She spent 23 long days in NICU. The first week was spent in an incubator in Room 1, the critical care ward. Imagine a darkened room lined with incubators that are watched over by helpless, red-eyed parents. No one conversed or made eye contact. It was the saddest place that I have ever been. Room 1 sucked.
After one week we graduated into Room 4, which is for babies who are no longer being treated but are still being monitored. After one week of staying at home, I was able to start staying at the hospital again while we tried to get Harper off of the feeding tube. She was finally discharged on the 17th, though she wasn't waking for all of her meals and still had the tube in.
"I will cut you."
On her second night home, Harper yanked out her feeding tube. We decided to leave it out to see how she would do feeding on her own. In spite of concerns that she would not be able to maintain her weight without being tube fed, she has posted steady weight gains and has put on almost a pound since coming home.
Not a morning person
She is still a very mellow little girl but she has started to become more demanding if we are a bit slow with food or keep her up too late at night. She has a hard time waking up for her overnight meals - as do I - but the midwife said that we can space those out a bit and see if that helps. She is very active and alert. She will watch us walk across the room and has started giving us little smiles when we are talking to her. She is very expressive and makes the best faces when she is interacting with us. I will try to catch some on video. It has been a long road getting her home but she is perfect and healthy and we couldn't ask for a better gift.
We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and look forward to receiving many visitors in the new year (hint, hint). Now for a video, which may or may not work...
So glad she's home! Must have felt like an eternity! Now go enjoy that baby girl....hugs from the Savilles
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