End of a journey...beginning of another

Since Maylin is safe and sound at home with us, I feel like her life is most definitely a part of our everyday lives now. With us and her brothers, it couldn't get any better than this!

Thanks to those that followed Maylin's updates from day 1 till the time she went home from the hospital. All the prayers and support were beyond amazing to us!

Please keep in touch with Maylin and the rest of our fam on our regular family blog from now on!
(I'm excited to use this 23 day blog as the journaling to her NICU scrapbook:))

"Just Another Day in Paradise"
www.lindsaymaust.blogspot.com

Maylin's 1st Days at HOME!

Bottom line: It feels amazing to be back home! Tomorrow will be a week that she's been in our house and I just can't believe it! She turned 4 weeks old yesterday and that has just flown by too!

Maylin has been one awesome baby.. You forget how much babies sleep-that's for sure!=) Nothing wrong with a sleeping baby either. After 3 weeks of being "trained" on a 3 hr schedule, she pretty much wakes up long enough to eat, then goes right back to sleepin'. I know I'm kidding myself that this will last, but I'm enjoying the moment now:)

Here she is doing what she does best. Sleepin'. snugglin. and lookin' CUTE! =)

And also getting spoiled by all the lady family members:)

Mamaw Maust &
Grandma Wogoman

Aunt Kristi

Uncle Brian & Aunt Buff

Yep...gonna be one spoiled girlie!

Maylin's Going Home!!

Day 24

Tues. Aug 10th, 2010
Discharge Day!!
Dr. O
Nurse: Leslie

First of all...what a night! Between being a little stressed with what all needed done before we left for home, at about 4:30 in the morning I woke up with "the shakes" and an extremely sore right side. (You nursing mommies know what I'm talkin' about!) I had an infection coming on extremely quick. So I sat in the shower for a while in the middle of the night trying to calm it down. Not a fun feeling.

So not running on hardly any sleep....I guess you could say I was miss emotional all day with getting things around...and of course thinking of how things were going to go at home with that whole picture.

For some odd reason, I always have like an emotional breakdown when I go home from the hospital, but this time it seemed worse with leaving my temporary "norm" of over 3 weeks, with that little room and knowing exactly where everything was, and having a set routine. And the big part of just having to worry about Maylin and myself there.

So our day was a little rough, but we got through it. We were exhausted when getting back home about 5 pm that evening.

So here's some pics of us leaving the NICU!

Here's me with Dr. Olitungee. Missed an opportunity to get Brock with his buddy, Dr. Eziakadoo. (I wish I were kidding...these were our doctor's names...hence the abbreviations of Dr. E & Dr. O=) Another important man that dealt with Maylin's case a lot was Dr. Porter. He was easier to undertand and I could spell his name easy too=) They were all phenomenal!

(A not-so-flattering-pic of me I might add! Looks like mama's got some work to do!=))

Here's our girl laying in her crib one last time....

Me and my princess all ready to go!
Look closely and she's got her first headband/bow in her hair!

We're happy!

And some of my favorite nurses! Katrina and Leslie...absolutely loved them and how much they loved on Maylin during her 3 weeks here. Hard to say good bye to such awesome people!

Set to go in her car seat for her first ride home!

buh bye empty room!

Off we go!

See you at home=)

Day before Discharge!

Mon. Aug 9, 2010
Day 23
Discharge weight: 4 lbs. 3 oz.
Dr. O
Nurses: AM-Shelly
PM-Megan

Today was a day of getting all kinds of things ready for our big day on Tuesday!
Brock came down in the early afternoon and we watched our 3 parent videos...

And did Maylin's car seat test! Oh what fun! She sat in there being monitored for over an hour and a half since that's our drive home. Lovely!

She looks so little in there! But didn't fuss at all. Hope she's as great of a car rider as the boys are!!

Brock and nurse, Shelly going over more "need-to-know" things...and just chatting to. It's Brock...what do u expect?=)

Nurse, Megan loving on Maylin! This girl rocks! So sad to leave such awesome people that took amazing care of our baby girl:)

Feeding time and I'm WIDE awake! Look at those big beautiful eyes=)

Daddy feeding her a bottle since she's getting to be a pro at it now!

"Yep, I'm ready to go to my new home tomorrow!"

We are so blessed, and praying for a smooth transition home!

3 Weeks Old!!

Day 22

Sun. Aug. 8th, 2010
Weight: 4 lbs. 3 oz
Dr. Porter
Nurse: AM-Susie
PM-Katie
Visitors: Mom & Dad

Sunday was a whirlwind of progress, as Maylin kept up with all of her bottle feedings!

She passed her hearing test that morning=)...

Soon after that, Dr. Porter came in and chatted with me, then out of nowhere he thought that Tuesday was looking like a good day to take her home....

Say WHAT?!

Yep...definite shocker! So phone calls were made, Brock got stressed...=)... and started prepping for our baby girl's homecoming. Started making to-do lists in our heads and getting things crossed off!

Mom and Dad came and we went and got some last minute baby supplies for baby girl.

That night before bed we gave Maylin another bath.

This girl loves getting her hair washed!=)

Nurse, Katie drying off her hair

All clean! Doesn't she look thrilled?!:)

We'll be home before we know it! Hooray!

Day 21

Sat. Aug 7th, 2010

Gestation: Would have been 34 weeks along!
Weight: 4 lbs. 3.7 oz.
Dr. Porter
Nurses: Jessalyn & Karissah

That day I got up, got around and said good-bye to my fellas at home to head back to our Lady May after not being with her for a couple days. First time I slept at home 2 nights in a row, so I was really missin' my baby girl!

She was under fantastic care while I was away, and apparently making a lot of progress too! I was about half and hour away and got a call from the hospital and it was Dr. Porter giving me her update. He informed me that she had drank down 2 bottles with 36 cc's from each.

Holy cow! This girl wasn't hardly taking 1/2 of ONE bottle before her surgery! Completely crazy! She must've woke up from that surgery on Friday absolutely starving or something and realized this milk was some Good Stuff=)

So ever since the surgery on Thursday, she rested up a ton, then Friday while I was away they were weining her back onto food by giving her small amount of Pedialite from a bottle. Did good with that, then gave her small amounts of my milk. Did good with that too. Still no feeding tube...mega plus!

Dr. Porter also filled me that they discontinued her IV so she didn't have to have that stuck in her anymore...halleluiah!!

What I was ready to find was my girl with nothing on her face...no feeding tube or nasal tube, and no tape to hold it on her pretty little face!
This is how I found her when I came back. She took my breath away=)

ALSO....here is a Before/After pic of her little nasty umbilical cord with 9 lives=)
Before: (Right after Dr. Smith cut it down)

and AFTER! Check out that cute little innie:) No way I'm letting her pierce this thing when she's in high school! Cost us big bucks to get it looking normal! ha!

The little tape under it in her smiley face incision where they did the exploratory part of the surgery. They tied off the connection from the bladder because apparently an extra vessel was "feeding" this cord and keeping it "alive". I know...gross. So glad it's over with!

Had to get a pic of my peanut in PINK! Yep, I'm getting used to the pink I think;)
This is my clearance buy from Babies-R-Us. My 1st outfit I bought for my baby girl...I like it on her!

The rest of Maylin's progressive day was topped off with her gulping down her 4 bottles for the day in total, then did her 4 last night with me. I am one proud momma!

Day 20

Fri. Aug 6th, 2010
Weight: 4 lbs. 3.7 oz.
Nurse: AM-Merriam
PM-Nicole

While I've been home enjoying myself with the boys, I still called the hospital a couple of times to see how her day and evening went. She's still been content and quiet and doing good!

The nurses told me that they have her feeding tube out, and her nasal cannula out now. So I'm guessing she has nothing on her face...at all. Wow...can't wait to see that tomorrow! ALL of her face...with no tape on it anywhere--so nice!

The reason she has her feeding tube out is because they were just giving her Pedialite in 5 cc and 10 cc amounts...and we know she can bottle-feed that much down. Just this evening they started her back on breast milk, and only giving her 10 cc's at the most. We know she can do that too. So we'll see if she'll need a feeding tube ever again. I hope not!

Her weight loss only went down a tad, which is expected after surgery and no food like that for a while. She'll be getting baby fat rolls in no time I think=)

Something that we've been struggling with with Maylin is her need for her antibiotic, at how crucial it is to keep it in her system when needed. She has had thee worst time keeping her IV's in, and finding other sites for them. It is one of my biggest things I dislike about her being there, and how upset she gets when getting IV's. Please pray for her IV's to STAY IN! And when they need switched, that they find sites easy each time! Thanks:)

Brock and I are currently struggling with what exactly we want for our boys and Maylin with daycare when the time comes, and what the right decision is for our situation. It's so hard to figure out every detail right now when so much is in question at the moment. I'm now feeling a lot of stress like I need to figure this out now. Lots of prayer needed that Brock and I feel at peace with what we decide, instead of getting questioned with the decision we eventually will make.