Hey everyone! For once, I have a good excuse to not have posted in a while! If having a kid in the NICU doesn't get you off the hook, I don't know what will. But it no longer applies to us, because Iris is home now! I doubt I have to try to express how happy and relieved we are. She's doing great: gaining weight nicely, sleeping well, hardly fussing, and most importantly, having NO breathing problems! Hurrah!
A quick summary of her time in the hospital: she had the pneumonia at birth, which took 10 days of antibiotics to get rid of. She had underdeveloped lungs , which took a few days on a C-PAP, about a week on a ventilator, another two days on the C-PAP, and then a day on minimal oxygen to get up to scratch. And, due to all her energy going into breathing, she wasn't digesting her food well, and then not gaining weight once she was. So the last week of her stay, we concentrated on that. Two Sundays ago, I checked back into the hospital, and had her "room in" with me, so I could be there 24/7 to give her all her feedings. They had taken out her feeding tube, and we were trying to push her into eating more using hunger as our tool. Once again, she showed her independence and unwillingness to be pushed into anything, and went and LOST weight! So after not leaving that cursed room for three days straight, we admitted defeat, and the tube went back in for a few feedings, to let her rest up for the next round. So I went home... I think it was Wednesday night... and then came to the hospital every three hours during the next two days to feed her- the nurses gave her a bottle at night. For some reason (probably since we weren't pushing her!) this seemed to do the trick for little Iris, and she finally gained weight for 48 hours of breast or bottle feeds! (That was the requirement before she could leave.) So hallelujah! We got her home Saturday morning, and have been adjusting ever since.
Luckily, Riley is being a real sweetheart about the whole thing. Actually, when Eric and I came home from the hospital after the birth, sans baby, she was a real terror, and we quaked to think of the coming years. But now that she had some time to adjust, she's being terrific. We have to watch her, obviously, to make she she doesn't suffocate Iris while piling blankets on her to "keep her warm", or shove binkies down her throat... she likes to give Iris each and every one of her own, as well as the binkies we have for Iris. It's pretty funny.
So thanks to everyone who prayed for us... I promise we felt those prayers! It was only after Iris made the turn that the hospital staff let on exactly how sick she really was. Ignorance is bliss! We felt the blessings of the prayers and thought that people put in on our behalf, and we really appreciate it. We love you all!
