Day 30: Preparing for Home

We have orders to go home tomorrow. It will be just 31 days after Liviana made her grand entrance into the world (30 days for those who don't count her birth day). I am still amazed by this little girl and what she had endured and overcome in her four short weeks. We are going home with just a prescription for Prevacid. That's it! I prepared myself before she even arrived for a 3 month hospital stay and some paraphernalia to accompany us home. I could not ask for any more or be more thankful for our little girl's health and wellness.

Her brain MRI was normal and her bone scan showed the hemivertebrae. The radiology tech was unsure whether she was missing one rib and only had 11 on one side. They said it was unclear on the scan. She did not have any other anomalies. We have an appt. with the geneticist scheduled for June as follow up.

Liviana and I stayed in the transition room last night so Liviana could nurse all night as she wanted. It was wonderful to be with her, nurture her and take care of her like I normally would. She is now down to just one line that is measuring her respiratory rate and heart rate. She had her NG tube removed yesterday and oxygen saturations monitor taken off today. My mom drove up last night after work to help with the kids this weekend since I will be at the hospital with Liviana and Brad worked most of the day today. She is a huge help and the kids were excited to know Dooda was coming to visit.

Liviana is exclusively breastfeeding. I have managed to make it through without her ever taking a bottle. I did not want to do anything to interfere with her learning to nurse and we would not be using bottles at home so I requested we avoid them all together. I am amazed (I know, I need to find a thesaurus and pick a new word) at how quickly she took to breastfeeding since she had to wait 3 weeks to even try nursing. We are feeding on demand and have scrapped the hospital schedule of every 3 hours. She seems to eat every 1.5 to 2 hours right now, which is great. She does have reflux difficulties after feeding some of the time but she should outgrow that difficulty. I am glad I have been through the silent reflux with Miles, as it has prepared me for what Liviana is experiencing. Had I not been through it with Miles I would probably be freaking out now and unsure of how to handle her pain. Of course at the time I know Miles reflux was horrible for him but it was preparing me for the future to come....isn't it strange how things work out.

We have an appt. with our pediatrician sometime this coming week and a follow-up chest x-ray and appointment with our surgeon the following week. I will of course be providing updates.

I ran out and purchased a new car seat today, as our old infant one was, well....old and ready to be retired. I felt giddy as I picked one out and took it to the car. It means she is coming home and I can hardly contain my excitement.

I want to apologize for the difficulty some of you may have experienced reading my posts. When I first became a mother I had a definite decrease in my brain functioning. Over the past 30 days that has increased dramatically and I feel like a bumbling idiot most of the time. It is a wonder I make it out of the house some days. I have reread my posts and found the use of "here" instead of "hear" or other grammatical or spelling errors. Please forgive the scatter brain. As an example, one evening, after coming home from the hospital, getting the kids fed and Miles to bed I prepared to head back to the hospital for Liviana's 9pm feed. I decided to take Brad's car and even had a conversation with him about the location of his keys. I headed out and promptly jumped into my vehicle and proceeded to jam the keys into the ignition, wondering why they would not work. I was in the wrong car! So, as you see, many times I day I do bizarre things, many of which I am too embarrassed to share. I am sure that this syndrome will continue for several weeks and months, so in advance.....I apologize :).

I think that is all for now. Little Miss should be waking up soon for her next meal. I am beyond excited about tomorrow and can't wait to update all of you with her homecoming pictures and story. I will look up some synonyms for Amazing later tonight!

She rests in her cocoon awaiting the time tomorrow to spread her wings and fly!