Thank heaven for 7 eleven

No I am not talking slurpees and hot dogs, Lorelei is now 7lbs and 11oz. She is growing so fast. Yesterday she turned two months old. I can't believe how fast time has gone by. She had her two month doctor appointment and got three shots and an oral vaccine. She was very upset about each one. I felt so bad for her. I am sure she must be very tired of getting stuck so much. Each day I am feeling more at ease about everything. Although there still are days that I get really worried about how she is going to develop and reach certain milestones. On those kinds of days I just think of how lucky we are to have her here with us. She has been doing really great. She loves to nurse, although she has major problems with gas and that gets her pretty worked up. She hates to have her diaper changed. Her cries during a diaper change pierce your ears. I think she just mostly hates my cold hands. The kids have been doing great with everything going on. They are such a help with the baby and sometimes around the house. My mom has been here this week. It has been really nice having her around. She has been a little to busy doing lots of laundry and cleaning. I would like to say that hopefully we are done with that soon, but as you all know it is a viscous cycle. For my birthday my mom and dad got us a new couch for our den. It is nice for my mom and other visitors because it pulls out to a queen bed. "Thanks, Mom and Dad!".

Today is my due date

Today, January 22, 2010 is or should I say was my due date. She is now a full term baby and she is already two months old. She is getting a head start in this world. Everything has been going good with us here. Papa went back home today so we will miss him dearly. Asher will miss the days spent pretending to drive papa's car and having papa take him out to ride his motorcycle. I will miss spending time with my dad and all the help he gave me with the kids and baby. Lorelei loved to sleep on his chest all day. I know she is missing that already. I needed him today when I was trying to take care of Asher and Lorelei, vacuum and clean up. Lorelei needs to be held. She know the second you try and put her down. Because she is so little it is harder to just let her cry. She gets so upset and starts to turn a little blue when she gets to screaming really hard. I thought from being in the NICU she would be more use to not being held. I think she found something good and now she wants it all the time. Tonight Grandma and Al are here for a visit as they travel through town. The kids are having lots of fun playing board games with grandma. Tomorrow my mom will be here to help out for a couple of weeks. I am really looking forward to that and getting some projects done around the house. Here is a cute picture of Asher and his baby sister. He is always telling Lorelei that he loves her and that she is his sister and she is soooo cute. I just love seeing all my kids together and so in love with each other.

Surgery

At our first doctors appointment three days after discharge from the NICU they discovered that Lorelei may have a hernia. We took her to see a surgeon the next day and she confirmed. She had surgery the next day where they repaired two inguinal hernias with ovaries and fallopian tubes protruding and an umbilical hernia. All went well and she got to come home the same day. Two days later she was spitting up a bit too much and hadn't had a stool in over 34 hours and had a temp of 100. We took her to the ER where we spent the next four hours. While we were there she let it all go in her diaper and her temp went down. The next day I missed the last step at the bottom of our stairs and hurt my ankle pretty bad. Luckily my ankle took all the damage and she didn't even notice the fall. I waited it out until the next day and even then it was still very painful. So last night my dad took me to the ER and we waited a couple hours. Good news is that there is no break, just a bad sprain. They wrapped it up, put on a splint and gave me crutches. The last couple of days have been really hard not being able to get around. I am ready for all this drama to end. Today Lorelei had her check up at the surgeons office. She said that everything looks like it is healing great. She is also getting big. She now weighs in at 6lbs 12oz. Hopefully this week will be uneventful. My birthday is next week and my friends and I are going out for brunch and a foot massage. Hopefully I will get half off the foot massage :). Lucky for me that the foot massage also includes back, arms, legs and head. (Although you have to say no to the head massage because they scratch your head like you have lice and then they stick their fingers in your ears, very strange, maybe in China that is OK but not here). I will try and put more pics up tomorrow. I really haven't been taking many of her. Every time I put her down to take one she gets upset and starts crying. She loves to be held. She also loves to sleep right next to me. It is great for nursing and sleeping at the same time. I did it with all the kids so I feel comfortable with it. Although some nights you just want to be able to roll around and not be stuck in one position. She seems like she is completely asleep and I put her in the co sleeper and she starts to cry. I always try to calm her with the pacifier or put my hand on her, but she won't stop crying. I end up having to take her out and put her next to me and she stops crying and goes back to sleep. That's alright, I think she deserves to be a little spoiled.

She's Home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After 42 days in the NICU Lorelei is home. Yesterday was the big day and the kids were so excited as were Jeff and I. Asher came running to us when we pulled up in the car. When he saw her in the car seat he started yelling "my baby Lorelie, baby in mommies tummy". He was so happy. Baylee and Riley could not wait to finally get to hold her. After they were done, Asher said "now it's my turn". I am so happy to have her finally here. Last night was a little rough due to her getting use to being home and many false alarms from the monitor. Today she is doing really great. It is a little hard getting use to a baby that has specific times and measurments for all her meds, hooking her up to a monitor if we leave the room and just having a baby that is so small. But I am sure we will get the hang of it. The cutest thing that she does right now is to suck her thumb. She must have picked that one up in the NICU.

Coming home later than sooner

Doctors decided that Lorelei will need to spend a couple more days in the NICU. Her pneumogram
test results came back abnormal so that means she is having many episodes of apnea. They are going to put her back on caffeine and she will be coming home on monitors. Maybe the monitors will let me sleep instead of stare at her all night. We are hoping that she will come home by Saturday. The kids were a little sad that she is not coming home today like she was supposed to but they are really understanding about it. They say that they just want her to be safe and better to come home. Asher said to me the other day, "momma, Lorelei come home in a little bit." He loves to see pictures of her. He yells out "Lorelei" every time he sees one.
Today Papa came back to attend my aunts husbands funeral. The kids were so happy to see him again. Asher yelled PAPA when he saw him and sat on his lap with the biggest smile on his face and he kept looking at his papa and giggling in excitement.

34 days old "look no tubes"

Our sweet little baby girl is off all her tubes. They took her NG tube out this morning. We can finally see her cute little face without anything in the way. Today the doctor said that she should be coming home sometime early next week. I am so excited and a little scared. The kids go back to school next week and that means getting everyone back on schedule, to and from school, homework, etc, etc... Although nothing can take away from the thrill of having her finally home. The best part about it is that the kids will finally get to meet her. I am so excited for them.