Happy Easter!

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter that is spent with family and friends you love. We spent our Easter with Doug's parents and had a great day. The weather was beautiful. The kids were thrilled to find their baskets full of goodies from the Easter Bunny and soon after hurried outside to hunt eggs. It was cute to watch as they would run from egg to egg - Noah in a big race and Rachel just trying to keep up and get as many as Noah. They both did great and found each and every egg. We got some cute video of them as they hunted for the eggs. It was a great day and we were blessed to be able to share it with Grammy and Papa. Thanks again you guys for coming down!!

Kate Meets Grammy and Papa

We enjoyed having Doug's parents down for a visit for the last few days. It was great for them to meet Kate and enjoy her while she is brand new. The kids always love a visit with Grammy and Papa and we all shared the Easter holiday together. Thanks again for coming down Grammy and Papa! We had a great time! =)

Coloring Easter Eggs

The kids love dying Easter eggs - They had been asking me when we were going to color the eggs and I (due to being exhausted and a little busy with a new baby girl) hadn't stopped actually think about coloring eggs... So we boiled up 20 eggs and only had 2 casualties -- Noah colored his so fast that when he politely asked Rachel for a couple of hers she didn't mind sharing. This is pretty characteristic of them - Noah does things fast and Rachel does everything slowly. It was pretty neat seeing the different colors they each preferred. Kate sported her cute bunny hat that I had picked up for her. I had to do some 'hat surgery' on it so that it wouldn't cover up her entire head though. We thought she was so cute in it!

Web Nursery

You can see Kate's hospital photos at the following link:

http://www.our365.com/moments/photos/photodetail.aspx?bId=63bbc5ef-f6ef-45e6-8b5a-9381f4277740

If requested the login information is:

login: HeatherH61784

Password: freshpuppet50

The lady who took Kate's photos did a great job! It was hard to decide on which one to choose!

Finally Going HOME

Friday the 3rd we learned that we would be able to bring Kate home. I was so relieved to know that she was well enough to go home. After having her hearing screening test and waiting around nearly all day for the pediatrician to give us the 'go ahead', Mom and I got to pack up all her things and head home. The kids were so excited to finally bring Kate home to our house and into our life outside of the hospital. I think Doug and I were mostly relieved and just happy to have her home. I want to send out a HUGE thank you to my mom for being here for us while we were in the hospital with Kate. It was such a huge relief to be able to move back and forth to and from the hospital after I was discharged, but she was not. It was so good to know the kids were happy to be home with their Mamaw and playing (and wearing her out) like crazy. Thanks again Mom! It means the world to us!

Almost Well Enough to...

go home. We were so happy when we found that Kate had been taken off of her IV, her oxygen sensor and the phototherapy lights. The only thing left on her was her heart moniters and it was cute to see that the NICU ladies had dressed her in some tiny pink clothes they had there in the NICU. It was so nice to see that they had put her in her original isolette instead of the NICU table that she had been laying in. If all went well from there, we knew we would be taking our baby girl home very soon.

Day 3 & 4 in the NICU --

NICU Baby

After we had Katherine we got to keep her with us for a couple of hours and introduce her to her brother, sister and Mamaw. Soon after, I had another procedure and was in recovery for a couple of hours so you can imagine my surprise when I was returned to my room and Katherine wasn't there waiting for me. Instead there was the current pediatrician on call waiting to explain why my baby wouldn't be rooming in with me. I was told Katherine had a positive Coombs test and had blood incompatibility causing her to be jaundiced. This wasn't the type of jaundice that Noah had as a newborn and this type needed to be dealt with aggressively. Katherine was in the NICU and I couldn't even hold her. What a shock and heartbreak to see her hooked up to an IV, an oxygen sensor, heart moniters, tiny eye covers and have three phototherapy lights on her. It was a lot to take in when I knew my baby was term and had been born two days before her due date. It was a lot to take in when I thought I would be returned to a room where I would spend the next two days bonding with my new baby girl. We would spend the next 5 days in and out of the NICU spending as much time as possible with her and telling her how very much we loved her. It was the third night that we found out that her bili count was leveling just a bit - it was hard watching her little foot get stuck over and over and watching it swell up from all the little pricks. They could only stick one side with the IV in the other foot. With her bili count leveling they began taking off the photo therapy and also decreased the IV fluids to see how she did. By the next morning she was off the IV fluid and lights and her count had only gone up a couple of points. That day was such an awesome day because I got to hold her, feed her and touch her - everything was going so much better. By the fith day we knew she was coming home -What a joyous day!