Eliza's First Days Home!

We were so glad to have Eliza home and I was so grateful that I didn't have to drive back and forth between the hospital anymore to see my precious little girl.  Luckily my transition to having three kids at home was pretty easy because Drew was still on his paternity leave and my mom flew in to town the same day that Eliza came home from the hospital so I had tons of help!  Mostly I got to spend my time cuddling my precious little girl and watching the boys interact and love on her.  It was so special to be home together and see how well Eliza fit in with our little family.

I just loved seeing her be awake more and more during the day.

Alden and Anders are seriously so sweet with her and love just sitting and watching her which just makes me so happy!

I love how peaceful and precious babies look while they sleep.

Anders seriously loves his new little sister and loves holding her for short amounts of time.

Alden is perfectly happy to sit and hold Eliza until she starts crying, and then he wants me to help her be happy again.

They even like watching her when she is just sleeping.

I love my sweet little girl!

Eliza has already stolen Daddy's heart and I love watching them together!

Coming Home!

I was so happy when I got to the hospital the next morning and they told me that Eliza was doing really well and could go home later that day!  The doctor even told me that they were impressed with how quickly she had improved because they had expected her to be in the NICU for at least a week.  I am so grateful that our little Eliza recovered so quickly and I am so grateful that I made it as far as I did in the pregnancy so that she could recover so quickly.

We had to do the car seat trial at the hospital, where she had to sit in the car seat for 90 minutes while she was hooked up to all the monitors to make sure that she would be okay.  I then had to get taught how to use the portable oxygen tank so that we could take that home with us.  After that we were finally free to leave the hospital and go home!  I was so excited to finally get to take Eliza home and introduce her to her brothers.

Alden and Anders were even more excited than I thought they were going to be to meet their little sister.  As soon as we got Eliza home they wanted to hold her.  Alden kept telling me she was beautiful and Anders started getting really mad when anyone else took a turn holding her.  It was so cute how they wanted to hold and cuddle her and they were so sweet with her.  It made me so happy to see that and see how wonderful they are going to be as older brothers to her!

Eliza did awesome and slept for her whole car seat trial.

All buckled up and ready to go home!

Drew was so happy to have his little girl home and be able to cuddle with her.

It was so nice to have her home with only the oxygen tube and no other monitors on her!

Anders getting help holding Eliza for the first time.

They were so sweet with her and Alden picked up on how to hold her really quickly!

I am already enjoying dressing her up in things covered with bows and flowers!

Alden kept wanting to give Eliza kisses!

We had to work with Anders on being gentle but he learned really quickly!

I just love his smile!  He is so excited to have a "bae" (how he says baby) in the house!

I love my sweet kids and I am so grateful that I get to be their mom!  

Day 4 - Getting Ready for Home

The first thing I did when I woke up at home on day four of Eliza's life was reach for the phone and call the NICU to make sure that she was still doing okay.  They told me she was doing really well and nothing had changed over night besides them removing the feeding tube.  YAY!  I was so excited and anxious to get back to the hospital and see her again so I immediately got up and ready to go to the hospital.  Drew stayed home with the boys again but I knew he would be over at the hospital later because we had arranged for someone to watch the boys for a couple hours.

When I got to the hospital I was super excited to see that she was off oxygen too!  They told me she had actually been off oxygen for a couple hours and they were testing to see how she would do without it.  So far she was doing pretty well, but her oxygen levels would occasionally keep dropping too low, especially if she got upset or while she was eating.  In the end they had to put her back on the oxygen, but they said that is really common for babies here to need just a little bit of oxygen since we are at such a high elevation.  They also said that if oxygen was the only thing she needed they would just send her home on oxygen.  That was great news because it meant as long as she ate well for the next 24 hours they would let her go home the next day which was way faster than the originally thought when she was born!  I was so excited to hear that I might only have one more night away from my precious little girl.

It was wonderful to see her face with no tubes on it for a little while before we had to put the oxygen back on.  As much as I wanted her to be okay without the oxygen, I would rather she have it and be healthy, even if it means a little more hassle for me for awhile.

Her beautiful face with no tubes!  It was the first time we saw her like this since she was born.

My beautiful Eliza!

Drew seriously loves holding his baby girl!  He was not happy when he had to leave and give her back to me.

Day 3 - Improving

On day three of Eliza's life, she kept making improvements and started increasing her feeds, although she was still falling asleep too much.  They started bringing down the amount of oxygen that she was on more rapidly to see if they could wean her off of it.  By the end of the day she was only on 25-30% oxygen which was a great improvement!  Other than that the only other change was that they were able to remove her IV because her stomach was handling enough food that it wasn't necessary!  We just kept hoping she would continue learning to eat quickly so that they could take out the feeding tube.  We also kept praying that there wouldn't be any other set backs so that she could come home as soon as possible!

The hardest part of this day was leaving her at the hospital that night without me.  I knew she was in good hands and would be okay(the nursing staff was amazing), but it was still hard to know that I couldn't just walk down and see her if I woke up in the middle of the night.  When Anders was in the NICU, they had private rooms and there were beds in the rooms so I never had to leave him at night.  Eliza was in a smaller NICU, so there was no where for me to stay with her at the hospital and that was really hard for me.  It was probably good for my body since I was forced to go home and rest more, but emotionally it was a big challenge to leave her there for the first time that night.  I just kept praying that Eliza would continue on her fast recovery and so I wouldn't have to be away from her for too many nights.

Cuddling with a peacefully sleeping baby is so wonderful!

Drew absolutely adores his little girl!  It is wonderful seeing them together.

Daddy and his daughter!

Resting with Daddy!