24 hours down

157,656 hours to go.

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First night

So. What can I say? After 114 nights and 113 days in the NICU, Sarah
Chaya is finally home. She doesn't need any oxygen normally, but we do
give her some when she is taking her bottle. She still has her nasal
feeding tube to make sure she gets all her food.

She slept most of the day yesterday. She loved the car ride home. She
loves her little bassinet. She loves getting down on the floor to play
with the dogs (kidding of course!).

Erika had arranged for a home health nurse to come from 11-7
overnight. So we could get some sleep. Unfortunately, the nurse had
bad cat allergies, and we asked her to leave at about 12. We felt bad,
but Sarah's health is paramount.

After we fed Sarah at 12, Erika took the first shift in her room. At
about 2:30, I awoke to warm Sarah's milk; I promptly went back to
bed! Erika gave Sarah her 3am feeding and then went back to sleep
around 3:45 after cleaning the feeding tube.

I again awoke at 05:30 to warm the milk. Erika went to our room to get
some solid zzz's and I fed Sarah. I've been watching Sarah sleep ever
since!

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Sarah's room is ready for her to come home!

Erika took some pictures of Sarah's room. We love all the cute furniture and bedding! We're ready for her to come home.

Here's a wide view of the crib, changing table and dresser.

A closer view of the same.

A view of the rocking chair, bed, and Sarah's bassinet.

And, finally, a view of Sarah in that bassinet.

Friday report

Sarah began all of her feedings last night on the bottle. She tried four times in a row, which I think may be a record. Good job, girl! She never finished a whole bottle, but took between 10 and 20 mL each time. She's working on it and will be there soon, we just know it!

She lost a little weight last night (25 grams) and now is 2075 grams. That's still about 4 pounds 10 ounces, and we'll take it!

Thursday update - Happy 16 Week Birthday!

You never realize how busy you are until you can't find three minutes a day to post a blog update. Geez! I can only imagine how busy we will be when she comes home (soon!).

So. Erika and I have been really busy this week, her with the baby, me with trying to wrap up everything at work in anticipation of our impending homecoming. At this time, I can't say exactly when Sarah will be coming home (all I can say is "soon!"). Almost everything at home is ready for Sarah; we have even decided which outfit she'll be coming home in (Auntie Ruthie bought the winning outfit!). I installed the car seat bases in both the BMW and the MINI. Unless Erika takes the BMW in to the Toyota dealer and picks up that minivan she wants, we will be picking her up in the BMW.

Last night Sarah had a fantastic feeding, as she took all 50 mL in the bottle. Nurse Sonjah did a great job with her! When Sarah is awake and interested, she is really demonstrating that she can master the bottle as well as any fat, happy, full-term baby; the only problem is that she is not awake and interested at each feeding. She'll get there soon.

We have also started to say goodbye to all the nurses, RTs, and NICU staff. Since we don't know exactly when Sarah is coming home (it's soon!), we want to say goodbye to everyone just in case we don't see them again. Of course, we now end up saying goodbye to everyone every single time we leave the NICU. It is very emotional for us, as everyone there has kept our baby going strong and brought our dream of bringing her home that much closer. We love all of you!

Thank You!

Thank you to all of you who have bought the baby things from our registry! We have nothing for when she comes home, as our focus has been on her in the NICU and we haven't needed anything. We really needed them, and I can't wait to put them to use when she comes home, God Willing soon!

Car Seat Challenge

Sarah passed her "Car Seat Challenge" this morning. The "car seat challenge" assesses whether preemies who are almost ready to go home are prone to episodes of apnea (stopping breathing), bradycardia (slow heart rate), or desaturation (low oxygen levels) when seated in their car seat.

Yippe Sarah. One more step closer to home for you!