Mothers' Day

Free Free Free at last!!!!

Today O got rid of all of her medical equipment except the feeding tube.  She got to put a nightgown on over her t-shirt, and she can be swaddled in one blanket and not need any more blankets.  She is out of the incubator and in the isolette. She is regulating her temperature just beautifully!  It was amazing how all of the sudden her temperature regulation kicked into gear! 

O still will need to spend most of her time swaddled since she was a pre term baby.  They want the babies to have to kick hard against the swaddle as if they were scrunched in the womb. This strengthens their muscles.   O is floppy.  They tell us that most of what we see is probably the Down Syndrome low muscle tone floppiness.  She will need to be swaddled for the first 4 to 6 weeks after she gets home.
Look who woke up today!!! O slept all day yesterday.  It was great to see her eyes for a little while this morning.  She seemed to wake up and look Mama O in the eyes and say, "Happy Mama's Day, Mommy!  I am glad I got here for the big day!"  We were so excited by all the progress that O made today. The biggest milestone was moving to the step down unit of the NICU.  She is classified as feed and grow.  That means that once she is feeding completely on her own by bottle with no feeding tube and still growing that she can go HOME!!!   (the driving back and forth 1 1/4 hours each way is getting to be a bit much!)   O is doing good with the bottles, but she needs to be able to eat all the ounces they want her to before she can go home.  

O now weighs 4 lbs 5 oz  (our weight yesterday was inaccurate)

The doctor said that she may be ready to go home as early as Wednesday!  Please pray that we can go home soon!  We are all ready to be home together!  Doctor also said that O is very healthy for a baby with Down Syndrome.  Music to our ears!  She will have another echo-cardiogram done to make sure that her heart is truly doing well. Doctors tell us they hear no murmur and believe that her heart is good!  Praise God!

We had been praying for the birthmom, as I know many of you have too.  It has been rough emotionally.  In addition to the adoption plan, she had a C-section (emergency) and it was rugged.  She also was worried about O in NICU.  Today, the birthmom called Mama O to wish me a Happy Mothers' Day!! Wow!!! Hearing her say that gave me permission to be truly Happy about my first Mothers' Day.  I told her that entrusting O to us made us happier than we could ever express. She was so happy to hear this.  We have a great birthmom. She has a sweetness about her that is so dear.  We think that O has her eyes.  

O is a great kid!  She is so cool!  We are so blessed!!!  

We began praying with O the first day we met. She really likes the Our Father.  She will flutter her eyes when we pray.  She cannot wait to be Baptized!!!  She thinks that is going to be awesome! We have told her all about St Mary's and she is so excited to join! She cannot wait to hear Father Dave tell all the stories about Jesus!  (and hear Deacon Roger sing!)