There's no place like home...

We first want to apologize for such a long gap in our posting. It has taken us a while to get settled in at home. Lots of doctors appointments and as most of you know not much sleep. She may be 3 months old but was due two weeks ago and is therefore acting just like a newborn. She seems to be settling into a sleeping and awake time rhythm. Not necessarily a schedule but she is letting me sleep for chunks of time at night now. She tends to give her dad more of a hard time and he usually ends up holding her most of his shift.

We have not been doing much outside the house. She has a tough time in her stroller and we end up carrying her when we go for walks so we are waiting till she gets a little stronger. We did take her to a friends house this weekend for dinner. She did great. She didn't sleep but she quietly looked around the whole time we were there. She slept great that night! We also had some pictures taken on Sunday. I don't have them yet but when I do I will be sure to post some. There is nothing like a cute naked baby picture to bring a smile to your face.

Medically she is doing well. Tomorrow we go back to the orthopedic doctor to have her hip checked again. The doctor was very encouraged last week. He was able to actually put the hip back in socket. It wouldn't stay there but the fact that he could even get it in was a great improvement. She tolerates her harness ok. I think it makes her crankier than she normally would be but overall I don't think she is greatly affected. Her physical therapist is still coming weekly. She weighed her yesterday and she is 6 1/2 pounds! She is averaging a little over an ounce a day! We were excited about that! Everyone still comments on how small she is but we are starting to think she is huge! 1 more pound and she will triple her birth weight!

We may be tired and busy (although by the end of the day we wonder what we did all day) we are mostly just enjoying having Laney home with us. The days are going by fast and we are trying not to take any of them for granted. Time for us to take a nap and get up in a few hours and do it all over again!

The Meyers

Free at last, free at last...

Last Friday, May 8, at 3pm, we finally stole Laney out of the NICU and got her home! Unbelievable. We've been smiling ever since, and haven't looked back. Her last antibiotic dose was Thursday night, so they told us that if she passed her car seat test, we could probably go home the following day. Apparently some kids can't sit in a car seat for 90 minutes coming straight out of NICU. Laney tried her car seat study on Thursday and didn't quite pass, but on Friday morning we suctioned and got the bugars out of her nose and she passed with flying colors! She also had a hip ultrasound to see if she had hip displaysia which is common in babies that had low or no amniotic fluid. The ultrasound revealed that her left hip is dislocated. We are taking her to see a pediatric orthopedic doctor tomorrow and he will check her out and probably put her in a brace, and if that doesn't fix it, she may need surgery at some point. But if that is all she comes away with after all she has been through, we will truly have been very lucky. Getting Laney home on Friday and being able to wake up at home, on Sunday - Mother's Day - was such a huge treat!

Since getting her home, Angie and I haven't done much except feed Laney and hang out. Something we haven't been able to do for a long time. Angie took Laney to her pediatrician yesterday, and he gave her the once over, plus her 2 month immunization shots (3 of them). She didn't like that much. Home health comes today for physical therapy (she still has a little bit of range-of-motion issues in her arms and legs). I'll probably not work much in the next couple weeks until we get settled in well at home. Angie will be studying when she can in order to pass her nursing board exam sometime in the next6 weeks.

So I guess that's the end to this portion of our adventures with Laney. Now the fun begins. But looking back on it, the bedrest, the time in NICU, it wasn't all that bad since the outcome was good. That's all we were ever worried about, and now that the prognosis is looking positive, the whole experience can't feel negative. There are many things we won't know about Laney's health for a long time, like how fully her lungs will develop or what issues might come up, such as asthma. Or how well her neurological development will progress. But most of the symptoms that usually lead to long term problems never materialized in Laney, so we have confidence that she will be completely healthy with no long term issues. Right now we're not worrying about those sorts of things. Instead, we worry about how much she is eating and growing, how to keep her from getting sick, and all the other normal things parents worry about in a newborn. We are sure to just stop and enjoy her too. She is 11 weeks old now, but her due date is tomorrow, so really, she is a newborn. She weighs 5 and 1/2 pounds, has hazel eyes, a little bit of hair, and looks more like her mom than her dad. (Depends on who you ask) Like all parents, we are very proud of her, but after what she has been through, we know she's a fighter too. Guess we better get ready because a year or two from now - no doubt we will have our hands full.
Stay tuned for more adventures with our amazing little miracle!

The Meyer Family

The Perfect Mother's Day Gift?

I'm probably jinxing us by saying this, but it appears that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Laney has four more days of antibiotics, and after that, we may be on our way home. There are a lot of things that are up in the air right now that will have to be resolved, but most of them are relatively minor. It's crazy to think that only two weeks after being put back on the ventilator, we may head out the door.

It's an obvious understatement to say that Laney has made significant progress since being extibated from the ventilator last Monday. As soon as she was extibated, she seems to be a new little girl. She desatted much less frequently on her oxygen saturation. She needed less oxygen through her cannula than she used to need. Her heart rate is 10-20 beats per minute lower. Lots of positive steps forward. The doctors and nurses were encouraged. From there, she has just continued to make steady and quick progress. She hasn't needed a feeding tube for days, but instead takes all of her milk either by breast or by bottle, and she goes back and forth pretty easily (most of the time). This was one of the big steps she needed to take to go home. She has no set amount of food she needs to consume, other than they want to see positive weight gain every day. And every day, she is gaining weight! They removed her caffeine (helps preemies with breathing regulation ) a couple days ago (she was on a minute amount) and she seems to be doing okay without that. She is mostly off the oxygen cannula altogether, except at certain times during deep sleep; hopefully that will only last another day or so.

They are giving her a bunch of her shots at the end of the week (hepatitis and other immunizations), and if she maintains her current milk intake, weight gain, and lack of oxygen needs, we will probably go home then. I can't believe we're saying that, but yes, we may go home next weekend. What a perfect Mother's Day gift that would be.