Finally Settled

When we moved into Wymount temporarily in July, we only unpacked half of our boxes and pretty much just lived with the basics. I have now completely unpacked and put away everything in our apartment, and so for the first time in 8 months, I finally feel like I have a home.

After everything that has gone on the past few months, I now feel like I can relax, breathe, and just live life again. I didn't really realize how stressed I have been until I started to relax. However.... just as Aubrey and I get here, Steven has been sent to work in Orange County for the next three weeks. *sigh* I guess life never really slows down.

So, to entice our family and friends to come visit, here is a tour of our apartment:

The kitchen:

Bathroom:

Dining Room:

Bedroom:

Aubrey's Room:

And Living Room:

We really like it here, and hope we can stay for a while. I know I mentioned this in my last post, but one of the main things I am LOVING is the weather. 70 degrees in February. Having grown up in Canada, I almost didn't know that was possible. 

And.... the "Littlest Foote"....

Is starting to get some chub on her cheeks. I'm loving it!

California Here We Come....

Aubrey and I are now finally in California and we are all together as a family for good. Aubrey was discharged from the NICU on January 12th but since the insurance for my job went through the end of January and the insurance from Steven's job started February 1st, we stayed in Utah until the end of the month.

My mom (who has stayed to help me this whole time since Steven was gone), and I started the normally 13-hour-drive at 5 am on Sunday. The plan was to make it to Reno and then drive the rest of the way on Monday, but my mom and I are both kind of the "get it done" type, and so we ended up driving the entire way in one day- with a newborn who had to eat every couple of hours and get out of her car seat every hour and a half because we had to watch her oxygen levels.

The 13-hour trip turned into an 18-hour trip and we pulled up at our apartment at 11 that night.

Aubrey was seriously the BEST baby all day. She hardly cried and the drive with her was better than I thought.

However, by the end of the trip, I was covered in poop, pee, spit up, infant vitamins, and a cup of sprite. I sure looked and smelled good when Steven first saw us.

Now, we have been working like mad to get our apartment all organized and decorated. I love to unpack so it has been fun. Pictures to come later.

Aubrey is doing great and I feel so blessed and relieved that she is now healthy. She looks healthy and from her last three doctors appointments, she is gaining about an ounce a day, which is about half a pound a week. She now weighs about 7 pounds...... which is "almost" on the growth charts. Almost. We are getting there.

She is a funny baby. She is very alert and is already starting to coo, holds her head up pretty well, and grunts like a man. I am getting good at doing everything one handed (currently burping her and typing) and I am surviving pretty well on little sleep.

And, one thing that I am loving about our new home is definitely the weather. It is freezing back in Utah, and I just got back from a nice, sunny walk. I think I can get used to this.

Family Photo

Steven was able to come and visit this weekend and even though we were only together as a family for about 36 hours, the time was so good and so needed. One thing that we tried to do was take our first family photo in which I wasn't wearing a hospital gown and she wasn't hooked up to monitors and tubes.

She was hilarious, and the progression of these photos shows how hard it is to take a picture with a newborn:

But.... we finally managed to get a good shot. Good enough to be the new blog photo.

Life at Home

Aubrey has now been home for five days and it feels great. I am grateful for the NICU and I learned a lot in those rough few weeks, but now she feels like my daughter and I can hug and hold her whenever I want.

Here is her first time in her car seat, all ready to make the ride home:

Here we are with the NICU nurse who discharged us on Wednesday morning. This is after my mom and I had spent three and a half straight days living in the hospital. We look good :)  

And.... she is home! She is so sweet and funny and likes to party at 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 in the morning. However, sleep deprivation has never been more rewarding.  

Little Miracles

Ever since Aubrey has been born, life has been a huge blur and it has been filled with some long, tough days. However, all along the way, there have been little miracles that have been definite answers to prayers.

Since my water broke and I went into labor so fast, they didn't give her any steroid shots or anything for her lungs, yet she came out breathing on her own, which was a miracle at only 34 weeks. She never had any medications or infections or anything too serious.

The day that I was discharged from the hospital, Steven and I drove back to Wallsburg at midnight, and when I got up at 6, the power in the house had gone off. When my uncle came to fix the problem, he found that there was a fire in the electrical box and the whole house could have burned down.

There have been so many other little blessings and miracles along the way that have strengthened my testimony and the importance of having faith. Another little miracle that I am SO happy about is that Aubrey does not have to come home on oxygen, and unless something goes wrong today, she is coming home..... TOMORROW!!!!

The doctors had told me that she would have to come home on oxygen, but they had to do an oxygen saturation study to document the need. For 12 hours, she had to do all her feedings, have a bath, and spend 90 minutes in her car seat to test how her oxygen levels responded. I told myself, "Ok, just get through this. We know she will be on oxygen, but then she at least can come home."

She had been struggling up until the day that they did the study and then she just turned a corner and her oxygen has been great ever since. She has been eating like a champ and gaining weight. She passed her 12 hour feeding test, and her first 24 hour feeding test. She is on her last 24 hour feeding test today, and should be discharged tomorrow. So... I have basically been living at the hospital since Sunday. Even though Steven has been gone and that is hard, my mom has been with me the entire time and I am lucky to have her.

Aubrey will have spent 3 weeks and 3 days in the NICU. She was born at 4 lbs 9 oz. She dropped down to 4 lbs 2 oz, and will be discharged at 5 lbs 9 oz. We are so grateful she is growing and coming home. This has been her "home" since she was born......

However, I think we are all ready for her to leave and really come home. I can't wait.

A New Look

I thought that it was about time to do an update on Aubrey. She is doing well and at least in my opinion, is as adorable as ever. She is still in the NICU but we are getting closer to the much anticipated day that we can bring her home.

The main thing that has been keeping her in the NICU for so long is that she has needed to learn to eat and gain weight. For a couple of weeks she was just so sleepy and didn't have the energy to eat on her own. When she was born, her lungs were mature enough that she didn't need any help breathing and her oxygen levels were doing great, so the doctors took her off everything and she was breathing on her own. However, as she started eating the doctors realized that while she has great oxygen levels when she is just resting or sleeping, her levels drop when she eats and that is why she has struggled.

Now that we know that is the problem, she is on oxygen and doing GREAT. So great that I think she will be able to come home pretty soon. However, it also means that she will most likely be coming home on oxygen. I was honestly really upset when I first learned this, but I've come to terms with it now.

The whole time she has been in the hospital, I have just been telling myself that I can handle the 12-hour hospital days, rude nurses, and hardly getting to hold my own daughter because as soon as she was out of the NICU, it would all just be a memory. And now, it is looking like it will be a while before this is all a memory.

The doctors said that when they send a baby home on oxygen it is for between 1 and 3 months. I am also worried because I don't know what this will mean as far as being able to go to California and switching insurance. But, I am so grateful that she is now thriving and growing.

Here is the little girl sporting her new look with her oxygen:

Despite the setbacks and struggles, long-term she will be just fine, and I know that one day this really will all be in the past. Whenever I get frustrated or upset, all I have to do is look at that face and I realize that I would do this all over again in a second. We sure love her.

 

Happy Anniversary Steven!

Your girls miss you a ton.....

First came love (6 years ago when we were 18), then came marriage (3 years ago today), then came our adorable baby (2 weeks ago). We are blessed.