be home as soon as this week, I called in reinforcements to help get the house ready for Farrah's homecoming. My mother flew out here on Friday morning and stayed until today. Together we were able to get the nursery ready and get odds and ends that I had not been able to pick up. We put together baby items that still needed to be assembled. Who would have thought that a baby bouncer seat could be a challenge to put together? Ray built the stroller on Saturday night and ours\ cats were quick to scope out all the new items. Now we are way more ready than we were on Thursday. My mother and I also had a really nice visit and had a blast folding all the tiny little clothes and decorating Farrah's room. There are a few finishing touches for Farrah's room and then I will post some photos on here.

Farrah had a great weekend. She passed the car seat test on Saturday night. For those who aren't familiar with the test, a NICU baby needs to sit in a car seat for 90 minutes without any drops in heartrate or desaturations. Farrah passed the test! That means that Farrah is one step closer to coming home. Farrah has been able to continue bottle feeding without any trouble and is up to 60 mLs each feed. During her feeding times, Farrah starts off very alert and then gets sleepier and sleepier as the feeding goes on. All the milk she is consuming is adding up, as tonight Farrah weighed 4 pounds, 4.5 ounces.

We made a decision about Farrah's vaccinations and will only be giving her one set while she is in the hospital. Then we will follow up with Farrah's pediatrician for the rest. We pray that Farrah has no setbacks after receiving her shot. On Tuesday night, we will be "rooming in" with Farrah as part of the NICUs encouragement to parents to spend 12 hours taking care of their baby before bringing him/her home. Rooming in is supposed to give parents an even better idea of what to expect and oftentimes brings questions to the forefront that parents never knew they had. On Wednesday morning, we will be attending the discharge class. We keep writing down questions for the class since it seems like coming home with a preemie is a lot different than coming home with a full term baby. We need to go over infant CPR too. Everything is coming together and now we wait to see what day Farrah will be able to come home. If Farrah comes home by this Friday or Saturday, that will be right around her due date. It will

Some of you have asked about Ray's work situation. Thankfully, he has been able to sell cars while looking for other opportunities and he will be starting a new position with another company on October 1st. One of our local friend's opened up the door for him to interview with this company and now he will be working there. While I was out of the office earlier this summer during my hospital bed rest and then recovery from my c section, my time off came from disability and a corporate leave. Now that we have a dependent child with medical needs(prematurity with a low birth weight and chronic lung disease), I quality for FMLA, or federal leave. We are so happy that I will be able to take some time off when Farrah comes home. It is a HUGE answer to prayer.

Farrah is such a cutie! We are more in love with her every day.