Happy Purim And Easter

We played dress up today in honor of Purim (the Jewish holiday) and while we couldn't go to temple, we still had fun.

I had to fold this outfit in half to make it look ok on Sarah!

Hanging Out in My Bouncer

Home For 6 Weeks Already!

I can't believe it has been six weeks since we brought Sarah home! The NICU seems almost like a distant memory, though it was just 6 weeks ago.  She weighs 3.2 KG or 7 lbs 1 ounce!

We had a rough time this week with Sarah's reflux. She has been vomitting a lot and we are trying to make her a little more comfortable, though nothing I try is working too well.

We are starting Reglan today, which I hope gives her (and me too!) some relief. The Reglan is on top of the Prevacid. I have done a lot of research and found that a lot of preemies have acid reflux, mostly due to their immature digestive system.

With the exception of her being unhappy when her tummy hurts, she is a very happy baby. She loves being held, going for walks, car rides, taking baths (yippee), and listening to her music.

Here is a video is her playing in her swing, on an empty stomach of course!

Sarah is 5 Months Old Today!

Well technically, I guess.  Though she is only supposed to be 7 weeks old, corrected age.

Things are settling down nicely into a routine for us here at home.  We love every minute of having Sarah with us at all times.  Her eating continues to improve little by little .We try not too push her to take the bottle if she clearly isn't interested.  She has begun to coo and smile a lot and recently discovered her hand.  

More Pictures

Sarah and the Bean

A Family Picture taken a few weeks ago

Mom and Sarah this morning

Sarah's Debut

Sarah made her debut on Sunday and everything went off without a hitch. It was an absolutely magnificent day (if I do say so myself) As usual, Sarah was the beaming star of the show and loved all the attention.

We are so grateful to everyone who came to see Sarah. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to express how important each and every one of you are to us for supporting us through our mission to get Sarah home. We could not have goten through the last four months with out you. Sunday was the perfect culmination of our long journey.

A special thanks to a few people: The NICU staff that were able to make it -Sharon, Cindy, Astri, Karen (and Teresa who was working on Sunday and couldn't join us). They took care of Sarah on her first few hours of life and it meant a lot to us that came.  Great-Aunt Paula, who was here from Honolulu. And of course to both Grandma's for planning out the day, from the food to every last decoration. It was a party we will not soon forget. 

Looking Forward to Sunday

We are looking forward to Sunday and finally having our welcome home party. It is supposed to be a gorgeous day out so we should have a nice gathering on the patio. As the doctor reminded me, Sarah is not allowed to make her official debut at the event, though she will be in her bedroom and you can go upstairs and take a peek at her if she is awake. Especially with this bad flu season, we just can't take any chances. We hope you all understand.

It should be a nice afternoon. We hope to see you there.

6 lbs. 6 ounces Today

Happy Birthday Auntie Castine

Mid February Report

Sarah continues to thrive at home.  She weighed in today at 6 pounds exactly.  Her pediatrician says she is doing wonderful.  She also got one of her set of shots.  We are spacing them out a bit to not overwhelm her little body.  She seemed to tolerate it well.  She continues to eat from the bottle better and better each day.  

We also swung by the NICU today to give them an invite to our little welcome home party.  We hope that some of the people that helped save her life would join us in our celebration. 

All in all it was a nice day. Sarah and I were on our own and while it was a bit exhausting, it was fun spending the day alone with my girl. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Welcome Home Open House Details...

It is with great gratitude to G-d Almighty that I am pleased to present to you the invite for Sarah Chaya's welcome home party. As you can imagine, we are overjoyed to have our princess home after 114 days in the Tarzana NICU.

Both Grandma Carol and Grandma Mimi have planned a little open house in Sarah's honor. In order to protect Sarah's immune system, she can be not in crowds of people. Therefore Sarah will not be making her debut at the event. However, hopefully you will be able to peek in at her and say hi that way. Thanks grandma for making this pretty invite!

As the date is quickly approaching, formal invites will not be going out in the mail (I don't have too much time to put together an address list), so this is your invite!

The open house is at our home. If you need our home address you can send an email to:

 sarahchayarees (aat) gmail (dawt) com

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers. We hope to see you March 2nd.

 No RSVP required

As with any picture on the blog, you can click on it to enlarge and save or print if necessary.

4 Months Old Today!!!

We took Sarah to the Doctor today for her weekly checkup. Dad, Grandpa and Grandma and I were taking bets as to what Sarah weighs. We can really start to see signficant weighs changes daily so we were all excited to find out how much she actually weighed. I won the bet with the weigh in of 5 lbs 8.5 ounces (I guessed 5 lbs 9 ounces) ! She has nearly gained a whole pound in the 10 days since leaving the NICU! The Doctor was amazed. It is all the hamburgers we feed her.
The baby girl is 4 months old today! I can not believe how time flies! We were praying so hard to have her home by this time and are so grateful she is home now! She is our little miracle. Happy 4 months old birthday sweet baby girl.

Do's and Don'ts - Containing Baby

Who Does Sarah Look Like?

Sarah

Mom

Dad

Do's and Don'ts - Fun Games for Baby

Wednesday morning

Sarah had a very good night. I took first shift at about 9:30, and she didn't fuss, spit up, or cry through the entire night. Erika took over at around 2:00-2:30, and Sarah continued to rest peacefully. What a great girl!

Today is the first full day with Nurse Amy. She is going to come during the week and take care of Sarah from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. so Erika can get some more sleep. I am back at work today, so Erika will need to be well rested in order to handle more of the overnight watch by herself.

Do's and Don'ts - Nursing Baby

Our First Outting

Pretty in purple.

Grandma feeds Sarah so well!

We ventured out today to go to our first pediatrician appointment in her office. I was very sure to not wait in the waiting room for even 25 seconds and asked all nurses in the office if everything they used had been cleaned immediately before our visit. It was all clean.

Sarah weighed in at 4 lbs 14 ounces! We are going to take into account that this is her first time on that scale, but, if it is right, she gained 5 ounces over her first weekend home!

Now a recap of the weekend. Sarah slept almost non-stop from the time we brought her home on Friday, until just about 9p.m. last night. That was some SOLID sleep! She did wake up a few times on her own to eat and we gave her the bottle. She ate almost all of the bottle a few times. Then her tummy seemed to be bothering her from about 9pm last night. She cried for hours every time we fed her, arching her back and spitting up a lot. That is normal reflux for preemies. We got her back on the Zantac to help alleviate some of that pain, and we know it will help.

Grandma stayed the night to help us out while we figure out the nursing situation, but it looks like we will have a new nurse by Tuesday.

24 hours down

157,656 hours to go.

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