1 month birthday!

Well, today was Chloe's one month birthday and we forgot to celebrate...already starting off on the wrong foot, huh? She'll probably never know the wiser though, will she?!

Things are going well so far. We still don't have the nighttime thing figured out perfectly, but we're making headway. Tonight, she went to bed at 8pm, we'll see how long she stays there...so far, its 10:10 and she's not really made a peep. She'll probably be up around 11, 3 and 5, but who really knows? She loves being held-to a fault, perhaps? When she cries in teh middle of the night, if it goes on for longer than a short while, we'll go in and get her, try to feed her, but often, she just wants to sleep in our arms. Its quite cute, but annoying too because by the time we realize it, its an hour later and we've been sleeping on the chair together. Fortunately, we do both get to sleep, but unfortunately, its not in our respective beds. Oh well, I imagine this will get better with time, right?

As you can imagine, we've had a pretty busy month! I can say though that we have some great friends and family-no doubts about it! This past weekend, Susan and her 2 younger girls and her mom came up for the weekend. We had a great time. Visits from friends are always too short though! I did manage to get a few pictures, hopefully Susan can send me some others though!

The month of May will be a busy one for us too, but busy fun-hopefully! We're going to Branson, MO and Silver Dollar City May 13-15, then Destin, FL May 23-30! We also have Chase's birthday, Mother's Day and our 7th wedding anniversary too! WOW! Doesn't sound like a cheap month, does it? Well, it'll all be worth it, I'm sure! Who knows when I'll get to post in May, but I promise I will!

Below are some pictures from the month. Trust me, I could bombard you with several hundred more, so I'm trying to be thoughtful!

Some poses from our Sweet Pea!

Chase and his baby sister that he is SOOOO proud of!

Chloe's first bath, but Chase wasn't far behind, of course!

Easter at Amanda's house. Aren't they cute???

I'll post pictures from this weekend on another post!

love to all!

Carrie

She's home!!!!

Whew, we finally made it home! We came home on Friday, April 3rd at about 4pm! That morning, I called the NICU to check on our girl and our 'favorite' nurse, Maureen, was back. She had watched Chloe the weekend before and assured us that Chloe wouldn't still be here when she came back to work on Friday. When I called on Friday morning, she said she was sorry to see her still there, but she would do whatever she could to get Chloe discharged that day. She asked if we'd be ok if we didn't 'room in'. The policy is that if you have a baby in NICU, you spend one more night in the hospital to make sure everyone is comfortable with everything and then go home the next day. It was a long day and a lot of work, but Maureen was able to convince the Doc that Chloe was ok to go home and that the people at home (us) were capable of taking care of her without rooming in! So....we came home about 4! Below are some pictures that we took on the way to and from the hospital as well as at home!

Now that we're all back home and all of the grandparents are gone (Wingerts left on Sat, mom left today), its up to us to figure out our 'routine'. For the most part, Chase is doing great. He loves being a helper and loves hugging and kissing on his baby sister. Yesterday, he was quite needy and whiney, but today has been much better. We worked a nap back into his day today and even before the nap, he was pleasant to be around. I know its going to be an adjustment for all of us, but I guess we'll figure out how to make it all work just like most of you have done!!!

We took Chloe to the doctor today. He said she looks great! The jaundice is still there, but not enough to be concerned about. Her eating, peeing, and pooping are doing great, so the jaundice should clear up soon! When we left the hospital on Friday, her official weight that day was 6lbs 1 oz, today it was 6lbs 14oz....so obviously she's eating!!! I'll probably get back to my bad habit of not-so-often posts, but I'll try to do better than once a month! Thank you to everyone for checking in on us and for sending us your love, prayers and support! It certainly helped us get through all of this craziness!!!!


Chase is very excited to get his sister! Memaw made some yummy cookies and Chase decorated the box for the nurses!

Mommy holding Chloe, so excited to go home soon!........Chloe is in her first 'real' outfit! Its a little big, but still precious!

All packed up and READY TO GET HOME!!!!!

Big brother, little sister! Papa, Chloe and Chase observing

Chase checking out Chloe's stroller. Helping daddy feed!!!!

Sooooooo happy to be at home!

Love to everyone!

Carrie, Mark, Chase and Chloe!

Thursday

Good Evening!

Sorry the posts are getting more sporadic! We went to visit 3 times today as today was the first day for nursing!!! Mark and his mom went up at 11 and got to feed then. Mom and I visited her once she was done eating and we hung out for a bit. We went back for the 2pm feeding and nursed for the first time. She did pretty good, but then she conked out! So, she didn't nurse for that long, but while she was doing it, she was a champ! I went back at 5pm feeding and she did a little bit again, but then quickly went to sleep. We supplemented with a bottle and she ate the entire amount. I think the bottle is MUCH easier for her right now! Fortunately, they're not going to make her master nursing before she goes home!

The doc was in when we visited at 11. She said Chloe is doing great. I asked if we can pack our bags to 'room in' tonight. She said not yet, lets see how she does over the next 24 hrs and we'll come up with a 'plan' in the morning! GRACIOUS! She had some good diapers today, so hopefully tomorrow is her final day. They SURE don't want to tell you anything too optomistic though.

Memaw got to hold her today too!

She's totally off of oxygen and antibiotics now. They took her IV out of her belly and put back into her arm. The IV is giving her minimal nutrition-basically supplementing for the small amounts of milk that she's getting a day. They did increase her bottle feedings to an ounce, so that is progress!!!

We got her a pink bow today, hopefully she'll have that one on tomorrow! This one seems awfully big and it doesn't stay in her hair too well either!

We feel good that tomorrow will be a good day! Thanks again to all for checking, praying and wishing us well!

Love,

All of us!!!

Wednesday-GOOD day!!

Sorry for the delayed update today. Its been a busy day somehow! :) We all went up to the hospital around lunch time today-all includes me, Mark and his parents. Chloe can only have 2 visitors at a time, so we had to rotate in and out, but it wasn't too bad. We decided to eat lunch at the hospital and then go straight from there to pick up Chase from school. He had an Easter Egg hunt today at school, at a park, so we picked him up at the park and hung out for a bit today. It was finally a pretty day outside!!! Its supposed to get cold again next week though-argh! We had called ahead and let them know we were coming, so they took Chloe out of the 'lights' before we got there! She looked great. The doctor happened to be there when we were there today too, so I got to talk to her directly. She said they'd probably ween her from the oxygen today because she was holding steady. She also said she could come off the lights!!! But, if she didn't poop right and her bilirubin level was up again, she might have to go under them again tomorrow. Even better, she said we could hold her one time tonight. So, we decided to come back at her 5pm feeding and try and feed and hold her! (mom came in to town about 3:30 today, so I figured she'd want to see her out of the isolette too!)


Below is a picture of her at lunch time.

We went back at 5 for her feeding. She had taken her oxygen out of her nose one too many times, so they just left it out!! YAHOO!!!!! You can actually see her beautiful face! They also increased her food from 10 mL to 25mL!!!! All good signs! Oh yea, and of course, she'd been without the lights all afternoon. I got to hold her for about an hour. I fed her, burped her and even changed a diaper, it was like I was a real mom!!! She had a bit of a poopy diaper, but not big enough. She's trying though, and doing well at it. We didn't go back again tonight, but will definitely go in the morning. Hopefully we get more good news in the morning. She still has the IV in her belly and is still getting some antibiotics and electrolytes and fats for nutrition, but hopefully those are all about to dissipate soon too. It looks like they might keep her on the antibiotics for 5 days-gracious-that woudl take us to Friday, but they haven't said that for sure yet, we'll see. There still isn't any infection that they've found and she's never run a fever! As you can see from the picture below, we finally got a bow in her hair! Nope, I'm not a bow head, but its definitely the thing to do in NICU-if you're a girl, of course! Its a little bity bow, but it sure looks big on her head! Can you believe it...they didn't have pink!? Oh well, its still a bow!


I don't think there is much more to report, but today was a good day and we're praying that tomorrow will be even better! Thanks for continuing to check the blog and pray for us, all the prayers seem to be working!


love to all!!!

Carrie, Mark, Chase and Chloe

Not the greatest video, but she has some funny faces and she doesn't have anything in her nose!