she IS home!

Yea, we took Sierra home with us early yesterday morning. She is doing great. She is eating like she should be and so far is a pretty easy baby. A little more sleep would be nice.....but oh, well. Simon really seems to like her. He is very curious, especially when she makes noises. She was blowing bubbles in her bouncy seat yesterday and Simon went walking over to her and growled back at her : ) He also puts his head by her head, pats her head (pulls her hair) and plays with her fingers. The only issue between the two of them is over the FLUFFIES. Simon thinks they are all HIS. We have a doctors appointment this week for her. And next week we will probably be heading to GR for an appointment. The doctors in Holland found a small heart murmur and we need to get it checked out to make sure it is nothing serious.

She's Coming Home

Sierra is able to come home tomorrow. I will be at the hospital in the morning speaking with her doctors and then working on her discharge information. Later in the afternoon James will be picking us up with Simon and we get to take our family home! She is now tubeless and wireless.......YEA!

YEA!

Sierra is doing well. On Friday they switched her to trying the bottle every other feeding and yesterday morning they switched her to trying it at EVERY feeding. They also said she may be able to go home tomorrow so we have been busy scrambling around trying to get things ready for that event. She still has her feeding tube in at this point just in case they need it. She is also still hooked up to a couple of other monitors. On Wednesday morning she had what they think was an apnea episode.....which could be linked to her reflux. So she is on Zantac for that and is being monitored. I can't wait to see my baby without any tubes and wires....that will be a great day. Our family is slowly getting over the flu. No one feels quite "right" yet but we are definitly feeling better. We are back at our own house again too. My parents we very generous to let us stay for awhile and helped out so much with Simon. It feels great to be back at our own place with our own beds though. And to not forget Simon. This past week he has really been doing great with words. He has the "ma ma" and "da da" thing down and now started pointing and other sounds to let us know what he wants. He is growing up fast.

I feel better but didn't go in to see Sierra again today just to be on the safe side. We do not want to pass any germs to her. The reports for the hospital were all good today. I spoke with the doctor who told be they are now going to try and feed her with the bottle at every other feeding and see how she does. Other than that I don't think much has changed. I am just really looking forward to getting my hands on her tomorrow and can't wait to see her again.

SICKNESS : (

Well, now we all have it. My dad, then Simon for his second round, me, my mom, 2 aunts, 2 cousins and my brother all have the flu. I didn't get to go in and see Sierra today because we don't want to pass any of the germs to her. I called in checking up on her many times and she had a huge accomplishment today. At her 9:00am and 6:00pm she took her entire feeding through the bottle which she had never done before, so that was great news. The not so great news, she had to get her feeding tube removed and replaced (I guess they have to do this once a week) and she has a bit of a diaper rash so they ordered some Magic Butt Cream for her.

Highlights and Lowlights

Highlights- Sierra ate great at the 9:00pm feeding. She did her best yet at breastfeeding and then took a large amount of her bottle for me as well. They decided her %O2 dips weren't correlated enough to her feeding schedule to make her reflux, if she has it, treatable. They are just going to continue monitoring her but she seems to be doing better in this regard. They are also feeding her a teeny bit less at each feeding so maybe she will wake up hungry and want to suck. The doctor described her as laid back and she is OK with someone else doing all the work to feed her : ) We will have to work on that. ALSO.....Simon and I got to ride around in one of those little motorized carts at Wal-Mart. Doesn't that sound cool? I think everytim I shop from now on I am going to use one of those things. Lowlights- James got sick late this evening.....same thing at Sim.

Quick Update

Sierra is still doing well overall. Her % of oxygen in her blood is being watched carefully for the past two days. They think she may have reflux which is quite normal in preemies, but it is messing up her whole system. When the acid comes up her throat she reacts quite strongly and doesn't know how to regulate her system. They should be deciding tomorrow if this is the problem and then giving her some Zantac which should help. She also is now down to 5 pounds. They are mixing in some formula to get extra calories into my breastmilk for her now. She is downing about 55 cc each feeding and is taking to the bottle OK. She tries the bottle a couple of times a day and then gets the tube feeding the rest of the time so she can rest up. The doctors don't want her bugged everytime she eats because that tires her out too much. The doctors and nurses say that neither of these things is a huge issue.........she still just needs to rest, grow and learn how to eat. James and I are semi-moved in with my parents for the week. It will be much easier to have a 10 minute drive to the hospital instead of a 40 minute drive. Also Sim will be able to be taken care of when needed, and we can spend more time with him instead of time driving around. AND at the moment Sim is also sick. The night I was discharged from the hospital Simon woke up at 10:30 covered in puke (nice huh?). He hasn't been himself since and is kind of lazing around. We are praying he feels better soon. It must be hard on him not understanding where his parents are all the time, especially when he isn't feeling well. So that is where we are at right now; kind of just waiting to move on to the next step and get all of us home again :)

Sierra was more awake today. She tried breastfeeding and took almost 40cc from a bottle which is a marked improvement. I am at home now and it feels good to be in my own space again, however we had to leave our little girl in the hospital while we walked out the door. We miss her.

Little Miss Sierra Mae

Today it was decided that Sierra needed her beauty sleep. She got tired out yesterday from a lot of stimulation in learning how to eat. Today she was kept quiet and calm and slept most of the day. She continues to do well with everything but showing interest in learning how to suck. She did get her IV taken out this morning as all of her labs came back clear. And I finally was able to dress her in a "LITTLE" pink : ) She is still being fed through her tube and weighs 5 lbs. 5 oz. which means she is at least maintaining her weight pretty well. I will be discharged from the hospital tomorrow and it is going to be super hard for James and I to leave her here and head for home so say a little prayer for us. She will be able to come home with her family as soon as she can suck all of her own meal for 2 full days in a row. We are hoping that happens soon.

Simon

Simon had fun playing with his friend Henry today. He is now home playing with his daddy and sleeping in his own bed again : )

Good News

Sierra is off oxygen and has been moved out of the isolet and into the regular nursery. She is still receiving extra care and monitoring because she is still breathing to fast at times and needs to learn to regulate her body and how to eat. She had a feeding tube put in yesterday but is also starting to suck and is getting food in various ways at the moment. We are going to work on that today. Still no word when she might come home BUT she is doing well. On another note, James is having surgery on his finger today at noon. We aren't sure what to expect as an outcome.......he will have some pins to hold the bones in place and we will see what else. AND Simon is having fun hanging out and Grandpa and Grandma DeVries' house.

SIERRA MAE GROOTERS

She's Here. 4 1/2 weeks early, 5 pounds and 6 ounces, 18 1/2 inches long, she arrived at 4:10pm today. My water broke early this morning.....after many hours of not believing it was real we ended up at the hospital and had another c-section. Sierrra is doing well, we got to see her for a few seconds in the operating room and she is now being monitored in the nursery. She is doing well with the oxygen in her blood but needs to be watched closely because her lungs are very immature and she is breathing too quickly. Here are a few pics of the little sweetie.

Broken Finger and a Hair Cut

Simon got another haircut today. You can actually see his face BUT mommy needs a little time to get used to it. I think it makes him look way older. AND James broke his finger playing basketball. Right now it is just in a splint but we have to make an appointment with a specialist because it may need surgery.

New Rocking Horse

Our family received a new rocking horse as a gift fromour friends Tom and Tonya Spencer. Tonya's 85 year old grandfather makes them and they are great. Simon already loves riding the new horse : )

Catch Up Time

I wanted to catch you up on a few more things that have happened in our lives over the busy Holidays. Simon made a really sweet gingerbread house with Grandma Grooters at the cottage. James and I also got a new KING SIZE bed for Christmas. The new mattress has been great, especially at the end of a pregnancy.

4 weeks to go and.............

we've decided to try and sell our house : ) BG#2 should be here by this time in exactly 4 weeks. Everything is still looking good and I am looking forward to not being pregnant anymore. We also have started looking at some new houses in Allendale. Of course, first our current house would have to sell. We are preparing to start the process and see where it goes. If anyone has any good buying/selling tips let us know.