A Quick Update

Sorry guys, things have been super crazy, as you can imagine! Life is TOTALLY different now, but in a good way of course :) Just trying to figure out a schedule and get used to our new life as a family of three!! We actually got home from the hospital last Thursday, August 5th! So all in all, she was in the NICU for 9 days and I was at the hospital the WHOLE time with her! I was actually discharged from the hospital July 29th but since Everley was in the NICU we were lucky enough to stay in a family support room (for free and right next to the NICU) for the next 6 nights and but then had to pay for our last night in the "hospital hotel stay room" back on the 3rd floor. We were so grateful to be able to stay in that room so close to our precious little girl. Normally they only let families stay in those rooms for one or two nights and it's on a priority basis, so we could have been kicked out at any time if a higher priority family needed the room. There are only two of those rooms, so we were pretty dang lucky to get it that long to be with her as much as we could!

When we got home, it was pretty much like we were starting all over again! Since we had the past week of help from the nurses and she wasn't staying in our room with us 24/7 it really wasn't like she was officially ours yet. I know that sounds weird, but when you have all this help and the nurses say that I can skip a feeding and actually sleep for 4 or 5 hours, it just kinda felt like I was an aunt or part time mom that came to help every once in a while. So now that we are home and there are NO nurses to take her in the middle of the night or to ask questions too, it has finally set in and is a REALITY CHECK!!! This past week has seriously been a blur. Since being in the NICU and having them tell me all these precise details, like how much she needs to eat in a feeding if she goes three hours or four hours in between and how much she is supposed to weigh and I need to be breast pumping every time after she eats to ensure I get a good milk supply and all this craziness, I came home having that built in my mind and I have been going crazy trying to be so precise and freaking myself out if she only ate for 10 minutes instead of 20 or if she only had 6 wet diapers in a day instead of 7. Then I would look up information in books and freak myself out even more because it would seem like she had symptoms for some random thing...... OH MY GOSH! I WAS A NIGHTMARE OF A WRECK! Poor Jason has had to deal with me freaking out and being so emotional. He had to tell me at least 97 times that all these baby books are not specific to each baby cause they are all sooooo different and that I need to stop reading into all these little things and just let her tell me when she is hungry and go off of my own motherly instincts. FINALLY, it hit me! OK, he WAS right. So I'm feeling better about things and not worrying so much. Cause after all, they wouldn't have let her come home if she wasn't doing fine on her own and at her 2 week appt. the pediatrician would have told me if I needed to be concerned. SO, I can BREATHE once again. Now it's just trying to deal with the fatigue!

Everley is such a wonderful baby! She DOESN'T cry! (knock on wood!) I mean, she have her little wails when she's hungry or poopy, but it's like 2 min and that's it! When she got her hepatitis B shot last week, she only cried while the needle was poking her and as soon as the nurse put a band aid on it, she was fine and stopped! I cried more than her! I broke down after she got the shot cause I felt so bad! She is a real trooper and we couldn't be more blessed!

Ok, so I know, I need to put up a slide show of all her ADORABLE pictures, but I'm afraid that is not going to be now! SORRY! I am pooped! But I figured that since people kept thinking we were still in the NICU, I should give you an update. So hopefully I can get pictures up in the next few days, but then again, I wouldn't hold your breath! Things just get a little crazy!!

Thank you all for your love, support and prayers! They have all certainly helped! And if I haven't called you back, I'm sorry. Shoot me a text message instead. Those are easier to respond to!