The Zoe and Silas Show

I was wrong when I said in my last post that life doesn't get better than that. It does. And it definitely got better today! Zoe is home. Home. Sweet. Home. Her discharge from the hospital was unremarkable, aside from the fact that her team ordered a few final tests in the Nth hour, which prolonged her discharge until almost 3pm. Considering I had been up since 3am, I was more than a "little" ready! Apparently Zoe was ready as well, because her eyes were as big as saucers and she was so curious about the whole process! Vanessa came over with Oliver and watched Silas for us while we picked up Zoe, so she snapped a few pics of us settling in. Serena seemed unphased by the addition of baby #2. Derek and Zoe got some father-daughter time. And before I knew it, he was holding down the entire fort! We decided it was bath night so that was quite the whirlwind of activity giving baths x2! Whew. It will be awhile before either of us can do that alone! After baths and feeding, Sila...

Tuesday is discharge day for Zoe, barring any unforeseen problems cropping up overnight. I left her at 5pm today and will be calling just a few hours from now to confirm what time we can pick her up. I am relieved and excited and nervous. Due to H1N1 and predictions of a brutal flu season, the NICU is no longer allowing siblings under the age of 18 as visitors. This meant that Sunday was our last visiting day as a family. The policy change is thankfully coincident with us blowing this pop stand, but I really feel for families who still have long recovery roads ahead of them. As awful as it has been to have Zoe separated from us, I will always remember these 15 days we spent together on the unit as a new family. In celebration of our impending departure, we were allowed to leave the unit and hang out in a family room on Sunday afternoon. It was so wonderful to be away from the noise and monitors and crying babies and do something as normal as feed them, change diapers, and watch the Pat...

While we wait for Miss Z to come home, we all are enjoying lots of snuggle time... Serena loves getting in on the action! We are hoping to have a more definitive update about Zoe's discharge very soon -- please stay tuned!

I was bound and determined to get pictures of the babies wearing coordinated outfits yesterday during our visit with Zoe. They wanted NOTHING to do with it! Zoe rolled one way, Silas rolled the other, Zoe's pants were falling down, their hats were falling off, they screamed, etc. Derek and I laughed the whole time that this was the first of many instances of them saying, "Oh Mom, please STOP!"

As is expected, both Zoe and Silas HATE having their clothes and diapers changed. They scream and cry and let us know what they think about the whole process. So when it came time for their first bath, both of them started off in protest. However, as soon as their bums hit the warm water they settled right into a state of calm. Here is Silas' first full bath at home He took a long nap when it was done! And here is Zoe's first bath at her bedside in the NICU. You can see that she starts off mad, And then realizes how nice it is! She gets mad at us again once she comes back out in the cold, however! Zoe has been out of an incubator and in a bassinet for over a week now. When a "big girl" crib opened up recently, one of the nurses snagged it for her. She made it very clear to Zoe that this crib is a short-term rental, intended only to make the rest of her (hopefully short) stay on the NICU more comfortable. Kerri is Zoe's head nurse and we finally got a picture of th...

Zoe has already participated in her first research study! We were approached by one of Chuck's collaborators about having her participate in a Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) study of preterm infants who have spent time on the NICU. Zoe will be a part of the "non-neuro" group (i.e., she did not suffer any neurological complications at birth) and will be matched with same gestational-aged peers who experienced neurological insults. She has already been tested three times and of course has always been the perfect research subject (says proud Momma). Maddy and Nadege, the research fellows, are new friends of Zoe's! They are able to test Zoe right at her bedside while she sleeps.

There is not much new to report the last couple of days except that the stridor (breathing spells) that I wrote about last week have pretty much resolved. This is great news and it means that the "only" thing Zoe has left to deal with are the feeding issues. She is still taking Silas ended up gaining 7.8 oz in a span of 72 hours. All of our hard work force feeding him to ensure he would gain weight ended up paying off! His pediatrician was hoping for 3.5 oz so we more than doubled the goal. She doesn't need to see him again until his 1-month well baby visit (which coincides with their 40 week gestational birthday). We still can't depend on his "on demand" feeding cues because he doesn't always wake up on his own to tell us when he's hungry. We are getting good uses out of our blackberry alarm clocks during our respective overnight shifts to make sure we stay on the 3-hour feeding schedule. They get cuter by the day so here are a few new pictures from...

We finally broke down and borrowed a single stroller to make it easier to bring Silas back and forth to the hospital everyday (thanks, Andee and Maya!). This gave me a newfound sense of freedom today, because I could finally do a "mom" thing outside of the house -- I was able to push Silas in the stroller from the car to the NICU. It's definitely the little things that can make someone feel better during stressful times. Here he is on our way to the unit today, sleepy and adorable as usual :) Since getting around is now a lot easier, we decided to stop by the lab today to introduce Silas to lots of new friends! It was so great to see everyone! After such a big day out and about, Silas conked out in his bouncy chair after sucking down a bottle. We have had lots of visitors both to the hospital and to the house, and I will have to write an entire post with pictures of Silas and his new friends when I have more time. We are super excited for everyone to have an excuse to com...

I am night shift #1 tonight, meaning that Silas and I hang out in the main living area from 10p-3am while Derek sleeps in the bedroom. Then Derek gets up from 3a-8a while I sleep. With only one baby at home and both of us on parental leave, this system is working great for us. Five hours seems like a ton of sleep after the first couple of nights of us all awake and figuring things out. Obviously when Zoe comes home we will figure out a new system, but for right now things are running pretty smoothly at home (see Exhibit A). When we went to the hospital yesterday, Zoe had been moved out of the incubator and into a bassinet. This is another big step in the right direction, because this means she is maintaining her own body temperature without a problem! She was wearing the cutest yellow knitted hat and sweater and covered with a matching blanket that a volunteer donated to the NICU. Being a knitter myself, this made me so happy! Zoe continues to have intermittent breathing "spells...