3 - 2 - 1...

Elyse is 37 weeks old (corrected age) today, meaning she is now full-term.  But even more exciting is that the countdown is on!  If all continues to go well over the next three days, we will be bringing our little girl home on Saturday.  Wow.  It is still quite surreal (and a little scary) to be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but I am so excited to have her home at last and start enjoying life as a family of four. 

starting to look like a regular sized newborn 

Elyse's bottling continues to go well.  Her feeding tube was removed on Monday night, and she is eagerly taking every feed by bottle without any issues.  She still needs the occasional reminder to pause and catch her breath, but that should improve as she gets stronger and her hemoglobin levels continue to increase.  She is now drinking 40mL of fortified milk every 3 hours, and is weighing in at 1955g, or 4lbs 5oz.

nom nom nom

We have been trying to spend as much time with her as possible this week, to get as comfortable and familiar with her routine as we can.  The hospital offers a space called the "Joshua Room", where parents getting ready to bring home their NICU babies can spend 24-48 hours living at the hospital and doing all the feedings and care before they are discharged.  I think that is such a great way to ease into the transition home, and Matt and I are planning on staying there Friday night to try and get a good feel for her full 24-hour routine.

bath night

 

Over the next few days Elyse will have a few final follow up exams and blood work, and they will also start to transition her over to the milk fortifier that we will be using at home.  Hopefully she will tolerate that one as well as the old one, but I don't anticipate any issues.  On the home front, we are in full-fledged baby preparation mode (again), but I am feeling ready.  It has been a lot of fun getting all the baby stuff out of storage and ready for another round of use.  And I for one love washing baby clothes -- how could you not when they are just so cute?  (although ask me again in a month or two and I may have a different answer).