Pictures

I should be doing something productive since Adeline is napping, but I decided to post some cute pictures instead.  She's stirring anyways so it won't be long...

First walk on the river - can't you tell she was very excited 

In deep conversation with Duck Duck

Watching the Clemson game

First smile able to catch on camera!

Hanging out with Miss Piggy

The Sisters Meet

We finally brought Cooper home after an eight week stay at her grandparents' house. I'm sure for her it was a glorious vacation full of treats and being allowed to sleep in the bed. Needless to say, I'm not sure exactly how excited she was to actually come home. When we introduced Adeline to Cooper, it went pretty much as I expected. Adeline didn't notice Cooper at all, and Cooper was scared of Adeline. Andrew was able to get Cooper close enough to Adeline to be able to smell her. I think that now after a few days of being around Adeline, Cooper is slowly starting to warm up to her. I do get the evil eye from Cooper when I interrupt her sleep to fix Adeline's bottles in the middle of the night, and Cooper does tend to hide whenever Adeline cries. We do know that Cooper is great with toddlers - we think she is just confused as to what in the world Adeline is at this point. Hopefully soon Adeline and Cooper will be the best of friends!

Really Home

Considering I'm adjusting to life as a new mom with a newborn at HOME, I'm putting a lot of pictures on here instead of words so I don't have to think too much :)  After 8 weeks in Charleston, we made the journey back to Columbia on Saturday.  I still can't believe we're actually home, and we made it through this.  I know it's going to take a while before it actually hits us what all we went through.  It's amazing how there can be fleeting moments where I almost forget that she had open heart surgery and spent 5 weeks in the hospital now that we are home.  We are so incredibly thankful that at this point we get to treat her as a regular newborn.  How great is it that my worries now are when is she due to eat again, how much sleep will we get, will I get a shower today, and how many outfits will she go through in a day??  One day I'll hopefully be able to put into words my thoughts about how far we've come - just not yet.

Funny moment yesterday - I told Andrew that I needed to run to Target for a few things, and he said he'd go with me.  Then we both went, "Oh yeah, we've got a baby to take care of and can't just run out!"  On the feeding front - Adeline is definitely working on a double chin - way to go baby girl!  

Adeline has an appointment with her cardiologist tomorrow and pediatrician on Thursday.  I think I better pack her diaper bag now or who knows what will make it in there in the morning!  

All snuggled up after her bath

With Gelle and Pops

First time on her tummy

Think they look alike??

One of her many faces

Adeline's first trip to the beach and our farewell to the beach (for now)

First nap in her crib - she's got plenty of space to stretch out!

Home Sweet Home

No time to upload pictures or say much other than we are home!!!!  Well home as in our temporary home in Charleston until we head back to Columbia in a few days.  Now it's time for Andrew and I to learn what life is like with a newborn at home :)  Obviously our hands are a little full right now so I'll update more later.  Thank you for all of the love, prayers, and support!  I don't think either of us can quite believe that we're at this point, and she is finally home.  We are overjoyed and so thankful to be our family of three outside of the hospital.

Notice Something?

Notice that something is missing in this picture...

No more feeding tube!

The doctors decided to pull Adeline's feeding tube this morning and let her fully eat on demand with no supplementing from the tube.  Adeline must have heard them because later when she was awake, and I went to get the nurse to pull her tube, Adeline decided to go ahead and pull the tube herself.  She definitely has her own little personality already!  She has to do well enough with taking the bottle to keep the tube out for good.  She's done well today of taking either full feeds or close to full feeds, but the hardest part will be tonight.  I'm hoping she'll wake some on her own, and I won't have to wake her to eat because then she tires out very quickly.  We're getting closer and closer to discharge - she simply has to prove she can eat enough by the bottle.  It's so wonderful to see her whole face now with no tubes!

Enjoying (well obviously sleeping through) a picnic outside with some special friends

Working hard to drink her whole bottle

This afternoon Adeline got to go into the Pea Pod.  This is part of the study she's in to see if giving breastmilk before surgery to cardiac babies helps with feeding issues post surgery.  Several of us watched because she was the first baby in the study to go into the peapod.  It looked almost like a mini spaceship.  A capsule popped out, and I put Adeline in it.  Then the capsule closed, and she stayed in there for about 90 seconds.  The Pea Pod has a clear window at the top so you can see in, and Adeline just looked around the whole time.  She seemed quite comfortable in there.  The Pea Pod tells you percentage of body fat, and Adeline is 13% body fat - just barely on the curve for normal!  Here's a link to a website that shows the peapod - pretty interesting.

Pea Pod

Another sign that discharge is hopefully soon - pharmacy brought up Adeline's medications for when we're home - yippee!!

One Month!

Adeline is one month old today!  In celebration of her one month birthday, she took to the bottle like a champ!!  She did well during the swallow study - she does have to have the breast milk thickened with rice cereal because she can't have thin liquids quite yet, but we'll take it.  Normally when they try bottles for the first time, they rotate bottle feedings and tube feedings.  Well little miss Adeline is going "against protocol" and is getting feeds back to back from the bottle.  We're trying feeding her on demand.  The speech pathologist and I laughed at her because she loves the bottle and gets very mad when you take it away from her.  She quickly realized what she's been missing out on the past month.  She's done great so far of waking when she is hungry, and she's definitely staying on her three hour schedule.  It takes a lot of energy for her to drink from the bottle so she's exhausted by the end of a feed.  With her milk thickened, it's like drinking a milkshake.  I'm so proud of our little girl and very thankful for her progress today!  She's starting to wake now which is a good sign that hopefully she's hungry and ready for her next bottle.  She may be tiny, but she's one determined little girl!

Here are pictures from our "photo shoot" for her one month birthday.  She was hungry so she wasn't too amused.  We're looking forward to her two month photo shoot being at home!

Obviously the photo shoot was over at this point! 

Good Days

We've had a quiet weekend, and in the hospital world, that's a good thing.  Adeline's feeds have been compressed to 30 minutes (the volume she initially got over 3 hours, she now gets over 30 minutes to prepare her stomach for a true feeding), and she's done great with all of her feeds.  Tomorrow morning is the big swallow study.  This will tell us how well Adeline swallows liquids and the consistency that she can handle.  During the swallow study, they will also check on her vocal chords to make sure they don't cause any problems with her swallowing.  ENT decided not to scope her again for a few months because scoping her again at this point wouldn't tell them much, and they didn't want to put her through it again.  We do think that her cry continues to get stronger and stronger though! 

Adeline and I had a little pep talk earlier about her swallow study in the morning.  I told her that she's going to knock it out of the park :)  The swallow study is the big step before taking feeds by mouth and busting out of this place.  The OT told me that it's not a matter of passing or failing - it tells them if her milk needs to be thickened or not.  So hopefully tomorrow at some point Adeline will finally get a bottle!  I think she'll love it and will realize what she's been missing out on.  If all goes well tomorrow, home will be even closer, and we are all ready to be there!! 

Here are lots of pictures of our sweet little girl for you to enjoy :)

Trying out another pair of sunglasses - just a little big!

Notice the red hair?

Not sure what she's looking at but it must be interesting

So serious

Already a genius - reading away!