Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

Oh my gosh, I meant to post much sooner than this. Our house has gotten so busy there is hardly time to blog. We took Cate to the eye dr last Monday. It went very well! He said Cate is a little far-sighted, but doing well and no need for glasses. Chloe is packing on the weight. She is now at 5lb, 8oz! We are still trying to figure hunger vs belly ache. Is she too full and has a tummy ache or is she fussing because she wants more food??? I wonder if this is something other parents constantly struggle with. Am I crazy because I can't tell which of the two it is? Duke and I are constantly trying to figure it out. Chloe is mostly a quiet baby (much different than how her big sister was at her age), but she does seem to fuss more at night. If we could figure out if she wants more to eat or not that would help. Prayers please. :) We take Cate to feeding and growth tomorrow to be checked out. We were supposed to go last week but rescheduled due to weather. Cate is now crawling! She has been doing it halfway for the last 2-3 weeks, but just started going all over the place this weekend. She looks too tiny to be doing these things (16 pounds). Her favorite word is still "WOW"! I'll have to persuade Duke to catch some of her hilarious moments on camera for you all to see. My mom and I took some pictures of the girls together in Christmas gear that I will have to post later. We set them in a chair alone and I started taking pictures. I was so scared that Cate was going to push Chloe off the chair. My mom said she would stand next to the chair and pray! :) Thanks for checking in on us... Happy Holidays!!

Snow Day

We're Home

Chloe came home today, exactly one month after she was born!! We have some cute pictures of the sisters first meeting each other that we'll post later. Cate wanted to grab and hold Chloe like she was a doll. :) So far the biggest issues are figuring out how often and how much Chloe wants to eat. I'm hoping this is an easy thing to figure out. If I'm not feeding Cate I'm feeding Chloe or pumping. We're running around like we have twins. I guess we kind of do... More later, if we get some sleep.

NICU nurses, we will miss you! Thank you so much for all that you have done for us over this past year. I will miss the NICU, but hope to never go back. As one of the nurses said today, "a love/hate relationship". I am so happy to have both of my girls in one spot--at home. We will be up at the hospital on Tues morning with Cate at feeding and growth. We will stop by afterwards. Hope to see some of you then.

Ad Lib

Chloe is now doing ad lib feedings. She can eat as early as every 2 hours and a max of every 4 hours. If she hasn't eaten, then I have to wake her if it has been 4 hours. This is how Cate was and I'm thinking it will be the same with Chloe. Yesterday the dr had me attempt breastfeeding every feed that I was here and then give her the rest by bottle. Chloe got pretty pooped out. She wasn't able to finish all of her bottles so they had to do some of her feeds by feeding tube. I asked the dr today if this was a concern to him. He said he is going to ignore it and see how she does today. Her feedings today are set up exactly the way she will be doing feeds at home. He said that we will know by the end of today if she is doing okay or not. If she does well today with feedings (does not need any feeds given by feeding tube), then she should be going home on Saturday. We should be doing lots to get ready for her to come home, but we are nowhere near as frantic as we were last time. Duke has done a lot of home improvement in the last year and had Chloe's room ready before I was 28 weeks pregnant. Today is my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Grandma Cathy!! Oh, and Chloe now weighs 4lb, 10oz. :)

Coming Home Soon??

Well, it looks like Chloe could be coming home soon. She is now at 6 oral feeds a day (only 2 are being given through feeding tube). When she is at 8 oral feeds they look to send her home. I just talked to the neonatologist and he said she should be home by this weekend. She still is not doing well with the breastfeeding, so I could use your prayers on that. The dr said I will probably have to nurse and then supplement with a bottle for awhile. It all sounds so much simpler than it is. When she is bottle fed we know that she is satisfied and how much she has gotten. We don't know with breastfeeding, yet breastfeeding is best, right? I don't like giving up.

Chloe moved to a new room yesterday. She was previously in the NICU in an open room. She is now in a private room. There is a TV, dvd player, couch, we can order room service, etc. It is so quiet in here. You get so used to the NICU noise. We will miss all the nurses, but it is nice to not be in there when bad stuff is going on. It is hard to be happy when you can see that another baby is not doing well. It is cute to see little, tiny Chloe in this big room. She now weighs 4lb, 9oz.

She had an MRI yesterday morning to check out her spine. The dr gave us the news today that it looks "definitively fine". That is great news! We were worried that she may need surgery if it was tethered.

Thank you everyone for all your support, prayers, and kindness this second time around! You have no idea how much we appreciate it. If you could pray for our health as well... We've been a little run down lately, and with so much going around I'm hoping no one comes down with anything. Thanks for checking in on us!