The Nursery

When I found out I was having a third girl my first thought was, "Oh no... one more person's hair to do every day!"  My second thought was, "Yeah!  I love little girls!"  And my third thought was,"Dang it, now I don't get to redo my nursery!"  I love redoing rooms, but since my nursery was already set up for a girl I figured there was no point in spending the time and money to change it.  Then I was talking to my friend Carrie about having another girl and she asked me if I was sad that I didn't get to redo the room and of course I said yes.  To my surprise, my hubby, who was listening to our conversation said, "Why can't you redo the room?"  Good point, I thought...why can't I redo the room. After all, both Avery and Sophie had their own specially designed rooms.  Why shouldn't Riley?  And from that moment on, the planning began!

I started by choosing the crib bedding.  I found a beautiful set from a company called Hoohobbers.  It was on clearance for $150 (marked down from $395).  It is a beautiful rose color with an animal print toile.

The dust ruffle has a brown stripe on it, but I really wanted to do something less traditional than brown.  I found the most amazing aqua color and I knew that was the perfect combination!

Amazingly enough, I found the exact fabric that was used to make the crib bedding online so I was able to incorporate it into the window treatments so it looked cohesive.

And then it was just a matter of adding accessories with a little vintage flair!

I really love how it turned out!  

Closing A Chapter

Five days after Riley's homecoming, I am finally starting to feel all the stress and sadness of the past weeks melting away and now we can close this chapter of our lives (Yeah!). 

The chapter opened of course with my water breaking early at 32 weeks and me being in the hospital for 11 days.  Then Riley was born at 34 weeks and our life at the NICU began.

Her first few days of life she was breathing with a c-pap machine, hooked up to IVs for fluids and on all kinds of monitors.  She was so uncomfortable and its still hard to see these pictures.

Here she is in her isolette on her little pad they snuggled her into.  It's supposed to mimic how she would be snuggled in the womb.

A week after she was born, she was breathing well enough to be moved off of c-pap on to a nasal canula, but still hooked up to everything else. 

And then came the jaundice and the blue light.  She had to be enclosed in an isolette so we couldn't hold her. They had anticipated her being under the light for 3-4 days.  Luckily she was better in only 1 day!

Here she is hooked up to all her IVs and feeding tubes! It's pretty tricky trying to change a diaper with so many cords in the way! 

Then one day we came in to find her off of all breathing help and her feeding tube moved to her nose, making it easier for her to learn to feed. Her IV came out when this happened too!  

Finally she was eating well enough to be off of all assistance.  Her only cords were her heart and oxygen saturation monitors! 

She passed her car seat study, a 90 minute monitoring session she has to have before she can be discharged.

  

 And then it was just a matter of growing and maturing to be ready to come home. 

And now here we are, at home doing great and loving being all together all the time! 

She's Home!!!

After 5 1/2 long weeks in the NICU, Riley is finally home and doing great!  She came home Tuesday, July 26th weighing 7 lbs 6 oz, almost 3 pounds bigger than her lightest.

The first night she was home, we were a little afraid to go to sleep.  Even though the doctor assured us we didn't need to, we stayed up in shifts taking care of her! It's been 4 nights now and I'm still not quite ready to just lay her down for the night and go to bed (well physically I am, just not emotionally), but it gets a little easier each night. Someday I will sleep again and see my husband more than just in passing on our way to trade off taking naps!

She is a very sweet baby though and we are SO grateful she is home with us!  She is such a blessing in our lives!

Sophie's New Do!

Sophie has been asking for a while now if she could get her hair cut to her chin like her friend Emily had hers.  Today we finally went to get it done!  It turned out really cute!

One Month Old Today

Yes, it's official.  Riley has been alive for 1 month and in the NICU for 1 month.  Hopefully not for much longer though.  She was supposed to come home today, but last Thursday night she had a sleep brady and Friday a couple of desats while eating so she changed her coming home date.  So now we don't really know when she will come home.  We are just taking it one day at a time.  But she is growing (6 lbs 11 oz today) and just keeps getting cuter! Here are the pictures I took today:

My Home Away From Home

There is no way I would ever choose to have a baby in the NICU, as I'm sure no one would.  But since we didn't actually have a choice and I do have a baby in the NICU, there is no better hospital for her to be in than John Muir.  The NICU wing is brand new.  It's only been open for a few months.  The picture in my mind of a NICU was a big room with lots of isolettes all over and I guess that is true in a lot of hospitals.  But in this hospital all the babies have their own little room.  There are four baby rooms in each "pod" (that is what they call it).  Each room has a sliding door you can close if you want and a curtain to draw for privacy.  Each room has a regular chair and a rocking chair. It offers so much space and so much privacy and as of today, Riley's room even has a big bright window (she was moved to a new room).

Her first room.

 Her new room with a nice view!

The doorway to the "Pod"  there are two rooms on each side of the hallway. (Sorry it's a little dark)

Inside the pod

 Riley in her new big girl bed!  She doesn't need an isolette because she can regulate her own temperature!

But not only have the accommodations been the best we could hope for, but the care we have received has been amazing.  We have had only the nicest nurses and the best doctors.  I especially like the Dr. who told me three or four times today how cute Riley is! :)  We won't miss going to the hospital every day when this is all over, but for the time being we feel very blessed to be where we are.

Waiting Game

Today we spoke with one of the neonatologists.  He told us there is no official date for Riley's discharge yet.  It is just going to be a day by day evaluation.  The last Brady she had that they consider "substantial" enough to keep her in the NICU was early in the morning on the 8th. So now she will just be evaluated every day and when the drs feel she has progressed to the point where she has no more significant Bradys and Desats (desaturation of oxygen in her blood) they will send her home.  The earliest it would be is this Friday, but it could be later....just have to wait and see (and pray).

The Countdown Begins

Today I walked into Riley's room at the hospital and noticed a little red mark on her cheek.  I walked over to see what it was and all of a sudden it hit me...her tube was out!  The red mark was from the tape that had been holding her tube in place!  I wanted to SCREAM!  I was so excited! Apparently, little miss Riley had taken her tube out on her own.  The doctor and nurse decided that since she was doing so well on her feedings that they would just leave it out and see how she did and today she did great. I gave her a 55 ml bottle and she ate it all in 6 minutes. Then later, I nursed her for 32 minutes. They weighed her before and after she nursed and she gained 70 grams! That's exactly what they wanted to see.  If she sustains her weight over the next couple of days and has no more bradys (a deceleration of her heart rate) she will most likely be home the first part of next week!  So the countdown is on.  All of the prayers and fasting are working! I feel so grateful!

Turning A Corner

This week, Riley has made some amazing progress with her eating.  She went from eating 13 -24 ml of her 55 ml bottles last week to eating her whole bottle this week!  She's been bumped up in both the amount of her feedings and the frequency!  Today the Dr. came by and alluded to being able to take her feeding tube out this weekend if she continues to progress.  After the tube comes out she has to be able to sustain her weight for 3 days on her feedings.  So maybe, just maybe I might have my baby home by the end of next week!

Truth

"The work of devils and of darkness is never more certain to be defeated than when men and women, not finding it easy or pleasant but still determined to do the Father's will, look out upon their lives from which it may seem every trace of God has vanished, and asking why they have been so forsaken, still bow their heads and obey."

From one of the most amazing talks ever given: "The Will Of The Father In All Things". By Jeffrey R. Holland.

Comforting Words

Today at the hospital I heard some very comforting words! The neonatologist goes from baby to baby with residents and updates them daily on the status of each baby.  Today as he stood outside Riley's little room (the NICU at John Muir is so nice all the babies have their own rooms), this is what we heard:

"This is baby Haight.  H-A-I-G-H-T.  She is here just learning how to eat.  There is nothing else we are concerned about with her."

Oh how happy that made me!  She is healthy and thriving and doing everything she should be doing and each day her ability to eat increases,  Our prayers our being answered.  Today was a good day!