Weekend Fun

My first "real" bath!

Frances is doing so well at home and seems to really be settling into a nice routine (and everyone knows I love routine!).  Her eating has picked up to where she is taking in about 75-100 more cc's each day than she was last week so I feel very confident we are moving in the right direction regarding weight gain.

Eleanor and Frances

Frances and Jack

 Frances has had quite a busy few days meeting new friends.  On Friday, her friend Eleanor came over to show off some of her baby tricks.  Eleanor's mom Leslie is one of my best friends, so these girls will be spend a lot of time together- including a girls beach trip this summer!  Our nieces Lyndy and Kay finally got to come see Frances and boy were they excited!  Frances got LOTS of love from the girls.  Lyndy loves to help with babies and Kat tested out most of Frances' books/toys.  Baby Jack came over today to see Frances....he was not too thrilled with being woken up to take pictures.  We had some visits from Will's family too-  we have lots and lots and cousins, aunts, and uncles around here.

Meeting Lyndy and Kat

Hope everyone has had a great weekend- we did!

A Busy Week for Frances

 Frances has been on the go since we got home on Monday.  Today we had our first visit with the pediatrician and Frances is gaining weight well.  She is up to 6lb 6oz- quite the heavyweight!  We are all doing great at home, starting to settle into a routine.  It has been so much fun to see Frances exploring her new environment, and being able to "play" instead of being contained in the hospital.

I was such a good sport at the dr office today.

She has really been enjoying laying under her activity gym.  With this nice weather, it has been so nice to get out and stroll each day. 

Playing with my toys.

Frances and Bella

Testing out the swing.

Bella is taking to the "big sister" role very easily.  She is definitely curious about Frances and it looks like they will be lifelong buddies.  We had such a wonderful day settling in and enjoying being home as a family.  Bella hung out with Frances most of the day and looked after her while she tried the swing out and got a bath.  And, we all got outside for a nice stroll in the beautiful weather!

Bath time! Bella probably thinking she's thankful it's not her turn!

All clean and ready for bed.

We had our visit with the cardiologist this morning and everything went well.  They did x-rays, EKG, and an echo-cardiogram, and Frances was a champ!  The Dr explained that what they are seeing from the test is exactly what they had seen in-utero, which is called an Atrioventricular Canal Defect. Basically this is a large hole in the center of her heart where the atria and ventricles come together.  The link below contains some information about her condition.  The great news right now is that she is getting good blood flow into and out of her heart.  He stressed the importance of adequate caloric intake and weight gain, which we are working on very hard!  So for now, we will go back every 4-6 weeks until they begin to see that its time for the repair.  The Dr seemed to be leaning more towards the 6 month mark, but really we just have to wait and see.  But for now we just keep on doing what we're doing!
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=132

The highlight of my day:)

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

Home Sweet Home!

Gotta get my traveling clothes on!

How cute am I?

 We made it!  Finally being able to bring Frances home was the best feeling in the world.  She was wide awake and ready to go when we arrived at the NICU this morning.  And y'all will just have to bear with all the pictures...we took almost 200 today and it was tough choosing which ones to post.  

Getting strapped in and ready to go.

Can we please get out of here???

Ready to ride

Frances spent most of the day awake, looking around at everything, and probably wondering where all the beeping monitors and crying babies went.  I have to admit- Will and I both got slightly attached to those monitors in the NICU- showing us her heart rate/respirations constantly.  The challenge continues to be staying on top of her feedings so she will start to gain weight.  Tomorrow we will head to UAB to see the cardiologist and find out more regarding her heart condition. 

Finally at home...Bella finally sees what we have been telling her about.

Bella was very excited to meet her sister!

We are so thankful for all of the doctors and nurses in the Brookwood NICU.  They were all incredible and made a not-so-great situation more bearable.  We will miss them all- Frances was blessed to have such great care.

Wide awake and checking out her new home.

Two weeks ago tonight we were on our way to Brookwood, awaiting Frances' arrival.  Now the journey continues and we can't wait to see what God has in store for us!

Breakin' Outta This Place!

That's the plan for tomorrow, and if all goes as planned we should be home before lunchtime!  We had one little body temperature scare this afternoon (which really we think was more related to the environment), but we were able to get it back up within 2 hours so she narrowly escaped the warmer.  So Frances needs to keep her act together overnight, and she'll get her ticket out in the morning.

There's a baby under there somewhere...this was the "get warm quick" method!

The next time you check in here, we hope to be sitting at home with Frances! 

Good Night...

....From the "big girl" crib!  Frances got released from the toaster/isolette this evening, so now the body temperature/weight gain challenge begins. 

Getting all tucked in!

Please keep the prayers going that she is able to keep her body temperature up, take all her feedings, and gain weight- we don't want her to have to go back in that toaster! 

Small Steps

Another day down in the NICU and Frances did great today.  I am so proud of her taking her feedings so well!  She seems to really love snoozing inside that warm isolette.  The game plan continues to get her to keep her body temperature up and now they really want to start seeing some weight gain so she got switched to the fully-leaded higher calorie formula this evening. 

I love my Daddy.

The high calorie stuff is tasty!

 Hopefully when we arrive tomorrow morning she will get to break out of the isolette and try the crib again...We are ready to be able to hold and love on her all day long!